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He Has Come… | In this season of Advent, we reflect on the incarnation of Christ and the eternal hope that it gives us. Christ came into the world to repair the breach between God and man. His coming set in motion God’s divine plan to ransom captive Israel. Jesus came as the most precious Lamb to atone for the sins of the world.
As I look at Scripture, what strikes me most is the beautiful display of humility within the story of Jesus’ birth. Our Messiah allowed himself to be carried in the womb of one he knit together. He allowed himself to be held by hands that he created, to be nursed at the breast of one in which he came to save. As an infant, he was dependent on ones whose redemption depended on Him. God himself was wrapped in flesh and dwelt among us so that we could one day dwell with Him for eternity.
Jesus our Immanuel has come, and He will come again.
As we reflect on Jesus’ coming, may we be filled with an eternal hope that only God can bring. May this hope sustain us as we experience suffering, struggle, and strain. I pray that this hope would not only hold us together as we wait for Christ’s return but that it also would empower us to boldly proclaim the hope of the Gospel to the world around us. | https://medium.com/@brimccarthy/he-has-come-29db8d0b4f1d | ['Briana Mccarthy'] | 2020-12-25 13:34:31.421000+00:00 | ['Jesus', 'Christmas', 'Christianity', 'Advent', 'God'] |
App Startup: A New Architecture Component | Introduction
Users expect applications to be responsive and fast. When your app fails to meet these basic requirements, users often rate it with poor reviews in the Play Store, or even worse, they might uninstall the application.
Either way, it’s no good for business. Lately, the Android team is focused on providing better tools like Hilt (to implement DI), CameraX (to handle numerous camera-related issues), and Paging3 (to implement paging comfortably than ever with Kotlin Flow).
Now there’s App Startup library — a new kid on the block. It’s time to optimize the app startup time. The App Startup library provides a straightforward and simple way to initialize components at application startup.
Both library developers and app developers can use App Startup to streamline startup sequences and explicitly set the initialization order. This will save tons of time for developers so that they can concentrate on what matters. | https://medium.com/better-programming/app-startup-new-architecture-component-d115b062a701 | ['Siva Ganesh Kantamani'] | 2020-07-28 03:22:55.540000+00:00 | ['AndroidDev', 'Android', 'Mobile', 'Jetpack', 'Programming'] |
=. KUBERNETES : The Container… | KUBERNETES : The Container Orchestration TOOL !!!
Since , the past few years , Kubernetes has reached heights in the field of Micro Services as well as is ruling the world of cotainerization deployment and orchestrating that particular part …
This Particular Article will take you through the insights of what KUBERNETES actually is and how top MNC’s have eventually benefitted their requirement and use case by shifting their workload to Kubernetes .
In the end , there is a Detailed CASE STUDY , as to how SPOTIFY has used Kubernetes , to run its more than 150 micro services over Kubernetes and has scaled to heights .
SO Let’s get Started !!!
What is KUBERNETES ???
Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation. It has a large, rapidly growing ecosystem. Kubernetes services, support, and tools are widely available.
The name Kubernetes originates from Greek, meaning helmsman or pilot. Google open-sourced the Kubernetes project in 2014. Kubernetes combines over 15 years of Google’s experience running production workloads at scale with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community .
Let’s Have a Flash Back of Time First !!!
Let’s take a look at why Kubernetes is so useful by going back in time.
Traditional deployment era: Early on, organizations ran applications on physical servers. There was no way to define resource boundaries for applications in a physical server, and this caused resource allocation issues. For example, if multiple applications run on a physical server, there can be instances where one application would take up most of the resources, and as a result, the other applications would underperform. A solution for this would be to run each application on a different physical server. But this did not scale as resources were underutilized, and it was expensive for organizations to maintain many physical servers.
Virtualized deployment era: As a solution, virtualization was introduced. It allows you to run multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single physical server’s CPU. Virtualization allows applications to be isolated between VMs and provides a level of security as the information of one application cannot be freely accessed by another application.
Virtualization allows better utilization of resources in a physical server and allows better scalability because an application can be added or updated easily, reduces hardware costs, and much more. With virtualization you can present a set of physical resources as a cluster of disposable virtual machines.
Each VM is a full machine running all the components, including its own operating system, on top of the virtualized hardware.
Container deployment era: Containers are similar to VMs, but they have relaxed isolation properties to share the Operating System (OS) among the applications. Therefore, containers are considered lightweight. Similar to a VM, a container has its own filesystem, share of CPU, memory, process space, and more. As they are decoupled from the underlying infrastructure, they are portable across clouds and OS distributions.
Containers have become popular because they provide extra benefits, such as:
Agile application creation and deployment : increased ease and efficiency of container image creation compared to VM image use.
: increased ease and efficiency of container image creation compared to VM image use. Continuous development, integration, and deployment : provides for reliable and frequent container image build and deployment with quick and easy rollbacks (due to image immutability).
: provides for reliable and frequent container image build and deployment with quick and easy rollbacks (due to image immutability). Dev and Ops separation of concerns : create application container images at build/release time rather than deployment time, thereby decoupling applications from infrastructure.
: create application container images at build/release time rather than deployment time, thereby decoupling applications from infrastructure. Observability not only surfaces OS-level information and metrics, but also application health and other signals.
Environmental consistency across development, testing, and production: Runs the same on a laptop as it does in the cloud.
Cloud and OS distribution portability : Runs on Ubuntu, RHEL, CoreOS, on-premises, on major public clouds, and anywhere else.
: Runs on Ubuntu, RHEL, CoreOS, on-premises, on major public clouds, and anywhere else. Application-centric management : Raises the level of abstraction from running an OS on virtual hardware to running an application on an OS using logical resources.
: Raises the level of abstraction from running an OS on virtual hardware to running an application on an OS using logical resources. Loosely coupled, distributed, elastic, liberated micro-services : applications are broken into smaller, independent pieces and can be deployed and managed dynamically — not a monolithic stack running on one big single-purpose machine.
: applications are broken into smaller, independent pieces and can be deployed and managed dynamically — not a monolithic stack running on one big single-purpose machine. Resource isolation : predictable application performance.
: predictable application performance. Resource utilization: high efficiency and density.
Why you need Kubernetes and what it can do
Containers are a good way to bundle and run your applications. In a production environment, you need to manage the containers that run the applications and ensure that there is no downtime. For example, if a container goes down, another container needs to start. Wouldn’t it be easier if this behavior was handled by a system?
That’s how Kubernetes comes to the rescue! Kubernetes provides you with a framework to run distributed systems resiliently. It takes care of scaling and failover for your application, provides deployment patterns, and more. For example, Kubernetes can easily manage a canary deployment for your system.
Kubernetes provides us with:
Service discovery and load balancing Kubernetes can expose a container using the DNS name or using their own IP address. If traffic to a container is high, Kubernetes is able to load balance and distribute the network traffic so that the deployment is stable.
Kubernetes can expose a container using the DNS name or using their own IP address. If traffic to a container is high, Kubernetes is able to load balance and distribute the network traffic so that the deployment is stable. Storage orchestration Kubernetes allows you to automatically mount a storage system of your choice, such as local storages, public cloud providers, and more.
Kubernetes allows you to automatically mount a storage system of your choice, such as local storages, public cloud providers, and more. Automated rollouts and rollbacks You can describe the desired state for your deployed containers using Kubernetes, and it can change the actual state to the desired state at a controlled rate. For example, you can automate Kubernetes to create new containers for your deployment, remove existing containers and adopt all their resources to the new container.
You can describe the desired state for your deployed containers using Kubernetes, and it can change the actual state to the desired state at a controlled rate. For example, you can automate Kubernetes to create new containers for your deployment, remove existing containers and adopt all their resources to the new container. Automatic bin packing You provide Kubernetes with a cluster of nodes that it can use to run containerized tasks. You tell Kubernetes how much CPU and memory (RAM) each container needs. Kubernetes can fit containers onto your nodes to make the best use of your resources.
You provide Kubernetes with a cluster of nodes that it can use to run containerized tasks. You tell Kubernetes how much CPU and memory (RAM) each container needs. Kubernetes can fit containers onto your nodes to make the best use of your resources. Self-healing Kubernetes restarts containers that fail, replaces containers, kills containers that don’t respond to your user-defined health check, and doesn’t advertise them to clients until they are ready to serve.
Kubernetes restarts containers that fail, replaces containers, kills containers that don’t respond to your user-defined health check, and doesn’t advertise them to clients until they are ready to serve. Secret and configuration management Kubernetes lets you store and manage sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, and SSH keys. You can deploy and update secrets and application configuration without rebuilding your container images, and without exposing secrets in your stack configuration
What Kubernetes is not
Kubernetes is not a traditional, all-inclusive PaaS (Platform as a Service) system. Since Kubernetes operates at the container level rather than at the hardware level, it provides some generally applicable features common to PaaS offerings, such as deployment, scaling, load balancing, and lets users integrate their logging, monitoring, and alerting solutions. However, Kubernetes is not monolithic, and these default solutions are optional and pluggable. Kubernetes provides the building blocks for building developer platforms, but preserves user choice and flexibility where it is important.
Kubernetes:
Does not limit the types of applications supported. Kubernetes aims to support an extremely diverse variety of workloads, including stateless, stateful , and data-processing workloads. If an application can run in a container, it should run great on Kubernetes.
limit the types of applications supported. Kubernetes aims to support an extremely diverse variety of workloads, including stateless, stateful , and data-processing workloads. If an application can run in a container, it should run great on Kubernetes. Does not deploy source code and does not build your application. Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment (CI/CD) workflows are determined by organization cultures and preferences as well as technical requirements.
deploy source code and does not build your application. Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment (CI/CD) workflows are determined by organization cultures and preferences as well as technical requirements. Does not provide application-level services, such as middleware (for example, message buses), data-processing frameworks (for example, Spark), databases (for example, MySQL), caches, nor cluster storage systems (for example, Ceph) as built-in services. Such components can run on Kubernetes, and/or can be accessed by applications running on Kubernetes through portable mechanisms, such as the Open Service Broker.
provide application-level services, such as middleware (for example, message buses), data-processing frameworks (for example, Spark), databases (for example, MySQL), caches, nor cluster storage systems (for example, Ceph) as built-in services. Such components can run on Kubernetes, and/or can be accessed by applications running on Kubernetes through portable mechanisms, such as the Open Service Broker. Does not dictate logging, monitoring, or alerting solutions. It provides some integrations as proof of concept, and mechanisms to collect and export metrics.
dictate logging, monitoring, or alerting solutions. It provides some integrations as proof of concept, and mechanisms to collect and export metrics. Does not provide nor mandate a configuration language/system (for example, Jsonnet). It provides a declarative API that may be targeted by arbitrary forms of declarative specifications.
provide nor mandate a configuration language/system (for example, Jsonnet). It provides a declarative API that may be targeted by arbitrary forms of declarative specifications. Does not provide nor adopt any comprehensive machine configuration, maintenance, management, or self-healing systems.
provide nor adopt any comprehensive machine configuration, maintenance, management, or self-healing systems. Additionally, Kubernetes is not a mere orchestration system. In fact, it eliminates the need for orchestration. The technical definition of orchestration is execution of a defined workflow: first do A, then B, then C. In contrast, Kubernetes comprises a set of independent, composable control processes that continuously drive the current state towards the provided desired state. It shouldn’t matter how you get from A to C. Centralized control is also not required. This results in a system that is easier to use and more powerful, robust, resilient, and extensible
Now let’s move to the case study part , where we discuss hoe Spotify is benefitting itself from Kubernetes … | https://medium.com/@satabrata-slg88/-c33badb668d0 | ['Satabrata Paul'] | 2020-12-26 17:18:14.086000+00:00 | ['Case Study', 'Kubernetes', 'Containers', 'Container Orchestration'] |
What 2000 people think about the future of cryptocurrency | At Lendingblock, we believe in the positive future of digital assets, but is this a view shared by the everyone? We surveyed 2000 people to find out whether they think crypto is a passing fad or the currency of the future…. | https://medium.com/lendingblock/what-2000-people-think-about-the-future-of-cryptocurrency-18860ced0642 | ['Linda Wang'] | 2018-04-13 14:57:34.228000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Fintech'] |
Vacos Cam review: This promising security camera is handcuffed to a mess of an app | Vacos Cam review: This promising security camera is handcuffed to a mess of an app Jennifer Jan 27·5 min read
Battery-powered security cameras are a great option for outdoor use, because they remove the logistical hassle of finding a convenient electrical outlet to power them. But their easier installation comes with a cost, as they tend to be priced higher than their AC-powered counterparts. The $139 Vacos Cam would seem to be the best of both worlds, then—supremely flexible, modestly priced. Unfortunately, testing revealed this camera to be far from a polished product. While its video quality and smart motion detection are solid, its barely baked app makes the camera virtually unusable.
The camera is the latest to crib its look from the Arlo line of home security cameras, in this case the Arlo Go (except that camera connects to the internet via an onboard LTE radio). It’s powered by an integrated lithium-ion battery that promises up to six months of usage per full charge. It has an IP66 weatherproof rating—indicating it’s impervious to dust and resistant to jets of water—and if you opt to mount it outside, you can purchase the Vacos Solar Panel for an additional $19 to keep it continuously charged.
The 1080p camera has a 130-degree field of view and sits adjacent to a PIR (passive infrared) motion sensor. The lens is flanked by two white LED spotlights, and a pair of infrared LEDs that work together to provide up to 33 feet of full-color night vision. Two-way communication and a built-in siren round out the feature set.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best home security cameras, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. Vacos You can add an inexpensive solar panel to continuously charge the Vacos Cam.
Vacos Cam uses AI to recognize human motion amid all other kinds of movement. It automatically records video of human activity and saves it locally to 16GB of internal flash memory. That can fill up quickly if you use the camera in a high traffic area, though, so Vacos also offers cloud storage for $2.99 a month that gives you seven days of rolling storage.
Setup and performanceSetting up the Vacos Cam isn’t difficult, but getting the camera to connect to my Wi-Fi took a half-dozen attempts. The sticking point was a QR code the Vacos app displays for the camera to scan as the final step in the connection process. The camera failed to scan the code several times, requiring me to reset the camera each time and start the whole setup over. The issue seemed to be the lighting in my home; I finally got the camera to recognize the code by scanning it right next to a brightly lit window.
[ Further reading: The best video doorbells ]Like the Arlo cameras is resembles, the Vacos Cam can be attached magnetically to a ball-shaped mount or screwed onto a mounting arm. Both options allow you to swivel the camera to change the viewing angle.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG Motion detection notifications alert you to “Human Induction.”
The Vacos companion app makes operating the camera intuitive. Vacos Cam is displayed on the app’s device page as a thumbnail screenshot of the camera’s last live view. Tapping it opens the live stream and various controls. Some of these are for operating the camera, including audio mute and push-to-talk buttons, and buttons for manually recording video and taking screenshots. Others provide access to event-triggered clips and a timeline for scrubbing through all video saved to the camera or the cloud.
Mentioned in this article Arlo Pro 3 (two-pack) Read TechHive's reviewSee it As straightforward as that all sounds, the app performed erratically in my testing. The live feed routinely took more than 15 to 20 seconds to load, sometimes stalling altogether and requiring me to reboot the app and try again. Video clips were also slow to load, and playback was frequently choppy. Several times during playback I’d get several seconds of black screen, followed a glimpse of the video, followed by more blacked out footage. Other times, the clip would start, then the app would crash and close. Even without these problems, the video clips weren’t very useful as they only last about seven seconds—hardly time to capture enough activity to size up a potential crime scene. Worse, Vacos didn’t include a download option, so there’s no way to save your videos as a file that you can hand over to police as evidence.
Video playback through the timeline was even more problematic. Here, you choose a storage location, either the camera or the cloud, and a date. Then you scroll through the timeline to find the clips you want, which are marked as red or blue lines; there’s no explanation given for the different colors but red seemed to correspond to general motion while blue indicated human detection. Despite signing up for the 90-day trial, my cloud subscription never worked (though that didn’t stop the app from trying to get me to “extend” my trial by paying the monthly fee), so when I tried to access video there, I got a black screen with the error message “No Video Data,” even though I could see video events marked on the timeline.
I was able to access timeline clips stored locally, but these would play at twice-normal speed then abruptly slow to half-speed or stutter to a stop and time out. When the latter happened, I’d have to restart the app to get back to the camera screen.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG The Vacos Cam captures sharp, vibrant video.
Other oddities further hampered my experience. The camera’s AI not only filters out non-human activity, it disregards it altogether. That’s a plus if you don’t want your dog setting off a barrage of alerts when he’s chasing your cat, or the leaves outside triggering the camera siren in a high wind. But there are times when you want to be alerted to general motion. I set the camera up to monitor anyone coming into our long driveway, particularly at night. But the camera could only notify me when someone entered on foot, not if they came in by car. A more flexible detection/notification system—which, it should be noted, most advanced security cameras offer—would have made the Vacos Cam a lot more useful.
For its part, human detection worked remarkably well. These notifications were timely and accurate, though the wording “Human Induction” is a head-scratcher.
It’s a shame the Vacos app is such a hot mess, because the camera’s video quality is quite good. Daytime images are tack-sharp with balanced lighting and vibrant color. Color night vision was just as good, but just a touch grainier.
But that’s true of many of the cameras in our buying guide, including the aforementioned Arlos. In fact, the Arlo Pro 3 is what I’d recommend as an alternative, at least until Vacos resolves its camera’s many issues. You can purchase a single Arlo Pro 3 for not much more than the Vacos Cam (multi-camera starter kits are also available) and get similar specs with a far more polished app.
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/@jennife55641128/vacos-cam-review-this-promising-security-camera-is-handcuffed-to-a-mess-of-an-app-5a235ce8ff3 | [] | 2021-01-27 18:49:05.040000+00:00 | ['Internet', 'Surveillance', 'Deals', 'Lighting'] |
Builder Design Pattern in Android | Builder Design Pattern in Android
Nowadays, Design Patterns play essential roles in designing and developing Android apps because they can provide some best practices for having high quality apps and following clean code principles. One of the main design patterns that are used in android development is Builder Design Pattern. In fact, this design pattern could be effective in improving flexibility and readability of codes. This article aims to discuss Builder Design Pattern in Android applications with using Kotlin.
What is the definition of Design Pattern?
Design patterns are used to represent some of the best practices adapted by experienced object-oriented software developers. In software development, a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem or task in software design. In other words, it describes the problem, the solution, when to apply the solution, and its consequences. Besides, It gives implementation hints and examples.
Benefits of using Design Patterns in Android
Design Patterns use object-oriented concepts such as decomposition, inheritance, and polymorphism. They can improve the re-usability and extensibility of Android apps. It means you do not need to write the same code again at various places, and also you can be able to add other features to your app much more easier than general coding. Therefore, Design Patterns can increase speed in application development in Android. They can make your codes cleaner by decoupling the code. In addition, Design Patterns can enhance the understanding of codes in Android apps. Design Patterns are proved and testified solutions because they have been built upon the knowledge and experience of expert application developers. They make communication between developers more efficiently.
Types of Design Patterns
Fundamentally, there are a number of Design Patterns, which can be used in software development, and all these could be categorized into the following three categories:
Creational Design Pattern
They are concerned with the way of creating objects such as Builder, Singleton, and Dependency Injection.
2. Structural Design Pattern
They are discussed how classes and objects can be composed, to form larger structures such as Adapter, Facade, and Proxy.
3. Behavioral Design Pattern
They are considered the interaction and responsibility of objects such as Observer, Mediator, and Interpreter.
Builder Design Pattern
Basically, the Creational Design Pattern is used to create some objects without representing the logic or the steps, which are involved in creating the objects. In fact, hard-Coded code is not an appropriate programming approach. In this category, we are creating the instance by using the new keyword. Occasionally, the nature of the object must be changed according to the nature of the program. In these situations, we must use the Creational Design Patterns to provide more flexibility. Thus, this makes the creation of objects easier.
As a matter of fact, Builder Design Pattern indicates that you should construct a complex object from simple objects by using step-by-step approach. It is mainly used when object cannot be implemented in single step like in the deserialization of a complicated object.
Advantages of using Builder Design Pattern
when you initialize your object, you do not need to have all the data to pass it to your object. As s result, it could be helpful to control over construction process. It implements a clear separation between the construction and representation of an object. Furthermore, it hides internal representation of the objects from the client. It handles the changes in the internal representation of objects. It can improve the flexibility and readability of source codes. It avoids the Telescoping Constructor Pattern. For instance:
Pizza(int size){
}
Pizza(int size, boolean cheese){
}
Pizza(int size, boolean cheese, boolean meat){
}
Pizza(int size, boolean cheese, boolean meat, boolean bacon){
}
The problem with this pattern is that when a constructor have 4 or 5 parameters long, it becomes difficult to remember those parameters.
A simple example in Kotlin
In Android, the Builder pattern appears when using objects like AlertDialog.Builder. For example:
val builder = AlertDialog.Builder(this)
builder.setTitle("Sample Alert")
builder.setMessage("Sample Message!")
builder.setPositiveButton(android.R.string.yes){ dialog, which ->
}
builder.setNegativeButton(android.R.string.no){ dialog, which ->
}
builder.setNeutralButton("Maybe"){ dialog, which ->
} builder.show()
This builder proceeds step-by-step, and helps you specify just only the parts of your AlertDialog that you want.
Another Example in Kotlin
In the below example, we have PersonalComputer class with some properties such as cpu, ram, batteryCapacity, and screenSize. In this class, the cpu is significant and compulsory. Therefore, you have to pass it every time, but the rest of the properties are optional. Additionally, if you do not set any value, the default value will apply.
class PersonalComputer(builder: Builder){ private val cpu: String = builder.cpu
private val ram: String = builder.ram
private val batteryCapacity: String = builder.batteryCapacity
private val screenSize: String = builder.screenSize
class Builder(cpu: String){ var cpu: String = cpu
var ram: String = "8G"
var batteryCapacity: String = "10000mAH"
var screenSize: String = "17inch"
fun setRam(ram: String): Builder{ this.ram = ram
return this } fun setBattery(batteryCapacity: String): Builder{ this.batteryCapacity = batteryCapacity
return this } fun setScreenSize(screenSize: String): Builder{ this.screenSize = screenSize
return this } fun build(): PersonalComputer{ return PersonalComputer(this) }
}
}
Now, we can use the Builder class as follows:
PersonalComputer.Builder("i5")
.setRam("16G")
.setScreenSize("14inch")
.build()
In conclusion, Design patterns play key roles in having a high quality Android apps and following clean code principles. In this essay, using Builder Design Pattern was considered in Android Development. Also, some advantages were explained, such as providing flexibility and readability of codes. However, the number of lines of code increase at least to double in builder pattern. | https://medium.com/kayvan-kaseb/builder-design-pattern-in-android-a38dccb75485 | ['Kayvan Kaseb'] | 2020-12-07 22:18:43.602000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Builder Pattern', 'Kotlin', 'Android', 'Design Patterns'] |
Here’s a map of every state legislator in the U.S. | Here’s a map of every state legislator in the U.S. as of February 2019, with districts and elected official data from the Cicero database. Knowing that space doesn’t necessarily equal people, we decided to first visualize with dots indicating the center point of each legislative district. However, we wanted users to have the option to view the actual geography of legislative districts, so we added a toggle between the two on the map.
Click here to view full interactive version
Was the 2018 election a Democratic wave?
Overall, Democrats gained 311 seats while Republicans lost 257 seats. Coming into the election, Republicans had 4,076 state legislators compared to Democrats with 3,137. As of February 2019, after the general election, special elections, and many vacant seats being filled, Republicans now have 3,819 and Democrats have 3,448. There are gaps in those two sets of numbers because of previously vacant seats that were filled with new legislators.
Out of states that had legislative elections in 2018, Democrats had a net gain of seats in 35 states, compared to 9 states for Republicans. Leading the charge was New Hampshire, with a gain of 53 seats for Democrats between its massive House of Representatives (400 seats!) and State Senate. Democrats won 18 more seats in Maine’s legislature, while they picked up 17 seats each in Minnesota and Pennsylvania. A few states saw a shift towards Republicans, continuing trends in those states that have been ongoing for the past few election cycles. For example, Republicans gained a net of 5 seats in Alabama and Missouri. Minnesota and New Hampshire now have more elected Democrats in their state legislatures than Republicans, and six state legislative chambers switched from Republican to Democratic control:
Colorado State Senate
Maine State Senate
Minnesota House of Representatives
New Hampshire House of Representatives and State Senate
New York State Senate
Click here to view full-screen interactive version.
Fewer Republicans, but also fewer third-party members
Third parties and independents have historically struggled to gain ground in U.S. legislatures. Despite more Americans identifying as independent, many do not vote for third parties or Independent candidates. Overall, independents and third parties lost 7 seats in the last election. Vermont’s legislature has more elected third parties than any other state, with the Progressive Party’s 8 seats in the House and Senate, which is down one member compared to last year. Vermont also has the most independents, with 5 legislators, followed by Maine with 4 independents in its House of Representatives.
Want more data? Check out our Cicero Elected Officials and Districts tool to enter your address and see more information about the people that represent you. | https://medium.com/cicero-data/heres-a-map-of-every-state-legislator-in-the-u-s-3f1c811055ab | ['Daniel Mcglone'] | 2019-03-04 17:10:09.125000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Dataviz', 'Elections', 'Maps'] |
Finding a restaurant best place in Paris | Finding a restaurant best place in Paris
Searching where a business can bring a service or a product to the end users, is an important question each undertaker or business owner has to face sooner or later. Particularly in the case of a restaurant or a bar we may wonder about the best possible place to open. The answer to that apparently simple question require taking into account many parameters regarding what is called the marketing mix (i.e. parameters related to the product \ service, the place, the price and promotion).
In addition, everyone can access nowadays any kind of information only using internet but, the amount of data and time just looking for the right information and performing some comparisons could be not negligible. Only considering Paris (and not the whole “île-de-France” region which is on a more important territory) with its twenty (20) boroughs of four (4) neighbourhoods each, with many possible venues for a restaurant.
To ease the process for an undertaker who wants to open a restaurant in Paris, I used a data science method can then be used in combination to a defined set of parameters to advice the owner on possible locations or strategies.
In this post, I will use Foursquare location data combined with a machine learning algorithm to provide insights on potential location in Paris.
2. Tools, Methodology and Data
2.1. Tools & methodology
I principally used internet and the Foursquare API as main sources. The used datasets were either directly downloaded from open repository or web-scraped from web pages. I used Python as the main language to do all this. Finally, I used the Folium library to build Paris visualizations.
To perform our analysis, we have chosen to address four majors (4) parameters as analysis axis:
The general reputation and accessibility of Paris boroughs.
The global environment in terms of famous venues in Paris neighbourhood.
Level of restaurants competition in each neighbourhood.
But before dealing with the above parameters, it is important to have a broad view of Paris.
2.2. Data Sources
The following data will be used:
Web page providing the rank of the city of Paris compared to others French cities with more than 10000 people. The data was web-scarped from REF [1].
2. Web page providing data about general neighbourhood’s notations. The data was web-scraped from REF [2].
3. Data providing, Latitude, Longitude of Paris’ neighbourhoods downloaded from REF [3].
4. The recommended existing venues in each neighbourhoods downloaded using the Foursquare API.
2.3. Data Workflow
I used the ELT philosophy as I first Extracted the data, Loaded it into to my Jupyter notebook and Transform it finally.
After transformations, yous can see below the list of data frames’ heads:
Extract of most enjoyable French cities with more than 10000 people: (for Paris description)
This data frame provide general information about major cities and their respective notations.
Extract of general Paris boroughs notations: (for boroughs description)
This data frame provide notations (out of 10) of some parameters. The notations have been given by a sample of French people and summarized on the used web-page.
Since the data was well formatted, a clustering analysis with the KMeans algorithm has been used to categorize the dataset.
Extract of Paris neighbourhoods location data frame:
This data frame provide inputs (using latitude and longitude) for the Foursquare API calls.
Extract of Foursquare recommended Paris neighbourhoods’ venues data frame: (for neighbourhoods description)
We can see that we will be dealing with more than 5000 venues.
Since we are interested in venues categories, we had to transform the above category feature (hot-encoding) in order to use the “KMeans” clustering algorithm. Below we can see the transformed data frame:
3. Results
3.1. Paris little description
According to our data, Paris is not the most enjoyable French city to live in. The city is ranked 722th behind others French major cities like Marseille or Nice.
This statement is totally in contrast with the high population density (about 20934 people per square kilometre) and the fact that there are many companies headquarters (confirmed with83% of employment rate) in Paris.
3.2. Paris Boroughs description
Using two as the optimal clusters number (computed with the Elbow method), the Paris’ boroughs can be divided into two groups:
A group with good reputation (i.e. good security and environment notations) boroughs in green on the picture below.
A less good reputation group in light yellow on the picture below.
3.3. Paris neighbourhoods description
The clustering analysis performed with the Foursquare categories, provided three clusters, with each point representing one neighbourhood on the map below.
The cluster description is as it follows:
Neighbourhood cluster 0 ( In red ): high density for restaurants (French, Italian) and hotels
): high density for restaurants (French, Italian) and hotels Neighbourhood cluster 1 ( purple ): medium density fort restaurants and hotels
): medium density fort restaurants and hotels Neighbourhood cluster 2 (in light green): low density (mostly Asian, French and Italian restaurants)
There is about 693 French restaurants in Paris (which represent about 38% of all restaurants in Paris in the returned 82 restaurants categories).
The composition of each cluster, provided below, show that French restaurant is still the first venue category in clusters 0 and 1.
Focusing only on restaurants in each cluster:
Cluster 0:
Cluster 1:
Cluster 2:
In cluster 2 below, Asian restaurants represent the first restaurant category (about 62%), followed by French (about 30%) and Italian.
4. Discussion
Famous recommended venues are mainly shops, hotels, cafés, bars and plazas. If we superimpose all the clusters on the same map (see below), we can see that right at the middle of Paris (i.e. on the neighbourhood cluster n°2 in light green) there is the lowest French restaurants density but the highest Asian restaurants.
The boroughs accessibility is not really an issue since the mass transit coverage appear to be rather good all over Paris. But regarding the boroughs, the security and environmental considerations are divisive.
There is a shop concentration in the most secure borough clusters. The shop density is rather high in these boroughs. Nevertheless, shops density in boroughs with less reputation appear to be rather medium.
Shops appear to be much concentrated around the Paris centre. The competition at the centre of Paris is then more important and especially for French, Italian and finally Asian specialties.
Regarding the restaurants, dominant categories are French, Italian and Asian. In Asian restaurant category I gathered all Asian specialties which are more diversified (Japanese, Chinese, etc.).
So, finding the restaurant best place depends on business owner preferences. Looking at the last Paris map, different options or strategies are possible. As examples:
A strategy could be to go into higher shop density neighbourhoods with aggressive prices trying to compete or with a not well represented restaurant specialties like may be Caribbean \ African or even Mexican.
Another way could be to develop a new restaurant concept in lower shop density neighbourhood (like right in the middle of Paris).
The 12th (Reuilly) and the 16th (Passy) Paris boroughs appear to be large enough with a rather medium shop density. So these neighbourhoods could represent good opportunities.
Finally, we have seen that in each neighbourhoods clusters there are plazas that could be used (if allowed by the town hall) for a food truck approach or a similar concept.
5. Conclusion
Our objective was to find the best place to open a restaurant in Paris. So first, we had to choose a set of parameters to define what a best place could be. As main parameters, we selected the general reputation (as a combination of security, the accessibility, quality of life and others) and the level of competition. Of course these are not all the relevant parameters, even if the latter should be among the first to be considered before going further.
Having the selected parameters in mind, we extracted data from web pages on internet (directly downloading dataset or web-scraping web pages) mainly about Paris itself, Paris boroughs notations and Paris neighbourhoods’ locations. After cleaning, we used the collected data to build clustering analyses with the KMeans algorithm as a Paris descriptive approach.
The analyses allowed to divide Paris boroughs according to the reputation and Paris neighbourhoods according to the shop density. The location data combined with the latter Paris subdivisions allowed to represent all of the clusters on a Paris map for visualisations.
Our results was to show how Paris could be divided and to draft some strategies for potential business owners according to the identified clusters. Globally, everything depends on the marketing mix the business owner wants to apply: he could be aggressive with prices in high density neighbourhoods, be a niche player targeting not enough represented specialties or try a cutting strategy to differentiate the offer.
However, this study is only the beginning, as there are a lot more parameters to define a best place and then to address the problematic. To continue the work, we could gather more information about shops in each neighbourhoods. We could also (with a Foursquare Paid account) collect more information about restaurants (tips, ratings and more) to be more specific about the strategy and obviously know more about potential shops clients and competitors. An important aspect that we didn’t mentioned is the Paris demography, as it is essential to know more about potential clients to work on marketing positioning.
But every study needs an ends for a new beginning. So, I thank you for your attention and hope I have given you valuable insights for your idea to come true.
References | https://medium.com/@sebastien-sime/finding-a-restaurant-best-place-in-paris-320f17ea19ad | ['Sebastien Sime'] | 2020-11-26 16:25:27.969000+00:00 | ['API', 'Web Scraping', 'Data Science Projects', 'Clustering Analysis', 'Machine Learning'] |
Cambodia — The Failure of Never Again | World Genocide Commemoration Day
Child’s Photo on Display at Tuol Sleng
What I remember most are the eyes, not the glass cases filled to the ceiling with bones: one case for all of the skulls, another for limbs, but the eyes of the victims. At Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh, they’ve maintained and preserved the rooms and devices of this place, the most notorious torture prison in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge systematically tortured and exterminated those they considered to be “political” opponents, 25% of the population (1.5–2 million) over three years in the 1970's.
The items on display are rusted now, but this does not diminish their weight. The brutality of what was done in this place shines through clearly. Also on display are black and white photographs that were taken of every man, woman and child (yes, children) brought to this site. Often, individuals wear numbers. They stare straight ahead at the camera. Or, as it felt to me, they stare at you, the visitor, the tourist, the community member, the loved one (perhaps). Those eyes. One woman, in particular, stood out, defiance clear in her eyes. She undoubtedly knew the terror and horror that awaited her at this site, had likely already faced more loss and brutality than any one person should ever be expected to bear, and yet still, her eyes speak volumes, make clear her resistance to the Khmer Rouge.
By the time I visited Cambodia, I had studied South Africa and Apartheid, had lived through the US bombing of Kosovo and held a Master’s Degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, which included a Kennedy School course in which we discussed Rwanda, Bosnia, Serbia, etc. Thus, I knew, intellectually, that there had been several genocides after the Holocaust. But, to be frank, it wasn’t until I stood in Tuol Sleng and looked into the eyes of the individuals that perished there, walked the hallways, passed the glass cases of bones that I truly began to understand the epic failing of our species. A declaration, after the Holocaust, “Never Again!” became merely words as we were unable to stop the “agains.” Just one genocide would have been too many. Yet, since 1945, there have been several.
Seeing Tuol Sleng and the continued affect of the genocide on the people of Cambodia made it clear to me how disgraceful the acts of my own nation had been during that time, supporting the Khmer Rouge (with FULL knowledge of what they were doing) simply because they weren’t communists. The Cold War deemed more important than the mass extinction of an entire group of people. I’d read Samantha Power’s A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide and mentally understood how abhorrent the actions of the U.S. (and other nations) were, but I had not taken in the true scale of it. The depravity of our choices did not sink in until I stood at that site in Cambodia.
Psychologists say this is common and that part of why mass atrocities continue is that our brains can’t compute them. The hard drive crashes when the numbers get too big. When the brutality is too extreme. When reality seems unreal. Our brains overwrite and tell us, simply, that maybe it isn’t real. It can’t be. 6 million. Impossible. 800,000 in 30 days (Rwanda). Unbelievable.
But our struggle to understand it, to wrap our heads around it, does not make it untrue. Those things are possible. They did happen. They continue to happen. Genocide is not isolated to one area, one group of people, one nation. It is all encompassing and it is about ALL of us.
When I left Cambodia, a seed was planted and it grew. The roots became strong. I didn’t know what I would create. How I would engage with the topic of genocide, but I knew that I had an itch I couldn’t really scratch, a problem I didn’t know how to solve. I needed to delve deeply into the question of why we haven’t ended genocide. We’ve put a man on the moon. Rovers explore Mars. We know more about Jupiter than my son knows about Pokemon (and he knows A LOT), but still genocide persists. We don’t intervene early enough or effectively. We don’t see the ways in which our language, our education, our systems open the door to future atrocities. We don’t prioritize honesty around the topic.
I understand why we might want to avoid it. Genocide is a mirror reflecting the worst of ourselves.
Unless we face this ugliness, we can’t move forward and create a world of beauty. | https://medium.com/@indiejenfischer/cambodia-the-failure-of-never-again-75b6e45adbb0 | ['Indie Jen Fischer'] | 2020-12-09 18:10:20.841000+00:00 | ['Genocide Prevention', 'Genocide', 'United Nations', 'Travel', 'Cambodia'] |
Interview with John Furrier | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/workcoin/interview-with-john-furrier-8362601c53cd | ['Fred Krueger'] | 2018-03-16 03:25:51.232000+00:00 | ['Workcoin', 'Freelancing'] |
Tragic Health Care Discrimination Case Sheds Light on the Future of Anti-Discrimination Measures | The loss of a child by suicide is like an earthquake: devastating anyone at the epicenter, and sending shockwaves through the world at large.
A child’s suicide is always tragic — but even more so in cases when we know that, if it weren’t for anti-transgender hostility, that child could have gotten the help they needed. Kyler Prescott’s story is one such case. Kyler was a victim of illegal discrimination at Rady Children’s Hospital, and his mother Katharine has gone to court on his behalf.
Even if the government won’t protect transgender people, many courts will still uphold the law.
Katharine’s lawsuit, brought by advocates at the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, claims that the hospital violated Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars sex discrimination by most health providers (like hospitals and clinics) and insurance companies. This law doesn’t explicitly mention transgender people, but the vast majority of courts that have looked at the issue have said that sex discrimination includes anti-transgender discrimination — and last Wednesday, the District Court for the Southern District of California agreed and allowed Katharine’s lawsuit to go forward.
The court’s decision comes at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is promoting anti-trans discrimination — sending a message to trans people that even if their government won’t protect them, many courts will still uphold the law. Kyler’s story is just one heartbreaking example of the kinds of discrimination and harm this administration is actively promoting.
Kyler Prescott. Photo credit: the Prescott family, via New York Daily News
Kyler’s story
When 14-year-old Kyler experienced suicidal thoughts and self-harming behaviors related to his gender dysphoria, his supportive mother Katharine took him to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, where she believed he would receive competent medical assistance.
Instead, hospital staff inflamed Kyler’s distress even further. Even though they knew that Kyler was a transgender boy and that — particularly in this vulnerable point in his life — recognizing his gender identity was critical for his health and wellbeing, the staff refused to treat him like a boy. Instead, they reminded him again and again that, as far as they were concerned, he was a girl, repeatedly and intentionally calling him “she” even after his mother begged them to stop putting her son’s wellbeing in danger. One employee, for example, told him, “Honey, I would call you ‘he,’ but you’re such a pretty girl.”
Because of the staff’s mistreatment was so severe, his doctors decided that Kyler needed to be released from the hospital early, even though he was still dealing with suicidal thoughts.
About five weeks later, on May 18, 2015, Kyler took his own life.
What happens next?
The court’s recent decision says that anti-transgender discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. This means that now — despite the hospital’s objections — Katharine will be able to make her case and explain to the court why the hospital’s behavior was a type of discrimination made illegal under Section 1557. Now, the court will look at the evidence to decide if the hospital’s mistreatment of Kyler violated Section 1557.
This court is now one of many that has said that sex discrimination includes anti-trans discrimination. Under President Barack Obama, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recognized this near-consensus in the courts and it released an important regulation that makes it clear that anti-trans discrimination is prohibited under Section 1557. This regulation didn’t change the law, but it made it much easier for people like Katharine to address anti-trans health care discrimination in and out of the courts.
But now, under President Trump, HHS is trying to reverse that life-saving progress. From day one, President Trump’s administration has been working to promote anti-trans discrimination, including by undoing that regulation that was passed during the Obama administration. In the coming weeks, HHS plans to try to rewrite these regulations in a way that explicitly excludes trans people. Former Secretary Tom Price just resigned, but the Trump administration will likely continue on this path without him.
No matter how the government’s regulations interpret the law, the meaning of the law itself protects trans people from discrimination.
Still, we have a chance to fight back — for Katharine and Kyler, and for so many other trans people and their families who have faced discrimination and barriers to getting the health care they need.
In Katharine and Kyler’s case, the court said that, no matter how the government’s regulations interpret the law, the meaning of the law itself — along with decades of past court decisions — protects trans people from discrimination. That’s something the Trump administration can’t change on its own. But if the administration rewrites the regulation, it can make it harder for people to succeed in court and to prevent discrimination to begin with. We’re going to do everything we can to stop them from rewriting that regulation — and we’re going to need the whole community’s help to do it.
Our hearts go out to Katharine. We thank her and the teams at the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights for bravely fighting for a better future for transgender youth like Kyler.
How can you help?
Right now, the best way to help is by sharing your health care stories with NCTE. If you’ve faced discrimination in health care, you can get legal help. And get ready for more opportunities to take action when HHS releases its rewrite of the nondiscrimination regulation.
Sarah Gehring is a legal intern with NCTE. | https://medium.com/transequalitynow/tragic-health-care-discrimination-case-sheds-light-on-the-future-of-anti-discrimination-measures-e6ae3b2fa385 | ['National Center For Transgender Equality'] | 2017-10-06 21:37:45.766000+00:00 | ['Suicide', 'Discrimination', 'LGBTQ', 'Healthcare', 'Transgender'] |
Light good afternoon An aloud white pen writing into the paper | Light good afternoon
An aloud white pen writing
into the paper | https://medium.com/@shinei27shukla/light-good-afternoon-an-aloud-white-pen-writing-into-the-paper-a4022d23ee96 | ['Shinei Shukla'] | 2020-12-27 14:42:21.607000+00:00 | ['Haiku Hub', 'Haiku', 'Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Writing Prompts'] |
UniFarm Stake Pool! Stake $SMG and farm $SMG + $ORO + $UFARM + $MILK2 + $CANU | Smaugs NFT is excited to announce a collaboration with UniFarm by OpenDeFi to introduce group farming, enabling long term incentives for token holders. Users will be able to stake $SMG and farm multiple tokens in the UniFarm pool.
What is UniFarm?
Developed by OpenDeFi, UniFarm is a staking pool where user stakes an asset and starts farming other assets over the staking period. The longer you stay in the pool, the more tokens you farm.
The UniFarm pool will support the following assets:
Smaugs NFT( $SMG) Cannumo ( $CANU) Open Defi ($ORO) Unifarm ($UFARM) Space Swap($MILK2)
How does the UniFarm pool work?
Let’s take an example: you stakes $SMG in the UniFarm pool
The first week, you farms $SMG
The second week, you farms $SMG and $ORO
The third week, you farms $UFARM, $ORO, and $SMG
The fourth week, you farms $UFARM, $ORO, $SMG, and $MILK2
The fifth week, you farms $UFARM, $ORO, $SMG, $MILK2 and $CANU
and so on.
Important Details for UniFarm Cohort 19
Stake any ONE token, and farm ALL the others.
No Lock-in. Unstake anytime.
anytime. The pool for this Cohort will last for 180 Days .
. We guarantee a minimum of 36% APY for this cohort.
for this cohort. Earn up to 250% APY .
. Maximum user staking limit is $500K per project.
This pool is on Binance Smart Chain, with BEP-20 Tokens.
Join the telegram community to stay updated. https://t.me/smaugscommunity
Follow Smaugs NFT:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smaugsnft
Website: https://smaugs.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smaugsnft/ | https://medium.com/@smaugsnft/unifarm-stake-pool-stake-smg-and-farm-smg-oro-ufarm-milk2-canu-d128226af31b | ['Smaugs Nft'] | 2021-08-10 10:43:49.590000+00:00 | ['Stakeholder', 'Nft', 'Bsc', 'Nft Marketplace'] |
How To Overcome Hijab Harassment At Work — Tech Sisters | Photo by Muhammad Fajarruzaman on Unsplash
Thank you for applying to work at our company! Unfortunately, we’re sorry to say…
You don’t need to finish reading. You already know this is a rejection email-another one.
So many of us have experienced the job hunt slump. When it feels like no one is interested in hiring what you have to offer. And the people who make up our Tech Sisters community experience this even more often. In a report from the European Network Against Racism, ethnic minority job applicants needed to apply 74% more times than white counterparts to achieve an equal level of success.
These “ethnic penalties” are exacerbated by misguided assumptions and stereotypes about Muslim women. 43% of Muslim women felt like they were treated differently or experienced discrimination during job interviews because they were Muslim. And 50% of hijabis felt like they missed out on career progression opportunities because of their hijab.
As a hijabi myself, I can say that I’ve definitely experienced harassment caused by people’s reactions to my hijab. Thankfully, I’ve never experienced it in any work-related setting. However, it’s definitely a topic that comes up a lot in our community. ( Read about how other women experience being Muslim women in tech) I can completely relate to the anxious feeling when you don’t know if the interviewer will judge you for your skills or the cloth on your head.
It’s not our imagination. The problem exists, and it’s widespread. But we have to persist. We have to keep going and help those around us to secure our place and build a safer, more inclusive culture.
Hijabi Harassment
Harassment doesn’t have to be as extreme as colleagues ripping off our headscarves. It’s any words or actions that make us feel uncomfortable, threatened, or intimidated. It’s realizing your colleagues assumed you were forced to wear the hijab, being made the punchline of another terrorist “joke.” We can feel that something is off right away. But it’s easy to talk ourselves down by excusing an offending comment as just playful banter.
We all deserve to find work where we feel safe, valued, and treated with respect. We deserve work that aligns with our morals and interests, pays enough, and has progression opportunities. But realistically, that’s hard to find. A lot of women find themselves weighing putting up with some “light” harassment against making rent. And that’s completely valid. Here are some questions to help guide that thought process.
Should I stay at this job? Questions to help guide your decision.
Do you feel safe?
If you do, great. If you don’t, getting safe should be your top priority. Talk to your company’s HR department. Get advice from your mentors and close trusted network. Do whatever you need to do to protect yourself.
What level is the harassment?
Are you going to be worn down by consistently experiencing this every day? Or is it something that can be changed (without putting yourself at risk)?
Can this role help advance your career?
Do you feel like your work is valued, and you’re given room to grow? Will sticking through this put you in a better position to make lasting change? Remember, it’s not on you to sacrifice yourself to change a company’s culture.
Is this a dawah opportunity?
Will having an open and honest talk about your reasons for wearing the hijab change anything? Your colleagues might know next to nothing about Islam, so some education could do some good. However, it’s not your responsibility to change their minds for them.
Keep going
If you’re having a hard time finding a job right now, and you’re worried it’s because of your hijab or your Muslim-sounding name, remember that it’s nothing about you. These aren’t personal attacks.
The rejections don’t define you. What you choose to do with them is what defines you.
Keep going. Take care of yourself. Don’t let yourself feel burned out or discouraged.
Reach out to supportive groups (like Tech Sisters!) who get what you’re going through. Look at causes you care about and think of ways you can contribute.
When the time is right, the opportunities will come, and you’ll be ready for them. | https://medium.com/tech-sisters/how-to-overcome-hijab-harassment-at-work-tech-sisters-a7e8f8c72234 | ['Grace Witter'] | 2020-11-08 11:11:21.292000+00:00 | ['Muslim', 'Women In Tech', 'Harassment', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Hijab'] |
AWS Lambda Event Validation — from Zero to Hero | So, you’ve started your serverless journey. It’s new and exciting and there’s lots to learn. You begin with your first AWS Lambda function. Everything looks fine and it just works, your Lambda gets an input event and produces output.
However, problems tend to arise when unhandled exceptions and failures are encountered. These prove to be rather expensive, when not dealt with properly, as they can cause unexpected bugs, security issues and costly Lambda retries.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to parse event schemas correctly and how to handle event validation exceptions. I’ll focus on Python, but these guidelines & tips are applicable to any other programming language.
Problems? What problems?
Let’s observe the Lambda handler below.
The Lambda receives the event parameter, which is a Python dictionary.
If at this stage you access the dictionary without checking its validity, for the majority of Lambda invocations you will be fine. However, in some cases, the event dictionary might not have the ‘input’ key or a list, or the list won’t have at least 2 items (we check for index #1). An exception will be raised, and it won’t be caught.
The first problem is when an exception isn’t caught in Lambda, AWS triggers Lambda retries by default (5 times by default), which will fail again and again. Since you pay for execution times, this can really add up.
The second problem is in cases where an exception isn’t thrown, but the values are invalid. Your program could suffer from “minor” side effects, like invalid program integrity, undefined or invalid behavior bugs and even security issues.
The third problem is that events are updated or changed by services regularly (especially AWS services) and the event dictionary can contain values which your Lambda didn’t expect.
Your code will fail, and that’s ok, but it should fail in the “right” way.
What if I told you that you can solve all three problems by combining validation and input constraint checks with one simple library? | https://medium.com/cyberark-engineering/aws-lambda-event-validation-from-zero-to-hero-2ca950acd2ea | ['Ran Isenberg'] | 2020-08-09 06:10:26.992000+00:00 | ['AWS Lambda', 'Python', 'Validation', 'Software', 'AWS'] |
From Paper to Plastic to Digital Wallets : The Cashless Bankless Future is Inevitable | Face it : Crypto adoption is inevitable.
So read up as we try to give you a simple evaluation of what most financial institutions believe and what you can do to join the bandwagon.
RAPID ADOPTION OF MOBILE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
Since the Pewresearch.com survey which targeted tech-savvy respondents, it comes as no surprise that most of them believe the public will embrace using mobile devices as digital wallets.
“Credit and debit cards will almost be dead by 2020,” predicted consultant and research business owner Stowe Boyd, “because of the convenience and lower costs of directing payments through mobile devices, either by swiping, near-field techniques, or other services offered by cell carriers or platform companies (like Apple).”
Jerry Michalski, founder and guide of Relationship Economy Expedition, noted, “Cash and credit cards as we know them are on their way out. Automation is here and will keep rushing in.”
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, responded, “So many people are already accustomed to buying a cup of coffee with a credit card that smart-device swiping is only a very small next step.”
Ross Rader, a board member of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, noted, “Cash has already disappeared and plastic is just an intermediate device waiting to be replaced. The security, reliability, and costs associated with maintaining plastic will drive issuers and merchants to adopt hardware and software solutions, while consumers will be motivated by convenience and functionality.”
David Morris, managing director of research for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, echoed the voices of many survey respondents when he noted that early adopters are paying by mobile device right now. “Smart-swiping devices will be prevalent by 2020, in fact it already is. This way of spending in retail establishments, online purchasing, etc., is already a dominant mode of financial interaction. I can only see it becoming even more widely adopted by 2020.”
Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and formerly a special assistant for technology policy for President Barack Obama, added, “There is nothing more imaginary than a monetary system. The idea that we solemnly hand around printed slips of paper in exchange for food and water shows just how trusting and fond of patterned behavior we human beings are. So why not take the next step? Of course we’ll move to even more abstract representations of value. Other countries are already content to use their phones; we’ll catch up eventually.”
Vili Lehdonvitra, a researcher at the University of Tokyo and visiting scholar at the Helsinki (Finland) Institute for Technology, predicted that by 2020 “merchants will be offering completely automatic context-aware micro-payments that require no action on part of the consumer: simply grab a can of soda or hop on a tram, and you will be charged automatically. Virtual currencies will continue to be used as complementary money in closed-loop systems.”1
FROM CASHLESS TO BANKLESS
PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O said on Wednesday, Oct 21,2020 it will allow customers to hold bitcoin and other virtual coins in its online wallet and shop using cryptocurrencies at the 26 million merchants on its network in the beginning of next year.
This new service makes PayPal one of the largest U.S. companies to provide consumers access to cryptocurrencies, which could help bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies gain wider adoption as viable payment methods.The San Jose, California-based company hopes the service will encourage global use of virtual coins and prepare its network for new digital currencies that central banks and companies may develop.2
This move by Paypal will now allow the millions of consumers to quickly adapt, and adopt the use of cryptocurrency to a whole new level of bankless finance.
Are We Ready To Adopt?
Only with increasing difficulty can one recall a time when the majority of the world was yet to adopt the internet.
In 1995, user adoption of the internet had only reached 10% of American households, five years after the very first web browser was launched.
Another five years later, in the year 2000, 50% of the United States nation had already adopted the internet.Imagining today’s world without internet is simply unfathomable and, in the future, the same will be said about cryptocurrency.
The technologies fostered by the crypto industry are often considered the most disruptive and paradigm-shifting advancements since the birth of the internet itself.
They are quickly transforming the way people interact, trade, and gain autonomy of their own wealth and assets.
In the early 90s, internet adoption was slow. Newly developed networks struggled with concerns of scalability, privacy and ease of use.
Today, we are witnessing these same key issues with cryptocurrencies and blockchains. In order to accelerate mainstream adoption, we must wear the hat of a user experience designer, because only then will we see cryptocurrencies reach their full potential across the globe.
Cryptocurrencies must first be simplified
Crypto is no simple concept. The industry is trying to squeeze a new technology into traditional patterns of finance. This may be easy for some, but definitely not for the majority.
Firstly, it’s important to communicate why there are key differences between traditional fiat money, such as euros, dollars, pounds, etc., and crypto, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), etc.
Most people don’t understand that Bitcoin is a decentralized and global digital currency not backed by a central entity and immune to government interference.
This year, the United States Federal Reserve pumped trillions of dollars into the nation’s economy, which will have consequences at a later date when inflation inevitably rises.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a limited supply. With a set maximum, it is anti-inflationary. This means that over time, it increases in value.
Nodes and hash rate aside, we need to better educate the public on how understanding and adopting cryptocurrency does not need to be complicated.
Not Many People Understand Crypto Wallets and Private Keys
But we need to explain to users that using crypto is easy, accessible and highly beneficial.At the same time, it’s important to communicate that this is not just a crypto versus traditional banking scenario.
We are all adopting crypto together.Many cryptocurrency exchanges are building strong relationships with banks across the world, and a variety of traditional institutions are also educating their users on the many advantages of crypto.
Right now, it is those who understand the inner workings of cryptocurrency technology that are reaping the benefits of its value. New users should not be excluded just because they lack the awareness of how to access more than one form of finance.
Crypto Confidence
Users need to feel confident that even if they use Bitcoin, a stablecoin or another cryptocurrency, they can exchange their funds for fiat at their convenience.
Crypto debit cards now serve as a solution to meet this demand. Cash can be just as easily accessed from a crypto ATM as it is from a traditional bank account holding fiat.
We need to help them become comfortable with purchasing and trading crypto, which is why onboarding users with easy-to-use applications is key.
The beauty of crypto is being able to access different types of currencies all in the one place.It is up to the crypto community to simplify the process of onboarding by making it as convenient as accessing traditional finance from an everyday bank.
The process must be intuitive, and it must make sense.The crypto ecosystem must be more convenient than existing technology.
For users to adopt crypto, there must be a need for it.
What’s the point of transitioning to a new kind of money if my existing bank account does the job? What is the need in the market for learning and adopting new forms of finance? It took a worldwide pandemic, to realize we have less control over our own finances than we thought.
We know too well from past financial crises that we cannot control the value of our money when it is in traditional fiat. Cryptocurrencies offer greater autonomy over where we choose to invest, bringing financial control back to the people.
Crypto also provides users with the power to earn back crypto on purchases through a new ecosystem of “cryptoback” reward systems.
It is only now that we are seeing more attractive membership and cashback benefits that have been missing from crypto since the birth of the currency, but it is important to match what traditional fiat has to offer and go a level further.
Traditional fiat reward systems usually reimburse “rewards” that are often limited to airline miles and other reward systems.Crypto cashback, on the other hand, offers the opportunity to earn a percentage of your transaction value back in Bitcoin.
Crypto is borderless.
This significantly lowers the fees of cross-border transactions and makes accessing your money instant wherever you are.
Mainstream crypto coins like Bitcoin and Eth adoption is inevitable, and those who are late to the party may miss out on purchasing these in-demand assets at affordable and minimum investment levels. but then again everyone deserves the right to access these transformative forms of finance.3
Increase in Global Demand Use
Global demand to be paid in Bitcoin and ETH increases as more people are able to work freely from anywhere and businesses have fully accepted the ease and security of the digital wallet.
At this point Bitcoin can now be considered as a legitimate medium of exchange worldwide. Increasingly being used by corporations, banks, and governments as a legit unit of exchange.
Due to the emergence of a superior, deflationary, new monetary standard, people increasingly store their personal wealth in Bitcoin rather than fiat.Central Banks power is ever so slightly reduced and previous local monopolies on money are described as a thing of the past.4
Digital or eWallets
A digital wallet is a program which allows the user to store electronic money (and manipulate them). Think of its as your digital bank.
The information component is a database containing personal user data (name, card details, payment options, and so on.5
Cryptocurrency mobile wallet apps
Since any cryptocurrency is virtual (you can’t touch it with your hands!), you also need electronic wallets. Otherwise, you won’t be able to manage such funds.
In fact, bitcoin is being stored in the blockchain network, not in the cryptocurrency wallet itself. The wallet only contains private and public keys and it’s transactions.
Cryptocurrency wallets are divided into several types:
Desktop wallets, they’re accessible only from the computer on which they are installed. They provide sufficient data security, although when hacking a computer (or if it’s been infected with a virus) there is a chance of losing all means.
Hardware wallets which are similar to previous ones but using a hardware data storage device (USB or something of the sort).
Online digital wallets. Their work is based on cloud storage technology. As you understand, there are some drawbacks in the cloud-focused approach (like a greater risk to have information stolen), although there are also benefits: let’s say, the accessibility (namely, the possibility to use these wallets anywhere, from any device).
Mobile digital wallets, they work as an application on the mobile device. The advantages are undeniable, you’re even allowed to use such wallets in retail outlets.
Paper wallets, they provide the highest level of security but are not always convenient to use.
There are e-wallet apps focused only on a particular type of currency, but there are also those which allow making any type of mobile payments. You have to take it into account when choosing a digital payment system we’ve talked about earlier.6
So let’s discuss electronic wallets advantages and disadvantages.
Main benefits
Simplified payment process. With the online e-wallet, the user can very quickly pay for the service or product in the online store. As you know, payment with a plastic card involves a much more complicated process, since it’s necessary to enter the card number, CVV code, etc.
Unlimited period of use. Once the user has registered an account in the system of electronic payment services, he may use it as he likes, for a really long time.
Convenient work in the online mode. Paying with electronic money is the best solution for freelancers who deal with clients online.
High transaction speed. Bank transfers sometimes take from several hours to a few business days. Transactions with electronic money are performed in a matter of minutes.
Disadvantages of e-payment services
Disadvantages include:
mandatory Internet access;the low probability of hacking the digital card wallet. However, the security issue will be discussed separately because it deserves more of our attention.
How Do They Work?
Unlike traditional ‘pocket’ wallets, digital wallets don’t store currency. In fact, currencies don’t get stored in any single location or exist anywhere in any physical form. All that exists are records of transactions stored on the blockchain.
Cryptocurrency wallets are software programs that store your public and private keys and interface with various blockchains so users can monitor their balance, send money and conduct other operations. So, to simplify, your wallet stores a copy of your private keys and your transactions stored on the blockchain.
When a person sends you bitcoins or any other type of digital currency, they are essentially signing off ownership of the coins to your wallet’s address.
To be able to spend those coins and unlock the funds, the private key stored in your wallet must match the public address the currency is assigned to. If the public and private keys match, the balance in your digital wallet will increase, and the senders will decrease accordingly. There is no actual exchange of real coins. The transaction is signified merely by a transaction record on the blockchain and a change in balance in your cryptocurrency wallet.7
Are Cryptocurrency wallets secure?
Wallets are secure to varying degrees. The level of security depends on the type of wallet you use (desktop, mobile, online, paper, hardware) and the service provider. A web server is an intrinsically riskier environment to keep your currency compared to offline. Online wallets can expose users to possible vulnerabilities in the wallet platform which can be exploited by hackers to steal your funds. Offline wallets, on the other hand, cannot be hacked because they simply aren’t connected to an online network and don’t rely on a third party for security.
Remember that no matter which wallet you use, losing your private keys will lead you to lose your money.
Similarly, if your wallet gets hacked, or you send money to a scammer, there is no way to reclaim lost currency or reverse the transaction. You must take precautions and be very careful!
Backup your wallet. Store only small amounts of currency for everyday use online, on your computer or mobile, keeping the vast majority of your funds in a high-security environment. Cold or offline storage options for backup like Ledger Nano X or paper or USB will protect you against computer failures and allow you to recover your wallet should it be lost or stolen. It will not, however, protect you against eager hackers. The reality is, if you choose to use an online wallet there are inherent risks that can’t always be protected against.
Update software. Keep your software up to date so that you have the latest security enhancements available. You should regularly update not only your wallet software but also the software on your computer or mobile.
Add extra security layers. The more layers of security, the better. Setting long and complex passwords and ensuring any withdrawal of funds requires a password is a start. Use wallets that have a good reputation and provide extra security layers like two-factor authentication and additional pin code requirements every time a wallet application gets opened. You may also want to consider a wallet that offers multisig transactions like Armory or Copay. A multisig or multi-signature wallet requires the permission of another user or users before a transaction can be made.8
Next phase? Go figure.
The pandemic is now pushing us to the next phase of financial and economic evolution. The crypto economy and it’s various sectors are here to stay and is a warranted dynamic with a gentle push from the global pandemic. Deal with it. Adopt then adapt.
And for sure, you really do not want to touch money ever, again.
References :
Main Findings: The Future of Money | Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/04/17/main-findings-the-future-of-money/
PayPal to open up network to cryptocurrencies | Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/paypal-cryptocurrency/update-1-paypal-to-open-up-network-to-cryptocurrencies-idUSL1N2HC0PL, Anna Irrera, Tom Wilson
To Accelerate Cryptocurrency Adoption, We Must First Improve User Experience, https://cointelegraph.com/news/to-accelerate-cryptocurrency-adoption-we-must-first-improve-user-experience
(2) Why Mass Adoption is Inevitable : Bitcoin, https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/9yxl2a/why_mass_adoption_is_inevitable/
Digital Wallets: Types, Ideas, and Future of Such Products | Agilie app development company blog, https://agilie.com/en/blog/digital-wallets-types-ideas-and-future-of-such-products
Digital Wallets: Types, Ideas, and Future of Such Products | Agilie app development company blog, https://agilie.com/en/blog/digital-wallets-types-ideas-and-future-of-such-products
Cryptocurrency Wallet Guide: A Step-By-Step Tutorial — Blockgeeks, https://blockgeeks.com/guides/cryptocurrency-wallet-guide/ | https://medium.com/realtydao-official/from-paper-to-plastic-to-digital-wallets-the-cashless-bankless-future-is-inevitable-2660b1d3d9b1 | ['Maida Barrientos'] | 2020-11-11 10:22:19.594000+00:00 | ['Cashless', 'Wallet', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Token Sale'] |
How Howard Brown Health Protects Chicago’s LGBTQ+ Community | How Howard Brown Health Protects Chicago’s LGBTQ+ Community
discoverGREY partners with Howard Brown Health for Pride Month
Howard Brown Health’s mission is simple: “to eliminate the disparities in healthcare experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people through research, education, and the provision of services that promote health and wellness.” Since 1974, this organization has been protecting Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community by providing medical services free of discrimination. Learn more about our collaboration with Howard Brown Health and the crucial role they played in the war against the AIDS crisis.
The AIDS Crisis
The 70s and 80s were difficult times for the gay community. Decades before the AIDS crisis occurred, HIV spread from Africa to Haiti where it was contracted by professionals and tourists visiting the Caribbean. Researchers say HIV arrived in the U.S. as early as 1971 and swept its way from New York to San Francisco. Pretty soon, the nation was dealing with an AIDS outbreak which threatened thousands of lives, particularly in the gay community.
In 1974, four medical students who were part of the Chicago Gay Medical Students Association banded together to help their community. Very little was known about HIV at the time, but the students were determined to prevent the spread of STIs among gay men. Because they needed a safe space to treat patients free of discrimination, they began meeting voluntarily in a room above an old grocery store. This first informal clinic was located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and became an important pillar of the community.
Founding Howard Brown Health
Two years later, the first board was formed and the clinic was officially named after Dr. Howard Brown, cofounder of the National LBGTQ Task Force. Dr. Brown was an Illinois native and also a former New York City Public Health Commissioner who transformed the image of gay men and lesbian women in the public eye by coming out in 1973.
Because of the clinic’s key participation in the study and treatment of hepatitis B, Howard Brown Health was finally able to hire its first paid staff. Their hard work resulted in the development of a vaccine for hepatitis B, which was a major scientific breakthrough. Due to the wide recognition the organization received, Howard Brown Health was able to grow and fight on the frontlines during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
In 1985, Howard Brown Health helped develop the City of Chicago’s AIDS Hotline, which was run by volunteers twenty-four hours a day. By the late 80s, the organization opened its first Brown Elephant Resale Shop, with proceeds going directly to help provide healthcare for patients. Now with three stores open throughout Chicago, Brown Elephant Resale Shop continues to help fund services for Howard Brown’s underinsured and uninsured patients.
Howard Brown Health Today
“Our mission at Howard Brow is to ensure that every LGBTQ person in metro Chicago has access to a healthcare provider that is accepting and knowledgable about the healthcare needs that our patients face.” David Munar President and CEO of Howard Brown Health
Today, Howard Brown Health is one the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ organizations with over ten locations throughout the Chicagoland area. With an annual budget of over $145 million, this organization serves more than 35,000 members in the community. They continue to pride themselves on providing medical services to every patient regardless of ability to pay and have onsite specialists who can walk patients through insurance processes. While Howard Brown Health does focus primarily on healthcare, they also provide social services to LGBTQ+ youth through the Broadway Youth Center. This includes counseling, drop-in support for basic needs, meals, and employment support for young people ages 12 through 24.
Clinics are also staying open during the pandemic with safety regulations in place. This includes screening every individual before entering the building plus reduced staff and office hours. With the discrimination many members in the LGBTQ+ community face in the healthcare industry, Howard Brown Health is determined to continue providing help during this difficult time.
In honor of Pride Month, we have partnered with Howard Brown Health to bring you this special “Love Is Love” tee. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Howard Brown Health for community services. Many of the most creative entrepreneurs are members of the LGBTQ+ community. No matter what end of the spectrum you fall under, discoverGREY is proud to support every color in between. Show your support by picking up your shirt today.
GREY x Howard Brown Health
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
This article originally published on GREY Journal: https://discovergrey.com/play/style/grey-love-is-love-howard-brown-health-chicago-lgbtq/ | https://medium.com/greyjournal/how-howard-brown-health-protects-chicagos-lgbtq-community-bf6062b0d4cd | ['Grey Journal Staff'] | 2020-06-20 15:07:34.760000+00:00 | ['Cap Dromodiscovergrey Com', 'Featured', 'Charity', 'Howard Brown Health', 'LGBTQ'] |
Why don’t poorer countries just print more money? | Why don’t poorer countries just print more money?
Photo by Charl Floscher on Unsplash
To get richer, a country has to manufacture and sell more things . It could vary from goods to services. This makes it safe for that country to print more currency , so that people can buy those extra things.
When a country tries to get richer by only printing more currency, it doesn’t work out in their favor, because if everyone in the country has more money, prices go up instantly . This is when the citizens need more and more money to buy the same amount of goods on an inflated price.
This happened recently in Zimbabwe, in Africa, and in Venezuela, in South America, when these countries printed more money to try to make their economies grow.
As the printing presses sped up, prices rose faster, until these countries started to suffer from something called “hyperinflation”. That’s when prices rise by an amazing amount in a year.
When Zimbabwe was hit by hyperinflation, in 2008, prices rose as much as 231,000,000% in a single year. Imagine, a sweet which cost one Zimbabwe dollar before the inflation would have cost 231m Zimbabwean dollars a year later. | https://medium.com/@23mailboxx/why-dont-poorer-countries-just-print-more-money-7fa949d8638 | [] | 2020-12-26 09:13:24.086000+00:00 | ['Money Mindset', 'Banks', 'Money', 'Money Management', 'Currency'] |
Silent Love | Silent Love
It doesn’t matter the gender because as a matter of fact, I’m writing music with no specific genre. It has taken me forever to declare my love and the continued admiration of your trunk. All I want is you without borders, male or female, gender is not a bother.
This letter has an agenda creepier than that of a sex offender but I will send it anyway Dear love, I know this is a bad game of cards but I will still make my move. I wanna say without you I can’t live, but I can stay alive waiting for you
I know it’s stupid to declare my love for you in public but I would hate to stay hidden like pubic hair. Grab my hair and suck the air out of my lips because without you I’m suffocating and it’s not fair I know they want a perfect body but all I need is your body on me.
Make love, make a move and I will mold you to the sculpture that I need. The terms are not ideal but I’m the real deal. I just do want to feel your love, it’s not enough, I need you in my every meal even if it’s for a while, then I can keep it as a love file.
I know they got flowers today but what I offer is flaws and claws as I dig into your skin. I’m willing to break the laws of physics, from gravity, me on top and not falling, to tenacity and elasticity to meet a biological satisfaction.
I know you are hyped on special days but I wanna hype you every day because you are a real vibe. I don’t care about your tribe or you are from a different galaxy. I’m sure I can travel a million light years to fulfill my love fantasy. I know it’s crazy but I’m not lazy
I will keep writing these letters, today, tomorrow, and every day. Promise that you will read because if you don’t I will lose my mind, go crazy. I will give you love in every way. Even if it means going past the milky way. I will keep you because you are a treasure.
I could have asked for affection but we already have a connection. Everything with us is in sync and a single motion. Saying this will cause a commotion in your heart and other elongation, I will say it anyway and make your head spin in confusion
That is not my intention but you can be sure I will be there before you fall. I know this is not by chance or luck but with you I’m stuck. I don’t wanna lose this opportunity and live with regrets for things I lack, yes you, so I will continue writing until I hack your heart
In an ideal world, you hold the bows and arrows and I’m the target, but this is not ideal but real. I will go miles and even pay bills, sign my will just to access that file in your core. You are probably asking whats her deal but the truth is I want you like my every meal. | https://medium.com/@essiechams/silent-love-9bfe25ed216 | [] | 2021-05-25 19:12:50.614000+00:00 | ['Love Letters', 'Poet'] |
Why Having Fun at Work Matters | If you’re not having fun at work, then you’re not working hard enough. Twenty years of employment studies illustrate that having fun at work is profitable. Companies that are in the top quartile for employee engagement have 22% higher profitability than their competitors, even during a recession. Having fun at the office increases productivity, reduces stress and improves task performance. It increases retention by making workers more satisfied with their job.
Business Case For Fun at Work
Happier employees are more creative, efficient and produce higher quality work. Employee satisfaction even directly affects the consumer. Your employees interact directly with customers. A happy employee is more likely to find solutions that benefit the customer and go the extra mile. Research reveals that low employee satisfaction had the lowest customer satisfaction, while similar companies with the highest employee satisfaction had the highest customer satisfaction.
Happy workers save companies money
Happy employees are better workers. Studies show that employee satisfaction is positively related to performance quality, innovation, and efficiency. Happy workers have higher performance. A study from Kansas State University shows that 10–25 percent of job performance variance is associated with differences in well-being. If an employee is paid $55,000, that one unhappy employee could cost the company $264 a week in lost productivity. With ten employees, that becomes almost $140,000 per year. Unhappy workers are bad business. And it’s not just revenue that it’s affected by employee happiness. Happy employees take fewer sick days and are more likely to stay in their jobs.
Happiness Fosters Collaboration
Who do you communicate with more honestly: a friend or an acquaintance? We don’t magically turn into different creatures when we go to work. Enjoying people at work encourages candid conversations and mutual trust. When people are friends, they will communicate more effectively. When we enjoy people, we don’t hesitate to ask questions (or answer them). That helps us avoid costly mistakes, improve our skills, and save time. Office friendships raise work satisfaction by 25%. It also makes us seven times more likely to feel engaged.
Having fun with people is an excellent way for individuals to learn about each other’s traits, likes, dislikes, and develop unspoken habits and rules that aid mutual understanding. This knowledge enables them to understand better each other’s boundaries, strengths, and weaknesses.
How do you create office fun?
Fun at the office should not be forced. But it does require leaders to encourage it. Culture builds organically. Leaders can plant the seeds of happiness by providing staff opportunities to connect more informally, such as catered lunches, icebreakers, and team fundraisers.
Ideas for Fun at the Office
Give People the freedom to be themselves. Encourage laughter in the workplace. Tell jokes, place funny clips in presentations. Laughing removes inhibitions, makes you more open to new ideas, and creates new ways of thinking. It’s important to laugh. I send memes around the office that are at least an attempt at humor. It’s earned me the title of “Chief Hijinks Officer.”
Play Games
Games are a great way to have fun. If your business is large enough, you can create teams to compete against each other in the office. And you can also participate as a team outside of work. Get different groups of employees together to compete. Form a kickball team. Go to trivia night. These activities will build teamwork. When you go out together, you will strengthen work teams and form relationships. When you work with friends, you will communicate better, which improves team effectiveness.
A good snack stash
Keeping communal snacks creates a focal point for conversation in the office. It also keeps employees happy because they don’t have to continually run out of the office if they want a bite to eat.
Play Pranks
When someone goes on an extended vacation, you have the responsibility to prank them. Not only is it hilarious if done well, but your victim will know that they’ve been missed and appreciate it. When a coworker left on vacation, I moved his office a few doors down, putting everything in the same place it was in his original office. When I came back from vacation, I found everything–and I mean everything–individually wrapped in cellophane. Years later, I still find things that were covered. And my office friend never moved back to his old office. He likes the new one that I gave him better. Everyone in the office got a kick out of it.
Celebrate Special Events
Celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, and holidays with parties. When celebrations focus on individual team members, they know that their company cares about them specifically.
Praise Publicly and Often
You need to be giving public praise every week. Celebrate small wins and big ones. For example, in meetings, let people know when you’ve seen them at their best. Send an email or a group chats to let a coworker know they’ve done good work. If you send praise in writing, make sure that you copy their supervisor. In some offices, you may ring a bell when you’ve reached an achievement. Other offices even have a parade. When you celebrate success at work, you create a strong bond between the company-success and the individual worker.
Decoration
Your workplace should be a place where employees like to be. Drab cubicles are layouts that almost nobody appreciates. Paint your beige walls. Personalize your employee’s workplace. The goal is to make your workplace somewhere that your employees want to stay.
Ultimately, your office should be an exciting place.
Work Out
Encourage workers to join in a short workout. Incentivize employees to encourage participation. It’s essential to take a few minutes to get up out of your chair and walk around. It clears your mind and readies you for your next task. And studies show just walking around the office will increase creativity.
Takeaway
Create a work environment where you would want to work. Do not get discouraged if others don’t adopt your fun immediately. Be consistent. Be light. Be fun. Even the most stodgy curmudgeon will come around eventually. And if they don’t, then it says more about them than it does you. Have the freedom to be yourself.
As originally published on the Hammer Blog at: https://www.hamiltonlindley.org/why-having-fun-at-work-is-important/Hamilton%20Lindley | https://medium.com/@hamiltonlindley/why-having-fun-at-work-matters-6800a21baf0d | ['Hamilton Lindley'] | 2020-12-20 14:25:45.251000+00:00 | ['Fun', 'Work Environment', 'Work', 'Leadership', 'Servant Leadership'] |
Indian Farm Bill 2020 | And What it holds for Indian Agriculture and Farmers in particular?
Photo by wilsan u on Unsplash
Indian agriculture is endowed with diversified agro-climatic zones and different soil types that support the production of a wide range of crops. This also makes India the world’s second-largest food producer and the number one producer of many food crops. Before delving into the Farm bill 2020, let us understand some key facts, challenges, and priority areas of Indian agriculture.
1.The total food grain and horticulture crop production of India was 295 Mn tonnes & 320 Mn tonnes respectively in FY20. India produced 208 Mn lit Milk during the same period.
2. Indian agriculture provides livelihood support to more than 60% of the population and contributes around 16% to GDP and 10% of total export earnings.
3. Average land holding of 86% of Indian farmers is less than 2 Hectares which results in subsistence agriculture in most parts of India.
4. Out of the total cultivated land, 37% have an irrigation facility, and the rest of the cultivated land is dependent on monsoon.
5. India is the largest producer of bananas, Mango, Milk, Pulses, and Spices and second-largest in Wheat, Rice, Cotton, Sugarcane, and egg production.
Key Challenges and Priorities -
1.Crop Productivity — Despite the significant increase in average production in the last three decades, still India ranks low in productivity. Precision farming, quality inputs, and judicious use of resources are key areas to focus on to increase productivity.
2. Mechanization, Water Resource Management & Infrastructure — Low landholding is key challenge in the adoption of mechanization, however, FPOs/FPCs and cooperatives farming can add significant value by increasing mechanization. As only one-third of cultivated land has an irrigation facility, efficient water resource management practices can play an important role. More investment is needed in irrigation and warehousing to build better infrastructure facilities that reduce post-harvest crop losses.
3. Credit availability and market linkage — Most of the farmers are still dependent on Arthiyas & local lenders to get timely credit and sell their crops to them at low prices. Though the Government of India has facilitated credit to farmers through the priority sector lending route, the benefit is still not reaching the farmers due to several reasons. Indian farmers also need better market access, market information, and direct market linkage to realize the better prices of their produce.
What is Farm Bill 2020 -
The Indian Farm reform 2020 comprises the following three agriculture bills passed by the parliament of India in Sep 2020.
Farmer Producer Trade & Commerce ( Promotion & facilitation) Act — This bill focuses on following key reforms
a) Expand the scope of trade area of farmers’ produce from selected area (APMC) to any place of production, collection, aggregation.
b) Allow electronic trading and e-commerce of scheduled farmers produce
c) Prohibit state government from levying any market fee, cess, or levy on farmers, traders, and electronic trading platform for the trade of farmer produce conducted in an outside trade area ‘APMC’.
2. Farmers ( Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assistance and Farm Service Act — This bill focuses on below mention reforms
a) Provide a legal framework for farmers to enter into prearrange contracts with buyers including mention of pricing
b) Defines a dispute resolution mechanism
3. Essential Commodities (Amendment ) Act —
a) Remove foodstuff such as cereals, pulses, potato, onion, edible oils from the list of essential commodities, removing stock holding limit on such items except under extraordinary circumstances.
b) Requires that imposition of any stock limit on agriculture produce be based on price rise.
Takeaway of Farm Bills 2020 -
Farmers will have an option to sell their produce either in APMC market or outside to any buyers. These reforms break the cartel of middle man/ Arthiyas in APMC market to keep prices artificially low and at the same time allow the middle man to get into a contract with the farmer to purchase farmer produce outside mandi at pre-agreed price. The farmer needs not pay any fee or cess, and will be able to realize better prices of their produce. Under contract farming, which is now available to the farmers across India, farmers will get assured prices for their harvest. As Government has targeted to create more than 10,000 FPC/FPOs, this will help the small farmer to bargain better deals to purchase inputs and to sell their produce. Reform will attract more private investment which will further strengthen agriculture infrastructure. Contract farming will act as a strong risk mitigant against market-linked price fluctuation and facilitate more credit facilities from the financial institutions. Crop insurance is anyway covering crop losses due to natural calamities therefore both farmers and financial institutions are protected. Reduction in intermediaries in the value chain will increase the export competitiveness of agricultural products.
Green Revolution in 1960 has played an important role in agriculture by improving food production and made India self-sufficient. Farm Bill 2020 will prove to be another agriculture revolution that will bring Indian agriculture to a very strong position globally. | https://medium.com/@sachin7378/indian-farm-bill-2020-d5cb6e08e293 | ['Sachin Pathak'] | 2020-12-14 02:30:24.624000+00:00 | ['Agriculture', 'Indian Agriculture', 'Crops', 'Farm Bill'] |
How to launch a quality app for entrepreneurs | Is testing a necessity or a waste of time? Most companies are unanimously in agreement with the first option, but these days there are supporters of the other point of view. In our line of work there have been cases in which, through chasing deadlines and the desire to release a new product as soon as possible, the customer has neglected to pay sufficient attention to this key stage. Either it came at the wrong moment, when the staff didn’t have the necessary specialists available and there was no time to find a competent outsourcing team, or the testing was carried out but not in enough depth. The result is wasted money, a failed project, and the loss of existing customers, while any chance of attracting any new ones can be completely forgotten.
It is evident, therefore, that the testing of a software product is one of the most important stages of its development. Indeed, before a company can present their new product to consumers, they must be 100% sure of its performance. It is therefore essential to identify critical bugs on time, check all vital product functionality, conduct a robust interface analysis, and implement any recommendations for improvement. The expertise of the testers at this point should be second to none.
Understanding the importance of this stage, SKB LAB invited OmegaLab specialists onto their project.
The Challenge
Our task was to instantly integrate ourselves into the project to conduct a detailed screening and to improve the web service and mobile applications of a well-known bank. We were to work as part of the SKB LAB team. To ensure the timely detection and guaranteed elimination of any critical bugs, it was necessary to employ both automated and manual testing. Only such multi-stage testing as this would allow SKB LAB to avoid critical errors, ensure the smooth and precise operation of the web services and release a high-quality product.
The timeframe for the project was 31 weeks.
31 weeks / 6 employees / 3 objectives
The Project
5 of our QA specialists joined the project: 3 of them in the regression team to ensure the quality of the main section, 1 was involved in the product team, and 1 worked on testing automation. As such, the OmegaLab team constituted around 1/4 of the SKB LAB regression team, the cooperation having started with the engagement of one person.
Most of our specialists took part in regression (i.e. regression testing), checking whether the functionality was working correctly following the update before everything went into production. The testing architecture was chosen, alternating: 2–3 days allotted to conduct 600–700 tests of the web service, meanwhile 1000–1200 tests of the mobile application for iOS and Android were also carried out. This architecture was not determined by chance. As a result, tasks are distributed according to access rights and workload. One person goes through cases and analyses bugs, while someone else helps to create test clients.
Our technology stack and team comprised of:
vpn, vdi, slack, wiki (confluence), youtrack, testlink, jenkins, gitlab, tfm
1 Project manager
5 Testers
About the client
SKB LAB is an IT-project, created to develop a web service and applications for an innovative mobile bank for individuals and corporations. The bank was created on a modern IT-platform that provides entirely remote financial management for their customers’ ventures. The bank’s clients have access to settlement and cash services, deposits, merchant acquiring, online cash desk, online accounting, tax calculation and payment, legal advice, detailed analytics, and many other services.
The Results
As a result, the bank will offer their customers prompt and uninterrupted operation of web services and applications with updated functionalities. The bank’s mobile application has already won several achievements in industry ratings and is recognised as the best in the market for entrepreneurs. It is a pleasure to be involved in such developments.
As for SKB LAB, the company has found in us reliable partners, ready to engage quickly in any stage of a project, be it testing, design or development. In the future we will be able to significantly save time and resources for SKB LAB that they would usually spend on recruitment for the project. Our partnership will help SKB LAB to maintain the high quality of the application and successfully develop their business in the future.
*1st place in the Business Mobile Banking Rank 2020 for the best mobile bank for iOS and Android
“Throughout the project, we realised that the expertise of the specialists isn’t limited to the scope of the assigned tasks. They always suggest, predict, and recommend the best solution according to the situation. In addition to hard skills, all the specialists have soft skills. Together, these qualitatively distinguish OmegaLab from other development companies. I can confidently say that, in OmegaLab, we have found a reliable partner who can be entrusted to solve even the most demanding of tasks.”
R.Faruhshin
QA Team Lead at SKB LAB | https://medium.com/@omegalab/how-to-launch-a-quality-app-for-entrepreneurs-fbd832796d94 | [] | 2020-12-18 14:30:28.816000+00:00 | ['Regression Testing', 'Mobile Banking', 'Mobile Apps', 'Web Services', 'Software Development'] |
Day Before Christmas | Dear Father GOD on this Day Before Christmas,
“The Census of Caesar Augustus:
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born…”
Luke 2:1–6
In Jesus’ Name | https://medium.com/@pmcfreen/day-before-christmas-99c4fc05b407 | ['Padraic Cyril Mc Freen'] | 2020-12-24 12:40:56.072000+00:00 | ['Jesus', 'Mary', 'Baby', 'Joseph', 'God'] |
LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS’ | Dear Minister, ONE OF YOUR GREATEST NEED IS PEOPLE
The most awesome thing about the anointing of God is the way you feel and what you sense when you are under its power. Only those who have ever been under the cloud of His glory can understand how it feels. It’s like God camped in your soul; you become mega sensitive, mega powerful and awesomely humbled by the bliss of His person. And soon, the cloud lifts…you discover you are hungry, you remember your wife, your humanity dawns on you.
Those encounters can make you believe you need no one, but don’t ever believe that nonsense. Don’t ever think less of the value of men. Men are the reason there is a ministry in the first place — Ministry is service rendered to men on behalf of God, so when your ministry has no appeal (by appeal I mean relevance) to men, the door of your ministry is gradually closing.
The vision of God for your life can never be achieved by the weightiness of the anointing alone — you will need men. People who run with the vision. If there are no men, it means there are no ‘runners’. Surely, God’s call comes to a man alone, but it cannot be achieved by a man alone — he needs associates, friends, partners and believers in the vision.
Ministry comes with varied and diverse needs. The anointing will not feed you directly; God will send men to you who will minister to your needs and you must make it easy for them. Understand that no man possess a unique anointing such as there is no one on earth like him. If you don’t treat people well, they will leave you, and your needs will not be met. Value all men, no matter who they are. The needy today may become your pillar of support tomorrow. And until you see your relationships as the Lord’s doing, they can never be marvelous in your sight. Men are still God’s method. He will always use men for us.
My admonition to you today is that you learn to:
1. Walk with other men.
2. Communicate your vision effectively and clearly
3. Respect people’s opinions, personalities and experiences
4. See the value of team work.
5. Honor all men
Remember Paul had Timothy, Luke, Aquila and Priscilla. Jesus had his disciples and other women who ministered to His needs. Your needs will be met by men. Barnabas had John Mark. David had his mighty men. No man is mighty without men, and no man is great without connection.
I know the anointing literally drips from you, but that doesn’t make you a mini-god, calm down, sooner rather than later, you will discover you need men. We are meant to do ministry in interconnectedness, so that we without them will not be made perfect.
Dear minister, I hope my 10th letter meets you well and I hope you thrive in your relationships. Remember what you don’t value will not work for you, until you value men you will not reap the fullness of their blessings. Grace to you!
http://t.me/thefisayoadeniyi
Your Greatness is Assured
Fisayo Adeniyi
#PFALETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS’
Dear Minister, ONE OF YOUR GREATEST NEED IS PEOPLE
The most awesome thing about the anointing of God is the way you feel and what you sense when you are under its power. Only those who have ever been under the cloud of His glory can understand how it feels. It’s like God camped in your soul; you become mega sensitive, mega powerful and awesomely humbled by the bliss of His person. And soon, the cloud lifts…you discover you are hungry, you remember your wife, your humanity dawns on you.
Those encounters can make you believe you need no one, but don’t ever believe that nonsense. Don’t ever think less of the value of men. Men are the reason there is a ministry in the first place — Ministry is service rendered to men on behalf of God, so when your ministry has no appeal (by appeal I mean relevance) to men, the door of your ministry is gradually closing.
The vision of God for your life can never be achieved by the weightiness of the anointing alone — you will need men. People who run with the vision. If there are no men, it means there are no ‘runners’. Surely, God’s call comes to a man alone, but it cannot be achieved by a man alone — he needs associates, friends, partners and believers in the vision.
Ministry comes with varied and diverse needs. The anointing will not feed you directly; God will send men to you who will minister to your needs and you must make it easy for them. Understand that no man possess a unique anointing such as there is no one on earth like him. If you don’t treat people well, they will leave you, and your needs will not be met. Value all men, no matter who they are. The needy today may become your pillar of support tomorrow. And until you see your relationships as the Lord’s doing, they can never be marvellous in your sight. Men are still God’s method. He will always use men for us.
My admonition to you today is that you learn to:
1. Walk with other men.
2. Communicate your vision effectively and clearly
3. Respect people’s opinions, personalities and experiences
4. See the value of team work.
5. Honor all men
Remember Paul had Timothy, Luke, Aquila and Priscilla. Jesus had his disciples and other women who ministered to His needs. Your needs will be met by men. Barnabas had John Mark. David had his mighty men. No man is mighty without men, and no man is great without connection.
I know the anointing literally drips from you, but that doesn’t make you a mini-god, calm down, sooner rather than later, you will discover you need men. We are meant to do ministry in interconnectedness, so that we without them will not be made perfect.
Dear minister, I hope my 10th letter meets you well and I hope you thrive in your relationships. Remember what you don’t value will not work for you, until you value men you will not reap the fullness of their blessings. Grace to you!
http://t.me/thefisayoadeniyi
Your Greatness is Assured
Fisayo Adeniyi
#PFA | https://medium.com/@fisayoadeniyi/letters-to-young-ministers-15398ab1d094 | ['Fisayo Adeniyi'] | 2020-12-04 13:16:23.640000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Life', 'Training', 'Purpose', 'Ministry'] |
Stacks & Queues — Data Structures | Data structures are a big part of computer science and programming and are frequently used in programming. I will go into more detail about two data structures that are often grouped together in learning Stacks and Queues.
Stacks
Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash
One of the main properties of a stack is LIFO which stands for Last In First Out. If we think of a ‘stack’ of books like in the above picture the last one put on is at the top and it would be the first one you would take off. So when removing from a stack we can only remove the last item inserted. The main functions we associate with stacks is insertion and removal (adding to the top of the stack and removing from the top of the stack). Both of these in terms of Big O have a constant runtime (O(1)). It is possible to simply use an array and make it behave like a stack by only using the built-in array methods push and pop.
Queues
Photo by Melanie Pongratz on Unsplash
A queue in a way is almost the opposite of a stack in that its main property is FIFO which is First In First Out. Again looking at the above picture when you ‘queue’ up to get in somewhere the first person in line is the first person to get in or off the line. Similarly to stacks, the functions of a queue are mainly insertion and removal (enqueue and dequeue) and like stacks have Constant runtime. We can’t make an array behave like a queue however because we would have to use either shift or unshift and that wouldn't give us constant time. For a queue, we would have to build out the data structure.
More on both
Stacks and queues aren’t very complex data structures as you can see they are restricted by rules for adding to and removing from them. They work very efficiently in this though with constant runtime. Therefore are useful if you need a data structure that is good in that aspect and follows the FIFO or LIFO order. Searching or gaining access to a particular node is O(n) because there's no order or simpler way of doing this. Furthermore, just simply based on the rules we can’t insert a node at just any point for queues nodes always goto the end and for stacks nodes always go to the top. Likewise for removing nodes. | https://medium.com/@rmcclorey1/stacks-queues-data-structures-861dff337944 | ['Ronan Mcclorey'] | 2020-12-27 01:29:46.323000+00:00 | ['Stacks', 'Queues', 'Data Structures', 'Computer Science'] |
It’s 2019 again… | The TV is still on. But you’re not watching anymore. What if this crazy text was true? What if you had indeed one year to prepare yourself for this dreaded, lonely period of lockdown?
“I should travel. I should go to as many places as possible,” is the first thing that pops into your mind. But, the voice of reason stops you quickly before you book any plane tickets.
“Perhaps it’s more sensible to save some money now. Or even better, start looking for a new job in a different industry.” The restaurant where you used to work shut down when the pandemic started, leaving you unemployed for months. Luckily, you were recently rehired as they launched a new food delivery service and now you work from home trying to coordinate all the e-orders.
“But why think so small?” you wonder. The message said that you have a unique opportunity and you need to take advantage of that. Perhaps you can invest in Zoom or Dettol. “Everyone will applaud my gut!” For the first time since you woke up, a smile shows on your face.
It doesn’t last for too long, though. Your mind now goes to your family and all the people you haven’t seen for almost a year now because they have to be extra careful with their health. “How nice would it be to host a huge party, where we’ll dance all day, and laugh, and hug each other tightly?”
There are so many people you’ve missed. During all these months, the only people you see are your neighbors, Jane and Bill. “Perhaps I could try and get to know them better.” This way, you won’t have to watch Netflix all alone during the lockdown. “We can have movie nights or game nights, it’ll be fun.”
“Unless… Unless I move to my parent’s house. Or move in with a friend. Or, my boyfriend.” Your ex boyfriend actually. Living in different cities, and neither of you being a fan of Zoom dates, your relationship didn’t last more than two months in quarantine.
Oh, the things that could be different if you knew sooner… But you know now. Do you really have a chance to make your life a bit better?
You’re thinking of buying new loungewear on sale. Or, maybe redesign your home and add a desk and a nice office chair. How about home gym equipment or a home cinema set? You’re not going to stock your basement with toilet paper, but perhaps you can buy a thing or two, or twenty, to avoid the panicked crowds later.
Your headache is getting worse. It’s not the hangover to blame anymore, though. All the possibilities, all the things that you can do, are running through your mind.
But you know exactly what you want to do. Your phone is now charged. You grab it and dial a number. “Hey, want to go for a coffee?” | https://medium.com/@christina-pavlou/its-2019-again-2e2108647818 | ['Christina Pavlou'] | 2020-12-22 14:32:13.615000+00:00 | ['New Year', 'Covid 19', 'New Year Resolution', 'Fiction', 'Fairy Tale'] |
How I Got Guys to Apologize for Their Unsolicited Dick Pics | How I Got Guys to Apologize for Their Unsolicited Dick Pics
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Iwas at the beach, drifting in a wide pink hammock when I received a text message. It was from him. A picture. His dick. His name is N. He’s older than me by a couple of years. I met him almost a year ago, and since then, we’ve been fuckbodies — Uh, I hate that word.
Twice a month, we meet at his place for you-know-what. We have some small talk, previous to fucking because otherwise, it would be like admitting we are a couple of horny mammals that want to throw on top of each other. And of obviously, we are not like that.
N. has a weird and crooked logic that justifies him being unkind to me. He believes being uncaring will prevent me from getting a crush on him. And although it has worked, it has also hurt me.
Days before the dick pic, he texted saying I was such a nice girl and such blablabla, which sent me throwing up to the sea because, although it was what I had been longing to hear, or in this case, read, I still felt there was something not quite honest deep down.
I replied naively: “You are so nice as well” and more blablabla. I felt appreciated, at least from afar. But then, silence. Two blue checks next to my words.
And then the picture. | https://medium.com/some-fears/how-i-got-guys-to-apologize-for-their-unsolicited-dick-pics-582c681425fd | ['Mia Fornes'] | 2020-12-23 20:25:05.945000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Relationships', 'Tinder', 'Dating', 'Men'] |
News Corp launches Amplify educational unit, with help from AT&T (video) — Engadget | News Corp launches Amplify educational unit, with help from AT&T | https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/news-corp-launches-amplify-educational-unit-with-help-from-at-t-video-engadget-74cc35c0ccfa | ['Ipg Media Lab'] | 2017-07-06 22:17:23.243000+00:00 | ['Tablet', 'News Corp', 'Education', 'ATT'] |
How I learned Swedish and prepared (cram) for my Swedish Yki test (P1) | How I learned Swedish and prepared (cram) for my Swedish Yki test (P1) Linh Nguyen Jun 8·5 min read
Hi, so if you are here, you are probably interested in either studying Swedish language or the Swedish Yki exam, or you might just be curious. Regardless of your motivation, I would want to share with you my journey to pass the Swedish Intermediate level after studying very hard for 3.5 months.
Before starting the post, I just wanna introduce myself and my background a bit (you can skip if you are only interested in the Swedish part). I have been learning in Finland for 5 years, and I was planning to apply for the Finnish Citizenship, therefore, I need to take the Yki test in either Finnish or Swedish. For the last few years, I have been always very busy with both studying my degree in Aalto University in Data Science, and working as Web developer, I did not make much progress with my Finnish studies, even when I genuinely enjoy learning languages. Then this summer, Corona comes as a curse, I was on temporary lay-off for 2 months. However, the silver lining is I suddenly have more free time than I have possibly had in last 5 years. Thus, I took on two summer projects: my bachelor thesis, and the Swedish Yki test. I did not know much Swedish before May, 2020, I took a beginner course at the University almost 2 years ago, and did not study much.
Ok, enough of my rambling, back to Swedish.
Self-studies vs taking courses:
This is completely up to your preference, I think you can definitely do it without taking courses. However, taking courses might speed up the process a bit, because the teacher will help you picking studies material, correcting when you are wrong, and structure your curriculum. During the summer, I took a few different courses, including:
Swedish intensive online course (C & D) from Esbo Arbis: Each course takes one week, 5 days per week, 6hs per day, cover from chapter 10 to 20 of the RivStart A1 A2 textbook. I studied chap 1–10 on my own. It was very intense, but on the bright side, very cheap, only a bit more than 50euros per course. You can find it from https://ilmonet.fi/ if you live in Finland.
Private Tutor from Preply: This is a bit more expensive, but you can also optimise for the price that you can afford on their website, I took class 3 times per week for almost 2 months, each session is 90 mins. I made a lot of progress because the tutor was correcting me all the time lol. However, this can be more exhausting than you think, so maybe don’t take super long session :D Your productivity will diminish after a while. Books:
I think studies material aka textbooks and work books are very helpful and important resources in language learning. Obviously, you can learn from other sources, but textbook helps give the structure, and ton of practise, which will help speed up your learning significantly. I used mostly the Rivstart series for my Swedish studies. It is a very popular book that you might be able to find from the library. For me, I ordered all my books from amazon, you can also order them from Adlibris if you leave in Finland, or Sweden. The textbook cover both grammar, and different skills practise. The plus side from these books are the content are very engaging, you would get to read about Swedish culture, geography, political system etc through both short and long texts, which makes learning a lot more fun in my opinion. Moreover, you can access all the extra studies material such as audio files, solutions, transcripts for free from their website https://digital.nok.se/web/site-709522/state-jurdcojshercytzr/front-page .
The issue with Rivstart is the learning curve is very steep, it is usual that you would encounter almost 100 new vocabulary every chapter. Thus, I would highly recommend you study it with a teacher or tutor. Otherwise, it can be quite hard. Rivstart A1+ A2 Textbook: I studied most of this book, both self-studies and study with a group in an intensive course from Esbo Arbis.
Rivstart A1 + A2 Övningsbok: I selected exercises that cover new grammar structures, or any exercises that looks like a good revision, along with almost all the Repetera part after each chapter.
Rivstart B1+ B2 Textbook: I studied this textbook with my tutor, I was only in chapter 6 when I took the exam, I think you are supposed to study to chapter 9 if you wanna past B1, and to the end of the textbook to reach B2. However, I was still able to pass even when I was only in chapter 6, because I tried to engage with and study from Swedish content not only from the book but also from other sources such as children books and news.
Rivstart B1 + B2 Övningsbok: I have only finished 6 chapters in this book, but I think it is a really good practise.
Essentials of Swedish Grammar: I use this to look up grammar topic that I did not understand, it’s very understandable, and comes with a lot of examples. You can find them from Amazon.
Fun materials:
I believe that emerging yourself with fun, daily life content, really helps improving your Swedish, and make Swedish more like a “living” language for you.
Here are some fun stuff that you could try watching:
Amira är här: https://urplay.se/program/199769-amira-ar-har-med-stodord-folj-doften a very funny series of short videos about a girl named Amira, who is always late and talks about why she was late. Because it is designed for people adult learning Swedish, it uses easier language, with subtitle in many languages including both Swedish and English. Furthermore, it also highlight new words in big text when you encounter one.
The Swedish Family: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04lAYEYR4BiaJkbqArxmRA as the name, it’s a Swedish family channel, talking about their daily life, with subtitle in Swedish as well.
Orka plugga: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6MsEzsYtwJ7-iQMa5td-Q Educational channel about studies tips, motivation etc for Swedish pupils. Their newer videos often have Swedish subtitle. As this is aimed for Swedish youth, the language could be a bit harder that 2 previous sources, but it is helpful to try things above your level as well.
Ok, this post is a bit far longer than I expected. I will write more about my method to learn vocabulary and how did I prepare for the Yki test specifically in the Part 2 of the post.
Thank you for reading :D | https://medium.com/@rikid14/hi-so-if-you-are-here-you-are-probably-interested-in-either-studying-swedish-language-or-the-46cf00599e47 | ['Linh Nguyen'] | 2021-06-08 20:08:51.827000+00:00 | ['Swedish', 'Language Learning', 'Svenska', 'Yki', 'Learning Swedish'] |
OceanONE Beta Test Event! | Hey, dear MIXIN users, join this OceanONE Beta Test Event to win XIN token!
If any OceanONE user completes the registration and trades on OceanONE at least once from 13 Aug to 20 Aug, they will get 0.015 XIN as bonus. During such period, any of OceanONE users can report a bug or gives suggestion. We collect all these feedbacks and select the useful opinions, the winners divide equally 10 XIN token.
You can fill in the following forms to give us the feedback.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTwNZxL9mFu3j07DGHZ_QybjFuchZz7wSvCezN7C6iZzg5Gw/viewform
Or you can contact us directly on Twitter or Facebook :)
For fun, you can join the test group community to discuss with other passionate users on the Mixin Messenger (https://mixin.one/codes/6de2b2b8-adc9-477e-bb0a-e6727c1555cd),
Note:
If you have Mixin Messenger Installed on your phone, you can just scan the QR Code with in app camera and you will be redirected to the OceanOne Beta Test 2 group chat If you do not have Mixin Messenger in your phone first you have to start by Downloading Mixin Messenger, Register and then scan the QR Code to be redirected to the OceanOne Beta Test 2 group chat.
You can refer to the following videos on how to register and use the Mixin Messenger app:
Iphone : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHFg_i_Crbo&feature=youtu.be
Android : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGk5ZBJxb6s&feature=youtu.be
Good Luck :) | https://medium.com/mixinnetwork/oceanone-beta-test-event-aefaf17694e2 | ['Yasmine Moustatia'] | 2018-08-13 11:53:54.335000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum'] |
Meetup And Learn, Debunking the QA KPI Myths And Make KPI Great Again — Tentamen Software Testing Blog | TL;DR
In the previous post, we gave a report on the Observability for Performance Testers by Mark Tomlinson. Today we present Lisette Zounon, Debunking the QA KPI Myths and making KPI great again. How observability IS different from monitoring. When it comes to software quality, KPI metrics can become a myth. Lisette will try to debunk that myth.
Takeaways
When it comes to software quality, KPI metrics can become a myth. Sometimes it works, sometimes you miss it. Attendees in this session will take away: Determine the purpose of the QA KPI for your needs. Adapt the KPI Metrics to your organization’s culture. Practical QA KPI metrics that bring value to everyone in the organization for the project’s health and the team’s health. Determine QA KPI Metrics for QA team only Define QA KPI metrics for your product quality health.
Define KPI
It all starts with defining the KPI for your organization. Lisette started the story on how to do that.
What Is Your Role
Lisette started making her’s presentation fascinating from the beginning by requesting feedback from the audience. How to get audience involvement in the remote presentation? With menti.com. You get a number that is related to the current question. On menti.com, you enter that number and your question. The facilitator can watch all the answers on a dedicated panel page. Simple as that. Our first question was, What Is Your Role? You can see some of the answers in the above screenshot. Most of the audience was from QA.
Audience KPI’s
What do we measure in our organizations:
KPI Myths
Here are some of the audience KPI myths in Menti.com:
How To Start With KPI
First, try with a KPI Demo for the organization. Start with the Why? Why we want this particular KPI? The second ingredient is the KPI audience; who is interested in this KPI, team member, manager, or team leader? Team culture is critical in creating KPI.
QA KPI
KPI is a team activity. Start with the QA Score Card:
Based on that team QA Score Card you can pick one Demo KPI. Create for that KPI a Dashboard because that would increase KPI team visibility. When you set proper QA KPI in your organization, you will get the following team benefit:
Benefit team engagement strive to common goal
Q&A
Here are some of the audience questions. KPI visibility includes easy accessibility. You do not need special system privileges to get the KPI. A list of No Go and backfire KPI should be established by the team. Those KPI could cause more damage than benefit. Rejected bugs are valuable KPI. And do not link KPI value with the specific person! This is the mother of all backfires KPI’s!
Testivator Session Score
For this session, I was using the Testivator Mobile application. I took 26 notes and 5 screenshots.
Here are note types by duration. Till the end is 2.7 %, and it is the ratio of duration from last note to session end and session duration. | https://medium.com/@tentamen/meetup-and-learn-debunking-the-qa-kpi-myths-and-make-kpi-great-again-tentamen-software-testing-ec32ac6aa3ce | ['Karlo Smid'] | 2020-12-12 08:16:42.503000+00:00 | ['Software Testing'] |
The agency/consultancy paradox | It has been in the air for years now, agencies (Advertising, PR, DM, Social, etc.) are living below the circling vultures of imminent failure. Acquisition, consolidation, in-housing, and head-hunting of talent is an everyday occurrence while tech innovations hammer media rates every time a contract comes up for review.
Today, consultancies are owners of a multitude of these agencies, to many that is a death nell, and for the acquired… a time of alienation. Consultancies are not made of the stuff agencies are, but from outside appearances there is enough to graft the two together and make some money, so it happened in a big way. In 2017 alone the consultancy industry spent over 1.2 billion on M&A and since 2015 Accenture Interactive has acquired 32 agencies.
Yet there is a notable dissonance between these kinds of businesses. Though some pundits think it’s the end of an advertising industry that wouldn’t evolve, its clear agencies won’t completely die. It’s also true that consultancies are very big and won’t adapt to become agencies in the end.
The unnaturalness of all this is an archetype of paradox and will likely plague the communications and technology industries for decades …and clients.
Is an agency, overseen by a consultancy …still an agency?
Is a consultancy, staffed with agency people …less of a consultancy?
Let’s take a look at the differences and similarities for a start.
Agencies, on the whole, are a regular shot of good news for clients. Their operating mode is CREATIVITY that is manifest in an ability to tell a great story and communicate value of their offering to the clients’ customers. And every day or week that comes, agencies are looking for a new assignment to produce great work that does just that.
When it comes to technology, with agencies it’s relatively the same model. Their ‘can-do’ approach is what makes them invent and push for ideas that may not have a long shelf life, but can communicate powerful relevant ideas to the consumer or target audience.
The foundation of this successful agency model is built on the media spend. Exploited in the 1950’s the percentage of fee for managing it fueled fantastic, iconic advertising and protected some agencies from folding in creative failure. Every day hundreds of millions of dollars are managed quietly behind the flash and celebrity of the creative work.
Photo by Tamara Gak on Unsplash
Consultancies are in the business of bringing good news to clients too, but they weren’t brought in to brighten a day or create new ways of being compelling to their clients’ customers. They bring COMPETENCIES that are in place to fix, remove, replace, reinvent or move something forward that the client cannot do themselves. Confidence in the consultancy is manifest as strategy and competency.
Creativity? Well for one, consultancies are engrained in a corporate enterprise mentality …some were originally accounting firms. They only see beyond the constraints of the systems they are implementing and stop at their own constraints. This, supported by business acumen and long history of corporate strategy fulfills the consultancy’s surrogate role. To some, ‘rent-a-corp’.
It’s a capitalists fantasy. With a goal of total account and revenue dominance, and tentacles stretching into other departments and affiliated opportunities. The multi-headed beast of consultancies are there to devour as much client budget as possible. To them, agency work is an add-on service that will have to go without the buffer that a media planning and buying revenue can support.
What this illustrates is that the primary dynamic between the two is how people are incentivized.
Agencies deliver ideas, confidence, and communication. They service their client and collaborate internally or with partners to create the best work. If successful, they win cool awards and those awards lead to more work from more clients. And the award parties are epic!
An agency understands that a good user experience is a fantastic opportunity for a brand. In contrast, consultancies see user experience as a billable role and a level of guarantee that the largest of technology projects won’t fail.
Consultancies deliver strategies and mostly ‘out-of-the-box’ executions. They advise their client on how to spend their money, do a lot of complex work clients can’t or wouldn’t do themselves and compete to find more ways to keep billing them. In the consultancy world there are no shiny awards, or fancy conferences in exotic locations.
Agencies, through ideas, collaborate to meet exceptional goals as a team. Consultancies fix exceptionally complex problems and compete to stay billable.
The unspoken truths in these observations are illustrated in how companies collaborate and compete with each other. Agencies are collegiate, looking, as a team, to beat other agencies with better ideas and execution. From great work, awards and more revenue will come. For consultancies, they fight to win a client on their competency, certifications, and brand. They collaborate to win paid hours of work. This is where the cage match begins and there are no awards in the end, no shared goal. Just deliver and find more billable hours where you can.
This answers, in part, what the paradox asks. Each player loses a bit of their identity when they combine, but the one with the right incentives and culture creates a firmament for positive changes and exceptional outcomes. Agency people get that, consultancies don’t agree with that in practice, and with the flurry of acquisitions, they call the shots.
Telling the stories of clients, talent, technology and new operating models is a long journey, which I endeavor to do. First, we need to acknowledge the primary paradox; that a massive integration of services may not be a remedy unless we get the fundamentals of culture, creativity and competency right. | https://uxdesign.cc/the-agency-consultancy-paradox-7c6a92789ab5 | ['Dorian Sweet'] | 2020-12-18 00:33:18.909000+00:00 | ['Agency', 'Design', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Consultancy'] |
How are you? | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/how-are-you-a4b74c8fea9e | ['Tien Skye'] | 2020-11-16 11:07:09.923000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Social Norms', 'Life', 'A Cornered Gurl', 'Poetry'] |
Rapid international expansion for Nauticus Blockchain | The rapid international expansion of Nauticus Blockchain has gathered pace with a new office in Shanghai, a new representative in Taiwan and a signed agreement with Token News in Hong Kong for promotion throughout Asia.
The Shanghai office will focus on eCommerce, strategic alliances and assisting Chinese blockchain projects to list on Nauticus Exchange.
Nauticus has also signed a preliminary agreement with Token News in Hong Kong to market and promote the project in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Token News has been involved in numerous successful projects and is very connected in the blockchain community.
Nauticus has also entered a partnership with a top Taiwanese blockchain expert to promote the project in the province.
“These announcements are only the start of Asian expansion and we will be doing more in other markets within the next few months,” said CEO Bryan Ng, adding the focus was now turning to Europe.
“We are forming partnerships and alliances to help provide a localised service, region by region, country by country. No other exchange is doing this.
“I believe in my team and I’m 100% confident we will conquer the worldwide exchange market and be listed as one of the top exchanges on CoinMarketCap.”
COO Jonathan Chang is currently in London meeting with fund managers and potential partners at events including the Blockchain Alternative Investment Conference.
Nauticus is in the final month of its ICO, having already signed up almost half a million registered users and raising more than $16 million USD ($21.5 million AUD). That’s more than Binance raised during its successful ICO last year.
Previously announced international alliances include blockchain-based Chinese eCommerce platform Jufuchain/Badou Mall, along with Galaxy eSolutions — an eCommerce platform in Hong Kong. Nauticus has also engaged a large Chinese manufacturer to conduct research and development to improve the efficiency of energy intensive blockchain mining machines.
Buy NTS now or read our White Paper. | https://medium.com/nauticus-blockchain/rapid-international-expansion-for-nauticus-blockchain-fc262f5c5f78 | ['Nauticus Blockchain'] | 2018-06-21 11:55:17.391000+00:00 | ['Nauticus', 'Nts', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
We’re All In This Together? | We’re All In This Together?
No. Clearly we’re not.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A proclamation by the pigs who control the government in the novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell.
It was only back in February that home secretary for the UK, Priti Patel labelled any person earning less than £25,000 a year a “low skilled” or “unskilled” worker. Now, amid the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, it is those workers who’re helping to prop up the country in lockdown.
Coronavirus is not some grand leveller: it is an amplifier of existing inequalities, injustices and insecurities.
The trite slogan ‘We’re All In This Together’ is simply bollocks. There’s no equality on display. The virus isn’t some grand leveler affecting everybody in society in the same way. In case you haven’t heard, old people are more susceptible than young. The weak are more likely to be infected. And those on the low-end of the poor scale, the social-economically deprived people feeding the trough of the rich, are even more likely to be exposed to the virus.
Are the super-rich, holed up in their bunker, really in it together? Is Gwyneth Paltrow really concerned for my well-being as her in-house chef whips up another batch of smashed avocado smoothie?
It’s time to debunk the myth.
‘Be Kind’ is what the governments are preaching. They need the populace to stay calm. They need the ‘workers’ now to be in the front-line in order to protect the system. They need you now more than ever.
Boris Johnson lavishes praise on a Kiwi worker. A woman who stayed by his bed all night long ensuring he didn’t succumb to the virus. By her side was a Portugese health worker. Two vital women that helps the National Health Service to tick over. The irony here being that both would have difficulty getting visas in the Uk’s Brexit future. Migrants help the system tick over.
Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock
The day Dominic Raab encouraged us all in the UK to clap for the workers who’re risking their lives to keep society going, the government restated that some of those same people won’t be allowed in the country come January 2021.
“Low-skilled” people would not be able to apply for a UK work visa.
In It Together until you’re no longer useful or needed. Who’ll take their place? Who among the wealthy are willing to step into their shoes? What will become of the the migrant care workers, hospital porters, bus drivers and cleaners who are keeping us safe and keeping society functioning.
Are the cleaners essential during a pandemic but non-essential when the pandemic clears? If recognising our common humanity is something we can do when Boris Johnson is admitted to intensive care, the same should be possible for all people, regardless of their immigration status. All migrants’ rights should matter. Not just in a crisis, but all the time. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/were-all-in-this-together-29ec713c7c69 | ['Reuben Salsa'] | 2020-04-13 22:59:44.711000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Salsa', 'Equality', 'Coronavirus', 'The Bad Influence'] |
Stop testing your app | For decades developers and QA engineers are testing their applications using many different ways, for example, if it is a UI they check all the UI elements are visible, all the clickable elements are clickable or the text boxes are valid, etc… and if it is a backend they check whether the correct outputs are coming for a given set of inputs etc… This was the basic idea of testing but in the evolution of the changing tech and the complexity of applications does it enough to test your application by applying those methods. What happens if the program/application is changing constantly ? is it worth to do all the testing, again and again, going through the same process.
Problem is, it is time-consuming and can lead to errors. “because we all humans and we make mistakes”. As a solution developers start testing applications in units it is called Unit Testing.
How the unit test is done is, the developer starts writing test cases before start writing the actual code. At first, when you write the unit test it fails because the actual implementation is not done yet. At this point, the developer has to write every possible scenario that has to implement in the actual code and needs to have a clear idea of what is developing. Then the developer writes the code to pass the tests that wrote previously. In java, we can use the Junit framework to write unit tests. This method is called Test-Driven Architecture. Even it is a good way of testing the code does it enough?. And also developer has to have a clear idea about what he is developing otherwise the test will be written to the way that the developer wants and write the code according to that and pass the test. So still the actual requirement and the built application can be two different things even all the unit tests are passing. Another way of testing is Automation Testing.
In automation testing what happens is the test cases that manually executed by a Software developer or a QA engineer are automated. For example, if we are checking a certain error page is coming when inserting the wrong data. Manually we have to start the application, go to the page, insert and submit the data and verify. In automation testing, we can write these steps in a script and run it by a single click. One major advantage is we can run the script over and over again and if the requirements change we can alter the script easily. So even after we years developing the application we can run the automation suite and test the application easily. There are several tools that we can use to write Automation scripts. Selenium, TestNg, Cucumber are some of them.
How to create an automation project using Selenium
In this part, I will be guiding you to create a basic Automation project using java to test a simple website. Also, you will find how to write Automation in the Page object model.
We are writing simple automation to test the Wikipedia page
What is required
Java
IDE ( IntelliJ Idea, Eclipse, etc..)
Selenium web driver (https://www.seleniumhq.org/download/)
Web browser ( Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox )
Web browser driver uses to identify the browser.
Google Chrome driver — https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads
Firefox driver — https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver/releases
Basic knowledge of java programming
I’ll be using IntelliJ Idea (you can use any IDE that you’re comfortable with) and Google Chrome browser.
Step 1
Create a basic maven project and add
Junit dependency
<dependency> <groupId>junit</groupId> <artifactId>junit</artifactId> <version>4.11</version> </dependency>
Step 2
Extract all the downloaded zip file
Import selenium web driver
Import all the jar files from the extracted selenium web driver folder and the libs folder inside.
In IntelliJ Idea
go to file -> project structure and go to libraries and click the add button
In Eclipse
right-click the project -> go to properties -> java build path -> go to libraries tab -> Add External JARs
Importing selenium web driver jars
Importing libraries related to Selenium web driver
Step 3
Create a Java class name TestSimpleWebSite in the src folder
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver; import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver; import org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory; public class TestSimpleWebSite { private WebDriver webDriver; public WebDriver createWebDriver() { System.setProperty(“webdriver.chrome.driver”, “/Users/deelakaalgawatta/documents/chromedriver”); webDriver = new ChromeDriver(); PageFactory.initElements(webDriver, this); return webDriver; } public void closeWebDriver() { webDriver.close(); } }
What I have done here is I created a simple class to initialize the Selenium web driver
In CreateWebDriver method what I have done is I have set the path of the web browser driver downloaded, without the driver the test will not run.
“System.setProperty(“webdriver.chrome.driver”, “/Users/deelakaalgawatta/documents/chromedriver”);”
For chrome, the property should be webdriver.chrome.driver
For firefox, the property should be webdriver.gecko.driver
PageFactory.initElements(web driver, this) will initialize all the page elements so we can catch element in classes using @FindBy or webDriver.findElements
Step 4
In-Page object model basically what we do is we define the page separately
For example, we define all the elements and methods related to a certain page in a separate class and we invoke methods and get elements in test classes.
So For that, we have to create another class name WikipediaHomePage and add this
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver; import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement; import org.openqa.selenium.support.FindBy; public class WikipediaHomePage extends TestSimpleWebSite { protected WebDriver webDriver; @FindBy(id = “www-wikipedia-org”) private WebElement wikipediaLogo; @FindBy(id = “js-link-box-en”) public WebElement englishLanguage; public WikipediaHomePage() { webDriver = createWebDriver(); webDriver.get(“https://wikipedia.org"); } public boolean isWikipediaPageLoaded() { return wikipediaLogo.isDisplayed(); } public void selectLanguage() { englishLanguage.click(); } }
Here what I have done is created a simple class and extended the previously built class so we can initialize the WebDriver in the page class.
After that, I have defined the elements.
What are the elements?
Elements are the components that we see on a web site
For example, Headings, buttons, text boxes, images etc…
In Automation to write the tests, we need to catch those elements. To find an element we can use
@FindBy and WebDriver.FindElement/ WebDriver.FindElements
As above we can use @FindBy annotation and use
id to identify elements with id,
CSS to identify elements by CSS selector
className to identify elements by class name
Like the previous method, we can use WebDriver find element method to identify elements
WebDriver.FindElement/ WebDriver.FindElements
webDriver.findelement(By.id(“id name”)
webDriver.findelement(By.className(“class name”)
webDriver.findelement(By.cssSelector(“CSS selector”)
In the constructor, I have called the createWebDriver method in TestSimpleWebSite class and assign the initialized WebDriver to the web driver object and then call the get method in the WebDriver class to open up the browser and go to a specific URL.
isWikipediaPageLoaded( )
In this method, I have used the isDiplayed( ) method in the web driver to check whether the element is displayed.
In my have check whether the Wikipedia logo is displayed. If it displays it returns a boolean true value.
selectLanguage()
In this method I have written the code to click on an element using click() method. In this example, it clicks on the English language element
Step 5
Writing test cases
Create a test class in the test -> java folder
import org.junit.AfterClass; import org.junit.Assert; import org.junit.Test; public class TestWikipediaPage { private static WikipediaHomePage wikipediaHomePage = new WikipediaHomePage(); @AfterClass public static void tearDownClass() { wikipediaHomePage.closeWebDriver(); } @Test public void testWikipediaHome() { Assert.assertTrue(wikipediaHomePage.isWikipediaPageLoaded()); wikipediaHomePage.selectLanguage(); } }
Here I have written the test using Junit testing framework.
To load the Page I have initialized the Page class WikipediaHomePage to get all the page elements.
In testWikipediaHome test method what I have done is called the isWikipediaPageLoaded( ) in the WikipediaHomePage inside the Assert.assertTrue.
In Junit we can check value, equality, conditions.
assertTrue- check the condition whether it’s true/false if the condition is true yes pass and if the condition false test false.
assertFalse- check whether the condition is true/false if the condition is false the test pass and if the condition is true test fails.
assertEquals- check the equality of two values
After checking the page is loaded it calls the selectLanguage method in the WkipediaHomePage class.
After all the tests are completed it will run the @AfterClass method tearDownClass()
When we add @AfterClass the method will execute after all the other methods are executed.
So in this method, we can write the thing you want to do after everything completed.
Like closing a connection, closing a buffer stream, etc….
In this example, I have written the tearDownClass to close the webDriver so it will close all the open browsers in the test.
Likewise, you can use different types of methods to test web pages.
This is a simple article I wrote about setting up a Selenium automation project and testing as per my knowledge please do share and comment if there are any corrections/questions.
Git hub project link:- https://github.com/deelaka96/Sample-Selenium-Automation-Project
Thank You :) | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/stop-testing-your-app-d82a180fd3e2 | ['Deelaka Algawatta'] | 2020-02-11 09:26:38.931000+00:00 | ['Selenium', 'Automation', 'Quality Assurance', 'Java', 'Selenium Webdriver'] |
5000 Daily Leads Club|Full Review From An Actual User™ | What Will You Get When You Purchase This Software.
This software promised to deliver 5000 emails on a daily basis and 30 hot emails ready to buy and a free software to send all these emails from, well we all know that is just a marketing strategy.
After I bought the software I logged into the member area with my email and password, the interface was very user-friendly. It was really straight forward really just a few clicks and you're in.
Did they live up to all their promises?
The 5000 emails that they said you will be getting on a daily basis it turned out not to be so I have been getting 4000 as for the 30 hot leads they claim will be ready to buy any offers that you have. Yes! i have been getting the 30 leads with names daily except on Sundays which in my view isn’t bad.
The software that they promised that you will be getting to send all these emails did they fulfilled that yes they did provide a software. So for the most part they did deliver all that they said that you will be getting. Let me give you the Pros and Cons of this software.
Pros:
You are getting 4000+leads on a daily basis with the name yes the 4000 comes with the name if you are into email marketing everyone knows the power of having the customer name.I know they said 5000 but you don’t get that amount but 4000+ is good as gold.
You will get some EXTRA BONUS
This 100% free and funny page could bring you a lot of visitors to your website every single day with a single click!
Download lead formatting software — clean your list. so you only have the email addresses!
Get access to over 50 software and downloads you can use to market your business!
These are all the things that you will get when you purchase this software
Cons:
From the emails that you will be getting some will bounce even from the 30 hot leads.
The software they promised you they will provide to send all these emails doesn’t work.
Conclusion:
I rate this 7/10 if you use these emails effectively you can make a lot of money, as we all know building an email list takes a lot of time and this software gives you a really great start once utilized in the correct way. You will have to get a proper softer ware to send these emails and most of them comes at a cost like get response or even Mail Chimp just to name a few. So to get the most out of this you will have to get the right training on how to do email marketing Training, get the software to send all these check out this one Click here this is what I use. And you can be making recurring income each month from these emails.
So if you like you can pick up 5000 Daily Leads Club and begin your email journey. | https://medium.com/@brentreid23/5000-daily-leads-club-full-review-from-an-actual-user-62963f27dc8d | ['Brent Reid'] | 2021-01-09 20:33:57.433000+00:00 | ['Affiliate Marketing', '5000 Emails', 'Emails', 'Affiliate', 'Email Marketing'] |
If you want to be a writer, you have to write. | If you want to be a writer, you have to write.
Some advice to light a fire under your ass.
One of my freelance clients texted me to ask if a young woman he knows can “shadow” me. She is interested in being a writer when she gets older. My first thought: Why would anyone want to shadow a writer? Second: How do you shadow a writer and what could you possibly learn from it? Will she sit and watch as I agonize over how to begin a piece? And how would I actually be able to write anything with someone else watching my every move or interrupting me to ask questions?
The answer: I wouldn’t.
So, unless I sit there and communicate what is going through my head, every second, as the words hit the screen what would this young woman actually get out of this experience? Does she want to know about the voices in my head as I write; the ones who tell me I suck and question why I am even doing this in the first place? It is not as if I have an office that I go to every day either. I work from home in our multipurpose library/music room/guest bedroom/office. Most of my days are spent wearing athleisure and drinking copious amounts of coffee. There are always dishes piled in the sink and sometimes there are children in the next room watching SpongeBob at full volume. I might stop to eat something or fit in some exercise but there are days when I don’t even shower until three in the afternoon.
Every writer has their own routine, but if you want to be a writer, what can you actually learn by observing another writer at work? I don’t know about anyone else, but I prefer to write in solitude. If I were to sit and watched someone else write, I don’t know if I would learn very much about being a writer. As John Green said, “Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.” That’s me!
As a teacher of writing, I am perfectly able to articulate my writing process, and have, for the benefit of my writing students, but ultimately my best advice to my students is that they have to find their own process; they have to do what works for them. In my own experience, sitting around saying “Someday I want to be a writer,” but then not writing anything is counterproductive. Sit your butt down and put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Stop thinking about what it takes to be a successful writer and just write. I think as creative people we are afraid to say “I am a writer” or “I am an artist” until someone validates our talent. Writers as a whole are a self-deprecating bunch and for whatever reason, a lot of us don’t feel like we have earned the right to say “I am a writer” unless we are the next Hemingway. And, let’s face it, none of us are that.
Here are some routines of famous writers that I have begged, borrowed, and stolen from and incorporated into my own process:
Stephen King tries to get 6 pages a day written (pretty straightforward and simple and its good to have goals).
tries to get 6 pages a day written (pretty straightforward and simple and its good to have goals). Haruki Murakami gets up at 4 a.m. works for 5 or 6 hours, runs 7 miles in the afternoon, swims 1500 meters, reads, listens to music and then goes to bed at 9. He is essentially in training and he claims repetition is the key to making these habits stick. (Wow! I get up at 5 a.m. most days and go to the gym for an hour in the afternoon, but I am not that hardcore.)
gets up at 4 a.m. works for 5 or 6 hours, runs 7 miles in the afternoon, swims 1500 meters, reads, listens to music and then goes to bed at 9. He is essentially in training and he claims repetition is the key to making these habits stick. (Wow! I get up at 5 a.m. most days and go to the gym for an hour in the afternoon, but I am not that hardcore.) Susan Sontag would tell all her friends “Don’t call me in the morning.” (that is my rule too).
would tell all her friends “Don’t call me in the morning.” (that is my rule too). E.B. White could work fairly well among ordinary, everyday distractions. He said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” (I have 5 kids, ordinary, everyday distractions are my norm.)
could work fairly well among ordinary, everyday distractions. He said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” (I have 5 kids, ordinary, everyday distractions are my norm.) Ernest Hemingway believed in morning pages and that you should always stop for the day not when you have run out of things to say, but when you know what is going to happen next. He found it hard to wait until the next day to start writing again and could think of nothing else until he could sit down and get back at it. (Maybe that is why his first 3 marriages failed.)
believed in morning pages and that you should always stop for the day not when you have run out of things to say, but when you know what is going to happen next. He found it hard to wait until the next day to start writing again and could think of nothing else until he could sit down and get back at it. (Maybe that is why his first 3 marriages failed.) John Steinbeck felt that writers need to abandon the idea that they are ever going to finish. He said it is better to lose track of your progress and just write one page a day. Then when you are finished it will be a pleasant surprise. He would write freely and as rapidly as possible without editing. He believed that to rewrite in process enables writers to create an excuse for not going on because it interferes with the flow and rhythm and creates a disassociation from the material. (I kind of agree, but I can still rewrite in process sometimes without throwing in the towel.)
felt that writers need to abandon the idea that they are ever going to finish. He said it is better to lose track of your progress and just write one page a day. Then when you are finished it will be a pleasant surprise. He would write freely and as rapidly as possible without editing. He believed that to rewrite in process enables writers to create an excuse for not going on because it interferes with the flow and rhythm and creates a disassociation from the material. (I kind of agree, but I can still rewrite in process sometimes without throwing in the towel.) FINALLY, Bernard Malamud said “You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place — you suit yourself, your nature… eventually, everyone learns his or her own best way.” (AMEN!)
And that pretty much sums it up.
But here is one last bit of advice from my own experience. If you want to write, you HAVE to set your fears aside and write. But don’t just write, PUBLISH! Set up a blog, publish on Medium, write an article on LinkedIn and then push it out on your Facebook page, Instagram account, on a Pinterest board, Tweet it with the hashtag #amwriting.
Writing takes an insane amount of courage and not everyone is going to like what you have to say, So be it. Say it anyway! Take a deep breath and hit the publish or the post button. Wherever you can share your creation, share it, because that is the only way you will get better, and then you CAN, without any self-doubt say, “I am a writer.” | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/if-you-want-to-be-a-writer-you-have-to-write-31b8371f6bda | ['Kristina Martin'] | 2020-03-19 18:44:01.549000+00:00 | ['Change', 'Publishing', 'Writers On Writing', 'Creativity', 'Writing'] |
Are All The Places Actually Bright? | Few people know that I’ve struggled with anxiety for quite some time now, and I was told not to tell anyone unnecessarily because it might create more problems for me. Even fewer people know the extent to which I had fallen, I struggled with anxiety a lot over the past 3 years, especially losing control over the past 10 months. I got into a lot of fights and arguments with a lot of people due to my short-tempered nature and irritable personality and eventually, I fell into a pit of self-loathing. I started doubting my worth every morning, there were days when I randomly messaged a bunch of people and asked them to rate how much I irritated them, and sometimes asked if I meant something to them. Each and every action that I took started to give me doubts and I became more and more paranoid about the repercussions I would have to face. It was around this time that I was ostracized by my “closest friends” and mentally pressured into self-isolation, eventually discouraging me from writing, which led me to leave my “happy place” and the people that actually made me feel good about myself- the Magazine. It was around this time that I was facing some issues in my family which had led me to become distant from the two people I valued the most- my father and my sister. It’s funny how I used to think that my life sucked and that it couldn’t get any worse than it already had. Then I lost someone very special to me forever, and that worsened my anxiety a lot. I had basically no outlets to vent out and I had pretty much been keeping all of these thoughts to myself the entire time. That’s when it got to the darkest point- I had grown accustomed to panic attacks, and though they were very scary, I more or less knew that it was only a matter of time before it stopped, but then all of a sudden it didn’t stop within the usual time… they started getting worse, and that is when the thought of ending it all came into my mind. I used to think up scenarios where I wasn't a part of the picture anymore and how they would pan out, and I ultimately reached the point where I was content not being there. I tried to run away from home, but I never had the guts… I tried to eat a lot of pills, but I didn’t have the willpower… I tried to severe my nerves, but I couldn’t push the knife far enough… Then one day I was chatting with my friend at night playing a game, and within a blink of an eye, I was standing on the ledge of my roof, my eyes were closed and I had let go, at the last moment I regained control over my body, and somehow got off of there and went back down and had a very extreme panic attack, wherein I tried to hurt myself severely, and when my parents and my sister weren't able to calm me down, they had to call my cousin and my uncles to get me back to reality… this went on till about 4-5 in the morning… On another occasion, I was having a conversation with my mother and my body went numb and for about 1–1.5 hours I couldn’t even move my fingers… I was so scared and I thought that I had gone into a coma… little by little I had started to become scared of my own self. I began to think that my mind and my body were two different individuals, who were constantly bickering over who was in control. The worst part of this whole experience is that throughout the last part I was consulting a neuropsychiatric and a therapist… and though I was trying very hard to believe that they were helping me, and I had my father’s assurance that the psychiatrist was the best doctor in his opinion, I had very little faith in either of those things… though I was the one who had approached my father saying I wanted to treat my anxiety and though I had constant support from my family and friends I just didn't see myself getting better. So I revolted, I stopped taking the vast number of pills the psychiatrist had put me on; to put into context I was taking roughly 10 medicines a day to remain stable, which was also only effective 40% of the time, and just so I could avoid that doctor I even stopped going to therapy. Instead, I started exercising at the gym, singing whenever I started to feel anxious, and well… I started writing again, this was one of the main reasons I started this blog so that I had someplace that I could vent off to, someplace that was truly mine, and someplace that didn’t pressure me to do anything.
Sometimes it’s the actions of those you love and those who love you that compel you to make stupid decisions, like I started having more anxiety when everyone around me suddenly changed. I became everyone’s priority and everywhere I went I had a number of people telling me what to do and what not to do, though it was out of their love and concern for me, it had the complete opposite effect. I became more and more inclined towards lying about things that still bothered me, just so I could make things go back to the way they were. I’m not going to lie, it was painful watching as the same mouths that asked me how I was started calling me useless all of a sudden when my body didn’t respond the way it did when I was on my meds, or when I heard someone talking behind my back about the stuff I had done. But it was still better than having to depend on 5 pills just to get out of bed and do something productive. All I wanted was not to be treated specially but that backfired and actually triggered my anxiety even more, but I didn’t show it to anyone, I cried alone at night while everyone else was asleep, I lied to my friends and told them that I was okay, I lied to everyone and I kept on lying to myself in the hope that maybe if I repeated it enough, I would start believing it. I only had one promise, that I wouldn’t move backward, but I couldn't even keep that, I’m a failure in every sense. But the one thing I have overcome is my suicidal tendencies, and that is a fairly remarkable achievement in itself, for I don't have to rely on anyone else to make sure that I wasn’t going to something stupid that I might regret later on.
Watching this movie I found myself bawling my eyes out at every scene where I could relate to the story in one form or the other… and it was kind of difficult because I generally don’t cry watching movies, but recently I’ve felt this change while watching certain movies like All the Bright Places, Koe No Katachi, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower among others. But I’m not afraid to embrace these emotions as these allow me to let go of all the pent up emotional baggage that I was carrying with myself, and allowed me to shed this weight from my chest as well as give me the courage to speak up on these hard topics… because it certainly isn't easy to write such pieces… I’ve already taken four breaks in between just so I can clear out the constant stream of tears running out of my eyes.
I would like to conclude by saying that everyone should at least give this movie one shot, maybe it will help you get rid of the emotions that weigh you down, or maybe it will help you explore a side of you that you never knew existed. Anyways, this one has been another one of the life-changing movies for me, so I thought that I should share it with people, along with giving everyone a massive look into my life, because though I’ve been advised against sharing all of these things. I’m not ashamed of myself and if I can help someone else come out and connect with me or anyone else… if my example saves someone else’s life, or if it makes someone aware of a dormant vulnerability in themselves, then I’m content with my mistakes and I’m willing to help people get the same help I got and help them avoid the mistakes I made. | https://medium.com/@sarthakdevgun/are-all-the-places-actually-bright-1df71cf0a884 | ['Sarthak Devgun'] | 2021-02-01 20:03:46.424000+00:00 | ['Anxiety', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Suicide Awareness', 'Depression'] |
How we built a chat community for our users in 30 minutes | How we built a chat community for our users in 30 minutes
We wanted to increase user engagement by providing them a chat platform to ask, connect and share their experiences and interact with would-be-moms sharing a similar journey, make new friends and get expert advice. Being a startup with a small team, you can’t afford to do a lot of things at the same time, hence you always look out for hacks to validate your hypothesis before even building it.
WhatsApp has 1 Billion active users worldwide across 109 countries sending 42 Bn messages/day, 72% of whom are on Android. One of the recent features of WhatsApp allows an admin of a group invite someone just by sharing the link. You don’t need to add them to your contact book and then to a particular group. This made us thinking.
We wanted to provide a chat platform to our users and nothing could have been better than doing a proof-of-concept over WhatsApp.
This is how we did it in 30 minutes
Our users signup with their last period date to get relevant, verified information on a weekly basis about their pregnancy. We created 3 WhatsApp groups for three trimesters and provided a new option called Join Trimester Group in the left navigation menu.
2. On tap, we take our users to their respective trimester WhatsApp groups where they can either join or cancel. Depending on the what trimester the user falls in, the app changes the WhatsApp group invitation link on tapping Join Trimester Group.
That’s it! It just took us 30 minutes to get this feature done and roll it out to users to start getting data.
Numbers
We love numbers and measure every small thing we ship to our users. We pushed this release 3 weeks back on Google Play and this is what we see in Mixpanel so far. (and this is how our community traction looks like on Mixpanel)
No. of users tapping on this feature is increasing on a day-to-day basis
Learnings
New joinees wanted to view the chat history in that group so that they can view what questions have already been discussed. We found a workaround for this, but outside WhatsApp. As the users were redirected to WhatsApp, some users didn’t join the group. We had reached out to them and found out that they didn’t want their identity to being disclosed to a group of people they don’t know. Third, they didn’t know whether the group they were about to join was a public or closed community. No tutorials were required for our users to start interacting. Everyone knew how to use WhatsApp and its features for interacting in the groups.
Next steps
60% of the users who have updated to this latest version have tapped on Join Trimester Group, which proves our hypothesis of the need of such a community. We will wait for more data, before taking a final call of building it in-house. In order to increase the conversion rate from tap to join WhatsApp groups, we are showing a custom popup within our app mentioning that we are about to redirect them to WhatsApp and that the groups are a closed community of PregBuddy users, experts and doctors to help them out. This is how it looks:
Thanks to WhatsApp team for releasing this feature. For any queries/feedback, reach out to us at [email protected].
With love,
PregBuddy team | https://medium.com/@pregbuddy/how-we-built-a-chat-community-for-our-users-in-30-minutes-172c9d69e411 | [] | 2016-12-11 15:46:06.768000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'WhatsApp', 'Pregnancy', 'Startups', 'Lean Startup'] |
Enabling File Sync with Apple M1 | Enabling File Sync with Apple M1
Apple has just released three new Mac models with the M1 chip, ushering in a new chapter in high performance, efficient computing for the company. The M1 chips are supposedly so impressive that they’ve surprised even Apple themselves. They’re also selling like hotcakes, especially the MacBook Air version… it’s hard to find them in stock.
Apple MacBook Air with M1 Chip. Image Source: Apple Newsroom https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/
Future vs. Present
This is not Apple’s first rodeo, having changed architectures for Mac long ago from Motorola 68000 series architecture to PowerPC in 1994. Some may remember the switch from PowerPC to an Intel-based x86_64 instruction set which occurred in 2006. Each change was an expensive, monumental decision which pitted future vision and progress against the cost of upheaval for paying customers on the existing architecture.
These changes are fundamental in nature… similar to a car company moving from gasoline engines to electric; under the hood things are quite different. Because of that, assuming that existing software running against a new internal architecture will just continue to work may not be automatic.
The Rosetta Stone
Lost in Translation
Getting app support right — or at least mostly right — is required to pull off a revolution of this magnitude in today’s climate of high expectations. Normally, switching out the architecture requires applications to be fixed and recompiled to work against the new processor. Apple has invested heavily into making sure applications can transition onto the new architecture as painlessly as possible by creating Rosetta 2, a translation mechanism for apps that works during install time (and runtime if necessary).
The historic problem with translation facilities is that while most simple or general apps will work, sometimes complex apps that are deeply burrowed into the operating system may not. For example, early reports indicate that Google File Stream is not fully working yet due to their use of kernel extensions, which cannot be translated with Rosetta 2. Stay tuned until April for when Google will try to release a fix. Box Drive is also suffering from similar issues. Apple has also mentioned they will deprecate kernel extensions anyway, since their use doesn’t meet best practices for security and stability.
odrive Sync Works on M1
The odrive sync client, on the other hand, works with Rosetta 2 since odrive eschews the use of kernel extensions. So odrive is able to deliver the same end effect in a simpler way. You still have sync with placeholders, allowing you to see everything available in the cloud without taking up local disk space yet until you try to access the file. File content is only downloaded on demand. So you’re still able to save disk space and network bandwidth.
Now, an example of another technology decision is odrive’s use of Finder extensions. We use Finder extensions to present right-click context menu options and file badges to provide sync feedback. But Finder extensions are much more mainstream in their usage by apps to provide richer experiences within Finder itself. They don’t come with the same security and stability tradeoffs that kernel extensions have.
odrive uses Finder extensions for right-click menus and file badges to provide a rich, native desktop experience
In any case, surviving the revolution is sometimes a matter of luck for application developers. We’re largely at the mercy of Apple’s ability to make the transition smooth for us. But it is also good to know that careful decisions made in engineering and design to reduce technology risk while maximizing end-user value can pay off, too.
The Most Efficient Sync App on Your Mac for Any Cloud Storage
So, in conclusion, let’s take a minute to spell things out: if you bought a new Mac with M1 chip and are looking for something to sync your Box or Google Drive files with while they work towards a solution, consider odrive.
And if you’re interested in trying out the most efficient sync engine for your storage, give odrive a shot. You can use it with any storage, too. Why install multiple sync apps when you can have just one? Besides providing unified access and sync for your storage, you can also take advantage of other universal storage capabilities that odrive enables, including sharing, backup, zero-knowledge encryption, and more.
Thanks for tuning in! | https://medium.odrive.com/enabling-file-sync-with-apple-m1-819d17bf303f | ['Jeff Lin'] | 2021-03-09 18:56:03.282000+00:00 | ['Apple', 'Mac', 'Tech', 'Cloud Storage', 'Google Drive'] |
How to Add Graphs and Charts to a React App | How to Add Graphs and Charts to a React App
Building an app to display current and historical exchange rates
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Business apps often display graphs and charts. The hard work of React developers has resulted in graphing libraries that make it easy to meet the requirements for displaying graphs and charts in apps. One popular graph display library is Chart.js, which can used in any JavaScript application. For React apps, we can use react-chartjs-2 , a React wrapper for Chart.js, to easily add graphs and charts to our application.
In this piece, we will build an app to display current and historical exchange rates. The current exchange rates against the Euro will be displayed in a bar graph and historic rates will be displayed in line graphs. The data is obtained from the Foreign Exchange Rates API located at https://exchangeratesapi.io/. It’s free and does not require registration to use. It also supports cross-domain requests, so it can be used by web client-side apps.
To start we run Create React App to create the scaffolding code. Run npx create-react-app exchange-rate-app to create the app. Next, we need to install our libraries: run npm i axios bootstrap chart.js formik react-bootstrap react-chartjs-2 react-router-dom yup to install the libraries. Axios is our HTTP client for making requests to the Exchange Rates API. Bootstrap is for styling, React ChartJS is our graph library. React Router is for routing URLs to our pages. Formik and Yup are for handling form value changes and form validation, respectively.
Now we have all the libraries installed, we can start writing code. Code is located in the src folder unless otherwise stated. In App.js , we replace the existing code with this:
import React from "react";
import { Router, Route, Link } from "react-router-dom";
import HomePage from "./HomePage";
import { createBrowserHistory as createHistory } from "history";
import "./App.css";
import TopBar from "./TopBar";
import HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage from "./HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage";
import HistoricRatesPage from "./HistoricRatesPage";
const history = createHistory(); function App() {
window.Chart.defaults.global.defaultFontFamily = `
-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Roboto", "Oxygen",
"Ubuntu", "Cantarell", "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue",
sans-serif`; return (
<div className="App">
<Router history={history}>
<TopBar />
<Route path="/" exact component={HomePage} />
<Route path="/historicrates" exact component={HistoricRatesPage} />
<Route
path="/historicrates2currencies"
exact
component={HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage}
/>
</Router>
</div>
);
} export default App;
We defined the routes with React Router here since it’s the entry point of our app. We also set the font for the graph here, so it will now be applied everywhere.
In App.css , we replace the existing code with this:
.center {
text-align: center;
}
This centers the text in our app.
We add a file to add the list of currencies that we will use. Create a file called export.js and add this code:
export const CURRENCIES = [
"CAD",
"HKD",
"ISK",
"PHP",
"DKK",
"HUF",
"CZK",
"AUD",
"RON",
"SEK",
"IDR",
"INR",
"BRL",
"RUB",
"HRK",
"JPY",
"THB",
"CHF",
"SGD",
"PLN",
"BGN",
"TRY",
"CNY",
"NOK",
"NZD",
"ZAR",
"USD",
"MXN",
"ILS",
"GBP",
"KRW",
"MYR",
];
Now we can use this in our components.
Next, we create a page to display the historical exchange rates between two currencies. Create a file called HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage.js and add the following:
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { Formik } from "formik";
import Form from "react-bootstrap/Form";
import Col from "react-bootstrap/Col";
import Button from "react-bootstrap/Button";
import * as yup from "yup";
import {
getHistoricRates,
getHistoricRatesBetweenCurrencies,
} from "./requests";
import { Line } from "react-chartjs-2";
import { CURRENCIES } from "./exports"; const schema = yup.object({
startDate: yup
.string()
.required("Start date is required")
.matches(/([12]\d{3}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01]))/),
endDate: yup
.string()
.required("End date is required")
.matches(/([12]\d{3}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01]))/),
fromCurrency: yup.string().required("From currency is required"),
toCurrency: yup.string().required("To currency is required"),
}); function HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage() {
const [data, setData] = useState({}); const handleSubmit = async evt => {
const isValid = await schema.validate(evt);
if (!isValid) {
return;
}
const params = {
start_at: evt.startDate,
end_at: evt.endDate,
base: evt.fromCurrency,
symbols: evt.toCurrency,
};
const response = await getHistoricRatesBetweenCurrencies(params);
const rates = response.data.rates;
const lineGraphData = {
labels: Object.keys(rates),
datasets: [
{
data: Object.keys(rates).map(key => rates[key][evt.toCurrency]),
label: `${evt.fromCurrency} to ${evt.toCurrency}`,
borderColor: "#3e95cd",
fill: false,
},
],
};
setData(lineGraphData);
}; return (
<div className="historic-rates-page">
<h1 className="center">Historic Rates</h1>
<Formik validationSchema={schema} onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
{({
handleSubmit,
handleChange,
handleBlur,
values,
touched,
isInvalid,
errors,
}) => (
<Form noValidate onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
<Form.Row>
<Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="startDate">
<Form.Label>Start Date</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
type="text"
name="startDate"
placeholder="YYYY-MM-DD"
value={values.startDate || ""}
onChange={handleChange}
isInvalid={touched.startDate && errors.startDate}
/>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.startDate}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group> <Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="endDate">
<Form.Label>End Date</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
type="text"
name="endDate"
placeholder="YYYY-MM-DD"
value={values.endDate || ""}
onChange={handleChange}
isInvalid={touched.endDate && errors.endDate}
/>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.endDate}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group> <Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="fromCurrency">
<Form.Label>From Currency</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
as="select"
placeholder="From Currency"
name="fromCurrency"
onChange={handleChange}
value={values.fromCurrency || ""}
isInvalid={touched.fromCurrency && errors.fromCurrency}
>
<option>Select</option>
{CURRENCIES.filter(c => c != values.toCurrency).map(c => (
<option key={c} value={c}>
{c}
</option>
))}
</Form.Control>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.fromCurrency}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group> <Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="currency">
<Form.Label>To Currency</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
as="select"
placeholder="To Currency"
name="toCurrency"
onChange={handleChange}
value={values.toCurrency || ""}
isInvalid={touched.toCurrency && errors.toCurrency}
>
<option>Select</option>
{CURRENCIES.filter(c => c != values.fromCurrency).map(c => (
<option key={c} value={c}>
{c}
</option>
))}
</Form.Control>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.toCurrency}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group>
</Form.Row>
<Button type="submit" style={{ marginRight: "10px" }}>
Search
</Button>
</Form>
)}
</Formik>
<br />
<div style={{ height: "400px", width: "90vw", margin: "0 auto" }}>
<Line data={data} />
</div>
</div>
);
} export default HistoricRatesBetweenCurrenciesPage;
The page has a form to let users enter the date range for the historical rates they want and the currency that they are converting. Once the user enters the data, it’s validated against our form validation schema in the schema object, provided by the Yup library. We require the dates to be in YYYY-MM-DD format and all fields are required, so they’re checked against the schema for validity.
We filter out the currency that has been selected for the forCurrency from the choices of the toCurrency and vice versa so we won’t end up with the same currency for both dropdowns.
When the form submission is done we submit the data to the API and get the rates. We have to massage the data into a format that can be used by react-chartjs-2 , so we define the lineGraphData object with a datasets property to be an array of historical exchanges rates. label is the title of the line chart, borderColor is the border color of the line, and fill false means that we do not fill in the line with color. Once we set that with the setData(lineGraphData); function call, the graph is displayed.
Next, we create a page to search for historical exchange rates with the Euro as the base currency. To do this, we add a file called HistoricRatePage.js , and add this:
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { Formik } from "formik";
import Form from "react-bootstrap/Form";
import Col from "react-bootstrap/Col";
import Button from "react-bootstrap/Button";
import * as yup from "yup";
import "./HistoricRatesPage.css";
import { getHistoricRates } from "./requests";
import { Line } from "react-chartjs-2";
import { CURRENCIES } from "./exports"; const schema = yup.object({
startDate: yup
.string()
.required("Start date is required")
.matches(/([12]\d{3}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01]))/),
endDate: yup
.string()
.required("End date is required")
.matches(/([12]\d{3}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[12]\d|3[01]))/),
currency: yup.string().required("Currency is required"),
}); function HistoricRatesPage() {
const [data, setData] = useState({}); const handleSubmit = async evt => {
const isValid = await schema.validate(evt);
if (!isValid) {
return;
}
const params = {
start_at: evt.startDate,
end_at: evt.endDate,
};
const response = await getHistoricRates(params);
const rates = response.data.rates;
const lineGraphData = {
labels: Object.keys(rates),
datasets: [
{
data: Object.keys(rates).map(key => rates[key][evt.currency]),
label: `EUR to ${evt.currency}`,
borderColor: "#3e95cd",
fill: false,
},
],
};
setData(lineGraphData);
}; return (
<div className="historic-rates-page">
<h1 className="center">Historic Rates</h1>
<Formik validationSchema={schema} onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
{({
handleSubmit,
handleChange,
handleBlur,
values,
touched,
isInvalid,
errors,
}) => (
<Form noValidate onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
<Form.Row>
<Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="startDate">
<Form.Label>Start Date</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
type="text"
name="startDate"
placeholder="YYYY-MM-DD"
value={values.startDate || ""}
onChange={handleChange}
isInvalid={touched.startDate && errors.startDate}
/>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.startDate}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group> <Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="endDate">
<Form.Label>End Date</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
type="text"
name="endDate"
placeholder="YYYY-MM-DD"
value={values.endDate || ""}
onChange={handleChange}
isInvalid={touched.endDate && errors.endDate}
/>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.endDate}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group> <Form.Group as={Col} md="12" controlId="currency">
<Form.Label>Currency</Form.Label>
<Form.Control
as="select"
placeholder="Currency"
name="currency"
onChange={handleChange}
value={values.currency || ""}
isInvalid={touched.currency && errors.currency}
>
<option>Select</option>
{CURRENCIES.map(c => (
<option key={c} value={c}>
{c}
</option>
))}
</Form.Control>
<Form.Control.Feedback type="invalid">
{errors.country}
</Form.Control.Feedback>
</Form.Group>
</Form.Row>
<Button type="submit" style={{ marginRight: "10px" }}>
Search
</Button>
</Form>
)}
</Formik>
<br />
<div style={{ height: "400px", width: "90vw", margin: "0 auto" }}>
<Line data={data} />
</div>
</div>
);
} export default HistoricRatesPage;
It’s similar to the previous page, except that we only choose the currency to convert to to display since the currency to convert from is always Euro. Once again we have a lineGraphData , with the datasets being an array and within it, data is an array of historical exchange rates. label is the title of the chart. borderColor and fill are the same as the previous graph.
Both forms are created by React Bootstrap form components. The Form components correspond to the regular Bootstrap 4 components.
Then we create HistoricalRatesPage.css and put the following:
.historic-rates-page {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 90vw;
}
This adds some margins to our page.
Next, we create our home page. Create a file called HomePage.js and add the following:
import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import Card from "react-bootstrap/Card";
import { getExchangeRate } from "./requests";
import "./HomePage.css";
import { Bar } from "react-chartjs-2"; function HomePage() {
const [rates, setRates] = useState({});
const [initialized, setInitialized] = useState(false);
const [date, setDate] = useState("");
const [base, setBase] = useState("");
const [chartData, setChartData] = useState({}); const getRates = async () => {
const response = await getExchangeRate();
const { base, date, rates } = response.data;
setRates(rates);
setDate(date);
setBase(base);
const filteredRates = Object.keys(rates).filter(key => rates[key] < 50);
const data = {
labels: filteredRates,
datasets: [
{
backgroundColor: "green",
data: filteredRates.map(key => rates[key]),
},
],
};
setChartData(data);
setInitialized(true);
}; useEffect(() => {
if (!initialized) {
getRates();
}
});
const options = {
maintainAspectRatio: false,
legend: { display: false },
scales: {
yAxes: [{ ticks: { beginAtZero: true } }],
},
title: {
display: true,
text: "EUR Exchanges Rates",
},
}; return (
<div className="home-page">
<h1 className="center">Rates as of {date}</h1>
<br />
<div style={{ height: "400px", width: "90vw", margin: "0 auto" }}>
<Bar data={chartData} options={options} />
</div>
<br />
{Object.keys(rates).map(key => {
return (
<Card style={{ width: "90vw", margin: "0 auto" }}>
<Card.Body>
<Card.Title>
{base} : {key}
</Card.Title>
<Card.Text>{rates[key]}</Card.Text>
</Card.Body>
</Card>
);
})}
</div>
);
} export default HomePage;
In this page, we display the list of current exchange rates from the API. We make a data object, with the currency symbols as the labels , and we also have a datasets property — an array of objects with data in the object being the current exchange rates. Also, we display the exchange rates in Bootstrap cards, provided by React Boostrap.
For styling this page, we create HomePage.css and add the following:
.home-page {
margin: 0 auto;
}
This gives us some margins on our page.
Next, we create a file to let us make the requests to the Foreign Exchange Rates API. Create a file called requests.js and add the following:
const axios = require("axios");
const querystring = require("querystring"); const APIURL = " https://api.exchangeratesapi.io ";const axios = require("axios");const querystring = require("querystring"); export const getExchangeRate = () => {
return axios.get(`${APIURL}/latest`);
}; export const getRateBetweenCurrencies = data =>
axios.get(`${APIURL}/history?${querystring.encode(data)}`); export const getHistoricRates = data =>
axios.get(`${APIURL}/history?${querystring.encode(data)}`); export const getHistoricRatesBetweenCurrencies = data =>
axios.get(`${APIURL}/history?${querystring.encode(data)}`);
This will get the exchange rates the way we want them, with requests to get the latest rates and historical rates, with or without specifying currency symbols for the base currency and currency to convert to.
Next, we create the top bar. Create a file called TopBar.js and add the following code:
import React from "react";
import Navbar from "react-bootstrap/Navbar";
import Nav from "react-bootstrap/Nav";
import { withRouter } from "react-router-dom"; function TopBar({ location }) {
const { pathname } = location; return (
<Navbar bg="primary" expand="lg" variant="dark">
<Navbar.Brand href="#home">Currenc Converter App</Navbar.Brand>
<Navbar.Toggle aria-controls="basic-navbar-nav" />
<Navbar.Collapse id="basic-navbar-nav">
<Nav className="mr-auto">
<Nav.Link href="/" active={pathname == "/"}>
Home
</Nav.Link>
<Nav.Link
href="/historicrates"
active={pathname.includes("/historicrates")}
>
Historic Rates
</Nav.Link>
<Nav.Link
href="/historicrates2currencies"
active={pathname.includes("/historicrates2currencies")}
>
Historic Rates Between 2 Currencies
</Nav.Link>
</Nav>
</Navbar.Collapse>
</Navbar>
);
} export default withRouter(TopBar);
This adds the navigation bar provided by Bootstrap to our pages and a link to the pages we created before. It also adds highlights for the link on the currently opened page. We wrap the component with the withRouter function, so we can get the currently opened route to let us highlight the links.
Finally, we replace the code in index.html with this:
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/favicon.ico" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<meta name="theme-color" content="#000000" />
<meta
name="description"
content="Web site created using create-react-app"
/>
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="logo192.png" />
<!--
manifest.json provides metadata used when your web app is installed on a
user's mobile device or desktop. See
-->
<link rel="manifest" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/manifest.json" />
<!--
Notice the use of %PUBLIC_URL% in the tags above.
It will be replaced with the URL of the `public` folder during the build.
Only files inside the `public` folder can be referenced from the HTML.
work correctly both with client-side routing and a non-root public URL.
Learn how to configure a non-root public URL by running `npm run build`.
-->
<title>React Currency App</title>
<link
rel="stylesheet"
href="
integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T"
crossorigin="anonymous"
/>
</head>
<body>
<noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
<div id="root"></div>
<!--
This HTML file is a template.
If you open it directly in the browser, you will see an empty page. Unlike "/favicon.ico" or "favicon.ico", "%PUBLIC_URL%/favicon.ico" willwork correctly both with client-side routing and a non-root public URL.Learn how to configure a non-root public URL by running `npm run build`.--> React Currency App https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/css/bootstrap.min.css integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T"crossorigin="anonymous"/> You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. You can add webfonts, meta tags, or analytics to this file.
The build step will place the bundled scripts into the <body> tag. To begin the development, run `npm start` or `yarn start`.
To create a production bundle, use `npm run build` or `yarn build`.
-->
</body>
</html>
This is so we get some Bootstrap styles and can change the title of the app. We replaced the title tag with our own and add the following between the head tags:
Source code: https://bitbucket.org/hauyeung/react-chart-tutorial-app/src/master/ | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-add-graphs-and-charts-to-a-react-app-339ed2dc4c05 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2019-09-19 17:19:37.773000+00:00 | ['Charts', 'Graph', 'Programming', 'React', 'JavaScript'] |
Why Ethereum will continue to remain the home for NFTs (that matter) | This article attempts to broadly outline some of the arguments for why Ethereum will continue to dominate as the most important blockchain for people to own, acquire, sell, trade, display and build with NFTs (that matter). Each topic can easily be its own deeper article, but the goal here is to introduce some of the ideas and push the conversation along.
A deep ongoing discussion already exists around whether Ethereum will continue to be the dominant smart contract blockchain in general. There are many articles around this topic, so I won’t go into details here. I will focus specifically on the far less discussed vertical specific to non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, within the greater blockchain ecosystem.
As we all know, Ethereum has issues (block size limits, high gas, expensive transaction fees, slow confirmations, semi-centralized points of failure around tools, etc… the list goes on) yet it has been and continues to be the most important blockchain in the world besides maybe Bitcoin (some would say it’s even more important — but not a topic for this article!).
The NFT World… so far
The NFT world currently revolves around Ethereum. It’s where NFTs started, it’s where most people have acquired their first NFT, it’s where most of the sales are happening, and it’s where the biggest NFT creators and collectors are. At this stage, it’s currently the only chain on which most people would hold highly valuable NFT collections.
Recently, we have seen interest around NFTs spread and pick up steam, which is not surprising to those of us who have been deeply focused on NFTs for a few years now.
Below, I break down the arguments into sections, but you will see that some sections blend into other sections, which I find to be a strong characteristic in this space.
Ethereum has a huge head start
Nothing new, but this advantage is a big benefit. The head start and community around Ethereum (compared to other smart contract blockchains) is often discussed when comparing blockchains in general, but this is also relevant when it comes to NFTs. The developers, the tooling, the history, the platforms, the wallets, the familiarity — all these things matter when people are interacting with NFTs.
The Ethereum brand is super valuable. As the NFT space grows and newcomers enter, whether that is creators, builders, artists, collectors, or businesses, they will first come to Ethereum because they have heard about what is happening.
3LAU’s Star Crossed on SuperRare
As an example, popular DJ 3LAU releasing his first music-based NFT into the world was not going to happen any other place than Ethereum, and that will be the case for any important artist over the next few years, especially the big names that are about to flood our world! Each new creator and fan that enters will continue to build the momentum, strengthening the ecosystem one by one.
Strong values matter
Short but sweet — Ethereum has extremely strong values — neutrality, user sovereignty, and freedom. Not every chain has the same values, and chains often sacrifice values to chase features. This matters, and people will take this into account.
Security and safety of assets
As of today, Ethereum has proven to be a safe and secure blockchain, approaching the characteristics of Bitcoin. As the value of NFTs grows rapidly, holders of this value will be very careful about where they store this value. Much like highly valuable physical art, the security demands and systems protecting these NFTs will only grow higher.
You wouldn’t store your Mona Lisa on the wall in your unwatched vacation home.
NFT composability matters
Most readers will be familiar with composability in the Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) space. The ability to permissionlessly build on top of everything else that exists in DeFi is truly valuable and becoming one of the most powerful characteristics of DeFi, and also know as “money legos”.
This composability is happening with NFTs already, and I am calling it NFT Legos. Some examples of this include games that are leveraging outside NFTs that users own, defining certain permissions based on NFT ownership, allowing digital art collectors to prove ownership of NFT art when displaying in virtual worlds, and tokenizing baskets of NFTs into fungible tokens.
NFT Legos
I argue that this composability characteristic is very important in the NFT world. The NFT legos that make up this composable ecosystem include the platforms, creators, collectors, virtual worlds, communities, and so on.. not just the protocols.
Virtual worlds with true ownership of assets are the pieces of the MetaVerse that are attracting the crowds.
The MetaVerse is built on NFTs and as the MetaVerse grows, it will become harder and harder for it to detach from the NFTs at its core.
You can see an example of this in action with NFT art in virtual worlds. Though these worlds are still in their infancy, one of the main use cases for these environments is to display the digital art NFTs of collectors.
The next stage which has already started is for people to build businesses in these virtual worlds. As these businesses form and grow, the value associated with this increases. Before we will realize it, there will be $10bn of value locked in the Ethereum-based NFT/MetaVerse worlds that will be interacting with each other, making it very sticky, much like DeFi.
NFTs and DeFi are blending together
I believe that products in DeFi will become more and more intertwined with NFTs, and NFTs will become more and more intertwined with DeFi.
MetaFactory’s Digi-physical Experiences
We are already seeing this happen with projects like Aavegotchi, DeFi-staked Crypto Collectibles and NFTfi, a simple marketplace for NFT collateralized loans. MetaFactory brings together NFTs, Fashion, DeFi and DAOs! This is only the start of what is to come.
Eventually, it will be common to have assets such as digital art NFTs that own DeFi assets such as interest-bearing tokens, permissions, or other NFTs. (This is a deeper topic for an entire separate post.)
If the future of NFTs is heavily attached to DeFi and the core of DeFi stays in the Ethereum ecosystem, then that is another strong reason to believe NFTs will stay as well.
Other NFT platforms will connect to Ethereum
There are other NFT blockchains that are starting to and will continue to sprout up. I believe that these platforms will have to connect to Ethereum, and add value to participate.
Once again, we already see this happening in DeFi where the core of DeFi remains on Ethereum and any serious player that wants to participate will have to “connect to” the DeFi systems on Ethereum.
The NFT ecosystem could very well work the same way.
There will be other blockchains that are built specifically for NFTs, and when they are ready for the big leagues, they will offer certain advantages over the current Ethereum NFT experience. They may even be better at bringing the non-crypto world into the NFT space. However, they will have to be friendly with Ethereum and add value in order to attract an audience.
The decision for a collector to hold her $20k+ valued NFT portfolio on another chain versus Ethereum will not come easy. Even when that chain is more mature and there exists a very safe and strong “bridge” between those chains, it will be difficult to change minds and comfort.
There will be use cases where some NFT assets are moved across, used in some manner and eventually brought home to Ethereum, but the core will remain.
It’s kind of like when you let your cousin borrow one of your treasured toys, and tell him once he brings it back undamaged by a certain date, you’ll let him borrow another toy only then.
The Ethereum NFT space will start to suck in other NFTs platforms and activity, much like DeFi is doing by sucking in Bitcoin value as collateral on Ethereum.
NFTs will be fine on Ethereum
At this point, the critics will be asking “How will Ethereum be able to handle this?”
My answer is not Ethereum 2.0. In fact, I will ignore Serenity because it doesn’t exist yet and I know some NFT people that say it may never exist. However, what does exist is the crazy amount of research, development and progress that is being made in the Layer 2 solutions world on Ethereum.
Ethereum Layer 2 technology continues to advance. There will be different Layer 2 solutions for different use cases. Each Layer 2 solution will come with benefits and drawbacks. For example, some will have long, problematic withdrawal periods, and others will have shorter wait times. The key with all these true Layer 2 solutions is that they will have the same security properties as Ethereum mainnet.
Rollups are coming. There will be domain-specific rollups for different use cases. As an example, Optimistic Rollups which are getting a ton of excitement these days may not be the best solution for NFT-related environments.
Because of the long-latency of fraud-proofs used in Optimistic Rollups, there is a long waiting period for withdrawal to mainnet. With fungible tokens (ERC20), this drawback can be dealt with by using liquidity providers who will charge a small fee for giving you your assets quickly, mostly eliminating the wait period. However, with non-fungible tokens (ERC721), it is impossible for liquidity providers to eliminate this wait period being non-fungible by definition.
With NFTs, ZK rollups using zero-knowledge proofs may have a big advantage by having much lower latency for on-chain transactions. Once you know the ZK proof is valid, you can withdraw your assets to the main chain.
We will soon see Layer 2 solutions built specifically for NFT use cases.
Conclusion
The NFT space is currently built on Ethereum, and it is expanding rapidly. Ethereum has its drawbacks, yet there are too many good reasons why the NFT space will continue to find its core home and be built on Ethereum.
Other chains are coming, but rather than capturing the NFT market, these other chains will have to connect to Ethereum and add value to the system in order to gain adoption. All of this together will solidify Ethereum as the home of NFTs (that matter)*.
(*Though this article may not sound like it, I am actually excited to see other platforms succeed and help bring NFTs to the world!) | https://medium.com/@skymine/why-ethereum-will-continue-to-remain-the-home-for-nfts-that-matter-842b72f6035b | [] | 2020-10-22 02:30:05.602000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Nftlegos', 'Ethereum', 'Digital Art', 'Nft'] |
Thank You | film photos by caylie hausman
You saw the writer
in me before I did
said “here you go,
I think you’d be good at this”
and handed me a notebook
full of blank prompts,
a guiding light for later
when you left.
I didn’t even register then
what you were saying,
recently I saw
the proposed
message
in the blankness.
I wish I
could say
Thank You…
If you’re reading
this–
Thank You.
I learned from you
things you can only learn
from being in an abundance
of love, I learned
to be a guiding light for
later,
when you
left.
Left me to write,
left me to create,
left me alone
because we both knew
that’s what was
right..
regardless of
how wrong it felt
in the moment,
we both knew I could write
and the life you wanted for
us wasn’t what I saw as right.
I wrote you away
in my head
and on paper but
I still haven’t
had the heart to
fill out the prompts
you left me.
I’ve put a lot of my
heart out there
anway.
Promptless.
My heart has rolled out of my sleeve.
I’ve learned to extend
the love you left
into scrolls,
and I hope you’ve had a chance
to build wonderful
things in life
with the love
I left.
Not the
in love,
because we
have let that go–
but the consensus
that we were once something
more friendly than
a casual hello.
We watched sunsets,
and sunrises,
and looked at each
other like we were the
only two, even when we knew
it wasn’t so.
Remember that night in the pool,
dancing like no one else existed;
a hot summer heat,
everywhere, sweaty as New Orleans.
The great debacle
of letting
go.
I wish I had received your note
in a bottle earlier, and written worlds
for you to keep
when you left
but I’m glad I kept those worlds for myself,
not sorry; they kept me
when you couldn’t.
I hope she carves
your love in stone and
you never let each other go
because you
deserve
that kind of permanence
and dedication in love.
Anyway, I just wanted to say
Thank You for being one who
left me to write,
to create,
solitary
sans confinement.
Thank you for
seeing me before I did. | https://medium.com/@cayliehausman/thank-you-6199db5d928e | ['Caylie Hausman'] | 2020-12-23 12:32:28.301000+00:00 | ['Nostalgia', 'Thanks For The Memories', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poems On Medium', 'Gratitude'] |
5 Websites That Pay Writers at Least $100 | 5 Websites That Pay Writers at Least $100
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels
If you’re a freelance writer, you probably know the challenge of knowing many publications but having little time to look into them all. And with HuffPost’s recent layoffs, I imagine more writers are looking into freelance opportunities right now. For all writers who are struggling in some way, I’d like to help. As someone who knows the difficulties of figuring out the right publication, brainstorming ideas, and receiving an acceptance instead of a rejection (which is rare), I enjoy compiling resources. Through these guides, I hope to help writers pitch new publications easily and with all the information first. Since rate information is especially hard to find — and also especially important to know — I included all the rate data I’ve found. For five online publications that usually pay writers at least $100 an article (but often much more), keep reading.
1. Apartment Therapy
What they look for
Apartment Therapy looks for articles that will help readers have happier, more beautiful homes. They want readers to be able to create spaces that reflect who they are. As far as topics you can write about to help readers in those ways, the site’s verticals are as follows: home projects, lifestyle, news and culture, organize and clean, real estate, style, and tours.
Guidelines and next steps
Apartment Therapy’s pitching guidelines provide editors’ emails, how to pitch them, and more information about what they’re looking to read. After looking at the guidelines and the work Apartment Therapy publishes, and making sure your idea fits but hasn’t been written about yet, email the editor under the appropriate vertical. If the editor accepts your pitch, you’ll hear back in a week or two.
Rate
The guidelines don’t include rates, but according to Who Pays Writers, Apartment Therapy pays around $0.12 a word. According to my colleague, the rate for a news brief with no reporting is $50, but most articles range from $100 to $250.
2. GloWell
What they look for
GloWell wants pieces that can help readers live more healthy and sustainable lives. The publication’s categories include mind-body, beauty, food, movement, healthy/sustainable lifestyle, and metaphysical/spiritual growth. You can write tips, expert advice, and stories on natural health, spiritual and personal growth, natural therapies, fitness, the environment, whole food cooking, natural beauty, travel, children, and real-life stories.
Guidelines and next steps
GloWell’s guidelines provide additional information on pitches they’re looking for, who the audience is, and a form for submitting your ideas. If you’d like to write for GloWell, see the form on the contribution page. There, you can enter your contact information, examples of your work, your passions and expertise, why you want to write for GloWell, and some topics you’d like to cover.
Rate
According to one of my colleagues, GloWell pays $150 per article.
Update: You may have to share your rates and negotiate to get paid!
3. i-D
What they look for
i-D’s verticals, or topics, include news, fashion, photography, culture, music, magazine, beauty, straight-ups, up and rising, Rihannazine, and i-D Asia.
Guidelines and next steps
For how to format your pitch, figure out an idea, and more, see the “How to Pitch to i-D” page. After making sure your idea is a good fit for i-D, you can email their general pitch email, [email protected]. To email an editor directly, here’s one contact from Twitter:
Róisín Lanigan, news editor: [email protected]
And assuming the other editors use the same email format, here are some other editors’ names and roles:
Douglas Greenwood, contributing editor
Ryan White, features editor
Osman Ahmed, fashion features editor
Rate
While the pitching guide doesn’t list a rate, my colleague said i-D pays $250 an article, and Who Pays Writers says payments range from $0.19 a word to $0.33 a word.
4. Mental Floss
What they look for
Mental Floss’s verticals are animals, archeology, art, COVID, DIY, entertainment, food, health, history, language, the Olympics, science, sports, technology, and travel. You can pitch them lists or features, but not personal essays, timely news stories, science articles based on a single study, fiction, memoirs, poetry, current political pieces, or articles based solely on PR pitches.
Guidelines and next steps
For Mental Floss’s pitching tips, what the editors look for, editorial contacts, and rates, see the pitching guidelines page. After reading the guidelines and the publication’s work thoroughly, pitch the appropriate editor from the guidelines.
Rate
According to Mental Floss, lists start at $150, and features start at $125 or $200 depending on the amount of work.
5. YR Media
What they look for
YR Media is a network showing young journalists’ and artists’ work. The verticals listed are news, arts and culture, identity, tech, opinion, and health.
Guidelines and next steps
For pitching tips, see the pitching advice listed on the website. After reading YR Media’s pitching information, email your pitch to an editor. Here’s an editorial contact from Twitter:
Denise: [email protected]
Rate
According to this tweet, rates start at $150.
Final notes
Freelance writing can be a difficult and rewarding career. Half the battle is creating a successful pitch and all the work that goes into that, which I hope I made easier for you. And remember: before pitching, make sure you read the publication’s guidelines and previous articles closely. Additionally, know you deserve solid payment in return for your work. I wish you the best in your writing endeavors! For more writing resources and tips, check out my resource set and newsletter. | https://writingcooperative.com/5-websites-that-pay-writers-at-least-100-227b970983fc | ['Ashley Broadwater'] | 2021-03-30 20:21:12.524000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Writing', 'Business', 'Writing Tips', 'Freelance Writing'] |
2020 Reflection | Let me start out by saying that this year has been interesting. From having virtual graduations to limiting a certain amount of people inside stores. Something that I learned is that in order to get through the hard times, we needed the support of everyone around us. From a bigger perspective, we had to look after each other. Also, putting our differences aside has been hard, and from a personal level, I understand. But, that’s what makes us better humans. Understanding everyones points, and respecting their opinions is key. As a political science major, politics are based on this concept. Although Washington is not an ideal example, since they have based their needs on their own political parties for gain. It’s important to know that the concept of respect for others, can go along way. As a millennial, I wished the world would reconsider all of the bad, and focus on the good as we start 2021. But my 3 take aways of 2020 would be.
Respect Others Be Opened Minded Help Others | https://medium.com/@jorgesalic/2020-reflection-c8abce124b7 | ['Fernando', 'Thebossyboss'] | 2020-12-19 21:23:48.296000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', '2020', 'Lifestyle Blog', 'Life', 'Millennials'] |
Infinito Wallet Enables Earning Interest by HODLing with Celsius on Infinito App Square | Infinito Wallet Enables Earning Interest by HODLing with Celsius on Infinito App Square Infinito Follow Feb 21, 2019 · 4 min read
In January 2019, Infinito Wallet’s long-awaited DApps browser — App Square, was officially available with support for Ethereum DApps. Aiming to further extend cryptocurrencies’ potentials, Infinito Wallet has partnered with the industry-leading cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform Celsius to enable earning interest by HODLing for our users right inside App Square.
With this partnership, Infinito Wallet’s users are now offered Celsius’ unmatched rates of 3–7% on the most popular coins without long-term commitment required. Simply by holding on cryptocurrencies, Infinito Wallet’s users can earn, borrow and pay on the blockchain. Celsius guarantees to charge no origination or closing fees, no penalties, no early termination fees, and no default fees.
Infinito App Square, on the other hand, provides users utmost convenience as all DApps including Celsius are seamlessly connected to the Universal Wallet. Therefore, crypto holders can easily and securely make transactions using cryptocurrencies in their wallet.
Partnership with leading DApps for App Square is part of our team’s effort to develop Infinito Wallet into the universal home to not just leading coins and tokens but also for innovative blockchain apps and services.
“Infinito’s mission is to prove the power beyond cryptocurrency of blockchain to users and thus, bring mass adoption to this ground-breaking technology. Partnership between Infinito Wallet and Celsius is our very first step to foster the possibilities of cryptocurrency for users. Celsius’s innovative lending and borrowing platform is an interesting opportunity for crypto holders to earn weekly interest. Our users can now do more with their coins and tokens and fully enjoy all the benefits of blockchain” said Jack Thang Nguyen, Project Director of Infinito Wallet.
Regarding the integration of Celsius on Infinito App Square, Alex Mashinsky — CEO of Celsius Network shared: “Many crypto services lend out their clients’ funds without giving proper notification and distribute significantly lower returns on those funds. This sounds much more like a page out of Wall Street’s playbook than that of a financial system founded on the interest of the people, as the crypto community claims to be. We hope these partnerships set a new industry precedent in digital finance. High yield interest-bearing accounts should be the expectation; not the exception,”.
“This is what all banks should be providing their customers, if not more. If we band together as a community of HODLers, we can set the tone and demand higher rates. And that, in turn, will stabilize the market.” said Alex Mashinsky.
Become Infinito Wallet’s partners or get your DApp listed on App Square now!
Soon, DApps on EOS, Ontology, NEO, and more will be added to the Universal Wallet with variety of functions such as Exchange, Finance, Compliance, Games, Education, News and more. So, Infinito Wallet is looking forward to expand our partner network and DApp list for a greater future. Contact the Infinito team via [email protected].
Build your own DApp?
For DApp developers, Infinito team also provides development platform to help you develop DApps easier and faster. Infinito Blockchain Platform (IBP) has a wide variety of blockchain modules including: API/SDKs, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Solutions, DApp and Smart Contract templates, and more. Contact [email protected] for more information.
About Celsius Network
Celsius addresses the financial needs of today’s consumers worldwide through a democratized interest income and lending platform accessible via a mobile app. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interests of the community, Celsius is a modern platform where membership provides access to curated financial services that are not available through traditional financial institutions. Crypto holders can earn interest by transferring their coins to their Celsius Wallet and borrow USD against their crypto collateral at interest rates as low as 5% APR.
About Infinito Wallet
Positioning as a leading universal wallet for crypto users, Infinito Wallet serves as a gateway for users to maximize usage and potentials of their cryptocurrencies. Our DApp browser, App Square, provides access to the most innovative blockchain applications for daily user needs. By selectively expanding our partner network, Infinito Wallet aims to build an ecosystem of practical blockchain services including exchanges, ID/KYC solutions, and other blockchain-related business services. At the same time, we support communities of developers and businesses with Infinito Blockchain Platform, an open blockchain infrastructure of technologies and compliant-ready services, so that they can seamlessly build, launch, and operate innovative products and services efficiently.
Infinito Wallet’s core development team of blockchain R&D experts has intensive professional experience. Currently, our organization has more than 300 members including developers, designers, business, marketing, and customer service specialists. We are promoting research on infrastructure for cryptocurrencies and development utilizing blockchain.
Follow us on
– Telegram: https://t.me/infinitowallet
— Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfinitoWallet/
— Twitter: https://twitter.com/InfinitoWallet
— Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc8s67KYZ1AHZRUqJLLFc0g
— Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+InfinitoWallet
— Medium: https://medium.com/infinito-wallet
— Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/infinitowallet/
— Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infinitoservices/ | https://medium.com/infinito-wallet/infinito-wallet-enables-earning-interest-by-hodling-with-celsius-on-infinito-app-square-c9e495c81516 | [] | 2019-02-21 06:26:50.584000+00:00 | ['Partnerships', 'Blockchain', 'Celsius', 'Dapps', 'Infinito'] |
This New Year Will Be Different: I Will Live an Envied Life | In this New Year I will travel every day. I will visit Yellowstone. The great Redwoods. Big Sur. The microwave. The couch. Back again.
This year, I will learn a new language. The little owl from DuoLingo will be my bitch.
This year I will hack my productivity using the Pomodoro method. But I will call it the “Limone” because I am an iconoclast dedicated to using Italian words when an English one would suffice.
This year I will be the human equivalent of a Rumi quote set in Helvetica typescript over an image of a broken door in Jaipur, India.
This year I will Live. I will Laugh. I will Love.
I will cut all negative toxicity out of my life. Including Marisa and her constant chatter about how she’s cutting all the negative toxicity from her life.
This year I will release a line of limited edition travel fedoras. Each one will come with a cocktail recipe and a vape pen.
I will focus. Rather than endlessly scrolling Pinterest for the perfect kitchen backsplash, I will attain venture capital funding for my self-created fitness and nutrition regimen.
This year I will start a fitness and nutrition regimen.
I will go to ballet barre class every day. Except the days Marisa goes. She never shuts up about how her boyfriend, Chauncy, took her to Mykonos and bought her a cavoodle, also named Chauncy.
This year, I won’t go to Coachella. I will BE Coachella.
I will pivot my career to app design. The first will be a platform for changing careers. It’s called Pivt.
This year I will try something new and scary every day. I will hang glide in Mexico and ski black diamonds in Aspen. I will try chocolate-covered crickets. I will eat off-brand flaming hot Cheetos.
In 2019 I will prioritize self care. I will spend one day a week in a head-to-toe body mask of activated charcoal.
I will get more sleep. As soon as I awaken each morning, I will turn in for the night.
I will take deep, controlled breaths. I will use the box breathing method of counting to four on the inhale. On a four-count exhale, I will tune out Marisa’s prattle about her new startup, a box subscription service for expectant dog moms.
This year, I will not get drunk and tell Marisa my startup ideas.
Each day of 2019, I will post a carefree Instagram with ample lens flare. Each will be a selfie with my hands half in my pockets in a casual posture that says, “I’ve been caught by surprise! It’s mere coincidence someone took a photograph at this moment.” I will be wearing one of my limited edition travel fedoras in a shade I have dubbed “Vasca,” which is Italian for “bathtub.”
I will start my Etsy store. I will craft bespoke anklets from visions I’ve had on ayahuasca.
This year I will try ayahuasca.
This year I will run a marathon. I will train so hard it causes stress fractures in my femurs which I will humblebrag about to friends. They will accept this as a shining example of my dedication as well as an acceptable excuse for why I can’t go to Marisa’s going-away party when really I just don’t want to hear any fucking more about Mykonos. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/this-new-year-will-be-different-i-will-live-an-envied-life-a0052093ecca | ['Erica Lies'] | 2018-12-31 22:30:59.667000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'New Year', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Satire'] |
Chapter 8: CRYPTO HITS ROCK BOTTOM — BUT IS IT REALLY THAT BAD? | This year kicked off with some intense action. The stock markets suffered tremendous dips, and for the crypto currencies it has been a race towards the bottom. Personally, I see it as a crucial cleansing bath. One that we haven’t yet dried up from — a massive hurricane might very well still lurk around the corner. So now it’s just about buckling up and holding on tight. The second wave will come — and it will fix it all.
Following his new book on digital strategy How To Become A Digital Marketing Hero, Rufus Lidman is now translating all his knowledge to the most revolutionary field in the world. A field in desperate need of a digital strategy. In a series of articles, we will get an upclose view of this new mind-blowing market, seen through the eyes of a digital strategist.
>> Chapter 1: The Revolutionary Technology That Will Change Your Life
>> Chapter 2: The Birth Of The Future
>> Chapter 3: A Real Revolution In Practice
>> Chapter 4: A Metamorphosis You Are Not Prepared For
>> Chapter 5: The Apocalypse Of The Establishment
>> Chapter 6: The Secret Recipe To Reach The Absolute Top
>> Chapter 7: The Simple Answer To The Global Problems
The future is bright. But there still might be some heavy clouds ahead. Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash
In our past chapters, we have not only gained insight in the background and the foundations of the blockchain. We have taken a peek at the world changing capacity it really has. And should have moving forward.
As well, we have seen what happens when you don’t just invest with your wallet, but also with your heart. Where we may salvage a game changing humanism, and arm ourselves with a new point of view. A view not about victimization, but about enabling.
We have also seen what thinking outside of the box and cutting out the middlemen would do in cold, hard numbers, for the benefit of the great amount of people.
But that’s enough about our goals. In the next two chapters, we’ll address the means of achieving it. First, we put the blockchain into its right context and discuss the pros and possible cons with the shaky processes that cryptocurrencies have gone through thus far during 2018.
A Rocky Market — The Panic Button Remains Close at Hand
For those of us who like a little action and excitement in our everyday lives, the start of 2018 certainly delivered. Not just in our own businesses, but also in the stock market trends.
During one black, or at least dark grey, Monday, the Dow Jones initially dropped 6 percent. The cause of the major drop was likely the anxiety over increased interest rates in the US. Nevertheless, every stock market in the world quivered with dips of between 5 and 10 percent during the coming week. And as always when the economy turns shaky, ”ordinary people” move all their investments to low-risk areas, so-called ”safe havens” (such as gold, which has been on a slow, but steady rise since December) and pocket all their high-risk investments.
“Experts insisted that the nearly 500 billion that had been erased in value since New Year’s Eve was only the beginning, and that we would see a ‘race to the bottom’.”
In line with that principle, we saw a strong crypto dip of 10 to 20 percent in every bitcoin and altcoin market. Casual investors dropped their high-risk investments, of which crypto remains considered as such. The fall was strong enough to even be noted by traditional mainstream media. And, in a state of shock, investors registered that crypto continued to fall. Experts insisted that the nearly 500 billion that had been erased in value since New Year’s Eve was only the beginning, and that we would see a ”race to the bottom”. Every cryptocurrency was expected to lose almost all of its value. For us martial artists, that was already a given: ”The higher they are, the harder they fall”.
The First Ruinous Wave
Does the above mentioned sound like a logical analysis of the situation? Perhaps. It is a classic economical interpretation of risk versus return. People with money will run to wherever they think they’ll get the best return on their investment, at the lowest risk.
Though, if you’re looking for a deeper understanding of what’s happening during this historical era, it may be better to instead opt for a sociological analysis. We’re talking about such a fundamental societal change, that the past months only represent the first ripples on the surface, preceding the massive hurricane we’re still anticipating.
I have always said that these insane profits in the cryptocurrency market most probably represent the first wave. They are the MySpace, the Netscape and the Altavista, who are not only hugely innovative, but considerably speculative.
”There may still be an ‘armageddon’ in between. In that case, what we have seen now are just the first tremors.”
Meanwhile, a second wave is underway, with focus on substance and results, rather than hype and aimless talk.
Though. There may still be an ”armageddon” in between. In that case, what we have seen now are just the first tremors.
Our job as digital entrepreneurs is to ensure we ride that second wave as well, ideally even leading the way, finding the next generation Alphabet, Amazon, Apple or Alibaba. Believe me, to be first in line and suffer the first-mover-disadvantage, is almost as torturous as coming in last. We are a few who’ve experienced both positions.
In some ways it’s even worse knowing that we had a potential that wasn’t realized. That sucks.
Fortune Seekers and Frauds Ruining Everything
These developments don’t come as a surprise for anyone who, with a bit more perspective, remembers the waning years of the 21st century. The dotcom bubble and its spectacular and legendary bursting. Speculative businesses that gambled away their entire investments, making us entrepreneurs, citizens and politicians lose half a decade worth of momentum in the process.
In a way though, it worked out for the better. This cleared out all the crazies and bluffers. The players who were only interested in speculative business, without putting their money where their mouth was and deliver.
So this time, it’s just a matter of holding on tight and ensuring that we stay clean throughout.
The Second Wave That Fixes It All
If we have a first wave that ruins everything, it becomes all the more important that we with all our might ensure that we have a second wave that fixes everything.
This is where my amazing Chief Technical Officer always says ”keep tabs on every trend, and see which one looks the most promising”. At the same time, it’s good to keep tabs on even the underlying currents of interest, what precedes the trends or even what triggers them in the first place.
This is the kind of data I work with day and (literally) night. Because there seems to be an enormous demand for a safe anchor to lean on for the second wave.
A second wave that includes blockchain technology for more cost-efficient transactions. A second wave using utility tokens and coins for service consumptions with continuously proven value, transferred within the framework of a closed but healthy ecosystem. A second wave with basic and substantial solutions, that may very well take over the world. Or even save it.
Digital Opportunities Will Make Us Human Again
We have processes such as Artificial Intelligence that are digitizing the human brain. On top of that we have an Augmented Reality system that increasingly digitizes our lives. Moving forward, the blockchain will open even more opportunities, being a force advancing things along the opposite end. A force that has the potential to make us human again. A force which, thanks to the decentralized flows of the technology, makes a real difference.
This is a force that can’t be compared to gold, for purposes of investment or speculation. This is a genuine P2P process, relating instead to the way people are brought up from the beginning. Before we got an overcrowded financial overhead. Before bureaucratic structures and hierarchies took charge of everything.
“The community became more important than your children. More important than your fellow man. More important than animals and nature.”
Our initial state, where ”organizations”, ”nations”, ”institutions” and ”societies” were summarily invented out of centralized structures and social contracts. They all eventually grew to such proportions that they appeared, not just to utilitarians, as being considerably more important than you as an average person.
The community became more important than your children. More important than your fellow man. More important than animals and nature.
More important than your relationship to others, who also serve as living mechanisms. Who each have their place in the ecosystem.
That’s what we’ve lost. That’s what blockchain can bring back.
The blockchain will simply make us more human.
A Current System on Life Support
So far so good, on the pressures of the new. But at the same time, we wouldn’t be complete without noting that there’s no one cheering about the existing systems either.
Comments from another star: “Our current system is on life support. The question is how long that will last. There will be an enormous shift in capital soon”.
I can only say: “Duh!!”
What’s happening around the world at the moment is pathetic. Nations that haven’t learned kindergarten level economics, fooling themselves into believing that insane foreign debts are comme il faut. That budget ceilings are made to breach, and that negative interest rates and burning hot money printing machines is a new “good” path on the quest for economic growth and prosperous societies.
Meanwhile the Trump-et in my first native country seems to be implementing his life support on speed, unfortunately my other home country Sweden isn’t doing much better.
This analysis gives us more a feeling of being stuck in a fox trap. Because whilst the old empire is cramping more and more frantically in its death-throes, the alternative we have seen this far, as mentioned, hasn’t been too successful. The blockchain is for real a revolution, but on the way opportunists have been given access. And you don’t have to look back as far as to the dutch tulips, to realise what is on the way. What we see now is the exact same process we observed precisely two decades ago. When will we learn?
This is one out of two times in my life that I have felt old. (The first time being after a bursting encounter with my 20 year old sparring partners, when I found myself having to suffer the injuries for twice as long 😊.) When people for real believe that “the interest rates can’t go up”, that “new rules apply within the economy”, or when BTC salesmen and crypto fanatics get stuck in the idea that “the only way is up”. It’s the exact same mechanism. Dreamers and charlatans looking for shortcuts, and destroying something purely magical.
So maybe a nice little cleansing bath isn’t so bad, after all.
Next up: Let’s innovate instead of regulate. | https://medium.com/aiar/chapter-8-crypto-hits-rock-bottom-but-is-it-really-that-bad-7724019c36a0 | ['Rufus Lidman'] | 2019-01-15 22:56:07.627000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Economy', 'Stock Market', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
> Run away with me now | Here I am 5 foot away,
She’s got a blink-182's shirt,
I tremble with a mental bouquet,
Should I remain distant, unhurt?
I fear the unnoticed shade,
But also do I fear her goodbyes.
Tomorrow an alike cascade
Will bleed out of my eyes.
___________I____________
______fear____fear_______
Goodbyes_______Goodbyes
______fear____fear_______
___________I____________
But for now, she catches my eye,
And swings her hand to my inner cry,
My heart prompts on herself somehow
> Run away with me now
PunkRockPrincess> Will I? | https://medium.com/poets-unlimited/run-away-with-me-now-93865ab19527 | ['Words Seeking Glory'] | 2018-04-02 19:03:27.621000+00:00 | ['Girls', 'Poetry', 'Goodbye', 'Love', 'Punk Rock'] |
Expectations Belied | Expectations Belied
Last year, Kamala — Goddess Lakshmi — had timed her entry to near perfection. It was Diwali, the celebration of wealth and prosperity that Hindu goddess Lakshmi ensures for all. And Kamala, another name for Lakshmi appeared on the horizon in Washington DC.
What more could Indians have wanted? The riches would rain in torrents. No question.
Couple that with Joe Biden claiming to have family links with Indians, we, the people of India, knew we were well on our way to be a world power second to none. Only possible exception could have been the US itself.
No kidding; in 2013, when Biden visited India as Obama’s VP he said he has distant relatives in Mumbai. He reasserted that in 2015 to dispel any lingering doubts anybody may have had on that score. One of our industrious genealogy experts — bless our country for we have hordes of them — has figured out that Biden is a westernized miss-spelling of Bhide.
So there.
With Bhide-Lakshmi team at the steering wheel and the key to Fort Knox in their pockets, things were looking up for us Indians like never before. That’s what we dreamily thought. After all, some very bright writer has insisted that “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all,” and that sort of thing.
Lockheed Martin was already into shifting its F16 manufacturing line to India, and they added they would manufacture F21 with Tatas of India. That much Trump — I beg excuse for I took the name of that erstwhile ‘do-gooder’ for India who did not have much equity left anymore — did in his time anyway.
Now, Bhide and Kamala were expected to order the same manufacturer to also shift their manufacturing line for their super-advanced 5th generation F-22 Raptor to Thulasendrapuram. Yes, that’s Kamala’s native village in Tamil Nadu, India.
Apocryphal, but I heard that not waiting for the inauguration of Bhide-Kamala Team, Lockheed management had placed their personnel — all 1,10,000 of them — into a crash course of learning Tamil. And also Hindi. Bethesda in the US State of Maryland, where their HQ is, was witnessing hundreds of Indian American Tamil ladies walking in and out rather purposefully. That could only have been, my guess is, for tutoring the Americans.
At that time I was told, the audio manufacturers in India had received huge orders for Gayatri Mantra and Maha Mratunjay on pen drives. Ulhasnagar Sindhi Association — abbreviating their name to USA — was reportedly the primary beneficiary.
The White House mess — not the mess you normally associate White House with; I mean the one located in the basement of the West Wing next door to the Situation Room — serves breakfast and lunch for staffers. Idlis (steamed rice patties) and rassam (which the Brits, evidencing their incapacity to pronounce any word that is not English, called mulligatawny soup) were promptly included on trial basis by the US Navy who run that small dining facility.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Trump had to partake that before he finally, and thankfully, bailed out. He had called the veggie fare horse-food, I hear.
10 months on, Kamala — the goddess Lakshmi — hasn’t shown up much and is still into desperation flailing her arms to get noticed. To be fair, one sees some images of her deferentially standing 8 feet away at 45 degree angle behind President Bhide…er…Biden. But then, is it only I who notices her pretty much melded into those paisleys on the curtains?
The boss took a sigh of relief after delegating that onerous immigration chimera visit to the border with Mexico. Kamala dithered for a long time, but then had to travel to Guatemala and Mexico. What to do? America’s VP’s job description orders implicit compliance.
Photo by Emiel Molenaar on Unsplash
Then on to Vietnam and Singapore. What for? Well, to shore up America’s tarnishing image. That, when Kamala’s own image in her office is that of an irritated bull in the proverbial china shop.
Tch, tch, tch, Mr Joe Biden. Be a sport. Giving your deputy a task that 1001 Americans could possibly not accomplish in 10 years is kinda smelly.
In the meantime, we Indians are waiting. | https://medium.com/@goorhapradeep/expectations-belied-f09314a082f5 | ['Pradeep Goorha'] | 2021-09-01 08:02:22.673000+00:00 | ['Hope', 'India', 'Joe Biden', 'Kamala Harris', 'Humor'] |
The Unspectacular Heist of the ‘Mona Lisa’ | The Unspectacular Heist of the ‘Mona Lisa’
Nobody cared about the painting in 1911, except for Vincenzo Peruggia
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
Imagine that you have an entry on Wikipedia for one infamous reason only: you stole a Louvre painting! Not just one of the more than 35,000 works of art in the Louvre… The Mona Lisa!
I doubt that anyone would like to see the notoriety of art theft under their name, but this is precisely what Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian museum worker and artist, is known for. What we know about his life apart from his art theft is that: he was married, fought in World War I, had a daughter named Celestina, and died at the age of forty-four in France, in 1925.
The heist
Without safety glass and cameras, in 1911, it was probably a lot easier to lift a painting from a wall in the famous Louvre museum, in Paris, and hide it. However, the fact that Peruggia was able to walk out of the Louvre’s front door undetected on a Monday morning with the Mona Lisa tucked under his arm is objectively quite amusing today.
According to the historian James Zug, Parisians were probably just too drunk to notice this guy stealing a masterpiece of art. Sunday night was a prominent social night back then, and people were all a bit hungover — except, of course, Peruggia. The latter, at least according to common belief, spent the night in an art-supply closet inside the museum.
Dressed like all the other workers, he waited until no one was present in the Salon Carré, and then very quickly lifted the painting off the wall and carried it to the service staircase. It is unknown how he did this alone. Other sources assume that Peruggia had two accomplices with him, namely, the brothers Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti, young Italian handymen.
Whether he boarded the express train alone at the Quai d’Orsay or in the company of two accomplices cannot be completely determined. But one thing was very clear, after the departure of the 7:47 a.m. train he had successfully stolen the Mona Lisa.
The importance of the ‘Mona Lisa’
In today’s view, it’s particularly astonishing that in 1911 only a few recognized this painting as a masterpiece. Although it had been known among experts and the French intelligentsia that Leonardo da Vinci’s work from 1507 was magnificent, it wasn’t broadly regarded as such. Or, as Zug says: “The Mona Lisa wasn’t even the most famous painting in its gallery, let alone in the Louvre.”
Given the circumstances, it may not come as a big surprise that nobody noticed the robbery until twenty-eight hours later. Not even alarmed then, the artist who noticed the Mona Lisa missing only said that he could no longer paint as long as the Mona Lisa was missing. Since the Louvre was under renovation, he didn’t think much of it — it would return to its rightful place in due time, right?
The suspects: Pablo Picasso and J.P. Morgan
When the Louvre had to make it public that the painting wasn’t in storage because of the renovation but that it had, in fact, been stolen, the outcry was tremendous. The government fired the museum’s director, and for three weeks, the story dominated the newspapers’ front pages. Many citizens went to the Louvre to look at the blank space on the wall while flying merchants in front of the Louvre sold postcards and reproductions of the Mona Lisa.
It was a massive national scandal, further contributing to the popularity of the painting. On the list of suspects were Pablo Picasso, who had to go in for questioning, and art lover J.P. Morgan. Rumor had it that Morgan had commissioned the heist. After all, he loved art.
In the light of the impending war and deteriorating relations between Germany and France, the rumor arose that even the German Emperor could be behind the theft.
As with most rumors, none of them were right. Thus, the Mona Lisa remained untraceable.
The failed sale and the great disappointment of the public
Today, the Mona Lisa is back at the Louvre in Paris. So how did this masterpiece resurface? In short: in a hotel room in Florence.
On December 12th, 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia tried to sell the masterpiece to the art dealer Alfredo Geri. After almost three years of waiting, he wanted to get rid of the painting.
Geri received a letter signed “Leonardo” in which the scribe claimed that he wanted to “return” the painting to Italy and demanded 500,000 lire to cover his “expenses.” Geri informed Giovanni Poggi, the Uffizi Gallery director, and the two decided to look at the painting.
Happy to have found a possible buyer for the painting, Peruggia traveled to Florence and showed the painting to the art dealers. After looking closely at the painting and finding the correct inventory number of the Louvre on the back, they were sure that they were looking at the original Mona Lisa. They persuaded Peruggia to wait in his hotel for the money and called the police.
The public reaction was fierce. Italian nationalists demanded that “their” Mona Lisa should stay “at home.” Although the Italian government guaranteed that it would return the Mona Lisa to the Louvre, it didn’t do so right away. The painting went “on tour” and was exhibited in Florence, Rome, and Milan. It traveled in a specially made, padded box and with a guard of honor. Finally, the Mona Lisa returned to Paris with a grand state ceremony.
The trial against Peruggia was a disappointment for the sensationalist public because the defendant proved to be just a petty criminal, not a specialized art thief. Peruggia was sentenced to a prison term of only seven months. Two days after his trial, the First World War began, and his crime fell into oblivion.
Quite the contrary occurred for Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, the unspectacular heist of 1911 served as a catalyst. Today, the Mona Lisa is an undisputed art icon. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-unspectacular-heist-of-the-mona-lisa-e0665888b9a2 | ['The Unlikely Techie'] | 2020-11-16 15:02:30.310000+00:00 | ['History', 'Art', 'Icons', 'Crime', 'Paris'] |
Understanding Logistic Regression (Part 1) | Linear and Logistic regression concepts are considered to be the best way to start learning ‘Deep Learning’, and that is very true, but what many people do not think about is the mathematics behind these concepts that really matters. Calculus is your best friend here. In this series of stories, I shall try and explain the concepts of Logistic Regression without using Sci-Kit learn. Keep in mind that ‘Coding is the best way to learn to code’.
Why Logistic Regression?
Logistic regression introduces you to the concept of probability in the form of ‘Maximum Likelihood’ problem and in future we will understand, how gathering a bunch of logistic regression layers, we can create a neural network. (Yes it is that easy)
All this is exciting, but the fundamental purpose of using Logistic Regression is for classification. (specifically binary classification). Later in this series, we will see that logistic regression can actually perform multi-class classification.
Let us start with understanding the problem of classification first. Let us create two data clouds using simple python code and try to visualize things.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
N = 400 #Number of data points
D = 2 #Number of classes
X=np.random.randn(N,D)
T = np.array([0]*(N//2)+[1]*(N//2))
X[0:(N//2),:] = X[0:(N//2),:]-2*np.ones(((N//2),D))
X[(N//2):,:] = X[(N//2):,:]+2*np.ones(((N//2),D))
plt.scatter(X[:,0],X[:,1],c=T)
The output to this code is shown in the left figure below and we want to find a line that can classify the points properly as shown in the right image. | https://medium.com/codingkumar/understanding-logistic-regression-part-1-e5b65c5b60cb | ['Naresh Kumar'] | 2020-11-25 11:08:38.392000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Logistic Regression'] |
The Kingsroad: GoT Sn 1 Ep 02 | Episode 2 is really where all the characters start their journeys, physically anyway. Daenerys is traveling across the Dothraki lands with the horde, slowly trying to come to terms with her position. She is desperate to find something to hold on to, and stories of dragons and her 3 dragon eggs is where she starts to see herself fitting. She also has one of her servants teach her some ways to make Khal Drogo ‘happy’ as a means to make things easier for herself, but also find a way to have her own influence.
In Winterfell we have the kings caravan preparing to leave back for King’s landing and with them Ned, Arya, and Sansa. Knowing what I do having watched season 7, there are a lot of fairly tragic points in this episode that have more weight on a second watch. Catelyn Stark loathes Jon Snow, the bastard of Ned. When he comes to say goodbye to a comatose Bran, she simply cannot stand the presence of him as she has stood vigil without break with the recovering boy. Even at their last parting, Ned says that the next time they see each other, Jon Snow that is, he will tell him about his mother. This certainly should not be a spoiler at this point, but Jon and Ned do not meet again. I won’t spoil season 7 stuff until we get there, but if you know what I am talking about, there are a couple scenes very well played out here, and Sean Bean is very good at not letting on what he knows.
Jon is heading to a life a celibacy with the Night’s Watch. The defenders of the 800 foot ice wall between the kingdoms and the frozen north where the wildlings and all the bad things live. Tyrion the imp has found it entertaining to visit the wall himself, mainly because he is not part of the Lannister family in terms of running the kingdom. He makes a point to engage Jon and ttries to build a bond with his fellow outsider. We do not get much more of this story other then them seeing the way for the first time and then we are back to Winterfell.
A fire breaks out at Winterfell and Rob leaves Catelyn with Bran to go see what the trouble is. An assassin shows up to kill Bran and Catelyn holds him off long enough. including grabbing the dagger blade with both hands, that Bran’s dire wolf saves the day by ripping the mans throat out. We don’t know who did it, but Cat decides that she needs to travel to King’s Landing to deliver the message to Ned as she does not trust the ravens and suspects the Lannisters. Sometimes you take for granted how easy it is to just text or email someone huh?
On the Kingsroad we get some bonding banter between old friends Robert and Ned, and a sequence involving Arya, Sansa, Joffrey and the wolves. Joffrey is trying to woo Sansa and walks her down to the river where they find Arya dueling with the butchers boy with sticks. Arya of course is not supposed to be doing this because it is not ‘ladylike’ and when Sansa tries to yell at her for it the boy thwaps her on the shoulder with his stick. Joffrey seizes the opportunity to ride his power trip and slower draws blood from the boys face with his sword. Arya hits Joffrey and he tries to attack her with his sword. Once he has her on the ground her dire wolf Nymeria comes from the bushes and bites his hand and she throws his sword in the river after he blabbers like a baby and she and the wolf run off. Yes I will continue to show Joffrey in negative ways because man did Jack Gleeson play a slimy, asshole prince well. So well in fact that people hounded him in real life for it, much like Billy Dee Williams from Lando’s actions in Empire Strikes back. Here’s my tip for the day people, DO NOT PERSONALLY ATTACK ACTORS FOR THEIR CHARACTERS! I really should not have to say that.
Anyway Arya get’s her dire wolf to run off and leave the area. Arya is found by Lannister guards and taken straight in front of the King and Queen. Joffrey’s story contradicts Arya’s and Sansa takes Joffrey’s side in what will be a long line of very, very, short sighted decisions on her part. She is trying to win their favor because all she has ever wanted is to be a princess or queen, and all the glamour that comes along with it. Unfortunately Cersei demands something be done, and without Arya’s wolf there, Ned is forced to kill Sansa’s wolf Lady. It is a scene that is hard to watch, as any wolf death is, and despite the wanton violence of the show, they don’t show the actual strike against the wolf. Bran’s eyes open up annnnnnnnnnnnnndddddd end episode.
We get character development in spades in this episode, and that continues to be some of the magic of a show that is constantly switching storylines to give each character their time. We see more tension between Robert and Cersei, the nasty side of Joffrey, Ned’s struggles with his duty, Sansa balancing her want for the royal treatment and how it requires her betraying her family, and Arya striking out against the forces that try to control her. A lot more to come, but they cover an awful lot of ground in this episode in what was likely 70 pages or more in the book.
Did not hear ‘Winter is coming’ so the count is still at 3. Next episode is Lord Snow. | https://medium.com/@polygeekism/the-kingsroad-got-sn-1-ep-02-c131d988274e | ['Kevin Mcmahon'] | 2019-02-25 04:07:59.814000+00:00 | ['Review', 'Binge Watching', 'HBO', 'TV', 'Game of Thrones'] |
We and AI | DEFINE: Identifying a persona, their problem and possible solutions
Hello Paul, tell me a bit about yourself!
We quickly realised that the majority of our respondents were white, used social media for sharing information with family and friends, and indicated a desire to make a difference when they saw or experienced injustice. With this in mind, we created Paul. He is a strong believer in social justice and doing what he feels is right, but only when he has access to clear and balanced information.
We now considered why Paul would want to know more about racial bias in AI. As a white man, research had suggested that he is in the group least likely to be affected by bias in AI, but from a number of the non-white respondents, we know they’d been affected by AI biases. So, Paul was concerned and wanted to raise awareness of the issue he and a black colleague had when using the automatic passport gates at immigration on returning to the UK. He had no problems, but they got rejected and had to be manually checked. As this had happened before, he wanted to research if this was a wider issue, which we captured in an experience map, identifying his pain-points.
Paul’s Experience Map
To provide a bit more on Paul and his motivations, we created his empathy map to help us get into his mindset we considered the problem.
Paul’s Empathy Map
Paul has a problem…
With insight from the research distilled into Paul, we identified a problem statement:
Paul needs a way to easily find enough, clear and unbiased resources on AI
because he wants to make a difference by raising awareness of these issues though sharing information through social media, as existing sites don’t provide this.
Then to further visualise this, we captured the following outcome with a storyboard.
Paul’s Outcome Statement and Storyboard
This, in turn, led to the creation of Paul’s user flow. We now had the base foundations to start the creative process of considering how we could solve the problem.
Paul’s User Flow
So, how could the flow work on the existing site?
The existing site was created to help launch We and AI, and while it serves its purpose, we considered how the new ‘toolkit’ and ‘resources’ features could be added and where it should sit in the new site.
So, we proposed the following restructure:
As the toolkit and resources are going to be the core offering, it should be upfront.
The ‘News’ menu item was seen as dynamic and a further draw, so it was promoted from being a blog at the end of the top-level menu.
The information from resources and the dynamic news, it followed that ‘Get Involved’ would be the next step for potential volunteers.
Proposed Application Map with the two new menu entries
So, How Might We solve this problem?
To ensure the client was engaged and to validate our work, we ran a 2-hour design studio session over Zoom with them. This provided the opportunity to update them on our initial findings at the end of the first week, and to get them to start helping us to identify possible solutions using the ‘How Might We’ technique.
The facilitated design studio started with a fun warm-up exercise where everyone shared their work on the Miro platform — who knew we could all draw random animals?! This got us into the creative frame of mind for tackling two questions:
How Might We present resources in a tool?
present resources in a tool? How Might We make We and AI’s online presence more engaging?
The Design Studio ideas, sketching and dot votes
I quickly discovered the importance of giving unambiguous instructions (a lesson for next time) as in both rounds we had a mixture of images and Post It note lists! Fortunately, the situation was recovered as we got each person to explain their thoughts and common themes and ideas began to be distilled. This was further helped when each person was given some virtual sticky dots to put on their favourite ideas. The key concepts were:
Design Studio: Key Insights and Concepts
What should we focus on? Let’s prioritise!
With these concepts and with the brief firmly in mind, and mindful of focusing on essential features and keeping the costs to develop low, we identified the core features to include in the design phase. | https://richardharrislondon.medium.com/we-and-ai-8530d9d6ce08 | ['Richard Harris'] | 2020-11-30 13:02:04.562000+00:00 | ['AI', 'UX'] |
Mind-boggling pettiness eviction of market stall by bully-boys at Lincoln City Council | Covid-19 has accelerated shopping on-line by at least ten years, failing High Street chains floating on a sea of debt are falling like flies, shedding staff, and this will accelerate as furlough ends.
Enter dysfunctional Lincoln City Council in an act of mind-boggling pettiness decides to evict a fruit and vegetable market stall from Lincoln Central Market falsely claiming the stall too big.
The stall was a lifeline for many during lockdown when they carried on trading, especially for those who could not get out when they set up a veg box home delivery scheme.
Steve Sharpe has run a market stall in Lincoln for 35 years, with the help of his daughter Beth four years within Lincoln Central Market.
The stall accounts for at least 80% of the market football. If the stall goes it will hit the few remaining stalls in the market. It will also hit indie businesses in Sincil Street. It will hit those who rely on the stall for a low cost source of fresh produce, and there is nothing as fresh as grown by Steve and picked that morning. It will hit local coffee shops and restaurants that rely on the stall for their fresh produce.
All of this counts for nothing to the council bully-boys who are waging a vindictive vendetta against Steve for daring to criticise the appalling state of the market, the lack of investment.
Lincoln a county town in the middle of an agricultural county yet lacks a decent market.
Rules of the market:
stall within allocated space
rent paid monthly in advance
trading within specified times on Market Days
allotted space clean and tidy
eviction on a whim
The market stall always clean and tidy. If not within it allotted space, the difference must be marginal, it is not obstructing any thoroughfares, end of the stall is in line with other stalls.
Council jobsworth claims stall exceeds its allotted space, that have held extensive talks with the stallholders.
Steve and Beth dispute this. No discussion, hand delivered letters claiming non compliance.
It is not beyond the wit of the most incompetent council jobsworth to delineate the stall boundaries with chalk lines. If there is then a dispute resolve through arbitration not eviction. And it is not as though space is at a premium in an empty dying market.
The alleged discussions, produce minutes (accuracy of which will have been checked by Steve and Beth otherwise worthless), date, time, duration, location.
Council jobsworth claim the stall is unfair to other traders in the market. Difficult to comprehend how a stall that generates at least 80% of the market footfall is placing other stalls at a disadvantage. On the other hand, eviction of the stall that generates the footfall the market will die as will lose most of its footfall.
A formal complaint has been lodged with the council leader
who to date has not had the courtesy to respond.
And just when think the council bully boys can sink no lower, are now claiming the reason for eviction is secret, cannot tell.
The market is public space, the loss of the fruit and vegetable stall is a matter of public interest.
The council in cahoots with the local coop has trashed the outdoor market, Sincil Street, Cornhill, destroyed local businesses, to attract chain stores and eateries that can find anywhere and everywhere that lose the sense of place, increase alienation, drain money out of the local economy.
The hidden agenda would appear to be to destruction of Lincoln Central Market for redevelopment.
What is the hidden agenda? Having trashed the surrounding area, destroyed local businesses, is Central Market next? A dirty back door deal with the local coop?
Look to the Butter Market in Newark where local traders were kicked out to bring in Cosy Club. Sound familiar?
Something stinks and it is not the smell of rotting cabbages.
Please sign the on-line petition objecting to the eviction.
If live in Lincoln please contact your local councillors and local Member of Parliament Karl McCartney and ask them to stop this eviction, and at the very least go and visit the stall talk to customers and check for themselves the facts not rely on officials running a vindictive vendetta for criticism of a badly run market. | https://medium.com/dark-mountain/mind-boggling-pettiness-eviction-of-market-stall-by-bully-boys-at-lincoln-city-council-418eb8338f9c | ['Keith Parkins'] | 2020-07-09 18:18:38.300000+00:00 | ['Fruit And Vegetables', 'Lincoln', 'Market Stall', 'Lincoln Central Market', 'Lincoln City Council'] |
Here Lies the Body of the Girl I Left Behind | Her innocence is as sweet as the juice that oozes from a bite of a peach. Happiness is found deep in the cracks of her soul surrounded by the thick waves of joy and hope. You would imagine her to have a wide endearing smile that enchants the people that she meets, and you would be right. The thing is sadness runs in her blood flowing around her, but never consuming her whole. She thinks one day it might, it would take one good cut and it would pour out, spilling all around her. She had wanted it to, consume her that is, before she knew there was a word for that.
Children are selfish creatures. It’s not their fault that they don’t think about others around them, they just hadn’t learned that yet. She was no different. There was no thoughts of what she might leave behind or who, only action. So, she drunk the poison with little regret. It was disgusting, and the tang of it is tasted years later like it was etched on her tongue. That little selfish girl is buried deep behind the support of her mother, under carefully crafted thoughts that are imbued with encouragement, and the will to continue to add dirt to her grave. It has not been easy to mold yourself into a new person, to reject neon written thoughts that yell in your mind, or to pull yourself from the vacuum of despair and nothingness. It is worth it.
Her father made the mistake a couple years after she had tried. Although, he succeeded. I suppose I could write thousands of words to describe her grief, and her anger. Those are words that must be written at a later time. For now, just know that she’s dealing with it. Actually, she’s not, but it is a fact of life that she has come to accept, it’s a paradox that she’s still in shock.
That is the girl I left behind. She was a collision of confused antonyms, as am I, but where they left her dizzy and unsteady, they left me anchored, and in control. I am inspired by her, and she is the secret beneath my writings as I hope to be the same to the woman I become in the future.
I hope you like the stories I tell in the cemetery of the girl I left behind.
-KICKA | https://medium.com/@originofkicka/here-lies-the-body-of-the-girl-i-left-behind-84a0ff68d998 | [] | 2020-12-19 00:44:46.341000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Progress', 'Poetry', 'Suicide', 'Reality'] |
The journey with Maboyz | One of the side streets off Ngong Road, Nairobi
Jamboni marafiki wangu! Hello my friends. It is interesting how my language changes when I am overseas. Certain nuances in the way we talk in the states are different than the English spoken here, and it takes a few days to get acculturated to these differences, but its great when I return, and I throw in a few Swahili words by accident when I talk to people ☺ If I speak to you in the week after, expect an accidental “sawa” or “sindyo” thrown in the conversation. I’ll tell you right now sawa means “OK”, and sindyo means “Yes, No?” or the best equivalent is “Ya know?”
Sawa, let me continue this journal of my time overseas. Sawa? Sawa!
Quick recap: meeting with Maboyz again here in Nairobi has made a huge change in my plans here. I basically talked a lot of smack before I left. Many of you heard me say “Yea, I’m gonna climb mount Kenya!” or “Hey! Gonna climb the highest mountain in Kenya” but really — things change when you get here. And being here and seeing Maboyz again, I realize I’d rather spend more time with them, so, instead of taking a 4 day trek into the wilderness, I’m gonna be spending one night in Nakuru, which is a lake town and game park, north of Nairobi. I hope to see some Rhinos and Leopards, sindiyo?
Sawa.
As I wrote before, I have felt kinda torn being here. I have so much attachment to the guys I’ve been working with since my last visit, earlier this year, and seeing how much they’ve changed and how much their group has grown in numbers, maturity, and consistency, makes me want to be a part of it so much more, but it is sad because I know I have to leave.
But it’s been both difficult, wonderful, painful, and rewarding. Last night they had at the church , what they call, a Kesha, or an all night vigil of prayer, singing, skits, games, movie, etc. As for me, I’m not one who can pray for 8 hours straight, most of my prayer, I like to spend alone, I guess. But its good with the masses every so often. A few of the guys showed up, and as they were arriving, I was upstairs in my flat, getting ready to play some guitar and leading the group in some songs. It’s been a long (very long) time since I’ve done that sorta thing, and so I was nervous. Plus the guitar I was to use, had a broken string. And I get very particular about sound, and if I’m missing a string, I get worked up. So I was lucky to have a friend downstairs named Tim who had a guitar and was generous enough to let me borrow it for the evening.
Once the gathering started, one of the guys walked in, and let’s just say he wasn’t doing too well. We told him he should go home, get sobered up and then come back. I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, but it did make sense at the time. Maybe it’s about building discipline, if he can control himself one day a week? I dunno, I have no idea how these things work, but as far as addiction goes, I can sympathize. I think we all can. There’s always something that has us kinda bound: big things, small things. It’s all the same at the end, just some have bigger consequences than others.
He ended up leaving and the night continued. But with a sort of bittersweet note, for me. I was spending most of the time worried about this kid. As I started playing Tim’s guitar… the most amazing thing happened, the strap broke. Then, a string popped, then another string snapped! And my one hour gig, turned into 15 minutes of clumsy, yet very musical, playing and singing, and for those 15 minutes, everyone was feeling it. Well, at least I was for sure ☺
It was also special because it was the first time Nadia and I sang and played together in such a long time and it was kick-ass for sure.
I’m writing this in MS Word (for Mac) (since I have no net connection right now), and I’m surprised to find that “kickass” is not recognized by the spell checker, and is telling me that I’ve misspelled it. I guess it’s time to add “kickass” to the correct spelling list ☺
OBAMA 2008!
Sawa.
At around 1:30am, in the middle of an intense game of Bible trivia, boys vs. girls, I’m told that the boy from earlier, was passed out on the street right outside the gate, and had been sleeping there in the cold for bout 2 hours.
Mena and I tried to wake him up, but he would not budge, so the guards kept an eye on him and we went back at 2:30 to get him.
Mena and Junae and Kimani, three brothers who are living here in Kenya. I’m just so amazed by them, and their love for the guys, and how much work they’ve put into their group in the last 7 months. I’m happy to know that they are here as I don’t think anyone else could do the job, sindiyo?
We brought him in, and spent until 4:30 with him keeping him company, trying to get him to stay alert. We got him food and tea, it was hard. This guy was a really amazing person, yet, covered by so much crap. You see the potential, yet you know he doesn’t really want help, or maybe he doesn’t think there’s a way out. At the end of the day, it’s a challenge in letting go, but loving and pursuing, and staying dedicated unconditionally. But how that balance is achieved is very hard.
He couldn’t even hold the tea, because he was shaking so much.
At the end, I feel just so inadequate. Inadequate to help, and inadequate to have any answers to why this is the way it is. But you have to keep on going, because it isn’t about me. But you can’t do this kinda work without seeing yourself in these guys. You have to relate to your own struggles, and your own challenges. These guys serve me, I think more than I serve them.
Couldn’t sleep at all, but finally passed out around 6am, waking up at 10. Not much sleep.
We had the Maboyz meeting a few hours ago, and we tried a few new exercises with them, challenging them to go deeper. What a lovely time it was though. To see these guys open up, and learn to trust each other more. It is really something magical to just witness.
One of the guys in particular, told me how sad he was that I was gonna leave in a week.
“What have you decided about Maboyz, Paul? Will you come stay with us?”
How do you answer such a question?
It feels good to be loved. It humbles me. I know for sure that for now I am supposed to be in New York. What the future has, I have no idea, but one thing is for sure, being in Kenya is part of my yearly plan.
Earlier that day,I was thinking about how the new guys I really don’t connect as well as the older ones because we didn’t have time to spend one on one like I had with the others.
But fate has it, that today, the new guys all showed up earlier, and the rest showed up an hour later, and it really gave us a good chance to bond.
We had fun though, one of the guys taught me some Kempo Karate. I told some of the guys the story of Che Guevarra, Che’s image is an icon all over Kenya, yet no one really knows who he is, where he came from, or what he did. Matatu vehicles all over the country have his icon branded on the rear window, and as they drive by, and you hear the muffled sound of what is to the passengers, piercing Ragga (not reggae) music, vibrating down the sometimes rocky, sometimes smooth roads of Nairobi.
But I digress.
I am here now at the Java house, unwinding with a cup of coffee, and writing these things out. I’m an introvert, actually, and I need these times every day in order to stay sane ☺
I have a lot to think about, but I look forward to a few relaxing days in the countryside amongst the rivers, the mountains, hyenas and flamingos.
More to come, and more photos as well — Give my best to my city, and my country, and I miss you all so much. Chau locos! | https://medium.com/master-of-some/the-journey-with-maboyz-c9bdbd1d5997 | ['Paul Kist'] | 2018-09-23 00:26:11.675000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Rehabilitation', 'Healing', 'Nairobi', 'Spirituality'] |
Improving Traveloka Web Performance | In the previous article, we’ve discussed how we built a performance culture in Traveloka. This article is a technical follow-up on how we improve our web performance using various techniques.
Before going further, I’m going to lay out a few constraints that we have in Traveloka that may affect how you approach and solve performance problems on your end. Different constraints might result in different solutions. So, make your decision based on the constraint that you currently have.
With that said, here are our four constraints:
Server-Side Rendering (SSR), not static HTML . We render content in our node.js service with the data we get from the backend.
. We render content in our node.js service with the data we get from the backend. High volume of server-side API calls . Typical pages have at least six API calls.
. Typical pages have at least six API calls. Backend-defined views . We have a few pages, where the contents are defined exclusively in the API response.
. We have a few pages, where the contents are defined exclusively in the API response. Multiproducts monorepo. As of this writing, we have 30+ products deployed into 20+ separate services inside a single repository. Some of them are still deployed in a single monolith.
General Optimization
These are the kinds of applicable optimization that improve performance across Traveloka’s pages. As you’ll see later, we have another approach that only applies to specific products or features.
The first optimization that we did was to switch to Brotli for a better compression algorithm. In our testing, Brotli compressed 15–40% smaller than its gzip counterparts on the same files. We also noticed a 15% Lighthouse score improvement average across our pages.
Optimizing compression also has a nice side effect on bandwidth usage in our CDN. We’re typically serving a few hundred terabytes of static assets in our Cloudfront a month. With 23% less bandwidth, the cost saving is definitely noticeable.
Considering the implementation itself is fairly straightforward, it’s a nice win.
Brotli for Dynamic Data
We generate HTML at runtime instead of serving static files. We also have a separate API proxy service that forwards requests to different backends serving JSON data. We want these services to have a small response with acceptable latency.
Because HTML and JSON are dynamically generated, we have to carefully balance between CPU usage and compression performance. Based on our experiments, the sweet spot for Brotli’s settings is at quality=4 (out of 11) and lgwin=20 (out of 24) at runtime. Such configuration results in 20% reduction in response size with barely noticeable increase in CPU usage compared to gzip.
We use Express to serve those data. But unfortunately, since its compression library hasn’t supported Brotli yet, we use an implementation from one of the PRs.
Brotli for Static Assets
There are various methods that you can use to serve static assets with Brotli. If you’re using AWS CloudFront, Brotli is now supported. In our case, however, due to the lack of official support during our implementation back then, we decided to use Lambda@Edge, CloudFront, and S3 until today. Using Lambda@Edge handler, we can rewrite the request based on the request header to serve either Brotli or gzip. This is important because not all browsers support Brotli.
First, we create two static assets in our Continuous Integration (CI); normal (uncompressed) and Brotli-compressed (with .br extension) using the highest settings for quality and lgwin at 11 and 24 respectively as we also do compression at build time. Then, we upload them to an S3 bucket that is already configured to be served using CloudFront with the correct header such as Content-Encoding .
The next step is to setup Lambda@Edge to handle Origin Request events in CloudFront, add Accept-Encoding to whitelisted headers, and set cache behavior to follow whitelisted headers.
The logic in the Lambda function itself just reads the current HTTP request, checks whether the Accept-Encoding key in the HTTP header contains a value of br, and appends a .br to the HTTP request URL before forwarding it to S3.
Figure 1. The Lambda@Edge’s logic to add Brotli support in CloudFront.
The cost associated with executing a Lambda function is practically zero because it doesn’t get executed twice due to the presence of cached assets in CloudFront that inactivates an Origin Request event. Consequently, we are able to reduce the average file download size by up to 40%, with the greatest reduction in JavaScript assets.
Bundle Optimization
Another general optimization that we implemented was in the bundler / package manager level. This approach might be slightly different per company as the tools that we use have different challenges or quirks depending on how they are used. This optimization is purely focused in reducing the bundle size.
For additional context, we use Yarn (over npm) as our package manager of choice for its superior support for monorepo workflow. We also use webpack and Babel as our bundler combo.
The most important step in optimizing bundle size is running “bundle & coverage analysis” to find unused parts with tools such as webpack-bundle-analyzer and Chrome DevTools Coverage tab. In our experience, bundle problems mainly arise from either tree shaking issues or premature assets loading.
Tree Shaking Optimization
One common tree-shaking issue can be caused by a non-major dependency version mismatch. With monorepo using Yarn’s workspace, instead of packages having individual copies of the same dependency, a single copy is hoisted (moved) to their relative root directory and shared. In cases where such sharing arrangement doesn’t work as intended, you’ll see your code loads the same dependency twice in the bundle analyzer.
Figure 2. webpack-bundle-analyzer shows duplicate Moment bundle.
To fix this duplication, you can use yarn-deduplicate to make sure that the generated lockfile is acceptable. You can also add additional safeguard by using require.resolve module method and resolve.alias module option in webpack config in order to resolve dependencies path before (not when) any module traversal happens so that each reference to the dependencies will always refer to the same node_modules path.
Figure 3. Webpack config using resolve.alias module option and require.resolve module method.
We also use this approach for dependencies, where we have different file names as entry points such as index.web.js that contains ES import, but index.js itself uses CommonJS. Even after adding resolve.extensions module option, webpack still incorrectly tree-shaked this module.
Figure 4. Webpack config to fix tree-shaking issues caused by resolve.extensions module option.
Those approaches might work to some extent. But as a last resort, you can use Yarn resolution to force dependencies inside your project to be a single version. This approach can also be useful if you use private dependencies in multiple packages, where you only need to specify a wildcard ( * ) as a dependency requirement in your package.json file and set the actual version using the resolutions field in root package.json .
Another thing you need to check is whether your dependencies set sideEffects: false in package.json as a directive for webpack to create a more optimal bundle. If they don’t and you notice that the result from that package is suboptimal, you can force it using a webpack config. You just need to be sure that it really is side effect-free.
Figure 5. Webpack config to force dependencies to be side effect-free
We also noticed misconfiguration of preset-env and node_modules transpilation in webpack config could cause improper tree-shaked modules. We carefully tested a combination of webpack include and exclude module rules, and used oneOf module option instead of multiple rules to make sure that each transpilation config targets specific module paths with no overlap. Such configuration reduced up to 180kB and 124kB on average for mobile web entry points.
The last optimization we made was disabling the Buffer polyfill in the webpack config, which saved around 20kB.
Resource Loading Optimization
This technique is commonly referred to as code splitting but it’s usually more nuanced than a simple change from static import to dynamic import. The goal of this optimization is to strike a balance between fast first load and quick future interactions. Similar to all previous approaches, it’s always better to run “bundle & coverage analysis” as well before doing any performance optimization.
The goal of this optimization is to strike a balance between fast first load and quick future interactions.
The way you optimize for assets loading depends on how you structure your app. Here’s two examples from our use cases:
We don’t fetch A/B test libraries (including the config from API) if no experiment is running. This is possible because we statically define experimentation in the route level.
We fetch heavy client-side navigation logic in parallel with the succeeding Next.js route components. Leveraging the fact that a promise object is immutable, we create a single instance that is awaited during client-side navigation but fetched inside Next.js routeChangeStart events.
Despite fixing some of the performance issues that we’ve found so far with optimization techniques through those two use cases, optimization is still a continuous effort and we’re thankful we already have implemented a good system in place to monitor web performance.
Framework-level Optimization
Sometimes, improving existing apps can only get you so far and this is also the case for us. Our legacy service, while working well, still has suboptimal performance even after various optimizations. Consequently, in addition to some other technical reasons, we decided to build an entirely new SDK for our customer-facing sites (codenamed TVLK5). With this scheme, we observed a 30–60% improvement across all lighthouse metrics on top of already optimized pages using previous approaches.
Figure 6. Performance metrics for pilot release of TVLK5 service back in December 2019. Many more improvements have been made since then.
There were a lot of changes in TVLK5 that may warrant another post but here are four approaches that contributed to better overall performance:
No External CSS
We stop using external CSS files via CSS Modules as it’s tricky to work with in some code splitting scenarios due to how style rules are applied based on insertion.
We replace it with a single critical style that is generated on server-render time. This new approach allows us to code-split the components with more confidence even with JS disabled.
There’s no exact number of how much this method alone improves performance as we’re also rewriting our components using the new design system from scratch. Based on unscientific measurement, it contributes to a significant improvement in the Speed Index alone.
We’re also able to move away from extracting optional critical styles at build time as not only is it prone to flaky results, but it’s also hard to set up & maintain.
Native Web APIs Utilization
We promote the use of standard browser API instead of npm modules such as Intl.DateFormat and Intl.NumberFormat over moment or date-fns and accounting respectively. We also add selective polyfills for Intl APIs using polyfill.io.
To support these efforts, we provide guaranteed interoperability between our API response and browser API input by using BCP47 language tag and ISO 4217 country code. We also make sure that our docs show an example of using these standard APIs.
Figure 7. In the currency section of our docs, we show users how to format using Intl.NumberFormat API.
Framework-specific Bundle Optimization
We provide alternative methods to improve web performance even more on a framework level in TVLK5 by initially adding the following two module loading patterns:
Progressive Hydration . Server-side rendered component that’s only loaded & hydrated after it’s visible on the screen using IntersectionObserver API.
. Server-side rendered component that’s only loaded & hydrated after it’s visible on the screen using IntersectionObserver API. Static Subtree. Server-side rendered component that doesn’t create client-side JS bundle, yet it still works on client-side navigation.
Another small change that changed the development way of TVLK5 was adding support for .client.ts file extension.
As our app is developed universally (for both server and client) using React components, having a special file extension for browser bundles makes previously tricky patterns become manageable.
In fact, both module loading patterns above are implemented using that special file extension.
API Call & SSR Logic Refactor
Previously, we fetched all API calls needed to server-render our site serially partly due to how we leveraged self-contained Express middleware. Over time, our Time to First Byte (TTFB) worsened because of this pattern.
Figure 8. Previous critical rendering path blocked by series of API calls.
As we rebuilt our site from the ground up, we identified the API that can be fetched in parallel. We also deferred some APIs to be fetched on the client-side to reduce server load even further.
Figure 9. Critical rendering path in TVLK5.
As an additional measure, we also added a few Server-Timing headers for better visibility of our TTFB breakdown. We’re also currently experimenting with API preload so that critical client-side API calls don’t need to wait for JS and React Hydrate to start fetching.
Above the Fold Optimization
While in the previous two sections, we’ve discussed global and framework-level optimizations that mostly happen in the “backstage”, we also have “frontstage” optimization that’s catered specific to a particular product or feature.
This optimization involves our third constraint: the Backend-defined Views (that we mentioned in the introduction section). The most common use case is to display an image carousel with different layout configurations.
Figure 10. Examples of Backend-defined Views UI.
As you probably notice, pages with this functionality (and layout) instantly become image-heavy pages. Considering image as the top contender for performance bottleneck, you can imagine the UX degradation in this scenario as it’s used as above the fold content.
To make matters worse, this is client-side rendered, which means users have to wait for TTFB, JS load, API call to finish prior to image rendering — four steps with varying degrees of bottlenecks.
“Smart” Server Rendering
The first change that we made was to customize the rendering behavior. Switching to SSR is not as straightforward as you might think because being developed client-side first means the way we usually implement layout (based on configured aspect ratio from the backend) assumes we have preliminary access to viewport width in JS.
In SSR, this assumption no longer works and we had to rewrite those calculations to use CSS calc function and abstract an AspectRatioContainer component to polyfill aspect-ratio CSS feature.
Next is balancing between slow API calls with Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric and Speed Index. If we wait until the API call is resolved, the user might stare at the blank screen for a while. To prevent such occurrences, we provide a timeout to server API calls and render UI skeleton if it passes our threshold and continue fetching and rendering in client-side.
That is something that React Suspense SSR can help but unfortunately, we have to settle with a few boilerplates as it’s not currently supported yet.
Image Optimization Checklist
It’s important if you have an image-heavy page that you use an image-serving proxy or CDN whose main benefits are resizing images on the fly (since the page is rendered dynamically based on screen width) and serving next-gen images without worrying about browser support. There’s a few paid services like Cloudinary, Imgix, or ImageKit. You can also host your own service.
A non-CDN consideration is Device Pixel Ratio (DPR). Image-serving CDN has the ability to serve dynamic images with the best quality possible to matching devices without making a tradeoff between quality and file size. Of course, it’s trickier if you consider SSR. But in most cases, you can get away with choosing the default DPR value based on the common device pattern that you see in your analytics.
Adding preload also helps to prioritize image loading. The key to preloading images is balancing the number of specified preloads with the network limit. In our case, we only preload the first 2 images in the first 3 sections of any page. This value is calculated based on the common screen size and UI configuration that are typically served to the users.
To avoid double fetching, you have to make sure all preloaded images use the same DPR value (or any image query)
Figure 11. An example of double fetching of the same image because of specifying different URL (query string).
Lastly, consider setting good defaults for your image component. For example, we set importance="low" and loading="lazy" by default so that we only need to explicitly configure them when we want a different loading strategy. In our observation, using JS-based lazy-loaded images resulted in a relatively poor performance. So, we opt to use native API without polyfill. But your mileage may vary in your own environment.
Other SSR tips for better LCP
When you’re doing server-side rendering with universal (or some people call isomorphic) approach, it’s possible to have different rendering methods for server and client, whose component depends on browser-specific API. However, if you’re not careful, you might end up with a lower performance score than before or worse, a broken or unintended rendering behavior.
In general, you should avoid relying on typeof window expression directly in render and use component lifecycle or effects instead to determine which environment such component renders in. The Perils of Rehydration explains an issue perfectly when there’s a mismatch between server & client.
We had stumbled upon a peculiar case as well (which is understandable given our unusual approach as followed). In our app, we wrap the root component with React.Suspense API because there are a few other APIs that leverage Suspense for data fetching on the client-side. The problem arose due to our utilization of Next.js, whose code was also used for server-side rendering and Suspense is not yet supported in SSR.
Initially, we worked around this roadblock by using a special client extension that replaced React.Suspense API with React.Fragment on the server. It turned out this approach caused a severe performance issue albeit oblivious to the UX (at least based on our testing) as it caused React to trigger repaint on hydration, which in turn, caused LCP timing to be recalculated even though there was no visible changes in the screenshot timeline before and after LCP was measured (we even compared those two images pixel by pixel).
We finally fixed this issue by removing the top level Suspense and wrapping other Suspense boundaries using react-no-ssr wrapper. This approach decreased our LCP timing from 4.8s to 0.8s. A massive improvement in the Lighthouse score and yet, no noticeable difference in the actual user experience.
User Experience > Lighthouse Score
Finally, I want to end this post with a note that UX triumphs over any metric any day. Lighthouse score should only be used as a proxy and not as an ultimacy (to get a perfect score by sacrificing UX or worse, by cheating in measurement).
Let’s revisit the previous case of Backend-defined Views performance improvement that can be seen below in Figure 12:
Figure 12. Previous Backend-defined Views rendering timeline.
And compare it to the after-version in a similar time slice below in Figure 13:
Figure 13. Current Backend-defined Views rendering timeline.
Can you guess the score differences between the two? Not that much actually. They basically have the same score.
But which is actually better in terms of user experience? Due to the difference in perceived performance, I’d say it’s the second one because I could see the contents displayed faster in the second approach.
With more tools available for us to measure, monitor, and improve web performance, we should always remember that ultimately what we need to improve is the user experience. Perceived performance is harder to measure and yet reflects more of the actual user experience in using your sites or apps.
As you rely on Continuous Integration (CI) to prevent any regression of your web performance, you also have to keep testing it using real and most commonly used devices and see how the experience feels.
Recap
Techniques to improve web performance vary depending on the constraints that you have but the fundamental principles stay the same: reducing bundle size to the minimal, deferring loading unused resources on the first interaction, loading the right resources just-in-time as they’re needed, preparing optimized loading strategy for further interactions, and utilizing predictive loading to make screen transitions faster.. Moreover, always think as a real user and prioritize contents that matter most to them.
Besides UX and application architecture, you also need to have a good knowledge of bundler and its ecosystem. The flexibility and diversity of the JavaScript ecosystem means it’s hard to find the right tools that perform well for all scenarios without any adjustment. Sometimes, you need to get your hands dirty debugging and configuring bundler to get optimal results. Tools like webpack-bundle-analyzer, Chrome DevTools JS coverage, or source-map-explorer can help you find spots to maximize improvements.
The most important thing is to have a good culture in place where engineers care about web performance and have the right tools to warn the metrics you care about of any regression. These are some of the ways you can keep improving your web performance as you develop more features or even new products. | https://medium.com/traveloka-engineering/improving-traveloka-web-performance-975d3b406f01 | ['Fatih Kalifa'] | 2020-12-02 03:04:40.902000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Web Performance', 'Traveloka', 'Optimization'] |
Introducing: wavefest, a live online music festival | Over the last year, online music festivals (“URL festivals”) have become a staple of underground electronic music. Surely they weren’t invented this year, but you wouldn’t think that from the novel and idiosyncratic experience they offer. In 2018, events like Coalchella, Shimotsuki Club, and Language Night on the Porter Robinson Discord attracted thousands of listeners to hop on Discord and Minecraft servers and listen to sets from dozens of talented artists.
Some of you might know that wave.ac made a point of appearing at Coalchella, as well as becoming involved by sponsoring alike events. Around this time, our lead developer Kian started planning our first live event — it would be unfair to say we weren’t inspired by Coalchella and events like it, but Kian and I met some years ago on plug.dj during an alike online experience.
We know firsthand that events like this bring people together, allow artists to share new music, and bring unbridled value to our corner of the music industry. For that reason, we’re proud to announce the first wave.ac live event — wavefest, a live online music festival.
wavefest will be held on January 26, 2019 and will start at 4pm ET/9pm GMT. The event will feature 12 performances — including two unique back-to-back sets and one live show performance — from 16 of our absolute favourite artists. We’ll be streaming live from wavefest.wave.ac with a chat room on the wave.ac discord server.
We’re extremely excited and we hope you are too. We hope to see you at wavefest. In the mean time, stay tuned — we’ll be announcing the set times and some other surprises on Twitter, Facebook, and our Discord.
Thanks!❤
~wave.ac team (Noah, Kian, and Noah) + the wavefest performers | https://medium.com/waveac/introducing-wavefest-a-live-online-music-event-1dd19fb87d05 | ['Noah Weidner'] | 2019-01-05 00:09:00.806000+00:00 | ['Live Streaming', 'Music', 'Performance', 'Live'] |
Why Sci-Fi Is Bad for Design | Why Sci-Fi Is Bad for Design
Tech that looks cool in the movies is often distracting and frustrating for real users
Amazon’s Home of the Future consists mostly of voice-activated parlor tricks. Photos courtesy of the author.
Science fiction visions, especially as presented in movies and television shows, have infected our approach to UX and product design. They have nudged us to mistake visualizations that were created for maximum dramatic appeal for solutions that are feasible and desirable, especially over the long term. What looks cool in a science fiction film is frequently frustrating, distracting, and convoluted to use.
I recently got a chance to preview Amazon’s “Home of the Future.” It was the oldest thing I’d seen in years. You can see why in this photo I took of the interior: Sterile and impersonal, it looked less like a home than a showroom, harkening back to retro-future themes from Monsanto’s vision of “the kitchen of the future” from the 1950s. Amazon innovates in many different ways, but this home takes voice to an unnecessary new level. For instance, you can ask Alexa to make some popcorn for you, but you have to include both the brand name and the weight of the popcorn in your request.
Amazon’s “Home of the Future” subscribes to an outdated idea about what convenience, coziness, and usability really feels like. Consider several technologies we first saw in science fiction that have evolved into whole industries:
Gesture control
Since its debut in 2002, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report has been an archetypal reference point for technologists enthralled by the way Tom Cruise could manipulate complex data with dramatic swipes of his hands.
But what looks amazing for a few minutes of screentime doesn’t necessarily perform as well offscreen. Can you imagine how sore your muscles would be after using this system for eight hours a day?
I can: On a visit to the MIT Media Lab in 2008, I tried out a gesture control system just like the one from Minority Report. At first, I loved how it looked and felt, but I quickly noticed my arms aching. While gesturing with my hands above my heart, less blood pumped into my arms, causing strain. I couldn’t possibly imagine using a gesture control setup like that for over an hour. Picking up and dragging files is extremely tedious. Tom Cruise even shows us how frustrating the user interaction is in the actual film: There’s a scene where he reaches out to shake the hand of a visitor, and everything on his screen drops! Nevertheless, Minority Report has inspired businesspeople to dream up systems that would require people to use controls like this all day.
What’s more, I realized that not everyone has the fine motor control to learn precise gestures and perform them with consistent accuracy. The system would have to filter out quite a few false positives, which require far more computing resources than a basic button or multi-touch system. Anyone familiar with Fitts’s Law, which suggests that user response time greatly depends on the size of a target and the user’s distance from it, can see the problems inherent in the Minority Report system: It requires large, sweeping motions for even the smallest of interactions, while similar actions aren’t clustered together. I would never want a system like this to play Mario Brothers when a simple wired video game controller is precisely responsive 100% of the time.
By contrast, consider some more feasible, if less glamorous, alternatives: Nonprofit tech lab Dynamicland has created projected interfaces that don’t require gesture recognition (above). You just use a laser pointer to interact with the surfaces. That way, you can keep your hands at waist level and use less effort.
For that matter, during your next visit to a restaurant, watch the waitstaff type in an order or settle a bill through a touch-based point-of-sale system. These are often ugly but speedy interfaces. The buttons are large, the tablet sits at an angle, and completing a task requires no more than a few taps that quickly become muscle memory.
I once met one of the top designers of “futuristic interfaces” for major Hollywood movies. He told me that any time he tries to design something that’s actually usable, clients shoot him down. They want the fancy panels and transparent glass interfaces people expect from films. He is kept from promoting better user experience in films by this aesthetic he helped create.
Voice activation and artificial ‘intelligence’
Since at least the first Star Trek series, it’s been a standard trope: In the future, we’ll simply speak out loud to an “intelligent” agent that would instantly understand our vocal patterns the moment we express them.
Cinematically, this technology makes a lot of sense: It’s more interesting and narratively efficient to watch Tony Stark solve technical problems while pacing in his lab and talking to Jarvis, as opposed to watching him sit silently at a desk, typing into a computer.
But that does not mean voice-controlled interfaces are always a feasible real-life solution. Unlike in a movie, in which dozens of crew members tightly control and modify the audio of every scene, we usually live and work in places full of noise that can easily confuse voice activation. The technology also assumes that everyone speaks with standard, precise diction, even though many or perhaps most people do not. But all that aside, the goal of an artificial intelligence capable of understanding common sense requests remains decades away.
Which takes me back to Amazon’s “Home of the Future” that I recently toured. The creators of the house boasted that all of the appliances were connected to Alexa voice activation. But when I asked Alexa to microwave popcorn, she replied, “What is the weight of popcorn?” Have you ever known exactly how much popcorn you’re popping? I finally looked for the weight of popcorn listed on the bag and told her the amount, but it didn’t pop all the way. To get water from the faucet, I had to ask Alexa to tell Delta — yes, you literally had to address the appliance by its brand name — to “fill the glass with 4 ounces of water.”
To be fair, there was at least one instance where precise measurement sort of worked: for activating the shower. While getting prepared, you could simply ask Alexa to warm the water to your ideal temperature. But overall, Alexa had mainly succeeded in making everyday conveniences uniquely inconvenient.
Feasible or sci-fi? A starting checklist
It may take years of rewiring to cultivate a design community that’s free from sci-fi’s framing biases. Doing that might require an internal checklist that includes questions like this:
1. Is the solution more dramatically appealing than it is a practical utility?
In the same way that a parlor trick makes us wonder how the flashy payoff hides the illusionist’s sleight of hand, we should be suspicious when a product provides a dramatic “ta da!” Google and Craigslist are incredibly boring to look at and haven’t had their user interfaces significantly updated for nearly two decades, and partly for those very reasons, they remain incredibly useful. They’re pass-through interfaces that work based on speed. When we need to use something again and again, it’s less important that it looks flashy or impresses dinner guests. It needs to use the least amount of attention and effort, just like a light switch.
2. Can you picture this solution working in multiple contexts for an extended period?
Sci-fi depictions of futuristic products are typically presented for a few minutes or seconds in an ideal context. For a more accurate representation, consider how they would fare over the long term in different environments, especially when used by multiple kinds of people (children, disabled, elderly) throughout an entire day, multiple times a day for years. If your appliance requires an iPhone app to work, consider the day when iPhones might not be the dominant device. Or that when someone divorces or sells their home, they’ll need to hand over the app permissions to a new owner.
3. Does the solution prevent monetary loss?
Most technologies come with inherent costs, not just in the initial purchase, but for the near-inevitable requirement of buying batteries and other replacement parts over the years of its life. Very few technologies prevent monetary loss, and this is a key way emerging tech can truly benefit users. Coming up with a concrete cost estimate can help us better weigh any supposed advantages the product is meant to provide. For instance, consider this idea for a Home of the Future: When rain gutters become clogged, water can’t be diverted away from the house, causing it to freeze and crack the foundation in the winter. A solar-powered gutter sensor that glows orange when it’s filled with leaves would be visible at night — and save thousands of dollars in foundation repair bills.
Finally, consider asking yourself a question that was echoing through my own mind as I wandered Amazon’s Home of the Future: Does this solution enhance your ideal vision of that context?
When I picture a home that’s a model of domestic tranquility, I visualize happy family and friends sharing dinner outside in the sun, surrounded by trees and flowers. They prepare their meal together, perhaps with ingredients picked by the kids from their garden, in a kitchen full of chatter and personal mementos. I suspect most people, when asked, would describe a similar vision. Notably, automation and other high-tech enhancements don’t seem relevant to this pleasing mental image; they might even threaten to become distractions to that happy idyll. | https://modus.medium.com/why-sci-fi-is-bad-for-design-8805e093cc4d | ['Amber Case'] | 2019-11-20 12:01:02.099000+00:00 | ['Ideas', 'Design', 'Craft', 'Science Fiction', 'Tech'] |
Exploring React Context API with React Hooks | React has come a long way since it has been initially released on 29, May 2013 and now it has been one of the top javascript libraries for front end development. Today I am going to talk about React Context API and how to use React Hooks with it. Before starting to code let us take look back at the history and talk about how state management is done in React.
What is State Management
State management refers to the management of the state of an application. This state can be changed in every component of an application. The state can be needed only by a single component or multiple components might be needed the same state.
How React Handled State Management in the Past
In the beginning, React handled this state management by passing each state from parent to its children component. Hence if a sibling component also needs the same state, the state will be moved to a common parent high up in the order.
This immediately brings up an issue where there will be unnecessary state transfer from parents to the child even though that state is not required by that child. This issue is called prop drilling where you have to go through to get data to parts of the React Component tree.
How Redux Solved Prop Drilling
Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps. Redux makes it easy to manage the state of your application. Redux uses a global store to store the state of the application in one place. By using this store any component can use this store and do modifications to the state. This solves the issue with prop drilling where we do not need to pass state from parents to child. A component can access the state in the global store by using actions and reducers in the Redux library.
What is React Context API
The React Context API is a component structure provided by the React framework, which enables us to share specific forms of data across all levels of the application. This aims to solve the same problem where Redux is used to solve, prop drilling. It is available since React version 16.3. Basically Context API is React’s way of managing state in multiple components that are not directly connected.
Redux Vs Context API
This is one of the hot topics in the developer community these days, what are the pros and cons with Redux and Context API and whether Context API will replace Redux in the future. Time will let us know whether Context API will replace Redux in future React applications. But below are some advantages over Redux when using Context API.
It’s built into React and you, therefore, need no extra third-party dependencies.
It has a relatively easy learning curve compared to Redux.
Less extra code needed compared to Redux.
That’s it for the history of the React and what evolutions have happened for state management. Now let us talk about the main topic of this post, React Context API.
React Context API
As mentioned above React Context API is a component structure provided by the React framework, which enables us to share specific forms of data across all levels of the application. There are three main things related to Context API
React.createContext : This creates a context object.
: This creates a context object. Context.Provider : This is what makes the state available to all child components
: This is what makes the state available to all child components Context.Consumer: This consumes the data from the Provider without any need for prop drilling
The above mentioned three items are the main components we will be using when we implement React Context API. We will try to integrate these components with React Hooks to try achieve full functional capability of Context API.
What are React Hooks
React Hooks are a type of function that enables the execution of custom code in a base code. In React, Hooks are special functions that allow us to “hook into” its core features. React Hooks provide an alternative to writing class-based components by allowing us to easily handle state management from functional components.
Enough of talking chit chat on theory, now let’s start doing some coding with React Context API using React Hooks. Our feature will be to develop a simple application with a login form with a simple header where header values will be changed depending on a user logged in or not.
We can create a simple React application using the below command in a terminal.
npx create-react-app context-example-app
npm install react-bootstrap bootstrap
npm install react-router-bootstrap
The first command will install react modules and create project structure while the second command will install react-bootstrap styles which we are going to use as our style components. The third command installs the react-router for bootstrap. To add react-bootstrap in our application make sure to add following line to index.js file as well.
<link
rel="stylesheet"
href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css"
integrity="sha384-Vkoo8x4CGsO3+Hhxv8T/Q5PaXtkKtu6ug5TOeNV6gBiFeWPGFN9MuhOf23Q9Ifjh"
crossorigin="anonymous"
/>
After successfully running the above commands create two folders inside src folder named Header and Login. These two folders will contain the functions required in our header and login page respectively.
Let’s first create our login page. Add the below code to Login.js inside Login folder.
import React, { useState } from 'react'
import {FormControl, FormGroup, FormLabel, Button, } from 'react-bootstrap' import './Login.css' const Login = () => {
const [userName, setUserName] = useState('')
const [password, setPassword] = useState(''); const handleSubmit = () => {
} return (
<div className="Login">
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
<FormGroup controlId="email" bsSize="large">
<FormLabel>User Name</FormLabel>
<FormControl
autoFocus
type="text"
value={userName}
onChange={e => setUserName(e.target.value)}
/>
</FormGroup>
<FormGroup controlId="password" bsSize="large">
<FormLabel>Password</FormLabel>
<FormControl
value={password}
onChange={e => setPassword(e.target.value)}
type="password"
/>
</FormGroup>
<Button block bsSize="large"
type="submit">Login</Button>
</form>
</div>
)} export default Login;
The below code describes styles for Login page. Add a new file named Login.css and add the below code.
@media all and (min-width: 480px) {
.Login {
padding: 60px 0;
} .Login form {
margin: 0 auto;
max-width: 320px;
}
}
In Login.js we use two state values for the component, user name and password and by using useState we provide methods to change these states. handleSubmit() method is currently empty because this is where we are going to use Context API later. Now let's focus on the Header component.
import React, { Fragment, useContext } from 'react'
import { LinkContainer } from 'react-router-bootstrap'
import { Navbar, Nav, NavItem } from 'react-bootstrap'; const Header = () =>{
return (
<Navbar bg="light" expand="lg">
<Navbar.Brand href="#home">React-Bootstrap</Navbar.Brand>
<Navbar.Toggle aria-controls="basic-navbar-nav" />
<Navbar.Collapse id="basic-navbar-nav">
<Nav className="mr-auto">
<Nav.Link href="#home">Home</Nav.Link>
<Nav.Link href="#link">Link</Nav.Link>
</Nav>
<Nav pullRight>
<LinkContainer to="/login">
<NavItem>Login</NavItem>
</LinkContainer>
</Nav>
</Navbar.Collapse>
</Navbar>
)
} export default Header;
Add above code to Header.js file inside Header folder. Now lets quickly add the route of login page and Header component in the app.js file.
import React from 'react';
import './App.css';
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Route } from 'react-router-dom' import Header from './Header/Header'
import Login from './Login/Login' function App() {
return (
<div >
<Router>
<Header />
<Route path='/login' component={Login} />
</Router>
</div>
);
} export default App;
Now if you go to http://localhost:3000/ you will see the below page.
Main Page
Click on Login button and you will be directed to the login page as below.
Login page
Now, let us start creating context and using it. Contexts are created using createContext function where it accepts state as an argument.
const newContext = React.createContext({ name: 'Janitha' });
This state provided will be the initial state for this context. This newContext will return an object with a Provider and a Consumer component.
const { Provider, Consumer } = newContext;
Provider will make this state available for all the components in the application while Consumer is the object which will consume this state.
<Provider value={name: 'Janitha'}>
{children}
</Provider> <Consumer>
{value => <span>{value}</span>}}
</Consumer>
This still does not be the replacement solution for Redux as we need to provide Provider and Consumer at each component level. For that, we use React Hooks, specifically useReducer hook.
The useReducer Hook
The useReducer hook allows functional components in React access to reducer functions from your state management. It is just like the reduce() method in JavaScript. The useReducer hook receives two values as its argument —the first argument is the current state and the second, an action — and then it returns a new state.
const [state, dispatch] = useReducer((state, action) => {
switch(action.action) {
case 'ACTION_TYPE':
const newState = // do state modifications
return newState;
default:
return state;
}
}, []);
In the above code block, we’ve defined our state and a corresponding method to handle that state, dispatch. When we call the dispatch method, the useReducer() Hook will perform an action based on the action.type that our method receives in its action argument.
Now as we know useReducer hook let’s creating our store and do state management using Context API. Create a folder named Store and add below code to a file named Store.js
import React, {createContext, useReducer} from 'react'; const initialState = {};
const store = createContext(initialState); const { Provider } = store; const StateProvider = ( { children } ) => {
const [state, dispatch] = useReducer((state, action) => {
switch(action.type) {
case 'ADD_USER':
return { ...state, userName : action.payload.userName}
default:
return state;
};
}, initialState);
return <Provider value={{ state, dispatch }}>{children}</Provider>;
}; export { store, StateProvider }
In our store.js file, we first create the context using createContext() method giving an initial state as {}. Then using useReducer() hook we create StateProvider where we define our actions and what will happen to our state based on that action. We have added one action named ‘ADD_USER’ which we will call when a user logged in through our login page. Next, we will export our Provider which is StateProvider to import to our application and store to use as a consumer in our other components.
Before accessing our store in other components we need to mention that our Provider is the StateProvider. We do that by wrapping around App in index.js file.
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import './index.css';
import App from './App'; import * as serviceWorker from './serviceWorker';
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css'; import {StateProvider} from './Store/Store' ReactDOM.render(<StateProvider> <App /></StateProvider>, document.getElementById('root')); serviceWorker.unregister();
Now our context which is store can be accessed from any component inside the application. Let’s first access this store in our Header component to identify whether a user logged in or not.
import { store } from '../Store/Store' const { state } = useContext(store);
First we need to import our store. Then we can access the state via using useContext which will provide us a consumer. By using that consumer we can access the state. Below is the full code for Header.js
import React, { Fragment, useContext } from 'react'
import { LinkContainer } from 'react-router-bootstrap'
import { Navbar, Nav, NavItem } from 'react-bootstrap'; import { store } from '../Store/Store' const Header = () => {
const { state } = useContext(store); const RightHeader = () => {
let userSection = (state.userName) ?
<LinkContainer to="/login"><NavItem>{state.userName}</NavItem
</LinkContainer>:
<Fragment>
<LinkContainer to="/login"><NavItem>Login</NavItem>
</LinkContainer></Fragment> let rightHeader = <Nav pullRight>{userSection} </Nav>
return (rightHeader)
} return (
<Navbar bg="light" expand="lg">
<Navbar.Brand href="#home">React-Bootstrap</Navbar.Brand
<Navbar.Toggle aria-controls="basic-navbar-nav" />
<Navbar.Collapse id="basic-navbar-nav">
<Nav className="mr-auto">
<Nav.Link href="#home">Home</Nav.Link>
<Nav.Link href="#link">Link</Nav.Link>
</Nav>
<Nav pullRight>
<LinkContainer to="/login">
<NavItem>Login</NavItem>
</LinkContainer>
</Nav>
</Navbar.Collapse>
</Navbar>
)
} export default Header;
First, we access our store using the consumer and access the state. Then depending on whether in our state we have a value for userName or not we show either login button or the user name in the header. Now next task is to assign this userName to the store on our login page. Below is the full code for our Login.js
import React, { useState, useContext } from 'react'
import {FormControl, FormGroup, FormLabel, Button, } from 'react-bootstrap'
import './Login.css' import {store } from '../../Store/Store' const Login = () => {
const globalState = useContext(store);
const { dispatch } = globalState;
const [userName, setUserName] = useState('')
const [password, setPassword] = useState(''); const handleSubmit = (e) => {
e.preventDefault();
dispatch({type : 'ADD_USER', payload : {userName : userName}})
} return (
<div className="Login">
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
<FormGroup controlId="email" bsSize="large">
<FormLabel>User Name</FormLabel>
<FormControl
autoFocus
type="text"
value={userName}
onChange={e => setUserName(e.target.value)}
/>
</FormGroup>
<FormGroup controlId="password" bsSize="large">
<FormLabel>Password</FormLabel>
<FormControl
value={password}
onChange={e => setPassword(e.target.value)}
type="password"
/>
</FormGroup>
<Button block bsSize="large"
disabled={!validateForm()}
type="submit">Login</Button>
</form>
</div>
)} export default Login;
Here inside handleSubmit() method, we call our dispatch with the action as ‘ADD_USER’ where our reducer will add userName to our global state. That’s it, now when a user sign in our header will automatically change the SignIn button to the user name.
That’s it for this post, obviously, this is not the best way to handle the login/header situation, but the main purpose of this post was to show how we can use React Context API with the use of React Hooks. I think this can be a starting point to explore more on this Context API and check whether this may replace Redux future in React applications. Thank you and see you in another post :) | https://medium.com/swlh/exploring-react-context-api-with-react-hooks-67b73eb36af0 | ['Janitha Tennakoon'] | 2020-05-23 02:49:43.473000+00:00 | ['Reactjs', 'React Hook', 'Redux', 'React'] |
Back To School Survival Kit: For Parents | Back To School Survival Kit: For Parents
Essential gear for schooling at home
Whether your kids are signed up for hybrid, remote learning, or homeschooling, here are some essential supplies to help parents at home survive these challenging times:
1. Acoustic Blankets
Use as a soundproofing curtain in your open plan apartment during simultaneous Zoom meetings. Blanket also provides a hiding place where parents’ screams are muffled.
2. Coffee Bladder Backpack
Provides continuous caffeine supply for managing kid schedules, mediating fights, solving IT problems, and taking in feedback that your traditional teaching methods are obsolete and wrong. The heated bladder soothes your aching back after extended periods of redirecting kids and picking up floor trash.
3. VR Technologies
Escape to your virtual reality breakroom. Go to the beach and get energized with a sunrise cocktail to kick off the morning. Relax while your kids studiously engage with their online curriculum.
4. Reward Sticker Chart For Parents Only
Good job! Acknowledge your hard work and perseverance with calendar stickers. Redeem each sticker for a special reward at the end of the school day. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/back-to-school-survival-kit-for-parents-2409761181b3 | ['Lynn I. Hsu'] | 2020-08-22 14:16:01.270000+00:00 | ['Homeschooling', 'Back To School', 'Parenting Advice', 'Humor', 'Comics'] |
Blockchain — Decentralisation for Everyone | Photo by Launchpresso on Unsplash
Blockchain is exactly what it sounds like, a chain of blocks.
Well, it is not as simple as that. Many of us know a little about the ledger system many institutions keep to build the trust people have in them. Yes, trust is what drives the economy, markets and financial systems.
The value of that 100 Rupee note in our pockets is based on trust, trust in the Government by the people, trust in the lenders by the Government, trust in the Government by the World Bank.
Trust — The central pact of value
Trust drives value, it is what makes sense of the exorbitant debt of every country. Trust gives meaning to transactions. Trust drives a country, from the backseat.
Without trust, there would be no system, let alone value.
Cryptography — The mathematical trust
Trust in the system is needed for the daily activities of each and every person under the sun. But, it is temporary and often abused without any remorse. Yet, trust in mathematical constructs is foundational and fundamental. Math can be tested time and time again to ascertain the correctness of the system.
Math cannot be hijacked by those in power.
Cryptographic Transaction Record — The perfect union
So, if transactions can be trusted just by the math behind them, then no system is required to verify them.
The system becomes both the enabler and the enforcer.
One such system is the Cryptographic Transaction Record in Blockchain. Yes, a blockchain is a cryptographic transaction record that tracks every transaction, large and small. Anything that is in the system, is tracked, and verified periodically to check the correctness in the record.
Public Record — A public scare
But, if all transactions are tracked, there is a significant chance that an individual can be tracked just by using the transaction record associated with them. This causes concern for people to use the system in the first place.
If all transactions can be associated with the person that initiates that transaction, then there is a very real possibility that the transactions associated with them will be monitored for meta-information. This meta-information can then be used to create a profile for the person making the transactions.
The trust in the system is broken, because of the machinery that enables it.
Encrypted Information — A layer of anonymity
There is a solution to this problem — Encrypting the information behind the transaction and then, embedding it. A lock and key solution, if you will.
A lock in the form of a public key, a key in the form of a private key.
Generic RSA algorithms that ensure that the encrypted transaction is accessible only to the person who created it and nobody else. This offers some respite for the people that need it.
Accessible Trust — A better financial model
Thus, trust is taken back from the prying hands of those in power and is made accessible to those who need to test it, to their heart’s content.
Trust is made to stand on a pedestal with lights lit brightly for everyone to see.
Trust regained back is trust given to the mathematical model, that detests everyone that tries to hijack it.
Trust is given back to the people, where it rightfully belongs. | https://medium.com/dsc-sastra-deemed-to-be-university/blockchain-for-dummies-12252996797c | ['Aravind M'] | 2020-04-06 05:07:44.634000+00:00 | ['Other', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptography', 'Blockchain'] |
Why am I writing?! | Most of my posts, writings about the necessity for Human beings to learn how to connect above their inherent differences, instinctive distrust, since without a unique, unprecedented integration between us we will remain incompatible with the natural system we are born from and still exist in. As a result, we will continue developing in a negative way, changing, moving on only when intolerable suffering forces us.
Many people wrote to me, complimenting my writings, but also calling them naive, utopistic, saying that Humanity is so much engrossed into stupidity, egoism that it is impossible to change people, urging me to try to focus my attention to my loved ones, leaving other people alone as they would just mock me, take advantage of me if I show a “soft side”, opening my heart.
I fully agree with the notion that the hope of changing, helping every Human being seems futile, utopistic in a world that is very deeply sunken into egoism, self-service, self-justification, narcissism.
For example now when we now received an opportunity to change our lives in this unexpected “vacuum”, “thinking time” the lockdown has given us — clearly seeing how harmful our inherent behavior is, knowing that the present system that is unsustainable, incompatible with the natural laws governing balance and homeostasis was already collapsing — still people like blind zombies just want to return to the same self-destructive Matrix they received the chance to escape from.
This is extremely frustrating and scary when even just using simply historical perspective we can easily predict where our world is heading towards within a short space of time — the most applicable parallel we have with our times is the few years before the 2nd World War…
So what can we do?!
I honestly do not care what people think about what I am saying, writing as I feel I have to simply disclose what I can disclose based on the unique, empirical natural science I have been studying. As others suggested I do not talk about it to my colleagues, I do not approach people on the streets, I even leave my family members alone if they reject what I am saying as nothing can be achieved by coercion, convincing people. People only change, take on new things when they develop a natural need for it.
But there is an ever-increasing audience for these thoughts. For example, in a specific “Quora Spaces” where I write, there are over 300000 followers and the number is sharply increasing every day. And even if some or most of the people who read it, shrug their shoulders and return to their “normal life”, the “bug” is already in their system. So when things start to worsen even more, they will remember that there might be another way, there might be a solution.
I am not a “saint” at all, I am acting from healthy egoism.
We are all sitting on the same global boat which is now sinking. If we can’t right this ship, if we can’t find at least a small, “critical mass” minority that can become the pioneers, the spearhead of the crucially necessary changes towards a better developmental path through mutually responsible and mutually complementing Human connections, then we will all sink and drown, including our families!
So do I have a choice if I feel I have something in my hand that might help, even just a handful of people?! | https://medium.com/@samechphoto/why-am-i-writing-7ebfaaf3c7bb | ['Zsolt Hermann'] | 2020-04-24 04:52:39.665000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Connection', 'Humanity', 'Crisis', 'Education'] |
Allowing Booking Conflicts on Resource Calendars | From @jeshoots on Unsplash
Intro
If you’ve ever read any of my previous Medium articles, you’ll know that I primarily work on DevOps in AWS, building and learning with Terraform as my playground. However, as one does, I have done a lot of work in Microsoft Windows server and Office 365, so I’ve picked up quite a few tips and tricks that can make life easier as an IT administrator.
Please feel free to send me a message and let me know if this works for you, or how you would change it up for my articles in the future!
Calendar Resources and Booking Conflicts
If you have ever worked in an enterprise organization, then you will understand the necessity of having calendar resources set up in Exchange. Having these resources will allow your colleagues to open the calendar of a room or other type of resource, and check the bookings of the room. This will help prevent and issues with scheduling for meeting purposes.
However, you may run into situations where a room has been booked for some reason, and you have a need to place another booking at the same time. Unfortunately, this is booking conflicts are disabled by default in Exchange resources, so your plans are sunk!
Thankfully, PowerShell has some extremely powerful cmdlets that will allow you to enable booking conflicts on calendars in your Exchange environment. If you run the script below, it will enable booking conflicts, and you will never have to answer another ticket about it again.
$UserCredential = Get-Credential
#Signs into exchange online
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri
Import-PSSession $Session #Prompts for Office 365 Credentials$UserCredential = Get-Credential#Signs into exchange online$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirectionImport-PSSession $Session Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity <RESOURCE MAILBOX HERE> -AllowConflicts $true
Once you run this script, conflicts will be instantly enabled.
Conclusion
This is one of those more niche scripts that you likely will not need often, however, when you do need it, you’ll be happy to have it, as I have been in the past.
If you enjoyed reading this article, please feel free to check out my other Medium articles, and to visit my LinkedIn, where I am active and always willing to chat about all things technology, especially AWS. | https://medium.com/@tgallagher12/allowing-booking-conflicts-on-room-calendars-e16b91b9dd71 | ['Thomas Gallagher'] | 2020-12-21 14:38:38.213000+00:00 | ['Exchange', 'Windows Server', 'Powershell', 'Office 365'] |
Was my 200K USD Stanford MBA worth the time, money and opportunity cost? | “Was your 200K Stanford MBA worth the time, money and the opportunity cost? Knowing what you know today, and given an option to make that decision again, will you choose to go for an MBA again? Especially now that you have moved back to India?”
I was inspired to write this blog after a recent encounter with a fellow alumnus Mr. Alpha (pun intended). We both returned to India after our MBA. We discussed this question at length. We both had very different views. I was in the yes camp while he was in the no camp. With insights from that discussion, I sincerely hope that this article provides you with an unbiased view and helps you make a thoughtful decision.
Below are the 3 big buckets in which I measure the ROI of a Stanford MBA -
1. Access
2. Career
3. Perception
I have intentionally not included education in this bucket (what an irony!). This is because, I believe one can pursue the highest quality of education from distant learning platforms such as Udacity, Coursera, Udemy etc.
Let me start with my reasoning of why I would choose to do my Stanford MBA over again with a blink of the eye.
Access
In terms of access, Stanford has opened doors and opportunities that I did not even know existed. Access to an incredibly diverse, international network of alumni and professors who are an email away. Access to mentors, fellow entrepreneurs, businessmen, jobs and much more. Access to strangers on LinkedIn who respond to your cold messages. It’s as if people are willing to give you time, resources and opportunities because they believe that you are worth it.
For context, I had completed my undergrad from NSIT. While reputed, NSIT’s name and clout is far behind that of IIT’s. This means as NSITian, one has to constantly put in extra time and effort to prove their worth. The baseline is not the same. More effort to get to the best jobs worldwide, harder access to VC money for Non IIT/IIM founders, fewer inspirational alumni entrepreneurs to look up to etc. On the other hand, Mr. Alpha was already from the prestigious IIT, had worked in consulting houses and had witnessed enough success stories of IIT startups. The value add of the Stanford brand along with the IIT brand was insignificant. This was especially true since he moved back to India soon after GSB.
Pic Credit — YourStory article — 60 per cent of Series A companies in India have founders from IIT/IIM and all of them are males
To be crystal clear, we both agreed that the value add of the Stanford MBA (for each of us) would have been significantly higher had we decided to work in the US, especially in Bay Area. This was true both career and network wise. Take for example — More than 50% of Stanford’s graduating MBA class ends up taking a job in Bay area. This means if you are in the Bay area, you have a high chance of partying, working and closing deals with GSBers. The ROI would have increased tremendously. Above said, we both still feel blessed for the international exposure, the diversity exposures, the lasting friendships that we made and lots more. But as of today, it is hard to see the ROI of our carefully cultivated international network given we both moved to India. “We will save on hotel rooms during travel!” — we light-heartedly joked.
Career
Stanford MBA is indeed a paradise for individuals who intend to make a career switch. By virtue of clubs, career coaches, fellow students and alumni, one has an incredible opportunity to change gears. The summer internship serves as a transition point where you can experience an alternate industry at a low risk. The internship eventually serves as a meaningful experience for full time hiring. I saw several of my friends switch roles — A Chinese friend who switched from IB in China to Product Manager at Google, two Indian friends who switched from consulting in India to a PM role in Amazon, another Indian friend who switched from FMCG to clean energy and the list goes on. To get the exact number of individuals who switched industries, got a raise in their earnings etc, please refer to the employment report for Stanford Class of 2019.
Oh and did I mention that Stanford ranked №1 for highest post MBA average salary and Bonus. Unfortunately for both Mr. Alpha and me, we did not stay back in the US to earn those big fat cheques.
Median and mean base salary post GSB. Source — Stanford Employment Report 2018–19
Perception
The last of all is perception. I will break this into two parts — Self-perception and world-perception. The mere exposure to world leaders who were ordinary individuals just like you and me and yet are making outsized impacts in this world has changed my own perception of what success looks like. Hearing stories from the likes of Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Phil Knight, Ray Dalio, Joel Peterson and actually interacting with them in form of small group events helped widen my perspective on leadership. Today I hold higher standard for myself and seek self-improvement and a growth mindset on daily basis. I think deeply about the legacy that I want to leave behind myself. I often ask myself the question “What kind of leader do I want to be and why should people follow me?” I think these perceptions are like positive feedback loops — More on this on my youtube meditation page — Strong positive thoughts create strong positive actions –> positive actions create an elevated outcome. Second part is other people’s perception of me. The magical knowledge that I am from Stanford fundamentally shifts people’s perception of who I am and what I am capable of. The baseline has now shifted. For good or for bad, Stanford brings in an inherent bias that helps you leapfrog.
So the point I want to drive home is that the answer to “Should I pursue an MBA? Will it be worth it?” will be very unique to your individual situation. It is not a one size fit all answer. I want for each of you to think very critically on why you want to pursue an MBA and what is it that you want to achieve from the same. Don’t do it because you have nothing better to do. Don’t do it because your friends are doing it. It is a big drain on your bank balance and a big time investment. The opportunity cost is high. Make sure it is worth it. | https://medium.com/@mgarg19/was-my-200k-usd-stanford-mba-worth-the-time-money-and-opportunity-cost-ffbddd16bed3 | ['Mahak Garg'] | 2020-12-12 11:39:44.335000+00:00 | ['Funding', 'Mba', 'Stanford', 'Education'] |
Update: How to design and deploy COVID-safe physical VR installations | Images Created by Nerd Pirates
In our latest webinar our health and safety guru, Verity Nalley was back alongside Bertie Millis to host our next Headset 101 webinar.
In the first design and deploy webinar Verity covered…
Current Impacts on events (according to government guidance UK)
Doing better for the industry (Staff training & better cleaning)
Compliance & Liability
Check and protect your guests
If you missed the first Headset 101 webinar you can watch it back here.
This time, Verity and Bertie discuss the work they did on LFF Expanded, the immersive technology strand of the BFI London Film Festival. Putting the COVID-safe plans to the test with a physical installation that ran during the festival. A great case study to talk about and explore.
Key Points from Webinar
Creating user journey for LFF Expanded
LFF Case study
What we knew/ how did we achieve this?
COVID Safety
UVISAN units
If you want to learn more or need help with your up coming activation get in touch with Verity: — [email protected] | https://medium.com/virtual-library/update-how-to-design-and-deploy-covid-safe-physical-vr-installations-d5972ba23fe0 | ['Samantha Kingston'] | 2020-12-08 09:26:13.929000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', 'VR', 'Safety', 'Covid 19'] |
Corinth | Corinth
Acts 18:1–23
Overview
The narrative as we have it in 18:1–17 is structured around three significant pronouncements: by Paul (verse 6), by the Lord (verses 9–10), and by Gallio (verses 14–15). In this sort of volatile atmosphere where danger loomed for Paul, the experience recorded in w 9–10 is not surprising. Paul has a vision of reassurance, intending to steel Paul to stay the course until the work is finished in Corinth, in spite of the opposition and persecution he may face. We may perhaps coordinate verse 9 with 1 Corinthians 2:3, which reveals the human face of Paul It suggests an apostle who was somewhat shell-shocked from the strong opposition he had faced from both his fellow Jews and some Gentiles in various places on this missionary trip, doubtless including Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Paul had entered into his task at Corinth with some fear and trepidation, but had taken it up nevertheless. This vision strengthens Paul and prompts the correct decision, as will also be the case on other occasions in the apostle’s career.(Witherington)
Places
Image from bibleplaces.com
Corinth- “Corinth,” the largest city in Greece at this time, was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia and a Roman colony. The Romans razed Corinth in 146 B.C., but it was rebuilt a century later in 46 B.C. Its site lay about 50 miles southwest of Athens at a very strategic location. Land traffic from northern Achaia to its southern peninsula, the Peloponnesus, crossed a land bridge very near Corinth. Stevedores hauled smaller ships traveling from one of Corinth’s port towns, Lechaeum on the west or Cenchrea on the east, to the other, overland on wooden rollers. They handled the cargoes of larger ships the same way. The distance between the ports was three and a half miles. Sea captains preferred this inconvenience because they did not want to sail 200 miles around dangerous Cape Malea at the southern tip of the Peloponnesus. Consequently Corinth constantly buzzed with commercial activity, and it possessed all the vices that have typically haunted cosmopolitan ports.
Corinth was about 20 times as large as Athens at this time, with a population of over 200,000 inhabitants. The city was infamous for its immorality, that issued from two sources: its numerous transients and its temple to Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, and here devotees promoted immorality in the name of religion. Her temple, which boasted 1,000 religious prostitutes, stood on the Acrocorinth, a 1,857-foot flat-topped mountain just outside the city. It is easy to understand why sexual problems plagued the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 5; et al.).
“Beginning with the fifth century B.C., the verb ‘to Corinthianize’ (korinthiazesthai) meant to be sexually immoral, a reputation that continued to be well-deserved in Paul’s day.” (Constable and Longenecker)
People
Priscilla and Aquila- “Priscilla” had another name, Prisca (Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), the latter being more formal. Luke normally used the colloquial, diminutive form of names (e.g., Silas, Sopatros, Priscilla, Apollos), but Paul preferred their formal names in his writings (e.g., Silvanus, Sosipatros, Prisca, Epaphroditus). Nevertheless he sometimes used the more popular form of a name (e.g., Apollos, Epaphras). Priscilla’s name frequently appears before her husband’s — “Aquila” — in the New Testament (e.g., 18:18–19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19). This may indicate that she came from a higher social class than Aquila, or that others regarded her as superior to him in some respect. Here, however, Luke mentioned Aquila first. (Constable)
Titius Justus- “Titus the son of Justus” was a Gentile, but a religious man, such an one as Cornelius, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. Had this man been a Jew, his house might very well have been taken for the house which was (tonkh tybl Kwmo) , “near to the synagogue”, in which travelers were entertained, and ate, and drank, and lodged, and that he was the person appointed to take care of them, and so a very suitable house for Paul, a stranger, to take up his lodging in. (Gill)
Gallio- Gallio was a remarkable Roman citizen from Spain. His brother, the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who was Nero’s tutor, referred to him as having an unusually pleasant disposition.
“No mortal is so pleasant to any person as Gallio is to everyone.”
“Even those who love my brother Gallio to the utmost of their power do not love him enough.”
A “proconsul” was the governor of a Roman province, and his legal decisions set precedent for the other proconsuls throughout the empire. Consequently Gallio’s decision in Paul’s case affected the treatment that Christians would receive throughout the Roman world. This was the first time that Paul (or any other apostle, as far as we know) stood trial before a Roman provincial governor. (Constable, Barclay and Longenecker)
Cripsus- Crispus became a Christian, as did his whole household. To be “* synagogue ruler” means that Crispus is a person of status and wealth, responsible for the synagogue services. It was a notable accomplishment to convert a ruler of a synagogue, and 1 Corinthians 1:14–16 confirms his baptism. This verse in addition suggests that once Crispus converted many other Corinthians followed (Witherington and Keener).
Image from bibleplaces.com
Background
It is fair to say that Corinth and Ephesus were the two most important cities visited by Paul in the course of his missionary work, and he stayed in each for a considerable period in order to establish churches which would then evangelize the surrounding areas. We may learn something significant about Luke’s approach to his source material from this narrative. His coverage of Paul’s stay in Corinth is briefer than his coverage of Paul’s time in either Philippi or Athens, even though he tells us that Paul’s stay in Corinth was much longer. (Witherington)
Key Ideas
Tentmakers- σχνηνοποιοι in its most basic term means tentmakers, either for the soldiers, and which were made of sack cloth of hair, or of leather, and of the skins of various animals, sewed together; hence the phrase, “sub pellibus”, “under the skins”, is used for ‘to lie in tents’ : or those tents they made, were canopies made of linen, and other things, which were erected in the summer season to shade and screen from the heat of the sun. Others take them for a sort of tapestry, or hangings, which they made for theatres, palaces, and stately rooms; and according to the Syriac version, they were horses’ trappings which they made. Perhaps they were of the same occupation with Menedemus the philosopher, who was (skhnorrafov) , “a sewer of tents” (Gill)
Vow- Luke does not explain either the timing or purpose of this action, and though there were pagan rituals involving the dedication of hair which had remain uncut for the duration of a vow,་ it is most unlikely that this is alluded to here. In all likelihood we are to think of this as Paul fulfilling a Nazaritic vow which he had earlier made. Though some have suggested that Paul cut off his hair to begin a vow, the evidence as it stands suggests that the hair cutting was to transpire at the end of the period of the vow. Strictly speaking, such a vow had to be fulfilled at Jerusalem, where the hair would be presented as a burnt offering and a sacrifice would be offered as well. Jews tended to make vows to thank God for past blessings or as petitions for future ones. Probably we should relate the vow here to Paul’s thankfulness for being kept from harm in Corinth, and perhaps we should think of Paul taking the vow to remain unshorn in response to the vision he had. Haenchen argues that the historical Paul would not have undertaken such a vow because it violated his notions of grace.” This might be the case if Paul had undertaken a vow in order to obtain certain blessings from God, but the evidence suggests that the vow was an act of response, in gratitude for the safety God had guaranteed Paul during his time in Corinth (Witherington).
Possible Discussion Points
Paul brings the good news of the Gospel to the Jews first knowing that they are probably going to reject him. What would it look like for you to take risks in ministry that you know are probably going to fail? What is the benefit?
Paul’s reassurance from God allowed him to face a difficult trial brazenly. Do you trust God with your safety? Is there something you feel is risky that you have held back from God?
Noteworthy
Paul’s reaction to the response of the Jews in verse 6 was to perform a gesture familiar to Jews — he shook out his clothes, a symbolic way of indicating he would have no more to do with them. Perhaps he saw it as following the instructions of Jesus, but the gesture here is a little different (shaking out of clothes rather than shaking of dust from one’s feet), and this may be because Paul does not perform this gesture as he is leaving town, unlike what we find in Acts 13:51 and in Jesus’ instructions in Luke 9:5.
It is possible that the Jews deliberately made the charge ambiguous, hoping that Gallio would think Paul had offended against Roman religion. It may also be the case that they were suggesting that Paul was preaching a new religion that was illicit, not a form of Judaism, and thus upsetting the Jewish community whom Claudius had said had a right to be allowed to practice their own religious customs in peace. In either of the latter two cases, they could hope Gallio would intervene to preserve order by punishing or expelling Paul. Neither of these wished-for outcomes happened. To Gallio, the accusations of these Jews seemed to involve matters of religious controversy that entailed no violation of Roman law. He was responsible to judge criminal cases, not theological disputations. Consequently he refused to hear the case, and ordered the Jews to settle it themselves. The AV translation, “Gallio cared for none of these things,” is misleading. It implies that Gallio had no interest in spiritual matters. That may have been true, but it is not what the text means. In point of fact he was absolutely impartial, and refused to involve himself in a dispute over which he had no jurisdiction. He refused to mix church and state matters. (Witherington and Constable). | https://medium.com/acts-study-guide/corinth-1d894f32e87b | ['Underground Network'] | 2017-03-17 19:34:38.371000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Bible'] |
What Can Yoda Teach Us About The Kraljic Matrix? | A Procurement Transformation
Kraljic recognized that the world was changing fast. He saw that if Procurement continued business as usual, it would expose itself to competitive pressure. If it was to survive, it would have to move into strategic supply management. This was the dawn of the Kraljic matrix. It would have a transformative effect on Procurement. The philosophy (that remains valid today) is that not all spend, all suppliers, all customers & are the same. So, Procurement needs to build tailored and differentiated strategies, notably taking into account profit impact and supply risk.
Fast forward to 2019. A lot has changed. The Cold War is history, and the Internet dominates the globe. The iPhone in my pocket has way more computing power than my first computer, a Commodore 64, also from 1983. Since Kraljic published his famous article, world trade has quadrupled and globalization has exploded. Procurement is operating in a much faster, bolder world than it was in 1983. It faces new challenges like Corporate Social Responsibility and ethical supply chains. In short, our current environment today is more “VUCA” (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) than it ever was.
The Next Evolution Of The Kraljic Matrix
“Since the early 1980s, pioneering individuals and companies such as Peter Kraljic, Michael Porter, and A.T. Kearney have pushed procurement professionals to think more strategically about the art and science of strategic sourcing. […] But times have changed. Today’s environment is more dynamic and is filled with greater uncertainty. The tried and true tools and tactics adopted over the last 30 years as the “gold standard” are not as effective as they once were.” Strategic Sourcing in the New Economy: Harnessing the Potential of Sourcing Business Models for Modern Procurement by Bonnie Keith, Kate Vitasek, Karl Manrodt, and Jeanne Kling
In some ways, the Kraljic matrix still works well. The segmentation at the heart of it remains valid. But the world is so complicated now, the matrix becomes more like a Kraljic Rubik’s cube. There are many more dimensions and parameters to take into account than there were back then.
Procurement now needs to win the Holy Grail of strategic supply management: value. Take Total Value of Ownership (TVO), for instance. Before, sustainability and risk were considered as nice-to-have, but not necessary. The TVO model places non-price information firmly within calculation of cost. This is a concept of sourcing in which the buyer has all the cards in their hand. But more than that, TVO enables the buyer to create bonus-penalty systems. In effect, it is a calculation of value that enables Procurement to identify how they can increase value after the award has been made.
Evolve Or Stay In The 80s
“My colleagues developed [the matrix] further and experimented with a nine-box version that allowed more flexibility. But always it must be adapted to the characteristics of the company where it is being used.”–Dr. Peter Kraljic
The evolution of strategic supply management is challenging. Seeing the Kraljic Matrix as a Rubik’s cube is one thing. Solving the cube is something else entirely. Collecting the enormous amount of information and data that you need for this is almost impossible on your own. However, the change that makes the world so complicated also gives us the tools we need to keep pace: technology. Procurement must have a digital transformation strategy.
Also, and beyond tools like Purchasing Portfolio Analysis matrixes (that needs to evolve to be subtler), it is critical for Procurement organizations to look beyond the technical aspects of the profession. Procurement activities encompass more “soft” activities that require interpersonal skills. It is all about relationships and, even if tools help in defining the right type of relationship to build in a specific context, they fall short in delivering the “human” dimension. Also, that same dimension should be integrated in the tools and models we use.
The “experience” of working with procurement (for suppliers and for stakeholders) is as essential. Procurement delivers a service in a human-to-human context and becoming the supplier/customer of choice requires more than just tools. Digital transformation is not just about tools!
Therefore, just like Yoda “burns” the Jedi Books in “The Last Jedi” to teach Luke a last lesson by symbolizing the need to be able to move forward while being mindful and even respectful of the past, it may be the time for Procurement professional to “burn” the matrix. | https://medium.com/procurement-tidbits/what-can-yoda-teach-us-about-the-kraljic-matrix-a74d256330fd | ['Bertrand Maltaverne'] | 2019-07-19 14:46:01.115000+00:00 | ['Procurement', 'Supply Chain', 'Business'] |
HR Intranet: Ideas, Best Practices And Examples | HR Intranet
As organizations gear up for a post-COVID-19 world, leaders must rethink priorities and adapt to newer ways of working.
The workforce is dispersed across several locations; the lines between personal responsibilities and professional lives are rapidly blurring. Therefore, implementing technologies that improve employee engagement and shape employee experience is the need of the hour. A survey by PwC reveals 74% of organizations plan to increase spending on technology to address pressing HR needs.
HR Intranets are gaining immense popularity. By acting as a centralized digital hub for company-wide data, applications, and tools, they support knowledge-sharing, facilitate collaboration, drive employee experience and build an inclusive organizational culture.
Understanding the value of an HR Intranet and why it is essential for a smooth transition to a post-COVID era is necessary to secure stakeholder buy-in. To provide better insight, we present to you the key benefits along with HR Intranet examples, ideas, and best practices.
Why HR Intranet Is Important More Than Ever
1. Keep Employees Connected In A Remote Working Setup
A survey by Gartner says, “48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19.”
As companies shift to remote working models, leaders must take cognizance of their impact on the overall employee experience.
Since face-to-face collaboration will no longer be possible, employees can rely on the variety of communication tools and social capabilities that are a part of the HR Intranet to facilitate knowledge sharing, build culture, receive performance appraisal, and share feedback.
2. Enhance Efficiency By Centralizing Resources
Organizations have heaps of HR documents, files, forms, data, and other resources, which may be spread across individual devices, siloed apps, emails, internal servers, or even paper-based systems.
This creates confusion, makes document search too time-consuming a task, and increases the risk of not accessing up-to-date knowledge, leading to errors in work and the possibility of non-compliance with legal procedures.
An HR Intranet hosts compliance policies, 401K, recruitment, employee benefits, and other procedural information on a comprehensive, centralized interface. This saves valuable employee time in searching for information.
Moreover, with digital tools, e-forms, custom templates, and workflows, companies can automate routine administrative procedures, such as onboarding, payroll or salary FAQs, insurance, performance reviews, etc., leaving HR personnel to focus on other critical tasks.
3. Focus On Employee Well-Being
It is crucial to focus on initiatives that support employee well-being to combat feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and stress amidst the pandemic.
By publishing blogs and stories on stress management, physical and mental health, and encouraging the workforce to participate in discussions through designated forums on the Intranet, organizations can improve employee engagement and productivity.
Providing training modules and e-learning resources on the platform helps employees develop and hone essential skills.
Additionally, recognizing and publishing employee achievements on the Intranet increases motivation and employee satisfaction.
4. Promote The Employer’s Brand And Make Work Meaningful
When the staff is geographically dispersed or siloed within their departments, it becomes even more essential to communicate the company’s vision, mission, and values to create a shared, virtual culture.
Employees search for meaning and purpose in daily work. And what better way to achieve this than communicating your organization’s brand, goals, projects, challenges, social initiatives, and upcoming events through a communications-centered HR Intranet.
Ideas And Best Practices For Your HR Intranet
To ensure you gain maximum value out of your organization’s HR Intranet, here are a few ideas and best practices to bear in mind –
Personalize your Intranet with templates customized to reflect your company’s brand and values
Make your Intranet the central hub for all HR forms and documents, including leave application, expense tracking, insurance claim forms, HR policies, salary and benefits, etc.
Enable recommendations on your intranet, to deliver contextual content to your employees based on their location, job role, interests and activities.
Ensure your Intranet integrates with third-party applications and existing HR software, including HRMS, time and expense system, travel booking app, etc.
Enrich your Intranet’s interface with multimedia files, including audio, video, images, and graphics.
Enable a responsive mobile interface for your Intranet so that employees can access information from anytime and from anywhere
Take advantage of an idea management system in an intranet to capture employee ideas and drive decentralized innovation
Ensure your intranet is equipped with a smart search engine that understands natural language and delivers highly relevant and personalized results
Use a smart content management system to make it easy for your HR staff to publish relevant news and updates
Create an FAQ section or deploy an intranet chatbot that answers the most common HR questions
Conduct surveys and capture Employee feedback to keep a tab the pulse of the employees.
Use social networking and collaboration tools like discussion forums, polls, blogs and workspaces to allows employees to share their opinions and views
Recognize top performing employees with badges and featuring them on the home page
HR Intranet Examples
Mesh, An Autonomous SharePoint Intranet
Mesh, an Autonomous Office 365 intranet, provides a dedicated HR site and acts as a hub for employee-focused resources, including newsletters, blogs, events, contacts, HR apps, and many more. The SharePoint Intranet provides a reliable and secure platform for hosting employee data and documents related to salary, benefits, 401K, leaves, open positions, HR policies, performance appraisal, and feedback.
Site features include company name, a customized navigation menu (a Mega Menu), site logo, employee contacts, and custom tools (built on Microsoft PowerApps) for booking travel, requesting time-off, payroll, and other services.
Mesh is built with the best of Microsoft AI and Azure Services, including LUIS, Graph, Azure Search services, and MS Natural Language Stack and boasts of advanced features including:
We have more than 13 years of experience in deploying SharePoint Intranets. Our solutions are recognized by leading industry analysts, like Gartner, Forrester, and Clearbox, and implemented by large and medium-sized enterprises worldwide.
To know more about Mesh, feel free to contact one of our digital workplace experts. | https://medium.com/@poonam-chug/hr-intranet-ideas-best-practices-and-examples-80d1636bbc05 | ['Poonam Chug'] | 2020-12-15 08:15:46.521000+00:00 | ['Intranet Examples', 'Intranet Ideas', 'Digital Workplace', 'Hr Intranet', 'Human Resources'] |
When There Is No Light | Sometimes, there is no light.
Sometimes, it’s so dark that even the stars can’t reach you. You plead for the clouds to move for a glimmer of light, for a glimmer of hope to appear. But at the new moon, there is no light. Just the peak of emptiness, pleading for fullness.
What you thought you knew no longer exists. The same path you’ve taken a thousand times becomes unfamiliar as it’s enveloped in darkness. You step outside when the world is quiet and dark and look up. You see the stars, the same stars, fixed in place every time you see them. A comforting scene. But now they look bright and cold; distant observers. An indifferent audience unable to help you.
Not even the moon in all her power can help, unable to pull you from the darkness. She withdraws more each night as she watches you fixed in your desperation, her light whittled down to a sliver. Each night, she shares her light. Each night, more light. But still you stay, afraid to follow. So she wanes, her light disappearing into the ether. You know the dark now. The light shone on what surrounds you. You try to remember. But you stumble. You fall.
Sometimes, there is no light.
People can take the light away. Clouds can mask it, planets can block it, the very moon can withdraw. But if you know the dark, you know from whence you came. You know you’re alone. The light cannot save you. You must save yourself. Through the darkness, without the light.
Waiting for light is like waiting for oxygen at the bottom of the ocean. The light cannot reach you. You will drown. You have to go to the light. Sometimes, only in swimming farther down can you push off from the bottom. Back to the surface. Out from the depths, out from the pressure. Out from the acclimation to a world where life can still go on under the pressure that can crush the hull of a soul. Out from the depths where creatures adapt to navigate the dark, knowing the light will never find them.
Photo by Brad Mann on Unsplash
What was the first new moon like? Did those who saw it think the light was slowly dying, not knowing it would come back to its fullness?
We’ve grown used to the moon as she waxes and wanes. She’s grown used to us too, fixed in place, sometimes unable to follow.
Don’t wait for the light. Learn to navigate the dark.
Because sometimes, there is no light. | https://medium.com/@ericaspelman/no-light-f0dc40b734f0 | ['Erica Spelman'] | 2021-03-18 01:21:30.962000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Relationships', 'Moon', 'Depression', 'Moonlight'] |
The Original Productivity Hack | How to Beat Subconscious Sabotage with “Disciplined Pleasure”
Who is more productive, a person who works eight hours every day, or a person who works six hours every day?
If you’ve been studying productivity for long, you already know this is a trick question. We’ve been conditioned to equate “busy” and “productive.” When in reality, productivity is about getting things done. It’s not about working long hours.
Here’s a better question. “How can I finish eight hours of work in six hours?”
The “trick” to pulling that off may be easier than you think, and a lot more enjoyable than you might imagine.
The Surprising Truth About Productivity
Humans love novelty. As a productivity hacker myself, I’m fascinated by cutting-edge ideas for getting things done faster.
Despite this, I force myself to periodically review the basics. I’m talking about tried-and-true, foundational principles for productivity that account for the difference between average people and peak productivity masters.
Today I want to remind you of just one of those super-important foundational principles. You might think of it as the original productivity hack. Because it is timeless in origin and applicable to every human on the planet.
The original productivity hack is simply this. Motivate yourself before you start.
It sounds rather mundane, doesn’t it? And yet this simple concept is behind most of the sophisticated productivity systems you see in use today from online habit tracking apps to corporate seminars for sales teams. It’s the key to awakening your inner drive and motivation, the will to succeed, and the decision to do it now.
As a productivity coach, I learned this the hard way. When I first began this line of work, I gave my clients state-of-the-art tools for staying focused and boosting productivity, but they often returned to coaching sessions with excuses and a promise to get started “next week.”
I was forgetting a basic fact about human nature…
People change when they feel something, not when they think abstractly. Logic doesn’t move people to action. Emotions do. So I changed my tactics.
The Secret to Perpetual Motivation
To invoke behavior change, we must first awaken thirst. Only then should we offer the tools to quench that thirst. That way, the tools are adopted quickly in pursuit of a desired outcome.
As a psychologist, I wanted to focus on sustaining behavioral change. Why? Because that’s the hardest part, and therefore it was the primary focus of my classical training as a scientist in the field of behavioral change. And as they say, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I was trying to apply my sophisticated models for human behavioral change, only to realize I had the cart before the horse.
As it turns out, this is a very common mistake. In fact, I might even argue that the more driven you are, the more likely you are to make this mistake. That has certainly been true among the entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. As we design a productivity system to support your future goals, many of you forget that you are emotional beings.
Entrepreneurs are smart. As sophisticated thinkers, you focus on the mechanics of productivity to ensure you get a lot of important stuff done during the course of the day. Remaining at that high level of abstract reasoning, you make a critical mistake.
You fail to take into account the fact that you are not merely a rational being. You forget about your inner child who just wants to play! You forget that your inner child will sabotage your best laid plans if there is no payoff in sight.
Your rational mind exists within a brain that includes emotional needs for fun, excitement, novelty, rest, adventure, wandering, connection, and other “goals” that seem to have no purpose other than sheer enjoyment.
Yes, you can work yourself into a frenzy and work 16-hour days for several weeks in a row. But there is always a price to pay when you do so.
Hopefully, that price will not be low mood (though it often is). One thing we know with absolute certainty is that low mood is not conducive to productivity. Hopefully, the price you pay will not be a week or more of feeling burned out, unfocused, and basically useless at work as your biochemistry tries to reset.
Sadly, these are typical outcomes. But the worst part is these effects set in gradually, so you fail to even notice. You go on week after week, working longer hours under the false belief that doing so will solve the problem of your declining productivity.
The smarter and more disciplined you are as a person, the more likely you are to forget to engineer your productivity system to include the childlike “id”- that part of Freudian psychoanalytic theory that explains our irrational desire to get what we want and to get it now. While we can rise above our childish nature and train ourselves for enhanced self-control, it would be foolish to do so without also taking into account the full truth of our human nature. We need pleasure to survive.
Disciplined Pleasure for Productivity
For maximum productivity, it’s crucial that you create predetermined breaks in your daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms. The key is that these breaks must be near enough on the horizon to look forward to.
The human mind is always projecting into the future, anticipating what’s coming next. And if you’ve ever kept a mood log, you’ll notice something interesting about that. Your mood has more to do with what’s coming next than it has to do with what’s happening now.
This phenomenon explains the interesting findings from happiness research that shows we are often happiest while still at work on a Friday afternoon. We are still at work, but looking forward to the weekend. On average, our moods reach a low point on Sunday nights when we should still be enjoying the weekend. But instead, our thoughts have already turned to what’s coming next.
The dread we feel about Monday morning soon gives way to a rising mood as we experience another phenomenon known as “flow.” Flow is a state of immersion in our work where we become less aware of the future or the past and instead begin to enjoy the challenge of the present task.
Many entrepreneurs rely on this state of “flow” as a replacement for play outside of work. And certainly, this is one factor that allows entrepreneurs to work longer without burning out. However, even when accounting for the mood boosting effects of flow states, your productivity will improve if you start your day with the 30-second productivity hack I’d like to tell you about next.
The 30-Second Productivity Hack
For maximum productivity, you should start every workday with a daily startup routine. It’s a short checklist to start your day off right. And one item on that checklist should be the following: “I have scheduled at least one relaxing or enjoyable activity I will do today after work.”
Here’s why you need this. It will boost your productivity!
It’s such a simple thing, yet the effect can be profound. It creates a cap on your workday, ensuring you won’t slip into the “just one last thing” trap that keeps you working late into the night. Knowing there is an end in sight, you free your mind to spend your energy rather than conserve it. This helps you get things done faster.
Parkinson’s law states that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” Knowing there’s a limited number of work hours available, and fun waiting for you on the other side, creates the right conditions for squeezing eight hours of work into six hours of productive focus.
There’s another reason this works, and it has to do with that childlike part of your brain that just wants to play and have fun. You’ll be in a better mood. Knowing there is something to look forward to will boost your mood, and one of the side effects of improved mood is improved energy, which is conducive to getting things done.
This method is what I call “disciplined pleasure for productivity.” Sometimes it takes discipline to schedule time off for rest, relaxation, and fun.
Take action on this today. Motivate yourself before you start by having a clear end in sight.
If you like this idea, I challenge you to turn it into a habit. To help you with that, download this template and use it every morning as a part of your daily startup routine. Then watch your productivity improve along with your quality of life. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-original-productivity-hack-19d90ca1e927 | ['Dr. Todd Snyder'] | 2020-05-09 00:32:55.704000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Planner', 'Productivity', 'Break Time', 'Daily Life'] |
How To Get Into New Farms On PancakeSwap Before Anyone Else For Unfair Superprofits | The way new farms are currently added on PancakeSwap makes it unfairly profitable to those who are able to stake first. Getting in first means you get 100% of the rewards allocated to the farm until others can join. Yes, the devs can make it more fair. But instead of waiting on them, I will do my part by sharing the knowledge on how to to be the first into these new farms, getting in even before they are added to the PancakeSwap app by interacting directly with the smart contracts on-chain. More importantly, this will also bring to the reader the added benefit of a deeper understanding of defi smart contracts and how they work.
In this guide, we will use as an example the newest UNI-BNB farm which was added yesterday.
Step 1: Set up alerts on the Timelock contract
The PancakeSwap devs have created a Timelock so any governance changes to their contracts have to be broadcasted at least 6 hours before they can be executed. The Timelock contract is at 0xA1f482Dc58145Ba2210bC21878Ca34000E2e8fE4. You can use the watchlist feature on BscScan to send you an email whenever a transaction occurs on this contract. For reference, this is the queue transaction to add the UNI-BNB farm, and this is the execute transaction that was sent about 6.5 hours later. (Extra: try using BscScan to decode the input data of the transaction and see if you can find any useful information there) We will use this alert later in step 5.
Step 2: Follow PancakeSwap announcements
Following the official PancakeSwap channels will give you some advance notice on when they are launching new farms.
Step 3: Accumulate the coins you need
For this farm, we need to accumulate UNI and get it to our BSC wallet. Send your ERC-20 UNI to your Binance.com account or buy UNI on Binance.com, and withdraw UNI as BEP-20 to your BSC wallet. You should also prepare the equivalent amount in BNB to add to the pool.
Step 4: Add liquidity to the pool
Do this as you would normally add liquidity to any PancakeSwap pool. Because we want to do this before everyone else, you will not find UNI (the new coin of the new pool) in the list of coins to add as it would not have been updated in the PancakeSwap app yet. Instead, you will need to manually input the address of UNI here.
One way to find the address of the new coin is by looking at the transaction sending the UNI to your BSC wallet on BscScan under the “BEP-20 Token Txns” tab. For reference, this is UNI’s address: 0xbf5140a22578168fd562dccf235e5d43a02ce9b1.
Step 5: Approve PancakeSwap to spend your LP tokens
When the new farm is added to the PancakeSwap app, you can just click “Approve”. However, if you want to do this before everyone else can, you will need to interact directly with the smart contracts. First you will need to find the smart contract of the liquidity pool you just added to in Step 4.
Open the transaction where you added liquidity to the pool in step 4 on BscScan, find the row “Tokens Transferred”, clicking on any of the “Pancake LPs (Cake…” should bring you to the right smart contract. For reference, this is the UNI-BNB pool contract. (Extra: can you find the reference to this pool in the decoded inputs of the Timelock transactions from step 1?)
Next, navigate to “Contract” -> “Write Contract” -> “approve”. Under spender , input PancakeSwap’s MasterChef contract “0x73feaa1eE314F8c655E354234017bE2193C9E24E”, and under value input the max uint256 value “0xffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff”. Connect your web3 wallet and execute the transaction.
Next, go to “Read Contract” -> “balanceOf”, input your wallet’s address and click “Query”. Copy the uint256 response, which is “5259141385165989323” in the example below. This is the amount of LP tokens you have which you will need to use to stake in the farm in step 7.
Step 6: Wait for the farm to be added to PancakeSwap’s MasterChef contract
Go to PancakeSwap’s MasterChef contract page on BscScan and navigate to “Contract” -> “Read Contract”. “poolLength” shows the total number of pools which at this point in time is 26, and if you input “25” into “poolInfo”, it will return some info on the last added pool, which in this case is the UNI-BNB pool. (Note: the pool numbers start from “0”, so pool “0” is the first pool, and pool “25” is the 26th and last added pool) Notice how “lpToken” points at the UNI-BNB contract we were referring to in steps 4 and 5.
Now we have to wait for the new farm to be added. When this happens, you will receive an email alert from the watchlist you set up in step 1, “poolLength” will increase, and if you input the pool id of “poolLength”-1 in “poolInfo”, it will return information about the newly added farm. “lpToken” should point at the liquidity pool you added to in steps 4–5.
Once this happens, we are ready to stake our LP tokens, and the faster we do this before everyone else, the bigger our profits will be!
Step 7: Stake your LP tokens
When the new farm is up on the PancakeSwap app, you can just click “Stake”. However, we want to do this before everyone else, and will interact directly with the smart contracts. From Step 6, navigate to “Write Contract” -> “deposit”. Input the pool id of the new pool from step 6, and the amount of the LP tokens from step 5. Execute the transaction and you are done!
Bonus: go to “Read Contract” -> “userInfo”, input the new pool id and your wallet address, hit query and you should see the amount of Cake you are earning increasing.
Once the farm has been added to the PancakeSwap app itself, you should see your stake there as well.
Unfair Advantage?
We built a bot for our clients that automates the process above, allowing us to get in new pools almost immediately after they are added on-chain to maximise profit. We even shared a simplified version for anyone to use (which doesn’t have this feature). But you really shouldn’t trust anyone with your private keys.
Note to PancakeSwap devs: you can make the farms fairer by adding them with a reward factor of 0, allowing users some time to stake first, before increasing the reward factor to its intended value. But, I think it’s fair to be a bit unfair in favour of those a bit more in the know 😉 Incentivising users to learn more about smart contracts and how to interact with them will benefit the whole community.
x / ACryptoS | https://medium.com/acryptos/how-to-get-into-new-farms-on-pancakeswap-before-anyone-else-for-unfair-superprofits-fc5122f911d | ['X'] | 2020-11-04 10:26:09.689000+00:00 | ['Binance Smart Chain', 'Pancakeswap', 'Yield Farming', 'Smart Contracts', 'Defi'] |
How to implement the Enterprise Apple SSO: Final Part TV Providers and VSAccountManagerDelegate | In this post I will be talking about the implementation of the VSAccountManagerDelegate, this is the last part of the AppleSSO series, enjoy it.
Photo by Vasily Koloda @napr0tiv
What the documentation says?
The methods you use to respond to authentication view controller requests.
That means that we are almost done with the AppleSSO implementation.
Let’s first update the UI, we need to include two TextViews and a new button.
Your UI would be something like I show you below.
Then go to the ViewController and add the code below.
Then we need to connect those elements with their own IBOutlet or IBAction.
final class ViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet private weak var supportedTextView: UITextView? @IBOutlet private weak var featuredTextView: UITextView? @IBAction private func checkStatusAction(_ sender: Any) {
} @IBAction func metadataRequestAction(_ sender: Any) {
}
}
Let’s start creating the ProviderManager, that object usually will be provided by a service but in our case we are using TextViews to set the supported providers and the featured providers, those are needed to request the Metadata.
The ProviderManager contains the code below.
struct ProviderManager { let supportedProviders: [String] let featuredProviders: [String] init(supportedProviders: String, featuredProviders: String) { self.supportedProviders = supportedProviders.split(separator: ",").compactMap({ String($0.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)) }) self.featuredProviders = featuredProviders.split(separator: ",").compactMap({ String($0.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)) }) } }
Now we can create a new file called AppleSSOHandler and then let’s refactor the ViewController code we need to move all that code into the AppleSSOHandler file.
In that file we need to create a class called AppleSSOHandler like I show you below.
import UIKit
import VideoSubscriberAccount final class AppleSSOHandler { // Paste all the previous code here }
Note: Don’t forget to import UIKit and VideoSubscriberAccount frameworks.
Then you need to add the code below.
final class AppleSSOHandler: NSObject {
private lazy var accountManager: VSAccountManager = { // 1
let accountManager = VSAccountManager()
accountManager.delegate = self
return accountManager
}()
private let providerManager: ProviderManager // 2
weak var presentInViewController: UIViewController? // 3
required init(providerManager: ProviderManager) { // 4
self.providerManager = providerManager
}
func checkAccessStatus(accessStatus: ((VSAccountAccessStatus) -> Void)? = nil) { // 5
} func requestMetadata() { // 6
}
private func enqueueMetadataRequest() { // 7
}
}
All this code will encapsulate the AppleSSO functionality.
This code creates an instance of VSAccountManager, that instance needs to conforms the VSAccountManagerDelegate protocol. This property provides the supported and featured providers (usually you will get those from a service). This property will be use for present a controller provided by AppleSSO, that controller will be used in the VSAccountManagerDelegate methods. This code is used to create an instance with a ProviderManager that previously we created. This method allows to know if the application has enough permissions. I show you the implementation below.
func checkAccessStatus(accessStatus: ((VSAccountAccessStatus) -> Void)? = nil) {
accountManager.checkAccessStatus(options: [.prompt: true]) {. (status, error) in
if let error = error {
preconditionFailure(error.localizedDescription)
}
accessStatus?(status) }
}
6. This method will check the access status and then if the access is granted request the Metadata information.
func requestMetadata() { checkAccessStatus { (status) in
guard status == .granted else { return }
self.enqueueMetadataRequest() }
}
7. This method will request the Metadata information provided by AppleSSO. I provided you the enough data for create the Metadata request.
private func enqueueMetadataRequest() { let includeAccountProviderIdentifier = true let includeAuthenticationExpirationDate = true let isInterruptionAllowed = true let metadataRequest = VSAccountMetadataRequest() metadataRequest.supportedAccountProviderIdentifiers = providerManager.supportedProviders metadataRequest.featuredAccountProviderIdentifiers = providerManager.featuredProviders metadataRequest.includeAccountProviderIdentifier = includeAccountProviderIdentifier metadataRequest.includeAuthenticationExpirationDate = includeAuthenticationExpirationDate metadataRequest.isInterruptionAllowed = isInterruptionAllowed accountManager.enqueue(metadataRequest) { (metadata, error) in if let error = error {
preconditionFailure(error.localizedDescription)
}
}
}
Let’s conform the VSAccountManagerDelegate protocol into the AppleSSOHandler, we can do that in an extension like a show you below.
// MARK: - VSAccountManagerDelegate
extension AppleSSOHandler: VSAccountManagerDelegate { func accountManager(_ accountManager: VSAccountManager, present viewController: UIViewController) {
presentInViewController?.present(viewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
} func accountManager(_ accountManager: VSAccountManager, dismiss viewController: UIViewController) { viewController.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
} func accountManager(_ accountManager: VSAccountManager, shouldAuthenticateAccountProviderWithIdentifier accountProviderIdentifier: String) -> Bool { return true
}
}
Now let’s work in the ViewController, I give you the ViewController implementation below.
final class ViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet private weak var supportedTextView: UITextView? @IBOutlet private weak var featuredTextView: UITextView? private var providerManager: ProviderManager { guard let supportedProviders = supportedTextView?.text,
let featuredProviders = featuredTextView?.text
else {
preconditionFailure("Provider resources could not be found.")
} let manager = ProviderManager(supportedProviders: supportedProviders, featuredProviders: featuredProviders)
return manager
} // 1 private lazy var appleSSOHandler: AppleSSOHandler = { let handler = AppleSSOHandler(providerManager: providerManager)
handler.presentInViewController = self
return handler
}() // 2 @IBAction private func checkStatusAction(_ sender: Any) { appleSSOHandler.checkAccessStatus()
} // 3 @IBAction func metadataRequestAction(_ sender: Any) { appleSSOHandler.requestMetadata()
} // 4
}
Let’s explain that code.
This code creates the ProviderManager instances that provides the supported and featured TV Providers. This code creates a lazy instantiation of AppleSSOHandler. This code makes the checkAccessStatus call. This code makes the requestMetadata call.
Now let’s run the App.
After you touch the Metadata Request button that will call the present viewController method, that method is provided by the VSAccountManagerDelegate
Then that controller will show the supported and featured Tv providers that we already set into the MetadataRequest.
Note: In this example we are going to use the DirectTv provider.
Then the image below shows the next method called that is shouldAuthenticatorAccountProviderWithIdentifier method, this method allows us to use that provider or not.
Now we just need to set our credentials to the DirectTv provider.
After set the correct credentials we can se that our App has access to the DirecTv provider.
And when we back to the app the dismiss viewController method is called.
Then next time you call the Metadata request, you will see the Provider data into the response.
The common mistakes
If you see the error below, it is because you are not conforming the VSAccountManagerDelegate.
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'This kind of request requires a delegate.'
To fix that just be sure that you are setting the delegate, something like this:
private lazy var accountManager: VSAccountManager = { let accountManager = VSAccountManager() accountManager.delegate = self return accountManager }()
2. If you try to build your project using the simulator and tried to call the method (enqueue).
func enqueue(_ request: VSAccountMetadataRequest, completionHandler: @escaping (VSAccountMetadata?, Error?) -> Void) -> VSAccountManagerResult
You will see the error below, I know that error doesn’t give us enough information for fix it, but the problem is AppleSSO only can be used in a real device.
Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'The errorOrNil parameter must not be nil.' terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException CoreSimulator 732.17 - Device: iPhone 11 (1D7AC154-A506-4A33-996C-F72158BAC5FB) - Runtime: iOS 13.1 (17A844) - DeviceType: iPhone 11
3. The error below happens when your TV Providers are wrong, you need to provide an array of the Supported Account Provider Identifiers.
View service failed: Error Domain=VSErrorDomain Code=1 "Your TV provider is not supported." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Your TV
provider is not supported.}
Let me give you an example:
let providerIdentifiers = [“\“ATT\“”, “\“Cox\“”, “\“DTV\“”, “\“Dish4\“”]
In the example above the identifiers contain an extra quotes (\“), below I show you the correct way.
let providerIdentifiers = [“ATT”, “Cox”, “DTV”, “Dish4”]
4. Another error is try to request the Metadata without giving the authorization to your App.
VSErrorDomain Code=6 “This application is not authorized for this request type.”
To fix that remember to call the checkAccessStatus before use the enqueue.
Additional resources
Lazy var in Swift
AppleSSO project
How to implement the Enterprise Apple SSO: Part Two Check Access Status
How to implement the Enterprise Apple SSO: Part One Entitlements
Steve Jobs: “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?
Congratulations!! we finally finished this AppleSSO series, I hope I was able to help you, don’t forget to leave many claps and see you soon with new tutorials. | https://tonytrejodev.medium.com/how-to-implement-the-enterprise-apple-sso-final-part-tv-providers-and-vsaccountmanagerdelegate-7904d60fa3ff | ['Tony Trejo'] | 2020-12-04 16:59:43.058000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Ios Development', 'Swift', 'iOS Apps', 'iOS App Development'] |
Enjoy your Github with SSH-use multiple Github accounts | Available Connection Methods
Now you can clone git repository via 3 methods.
HTTPS, SSH, Github-CLI
HTTPS
# git clone https://github.com/facebook/react.git
HTTPS connection will always verify the server using certificate authorities.
It allows anonymous pull and uses password authentication for pushing.
You have to input your Github password. Once you’v authenticated successfully, your credentials are stored in the macOS keychain and will be used every time you clone an HTTPS URL.
But be careful when storing the password permanently — since it can be used to change anything in your GitHub account.
Also if you have enabled 2FA, you will have to use a personal access token instead of your regular password.
HTTPS works practically everywhere, even in places which block SSH and plain-Git protocols.
SSH
# git clone [email protected]:facebook/react.git
SSH connection uses public-key authentication. You have to generate a keypair then add it to your Github account.
It’s very useful and more secure than passwords, since you can add many to the same account (for example, a key for every computer you use GitHub from). The private keys on your computer can be protected with passphrases.
Github does not require 2FA codes either — so whoever obtains your private key can push to your repositories without needing the code generator device.
The keys are only allowed for pushing/pulling, not allowed for editing account details. If you lose the private key (or if it gets stolen), you can just remove it from your GitHub account.
But it blocks anonymous access, so you always need a GitHub account for pulling and cloning.
GitHub CLI
# gh repo clone facebook/react
GitHub CLI is a Command-line interface to the code hosting platform which can be used for issues and pull requests.
Photo by Richy Great on Unsplash
Create SSH keys for all accounts
Imagine that now you want to use 2 GitHub accounts — userA and userB.
First create ssh keys with the following commands.
# cd ~/.ssh
# ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -f "github-userA"
# ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" -f "github-userB"
-C : “Comment” changes the comment for a keyfile.
-t : “Type” The option specifies the type of key to be created.
-f: “File” Specifies name of the file in which to store the created key.
For the further information, please visit here.
Now you have public and private keys in your ~/.ssh/ folder.
Add the SSH keys to your SSH-agent
We should add the SSH keys to the agent. Let’s add them.
# ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/github-userA
# ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/github-userB
-K option is Apple’s standard version of ssh-add, which stores the passphrase in your keychain for you when you add an ssh key to the ssh-agent. If you choose not to add a passphrase to your key, run the command without the -K option.
If you don’t have Apple’s standard version installed, you may receive an error.
For the more details, please read this article.
Import all the public keys on the corresponding Github accounts
Now we should register each key we created.
First copy the key to the clipboard.
# pbcopy < ~/.ssh/github-userA.pub
# pbcopy < ~/.ssh/github-userB.pub
Then go to the settings tab, click the “New SSH key” button and paste the public key from clipboard.
Create GitHub host entries for all accounts
For SSH connection, we should add config options for SSH.
~/.ssh/config file contains the config information of SSH connection.
If you don’t have this file, please create and open using the below command.
# open -e ~/.ssh/config
Edit your config file with the following contents.
#userA account
Host github.com-userA
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-userA #userB account
Host github.com-userB
HostName github.com
User git
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github-userB
Set default GitHub user
Which account do you want to use by default?
Make userA as default.
# git config --global user.name "userA"
# git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
Clone using secondary accounts | https://medium.com/@devhabit/enjoy-your-github-with-ssh-use-multiple-github-accounts-1e593156c363 | ['Zhi Heng Sun'] | 2020-12-19 15:07:07.916000+00:00 | ['Github', 'Ssh Agent', 'Git', 'Ssh', 'Multiple Accounts'] |
5 Tips for Introverts That Can Make You a Great Conversationalist | Back in high school, I was extremely shy and deathly afraid of talking to people I didn’t know. In college, I hit a breaking point and gave myself a challenge: For 90 days, I forced myself to talk to at least one stranger every day and even took notes to analyze how it went.
It was painful. It was embarrassing. It was uncomfortable. To make matters worse, I had body image issues because I was short, skinny, and covered with acne.
90 days later, however, I became a new person.
Since then, I spent years refining what works and what doesn’t and learned how to start conversations, build connections, and make new friends, no matter the language, country, or situation.
Without a doubt, few life skills can make a bigger impact on your life than learning how to have great conversations and create strong connections. And if I could do it, trust me: So can you. Here are my five best tips that work whether you’re shy or introverted—that I had to learn the hard way:
1. Stop Asking So Many Questions.
Almost every article online about conversations tells you to ask a lot of “open-ended” questions, which are questions that don’t have a yes-or-no answer. (Closed-ended: “Are you from here?” vs. Open-ended: “Where are you from?”) The reason behind that is to get people talking and push the conversation forward.
And when I started talking to strangers, I definitely relied on this tactic too. Sometimes it would go okay, but other times I felt like it was only going because I kept asking questions. Worse, if I couldn’t get them to ask me questions in return, the conversations would eventually die.
But while it’s okay to ask a few questions, here’s why relying on them is actually a bad tactic:
It creates “question trains,” which are situations where you ask question after question until it sounds like an interview. “What do you do? How long have you done it? What do you like about it?” (Often, people do this when they don’t know what to say and just use questions as a crutch.)
which are situations where you ask question after question until it sounds like an interview. “What do you do? How long have you done it? What do you like about it?” (Often, people do this when they don’t know what to say and just use questions as a crutch.) It forces conversations. Sometimes, people ask a lot of questions to try to keep someone talking with them; the other person is losing interest so you just keep asking them things so they don’t leave.
Sometimes, people ask a lot of questions to try to keep someone talking with them; the other person is losing interest so you just keep asking them things so they don’t leave. Questions take value. Rather than sharing anything unique about yourself, you just ask questions to get information and push the conversation (and make them do all the work).
Instead, make more statements. Statements are opportunities for you to share something about yourself, your personality, and your perspective.
Even better, when you make a statement and they respond, they won’t feel like they’re being “forced” to interact with you. Instead, they’ll voluntarily talk with you because they feel comfortable opening up.
Bad Example:
You: “Where are you from?”
Them: “New York.”
You: “Where in New York?”
Them: “Queens.”
You: “What’s your favorite thing about living in New York?”
Them: “Uh, I don’t know.”
Here, you’re making them do all the work without sharing anything about yourself or even hinting at why you’re asking. (You also asked three straight questions; the last one a really big one that takes a lot of work to answer.)
Good Example:
You: “Where are you from?”
Them: “New York.”
You: “I’m jealous: I love New York. I’m always amazed at how much there is to do there.”
Them: “Yeah, it’s a really great city. I love it too.”
You: “I never got cussed at though; so I never had the real New York experience.”
Them: “Haha, I yelled at someone last week.”
You: “That’s hilarious! I gotta hear about it!”
Them: [tells a story]
Here, you shared about yourself, your experiences, and your perspective. You only asked one question and built off it. You never forced them to talk to you; instead, your statements invited them to respond.
That, ultimately, is the goal: Getting people to feel comfortable opening up about themselves. And the only way to do that is for you to open up first.
I’m not saying you should never ask a question, but try to limit how many questions you ask. And if you do ask a question, make sure it’s an interesting one: “What’s the easiest way to tell someone isn’t a native New Yorker” is much more interesting than “What’s your favorite thing about living in New York?”
2. Start Your Conversations Strong.
I used to think that I needed to have a great “opener” to start a conversation—something brilliant to say that would start an awesome conversation 100% of the time. A witty observation. A funny comment. (After all, you’ll find countless articles with tons of conversation openers.)
But the hard truth is no opener works 100% of the time. In fact, if you learn only one thing from an article, let it be this:
What you say is the least important thing when starting conversations. The most important thing is your vibe, energy, and tone.
You see, people often initiate conversations weakly — talking with their bodies facing away or while looking at their phones. But when you’re timid and hesitant, no one leads the conversation and odds are it won’t last. (Being tentative usually means you’re afraid to put yourself out there and protect yourself from rejection.)
Instead, start a conversation strong. It should be like trying to break a wooden board in karate—if you commit, you’ll succeed, but if you’re hesitant, you’ll fail. Go all-in and put your full attention and energy behind your words. Make it crystal clear you are initiating conversation. Commit to talking to them. It shows a lot of confidence and lets the other person know your intention.
At a certain point, I stopped trying to think of a clever opening “line” or “question;” I often just walked up to a person and said, “Excuse me… hi, how’s it going?” And it worked! More importantly, whenever I committed fully to talking to someone, I never got brushed off. Here are some tips to do so:
Point your body directly towards the person
Maintain solid eye contact
Speak at a good, audible volume
Add more tonality to your voice (so you don’t sound monotone)
Don’t pull out your phone or try to distract yourself
3. Increase Your Vibe And “Overact.”
When you first talk to a stranger, they’re not really listening to what you say; they’re assessing your vibe and energy. Are you friendly? Dangerous? Creepy? (That’s how our brains are wired.)
So, when you begin a conversation, don’t just start with the energy level you’re currently at; always have a little more energy than the other person.
That way, you have enough enthusiasm, energy, and passion to elevate them and draw them in without going overboard and having way too much energy compared to the other person. (In my experience, I always start better conversations when I’m in a light, fun, and bouncing mood.)
Also, try to “overact” so your emotions are clear. Add more tonality to your voice, add more enthusiasm, feeling, and energy behind what you say, and be more animated. (ex. saying “I love this place…” vs “I love this place!”) This is even more critical when having conversations over a video or phone call.
Here’s why: When you’re with your friends, you could slightly lift one eyebrow and everyone would know how you’re feeling. But when you’re talking with someone who’s never met you before, that context doesn’t exist—by overacting, you can be understood. (It might seem weird to you, but to the other person, it seems fine.)
If you struggle to have the right vibe, one trick I used when I was doing my 90-day challenge in university was to listen to music before I started my day. Something with a good beat and with good energy was enough to give my spirit (and conversations) a boost.
4. Don’t Being Interesting; Be Interested.
Two years ago while I was staying in Budapest for a few weeks, I met this girl who was traveling through as well. We ended up talking, hitting it off, and going on an impromptu date that lasted the rest of the night.
“You know,” she said and we were sitting hand-in-hand, overlooking the river, “I actually don’t much about you. You didn’t really say much about yourself.”
I laughed inside.
Some people converse by boasting about all the things they’ve done to make themselves look cool so others will be impressed and want to talk to them. Talking to them eventually turns into a competition and an exercise of one-upmanship. (“Oh, you when to Budapest?! I went there 15 times!”)
But from what I’ve seen, the key to great conversations is to make other people feel cool and interesting. Take an interest in them. Be fascinated with what they do. Make them the star of the show.
Don’t be interesting — be interested.
When you take a genuine interest in others, great things can happen. Most surprising of all, if you do this right, others will find you interesting. After all, it’s rare to encounter a person like this. (In fact, only people who are actually interesting people don’t need to take center stage.)
5. Appreciate What They Say.
While everyone teaches you to “listen,” I’ll go one step further. During a conversation, when someone shares something unique or interesting, don’t just nod—genuinely appreciate what they did and explain why.
Years ago, I was at a Starbucks, taking a break from a cross-country drive, when I saw three guys hitting on the female baristas. During their “chat,” a barista said she lived in Okinawa for three years teaching English.
A good-looking guy said (I swear), “Nice. So what time did you open today?”
My jaw dropped. Can you imagine how much courage it took to make that life decision? Or the learning, culture shock, and challenges she endured? You have to appreciate that.
Needless to say, they left empty-handed. (Funny thing was, I ended up talking to the baristas, had a great conversation, and got a free drink.)
When someone tells you something awesome, unique, deep, or detailed, you must appreciate what they said. For example, if they tell you that they’re backpacking through South East Asia by themselves, tell them that you admire the courage. If they tell you that they moved to a new country to chase a dream, tell them that you're impressed by their story.
It shows that you value their input. It helps them feel comfortable and safe to open up about themselves and share experiences, feelings, and emotions with you — while you do the exact same thing. (But if you skip this step, you’ll show that you don’t really care.)
Use these tips and watch what happens—it might just change your life. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/5-tips-for-introverts-that-can-make-you-a-great-conversationalist-7563971c9200 | ['Anthony J. Yeung'] | 2020-11-16 20:03:10.177000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Life Lessons', 'Personal Development', 'Self Improvement', 'Self'] |
The Loose Goat…. | I’ve been asked a few times why the name Loose Goat?
There are no humorous tales of a goat nor actually any connection between the director of the company and goats. So those lines of thought are knocked on the head straight away.
So why? When I was thinking of setting up my own business which I knew was going to be based around maps and data (GIS), I instinctively knew that I didn’t want the company name to contain
geo
maps
carto
data
where
here
location
GIS (as in Geographic Information Systems)
GI (Geographic Information)
Some, if not all of these words are too industry centric for me. Plus it’s a crowded market with many companies having too similar names.
I wanted a company name that was different, memorable and didn’t tie itself to the industry. I wanted to break away from the pack,…the herd even…, I wanted an animal logo. After all Twitter, MailChimp, GitHub and Linux have an animal as their logo and are both memorable and say nothing of the industry they work within. Plus they’ve become household names!
So I needed an animal, something that was breaking away from a herd or pack. The Lost Sheep or Lonely Dog didn’t fit the bill. A goat though, that had milage and a Loose Goat, that sounded good.
So there we have it The Loose Goat. A company set up to provide services based around maps. We’re doing ok for ourselves as well, with many comments on the name and how it sticks in the mind.
loosegoat.com | https://medium.com/@loosegoat/the-loose-goat-a0abce3ade17 | ['Team Loose Goat'] | 2019-02-06 19:55:01.212000+00:00 | ['GIS', 'Startup', 'Maps'] |
How AI & Automation Can Help Reduce Workplace Stress | Workplace stress is one of the leading causes for people leaving their jobs and the drop in employee productivity; businesses in the US alone lose up to $300 billion in anual revenue due to this. Globally, the work stress levels keep rising, and to succeed, businesses need to find a way to help their employees healthily manage their stress.
The happier your employees are, the more it’ll reflect in their everyday work. This means higher retention rates, more creativity, and better outcomes. Making employee-friendly policies like flexible working hours and providing mental healthcare assistance can help employees manage their stress.
But what about the root cause of stress? Work! Managing work can help reduce stress and automation along with AI can help in reducing this burden for employees. While most people think of automation as complicated and AI as robots that will replace human jobs, they’re quite the opposite! Automation helps simplify tasks, and AI can assist humans in carrying out their tasks in a better, more organized manner!
5 Ways Automation and AI Can Help Reduce Stress
Fewer Chances Of Human Error: You can quickly spot the color drain out of one’s face as they realize they’ve forgotten a task. Whether it’s a social media post that a marketeer forgot to take live, or a miscalculation made by adding an entry twice in a sheet by an accountant, these are all mistakes that can be made redundant with the help of automation. Automation enables employees to schedule their work, set reminders, and auto check for errors. This means fewer risks of manual errors, which leads to lesser employee stress. Freedom To Work More Openly: Constantly having to report to a superior and being reminded of your deliverables can lead to stress. Employees often end up focusing more on meeting the deadline than the task at hand when they’re supervised closely or micromanaged. It also puts constraints on your employees to think freely and grow. Workflow automation can help employees and employers work more freely by clearly outlining responsibilities and streamlining communication by sending both notifications as and when needed. Increased Workflow Organization: Integrating all your workflows can help create single view access and streamline the workflow processes for people across teams. A structured and organized approach to data enables employees to work better and without disruption. This also makes it easier for managers to keep a check on employees without the need for constant contact and promotes a more collaborative space for employees to work. Overall using automation to organize your workflows can reduce confusion and save time, hence reducing stress. Making Repetitive Tasks Redundant: Automating repetitive tasks like filling up reports, scheduling meetings, or sending emails that can be templatized can help free up a lot of time for your employees. This reduces the pressure they have, frees up more time to focus on more important tasks, and hence allows for better time management. Providing Round The Clock Care With AI: Seeking professional help for mental health is often very difficult for individuals in need of it. There are multiple steps before an individual goes on to schedule an appointment with a professional on call. Therapeutic AI chatbots can help employees explore their mental health in a safe space and with discretion. AI chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis that can analyze cognitive and behavioral insights and offer personalized responses to individuals. These chatbots converse with individuals to help them think more positively, realize if they need help, and provide a safe space to vent.
Contrary to popular belief, automation and AI aren’t going to steal your jobs; instead, they’re going to play an important role in helping individuals streamline their work and assist them in working smarter rather than harder.
Get in touch with us to know more about automation and how you can implement it in your daily work! | https://medium.com/quickworkco/how-ai-automation-can-help-reduce-workplace-stress-9fa8e0f69bb7 | ['Team Quickwork'] | 2020-12-15 10:45:47.564000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Automation'] |
Back to Fever | 50 WORD MICROFICTION
Back to Fever
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Three years old; four blankets; five cold rags.
Burn the fever out.
Sixteen years old; seventeen boys; eighteen wishes that daughter was three.
Burn the fever out.
Blankets, blankets! Take all the cozy blankets!
They’ll put you to sleep, burn those fevers out, a flash —
1
2
Back to three. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/back-to-fever-861e25d5ca39 | ['Melissa Bee'] | 2020-12-10 00:58:41.733000+00:00 | ['Microfiction', 'Creativity', '50 Words', 'The Bad Influence', 'Short Story'] |
Kyvol Cybovac S31 review: This self-emptying robot vacuum can mop, too | The Kyvol Cybovac S31 is the latest in a growing line of self-emptying robot vacuums. These completely autonomous vacuums are a wonderful luxury for most of us. But if you have allergies, asthma, or another health issue that can be triggered by the plume of dust released when you empty a dustbin, they can be a lifesaver.
The S31 has a 4.3L self-emptying dustbin that can hold up to about 60 days’ worth of dust before you need to replace the disposable dustbag inside it. The dustbin doubles as the robot’s charging dock, providing about four hours of runtime per full charge.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best robot vacuums, 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.The robot itself navigates using Laser Distance Sensors housed in a turret on its top. During its first run through the room it, it creates a map of the floorplan that allows you to create virtual walls, cleaning areas, and no-go zones. The dirty business is handled by a rolling brush and two spinning side brushes on the bottom.
Kyvol The Cybovac S31 can vacuum and mop at the same time. Mapping navigation lets you control where it cleans.
Setting up the vacuum is easy, but I initially had problems with its companion app. With its dustbin-dock plugged in and the robot on its charging pins, I added the S31 and successfully connected it to my Wi-Fi. After that, I was prompted to download a firmware update; but each time I tried, I got a message saying the firmware couldn’t be upgraded until the battery was charged to more than 20 percent. I left the vacuum to charge for a couple more hours, but still got the same message when I tried to upgrade.
Mentioned in this article iRobot Roomba i3+ Read TechHive's reviewSee it I found another reviewer had encountered the same problem and solved it by running the vacuum with its physical remote and then successfully upgrading. I did the same and was finally able to update the app. I had no further issues with it after that.
[ Further reading: The best indoor air-quality monitors ]I chose my downstairs level for testing the Cybovac S31, as it includes carpet, hardwood, and vinyl tile and is the highest-trafficked area of my home. The vacuum’s powerful 3000Pa of suction enabled it to get lot of pet hair off the carpet, along with dust and various other debris.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG You can set no-go zones to keep the vacumm from mopping your carpet, for example
The Cybovac S31 can vacuum and mop at the same time, so I attached the mopping module to the bottom of the robot for the entryway, kitchen, and bathroom. It holds 110ml of water and distributes it to the attached microfiber cloth as it drags along the floor. It doesn’t make enough contact with the floor—and provides no back-and-forth agitation—to remove anything more than surface grime. It’s adequate for semi-regular maintenance cleaning, but it won’t eliminate the need for your stick mop.
Once a map has been created, the vacuum cleans in a much more predictable and efficient pattern. Setting cleaning areas is as simple as tapping a button in the app and dragging a resizable box to a spot on the map. There’s a similar process for adding virtual walls and no-vacuum and no-cleaning zones. The last was particularly helpful as my hardwood entryway abuts my carpeted living room; making the living room a no-mop zone ensured I didn’t end up with a soggy rug.
Kyvol’s app isn’t particularly sophisticated, but it’s intuitive enough to get around. The main screen displays the current map, cleaning area, and duration of the current job as well as the battery level. You can start full-room or spot cleaning from here or send the vacuum back to its dock to charge. From the Settings menu, you can schedule cleanings, set the frequency of dustbin emptying, view cleaning records, monitor the usage of the brushes and HEPA filter, and more.
Selling for about $500 at the time of this review, the Cybovac S31 was priced about the same as iRobot’s Roomba i3+ (iRobot pioneered the self-emptying concept with the Roomba i7+ and the Roomba S9+). The Cybovac S31 isn’t quite as polished as that product, but it can hold its own as a cleaner against that bot, and it can mop, too. You can confidently put it on your last-minute holiday wish list.
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/@regina72572612/kyvol-cybovac-s31-review-this-self-emptying-robot-vacuum-can-mop-too-22481971f8c7 | [] | 2020-12-23 23:58:16.836000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Security Cameras', 'Internet', 'Gear'] |
expertlead, a global community of highly qualified tech freelancers | expertlead has raised €7M in total. We talk with Arne Hosemann, its CEO.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe expertlead in a single tweet?
Arne Hosemann: expertlead is a global community of highly qualified tech freelancers. We support our community in all stages of self-employment: from project acquisition, providing relevant services and opportunities for further training and peer-to-peer learning, to administrative tasks.
PC: How did it all start and why?
AH: Earlier in our respective careers we constantly heard businesses complain about how hard finding great tech talent is. This, in itself, is not too surprising given top tech talent shortage is a widely discussed topic.
But when we talked to developers, they would point out how poor their experience with recruiters and staffing agencies had been. Very often even tech focused recruiters would not understand tech skills specifics or the professional preferences of these developers. This got us thinking about what it would take to make the experience on both sides significantly better.
As there is a growing trend towards self-employment in tech and freelancers still often work alone or in remote teams, we wanted to become their go-to partner that supports them in all stages of self-employment.
This was what drove our whole idea: building a community that is really different from a recruitment agency or a pure self-matching talent marketplace by becoming a true partner in our self-employed tech experts’ professional lives — from project acquisition, opportunities for continued professional development and peer-to-peer learning to taking care of administrative tasks.
Similarly, for our clients, we did not just want to focus on matching demand — our mission is to go a lot further and help companies identify the best talent. This is where many companies struggle, especially those that are not digital native. Assessing the various skills level of tech applicants is quite challenging and can be very time-consuming and hence expensive. Therefore, we started digging deeper into how we can test various tech stacks, databases and frameworks while still keeping it enjoyable for the applicants as well. Very quickly we got to the point where we realized that no single company can cover the entire tech field when it comes to testing — it is way too broad and complex. That is when the idea was born to involve our tech community in assessing other tech experts — which is one of our core USPs today.
With that in mind, we both left our previous job in 2017 and started expertlead in 2018.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
AH: Since Alex and I started in 2018 our team has grown rapidly: we are now an international startup headquartered in Berlin that employs around 45 people. By the end of year we expect to be around 60 employees.
We have invested most of our seed capital in building out our tech products. We aim to use tech solutions across our entire value chain: from identifying suitable tech freelancers, testing their skill level and matching them to client projects to providing relevant services to our freelance community. We have made significant progress to automate these different steps already, especially when it comes to assessing our community’s tech skills, automatically matching client projects with the best freelancers and identifying leading tech talent.
Our strong focus on tech allows us to help our clients faster and more effectively than others. With that approach we have already convinced leading European multinationals and tech companies including Daimler, Babbel and Delivery Hero.
Just recently we have announced one of our greatest achievements since our launch: having three global investors — Acton, Rocket Internet and SEEK — jointly invest €7M in our company for our Series A round.
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
AH: The newly raised capital will be used to support our international growth ambitions as well as to further drive the automation of our products. We also wish to broaden our technical know-how so our platform can service new areas such as cybersecurity. Last but not least our team will also be focusing on expanding our community offering and peer-to-peer engagement.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2–3 years?
AH: Closing our Series A was a great success but only the beginning of an exciting journey! In the next 2–3 years we will fully focus on expanding our tech community and on building a leading tech company in a space that is still mainly dominated by quite “manual” agencies.
We want to be known in the tech ecosystem for being a truly valuable partner in highly skilled freelancers’ professional careers and for offering the most enjoyable and solid technical assessment experience through our platform. That is the way we intend to expand our community globally in the years to come.
On the client side, we want to continue in our path to becoming the go-to trusted partner for both multinational corporates and tech companies when it comes to identifying and hiring the leading tech talent for their most innovative and complex tech projects. This will also, of course, continue to benefit our community greatly. | https://medium.com/petacrunch/expertlead-a-global-community-of-highly-qualified-tech-freelancers-1761ca632b46 | ['Kevin Hart'] | 2019-09-04 07:21:01.205000+00:00 | ['Freelance', 'Startup', 'Freelancers', 'Community', 'Freelancing'] |
Update: Bellevue Sex Trafficking Case | The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed two felony counts of second-degree human trafficking and promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor against a Bellevue defendant.
This is the same individual referenced in the below Bellevue Police Department blog post.
The defendant’s next court date is an arraignment scheduled on Dec. 30.
This post is based on information available as of December 22, 2020, and is not expected to be updated as the case moves forward. | https://medium.com/@kcprosecutor/update-bellevue-sex-trafficking-case-c98bcf8b25d7 | ['King County Prosecuting Attorney S Office'] | 2020-12-22 23:33:39.121000+00:00 | ['Bellevue', 'King County', 'King County Prosecutor', 'Criminal Justice', 'Sex Trafficking'] |
Stuck | She died at midnight. Sunrise brought her back. She stayed alive long enough to deal with the kids and cook a tasty dinner. By the time she did the dishes, life was slipping away from her again.
It’s unlikely she’ll make it to dinner. She drowns in indecision, then floats. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/stuck-ebcc9edca30e | ['Gb Rogut'] | 2020-12-08 12:02:20.230000+00:00 | ['Microfiction', '50 Words', 'The Bad Influence', 'Thrifty Words Challenge', 'Short Story'] |
The Night Before Christmas Remix | Photo by Nubia Navarro
It’s the night before Christmas, and we’re stuck in the house
no one was speaking, not even my spouse
The presents were wrapped, placed under the tree with care
we knew the bill collector would soon be there.
The children were face timing from their beds
while shouts of “go to sleep” were blocked from their heads
And papa in his do-rag, me a silk cap,
had just hunkered down for a COVID-19 nap.
From the window, I heard a noise and lots of chatter,
I jumped out of bed because Black Lives Matter.
A sprint to the window I ran in a dash,
pulled back the curtains and started to laugh.
A full moon bounced from the street with a glow
Giving a top view of the couple below.
That’s when I questioned, could things be as they appear,
they are not wearing face masks, oh, dear!
The little old man walked with a stick,
I knew from the start it was Uncle Rick
He whisper-shouted and called out her name:
“Come on, Glayds, and I mean right now
walk like a Vixen! prance like a dancer to the top of the porch
then lean against the house.
We don’t want them to see us or hear us at all.
If you notice someone coming, don’t try to flee
stand where you are, and be who you be.”
Sly as a fox Auntie G came, carrying gifts,
no need for a cane.
Up to the porch, they flew
With candy canes, sweet potato pie, and an envelope full of money too
I pulled back my head and tried to hide; there was nothing left for me to do.
They slid the cash under the door, left the pie safe in its tin
The note read, “Merry Christmas to all, because of COVID, we will not come in.”
Across the street, they went
arm in arm
Uncle Rick still macking his pretty-boy charm
His Kango hat and Jordan shoes
Uncle Rick is hella cool.
Inside the car, he said through the glass
“Happy Christmas to all; I hope COVID gives you a pass.” | https://medium.com/@stacyjohnsonwrites/the-night-before-christmas-remix-1b031cc519ee | ['Stacy Johnson'] | 2020-12-25 03:21:14.579000+00:00 | ['Family', 'Christmas', 'Black Christmas', 'Covid 19'] |
3 Signs You’re Spiritually Bypassing on Social Media | Walking a spiritual path — however you define that — is often difficult. The journey to healing your childhood trauma, releasing your ego’s limiting beliefs, and connecting with your authentic self or a higher power is fraught with pitfalls. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be wonderful vehicles to connect with other spiritual seekers, share your journey, and gain spiritual wisdom. But they can also be a minefield of emotional triggers and distractions that lure us away from our path and into spiritual bypass—that is, using spirituality to avoid emotional pain and protect the ego.
Below are 3 of the most common forms of spiritual bypass to watch for so you don’t end up using social media to sabotage your spiritual growth.
1. You Always Turn to Social Media for “Spiritual Inspiration”
One of our deepest tendencies, as human beings, is to avoid pain and pursue pleasure. We prefer to distract and numb ourselves than deal with discomfort. A spiritual path is meant to teach you to face your pain so that you can heal.
It’s very easy to turn to social media like Facebook and Instagram and scroll away your pain. Perusing inspirational stories or searching for uplifting spiritual memes can easily become a means to numb or distract yourself. Constantly turning to social media for a quick “inspirational” boost becomes spiritual bypass; you’ll just look for another “hit” the next time you start to feel low again.
Another version of this kind of bypass is to spend countless hours in spiritual Facebook groups, posting about your life or commenting on others’ posts. It’s a wonderful impulse to want to connect with others and share what’s happening in your life, but constant chatter and commentary on threads, particularly when helping others to diagnose what’s going on in their lives, is a common way to distract yourself from your own inner work.
2. You’re Using Social Media to Judge Others’ Spiritual Progress
As the previous section suggests, many spiritual seekers aspire to connect with other people on a similar path. Walking a spiritual path can be a lonely prospect — the world feels full of negativity and you’re looking for your “tribe.” You hope to find some soul brothers and sisters, a community of some kind, where you feel that you belong.
Along the way, as you’re finding this new community, it’s easy to fall into the trap of starting to judge other people for how “spiritual” you think they are. Someone may exhibit some negative behavior or act in ways that trigger you emotionally, and you engage in spiritual bypass by displacing your own discomfort in the form of judgmental posts or memes on social media.
You know it’s spiritual bypass because the judgment often gets wrapped in spiritual language—like saying that you’re more “awake,” or “vibrating at a higher frequency,” or more “ascended” than the people you disagree with and now wish to leave behind. You might even dismiss them as still being in “3D” while you’re now in “5D.” Or worse still, you might say that now that you’re “awake,” other people seem so dumb or difficult to deal with.
While it’s true that sometimes you need to let go of toxic people who do real harm to you, most times that person who seems “low” vibe or says something insensitive may just be working through a major issue. (Remember that you were that person once too.) Rather than bypass and write them off as “less spiritual” than you, pause and look at why you’re getting triggered. If you do need to walk away, do it without throwing them under the bus under the guise of being spiritually advanced.
3. You’re Becoming Attached to a “Spiritual Identity”
Discovering your authentic self is a wonderful part of being on a spiritual path, but it can present a tricky pitfall. You start to spiritually bypass when you become attached to an image that conveys how spiritual you are.
One of the key stages on a spiritual path is when you let go of the need for others’ approval to feel good about yourself. If you feel a compulsive need to post pictures of yourself in yoga poses, on meditation cushions or looking “spiritual” in some nature setting, you may want to do some self-reflection and ask yourself about your motives.
There’s no reason not to celebrate your spiritual path, but if you start to crave affirmation for this new spiritual identity — such as obsessing over how many likes or followers you have, or if you follow people just so they can follow you to become an “influencer”— you’re falling into spiritual bypass. You’re now relating to your fellow humans in a transactional manner, devoid of true connection, to fulfill your ego’s need for approval and affirmation. | https://medium.com/swlh/3-signs-youre-spiritually-bypassing-on-social-media-f2563060d303 | ['Patrick Paul Garlinger'] | 2019-10-02 17:14:04.603000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Self-awareness', 'Self Improvement', 'Social Media', 'Spirituality'] |
MYKEY Weekly Report 29 (December 7th~December 13th) | Today is Monday, December 14, 2020. The following is the 29th issue of MYKEY Weekly Report. In the work of last week (December 7th to December 13th), there are mainly 1 updates:
1. We are carrying out a topic activity with rewards: ‘My reason for using wallet’ in http://bihu.com until December 14
For details, click to view: https://bit.ly/37Wy614.
!!! If you encounter any abnormal situation while using MYKEY, remember not to uninstall MYKEY APP, please contact MYKEY Assistant: @mykeytothemoon in Telegram.
!!! Remember to keep the 12-digit recovery phrase properly from [Me] — [Manage Account] — [Export Recovery Phrase] in MYKEY even if your account is not real-named.
About Us
KEY GROUP: https://keygroup.me/
MYKEY Web: https://mykey.org/
BIHU: https://bihu.com/people/1133973
Telegram: https://t.me/mykey_lab
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mykey_lab
Medium: https://medium.com/mykey-lab
Github: https://github.com/mykeylab
Youtube: MYKEY Laboratory | https://medium.com/mykey-lab/mykey-weekly-report-29-december-7th-december-13th-ea98ef9bda6b | [] | 2020-12-14 03:32:55.923000+00:00 | ['Mykey', 'Eos', 'Weekly Report', 'Ethereum'] |
How GPT-3 works on the examples. | Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) is an autoregressive language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. It is the third-generation language prediction model in the GPT-n series created by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research laboratory.
Your phone prediction neural network predicts the next word when you write your message.
next word prediction
What is the Next Word Prediction?
The easiest way to write the sentence is to type the first word, and then select the second word by using predictive text. It is fast and very easy. It is also a great feature for mobile users but there is one problem when using this solution. The predictive text only works for the next word, it will not help you with the second word.
How GPT-3 Works on next word prediction?
The Graph Predictive Text uses a neuron network to predict the next word. This is done by using the connections between the words. The Graph Predictive Text has several layers.
Graph Predictive Text has several layers of connections:
The first layer is the Input Layer.
This layer has all the words of the dictionary. The input layer has connections with the next layer, it is called the Hidden Layer.
The next layers are the Hidden Layers.
Their layers are used to predict the next word by using the words in the previous layer.
The next layer is the Output Layer.
Neural network example
This layer is used to predict the next word by using the words in the input layer.
Now we are ready to predict the next word.
The first step is to check the input word. The Input word is checked in the Input Layer to find the input word. The Input word is checked in the Hidden Layer to find the next word. The next word is checked in the Output Layer to find the next word.
The second step is to calculate the score for each word. To calculate the score the Graph Predictive Text calculates the score for each word and the best word is selected.
The third step is to predict the best word. The best word is selected from the output layer.
Now we are ready to predict the next word.
GPT-2 visualized example | https://medium.com/@aivanouski/how-gpt-3-works-on-the-examples-b1e04ac6d791 | ['Andrei Ivanouski'] | 2020-12-13 17:06:10.598000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'AI', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Gpt 3', 'Copywriting'] |
James Baldwin: | JOURNALIST: When you were starting out as a writer, you were black, impoverished, and homosexual. You must have said to yourself, “Gee, how disadvantaged can I get?” BALDWIN: No, I thought I had hit the jackpot. It was so outrageous, you had to find a way to use it. (From Hilton Als, The Enemy Within, 1998)
For many years James Baldwin was my favorite writer. When I read his second novel Giovanni’s Room in 1960, my last year of college, I was startled and intrigued by its explicit homoerotic content. No surprise, then, that I quickly devoured his earlier novel Go Tell it on the Mountain which was a semi-autobiographical telling the story of a young boy’s discovery of his sexuality. The book was destined to become an American classic.
A few years later, his third novel, Another Country, came out with a broad spectrum of sexual, racial, artistic, and even political themes depicting men and women, straight and queer, black and white, noteworthy for its emotional intensity and its sprawling look at the intricacies of gender and race. For the most part, the critics didn’t like Another Country as much as I did.
At about the same time, Baldwin published a book of essays, first appearing in The New Yorker, entitled The Fire Next Time. These essays dealt with the prominent role of race and racism in American history as well as taking a look at race and religion in American life. Some have spoken of this as signifying the point at which Baldwin made his break with religion, after initially planning a life as a Pentecostal preacher.
I personally interpreted The Fire Next Time very differently. Indeed, one paragraph had a profound effect on my thinking. Baldwin wrote “if the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.” Instead of seeing these words as marking a break with Christianity, at the time I saw it rather as a break only with fundamentalism. It is possible to interpret his words as forming a clearer commitment to the God of the New Testament as compared to the vengeful and often angry God of the Old.
Whatever may be said about such religious issues, the centrality of sexuality so apparent in the novels did not seem to carry over into Baldwin’s non-fiction. Michelle Gordon, Senior Lecturer in African American Studies at Emory suggests, “for a long time, when [Baldwin] was talked about by scholars, it was not really about his sexual orientation.” In fact, their discussion of the impact of sexuality on his writing did not really get under way until 10 to 15 years after his death in 1987.
Perhaps this scholarly reticence came in some measure from Baldwin’s own reluctance to talk about his sexuality. Even when Baldwin did discuss sex and gender, the tone struck often maintains a certain distanced quality.
Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.” (from Conversations with James Baldwin, 1961–1987)
When asked if being gay was an aberration, Baldwin made it very clear that such views were an indication of narrowness and stagnation. Baldwin was open about his homosexuality and relationships with both men and women. Yet he believed that the focus on rigid categories was just a way of limiting freedom and that human sexuality is more fluid and less binary than often expressed in the U.S. It was his essays that helped establish Baldwin as one of the top writers of the times. … Baldwin offered a brutally realistic picture of race relations, but he remained hopeful about possible improvements. “If we…do not falter in our duty now, we may be able…to end the racial nightmare.” His words struck a chord with the American people, and The Fire Next Time sold more than a million copies. That same year, Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time magazine. “There is not another writer — white or Black — who expresses with such poignancy and abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and South,” Time said in the feature. — — — — — Anonymous in GoodReads
If you click on this link, you will hear a reading of an essay in which Baldwin discusses the nature of the artist’s (read writer’s) responsibility to society. | https://medium.com/prismnpen/james-baldwin-187db44f1220 | ['David Wade Chambers'] | 2020-09-18 08:01:02.788000+00:00 | ['Racism', 'Writing Tips', 'Black', 'LGBTQ', 'James Baldwin'] |
This 2TB external hard drive’s design is too slim！ | The 2TB external hard drive HV620S has slim design. It takes the proven performance and reliability of our existing 2.5” external hard drives and re-defines them. At only 11.5mm in profile, it’s super-slim for sleek elegance and superior portability, fitting easily in any briefcase or backpack.
Besides, the sleek lines and reflective, smooth surface of the 2TB external hard drive HV620S highlights its thin and elegant overall appearance. It is ideal for those who wish to maintain an aura of professionalism, or show off their technical savvy. A raised lip on the edge of the drive protects the surface from scratching when the drive is laid flat.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
For all your content and with nearly universal device compatibility, the 2TB external hard drive HV620S embodies smart design that increases capacity and performance while reducing physical space requirements. And a bright blue LED lets you know when data is being read from or written to the 2TB external hard drive HV620S. This helps prevent disconnection during read/write operations.
FAQ：
Q：What are the differences between solid state drive & external hard drive?
A：Solid State Drives (SSD) are storage devices like 2TB external hard drives, but with much better performance, especially as regards random access speeds.
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
But because of their higher price, they are often more suitable to be used as the drive from which the operating system is run. The slower speeds of HDDs mean they are likely to be used as data backup media, and for data archives.
Q：Why can’t my computer detect an external hard drive?
A：There are two general possibilities: ‧Lack of power: The hard disk should be attached to the USB power cable connector into the USB slot on the back of the computer. Make sure your computer supplies enough power for the hard disk to run.
Do not use a USB Hub, extension cord, or other USB devices together, because doing so may cause power undersupply, resulting in the external drive being unable to be read. ‧ Volume has not been added: In Windows XP/Vista/7 operating systems, go to Disk Management to confirm that the hard disk is installed.
From：ADATA | https://medium.com/@pigdacing2017/this-2tb-external-hard-drives-design-is-too-slim-ec95590f47e9 | ["Kate' Life"] | 2019-06-17 08:08:29.047000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'External Hard Drive', 'Windows 10', 'Computers', 'Hdd'] |
Mompreneurs — upcoming or vanishing tribe? | ‘Mompreneurs’ — some like the term some not so much. But like it or not, this term has become a part of the new age vocabulary. It means a female entrepreneur who is actively balancing the responsibilities of owning a business and raising children.
If you look back in history, mompreneurs have been around forever. I come from India and vividly remember that some of my aunts and neighborhood moms knitted sweaters, made pickles and snacks, and even tutored kids at home while doing everything full time moms would do. Childcare came in the form of other neighborhood moms or grandmas pitching in. Marketing, in the absence of social media came in the form of social connections and family friends. Customer support wasn’t needed as much as customer expectations were simple and not benchmarked.
Today mompreneurs are facing an uphill task. Lives are more disconnected than ever, existing mostly online. Childcare is formalized and needs to be (heavily) paid for. Marketing is a never ending race. You not only run the business operations, but also have to be active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin at least. Plus don’t forget to keep a blog with fresh content to be in the race for SEO. Connections are made in networking events — those snazzy evening after work gatherings in the big city. You must stay updated with all the latest and greatest in the startup world, know the names of all the prominent investors, be able to talk intelligently about politics, be well informed on sports, also, what book are you reading these days?
For the un or yet to be oriented, here are ‘active mom’ duties — get yourself and the kids ready for school, feed them breakfast, pack lunch, drop them off. Work work work….forgot to send an item for their school project — go drop off….work work work……kids pick up, feed them, bathe them, read, get ready for bed time (networking event? when was that?)….work work work until you fall asleep on your desk. And here you have — half written blog post, only 5 posts lined up on social media, unanswered customer support tickets, half done market research. God forbid if someone is sick in the house, or if you are sick…yikes! Then there is the weekend with play dates, haircuts, birthdays.
Gone are the days when running a business was simply providing a good product or service and relying on your friends for referrals. When childcare or kid pick up was an easy ask for neighbors and family. Living online has put everyone on the same playing field and benchmarked customer expectations to the highest levels. Mom or not, you are expected to deliver the exact same results running in the same race. It is not just the world but even we put the same expectations on ourselves.
Just when we are talking of women empowerment, a mom is shutting down a company due to lack of childcare, support, and resources. Not to forget the bias that comes with funding mothers. Deserving women are hanging their boots, depriving the world of some amazing ideas and executions. The term dinosaurs was coined in 1824, long after they vanished. At least the term mompreneurs came sooner than that happens (hopefully not!). | https://medium.com/@twisha-anand/mompreneurs-upcoming-or-vanishing-tribe-7f141cf809fb | ['Twisha Anand'] | 2020-01-14 07:51:23.306000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Mothers', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startups', 'Parenting'] |
Should I Let My Daughter Beat Me At Mario Kart? | Should I Let My Daughter Beat Me At Mario Kart?
A lesson in parenting from everybody’s favourite Italian plumber.
Ask anyone that’s ever played a game of Monopoly with me, and they’ll tell you how competitive I am. I won’t deny it. On occasion, I’ve been known to take things a little too seriously. It doesn’t matter what the game is, or who I’m playing against, I play to win. What can I say, we all have flaws right? So you can imagine the dilemma I face when I sit down to play Mario Kart with my daughter.
The Apples Didn’t Fall Far From The Tree (But They Fell In First Place!)
I’ve spent a lot of time playing Mario Kart. It should come as no surprise that my children are just as competitive as I am. My son is too young to comprehend what it means to win or lose, but even at two, I can see the competitive streak beginning to emerge. Isabella is six so she very much understands the concept, and has undoubtedly witnessed me getting over-competitive in a game of Scrabble at some point, which won’t have helped matters.
I’ve taken her aside to explain she shouldn’t get upset if she doesn’t win at something, (pot, kettle black anyone?) and that losing isn’t the end of the world.
Can you smell that?
It smells like…hypocrisy.
To Win, Or Not To Win?
To clarify, when we play, I don’t win as a way of demonstrating my skill compared to hers. Metaphorically speaking it’s like watching the Tune Squad going up against the Monstars in Space Jam, without the help of Michael Jordan. No, I win because I am torn between the merits of beating her or letting her win.
I want my children to grow up knowing how good it feels to succeed, even at something as trivial as Mario Kart. That feeling isn’t something I experienced often as a child. But I also want them to grow up with the understanding that there will be times in life when you are not the best singer, or dancer, the most athletically gifted, or most intelligent person in the room.
Nothing would make me happier than to watch her genuinely kick my ass at Mario Kart, the way I did to my Dad when I was a kid. Right now, she can’t. What’s more, is that she knows she can’t. So what do I achieve by letting her win? She receives a false sense of accomplishment, that subconsciously she knows she didn’t earn. By letting her win, am I setting her up to fail later in life when she’s hit with the realisation that in the real world, you won’t succeed just because you want to?
On the other side of that coin, if she loses constantly, it will destroy her motivation. She will feel sad and dejected, something that my natural instinct as a parent tells me to prevent. And yes, while of course I try and explain to her that she won’t always win, all she sees is that she wanted to win at something and she didn’t. She is only six after all.
I don’t want her to grow up thinking that life isn’t fair if she doesn’t succeed, or that something isn’t worth doing if it’s too hard, that you should give up at the first hurdle. I want her to grow up seeing failure for what it really is.
Failure Is Just A Lesson You Learned On The Path To Success.
Think of somebody successful. The list of potential names you could choose is endless. But it doesn’t really matter who you choose. What matters is how you think those individuals got to where they are.
Do you think they achieved their goals on the first attempt? Or the second? Or the third? No. Because the road to success is paved with failures:
Michael Jordan — the greatest basketball player in history, didn’t make his high-school basketball team.
J.K. Rowling — the author of the Harry Potter novels, saw her manuscript for the first novel rejected by twelve publishers before it was eventually published.
publishers before it was eventually published. Walt Disney — was told that he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.
Will Isabella grow up to have the success of the names mentioned above? Not necessarily, but I most certainly hope so.
Regardless of what she goes onto achieve, I want her to achieve it with the attitude that she will succeed as long as she puts her mind to it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s singing, dancing, gymnastics, she can become a professional Mario Kart player for all I care, as long as it makes her happy.
But she needs to know that you won’t always win when it comes to the game of life. She needs to know that you might not win the second time around either. Or the third, or even the hundredth. She needs to learn that if you want something badly enough, you should embrace your failures, learn from them and try again. But for now?
She needs to learn how to keep Princess Peach’s car on the race track.
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your opinions. | https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/should-i-let-my-daughter-beat-me-at-mario-kart-18cea9efe5ab | ['Jon Peters'] | 2019-09-11 20:39:36.232000+00:00 | ['Children', 'Advice', 'Questions', 'Parenting', 'Life Lessons'] |
What Should be Your Package.json Look Like | When you create a project using NPM or Yarn Your project director has this file. Package.json is the Core file of the Node.js System. It is the manifest file of any Node project and contains all the configuration, dependencies, and metadata about the project. As a form extension, you can say it is a JSON(JavaScript Object Notation) file. So, you should know a bit about JSON before working on this file. A lot of things described in this file are affected at the configuration time.
let’s see an example of a complete Package.json look like:
Let’s first talk about how you create a package.json file
You are about to create a package.json file that means you are going to start a node project to create a full-fledged application or a package.
Prerequisites: You need to have Node installed it comes with npm (Node package manager) too. Then using the console run the following command
npm init answer the question in the command line and you will have your package.json
if you want to set all the answer to be default then you can just run this command
npm init -y
This will create a package.json file with default values and after that, you can edit the file and install other modules using npm i or npm i -D
name
Rules for name
The name must be less than or equal to 214 characters. All letters need to be lowercase letters The name must only contain URL safe characters. The name will probably be used as an argument to require(), so it must be short and descriptive.
version
If you make an update in your application or package then this field needs to be updated as well. Version is defined as 1.2.3 in this 1 represents a major change, 2 represents minor change and 3 represents a patch. So, if you make a patch in your app then update the last place as 1.2.3 to 1.2.4. if you make a minor change then update the 10th place as 1.2.3 to 1.3.3. and if you make a major change in your app like adding something big then you need to update as 1.2.3 to 2.2.3.
If you don’t want to publish then name and version fields are optional. But if you want to publish as a Package, then These together act as an identifier that is assumed to be unique for every package.
description
The field helps people to know your application or package. When they reach the app they will read this and get to know about your app. So this must be a short paragraph and make it as much as possible descriptive, so anyone will understand your app easily.
author
author means “you” the developer of the app, this is an informative field that helps us to get to know and reach the author of the app.
There are two ways you can define author in package.json as an object
or in short
contributors
this is an array of people that contributed to your project, you can add the name of the contributors to give them the credit for their hard work. Defining contributors is the same as the array of authors.
[{ “name”: “Rohit Jain”, “email”: “[email protected]”, “url”: “https://kingtechnologies.in/" },{ “name”: “Rohit Jain”, “email”: “[email protected]”, “url”: “https://kingtechnologies.in/" }]
or in short
[ “Rohit Jain <[email protected]> (https://kingtechnologies.in/)", “Rohit Jain <[email protected]> (https://kingtechnologies.in/)" ]
main
This field describes the entry point of your app. This should be a module relative to the root of your package. Developers mostly use the server file as the main.
homepage
This is a URL field where you put the home of the app as a string
“homepage”:”https://sleepy-peak-88767.herokuapp.com/"
private
this is a boolean field if you make it true npm will refuse to publish it. This is the way to prevent accidental publication. Mostly used when creating an application.
repository
This field specifies where is the code stored like Github or Gitlab link. where people can make requests, describe their issues, or want to contribute to your app. For example
{ “type”: “git”, “url”: “https://github.com/Rohit19060/mern-share-note" },
you can also use a shorthand for it as
“repository”: “github:Rohit19060/mern-share-note”, “repository”: “gist:110234e33e81”, “repository”: “bitbucket:user/repo”,
bugs
This is also a URL field for the issue tracker although mostly its same as the repository link as most of the VCS comes with the issue tracker. You can also provide an email here if you don’t have any issue tracker.
{ “url” : “https://github.com/Rohit19060/mern-share-note/issues", “email” : “[email protected]” }
In another way, you also can define one of them directly as a string instead of an object.
dependencies
This is one of the most important fields in package.json as it contains package names that your app will be utilizing. Don’t play with version number if you don’t sure what you are doing. This field is specified in a simple object that maps the package name to a version. Dependencies can also be identified with a tarball or git URL. This field gets automatically updated whenever you install a package using npm i
scripts
This field is also very important as it contains all the script commands that you can run according to your need. It can contain any number of commands like start, build, dev, serve, test, predeploy, postdeploy, server, etc., and all the scripts are associated with their respective module script commands.
“start”: “react-scripts start”, “build”: “react-scripts build”, “test”: “react-scripts test”, “eject”: “react-scripts eject”, “dev”: “concurrently \” nodemon server\” \” npm run start\””, “serve”: “node server”
devDependencies
This field is the same as dependencies but the package that is in the fields is only for development not for production. So, whenever you install a development package like nodemon using npm i -D then this field gets automatically updated. This will also help others as they don’t need to install your test or documentation frameworks that you used when you developing the app.
browserlist
People ask me a lot about what is your browserlist, when I created my default browserlist is very much like create-react-app So, when I saw that list, then I was very confident about the default list I was using. This field helps people to on which version of the browser your app will run best.
license
When you put a hell of amount of hard work into developing something then others should respect that. They shouldn’t just use your hard work and get credit for it. You should get credit for your hard work. So, you should specify a license for your package, so people will know how they are permitted to use your app and what restriction you are placing on it. If you’re using a common license such as BSD-2-Clause or MIT, add a current SPDX license identifier for the license you’re using, like this:
{ “license” : “BSD-3-Clause” }
and if you don’t want to grant others the right to use your app under any terms then you can make it as “UNLICENSED”
keywords
This field helps people discover your package it works the same as SEO, put the keywords that best describe your app. It is an array of strings.
funding
This field contains information about the ways to help fund the development of your app, You can specify an object or a donation URL, a Patreon link, or an array of string or object for example:
“funding”: { “type” : “Streamelements”, “url” : “https://streamelements.com/kingtechnologies/tip" }, “funding”: { “type” : “patreon”, “url” : “https://www.patreon.com/KingTechnologies" },
engines
This field has info about which node,npm, and yarn version is best for your app. I recommend adding this whenever you start your project so that you also know about it. If there is some version issue then you know which version your app is working completely fine. For example.
“engines”: { “node”: “>= 15.7.0”, “npm”: “>= 7.0.0”, “yarn”: “¹.22.0” },
Thank you. This is all you can do with package.json.
Let me know if you have any questions or queries. I’ll be happy to help you. Like, share, and follow. Thanks for reading. | https://medium.com/@kingrohit/what-should-be-your-package-json-look-like-41091884c283 | ['Rohit Jain'] | 2021-04-25 11:10:32.595000+00:00 | ['NPM', 'Json', 'Node', 'Packagejson', 'Js'] |
A Tutorial on Artificial Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems in R | Photo Credit: Google Images. A simple fuzzy logic model representation!
Computational methodologies are in no short supply these days. Almost every data related problem has a methodological approach that is best suited for maximum yields in knowledge discovery. Regression, clustering, neural networks, deep learning, and Bayesian methods are all commonly used in practice to create models that are reliable and precise. However, I have observed that a model type that is widely ignored outside of the engineering community, and works quite well, is fuzzy logic. Originally formulated by Lotfi Zadeh [1], fuzzy logic works by assigning predictors to fuzzy memberships rather than solid binary results that other modeling methods utilize. So instead of assigning a value of “78” and automatically classifying it as hot, a fuzzy logic model could classify that value as “moderately warm”, which would likely fit a greater range of the population. Furthermore, one important aspect of building great models, feature engineering, is handled to the extreme in fuzzy logic as a user must establish a universe of discourse (the range of values within a dataset, e.g. 0 to 200) and a number of fuzzy rules that cover all possible cases for combinations of variables within a given dataset. This allows for all types of adjustments to be made to the model to increase performance while decreasing computational costs. In short, fuzzy logic uses a combination of mathematical predictive power and human subjectivity to create the best model possible. While this would not be considered “machine learning” because of the human interactivity component, an extension of fuzzy logic has limited human subjectivity and added artificial neural network predictive power to the fuzzy logic schema. This approach is called Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) and has not seen as much application in the industrial realm as it has in the academic realm. This write-up will cover some of what ANFIS is capable of, and why many practitioners consider it to be superior to neural networks.
ANFIS was developed in the 1990’s [2,3] and allowed for the application of both fuzzy inference and neural networks to be applied to the same dataset. ANFIS models consist of five layers or steps, which conduct each phase of both the fuzzy logic portion of the algorithm and the neural network portion. Here I use the ANFIS package in R and solar energy production values for the United States to produce my example.
Step 1: Calculating Membership Functions
Membership functions are indicators of “likeness” or “degrees of membership” that a certain value has. These are typically represented by sinusoidal curves over a range of values (Figure 1). So if you are estimating energy consumption for a given year, you would break apart the values from least to greatest (with probably the lower and upper quantiles and the mean value) into five distinct categories with a deviation value causing a degree of spread and similarity between each of those values.
Photo credit: Author. Image showing fuzzy membership grades for each break of values.
Step 2: Firing Strength of Fuzzy Rules
The values, which were “fuzzified” in step 1 are now transported to a node layer and multiplied by the strength of an automatically generated fuzzy rule (Figure 2) [3]. Think of this as calculating a “weight” based on the automatically generated rule and the data provided to that rule.
Photo credit: From Jang, 1991 [2]. Shows the second step of the ANFIS algorithm.
Step 3: Normalize Firing Strength Calculation
The third step takes the output from step 2 and compares the value of the firing strength from the former node against the sum of all firing strengths (Figure 2)[2,3]. To simplify this description, think of the algorithm comparing the strength of an output rule of a single node, to the strength of other nodes and their underlying rules. If the strength is greater for a certain node, it is probably the “best possible” rule configuration for the dataset and is prioritized for the next step.
From Jang, 1991 [2]. Shows the third step of the ANFIS algorithm.
Step 4: Combine Premises (Independent Variables) with Consequents (Dependent Variable)
The fourth step takes the weighted values combined with the original inputs from the training data set to calculate an output based on the consequents data (Figure 2)[2,3].
From Jang, 1991 [2]. Shows the third step of the ANFIS algorithm.
Step 5: Predict & Final Output
The final step oversees the calculation of the sum of all incoming signals and applies them to a test dataset to produce a predicted value. This step also includes the de-fuzzification process for the data and translation back to meaningful values (Figure 3).
Photo Credit: Author. Shows predictions of total solar energy generation for each state for the year 2017.
As you can see, the produced output is very similar to the original data. Mean square error for our model is approximately 12% and the R2 is .91, which is very good, especially since I used such a limited training dataset. While ANFIS is certainly not the penultimate modeling technique, it has shown quite a bit of veracity in predicting values from a moderately complex dataset. One limitation of the model is a high computational cost in the form of necessary memory. When I tried running a model that had 8 independent variables, I consistently ran out of memory until I moved to another computer with 64GB of RAM. This is caused by the 5 layer approach per variable, which expands upon the demands. The range of values can also cause calculation time to increase. Despite these drawbacks, it is still possible to leverage the power of ANFIS for improved forecasting and as a comparison to other models and their output.
Some Tips:
If you are trying to apply this model to your own dataset, make sure you are calculating the universe of discourse correctly. If your values do not cover the full range of values that exist within your dataset, you will not be able to successfully train the model. In addition, if your sigma (deviation) does not accurately converge with other fuzzy memberships, you will also have difficulty running the model and getting an accurate prediction. If you have a big dataset (10GB or greater) it would be wise to calculate these descriptive statistics in Apache Hadoop and then apply them to ANFIS.
References
[1] Zadeh, L. A. (1988). Fuzzy logic. Computer, 21(4), 83–93.
[2] Jang, Jyh-Shing R (1991). Fuzzy Modeling Using Generalized Neural Networks and Kalman Filter Algorithm (PDF). Proceedings of the 9th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Anaheim, CA, USA, July 14–19. 2. pp. 762–767.
[3] Jang, J.-S.R. (1993). “ANFIS: adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system”. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. 23 (3): 665–685. doi:10.1109/21.256541. | https://towardsdatascience.com/a-tutorial-on-artificial-neuro-fuzzy-inference-systems-in-r-19987bfd8ccd | ['Nick Sokol'] | 2020-02-06 00:26:25.418000+00:00 | ['Rstats', 'Neural Networks', 'Data Science', 'Forecasting', 'Fuzzy Logic'] |
How to cut out Toxic Relationships | Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
Here I am staring at a blank document at midnight with nine windows open, one of which being a Chrome tab open with it’s own plethora of unfinished projects but here I am penning this essay: How and should I say Why you should: identify and cut out toxic relationships. I want to be perfectly frank with this article, I am bipolar. I prefer the term manic-depressive but it’s my cross to carry, and I understand what comes with the territory. I have realized in the past that I have a habit of being very social in my manic periods, and signing up for social responsibilities that I don’t need.
Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash
Not even a hour ago I was laying in bed about to doze off and mindlessly tapping on my phone while half watching Tehran on Apple TV doing an emotional checklist and something wasn’t adding up. Despite it being the heart of COVID-19 and relationships are already strained as it is, and for us university goers it being finals seasons, I noticed I had a lot of outgoing attempted calls to the same few people and not a lot of returns. It just dawned upon me today that these were completely toxic relationships. For instance these relationships did nothing for my productivity in my career as a musician and coder, and if anything robbed time from me every week.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
I’d find myself hanging out with these said people playing video games like League of Legends, Valorant, Destiny 2 etc. online. I mean these things are fine in doses during your leisure time but when you realize none of these things are something you’d do by yourself there’s a big problem. I’ll be honest .. I don’t like video games. I find it a huge drain on me mentally and emotionally and adds nothing to me as a professional. I’m fine with people playing it, but just not something I’d really do alone. So WHY? am I uninstalling like twenty to thirty social apps and games at midnight across my laptop and phone, because I realized all these people are drawing my attention from what I really care about to things I don’t. If you wonder why you are awake in the middle of the night feeling unfulfilled in your career and professional life reassess the relationships in your life, because that is at the crux of what you are mentally and emotionally facing on a day to day basis. Aside from being a freshman at Full Sail University, and having a fully booked schedule, I don’t have time to really kill. I’m trying to make it a musician and code as a side hustle. I mean my former friends they’re great people sure, but if they don’t really care about you or where you’re going in your life they are not your friends.
I just want to make the next few paragraphs specifically clear I am not a professional, if you want to cut out a toxic relationship, I’d tell you consult a mental health professional or at least pick up a book by a psychologist with a Doctorate preferably. Regardless these are my steps:
1.Identify and root out stressor relationships
2. Remove and replace these relationships (by getting closer to family and better friends, look to meetups or even find a psychologist to help you solidify a plan)
3.Add things to your leisure time which YOU enjoy doing NOT what your friends enjoy doing.
4.Try to uninstall a few Social Media apps or block said toxic relationships across these social media applications or toss your sim card and phone (in more serious cases) to a trusted individual for a couple of days.
The success of this process lies solely in removing and replacing these relationships with healthier options. | https://medium.com/@theaisixcollective/how-to-cut-out-toxic-relationships-750c7e62c97d | ['Joshua Samuel'] | 2020-12-19 13:48:43.477000+00:00 | ['Emotional Intelligence', 'Emotions', 'Relationships'] |
A Simple 5-Step Strategy to Becoming Debt-Free | But have no fear. While it’s certainly much easier to get into debt than it is to get out, it is possible. Here is my five-step strategy for getting yourself out of debt.
1. Stop creating more debt
“I’m already £1,500 in debt, what’s another £500?” — Me, 2010.
I know what it’s like to be in credit card debt, and I know how easy it is to dig that hole deeper. Reduce your temptation to spend by cutting up your credit cards, or asking your creditors to decrease your spending limit. This won’t help to decrease your debt, but it will stop it from getting any worse.
If it’s credit card debt that you’re struggling with, apply for a balance transfer to a 0% interest credit card. These usually come with an interest-free period of 12 or 24 months, giving you time to concentrate on reducing your debt.
Interest payments are a killer when you’re trying to bring down debt, so getting rid of them (even temporarily) will stop your debt from increasing, which is a huge first step in your journey to becoming debt-free.
Stop creating more debt.
2. Pay more than the minimum repayment
“The monthly repayment is only £20? Brilliant, more money to spend on things I don’t need.” — Also me, 2010.
Do you know why credit card companies keep minimum repayments so low? It’s because they want you to stay in debt. The longer you take to pay off your balance, the more interest they can charge you, and the fatter their pockets become.
By only ever making the minimum repayment, your balance only decreases by a small amount every month, but you’re still paying interest on that balance, which can add up to huge sums over time. Remember, as your balance decreases, your minimum payment will also decrease, meaning it takes you even longer to pay off your debt. For example:
An opening card balance of £2,500 at an interest rate of 20% would require an initial minimum payment of around £65 per month. If you only ever make the minimum repayment amount, it would take 26 years to pay off this debt, and you would pay £3,800 in interest, almost 1.5 times the initial balance. In comparison, making a fixed payment of £65 per month would see the debt wiped out in only five years, with £1400 paid in interest.
Don’t settle for making the minimum repayment. Pay off as much as you can each month.
3. Use existing savings to pay off your high-interest debts
This one may sound counterintuitive, but hear me out.
The average savings rate worldwide is less than 1%. You’re much more likely (as I recently did) to find your savings account interest closer to 0.01%.
Why then, would you keep money in an account earning practically zero interest, while your debt is constantly accruing interest at a rate one hundred, even two hundred times higher?
I understand the importance of having an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses, but if you are already struggling to repay debts, there is no point whatsoever in having money in savings. You’ll be much better off to use this money to pay off some of your existing debt. This will save you money in the long run by reducing the amount of interest you pay and will help you to clear your debt faster.
4. Focus on one debt at a time
Lots of people have multiple debts. Personal loans, store credit and credit cards are all certain to cripple your finances if left unchecked, and it’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to getting out of debt. It can often seem like a good idea to increase your payments across all of your debts as a way to get out of faster. Paying $100 per month across all my debts is better than $50, right?
Your best bet is to identify the debt that’s hurting you the most, i.e., the debt with the highest rate of interest. Concentrate your efforts into paying off this debt first, while continuing to make repayments on the rest of your debts. Once this debt is eliminated, move onto the second-highest interest debt, and focus on paying this off as aggressively as you can, while maintaining payments on your other debts.
Repeat this process until debt-free.
5. Make some sacrifices
It astounds me the number of people who pay $70 per month for a phone or $80 per month on cable TV, but only make the minimum repayment on their debts.
I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t spend any money on things that bring you pleasure in life. But you should devise a budget that allows you to make substantial repayments towards debts, while still allowing for the occasional splurge. Completely depriving yourself of weekly meals with friends or the occasional non-fat, sugar-free vanilla latte is a sure-fire way to make you throw your budget out the window.
I’m not trying to suck all the joy out of your life. But if you are struggling to get out of debt, maybe spending $150 per month on Starbucks isn’t doing you any favours. If you are serious about getting out of debt, you have to make some sacrifices. | https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/a-simple-5-step-strategy-to-becoming-debt-free-f78c42e08b62 | ['Jon Peters'] | 2020-10-06 06:59:19.102000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Personal Finance', 'Money', 'Self Improvement', 'Education'] |
Latest picks: In case you missed them: | Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
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Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription. | https://towardsdatascience.com/latest-picks-achieving-order-from-randomness-d52d04b1f9d0 | ['Tds Editors'] | 2020-12-28 14:28:45.575000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Editors Pick', 'Towards Data Science', 'The Daily Pick'] |
Wakeful(less) | ‘Consciousness’ hits
The harmony splits
I remember things that I ‘have to do’
Just a moment ago
I was floating on flow
In a land without rules,
Without ‘false’, without ‘true’
The light shines in
The time shines in
The shite shines in
What a dreadful place
Awake awake
For badness sake
The realm of
Sense(less) dissension and hate
It’s cold as fuck it’s noisy too
As other people’s ‘perspectives’
Scream through
Better listen and learn
More like
Bicker and burn
Get dressed
Get stressed
Let the ‘real’ world return
Awake awake
But not quite enough
Guzzle coffee, take drugs
Just to focus on stuff
That you’d rather forget
Work, anxiety, mess
A society swept up
In shiny duress
That yells
Good fucking morning
In everyone’s face
Through the
Screens
Through the
Waves
Through the
Brain cells erased
Eat your eggs, drink your juice
And then scroll through your day
Scroll through love scroll through hate
Scroll your own thoughts away
Awake awake
But still fast asleep
In a world run by robots
That run our beliefs
Awake awake
But still fast asleep
In a world
Where the ‘shepherds’
Love strangling ‘sheep’. | https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/wakeful-less-9c37f1f80cc | ['Adam Millett'] | 2020-10-28 11:23:06.149000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Society', 'Algorithms', 'Resistance Poetry', 'Social Media'] |
Is Blockchain a Rapper? | Is Blockchain a Rapper?
Nope! Blockchain is a digital data storage system that uses a distributed ledger and validation process that make it more secure than any other data storage systems to date.
Blockchain Background
Blockchain technology was developed around 1991, as it was described to be the first work on cryptographically secure chain blocks. In ’92 an abstract data type called a Merkle tree was integrated into the design which allowed for several documents to be collected into a block.
Blockchain as we know it didn’t gain notoriety until around 2008 when an anonymous person or group called Satoshi Nakamoto (whose identity is shrouded in mystery!) published the Bitcoin White Paper. Nakamoto gave a practical use for blockchain technology and solved the problem of double spending.
At the end of this article, you’ll find a glossary of terms. So feel free to scroll down if you need clarity on any words in italics.
What is Blockchain Exactly?
Blockchain was originally used to timestamp digital documents, so it wouldn’t be possible to backdate or tamper with them. Basically, a blockchain is a digital data storage system; a distributed ledger that is open to everyone.
When I say ‘distributed’, it’s in opposition to ‘centralised’, which means that there isn’t one central place where all the information is being held or monitored. There are many reasons why this is beneficial and makes blockchain so secure, but more on that later.
Difference Between Centralised and Distributed Ledgers
In a blockchain, each block contains some data, a hash of that block and a hash of the previous block. The data stored in the block depends on the type of blockchain. The Bitcoin blockchain stores a lot of different data, for example transactions between the sender and receiver and the amount of coins being exchanged.
The block ‘hash’ is a number and letter combination that identifies a block and all of its contents — each block’s hash is unique. Once a block is created, its hash is calculated; changing data in the block will change its hash. If a hash changes, it’s no longer the same block. Now, we can start to see how the ‘chain’ of the blockchain is formed because each block also contains the hash of the previous block. This is one factor that ensures the security of the data stored.
Is it Secure?!
Stock Image Depicting Security of Blockchain
If someone wants to change any data in an existing block, this would change the hash of that block. But since the following block also contains that first one’s hash, that means you would have to also change that block’s hash and then you’d have to change the hash of every existing block that comes after the one you are trying to modify!
This might not sound too challenging if you’re thinking about a chain of only a few blocks, but if you consider that, on average, a new block is created every few seconds or few minutes, depending on the blockchain, then you can imagine that this would be an incredibly challenging task.
Distributed vs. Centralised
Besides the hashes, another important security feature of the blockchain is the fact that it’s a distributed ledger and not a centralised one. There is something called a P2P (Peer to Peer) network in place, and when someone joins this network they are given a full copy of the blockchain; this is done to verify that everything remains in order.
If someone creates a new block, the new block is sent to everyone on this P2P network, and each person will check that it hasn’t been tampered with. If everything looks legit, each person will add this block to their chain. The P2P network creates a consensus and they must agree if a block is valid or not. If a block isn’t valid, it’ll be rejected by the network.
Stock Image Demonstrating Blockchains P2P Network
So how is this more secure than a centralised ledger? Centralised ledgers are much easier to hack. All of their data is stored in one place, and if their security is compromised, the hacker can alter or delete any of that information. As opposed to a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain, where data is distributed throughout the world with various people monitoring the activities. The security that blockchains provides is the fact that the data you store there cannot be modified or lost.
Blockchain is Kind of a Big Deal
In our banking system, for example, we rely on ‘middlemen’ a lot. These intermediaries establish the trust in our economy, but there are some problems with this, like how we have to pay these intermediaries for their services and they also lengthen the process of sending data from one place to another. So what if we cut out that middleman?!
Have you ever tried to send money abroad, and it takes a few days. The money gets there, and you realise a large chunk of what you sent has ‘disappeared’, because the banks and their intermediaries have taken a portion of the money you were sending, to pay for their services. Ugh. Annoying!
Well the blockchain would be a way of removing this ‘Middleman’. We often rely on these middlemen when dealing with banks, governments and credit card companies to establish trust in our economy, but these intermediaries have some serious drawbacks, and blockchain has the solution.
Stock Image of a Bitcoin, a Cryptocurrency Traded on Blockchain
As mentioned above, these intermediaries are centralised, so they can be more easily hacked. Also, they’re excluding billions of people from the economy, just because they’re unable to afford bank accounts. Another example of the problems with these middlemen is the fact that they take money for their services, and although this may seem negligible for smaller transactions, this payment over time adds up to quite a lot. Finally, these middlemen slow everything down — it can take days or weeks to transfer money, depending on where the money is coming from or where it’s going to.
In the case of bitcoin, it’s traded on a blockchain, and cuts out the middleman. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that goes up and down in value, like all other assets. When someone makes a transaction, that information is sent through the P2P network world wide, and the funds are sent in less than a day from sender to receiver. This creates a system in which, for the first time, people can trust each other and transact.
Blockchain Isn’t Just for Invisible Coins!
First of all, there isn’t only one blockchain, there are many! And each can store different kinds of data. Some proposed ideas for the different ways we could use blockchains include a storage system for medical records, a system for e-notaries or even the potential to use it for voting in federal elections.
The blockchain is changing the way that we store our data. The idea is that by using the blockchain we are actually giving people’s data back to the people, rather than giving up all our information to these intermediaries everytime we need to make a transaction. It will allow people to only give up the information they want to, instead of having these centralised intermediaries holding onto all their information.
It will certainly be interesting to see the new blockchains being developed and to see what other uses this data storage system will be used for.
MC Blockchain — If Blockchain were Actually a Rapper
Glossary:
Bitcoin — a cryptocurrency, as opposed to a Fiat currency which is established by a centralised government Bitcoin white paper — An official document that explains, step by step, how bitcoin works and what it is. Double spending — when a given amount of currency is spent in more than one transaction Merkle Tree — a similar concept of the hash, where each ‘leaf’ is labelled with a hash of a data block, and every ‘non-leaf’ node is labelled with the hash based on the labels of it’s ‘children’ nodes. P2P — Peer to Peer is a network architecture, as opposed to a Client-Server architecture. Every node in the network is a peer and has the same role and privileges.
Sources:
Who Invented Blockchain Technology?https://www.techbullion.com/invented-blockchain-technology/ How does Blockchain Work? — Simply Explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSo_EIwHSd4 How the Blockchain is Changing Money and Business. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8OlkkwRpc
. . .
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About the Author
Sona Kerim is a Digital Marketing Specialist at EL Passion. You can find her on LinkedIn.
Find EL Passion on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. | https://medium.com/elpassion/is-blockchain-a-rapper-3f71c336f7b1 | ['Sona Kerim'] | 2018-09-17 08:57:06.618000+00:00 | ['Android', 'Apps', 'Blockchain', 'iOS', 'Software Development'] |
Making Interactive Maps of Public Data in R | For a version of this post with interactive maps, check it out on GitHub.
Introduction
Oftentimes, when working with public data, there will be a geospatial component to the data — the locations of public libraries, for example, or which neighborhoods of a city are most bike-friendly. In this tutorial, we will walk through how to import, transform, and map data from a public dataset using R. The data we will be using comes from the City of New Orleans Open Data Portal, and concerns grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) given to local partners to help build and rebuild affordable housing in the city after Hurricane Katrina.
HUD distributes government funding to support affordable housing, community development, and reduce homelessness. This dataset contains information about each funding award and the location of the housing development the funding was used for. The data has the potential to provide insight into how New Orleans is continuing to recover from the long-term impact of Hurricane Katrina.
This tutorial came about when, after looking at a static map of HUD grants in New Orleans (pictured below), we wanted to be able to zoom in and examine grant sites in more depth than a static map provides. Interactive maps are great for this sort of deep, customizable exploration.
Step One: Importing Data
Downloading data from the open data portal
First things first, we need to download the data we want to work with. To create this map, we’ll need two different datasets: the main dataset of HUD grants, found here on the New Orleans data portal, and a dataset that contains a shapefile of New Orleans neighborhoods, which can be found here. We’ll download these by clicking on the Export link, selecting CSV format for the first file, and shapefile for the second (since we’re going to be using that data to map the neighborhood boundaries, it’s easiest to download it in a predefined geospatial format).
Download the files, unzip the shapefile, and place the HUD grant CSV and shapefile folder in your R working directory. If you aren’t sure where that is, run getwd() in your R console.
Setting up an R session
Now that we have our datasets, let’s make sure our R session has the proper setup. Load the tidyverse (used here for data wrangling), sf (simple features package used for geospatial data), leaflet (an R implementation of the Leaflet Javascript plotting library), and viridis (better color maps) packages like below:
library(tidyverse)
library(sf)
library(leaflet)
library(viridis)
Next, we’ll read in the neighborhood and HUD grant data. read_sf() and read_csv() are standard functions to read in data, but we’ll want to make sure that our HUD grant data is properly recognized as geospatial data. To do that, we use the st_as_sf() function to transform the Longitude and Latitude columns of the CSV into simple features for plotting.
neighborhoods <- read_sf("new_orleans_neighborhoods")
hud_grants <- read_csv("new_orleans_hud_grants.csv") %>%
st_as_sf(coords = c("Longitude", "Latitude"),
crs = 4326, agr = "field")
Step Two: Transforming Data
Now that we have our data read into R, let’s clean it up a bit and create some readable labels for our map. The below code is fairly standard data cleaning, and will be different for each dataset, so I’m not going to go into it too much here:
capwords <- function(s) {
cap <- function(s) paste(toupper(substring(s, 1, 1)),
{tolower(substring(s, 2))},
sep = "", collapse = " ")
sapply(strsplit(s, split = " "), cap, USE.NAMES = !is.null(names(s)))
}
neighborhoods_clean <- neighborhoods %>%
st_transform(4326) %>%
mutate(neighborhood_label = paste0('<b>Neighborhood:</b> ',
capwords(GNOCDC_LAB)))
hud_grants_clean <- hud_grants %>%
rename(OCD_Program = `OCD Program`) %>%
filter(OCD_Program != "None") %>%
mutate(popup_label = paste(paste0('<b>Partner: ', Partnership, '</b>'),
paste0('Address: ', Address),
sep = '<br/>'))
There is an important point about geospatial mapping here, however; in the st_transform(4326) we take the neighborhoods dataset and transform it into the proper projection system. When mapping, you need to make sure all your spatial datasets are in the same projection system — in this case, 4326, which corresponds to WGS 84.
Another general point about leaflet: when we create our grant project label, we use HTML formatting codes like <br/> and <b>. It’s not necessary to have a full understanding of HTML to make interactive maps — certainly, these labels don’t need formatting — but knowing how to bold, italicize, and put line breaks in your labels will make your maps that much nicer and easier to use.
Step Three: Mapping Data
It’s helpful, when making a map using leaflet, to think about the process in terms of building a map up from its constituent pieces: first you have the map, then the neighborhood areas, then the grant project markers. Each piece is layered on top of each other — physically, in the map, and virtually, in your code. To emphasize this point, we’ll walk piece-by-piece through making our map, with images of the map along the way.
Your Base Map
The first step in any mapping project, once you’re ready to build your map, is to choose what your base map is going to be. The leaflet package has a variety of basemaps, which run the gamut from highly-detailed, realistic maps (e.g., OpenStreetMap) to stylized art (Stamen’s watercolor tiles). For this map, we’ll use the OpenStreetMap basemap, since it has a number of nice details that will help contextualize the grant locations, like landmark names and types. Below is what the basemap looks like when we’ve only loaded the map, no data in it yet. We can still zoom in and move around and explore the OpenStreetMap tiles, though.
leaflet() %>%
addTiles()
In this code, we used addTiles() to add the OpenStreetMap basemap, which works because OpenStreetMap is the default basemap for Leaflet. If we wanted to use a different basemap, e.g. Stamen Toner, we’d do something like addProviderTiles(“Stamen.Toner”).
You’ll notice that the initial view is zoomed out to the whole world; we could manually set it to be zoomed in on New Orleans, but if we add our data, then the map will automatically focus around the data in the map. Let’s try it by adding our neighborhood data.
Adding Polygons (Neighborhoods)
leaflet() %>%
addTiles() %>%
addPolygons(data = neighborhoods_clean,
color = 'white',
weight = 1.5,
opacity = 1,
fillColor = 'black',
fillOpacity = .8,
highlightOptions = highlightOptions(color = "#FFF1BE",
weight = 5),
popup = ~neighborhood_label)
To replicate the static map above, the line color is set to white and the fill to black. The opacity of the fill is .8, which is only slightly transparent, to both preserve the starkness of the initial display of the map, which will look a lot like the static image, and allow people to zoom in and still be able to see the basemap detail underlying the polygons. Information overload is a danger when creating interactive visualizations; having relatively opaque neighborhood areas in this map (literally) blocks out some of the detail, focusing the reader’s eyes on what you want them to look at.
Adding Points (Grant Projects)
Now, let’s add in the grant programs. To replicate the static image, we’re going to have to create a color palette to color our markers, which we do through the use of the colorFactor function in leaflet. Our palette is a slightly modified version of the magma palette from the viridisfamily, compressed so that each color is visible on a dark background (surprisingly, dark purple and black don’t go that well together).
Another important thing to note here, which you may have noticed from the addPolygons call, is that in order to use the name of a variable from our data in a leaflet function parameter, we need to precede it with a tilde (~). This creates a one-sided formula, which leaflet knows to evaluate in the context of your input data. For example, when we run addCircleMarkers(data = hud_grants_clean, popup = ~popup_label), the popup = ~popup_label will be evaluated as using the popup_label column from the hud_grants_clean table.
By now, we’ve started to add interactive and clickable components to our maps. You can click on neighborhoods and see the neighborhood label, or click on different project markers to see which partner organization worked on the project and the address of the project.
pal <- colorFactor(
palette = viridis_pal(begin = .4, end = .95, option = 'A')(3),
domain = hud_grants_clean$OCD_Program
)
leaflet() %>%
addTiles() %>%
addPolygons(data = neighborhoods_clean,
color = 'white',
weight = 1.5,
opacity = 1,
fillColor = 'black',
fillOpacity = .8,
highlightOptions = highlightOptions(color = "#FFF1BE",
weight = 5),
popup = ~neighborhood_label) %>%
addCircleMarkers(data = hud_grants_clean,
popup = ~popup_label,
stroke = F,
radius = 4,
fillColor = ~pal(OCD_Program),
fillOpacity = 1)
Adding a Legend
The final step in creating our map is to add a legend to indicate which programs are represented with which colors. Thankfully, doing this is easy — we just use the addLegend function and point it to our data, the color palette we used, the values we’re representing on the legend, and add a title.
leaflet() %>%
addTiles() %>%
addPolygons(data = neighborhoods_clean,
color = 'white',
weight = 1.5,
opacity = 1,
fillColor = 'black',
fillOpacity = .8,
highlightOptions = highlightOptions(color = "#FFF1BE",
weight = 5),
popup = ~neighborhood_label) %>%
addCircleMarkers(data = hud_grants_clean,
popup = ~popup_label,
stroke = F,
radius = 4,
fillColor = ~pal(OCD_Program),
fillOpacity = 1) %>%
addLegend(data = hud_grants_clean,
pal = pal,
values = ~OCD_Program,
title = "HUD Grant Program")
In this tutorial, we’ve walked through how to import, transform, and map public data to create an interactive map in place of a static map. Along the way, we’ve touched on important visualization concepts like avoiding information overload, the appropriate degree of stylization, and choosing compatible colors. We’ve also created a pretty awesome map! Hopefully, this tutorial will help you be able to create your own interesting and useful interactive maps in the future.
If you’re interested in walking through this tutorial yourself in R, the RMarkdown file is available here; just put it in the same directory as the city data files and you’ll be able to run all the code in this tutorial yourself. Take a look at our GitHub page to play with the interactive maps yourself.
And while we’ve only worked with this New Orleans HUD grant data in this tutorial, the import and mapping steps should be applicable to any sort of public geospatial data. Many cities have easily accessible data in their open data portals; go out and give it a shot! | https://medium.com/civis-analytics/making-interactive-maps-of-public-data-in-r-d360c0e13f13 | ['Civis Analytics'] | 2019-03-20 20:06:28.435000+00:00 | ['Govtech', 'Dataviz', 'Rstats', 'Civictech', 'Data Visualization'] |
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