title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
829
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
| tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Introduction to Geocoding & Folium & Python Mapping | I think nearly all the data from every move of creations has a spatial location. And this data can be used for any purposes of work. So today, we are living on information age, and we should use data on our any size of work.
There are lots of ways to create, visualize, publish maps. But unlike professional desktop apps, there are easy ways to turn our data into visual presentations. I think one of the most easy and effective way to create maps is using Python & Folium.
Sometimes we don't have the exact location of an address in our data. But we need at least latitude and longitude to specify a unique location on a map. So sometimes we also need geocoding before mapping.
In this tutorial we are going to;
1- Import data frames to python,
2- Geocode long addresses to get latitude and longitude,
3- Put our addresses to a web map with Folium,
4- Create a density based HeatMap from our points on the map.
5- Save our map as HTML file.
The best way to learn is by doing it. So fallow the process on your own computer as shown here. You’ll need Jupyter Notebook and the files in the given link. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/introduction-to-geocoding-folium-python-mapping-c1d2e69c7564 | ['Ali Dag'] | 2020-12-29 17:13:05.853000+00:00 | ['Webmap', 'Maps', 'Folium', 'Python', 'Mapping'] |
Top 10 Profit Inducing Business opportunities in 2021 | It is a real bliss that pandemic has united the families together all in one place. We could eat homemade foods for a while and enjoy spending time with our sweet families. But what about the economy? The entire economical scenario came to a halt and all businesses got shut down. As the pandemic tide is slowly decreasing, the entire world is looking for opportunities to regain or to capture the market and earn some money. Old businesses try to regain their business using certain tactics like discounts and offers. But what do new businesses do?
What will an individual do if he wants to initiate a new business post-pandemic? Will he be successful if he starts now?
Yes, why not? He will succeed if he starts a new business. But it needs a proper strategy in choosing the right type of business.
Business opportunities in 2021
In this blog, we can discuss the top business trends and opportunities that are on the slot which can generate more money in 2021.
Blockchain Business:
Blockchain is one of the evolving business in this privacy enclosed world. Whatsoever you need to access, there are private passwords and private access. To end these multiple protection walls and confusing passwords, Blockchain came to the rescue. A blockchain is a software that came into the digital world by 2008.
Since then it gained huge traction because of its security gestures and its interoperable features, it is being identified that it can be used in various industries that handle huge operations in a complex way. Assistance to humankind in a variable way, blockchain is used in many service-oriented industries involving Hospitality, supply chain management, and other industries.
Several companies provide blockchain services to their clients. But only a few of them are equipped with the experience and expertise in the field of blockchain services. If you are an entrepreneur, then it is a must to analyze the topmost blockchain developing companies around the globe. But do not worry, I have done your groundwork. There are certain areas where you can apply the blockchain business perfectly. Among them, blockchain trends in the cryptocurrency business are more enthralling.
Professional consulting:
There is nothing more bliss than to divert one to a great path. yes, such work is not only a business but also goodwill. In that sense, professional consulting is one such business that earns people’s goodwill over you. Also, it is a win-win situation for all. Let me explain. First of all, you will consult some service for the demand of the client. The client reaches the consulted service provider. This will make both the service provider and the service receiver happy.
There are several professional consulting areas to focus on. You can choose any profession for consulting and earn some considerable profits. If you belong to a populated state, then you are so lucky. Choosing the right person for the job is a skill and professional consultants are more skilled in it.
Digital marketing professionals:
Everything is online in the present mobile world. If you want to order food, you have food ordering applications. If you want to buy clothes or tablets, of course, eCommerce is there. This is possible due to the wide presence of digital marketing professionals. If you are expertise in digital marketing just kickstart your business as this is in huge demand. Everyone is in the quench to start their own business and make their business live online.
Digital marketing involves various processes or stages of marketing involving social media marketing, ad campaigns, SEO, SMO, SEM, etc. do not panic if you have all the skills mentioned above. It is necessary to have at least one of the skills. You may hire some people for other skills. So, you can start your business as a team and help society build its website and mobile applications.
Start a chatbot agency:
If you ask what do people miss the most in this competitive world — Most of them would respond that they lack response. Yes, in this rushing world, people forget to respond to others. It continues in customer engagement and customer maintenance units. A single customer care agent cannot answer 100 calls or respond to messages in a single flash. But what about a chat robot (shortly chatbot)?
Yes, that can answer all the customer queries in a programmed fashion. So, this is one of the best business ideas where you can start your customer response chatbot agency where you can help many companies to answer their customer’s queries in a short amount of time.
Starting an Edtech company:
After getting a vision from a specialized education method from Scandinavian countries, the entire world is moving towards certain innovations in the Pedagogy. With such an upgrade, digitalization had added to the specialization. But it reached a peak only during the time of the pandemic. Yes, the Edutech sector had reached the zenith during the pandemic period as no parents want their child to get skipped of their education due to the virus.
Online classes and doubt sessions and immediate knowledge gaining strategies are some of the unique strategies that the Edtech companies follow. So, this is the best thing to start your own Edtech company and inject the population with easy and effective means of knowledge.
You can start your own Edtech companies or get a franchise of other popular Edtech companies variably and spread it to your quenched educators. I recommend starting your professional Edtech company. That will draw you huge profits than a franchise does.
Travel consultancy:
If you think that the travel industry will not bloom due to the pandemic, you are wrong. Pandemic is slowly letting its hands loose and so the government. The resuming phase is happening and people are eager to travel around the world again. This is the best time to initiate a travel consultancy rather than a travel agency. Travel consultancy needs a little capital and more connections whereas a travel agency works vice-versa.
Foodtech sector:
No one can live without food. And that is the success factor in the food tech industry. The only thing that you should note is what kind of food you want to start your business with. Or you can start a business in the food tech like Uber or Zomato or Swiggy. Digitalizing food is the new trend in the food industry since the pandemic and you too have to follow the same strategy with a different tint in it to attain a huge audience base and a great business leap.
Franchise:
To explain Franchise in laymen’s terms, It is a Business of a business. This is the way of generating business out of an already existing and growing business industry. A franchisee buys a franchise of a particular business for a certain sum of capital and runs in his place like his own business. This is one of the best business opportunities if you do not want to take a risk by starting your firm by putting enormous capital.
Investment:
Have you ever thought that Investment is a sort of a hidden form of business? Because people may not know you doing business as you have invested in those shares or property that have been doing business. But, mark my words, investing is one of the worthy forms of getting rich only if you invest it right.
As of the present condition, investing in stocks will not lead you to greater profits. But if you invest in cryptocurrencies, there is a huge chance that you may grow wealthy shortly. Being considered as one of the hot stocks, digital currency is one such worthy piece to put your money in. There are various cryptocurrencies and you should have a general understanding before putting your money in the currency. Some popular cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc.
Cryptocurrency exchange platform:
If you want to earn more profits without having any technical expertise in a particular field, then the cryptocurrency exchange platform should be your prime choice. Yes, by starting your exchange platform you can conduct trades and earn more profits from your users every time they do trade or exchange cryptocurrencies to fiat or vice versa.
Several companies can provide white label platforms for their users, but they do not carry any reliability or effective trade volume. Only experienced and expert cryptocurrency exchange software service providers help you to initiate a trusted, bug-free, and customizable cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Wrapping it up:
Self-reliance is the best key to be independent. And that is why most people rely upon business rather than going for a job. Initiating a business is a great idea but you should also analyze the market stand and value shortly before starting any business. It may depend upon the geography and history of the place too. The above discussed top 10 profit inducing businesses would be helpful to you to find out the best business that suits your interest. | https://medium.com/@sashaortiz060/top-10-profit-inducing-business-opportunities-in-2021-e05325bc9c8 | ['Sasha Ortiz'] | 2020-11-25 06:05:36.129000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Entrepreneur', 'Crypto Business', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Business'] |
Pain is an Old Friend | Pain is an Old Friend
Pain is an Old Friend
He doesn't leave me, even for a moment.
Leaves a scar on my entire being
You only see the smile but not the hurt within.
Everytime I try to move on, he knocks on the door, breaks through it.
Brings all his tricks and traps and wrecks me to bits
Enough I say. I don't want you anymore
He persuades, insists and takes me to his endless store
Of darkness, self doubt, depression and more
"How do I leave you alone!" He says, Only I really care for you
Do you even have any friends? Do they really know you?
I don't know I say. I guess you're right.
At least you're there with me, through the day and the long nights.
------NiR2020 | https://medium.com/@nirupamderia/pain-is-an-old-friend-3917e5544181 | ['Nirupam Deria'] | 2020-12-21 04:48:43.107000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Low Times', 'Move Forward', 'Sadness', 'Pain Is An Old Friend'] |
Disney+ pulls a Netflix, hikes its subscription price | Mega media conglomerate Disney just unloaded a truckload of new Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar movies and TV shows that are headed for Disney+, including vehicles for everyone from Loki and the Winter Soldier to Lando and Obi Wan Kenobi. Also coming to Disney+: a price hike.
Following in the footsteps of Netflix, which raised the prices of its standard and premium subscription plans a little more than a month ago, Disney says that it will boost the monthly price for its wildly successful Disney+ subscription service starting next year.
Beginning on March 26, the monthly price for a Disney+ subscription will be $7.99, up $1 from its current $6.99 monthly rate. At the same time, the annual rate for Disney+ will rise from $69.99 to $79.99, while a bundle that includes Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu with ads will increase from $12.99 a month to $13.99/month.
[ Further reading: Amazon Prime Video vs Hulu vs Netflix ]Alongside the news of the Disney+ price hike comes word that the service has nabbed a whopping 86.8 million subscribers since launching a mere year ago, an eye-popping figure by any standard. No wonder Disney feels comfortable about upping Disney+’s subscription price.
Disney announced the price hike at its annual investors presentation on Thursday, but not before promoting a parade of new movies and TV shows, many of which will (surprise!) debut on Disney+.
Among the notables are Ahsoka, a live-action show based on the popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars character; Rangers of the New Republic, a Mandalorian spin-off; Obi-Wan Kenobi, an eagerly awaited Star Wars show starring none other than Ewan McGregor; Lando, about the further adventures of Han’s old buddy; The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a six-episode series centered around the two Marvel heroes; Loki, another Marvel spinoff starring the God of Mischief himself; and Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. I’m not even mentioning all the shows coming from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar.
Besides the news of all the TV shows coming to Disney+, it’s also notable what isn’t heading straight to the streaming service. Black Widow, Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, and Eternals, three of Disney’s upcoming cinematic tentpoles, are still slated to debut exclusively in theaters next year.
That means Disney isn’t following the lead of Warner Bros., which rocked Hollywood with its bombshell announcement last week that it would open all its 2021 movies in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, Raya and the Last Dragon from Walt Disney Animation Studios will debut both in theaters and on Disney+, with the movie set to be another $30 “Premier Access” title (same as Mulan) when it arrives this coming spring.
Also heading straight to Disney+ will be Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis, and Peter Pan and Wendy, starring Jude Law. Both of those movies are still in production.
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/@stephan42449035/disney-pulls-a-netflix-hikes-its-subscription-price-6117c76dc36f | [] | 2020-12-25 04:10:53.186000+00:00 | ['Chargers', 'Internet'] |
Spoiler Manga Boruto 53: Isshiki Dead, Borushiki Stabs Rinnegan Sasuke | Boruto Chapter 53 manga spoilers have been leaked on the internet, although this spoiler will only be published tomorrow on December 20, 2020. Isshiki Otsutsuki is still trying to implant his karma seal into Kawaki when Naruto is seriously injured,while Borushiki suddenly regains consciousness and attacks Sasuke.
It is known that Masashi Kishimoto has been taking over the making of Boruto manga since chapter 52 yesterday. In boruto chapter 53, Sasuke’s name suddenly went viral on Twitter since December 17, 2020.
In boruto spoiler chapter 53 it is said that Boruto suddenly rose and pierced Sasuke’s eye. Is Sasuke going to lose his Rinegan?
Based on the leak of Boruto chapter 53 manga that has been circulating on the internet, Isshiki Otsutsuki is still trying to make Kawaki’s body as his container. If Isshiki can’t get Kawaki’s body in 5 minutes then Isshiki could die.
With the rest of his powers, Naruto tells Kawaki to escape and stay away from the battle area. Sasuke then takes Kawaki away with a special smoke bomb so that Byakugan Isshiki can’t see him. However, Isshiki makes Naruto a hostage to lure Kawaki out.
Kawaki is reminded of naruto’s kindness that considers him like his disciple and fills the void of his heart as a human being. Kawaki showed himself to Isshiki.
Seeing Kawaki come before him, Isshiki did not waste the opportunity and immediately began the process of planting karma seals.
In the process of planting the karma seal, Isshiki once told Kawaki that Kawaki is not a ninja but only his container and after that it appears that Kawaki has again had the Karma Seal in his left hand.
Isshiki once laughed off and was proud to show that he was the winner and told him that he always won.
Behind the laughs coming off Isshiki, suddenly the Karma Seal in Kawaki’s hand fades away. It turns out that Kawaki in front of Isshiki is just a Kage Bunshin.
After failing to implant the karma seal into Kawaki’s body, Isshiki’s power weakens. Seeing that kawaki didn’t waste the opportunity, he quickly stepped on Isshiki until the land around him was destroyed.
This way Naruto and Sasuke survive isshiki Otsutsuki’s threat. During that moment, Boruto suddenly got up and stabbed Sasuke in the eye. As it turns out, Boruto who was unconscious is now awake and his body is currently controlled by Momoshiki Otsutsuki.
“I didn’t expect Isshiki Otsutsuki to be defeated by you. So for me, the only obstacle left is you,” Borushiki said at the end of Boruto’s manga chapter 53.
It is known that Sasuke’s rinnegan was given by Hagoromo Otsutsuki during the fourth ninja war against Kaguya Otsutsuki. His Rinnegan is different from the others because it has 6 tomoes. With the dojutsu, Sasuke was able to move between dimensions of space and time and exchange places with objects around him without going through intermediaries.
Until now it is not known whether Rinegan Sasuke was destroyed or not after being stabbed by Borushiki. Just look forward to Boruto: Naruto Next Generation Chapter 53 (The Power of Connection) manga which was officially released on December 20, 2020. | https://medium.com/@idnsite/spoiler-manga-boruto-53-isshiki-dead-borushiki-incar-rinnegan-sasuke-504e23fbfaf0 | [] | 2020-12-19 03:28:42.706000+00:00 | ['Updates', 'Naruto', 'Boruto', 'Anime', 'Manga'] |
Office 365 Email signature service | With the Office 365 native solutions, one should have a surplus knowledge of Transport Rules and HTML coding for the email signature to implement. There are various limitations users may face while designing the perfect email signature.
Various limitations for manually setting up Office 365 signatures:
•No email signature will be appended on reply emails
• No provision to test email signatures before implementing to all users.
• Can’t possible to embed images like logos or promotional banners in your email signature.
• No support for email signature sent mobile devices and Macs.
• Require perfect knowledge of HTML code.
•Can’t add email signature to Sent Items folder.
Sigsync Office 365 Email Signature service
Sigsync is a secured, centralized Office 365 signature service that helps to create and manage email signatures for all Office 365 users in your organization seamlessly. It appends signatures to all sent emails as well. It supports for the signatures to add for the emails sent from any device, including smartphones and tablets etc. The solution allows adding particular email signature elements including social media icons, promotional banners and legal disclaimers from centralized dashboard.
Key benefits:
• Supports Email signatures added to emails across all mail clients and devices
• Appends the signature for all the reply and forward emails
• Adds signature to the sent items folder
• Supports to signature to a particular recipient
• Provides preview of the signature during email compose in Outlook
• Supports OneClick survey and Web analytics
• Ensures high security using secure TLS channels and supports Multi-Factor Authentication(MFA) as an additional security | https://medium.com/@amarawatt-work/office-365-email-signature-service-c4dc183a09b8 | ['Amara Watt'] | 2020-12-19 12:12:47.857000+00:00 | ['Migration'] |
Does anyone have anything important to say or is it all writing advice? | Does anyone have anything important to say or is it all writing advice? Maybe I need to alter who I follow, but I see A LOT of articles about “how I made my first [insert $$ amount]” and “_______ ways to become a better writer”. I’m not hating on them, but I wonder about the motivation.
Have you run out of ideas?
Do you just understand this type of article does well on Medium?
Are you really trying to help people?
Are you just trying to brag?
All of the above?
They all end up saying the same things basically. Maybe I am being a hater.
Maybe I should just stop clicking on them. I guess I feel like I am going to see something new — something that resonates.
What works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone — or maybe it does. | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/does-anyone-have-anything-important-to-say-or-is-it-all-writing-advice-55a454c17f51 | ['Mike Marolla'] | 2020-12-19 12:48:29.305000+00:00 | ['Short Read', 'Ｍedium', 'Writing', 'Questions'] |
IDEO U Human-Centred Service Design Course — The Art of Observation | After being a practitioner for more than 9 years, I decided to sign up at IDEO U for the Human-Centred Service Design course.
I’ve decided to write up some of the highlights of my experience doing the courses in case anyone out there is curious about the courses offered and what they are like.
Today’s entry is on Art of Observation.
As part of this lesson, I had to look at a series of images and make observations in this format:
I see (object/interaction/person) It inspires me to (think about/do/try)
For each image, I’d first make observations based on the above format. The next step involved scrutinising certain items in the image highlighted by the IDEO U team.
Once I’m done, I check my observation notes against those made by the IDEO U team.
Getting a chance to review IdeoU’s observations against mine helps me to see new things through service design lenses.
No matter how many years of practice, I always learn something new from the observations made by others. The feeling of discovery, of realising there is still so much more to learn, is fuelling yet humbling at the same time.
On reflection, I realised IDEO U’s observations were much more service-oriented. Mine were more focused more on the product even though we picked out mostly the same items in each photo to scrutinise.
I wanted to share this particular activity in the course as I think it’s a really terrific way to get practitioners and those new to service design to look through service lenses.
It’s also a wonderful reminder that we all see things through our own lenses and a diverse team can help us get a more holistic, richer view.
If you’d like to ‘try this at home’, here are the steps:
Find a shop Take a photo of the shopfront Make observations using the “I see ____ and it inspires me to ____” format Select some items in the photo to scrutinise to build on your observations Guess the service values of the shop based on observations Get a friend or buddy to do the same Discuss your observations Have fun!
If you’ve got any questions about the course, drop them in the comments below. I will try my best to answer them.
The Human-Centred Service Design course instructors are Melanie Bell-Mayeda and Illya Prokopoff. The Teaching Lead is Jack Gerber. Jack shares resources which are also very useful every week.
I enjoy facilitating design thinking workshops, especially for digital transformation projects involving cloud technologies, data lakes and machine learning. If you’ve got a gig coming up and looking for a facilitator, or if you’d like to have a chat about the IDEO U courses, it would be wonderful to connect.
— To infinity and beyond | https://medium.com/@onglette/the-art-of-observation-f70b4fea2c2e | ['Charlotte Ong'] | 2019-04-06 02:43:06.979000+00:00 | ['Ideo', 'Courses And Training', 'Design Thinking', 'Service Design'] |
Creating Holiday Happiness, When You Can’t Give What They Want | Creating Holiday Happiness, When You Can’t Give What They Want
Photo by Josh Boot on Unsplash
On Thanksgiving, I cooked all morning and we ate our holiday meal at mid-day. By 4 pm our family Zoom call was done, and the dishes had all been washed. My girls asked to get out the Christmas decorations and I couldn’t think of a reason to say no.
I’ve been trying to say “Yes” more these days, whenever possible.
This year has frequently told us all “No.”
By the end of the long holiday weekend, our house was completely decorated for Christmas, inside and out. We had even gone to the local tree farm and gotten not one, but two trees. We used every single ornament we own to decorate them. One of my girls helped me sort through the jumble of lights and put them up in the front yard. Everything looks great.
In a way, you could say that we are treating this holiday season as a long backward look at their childhood holidays.
It’s a stark contrast to last year. We were so busy between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we couldn’t find a single time that the four of us could go to the tree farm during daylight hours. Finally, three days before Christmas, my younger daughter and I went to a lot of trees and quickly chose one. We threw on the lights and put a couple of boxes of ornaments on. We knew it wouldn’t be up very long.
For years, December has felt hectic and rushed
This year, it’s the opposite. We are ready and waiting. It’s just that not much is going to happen, regarding our social life. No one is coming to visit or see our trees. There won’t be many presents under them or exchanged around them.
To parent a tween and teen right now is to bear witness to butterflies emerging from their cocoons only to find themselves trapped in a clear glass box.
They can see that there is a big world out there. They long to be a part of it.
Metaphorically, this means they futilely flap their wings against the invisible barrier. It’s simultaneously frustrating, lonely, and exhausting.
What this looks like in reality is too must time spent on social media, in the absence of other options for keeping up with their friends and the latest trends.
Our commitment to doing all we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 means we are staying mostly at home, with few short visits outside with friends or extended family. But this choice prevents my girls from accessing the outside world in the way that they want.
Not surprisingly, at times, it led to bad moods and arguments over what is the appropriate amount of time spent online each day.
Finally, it led us to a radical decision
We decided to take away their smartphones for December. Not as a punishment, but to give them a different experience that we hoped would make them happier. When they can’t have what they want.
We don’t blame them for getting frustrated and sad. It was painful for me to see photos of their friends having fun at sleepovers and making TikToks at each other’s houses while my girls remained home too.
To see, but not be a part of something, creates a unique kind of pain that I now believe their generation knows better than any other.
This was another reason for taking away the phones. And though she didn’t say it, I’m sure it’s why one of my daughters wanted to give it up. The other went along, begrudgingly.
I hoped that we could make the cocoon of our home a little more comfortable and interesting to entice them to come back in, while fully assuring them that they will get out here one day (hopefully) soon. It seemed a kinder option than being stuck behind glass, desperately wanting to get out.
Our two-step plan for a happier holiday season
First, besides the phones, we all admitted what we must gently let go of right now. There are things we wish we could do, that we can’t this year.
We won’t go to church during Advent and won’t be going to our favorite candlelight service on Christmas eve. There will be no parties or cookie exchanges. No family will be coming to our house for Christmas. Friends won’t sleepover during the school break. We probably won’t even go to the ice rink with them.
For my older daughter, the biggest loss is not being able to perform in The Nutcracker. She misses ballet, her friends, and the camaraderie of rehearsals. We will all miss watching it almost as much.
Nothing we can do will make up for missing any of this.
But the absence of these events gives us time and energy for others. This is what we are trying to focus on the most, and it what enabled us to quickly see positive results from our no-phone experiment.
Doubling Down on What We Can Do
There are simpler pleasures we can still enjoy, and we are trying to do them all.
We are endeavoring to read all our favorite Christmas books together. We’ve already watched more Christmas movies than we normally do. Today after school one of my daughters and I completed a 1,000-piece puzzle depicting scenes from A Christmas Carol. We spent many happy hours chatting and working on it together.
I already sense the relief and relaxation they are feeling this month.
We sit and talk longer at the dinner table. Their homework is done earlier and they are getting enough sleep for a change. And I see their creativity coming out in ways they don’t normally have the energy for. One of them staged a fashion show starring our dog, complete with a curtained stage. The other has been taking her interest in drawing more seriously, with prolific results.
Instead of watching the world go by, they are living a smaller, but no less interesting life, here at home.
They keep up with their closest friends via text and video chats on their computers, which offer real connection and conversation, but they aren’t living under the weight of social media and all that comes with it. And the technology no longer follows them around the house or outside.
As sisters, they’ve had a lot more fun together. And we’ve had more fun with them.
And we still plan to bake lots and lots of cookies.
Last night after dinner we drove around to see the holiday lights in town. When we got home, they thanked me. (If you have teenagers you understand the enormity of this.) We had fun.
Through it all, I keep complimenting and encouraging them and letting them know we are all in it together, and this situation will not last forever.
I hope, most of all, they remember feeling loved
Next year will be very different. They will want to spend lots of time with friends to make up for this year. And we plan to let them do it. December will be hectic and there will unlikely be time for puzzles, many movies, or reading books together. I may have to put those outside lights up myself as I usually do.
But I hope next year and long into the future they will fondly remember the additional time we are spending together as a family this year. How even with the limitations and the disappointments, we could make something out of it, and be happy. This year more than any other has made us take stock in all that we have to be thankful for, without asking for more.
For now, we are leaning into family time. It is bittersweet knowing it won’t last. Before long they will, rightfully, push away and head out into the world on their own.
In a way, you could say that we are treating this holiday season as a long backward look at their childhood holidays. We are doing a lot of the things we used to have more time to do when they were younger, so maybe it’s true. If it helps cement their memories of what the holidays were like for them as children, that will be a bonus.
No, this holiday season won’t look a lot like all our others, but it is certain to be memorable. And it’s not going to be all bad.
How could it, when we still have each other? | https://psiloveyou.xyz/creating-holiday-happiness-when-you-cant-give-what-they-want-73b2c73e615e | ['Jennifer Haubrich'] | 2020-12-13 16:30:48.117000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Holidays', 'Teens', 'Parenting', 'Family'] |
I Fired an Employee For Not Throwing Away Food | Food.
When I sat Tim down in the office to confront him on the matter, I felt a knot in my stomach. Tim admitted to taking produce from the company for the past few weeks. At first, he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He said he was only taking home the produce that customers didn’t want or had picked over: Expired food, bruised apples, frayed lettuce, etc.
Tim thought it was wasteful to throw away perfectly good food. It bothered him a great deal. After working so many night shifts, he had done his fair share of throwing away food as part of the nightly closing duties.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
He had just immigrated from Vietnam, impoverished, where food wasn’t wasted or fussed about. I saw Tim’s point. My parents didn’t have much in Vietnam, growing up either. While raising us in the US, they were firm in their insistence for my brothers and me to finish our plates, declaring that wasting food was a sin.
Waste.
When Russian President Boris Yeltsin walked around his first American supermarket in 1989, he was surprised at the immense assortment of stocked food. But I’m sure he would have been shocked by how much food Americans throw away.
According to the FDA, “food waste is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply.”
In a country where 37 million people, including 11 million children, are going hungry, Americans throw away food in massive numbers due to perceived spoilage and misunderstanding of expiration labels.
Why do grocery stores throw away so much?
From a business perspective, it makes sense why grocery stores are so wasteful when it comes to keeping produce in stock. A grocery store is a business and a business’s main goal is to generate sales. If customers don’t buy the product, the store doesn’t get the sale.
A beautiful produce aisle with perfect, vibrant fruit and vegetables is appealing to a customer. A shopped produce aisle with shady-looking fruit and vegetables is not. We’ve all been guilty of putting the slightly discolored apple back for another favorable apple. Imagine the next person that shops the apples doing this as well. And so forth.
The produce employees understand this better than anyone else. To sell products successfully, each fruit needs to look pristine and identical to one another. Part of a produce clerk’s job is to “cull” unappealing produce since they’re less likely to catch someone’s attention. Most of the time, the produce is suitable for consumption except for a few aesthetic imperfections. Not able to sell the imperfect produce, the grocery stores are forced to discard of any picked-over product or risk actual spoilage.
Reducing Food Waste.
“133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food was wasted in 2010” — USDA Economic Research Service
Some grocery retailers are making concentrated efforts to tackle the issue. In France, a major grocery chain, Intermarche, launched a campaign to help reduce food waste. They featured imperfect produce that was nicknamed “inglorious fruits”, selling 1.2 million tons and increasing store traffic by 24%. In 2018, Kroger launched its Zero Waste initiative to aim to eliminate food waste by 2025 by distributing surplus inventory to food banks.
However, the food waste problem doesn’t entirely rest on the grocery industry’s shoulders. There exists a serious lack of education around general food safety among consumers. Unsold bananas with brown spots are still good to eat. The sell-by date doesn’t mean that the food is bad at the numbered date. And the interior of ground beef may be brown due to lack of oxygen, not spoilage.
Photo by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash
Research says that four in 10 people admitted that they do not know who to look for guidance on how to reduce food waste. There exists a gap in the industry to help educate consumers here.
Additionally, some entrepreneurs are tackling the issue by creating “zero-waste grocery stores.” In 2012, a local grocery store called In.gredients opened in Austin, TX. They had one mission: No Waste.
In.gredients aimed to change consumer habits by having consumers bring their own containers and fill up on bulk products such as nuts and olive oil. But changing the entire market’s remains a big ask for a single local grocery store. Burdened with high costs, In.Gredients ended up closing in 2018.
Still, the opportunity is there and many current grocery retailers and new entrepreneurs are stepping up to the challenge. Processes, technologies, and supply chain improvements are key to reducing food waste.
“A World Economic Forum (WEF) report forecasted that food losses will be reduced by 85 million tons” by 2030. Additionally, ReFED rolled out a roadmap to commit to reducing US food waste by 20% over the next decade. The report looks at every possible touchpoint of the food distribution chain from farmers to government and non-profits to present solutions. But until then, it’s beholden to us, as consumers, to be more conscious about what food we throw away at home or look over at the store. | https://medium.com/greener-together/i-fired-an-employee-for-not-throwing-away-food-33c7ab231ee1 | ['Quy Ma'] | 2020-10-16 19:46:01.615000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Food', 'Sustainability', 'Environment', 'Leadership'] |
How to Wrap Your OMI Tokens | How to Wrap Your OMI Tokens ECOMI Follow Apr 1 · 8 min read
Uniswap is the most popular decentralised exchange in the world, processing more than $1bn in daily trading volume on the Ethereum blockchain. The following instructions will enable you to ‘wrap’ your OMI tokens, and create an Ethereum compatible version of them (ERC20), in order to add liquidity to our Uniswap pool or trade your OMI tokens within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Use this service at your own risk
Before You Begin
For anyone new to tokens and chain swaps, we want to make it clear that you do not need to swap your tokens. Wrapping your OMI tokens is simply to enable you to use them on the Ethereum blockchain. If you do not intend on using your tokens on Uniswap or similar, you can leave your tokens as they are.
Using Metamask, or any other crypto wallet is at your own risk. If you do not know how to use crypto-wallets, or how to interact with smart contract functions, please do not proceed with your transactions.
How Do I Wrap My OMI Tokens?
We have built a swap site to make this process easy for you. Before we jump into the instructions it’s important to note that as all of these interactions happen through smart contracts, you will need to fund the gas in both directions. That means having both GO tokens and ETH for the contracts to execute and distribute your wrapped OMI (wOMI).
If you already have/use Metamask for your OMI, and/or have GoChain added as a custom network, you can skip to Step 4.
Step 1. Install Metamask
Metamask is a Chrome-based browser extension and wallet that allows you to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. You can download it by visiting Metamask.io and adding it to your browser. During the wallet set up you will be asked to record your private key (ALWAYS keep this safe, and away from nefarious actors).
Step 2. Add GoChain to MetaMask
As OMI is a GO20 token, you will need to add the GoChain network to Metamask’s interface before you can send your OMI tokens to it.
Add GoChain as a custom network using these instructions. If you need to enter a chain i.d. enter ‘60’ Switch to the GoChain network by selecting it in the drop-down box (where you see ‘Ethereum Mainnet’ next to your current account). Under the ‘assets’ tab, select ‘add token’ Select ‘custom token’ and enter the OMI contract address:
0x5347FDeA6AA4d7770B31734408Da6d34a8a07BdF The details for the token should prefill with the name (OMI) and decimals (18). If not- enter them manually. Select ‘add tokens’ to confirm. You should now see the OMI token available to send/receive. When you go to use MetaMask in the future, just make sure you remember to switch the network to GoChain, or you won’t be able to find your tokens.
Step 3. Send SMALL Test Amounts to Your Wallet
We cannot stress the importance of this step enough. Please only send SMALL test amounts of GO and OMI to your Metamask account, to ensure you have completed this process correctly.
If you are sending OMI tokens from an exchange to Metamask, the exchange will fund the transaction fee. If you are sending your tokens from a personal wallet, such as the Secure Wallet or Trust Wallet, you will need GO tokens on those wallets first to process the transaction.
Once you confirm that you have received your tokens, you will also need to switch to the Ethereum network in your Metamask and send ETH tokens to your address, for gas on the contract distribution side.
The ETH gas fee is set by the current state of the blockchain, however, as a higher-level transaction, it will require more gas than a standard transfer in order to process/approve the distribution. Again- you are responsible for funding these transactions.
Step 4. Add wOMI to Metamask
In order to receive/view your wOMI on Metamask, you will need to add this new contract address.
Open Metamask Ensure you are on the Ethereum Mainnet. Select ‘add token’ Select ‘add custom token’ Enter the wOMI contract address:
0x04969cD041C0cafB6AC462Bd65B536A5bDB3A670 It may pre-populate the ticker and decimals, however, if it does not:
Token symbol: wOMI
Decimals: 18 Confirm and add the new token. You should now see wOMI as an available token option.
5. Connect Metamask to the Chainswap
Once you have set up MetaMask, are holding the tokens you wish to swap, and have both GO and ETH tokens in your account for gas, you can continue with the token swap process.
Please note that ALL transactions on the swap site are user funded, regardless of the direction of the swap.
Visit chainswap.ecomi.com Click ‘connect to Metamask’ It will pre-populate with the account/address you are currently using. If you wish to use a different address, switch the token account you are using in Metamask, and confirm it is correct on the swap site. You will need to fund this account with the correct tokens, should you wish to use a different address.
If your Metamask is set to the GoChain network, you will see the swap direction is OMI > wOMI.
If it is set to the Ethereum network, you will be presented with the opposite swap direction wOMI > OMI.
Step 6. Confirm Your Balances
Once your MetaMask is connected to the chainswap site, you will be able to see your current balances in the header bar. If this is the first time you are using the site, you should see a balance for OMI, GO and ETH.
Once you have completed a swap, the site will also populate your wOMI balance (unless you then move your remaining tokens out of your Metamask addresses).
Step 7. Enter Your Transaction Amount
For the rest of these instructions, we will detail how to swap OMI to wOMI. To swap back into OMI, and use your tokens in VeVe (or similar) simply change the network on Metamask, and perform the same action in reverse.
You will also note that there are instructions on the swap site page.
Enter the amount of OMI tokens you wish to swap. Confirm that the receiving address listed matches the address on your Metamask account. Hit ‘swap OMI’ Confirm that you understand you are responsible for paying the transaction fees on both sides of the transaction. The swap site will open Metamask, and you will need to confirm:
(1) the transaction and
(2) the funding fee (gas)
You must approve the transactions before they can be submitted. The transaction needs 50 confirmations before it will be processed. You should receive a browser notification from Metamask when it has been completed, however, if you do not, simply open the browser extension to see if there is a pending transaction waiting for your approval.
Please be aware that if the swap site is under significant load, these transactions WILL take a while to process. It is expected that the traffic to the site initially will be significant, and this could compound with the slower speeds of the Ethereum blockchain, so please be patient in waiting for the confirmations.
Step 8. Switch to the Ethereum Network
Once that transaction is approved and processed you will need to open your Metamask and switch to the Ethereum Mainnet, in order to approve the distribution of your wOMI tokens.
You will see this message:
Once you approve the initial transaction, you’ll need to switch to the Ethereum Mainnet in Metamask to complete the swap.
Open Metamask Switch network to Ethereum Mainnet
Step 9. Pay Fee and Approve Transaction
Return to swap site and select ‘pay fee’ to fund the transaction Wait for Metamask to prompt you to sign this transaction. Again you will need to confirm the gas amount and approve the transaction.
When you switch to the Ethereum Mainnet you will see this ‘pay fee’ message. You will need ETH in your Metamask wallet in order to pay for the transaction
You will see this message once you have paid the gas fee, and confirmed the transaction in Metamask.
Distribution of your wOMI tokens will take place after another 50 block confirmations.
Please be aware that if the swap site is under significant load, these transactions WILL take a while to process. It is expected that the traffic to the site initially will be significant, and this could compound with the slower speeds of the Ethereum blockchain, so please be patient in receiving your wOMI tokens.
Once the transaction is fully confirmed, your wOMI tokens will be distributed to your Metamask address. You will see your balances update in both Metamask, and the header bar of the swap site. You can then choose to use them in the Ethereum ecosystem, and interact with Uniswap.
Step 10. Adding Liquidity to Uniswap
Swapping your OMI tokens to wOMI allows you to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. If you would like to, once you have wrapped your OMI tokens you can add liquidity to our token pool on Uniswap and begin earning rewards.
As with all pools on Uniswap you will need to add both sides of the equation in order to earn LP rewards (wOMI/ETH). Using this service is at your own risk. We will provide initial liquidity to the pool, allowing anyone new to the ECOMI family to acquire their tokens from the exchange.
👉👉 Uniswap Pool Link 👈👈
To find the correct pool, please use the link above, or search using the wOMI contract address:
wOMI: 0x04969cd041c0cafb6ac462bd65b536a5bdb3a670 | https://medium.com/ecomi/how-to-wrap-your-omi-tokens-94e4e3494324 | [] | 2021-06-07 01:26:29.177000+00:00 | ['Uniswap', 'Omi', 'Metamask', 'Ethereum', 'Ecomi'] |
A is for Apple, B is for Boy, C is for COVID | We are all losers
in this coronapocalypse,
not just the covidiots,
though they’re off
with a head start —
their brains
seem to have more
than their fair share
of apoptosis,
at its most grossest…
Whether we make a confession
or a concession
to coronaporn’s
pathetic pandemic deniers,
they’re infectious —
and not just physically.
If they just take themselves
out of circulation,
that would be one thing.
But that’s not
how contagion works — the jerks!
Argute, astute attic salt?
Or apple-knocker —
take your pick…
All this is just
so much argie-bargie
till you test positive.
May that never happen! | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/a-is-for-apple-b-is-for-boy-c-is-for-covid-188ceb33b70 | ['Marilyn Flower'] | 2020-12-25 05:39:08.721000+00:00 | ['Idea Stream', 'Poetry', 'The Bad Influence', 'Health', 'Covid 19'] |
Full Moon Party | Full Moon Party
Every month is the same thing. All full moon is a party. It’s like a movie scene: fire, juggling, more fire, all the pyrotechnics possible. Place: Koh Phangan Island, Thailand. It’s not a religious celebration like the Lantern Festival, which happens in Chiang Mai. Far from it. Full Moon Party is chaos amid Buddhist centers. Get inside that unknown world, surrounded by all kinds of people, is to get in touch with the insane center of all Asia.
Some go to yoga retreats to recharge their energies. Some want to connect with the animalistic side of the island. I have never met so many people in the same vibe and intensity: happiness, euphoria, electronic music, and, for the most daring and inconsequent, drugs. Bold, because the use of any illicit drug is forbidden anywhere in Thailand. I am sure no person wants to be caught by the police and pay a bribe. Either that, or it is jail: a hell on earth, I believe.
The island works accordingly with the full moon, not the party, the real moon. There is not much movement on “normal days.” Full Moon Party is once a month, but when it happens, the island changes.
Barefoot on the sand and tons of people having fun near the sea along the endless blue water. Have you been to a beach party? Probably nothing like the Full Moon Party. Those who do not get lost at the party and spend hours looking for a familiar face does not know what excitement is.
More emotion is to get in touch with some random group from Scandinavian countries and become best friends. Euphory only ends if you are willing to face the insanity of that island.
Want to jump on a rope with fire? Do you want to participate in a pull-up championship? It has either. Do you want to sit and watch it all happen? Yes, you can. What you can’t do is lose your mind. Forget the world around you, have the sense of experience that once in a lifetime.
What are the odds of a return to chaos? I knew chaos, and I say: it was an intense experience, unique, but once is enough to leave the body like that. No soul and body can withstand two rounds of a full moon. Balance is more than welcome to you.
Enter the first sanctuary after facing the full moon on Koh Phangan island and energize yourself. But don’t think you’re ready for another. Retire, even just for a few days, the bucket of dubious rum and cola that is not Coca-Cola. Your experience might be even more intense than your roommate’s if you finish the night in one of the hundred tattoo studios scattered around the island. And yes, they work through dawn to catch tourists thirsty for a lifetime mark to remember that chaos.
I saw men and women lying down while their tattoo artists were marking their skins in those who went beyond us, mortals, who just performed with leaping over the flaming rope. Thank you, full moon, for making me sleep in the top bed and wake up without clothes. The cycle was complete. I can’t deny, almost had a mark in my arms.
Better keep the full moon in the sky for enjoyment and away from the buckets. | https://medium.com/@phdalmolin/full-moon-party-9af441773211 | ['Pedro Dalmolin'] | 2020-12-22 12:19:52.673000+00:00 | ['Short Fiction', 'Creative Writing', 'Traveling', 'Thailand', 'Fiction'] |
10 Courses On Building A Product Startup Using Services | This is for IT and IT-enabled businesses wanting to understand how to get early clients by providing services, as well as existing IT-service companies looking to transition into product businesses.
Why is this set of skills so important?
Raising funding for startups in Silicon Valley is a low-probability game. Fewer than 1% who try actually succeed.
Outside some of the global startup hubs, the startup ecosystems are mostly immature, and the probability gets even lower.
Seed investors are mostly operating as growth investors, expecting that the entrepreneur will somehow manage to bridge the gap and bring a concept to realization. In fact, what these investors really want is to invest in businesses that have traction, not just validation.
As an entrepreneur, how do you go from concept to traction? How do you bridge the seed capital gap? What do you do if you are full of dreams but stuck in the gap between concept and seed?
Offering a consulting service is one of the best ways to bootstrap your way to early revenue. You could sell your services to a prospective customer and be paid while validating your business assumptions. This will help in two ways: you get to know your clients better and you validate your assumptions.
If you take this course, you’ll see how other successful entrepreneurs have done just that.
Don’t forget about other ways of bootstrapping your startup before you are ready for outside funding. The following courses cover other bootstrapping methods that have been used by successful startup founders.
In fact, you could very well end up combining several of these methods above.
You could be a solo entrepreneur bootstrapping with a paycheck and piggybacking on a platform, providing services to a customer. You then productize.
You could be a startup team bootstrapping with a paycheck and piggybacking on a platform, providing services to a customer. You then productize.
You could be a startup team bootstrapping with a paycheck and piggybacking on a platform, providing services to a customer. You then productize. And you directly exit.
We love bootstrapping, but we never rule out outside capital. This set of courses covers the various stages of startup funding, from pre-seed to series A. Get to know how investors think, so you can speak their language and attain that elusive Holy Grail of investor-entrepreneur fit.
All of the above courses are based on The 1Mby1M Methodology. This collection contains a tribal knowledge of successful tech entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders that can’t be found anywhere else. By taking those courses, you can gain instructive perspectives on how to build a thriving IT-business methodically, step by step, instead of guessing.
If you have any specific question, come and see me at a 1Mby1M free roundtable.
P.S. We’re looking to partner with community leaders who write blogs, teach and mentor entrepreneurs, and help support startup ecosystems in every corner of the world, no matter how small or how remote. I have written about my own journey building startup ecosystems around the world, and how you can draw from my lessons from the trenches. If you’re interested in partnering with 1Mby1M, please consider joining our ambassador program.
Looking For Some Hands-On Advice?
For entrepreneurs who want to discuss their specific businesses with me, I’m very happy to assess your situation during my free online 1Mby1M Roundtables, held almost every week. You can also check out our free Bootstrapping Course, our Udemy courses, YouTube channel, podcast interviews with VCs and Founders.
Photo by Razvan Chisu on Unsplash. | https://medium.com/@sramana/10-courses-on-building-a-product-startup-using-services-b29d6ebe201d | ['Sramana Mitra'] | 2021-12-14 14:52:13.970000+00:00 | ['It', 'Startup Lessons', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneur'] |
Softening the Hearts | Allah SWT sent Prophet Muhammad PBUH on this planet in order to recite the ayahs from Quran; so that Allah could enlighten people’s hearts and fetch them out of the darkness of this world, into the light of faith. He SWT revealed the Quran in two phases i.e. Meccan phase and the Madni phase. The former included Surahs which primarily talked about tawhid, oneness of Allah, and the Prophethood. It was the first step to bring people to light, and to make them realize the existence of their Creator, so that their hearts would be contented, humbled, and above all, SOFTENED. Once that done, they’d be able to perceive, understand, and imply the conditions of Islam.
If the glass is put upside down, it will not store a single droplet of water; no matter you pour liters of water over it. But once you put it upright, the face open, then even if you put a single drop of water into it, it will retain.
Similar is the case here. If the hearts are not being prepared and put into position to accept the Khayr, they will not be able to perceive the Truth. But once the Hearts are emptied of evil, sins, grudges, and darkness of Dunya, then they let the message of the Universe sink-in; and make it enlightened. | https://medium.com/@noooor3142/softening-the-hearts-742e9c18e862 | [] | 2020-12-16 12:45:55.719000+00:00 | ['Islam', 'Muhammad Pbuh', 'Soul', 'Heart', 'Allah'] |
A beginner’s guide to Psychedelics | Colours of a psychedelic experience
Preface: As an enthusiast in computational drug discovery research and an avid listener to Joe Rogan podcasts, I have always been interested in how the human body works, diseases are caused, how drugs could be designed to combat them and how they would behave inside the human body. Lately, due to a some personal issues, I became interested in the science of psychedelics and how they could used therapeutically to transform lives for the better.
On my recent trip to Israel in Jerusalem, I happened to meet a wonderful fellow human: Anna. Due to some shared interests in how Psychedelics work and their potential therapeutic use, I am dedicating this blog to her in the form of a letter in response to her recent query on it.
Dear Anna,
Thank you for your text and interest in Psychedelics. Though your query was specifically regarding LSD, I would like to respond to it in general about the 3 most popular psychedelics in use: LSD, DMT and Psilocybin, mostly because the effects they have on the human mind can be very similar.
In this blog, I will address the main things: the therapeutic effects, the dosage levels and safety concerns everyone needs to know about.
An introduction:
Psychedelics are simply a class of drugs that trigger hallucinogenic experiences. One can count many examples of them out there, but the most popular ones in popular culture would be: Psilocybin (in magic mushrooms), LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) and DMT (N,N- Dimethyltryptamine).
Though LSD is taken in its pure powdery form, people usually take DMT through a brew (called Ayahuasca) made up of a combination of 2 plants: Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis found in the jungles of Amazon.
Psilocybin on the other hand is an active ingredient of magic mushrooms/truffles and can simply be taken by chewing or swallowing it.
Therapeutics uses:
Right off the bat, a number of clinical trials & widespread anecdotal experiences have shown that psychedelics could be a potential cure for many mental health conditions such as severe depression, anxiety (in cancer patients), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), alcohol and smoking addiction, as well as eating disorders like anorexia (starving oneself) and bulimia (vomiting just eaten food).
Please note that the clinical trials have been conducted for psilocybin only, and that claims of LSD and DMT being equally effective are personal/anecdotal. This is mostly because there are a lot of regulatory hurdles in possessing these drugs for clinical trials, due to them being illegal in most countries.
Nonetheless, because of these Psilocybin trials, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated it as “breakthrough therapy”, and hence, I believe that we aren’t very far away from the time when magic mushrooms would be legalised and used for therapy.
Also, trials are still underway for treatment of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, but people have reported the benefits of LSD in getting rid of them. | https://medium.com/@ganesh7shahane/a-beginners-guide-to-psychedelics-bd425ea3e7e1 | ['Ganesh Shahane'] | 2020-02-01 16:26:58.620000+00:00 | ['Therapy', 'Psilocybin', 'Psychedelics', 'Lsd', 'Dmt'] |
How to buy the Best TV Stands in 2021 [Detailed Guide] | A good TV stand is unquestionably an important accessory for your LCD, LED, OLED TVs. It serves multiple purposes- it can accommodate your TV, help you set up a complete entertainment center by connecting different devices, and offers storage for keeping stuff like magazines, Blu-rays in proper order. On top of these, a TV stand can enhance the overall look of your living room or any other space.
With thousands of options available in the market, it can be quite difficult to pick the best TV stand that complements your room and offers all the essential features. To help you spot better options, we’ve come up with our list of the best TV stands that you can buy in 2021. Whether you’re looking for a simple TV stand for your bedroom, a rustic farmhouse-style TV stand, or a commercial TV stand for your store, we’ve covered them all in this article.
Before we jump to our list of the best TV stands, let’s have a look at some of the crucial factors that you must know while buying a good stand for your TV.
How to choose a TV stand?
Here are some important factors that you must consider while buying a TV stand for your living room, bedroom, or stores. These will help you get the bang for the buck.
1. Size of your TV
Firstly, you must know the size of your TV for which you’re planning to buy a stand. The size of a TV is measured diagonally. If you’re planning to buy a new TV, you would definitely know the size. On the other hand, if you’ve got an older TV and are not sure about the size, measure your TV diagonally, from the bottom-left corner to the top-right corner. Now, let’s assume the size of your TV is 55-inches, you would need a TV stand that’s designed to accommodate a 55-inch TV. Otherwise, your TV will always be at risk of falling by accidental touches. Also, make sure to check the load bearing capacity of the TV stand that you’re planning to buy.
2. Use
You must choose a TV stand based on your usage- personal or commercial uses. If you’re looking for a good TV stand for personal use like placing a TV in your home, bedroom, or living room, you can go for an entertainment unit, a corner stand, or a floating stand. If you tend to relocate your TV to different places in your home, go for the TV stand with wheels as it will help in easy relocation.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a TV stand for commercial purposes like using it as a display in your shop or restaurants, you may need portable TV stands or a stand with wheels/rollers. The portable stands are also great for fairs, trade shows, or other events. The rolling stands are easier to move and relocate. If you need to place two or TVs together, go for the TV stands with dual/multi brackets. Lastly, if you want to mount a TV on a wall or ceiling in your restaurant, workshop or store, you must look for commercial TV wall mounts or ceiling mounts.
3. Available space
Here comes another important yet easily overlooked factor when it comes to buying a good TV stand. You must figure out the height, width, and depth of the room or any other area where you’re planning to place your TV. For example, if you need a TV stand for a small bedroom, check the available space, and make sure that your stand is not too big. You must also take into the equation the right viewing height. The center of the TV must line up with your eyes. Therefore, figure out the height of your bed or sofa, where you would like to relax and watch TV. If you’ve got a low-height bed or couch, you must go for a TV stand that’s low in height. On the flip side, if you want to sit on a sofa (generally they have more height), you would need a stand that has a good height. If your TV does not have a proper viewing height, you could end up putting your neck in some serious trouble. Therefore, make sure to measure a comfortable viewing height and distance.
Also, if you’re looking for a TV stand for your living room or any other large-spaces, make sure that the stand is not too small. Moreover, you must ensure that the position of the TV stand is not blocking any pathways. Otherwise, your TV will always be at a risk. If you need to place your TV in a corner, look for the TV stands that are designed for such purposes.
4. Type of stand
You’ll find TV stands in a lot of styles, including a corner stand, floating stand, console, and entertainment units. Each type has its own advantages. Like a corner TV stand is great for saving space in smaller homes. It fits in beautifully into the corner of any room, allowing you to utilize the wasted space. Floating stands are wall-mounted units that are designed especially to complement your mounted TV. These TV stands are constructed using lightweight materials and have an open-shelving design.
Coming to consoles, they are elongated units with legs, ample surface on the top to place your TV, streaming devices, soundbars, and shelves/cabinets in the center. Talking about entertainment units, they are an excellent option for gaming or home entertainment setups. They have enough storage for speakers, gaming consoles, media streamers, and other useful things. They are larger than other TV stands, and can even span an entire wall. The TV is mounted in the center, with shelves and cabinets/drawers on both sides.
5. The material of the stand
You’ll find TV stands in various materials, including glass, wood, metal, medium-density fiberboard, and particleboard. Each material offers different benefits. For example, wood TV stands are solid and long-lasting. They are available in a wide range of designs and finishes to complement your room’s style. Plus, as wooden TV stands are heavy, they can’t be moved accidentally, if you’ve kids or pets running around in the home. So, they are a stable and sturdy option, and at the same time, they are expensive too. Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard are budget-friendly alternatives for wood TV stands. They will give you the look of wooden TV stands but are light, both in terms of weight and price tag.
If you like to keep it modern and stylish, metal TV stands are an excellent option. They are durable, stable, and come in a lot of designs. If you want to go for the metal TV stands, go for the ones that are constructed with iron, aluminum, or steel. Also, make sure that the stand has a rust-resistant finish that will help to prevent corrosion. Coming to the glass TV stands, they add a bright and clean look to your room. These stands feature metal supports for strength. You can place decorative items to enhance the overall look of your room. If you want to go for glass TV stands, make sure you’ve got enough space available in your room. Also, if you’ve children or pets at home, glass TV stands can be troublesome.
6. Storage and organization
If you want to keep magazines, game consoles, or streaming devices, you can find various TV stands with good storage. There are various options available that have shelves or built-in cabinets.
If you’ve got a large setup, including a TV, AV receiver, soundbar, gaming consoles, and a media streamer, you can opt for large entertainment centers as they will help you keep multiple devices in a centralized location. On the other hand, if you want to connect a single device, let’s say a cable/satellite box with your TV, you can go for TV stands that have only a single shelf. It will help you save money and unnecessary space too. Therefore, you can easily choose between closed cabinets, drawers, open shelves, or a combination of these, depending upon your requirements.
7. Usage and wiring
Most TV stands include cutouts for neat cable management, it will keep those messy cables out of sight and keep your equipment safe from any wiring issues. If you want to set up a large entertainment center at your home, that includes multiple devices, look for a TV stand that allows for clean wiring management. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with messy cable and an untidy setup, and no one wants that. Also, go for the options that have support for adding more consoles and accommodating more wires neatly. It will prevent you from making additional purchases in the future.
8. Choose a style that complements your space
You must go for a TV stand that complements the layout and style of your space. If you want to place a TV in an irregularly shaped room, you can go for a corner stand as it will help you fit a pretty big display in a compact space. If your room is small, you can look for TV wall mounts because it will not block any space, and you can move freely in your room.
You must also consider the interior and style of your room while choosing a TV stand. For example, if you’ve got a contemporary space, you can go for the TV stands with simple geometric lines, minimalist design, and open shelves. It will enhance the overall look of your space. You can go for subtle and pale neutrals as it will make your room brighter and spacious. For traditional spaces, you can go for TV stands featuring stained woods, detailed designing, or thicker frames.
List of the Best TV Stands
1. Walker Edison Modern Farmhouse Grooved Wood TV Stand
Compatible TV Size: Available in different sizes
Maximum supported weight: 250 lbs
If you’re looking for a minimalist, stylish, and durable TV stand, Walker Edison Wood TV Stand is an excellent option. It is constructed using high-grade certified MDF, topped with a multi-grain laminate. The TV stand is available in various sizes, including a 44” corner stand, a 58” TV stand, and a 70” TV stand. Plus, you can also go for the Fireplace TV stand. The 58-inch TV stand can house a television up to 64-inches and supports weight up to 250 lbs. You get to choose from different finishes that best compliments your home, living room, or bedroom.
For easy storage and organization, the TV stand packs both shelves and cabinets. The shelves are adjustable to fit-in your gaming consoles, streaming devices, magazines, books, or decorative pieces. Plus, the stand offers easy cable management features to run cords in the back of the TV stand, and keep your setup clean.
Check Price on Amazon
You can also check out another excellent fireplace TV stand for your living room from Walker Edison TV. This stand is available in different designs, colors, and offers enough storage for keeping other devices.
2. Ameriwood Home Elevation Stand
Compatible TV size: 60 inches
Maximum supported weight: 175 lbs
If you’re looking for a highly useful TV stand for a small room, the Ameriwood home elevation stand is sure to please you with its clean design and versatile black finish that complements almost any decor. This TV stand is constructed using a metal frame and hollow-core shelves. The overall design looks classy, without compromising stability and durability.
The TV stand can accommodate a flat-screen TV that’s up to 60” in size and has a maximum weight of 175lbs. This metal frame stand for TV has three shelves to place your devices like a game console, speaker, media streamers, and others. The snap-on back panel is ideal for keeping the wires out of sight. All in all, the Ameriwood home elevation stand is a must-have TV stand for small spaces.
Check Price on Amazon
3. Convenience Concepts Graystone 60” TV Stand
Compatible TV size: 65 inches
Here comes a perfect wood TV stand for modern homes and stylish spaces. The Convenience Concepts TV Stand is designed using a combination of wood and metal frame. The metal frame has a powder-coating which makes the stand resistant to rust, cracking, peeling and damage due to chemical exposure. It has a clean design with an ample surface that can accommodate a 65” television. There’s a drawer for concealed storage, and there’s a hollow space above the drawer to keep one device (cable box, game console, BluRay player, or streaming device). Therefore, if you need a small TV stand that can hold a TV, a device, and allows you to keep a few things in the drawer, this is a great option.
Check Price on Amazon
4. PERLESMITH TV Stand
Compatible TV size: 37 to 55”
Maximum supported weight: 88 lbs
If you’re looking for a tabletop TV stand for your LCD, or OLED TVs that are between 37 to 55-inches, The PERLESMITH universal TV mounting bracket is a great option. It features non-slip feet and an anti-drop iron plate so you can place this TV stand on any table, desk, entertainment center, or any other surface.
The TV stand comes with an easy to use instruction manual for quick and easy installation, with all the fittings provided in the box. The TV plate has an adjustable height, therefore, you can easily choose a comfortable viewing angle. The stand is protected by a black tempered glass that provides ample stability while adding a touch of style to your space.
In short, it’s a great option if you’ve already got a table or desk, and are looking for a reliable TV stand to place your television.
Check Price on Amazon
5. Corner Floor TV Stand
Compatible TV size: 32–65 inches
Maximum supported weight: 110 lbs
If you’re looking for a Corner TV stand for your LED, OLED, or QLED TVs, get the Rfiver Swivel TV Stand without any second thoughts. This space-saving TV stand has got 4 shelves that offer enough storage to place your cable box, Blu-Ray player, streaming device, gaming console, or an external battery pack. You can easily adjust the height of the stand, and the mount can swivel left and right for 45 degrees for a better viewing angle. Plus, you can easily hide all the messy cables without making holes or going through the wall. The stand has a solid safety lock that securely holds your TV and prevents it from dropping.
It’s worth mentioning that before you buy this corner TV stand, please make sure that your TV mounting hole pattern meets one of the following: 100x100 / 200x100 / 200x200 / 300x200 / 300x300 / 400x200 / 400x300 / 400x400mm.
Check Price on Amazon
6. Tangula TV Stand
Compatible TV size: up to 60 inches
Maximum supported weight: 200 lbs
Here comes a solid, durable, and modern TV stand that offers a large storage space to keep your devices, books, magazines, and other accessories. The Tangula entertainment unit for TV is constructed using MDF Veneer, which makes this stand resistant to corrosion, wear, and deformation. It has a load-bearing capacity of up to 200 lbs, therefore, you can place a 60-inches TV, your devices, other accessories, and set up a complete entertainment center. This TV stand has four shelves that can be easily adjusted up and down to place your devices and other things. You don’t need to worry about cable management as the TV stand has four large threading holes on the back, for clean and efficient cable management.
It’s a minimal yet stylish TV stand that can be placed in a living room, lounge area, or activity room. This stand is available in Walnut and Black finishes that complement the interior and style of almost any space.
Check Price on Amazon
Also read: Best HDMI Cables for 4K, HDR, ARC, and Dolby Vision [Buying Guide]
7. Modway Transmit 70” Modern Entertainment TV Stand
Compatible TV size: up to 78 inches
Looking for a minimalist and eye-catching entertainment TV stand for your living room or activity room? Have a look at the Modway Transmit 70” Modern Entertainment TV Stand. It has an excellent construction featuring a particleboard frame with walnut grain laminate and white lacquered full-extension glide drawers for extra storage. It can perfectly accommodate your game consoles, Blu-ray players, and other electronic devices. It helps you maintain a clean setup with cable management holes, two open storage units, and two closed storage drawers. You can place an LCD, LED, TV that’s up to 78-inches in size.
In short, this retro-style media stand is a perfect pick for your home and lounge areas.
Check Price on Amazon
8. Rolling TV Stand by 1Home
Compatible TV size: up to 65 inches
Maximum supported weight: 110 lbs
Looking for an affordable commercial TV stand for your conference room, shopping centers, or trade shows? Get yourself the 1home Rolling TV Stand. It’s a flexible mount bracket that can easily fit most LCD, LED, and OLED TVs that are up to 65-inches in size. The stand is equipped with four heavy-duty casters, which makes it very easy to transport the TV to different locations.
This TV stand has a sturdy shelf to place your laptop, gaming console, or any other electronic device. Plus, the adjustable-height of the stand makes it very easy to find your right viewing angle for a comfortable experience. The integrated cable management system helps to keep those tangled cables out of sight. It features a high-quality steel frame with a stylish gloss finish, that makes this TV stand both durable and visually pleasing.
Also, if you tend to move your TV to different locations in your home, get yourself this solid TV stand with rollers.
Check Price on Amazon
9. ONKRON TV Stand with wheels
Compatible TV size: up to 65 inches
Maximum supported weight: 100 lbs
Here we’ve got another option for a TV stand with wheels. The ONKRON Mobile TV Stand is a universal stand that fits most models of LCD, LED, OLED, both flat and curved TVs. The stand has an adjustable height from 47.2’’ to 59 inches off the floor.
There are two middle and one top shelf to keep your devices, and you can easily hide the cables in stand poles to keep your setup clean.
Putting it simply, if you’re looking for a reliable and durable TV stand for conference rooms, boardrooms, expos, trade shows, educational and entertainment venues, it’s a must-have universal television stand.
Check Price on Amazon
10. ONKRON Dual TV Stand
Compatible TV size: up to 65-inches
Maximum supported weight: 300 lbs
Want to mount two TVs together? Have a look at the ONKRON Dual TV Stand. It’s a durable TV stand that’s constructed using ultra heavy-duty steel to safely hold two TVs with a total weight of up to 300 lbs. There are lockable caster wheels that securely fix the stand and ensure smooth rolling without scratching the floor. You can give a clutter-free look to your setup by hiding all the cables and wires inside the telescopic column. This dual TV stand has two middle shelves with a load capacity of up to 25 lbs each for placing your PS4, Roku, Cable box, Xbox, or laptop. Plus, there’s a smaller shelf on top, with a 10 lbs weight holding capacity, which is perfect for placing a webcam or gaming motion sensing input devices.
It’s an absolute must-have dual TV stand for trade shows, fairs, restaurants, or electronic stores.
Check Price on Amazon
You can also check out another dual TV stand that has rotatable brackets (Landscape and Portrait), and can hold two screens that are up to 70-inches.
11. AmazonBasics Ceiling TV Mount
Compatible TV size: up to 80 inches
Maximum supported weight: 100 lbs
If you wish to mount your TV on the ceiling of a conference room, restaurant, or shop, you would need a solid television ceiling mount. The AmazonBasics TV Mount is built using commercial-grade heavy-duty steel that makes it a perfect pick of the best durable TV stand for commercial purposes. This TV mount features a sleek and contoured design that offers a stylish and clean look to your space. You’ll get a premium 6.5 foot HDMI cable, mounting hardware, and cord management system for easy installation and organization. All in all, it’s a great option for personal as well as commercial uses.
Check Price on Amazon
12. Walker Edison Wren Classic Cubby TV Stand
Compatible TV Size: Available in different sizes
Maximum supported weight: 200 lbs
If you need a durable, wooden TV stand with open storage for your 70-inch TV, the Walker Edison Wren Classic Cubby TV Stand is a great deal. It’s a good-looking and TV stand that has got a durable laminate finish for a rich and textured surface. There are three adjustable shelves that can withstand up to 30lbs each. This 70” TV stand is designed to support TVs in up to 80-inches. Besides, there are 6 cord management ports to keep your setup clutter-free. It features a traditional design fused with the rustic farmhouse look to deliver a perfect TV stand that goes well with almost any interior. This classic television stand for 70-inch TV is available in an array of unique finishes, including Dark Walnut, Espresso, Traditional Brown, Black, and many more. Walker Edison also offers TV stands with a fireplace. If you need one, make sure to check out their amazing options.
Check Price on Amazon
13. Black Atlus 58” Floating Stand
Compatible TV Size: up to 60-inches
Maximum supported weight: 165 lbs
Here we’ve got a space-saver TV stand that sports an off-the-floor design that eliminates the need for a separate wall-mount TV bracket. The Black Atlus Floating TV Stand can be mounted on a wall at any height with its innovative hanging rail system. It can easily hold any flat-screen TV up to 60-inches and is strong enough to withstand a weight of up to 165 lbs. There are three upper compartments for A/V components and one bottom shelf that can hold up to 137 Blu-ray discs or 93 CDs/DVDs. It’s a well-made TV stand that smartly conceals all your cables and power bars to maintain a clean and modern look. You can pick this floating TV stand in Deep Black, Pure White, Drifted Gray, and Rich Espresso finishes. These minimal TV stands are backed by a 5-year warranty.
Check Price on Amazon
That was all for our roundup for the best TV Stands in 2021. We hope you’ve already selected a good TV stand that best fits your requirements. Make sure to check all the important factors that we’ve mentioned at the starting of the guide as it will help you make better choices. Do share your favorites with us, in the comments section below.
Don’t forget to check our list of the best HDMI cables for 4K, HDR, ARC, and Dolby Vision. Plus, we’ve also rounded off the best HDMI cables for gaming on PC, PS4, and Xbox. | https://medium.com/@neerajbhateja/how-to-buy-the-best-tv-stands-in-2021-detailed-guide-878905b16033 | ['Neeraj Bhateja'] | 2021-03-20 08:09:37.321000+00:00 | ['Home Theater Installation', 'Buying Guide', 'How To', 'TV', 'Home Theater'] |
A beginners guide to identifiers: linking beneficial ownership and open contracting data | Joining up datasets can be tricky, even when you’re working with standardised data.
One challenge that we often face is being sure something in one dataset is the same as (or different to) something in another. In other words, how can we unambiguously identify something that is being represented?
One way of simplifying this problem is to include identifiers as common element(s) that appear across datasets making them easier to combine. A good identifier draws on an external list, ideally an official source like a government register. It should be machine readable, unique and permanent. It should also contain within itself a reference to the list that it draws from.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what makes a good identifier, why we need to use them, and how they enable us to easily link datasets, using sample data from the Open Contracting Data Standard and Beneficial Ownership Data Standard as an example.
Why organisational identifiers matter
The Org-id.guide was created by a partnership of open data standards groups in order to fill a gap in our shared data infrastructure — open, interoperable and unambiguous identifiers for organisations across the globe. We’ll use our co-operative as an example of how it works.
Open Data Services Co-operative is registered at Companies House in England and Wales. The Companies House database has assigned us the company number 09506232. Within the context of the Companies House dataset this identifier is unique — it’s enough to identify our co-operative alone.
Screenshot from Companies House
When you need to start combining lists of organisations across multiple registers things get more difficult. There is a risk that another organisation listed on a different register may also use the identifier 09506232. In this context, we can’t be confident that the Companies House identifier alone can unambiguously refer to our co-op.
How org-id helps create consistent identifiers
The org-id list provides a mechanism to generate unique identifiers and avoid clashes. It does so by giving each organisation register an org-id code, and using this code as a prefix for existing identifiers to form a new identifier we can be sure is unique.
For example, within org-id our co-operative can be uniquely identified using the identifier of GB-COH-09506232.
Using this system, Org-id can provide unique identifiers for companies, charities, government agencies and other kinds of organisations — no matter where they are registered.
Clarifying ambiguities in a single dataset
The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) provides a structured way of representing public procurement processes. Working with the data, we’ve found that when people are given a free text field, they will likely enter the name of a company in different ways.
The sample data below shows a simplified contracting process with two bidders.
Simplified contracting process data
In the table above, the company with the identifier GB-COH-11111111 is referred to by two different names. As a bidder, the company is named as “AnyCorp Cycle Provision”, whereas the award description refers to this company as “AnyCorp Ltd”. Without an identifier, we can’t be sure that these are the same company.
The discrepancy in the procurement data could also be due to different parties entering information at different points in a contracting process. For example, the company might have entered their name as ‘AnyCorp Cycle Provision’ when they were applying for the tender. In contrast, when the award is published, the description is often written by the organisation in charge of procurement — in this example a local authority.
The difference might be because the companies are registered with one name, and trade with another; the company might have changed their registered name; someone might have made a mistake when entering the data into the procurement system.
Whatever the cause, without an identifier we can’t unambiguously assert that these names represent the same thing. Including identifiers means that we can.
Using identifiers also means we can record data in a way that is both human and machine readable so it can be analysed — even when there are spelling mistakes or data entry errors.
When you have good identifiers it’s much easier to find links between datasets
The Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) provides a structured way of representing ownership and control of companies and other legal entities. Linking this dataset to Open Contracting data provides opportunities to improve procurement processes and beneficial ownership data collection.
When combining open contracting and beneficial ownership data, organisational identifiers act as a glue that allows us to link information about legal entities together.
In the procurement data above, the company with the identifier GB-COH-11111111 is listed as both ‘AnyCorp Cycle Provision’ and ‘AnyCorp Ltd’. In the sample Ownership or Control Statement below, the same company is named as ‘AnyCorp Cycle Provision Ltd’.
Simplified beneficial ownership data
If we tried matching the record above to the names of the company in the procurement data alone, we wouldn’t be able to unambiguously assert that these two datasets refer to the same thing. It’s only because we’ve used consistent identifiers that we can be certain both reference the same company — and that these two records can be linked.
Linking these records means the local authority is able to clarify that GB-COH-11111111 won the bid, and the sole beneficial owner of that company is James Carmichael.
The examples we’ve described above show how identifiers can safeguard against genuine data entry errors, and enable us to easily link between datasets. Creating these links also has benefits for identifying risk, improving processes and strengthening safeguards against corruption. Stay tuned — we’ll be writing more about this in a future blog post.
At Open Data Services we’re always happy to discuss how developing or implementing open data standards could support your goals, or how we could help you publish or use open data. Find out more about our work and get in touch. | https://medium.com/opendatacoop/a-beginners-guide-to-identifiers-linking-beneficial-ownership-and-open-contracting-data-91d01480baf3 | ['Open Data Services Co-Operative'] | 2020-12-15 14:12:53.519000+00:00 | ['Beneficial Ownership', 'Open Data', 'Open Contracting', 'Identifiers', 'Data'] |
Live_online| Tokyo International Film Festival 2021 Full Stream | ❂ Artist Event : Tokyo International Film Festival
❂ Venue : Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, Tokyo, Japan
❂ Live Streaming Tokyo International Film Festival 2021
Conversation Series at Asia Lounge
The Japan Foundation Asia Center & Tokyo International Film Festival
Marking its second installment since 2020, this year’s Conversation Series will again be advised by the committee members led by filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu. Directors and actors from various countries and regions including Asia will gather at the Asia Lounge to engage in discussion with their Japanese counterparts.
This year’s theme will be “Crossing Borders”. Guests will share their thoughts and sentiments about film and filmmaking in terms of efforts and attempts to transcend borders. The festival will strive to invite as many international guests as possible to Japan so that they can engage in physical conversation and interaction at the Asia Lounge.
The sessions will be broadcast live from the festival venue in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya every day for eight days from October 31st to November 7th. Stay tuned! | https://medium.com/@b.i.m.sa.la.bi.mp.r.o.k/live-online-tokyo-international-film-festival-2021-full-stream-3a2572c80c27 | [] | 2021-10-30 13:58:04.521000+00:00 | ['Festivals', 'Film'] |
An Intro to Customizing Charts in Plotly Express | Now… as you can see here these are all quite bland or even impossible to read. Plus, there aren’t even any titles and the axis names are just the variables used! Fortunately, both issues are quite easy to fix!
First, let’s add a title to the pie chart, and go ahead and switch to a different color pallet since the default feels a bit harsher on the eyes. We just need to add a title and pick a color_discrete_sequence ! Discreet colors in Plotly are used for categorical data.
fig1 = px.pie(df1, names = "Genre", title = "Distribution of Video Game Genres", color_discrete_sequence=px.colors.qualitative.Set3) fig1.show()
Next, let’s make the global sales chart nicer. For this, I actually want to flip the graph so the bars are horizontal, and for that all i need to do is reverse the x and y variables, and add orientation = 'h' !
The title is set the same as the previous pie chart, however the labels aren’t as initially obvious! labels takes a dict object, with each key corresponding to the name of the column used for x and y! On top of that, we’re going to be using a continuous color scale corresponding to Global_Sales , and for this i chose "darkmint"
fig2 = px.bar(df2, y = "Genre", x = "Global_Sales", title = "Total Global Sales per Video Game Genre",
labels = {"Global_Sales": "Global Sales in Millions (USD)", "Genre": "Video Game Genre"},
orientation = 'h',color = "Global_Sales", color_continuous_scale = "darkmint") fig2.show()
Not perfect, but certainly a lot easier to read! Plus, who doesn’t love a horizontal bar chart? Certainly not me!
Now, are you keeping up? Yes? Fantastic! Then we shall be moving on to our final chart!
For this one, I’ve decided I don’t want to use any of the built in color pallets, so I’m setting it to completely different colors. For that, I’ll be using color_discrete_sequence and I’ll be passing it a list of color values! You can use named CSS colors, hex, HSV/HSVA, HSL/HSLA, and RGB/RGBA color formats! (The ‘A’ stands for Alpha, which is used to declare the transparency of the color, 0 for completely transparent and 100 for completely solid)
Additionally, I’ve decided to set template to one of Plotly’s built in themes. Since we all know dark themes are the best themes, I’ve set it to plotly_dark
Don’t forget to set the title and labels attributes! This time, I’m leaving Genre and Year alone, since I don’t want to make it too wordy.
line_colors = ["#7CEA9C", '#50B2C0', "rgb(114, 78, 145)", "hsv(348, 66%, 90%)", "hsl(45, 93%, 58%)"] fig3 = px.line(df3, "Year", "Global_Sales", height = 500, width = 800, color = "Genre",
title = "Global Profit for Top Video Game Genres Over Time",
labels = {"Global_Sales": "Global Sales in Millions (USD)"},
template = "plotly_dark",
color_discrete_sequence=line_colors) fig3.show()
What about customizing the theme yourself? Well, you can modify things like the title, background colors, and so much more! For now, let’s just use the plotly_dark theme as our main template and just make a few minor modifications to it. Using fig.update_layout() we can pass along dictionaries to it to easily modify or add different features.
A cool and new modified chart!
Using the title attribute, we can set pass it a dictionary with {'x': 5} to center it! Next, we can set the font attribute to {'family': 'courier'} , one of my favorite web-save fonts. For the background color, we can just pass along plot_bgcolor = "#232624" , no dictionaries needed!
line_colors = ["#7CEA9C", '#50B2C0', "rgb(114, 78, 145)", "hsv(348, 66%, 90%)", "hsl(45, 93%, 58%)"] fig3 = px.line(df3, "Year", "Global_Sales", height = 500, width = 800, color = "Genre",
title = "Global Profit for Top Video Game Genres Over Time",
labels = {"Global_Sales": "Global Sales in Millions (USD)"},
template = "plotly_dark",
color_discrete_sequence=line_colors) fig3.update_layout(plot_bgcolor = "#23262F",
title = {'x':0.5},
font = {"family" : "courier"}) fig3.show()
Wonderful! Though, if you haven’t noticed already, the hover box is looking a bit… lackluster, and doesn’t fit in with our theme! Don’t worry, that’s quite an easy fix!
The default Plotly Express hover box
With update.traces() , we can use customdata and hovertemplate to make it look nice and neat!
For customdata , we’ll need to import NumPy and pass along an ndarray object. In that, we’ll add each column from the dataframe with extra data that we want to use. For this, we’ll add the sales information for specified sale locations.
import numpy as np fig3.update_traces(
customdata = np.stack((df3.NA_Sales, df3.EU_Sales, df3.JP_Sales, df3.Other_Sales), axis = -1))
Next, we’ll start filling in the information for hovertemplate . It takes a string, and some formatting can be used using d3-format’s syntax and some minor HTML, and you can use variables using this %{variable} format. We can pass along values like x and y from our graph, as well as values from customdata !
We’ll make the top line bold using <b> , make all location words italicized using <i> , add line breaks using <br> , and then insert data using the handy %{variable} markup , first referring to x (year) and y (global sales). For global sales, I’m using d3-format syntax to add a $ before the number, and using .2f to limit the variables to only 2 decimal points. All in all, a piece of cake, albeit a bit hard on the eyes.
And as a final, fun bonus: Let’s make the font size a bit bigger and change the font itself to Courier to match the rest of the chart using hoverlabel !
fig3.update_traces(
customdata = np.stack((df3.NA_Sales, df3.EU_Sales, df3.JP_Sales, df3.Other_Sales), axis = -1),
hovertemplate = """
<b>Total Sales during %{x}:<br></b>
%{y:$.2f}M <i>Global</i><br>
%{customdata[0]:$.2f}M <i>North America</i><br>
%{customdata[1]:$.2f}M <i>European</i><br>
%{customdata[2]:$.2f}M <i>Japan</i><br>
%{customdata[3]:$.2f}M <i>Other</i><br>""",
hoverlabel = {"font_size" : 14, "font_family" : "Courier"}
) fig3.show()
Our final hover box! Fantastic!
Welcome to the end of the article, you’ve made it! Now that you’re here, I’ll pass along some helpful resources!
The Plotly documentation is, of course, a given, but there’s a lot of other handy resources out here! And as always, remember to google! | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/an-intro-to-customizing-charts-in-plotly-express-e3c473740f66 | ['Raven Welch'] | 2020-08-02 15:51:30.590000+00:00 | ['Plotly', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Python', 'Plotly Express'] |
Happy New Year’s Eve | Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! We are so thankful for our fans and followers who have been with us since the beginning! We wanted to thank all of you by doing a special NFT release next week so today I’m going to walk you through how that will work.
The NFT Drop!
Preview of one of the Art & Lore Cards
On January 7th we will have a release of our limited Scrap Guilds Art & Lore Collection. This is set #1. We will continue to do these releases throughout the year.
So how does it work?
We will be releasing 500 copies of 5 different card designs. These cards will have some in-game functions as well as allow us to show off art and lore of the expanse. We have so much story, concept art and more that you normally wouldn’t see much of in a production but placing them in NFT form allows us to let those pieces live on.
Starting January 7th we will have a landing page dedicated to claiming your NFT. Our claim system will allow any holders that have been with us since the beginning to verify and claim their reward straight from their metamask wallet. You will receive 1 of the 5 NFT cards. We are doing this so that we can make sure that our long-term holders first and foremost get an NFT. We will give our long term holders 1 week to finish their claims then on the 14th of January we will open the claims to everyone else to grab the remaining cards.
*If you are a long-term Gate.io holder there will be a different process for you that includes whitelisting. We will have the details for this released a few days before the claim page is live.
Behind the Scenes of Art & Lore Set #1 | https://medium.com/@attackwagon/happy-new-years-eve-14f1453f0d6d | ['Attack Wagon'] | 2021-12-31 22:04:43.469000+00:00 | ['Nft Marketplace', 'Nft Collectibles', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Gaming', 'Nft'] |
Tensorflow Serving model Creation and its deployment in FLASK then in Docker and Kubernetes. | I’ll explain a way to create servable model in Tensorflow and deploy it in multiple platforms and frame works like Flask, Docker and Kubernetes | https://medium.com/@sairamai/tensorflow-serving-model-creation-4e98ff0a97f | ['Sairam Alavuru'] | 2020-12-11 08:57:09.396000+00:00 | ['Tfserving', 'Flask', 'Object Detection', 'TensorFlow'] |
USDS Alumni Network: Robbie Holmes | USDS Alumni Network: Robbie Holmes
When you join USDS, you become part of a community that extends to life after your tour of duty. In this blog series, we share the stories of USDS Alumni. Find out what they worked on, where they are now, and why you should join us! U.S. Digital Service Follow Jan 5 · 5 min read
Robbie Holmes in the White House Press Briefing Room
Robbie Holmes (he/him), Vice President of Product Development at Pluribus Digital, previously Digital Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DSVA)
What projects did you work on during your time at USDS?
In my time at USDS, I started on the DSVA team that worked on Vets.gov and was detailed to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the tech lead for the Asylum Assessment Generator team. I also worked on many procurement activities including supporting the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Farmers.gov, supporting the Department of Justice on ADA.gov and finished my tour back at the DSVA supporting the CTO’s office as the technical product owner for the content management system that was brought into the VA.gov ecosystem.
What inspired you to join USDS?
I read Mikey Dickerson’s post about Healthcare.gov where his first question was how do you know that the site is down, and they told him that they turn on the news and if they are talking about it, they are down. The idea of solving the small underlying issues will lead to success is how I have spent my career delivering and solving problems.
I was expecting to be there about one to two years but ended up being moved by the organization, people and values to stay for almost four years.
How did your work at USDS make an impact?
For part of my time at USDS, I was a member of the team that was responsible for Vets.gov that went on to inform and eventually become part of the VA.gov brand merger and provide the first login on the homepage of VA.gov. Later on, I worked at DHS on a project to support Asylum Officers and help streamline and make assessments of the Asylum seekers application and interview process. This was a prototype and pilot that eventually went on to become adopted by all asylum offices and was integrated into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services case management system. At USDS, I was also able to support and assist with procurements at many agencies including the ultra-modern process that was implemented by USDA for Farmers.gov with support from USDS.
Did you feel effective during the time you served at USDS?
I was a member of USDS for almost 4 years and feel like I was able to be effective with the support of the previous USDS members and our business stakeholders. There is a great history of documentation that allows new USDSers to get up to speed quickly and then help support future USDS members.
Robbie Holmes at the USDS HQ office
How did USDS impact your career and life after your tour?
Having been a member and really living the core values for four years has changed me and influenced my choice of employer. Specifically, after my tour I joined as a founding member of the Digital Services Coalition (a non-profit that was founded based on the Digital Service Playbook created by USDS as a set of plays and best practices to deliver within government). Also my title is VP of Product Development with a subtitle of Digital Services Evangelist, and my job includes the bullet:
Industry Leadership — we aspire to be a part of transforming how government technology is created in general, shifting from tech and project focus to a digital product focus.
Why did you stick around USDS for so long?
I was expecting to be there about one to two years but ended up being moved by the organization, people and values to stay for almost four years. There is an amazing amount of work that still needs to be done, and I was able to support and impact multiple agencies and in the end come back to the Department of Veterans Affairs to become the technical product owner for the content management system for VA.gov. This gave me the ability to close the loop as an early member of Vets.gov and taking that work forward to the modern VA.gov solution.
What would you say to someone who’s thinking about applying to USDS, but isn’t sure they want to work in government?
Working in government is some of the most important work that you will ever do, and working as a member of USDS will provide you the ability to work on highly impactful projects assisting agencies providing benefits to the public and will have high level of support within the agency to be able to get things done! | https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/usds-alumni-network-robbie-holmes-4e1abbbed4b4 | ['U.S. Digital Service'] | 2021-01-05 16:34:36.752000+00:00 | ['Interview', 'Government', 'Engineering', 'Civictech'] |
Code Smell 19 — Optional Arguments | The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late. | https://mcsee.medium.com/code-smell-19-optional-arguments-c0714855dbbb | ['Maximiliano Contieri'] | 2020-11-08 14:35:19.317000+00:00 | ['Clean Code', 'Code Smells', 'Programming Languages', 'Programming', 'Software Development'] |
Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s Saintliness (Part 5) | Pillar of Moral and Spiritual Obedience
In 2000, the United Nations had for the first time gathered 1,800 spiritual leaders from 54 countries for the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. Of these, only 53 spiritual leaders had been selected to address the Summit. And Swamishri had been invited to bless the inaugural session in the main UN assembly hall.
However, Swamishri firmly follows the vows of male-female discipline for sadhus established by Bhagwan Swaminarayan wherever he goes. He does not compromise on this foundational niyam ordained by Bhagwan Swaminarayan. So, only when the organizers had assured that appropriate arrangements would be made did Swamishri agree to address the UN Summit.
On his arrival, Swamishri was respectfully received by the organizers. Before entering the main assembly hall, he enquired to ensure that the arrangements were in accordance with the vows given by Bhagwan Swaminirayan. Only then did he take his seat. Swamishri’s blessings were in Gujarati, which were instantly translated into English, French, Russian, German, Chinese and Spanish for the benefit of everyone. The audience was attentive and appreciated Swamishri’s unique formula for world peace. They applauded Swamishri till he returned to his seat. Swamishri’s purity touched UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, CNN Chairman Ted Turner and the spiritual leaders. Some of the Hindu spiritual leaders proclaimed, “You have upheld the nobility and honor of Hindu Dharma.”
Despite such great acclaim from others, Swamishri’s only satisfaction was in being able to obey the vows of a sadhu as instructed by Bhagwan Swaminarayan.
Someone asked, “What if arrangements had not been made to uphold the vows?”
Swamishri swiftly replied, “We would not have attended.”
For Swamishri, preserving the injunctions of Bhagwan Swaminarayan are more important than being honored by the UN. That is why he has remained a life-long pillar of moral and spiritual obedience.
Joy in Guru Bhakti
On 8 November 2000, the auspicious shilanyas ceremony for the grand Swaminarayan Akshardham complex on the banks of River Yamuna in India’s capital, New Delhi, was arranged.
At 11:05 a.m., at the appointed auspicious time, Swamishri placed the nidhi kumbh in the foundations, amid joyous Vedic chants. At 80 years, Swamishri was so overjoyed that he risked losing balance as he ignored his own health limitations and bent low to assist the volunteers in lifting and placing the heavy kurma shila.
Swamishri’s jubilant demeanor was obvious to all. As he gazed unblinkingly at Thakorji, his satisfaction was clearly visible.
Highlighting this, Mahant Swami noted in his speech, “Today, everyone seated here is happy and so is Swamishri. But there is a difference between the two. Swamishri’s joy is derived from his guru bhakti. He is happy that this will lead to the fulfilment of guru Yogiji Maharaj’s wish. Swamishri does not believe that he is doing this work, but his guru is doing everything. Swamishri is merely the instrument through whom God is working.”
In conclusion, Swamishri blessed, “Whoever comes here will attain liberation.” Hearing these words, everyone was convinced that only one who desires the liberation of all is a suitable medium through whom God can remain forever; and only he can accomplish such great works. | https://medium.com/bapssatsang/pramukh-swami-maharajs-saintliness-part-5-385ba51d0efa | ['Param Shanti'] | 2020-12-18 14:44:41.088000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Compassion', 'Unity', 'Pramukh Swami Maharaj', 'Love'] |
What Do Mild Pains During Pregnancy Mean? · Dr Dad | Most pregnant women experience mild pains from time to time throughout their pregnancy because their baby is growing every single day. Your body is adapting to these changes every single day among others. Cramping is as normal as they come, although you must be aware of the reason behind the mild pains. Here are the different reasons for mild pains during pregnancy.
Implantation causes mild pains during the first trimester.
They mostly occur around the time your period is due.
Due to the increased level of progesterone secreted in the body, the bowel muscles tend to stay at a relaxed stage.
This makes gas and bloating quite common, as the digestion process slows down.
Long-term bloating and gas could result in constipation, which is one of the first reasons why you could be experiencing mild pains in your abdomen.
You can control the bloating by increasing the intake of fiber-rich food, controlling your food portion by increasing the number of times you eat, and consumption of a lot of water.
Your uterus requires more blood around you that could build up some pressure around the uterus.
Resting or lying down can help you in relieving the pressure as well as the corresponding mild pain.
UTIs are mostly asymptomatic but they cause mild pain around the pelvic region.
You can identify it by the foul smell in your urine.
UTIs require proper treatment and medicine.
Conclusion
Mild pains during pregnancies are frequent and normal. The trick is to understand the cause behind the pain and consult the doctor accordingly.
Related Tags:
Stomach pain during pregnancy, 2nd trimester stomach pain during pregnancy, 3rd trimester period cramps during pregnancy, Third trimester how to ease abdominal pain during pregnancy, Left side pain during pregnancy, Second trimester lower abdominal pain in early pregnancy Low belly pain when pregnant first trimester, leg pain during pregnancy | https://medium.com/@parenthood7/what-do-mild-pains-during-pregnancy-mean-dr-dad-534b4f1a0e57 | [] | 2021-06-18 09:08:16.163000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Kids', 'Pregnancy', 'Children'] |
An Interview With Huang Hui-chen, the Director of Small Talk | A relationship between mother and daughter that was so stonewalled that it took 20 years and a camcorder to make a breakthrough- this was the subject of Huang Hui-chen’s first feature documentary film, Small Talk. Small Talk is one of two documentary films being screened at the Austin Asian American Film Festival’s Prismatic Taiwan (September 4–13), a virtual, six-film series celebrating the past and present of queer Taiwanese cinema. Hui-chen spoke candidly with me about this deeply personal film that she described as a letter to her mother. She also revealed what happened in the aftermath of the film, and the filmmaking advice that the legendary Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien gave her. Her film and personal story give hope to others dealing difficult parent-child relationships. Special thanks to the Austin Asian American Film Festival and Stacey Pai for providing translation.
To purchase tickets to watch Small Talk and learn about the other films featured in Prismatic Taiwan visit: www.aaafilmfest.org/ Talking Taiwan listeners will get $2 off when they use the code TALKING. The Prismatic Taiwan Queer Film Series, features six LGBTQ Taiwan films spanning from 1970 to 2016. You can watch all six films for under $15. To learn more Prismatic Taiwan check out last week’s episode, Episode 91.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
Hui-chen’s work as an activist
When she got interested in documentary filmmaking
How it took her so long (20 years) to make Small Talk into a movie that her mother and relatives didn’t think she’d actually be able to do it
into a movie that her mother and relatives didn’t think she’d actually be able to do it The footage of her nieces discussing whether their grandma (Hu-Chen’s mother) is a boy or a girl
How she got her mother to finally talk
How she got other family members and her mother’s girlfriends to talk in the film
The one person who she would have like to interview for the movie, but did not
How the film, Small Talk is like a letter to her mother
is like a letter to her mother Why Hui-chen’s husband doesn’t appear in the film
While Hui-chen’s now ex-husband doesn’t appear in Small Talk he will be in her next film which will be about the relationship between love and social activism
he will be in her next film which will be about the relationship between love and social activism Hui-chen’s mother’s reaction to the film after watching it
How Hui-chen’s mother’s reacted when Small Talk was screened at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards
was screened at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards How the film Small Talk has affected her and mother’s relationship with their relatives
has affected her and mother’s relationship with their relatives What was Hui-chen’s sister’s reaction to Small Talk
How the film Small Talk has affected Hui-chen’s relationship with her mother
has affected Hui-chen’s relationship with her mother How Hui-chen’s relatives reacted to and dealt with to her mother’s lesbianism
How Hou Hsiao-hsien took a leap of faith when he got involved and became the executive producer of Small Talk
What filmmaking advice Hou Hsiao-hsien gave her
How Hui-chen feels about Small Talk having been selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards
having been selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards Hui-chen’s book about her mother that reveals more that the film did not
Related Links:
PURCHASE tickets to watch Small Talk
LEARN More About Prismatic Taiwan and the September 5th live, virtual roundtable discussion event with Asian Cinevision and director Zero Chou, entitled “Creating Transnational Queer Asian Spaces”: https://www.aaafilmfest.org/prismatic-taiwan
Huang Hui-chen’s book, about her mother, 我和我的T媽媽 (available in Chinese):
https://readmoo.com/book/210085132000101
Austin Asian American Film Festival: https://www.aaafilmfest.org/
Austin Asian American Film Festival Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AAAFF/
Austin Asian American Film Festival on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaafilmfest/
Austin Asian American Film Festival on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AAAFF
Listen to Episode 92 an Interview With Huang Hui-chen by clicking HERE
LISTEN to Talking Taiwan on your preferred podcasting platform!
Apple Podcasts: Click HERE to Listen
Spotify: Click HERE to Listen
Stitcher: Click HERE to Listen
Google Podcasts: Click HERE to Listen
iHeartRADIO: Click HERE to Listen | https://medium.com/@felicialin/an-interview-with-huang-hui-chen-the-director-of-small-talk-e17e416856dc | ['Felicia Lin'] | 2020-09-03 20:51:17.634000+00:00 | ['Podcasting', 'Movies', 'Cinema', 'Taiwan', 'Film'] |
The Offer Sheet: NHL Bets for December 10th | Picks and preview for Friday’s slate
It came down to a flukey goal in OT, but Sebastian Aho gave us a 2–1 night last night with his OT winner in Calgary, both winners coming with plus odds. Very upset with myself, accidentally made my picks on the DeepDive account while posting their podcast last night so that account gets the credit on the site, but my gambling account grew so that’s what’s important here. A fun slate tonight including a -2.5 (!!!) puck line favorite. I’m getting my lines on FanDuel today. If you haven’t signed up with them yet you can do that HERE and get a risk free bet up to $1,000.
Rangers -1.5 (+128) vs Sabres
This line is dropping FAST so get it at this value while you can. I got it at +150 last night, it’s now at +128. I truly don’t understand this line. The Rangers lost their last time out to Colorado. They were on the 2nd end of a back-to-back and had to travel home. They played a very fresh Avalanche team that’s already the fastest team in the NHL and couldn’t keep up with tired legs. Before that though they’d won 7 straight games and 11 of 12. The Rangers are without Igor Shesterkin for a bit who’s been an early Vezina candidate, but their goaltending behind him is serviceable and Buffalo is just a really bad hockey team. Good team with plus puck line odds vs bad team, we take it every time.
Florida Panthers Alt. Line -2.5 (+124) vs Coyotes
There aren’t a ton of matchups I like laying the -2.5 with, but this is one of them. Arizona is one of the worst teams if not the worst team in hockey. They just can’t really score. They score just 1.76 goals per game while allowing 3.64 goals per game. I’ve never been shy about how high I am on Florida. They’re still my pick to win the Cup this year. The Panthers haven’t played in a few days so they’re going to be fresh. Sergei Bobrovsky has been one of the best goalies in hockey this year. The Panthers haven’t been a great road team this year, so that’s the one concern to be had, but I do think they’re that much better than the Coyotes.
Avalanche -2.5 (+128) vs Red Wings and OVER 6.5 (+102)
No folks, that’s not an Alt. Line. The Avs are -2.5 on the puck line tonight. I love that number and I’ll probably take the over 6.5 as well at +102 just because I think Colorado can score 6 tonight. The Red Wings just got boat-raced by the Blues in St. Louis tonight, had not the easiest of travel overnight to Denver, and now have to take the ice against the fastest team in the NHL and the highest powered offense as well. The Red Wings are a much improved team from recent years, but this is just a really bad spot for them. Colorado hasn’t scored less than 4 goals in their last 4 games. They’ve scored 23 goals total in that stretch good for 5.75 goals per game. Not sure which goaltender Detroit will go with tonight since Alex Nedeljkovic got pulled after 2 periods last night, but I’m not sure it matters. Let’s get nuts! | https://blog.fantasylifeapp.com/the-offer-sheet-nhl-bets-for-december-10th-3d8364df4e02 | ['Matt Rooney'] | 2021-12-10 16:49:24.650000+00:00 | ['Sports Betting', 'NHL'] |
The Budget Portable Monitor To Pay Attention To!! | The Budget Portable Monitor To Pay Attention To!!
Image: MTG Productions/YouTube
This is the Auzai 15.6” Portable Monitor and look, if you’re on a budget, this monitor is one to consider. I’ve been using this for the past month and especially for its price, it has impressed me!
For me, this monitor was all about gaming, and media consumption.
The Auzai Monitor features a 15.6 inch 1920 x 1080 IPS panel that is visually appealing. I thought the display wouldn’t be that good mainly to keep the costs down, but nope, I’m wrong. The IPS display delivers richer color that helps with eye-fatigue and I definitely second that. It also supports HDR videos as well as a built-in speaker for watching videos or playing games. The built-in speaker, however, doesn’t get too loud, but thankfully, you can set-up external speakers if needed. It’s good to know that the monitor also comes with a fair amount of ports such as two USB-C ports and a mini HDMI port.
This means that whether it’s a gaming system or by phone, you won’t have any issues with connecting to the monitor. Oh, and for those gamers or anyone looking for a high refresh rate display, I am sad to say that the monitor is capped at 60hz so no high refresh rate, but as I said earlier, the vibrancy on the screen still makes it fun to use. Instead of watching YouTube videos on my phone, I’ve been connecting my phone to the monitor via USB-C and have been consuming my media that way while I continue to write my voiceovers for my videos or other work for the channel. I like to have some background video going when I’m working so that I can also watch once in a while, and having a monitor like this one helps me get through that.
Image: MTG Productions/YouTube
What’s useful is that the monitor comes with a screen protector and protective case stand in the box. I’ve mainly been playing Call of Duty Mobile on this as it’s still the only mobile game I frequently play. I do have my Nintendo Switch and while I play Pokemon Sword on that, I still need to catch up on the Crown Tundra DLC which I’ll probably end up playing after the school semester ends. There is one issue that I came across when trying to connect my switch to the monitor. Turns out that I actually need the dock to connect my switch to the monitor and that ultimately kills the entire concept of a “portable monitor”.
Image: MTG Productions/YouTube
That is mainly why I’ve been using the monitor to connect to my phone and laptop. Anyway, it’s important to keep in mind that in the end, this is a budget monitor, so don’t expect like super high-quality gaming performance or anything like that.
All in all, though, playing games and watching YouTube videos for me was a delight!!
Oh, and one last thing to note; since it’s portable, you might be wondering how does it fit in a bag or if it’s light and no surprise here, but it fits perfectly fine in a bag and it’s super light. Carrying the monitor shouldn’t be a problem and hopefully, when things start to ease down, which hopefully they do, this monitor will become of more use especially during long flights, business meetings, or even long car rides. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/the-budget-portable-monitor-to-pay-attention-to-712b02972945 | ['Melih Gungor'] | 2020-12-13 15:44:19.235000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Tech', 'Gaming', 'Monitor', 'Technology'] |
How I Landed a Software Engineering Job with a Political Science Degree | 1 — Create a plan fueled by consistent habits
Learning anything new can be challenging and this was a problem I faced when I began to teach myself web development and cloud engineering.
If you look at everything you must learn with a big-picture mindset you will veer off track or get discouraged by the amount of ground that you must cover.
Analyze every aspect of what you are trying to learn as bite-sized pieces. Then take those bite-sized pieces and break them down into nano-sized pieces. From there we can begin to chip away at the nano-sized pieces of information one at a time.
This is why consistent habits are important. Schedule a set amount of time each day and start attacking each nano-sized topic that you’re trying to learn. If you replicate the same formula of consistent habits you will reap the benefits of compound learning. For me, this strategy made learning extremely difficult topics much easier.
It took me about two weeks to see the effects of compound learning but it completely enhanced the speed and depth by which I was able to learn to program. Learn, implement, repeat. There is no substitute for consistency, schedule out blocks of your time, eliminate all distractions, and train yourself to consistently focus on the topic at hand.
2 — Immerse yourself to grow
Programming languages are very similar to foreign languages. The only difference being, you practice programming languages by conversing with your computer through code, whereas with foreign languages, the best practice is done through interacting with people who speak the language that you aspire to learn.
Immersing myself was the single greatest accelerator of my programming skills. During my commute to work, I listened to podcasts about coding. During my lunch break, I watched youtube videos about coding. I read Medium stories involving coding tutorials and interacted with people via StackOverflow, to help them solve their coding challenges. Coding became embedded in my DNA because I constantly found ways to interact with it throughout my daily life.
One of my favorite YouTubers, Nathaniel Drew, taught himself to speak fluent Italian in 6 months. A large part of his growth can be credited to the fact that he lived in Italy during this time period. Nathaniel immersed himself and grew beyond the normal constraints of what is to be considered possible in a given timeframe. The key to agile growth is immersing yourself in whatever you want to learn. It could be programming, learning to speak Italian, or reading sheet music to become a better trombonist. Immersing yourself is a growth accelerator.
3 — Network, it matters
Once you have the skill, you must find an opportunity. Finding a job that will give you an opportunity in tech without a tech background or STEM degree is difficult. However, it is not impossible. The key is to accept a job that gets you closer to your goal without having taken any steps back.
My first job was in IT sales. This was by no means anything close to software engineering. Although it gave me access to engineering professionals, which ultimately assisted me in building a network of individuals who could vouch for my skills when the time was right.
When you are seeking a new career, your network is your net worth.
Because of my network, my first mentor found me. He’s a cybersecurity engineer, enterprise business consultant, and the author of “The Framework Life”. He helped me reconstruct my career plan into a tech-centric approach defined by descriptive goals and actionable steps towards my envisionment of success. If I wouldn’t have taken the IT sales job, I wouldn’t have met my mentor, and I wouldn’t be a software engineer today. It all started with building the right network. Focus on providing value to others, asking questions, and building friendships. The right people will take notice of your enthusiasm and get you closer to the decision-makers who are giving newcomers opportunities in tech. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/how-i-landed-a-software-engineering-job-with-a-political-science-degree-a4b53b058781 | [] | 2020-01-08 13:16:01.028000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Life Lessons', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Programming', 'Life'] |
Ultimate Designer’s Gift Guide 2020: Buy the Best Gifts for Designers for This Holiday — DesignXplorer | Ultimate Designer’s Gift Guide 2020: Buy the Best Gifts for Designers for This Holiday — DesignXplorer Akbar Shah Follow Nov 8 · 9 min read
Guys, the holiday season is around the corner, so are you ready for the gifts parade? We know it’s super easy to find gifts for anyone but tech geeks in your life. Yes, we’re talking about the hard-to-please graphic designers, UX designers, Web Designers, and all the other digital artists.
Now that we are here with a list of Best gifts for designers, you can stop squeezing your brain for ideas. We’ve covered some amazing holiday gift ideas that could turn your hard-to-please tech geeks dumbfounded.
So now that we’ve got your back, you can stop pulling your hair, relax, and read this post to find some cool Gifts For Designers. These are some thoughtful gifts for your creative partner, brother, friend, or colleague that you are planning to show your love for. We have categorized the gifts into different sections. Thus, you can easily scroll down and find a suitable category for your loved one.
Regardless of the digital artist you are shopping for, these unique ideas will boost your mood and make the gift parade more interesting!
Let’s go!
Nudge the Geek to Have Fun
This is your chance to pull your workaholic designer to the real world and make him/her enjoy these Best Gifts for Graphic Designers. Let them know they deserve much more than this, and there’s more to life. Shower them with these gifts and nudge them to have fun. Your recipients need reminders that the holiday season is around the corner!
Some of these gift ideas are not only fun but also productive. For example, the Polaroid Instant Film Camera is great to snap all the memories instantly. But that’s not all. This can be a cool add-on for the designer’s professional life. Some more gift ideas are as follows.
Fun Gift Ideas to Gift Designers: | https://medium.com/nyc-design/ultimate-designers-gift-guide-2020-buy-the-best-gifts-for-designers-for-this-holiday-674528991a78 | ['Akbar Shah'] | 2020-11-25 19:11:41.218000+00:00 | ['New York', 'UI', 'Gifts For Designers', 'Gift Ideas', 'Web Design'] |
Collaboration | Collected grief, the proof that others left inky sticky footprints on the heart; then rise into the next set of arms, the eyes lifting you from your reflecting on the ground, and what’s beneath it, scattered ashes.
There’s the Sherbrook bridge, stern, concrete, utilitarian: you use it to get to the other side, the Red rushes past.
There’s the square of cement where you made me dance, pull out an interpretive dance, hauling the sun over the tops of downtown, in my underwear. You cheered. You laughed. It was collaborative.
And underneath, where Jon and I ceaselessly celebrated our homeless version; but we were living with others at the time.
Stones, cars, acres of river mud, the cracked flats where we’d set off fireworks into Wellington. Well they can afford a few fires over there. Then the sudden darkness, the old library frowning down on us. Flee.
You only flee because there’s others; there’s this collaboration we’re working to, from, and get to belong. | https://medium.com/storymaker/collaboration-b094f88d8133 | ['J.D. Harms'] | 2020-12-23 16:19:52.380000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Collaboration', 'Image', 'Others'] |
11 Phrases Intelligent People Say Every Day (and So Should You) | CREDIT: Getty Images
Every success is based on action, but every action starts with a thought. That’s why every worthwhile accomplishment starts with a change in perspective, or a new connection, or a renewed sense of purpose and motivation.
And sometimes success starts with remembering what is important to you — and what you need to do, every day, to stay on the path to reaching your individual dreams.
That’s why smart people say these things every day, if only to themselves.
1. “No one else is willing to do that, so that’s what I will do.”
Often the easiest way to be different is to do the things other people are unwilling to do.
So pick one thing other people won’t do. It can be simple. It can be small. Doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, do it. You’ll instantly be a little different from the rest of the pack.
Then keep going. Every day think of one thing to do that no one else is willing to do.
After a week you’ll be uncommon. After a month you’ll be special. After a year you’ll be incredible, and you definitely won’t be like anyone else. (And, in the process, you will develop remarkable mental toughness.)
2. “I will answer the question that wasn’t asked.”
Sometimes people are hesitant. Sometimes they’re insecure. Sometimes they’re shy. Whatever the reason, sometimes people will ask a different question than the one they really want you to answer.
One employee might ask whether you think he should take a few college courses. What he really wants to know is whether you see him as able to grow in your organization; he hopes you’ll say you do and he hopes you’ll share the reasons why.
Your spouse might ask if you thought the person at the party was flirting with them. What he or she really wants to know is if you still think they’re flirt-worthy and attractive; they hope you’ll say you do, and will love when you share the reasons why.
Behind many questions is an unasked question.
Pay attention so you can answer that question too, because that is the answer the other person doesn’t just want but needs.
3. “Hey, that wasn’t so bad after all.”
The most paralyzing fear is fear of the unknown. (At least it is for me.)
Yet nothing ever turns out to be as hard or as scary as we think. Plus, it’s incredibly exciting to overcome a fear. You get that “I can’t believe I just did that!” rush, a thrill you may not have experienced for a long time.
Every day do something a little scary, whether physically or emotionally. (If you need a quick boost of confidence to get you going, here are some really simple tricks to use.)
Then, trust that you will figure out how to overcome any problems that arise.
Because you will.
4. “I can’t do everything today, but I will take one small step.”
You have plans. You have goals. You have ideas.
Who cares? You have nothing until you actually do something.
Every day we let hesitation and uncertainty stop us from acting on our ideas. Pick one plan, one goal, or one idea. And get started. Just take one small step.
The first step is by far the hardest. Every successive step will be a lot easier.
5. “I should just be quiet.”
I used to talk a lot. I thought I was insightful and clever and witty, and, well, a real hoot.
Occasionally, very occasionally, I might even have been one of those things.
Most of the time I was not.
Truly confident people don’t feel the need to talk. While I hate when it happens, I still sometimes realize I’m not talking because the other person is interested in what I have to say, but because I’m interested in what I have to say. (Ick.)
Never speak just to please yourself. When you do, you please no one. (And, unlike these folks, you won’t be particularly likable.)
6. “I won’t care what other people may think.”
Most of the time, we should worry about what other people think — but not if it stands in the way of living the lives we really want to live.
If you really want to start a business — which you can do in just a few hours, mind you — but you’re worried that people might say you’re crazy, do it anyway. Pick one thing you haven’t tried because you’re concerned about what other people think or say, and just go do it.
It’s your life. Live it your way.
7. “I’ll show you.”
I’m ashamed to admit it, but one of the best ways to motivate me is to insult me — or for me to manufacture a way to feel insulted, regardless of whether I’m actually justified in feeling that way or not.
“Justified” is not the point. Fueling my motivation to do whatever it takes to prove that person wrong, and, more important, to achieve what I want to achieve, is all that matters.
Call it artificial competition or manufactured anger; call it childish and immature; call it creating perceived insults — whatever you call it, it works for me. (Hey, it was good enough for Michael Jordan.)
And it can work for you.
8. “It’s not perfect, and I’m fine with that.”
Yes, you get only one chance to make a first impression. Yes, perfection is the only acceptable outcome.
Unfortunately, no product or service is ever perfect, and no project or initiative is perfectly planned. Work hard, do great work, and let it go. Your customers and colleagues will tell you what needs to be improved, and that means you’ll get to make improvements that actually matter to people.
You can’t accomplish anything until you let go. Do your best, let go, and then trust that you’ll work hard to overcome any shortcomings.
9. “I should have done better.”
We’ve all screwed up. We all have things we could have done better. Words. Actions. Omissions. Failing to step up, step in, or be supportive.
Successful people don’t expect to be perfect, but they do think they can always be better.
So think back on your day. Think about what went well. Then think about what didn’t go as well as it could have and take ownership. Take responsibility.
And promise yourself that tomorrow you will do a lot better.
10. “I will recognize a person who doesn’t get enough recognition.”
Some jobs require more effort than skill. Delivering packages, bagging groceries, checking out customers — the tasks themselves are relatively easy. The difference is in the effort.
So do more than say a reflexive “thanks” to someone who does a thankless job. Smile. Make eye contact. Exchange a kind word.
All around you are people who work hard with little or no recognition. Vow to be the person who recognizes at least one of them every day.
Not only will you give respect, you’ll earn the best kind of respect — the respect that comes from making a difference, however fleeting, in another person’s life.
11. “If nothing else, I can always do more.”
Like Jimmy Spithill, skipper of America’s Cup-winning Team Oracle USA, says, “Rarely have I seen a situation where doing less than the other guy is a good strategy.”
You may not be as experienced, as well funded, as well connected, or as talented, but you can always outthink, outhustle, and outwork everyone else. (Or, as I like to say,the extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland.)
Even when everything else seems stacked against you, effort and persistence can still be your competitive advantages — and they may be the only advantages you truly need.
Originally Published on Inc.com
Check out my book of personal and professional advice, TransForm: Dramatically Improve Your Career, Business, Relationships, and Life — One Simple Step At a Time. (PDF version here, Kindle version here, Nook version here.)
If after 10 minutes you don’t find at least 5 things you can do to make your life better I’ll refund your money.
That way you have nothing to lose… and everything to gain. | https://medium.com/marketing-and-entrepreneurship/11-phrases-intelligent-people-say-every-day-and-so-should-you-6eda26ea3e52 | ['Jeff Haden'] | 2016-11-04 11:15:58.914000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Love'] |
American Streets Are Incomplete | Do you ever find yourself walking down a sidewalk in a city, and when you look to cross the street, suddenly find yourself filled with fear at the prospect of crossing six lanes of traffic?
If so, you’re not the only one.
Traditional roadway designs in the United States have often ignored or downplayed the needs of street users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Instead of taking into account all citizens, streets and street design have traditionally been all about getting as much traffic through a city area as quickly as possible.
Because of this, bike lanes, sidewalks and street crossing were always an afterthought. 30 years ago, bike lanes were hard to find, and in some areas sidewalks and road crossings were barely adequate to support anyone who wanted to walk anywhere.
Some could argue that everyone drives anyway. But this argument doesn’t take into account the self-fulfilling prophecy of designing ONLY for cars: If the streets aren’t set up for walking, biking, or riding transit, people can’t be blamed for not choosing those forms of transportation.
When you have a major highway or interstate blocking your path, I wouldn’t blame anyone for being a little scared to cross it.
The Complete Streets Movement
In the last few decades, a movement has materialized that aims to put streets within a wider context of use. Instead of viewing them as thruways for car traffic, freight delivery, and commerce, streets are increasingly being seen as urban space that is shared by everyone.
People are calling this new design framework “Complete Streets,” and many municipalities and counties across the United States are beginning to greenlight and implement projects under that name.
This has manifested itself in many different ways, from total street overhauls to new laws that mandate the addition of bike lanes on upgraded streets, something that has now been instituted in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So far, over 1500 Complete Streets policies have been adopted by the state and local governments in the United States. This includes 35 state governments as well as the District of Columbia.
All this information and more is provided in the Complete Streets Policy Atlas published by Smart Growth America, one of the country’s leading advocates for complete streets policies and projects. You can find a link to the policy atlas below:
The interactive atlas provides a full map of complete streets policies that have been passed in the United States. Location data is provided along with a legend that identifies complete streets plans by different designations, including resolutions, laws/ordinances, plans, and design manuals/guides.
As is shown in the policy atlas, the majority of these policies are resolutions, followed in second by official policies. 280 of them are legislation, which is a good sign that at least a few communities want to require these types of street design measures and give cities the power to enforce them.
We know that the ideas behind complete streets have caught on with local government, but some still may be wondering why complete streets are important. To understand why they are, let’s look at a few elements of complete streets.
What Makes A Street Complete?
One example of a complete street design
A complete street in one area can be completely different from a complete street in another area. This is because complete streets are context-dependent, changing due to the needs of the street users in that area.
A complete street in a dense urban area could be very different from one in a rural area, for example. In the urban area, the city may implement things like protected bike lanes, bollards, bus-only lanes, and pedestrian refuges. In a rural area, a complete street might only include a bike lane and an improved sidewalk.
That’s the thing with complete streets — It all depends. The point isn’t to require that every street has a strict list of elements as part of it, but that we include everyone that will potentially use that street in its design.
Because complete streets is such a broad concept, it allows the idea to seep into all sorts of discussions surrounding street infrastructure and urban design. Complete streets is part of ideas about commuting networks and public transportation routes, as well as a key talking point in how cities are organized and laid out from the ground up.
To me, the future goal is to get to a place where our communities offer people the option to transport themselves safely by any form they want. If they’d like to walk, they will have sidewalks and safe pedestrian crossings. If they want to bike, they will have a protected bike lane that will buffer them from fast-moving cars.
This will all work together as part of town centers and larger cities that offer the surrounding community the ability to access retail, work, and commercial areas by any form of transportation.
With complete streets and street design in general, the discussion goes on. What would you like to see as part of your community’s streets? Comment below if you have an idea. | https://medium.com/modern-city/american-streets-are-incomplete-55aec0921d79 | ['Eric Carlson'] | 2020-05-29 14:06:01.235000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Government', 'Urban Planning', 'Bikes', 'Cities'] |
Creating Playlists out of Setlists from Chris Cornell’s Live History | Two years ago, I visited the Tate in London to view the Robert Rauschenberg retrospective and by the end of it I was in tears. A retrospective gives you a linear perspective on the successes and failures of any artist and it was clear by the end that Bob had so much more to say. I was especially touched by how he revisited some of his initial concepts in his final compositions. He knew what he loved. Robert died at the age of 82.
I remember hearing Black Hole Sun for the first time like it was yesterday. I was stunned. Chris Cornell. That voice. Fucking hell. I was hooked and Soundgarden was a welcome addition to my sister and I’s early 90’s alternative repertoire. I followed Chris’ career from Soundgarden to Audioslave and consumed his solo efforts as well. I was numb when I heard of Chris’ death last year. Every year it feels like we’re losing more friends, family, and inspirations to the plague of depression. For someone who loves art and music, losing someone like Chris at such a young age is a sobering reality of the fragility of life and art. Both can come to a halt in an instance.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1–800–273–8255.
Since Chris’ passing, he has been celebrated in many ways. Recently, a bronze statue of Chris was unveiled in his hometown of Seattle and there will be a Tribute Concert in Los Angeles next year. In addition, a massive retrospective of his career has become available covering work from Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Audioslave, and solo efforts.
I was tasked with coming up with a simple idea that could pay respect to Chris’ life as an artist while revisiting intimate connections between he and his fans. Chris was a rock legend and being part of multiple projects means he toured a lot. There is nothing quite as intimate as the relationship a fan and artist forge via a live performance. His gigography serves as a sort of physical memory of where he walked among us through the years. I shared these thoughts with my cohort Harold Gutierrez and asked him to come up with a single sentence on what we should build. Harold sent back the following:
Find the setlist from Chris Cornell shows you attended and create a playlist in your Spotify or Apple Music library.
I loved it. The setlist, an arrangement of songs chosen by the artist for your night, is a perfect memory fragment to remind us of that moment spent together. Let’s convert it to a modern format you can take around and make it easy to do so. Check it out here and read on to find out how we tackled it.
Setlists and Songs | https://leemartin.medium.com/creating-playlists-out-of-setlists-from-chris-cornells-live-history-e8c83d87fed6 | ['Lee Martin'] | 2018-12-10 14:43:20.521000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Concerts', 'Music', 'Programming', 'Design'] |
Infographic Blog Post- Ana Soler | Data Source: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHDetailedTabs2017/NSDUHDetailedTabs2017.htm#tab9-2B
Data Chart on Google Sheets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aKPpLQgtM9KC1ZWNuBNgxwpscfHhGh9JfiPQtS4zdT4/edit?usp=sharing
The data from the chart is from a 2017 survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association about different mental health services and what percentage of different ages, races/ethnicities, and genders of adolescents that responded the survey. The age groups are separated as 12–13, 14–15, and 16–17. The races/ethnicities were listed as not Hispanic or Latino, White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Two or More Races, and Hispanic or Latino.
The services were separated into 2 categories: Specialty and Non-Specialty. Those categories are separated into subcategories. For Specialty, there’s outpatient (meaning therapy that is done routinely for a specific period of time) and inpatient or residential (therapy that is a longer stay, even overnight especially from a mental hospital). For Non-Specialty, there’s education (therapy done through school or a behavioral program in an education institute), general medicine (therapy done through a family doctor of some kind), juvenile justice (therapy through a prison of some kind, like a juvenile detention center), and child welfare (therapy received in foster care).
What I got from the data is that when it comes to specialty mental health services, the percentages of whites, mixed races, and non-Hispanics are much higher than minorities like Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, and Black/African Americans. That makes sense to me because in the culture of those minorities, therapy is seen as something only for “crazy” people. It is very much a cliché in the communities, compared to whites. The thing that confused me a bit was that the highest percentage was mixed race teenagers, which is interesting. I think there should be a specific methodology to how many people did they interview were mixed race and what that the two or more races of the students are. For non-specialty, it is the opposite: minorities have a higher percentage, since those programs (schools, foster care, and prison programs) are more affordable and sometimes they aren’t something voluntary that you choose like the specialty programs are.
I also got from the age portion that the older teenagers (16–17) are more inclined to go to therapy than younger teenagers (12–15), especially with specialized services. What’s interesting is the youngest teenager group (12–13) sometimes have larger percentages when it comes to non-specialized services.
Lastly, when it comes to gender, females have a larger percentage than males and it keeps increasing as opposed to the decreasing male percentages for both specialty and non-specialty services.
All in all, the percentages are very low, with the largest percentage in the whole chart being only 20% so I can see that so little of respondents actually seek mental health services which should change because mental health in teens is a very big problem in our society especially when it comes to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc.
Infographics (Photos Below): | https://medium.com/fiu-news-visualization/infographic-blog-post-ana-soler-21450ab4c7cf | ['Ana Soler'] | 2020-10-03 14:04:15.542000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Infographics', 'Vic4001', 'Mental Health'] |
Best Weight Loss Tips and Tricks! | Weight Loss Secret Ways Based on Science
These are bits and pieces of tips, tricks, tips and tricks that we have found helpful when trying to lose weight or maintain weight and establish a healthier diet. These are the secrets you can use in your personal wellness program to help you shed fat and strive to reduce it. You will learn which activities burn calories, even when you are not exercising, and which ones speed up the fat burning process.
Diet and exercise actually cause muscle loss, which means your metabolism will develop in the opposite direction. In turn, this means that you burn more calories at rest, because your body needs more energy to maintain high-quality muscle mass than fat. Muscle burns more calories than resting fat, so the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism.
This means that after you build your muscles, you will probably have to eat more in order to maintain your weight (wah). So, if you overeat but exercise hard, there is a better chance that those extra calories will go towards building muscle rather than storing fat. Stimulating muscle growth and optimal calorie burning, combined with adequate food intake, will promote optimal fat burning and muscle growth, or at least storage.
Building muscles can help your body burn more calories throughout the day, but in the long run, you may also need to do more aerobic exercise. When you exercise regularly, it can sometimes be more difficult to find a proper balance between diet and exercise so that you can lose excess weight without affecting your training.
For many of us, diets are not very effective, and some people find that making small changes in the way they eat each day leads to greater success, even if weight loss is slower. You can gain weight by eating too healthy and unhealthy foods. On the other hand, you may not be eating enough, as cutting your calorie intake too much can also be counterproductive to achieving your weight loss goals.
Many studies on low-calorie diets that provide less than 1,000 calories per day have shown that they can cause muscle loss and a significant slowing of metabolism. This is why when it comes to long-term weight loss, a fad diet is impossible. It once again proves that weight loss should not only focus on calorie deficiency. All of this, coupled with insufficient physical activity and fatigue-related eating habits (more alcohol and fast food), are all causes of weight gain.
Many people choose calorie-burning workouts like HIIT classes when they want to lose weight. This is great for cardio and will also help you burn off the extra calories you consumed early in the day. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even if you are inactive. Building muscle, whether you are a man or a woman, requires additional calories.
You can reach a deficit by eating fewer calories and exercising. A moderate calorie deficit of 300–500 calories per day should induce fat loss in most people. If you’re starting to lose weight too quickly (over 3 pounds a week), add extra healthy calories or cut back on your cardio exercise.
Bonus 3 ebook download( FREE DOWNLOAD)
Although your eating habits are more likely to cause weight gain or loss than exercise, don’t ignore the powerful benefits of daily exercise. Exercise burns calories. There is no doubt that exercise is important to overall health, but it is not the key to weight loss. Organized exercise is important, but general activity can also greatly help burn calories. In winter or summer, this is an easy way to get more benefits from regular fat-burning walking.
It may seem daunting at first glance, but with good planning, you can actually eat more food at home and benefit from it. In a study of 40,554 French adults published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in February 2017, participants who self-reported that “at least occasionally” planned meals were less likely to be obese and more likely to have healthy eating. …Arranging your meals weekly, instead of daily meals, will help you stay on track. It is best to stick to a healthy diet on non-fasting days and avoid overeating.
If someone wants to lose weight, he must know about everything that he eats and drinks every day. A common tendency among people who have successfully lost weight is to monitor not what they eat, but how much they eat.
The bottom line is that there really isn’t any difference in behavior from starting to lose weight and maintaining weight loss, except perhaps adjusting exercise and calories while losing weight to keep weight in check.
Continuous strength training can improve posture, ensure that your body maintains all-round exercise during the golden age, and burn fat for a long time after you leave the gym. However, core exercise is still essential because it improves posture and balance, prevents injuries, and allows you to lift heavier weights (thus burning more fat and calories and getting rid of the buffer layer). So, whether you want to lose weight, gain weight, or simply build strength, comprehensive exercise is essential to achieve your goals. We hope that through slow weight loss, adequate protein intake and resistance training, we can preserve as much muscle tissue as possible while losing weight.
Stay active … eat fewer calories than you burn, and be sure to include healthy fats that saturate your appetite, nourish your body and mind, and promote balanced blood sugar. As mentioned in this guide, you need to consume a balanced diet of low-GI complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats in order to maintain a consistently high energy and metabolic rate. It is true that the types of foods you eat can affect your metabolic profile over time, which is why they can make a difference as well, but when it is reduced, following any calorie-restricted diet creates the energy deficit needed to lose weight.
There has been so much emphasis lately that a calorie deficit is the only thing people need to do to lose weight or fat — which means you need to burn more calories than you consume. In the absence of a medical condition that causes weight gain or prevents weight loss, the secret to losing weight is to lead a lifestyle in which you consume fewer calories than you burn. Research has confirmed this dichotomy by contrasting exercise with diet and finding that participants tended to lose more weight with diet alone than with exercise alone. “In terms of body weight,” adds Marion Nestle, Ph.D. from New York University, “a calorie is a calorie, no matter where it comes from.
“You can overeat any food, be it carbohydrates, fats or proteins,” says Terry. The total number of calories consumed also contributes to weight gain or loss, as well as the total number of calories consumed each day. From this formula, we can see that the best way to lose fat and minimize muscle loss is to do strength training and cardio while in a small calorie deficit.
Bonus 3 ebook download( FREE DOWNLOAD)
Thank you (Please FOLLOW to My Page)
Best Regard
David | https://medium.com/@yannyeinaung86/best-weight-loss-tips-what-is-your-fat-loss-secret-71efb7172329 | [] | 2021-12-30 08:53:51.757000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Weightloss Recipe', 'Fitness', 'Weightloss Foods', 'Weight Loss Tips'] |
The Evolution of the Coronavirus | By James Hamblin
In the final, darkest days of the deadliest year in U.S. history, the world received ominous news of a mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Scientists in the U.K. had identified a form of the virus that was spreading rapidly throughout the nation. Then, on January 4, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown that began almost immediately and will last until at least the middle of February. “It’s been both frustrating and alarming to see the speed with which the new variant is spreading,” he said in an address, noting that “our scientists have confirmed this new variant is between 50 and 70 percent more transmissible” than previous strains.
Those figures, based on an early estimate by British government scientists in late December, made for terrifying push alerts and headlines. Though this strain of the virus (officially called “B.1.1.7”) quickly became known as “the U.K. variant,” it has already been found in 45 countries, suggesting that the opportunity to contain it with travel restrictions has passed. On January 8, Australia locked down Brisbane, a city of 2.3 million people, after discovering a single case.
Each day, B.1.1.7 is being found in more people in more places, including all around the United States. Experts have raised dire warnings that a 70 percent more transmissible form of the virus would overwhelm already severely stretched medical systems. Daily deaths have already tripled in recent months, and the virus is killing more than 3,000 Americans every day. From a purely mathematical perspective, considering exponential growth, a significantly more transmissible strain could theoretically lead to tens of thousands of daily deaths, with hospital beds lining sidewalks and filling parking lots.
To make matters worse, the warnings from Britain were followed by headlines about yet another variant, B.1.351, in South Africa. Then another concerning variant was identified in Brazil. News reports speculated that these strains may resist vaccines. Some experts cautioned that the mutations could render current treatments less effective. Scott Gottlieb, the former director of the FDA, said last week: “The South Africa variant is very concerning right now because it does appear that it may obviate some of our medical countermeasures, particularly the antibody drugs.” On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci echoed that concern, calling the variant “disturbing.”
These new variants demand to be taken seriously. Skyrocketing case counts in the U.K. suggest a potential to do enormous damage, and the identification of B.1.1.7 in so many countries is noteworthy. Still, we don’t yet know whether either variant will become as dominant worldwide as they have in their respective countries. They might spread widely and cause tremendous harm. They might also do neither.
The sheer scale and capacity of this virus are challenging many things we thought we knew, but the basic laws governing its evolution are not among them. All viruses are constantly evolving and changing, just as human populations are. When a virus is spreading as widely and rapidly as SARS-CoV-2, spinning through trillions of generations each minute, adaptation is inevitable. The transmissibility of the virus will change. The severity of the disease it causes will change. Its ability to evade our immune system will change. It very well may evolve to circumvent our current vaccines.
Thanks to genetic-sequencing technology, we can watch this evolution in real time. We can see the changes in a virus’s genes before we even know what they mean for the spread of disease. Charting the course of this evolution, and assessing its significance, has quickly become a foremost challenge of the pandemic. The peril is not that the virus will suddenly change in an extraordinary way that transforms the pandemic, but that it is changing in small, ordinary ways that are playing out on a vast scale, and whose significance we may not appreciate until it’s too late.
Almost exactly a year ago, in January of 2020, a flight attendant warned the renowned Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen: It was time to turn off all portable electronic devices. He was sitting with his phone to his ear. On the other end of the line, his Australian collaborator Eddie Holmes was pleading with him to publish the genetic code of the novel coronavirus.
The Chinese government had forbidden this. Yongzhen was torn. The world did not yet know the cause of the rapidly spreading respiratory infection, and he seemed to have uncovered it in a sample of sputum from a severely ill person in Wuhan. Using genomic sequencing to unravel the code of the virus, he had found what appeared to be the blueprint of a new coronavirus.
He told Holmes to publish the code. When Holmes did so on Twitter, the international scientific community pounced. Within days, researchers in Thailand were able to verify that the same virus had infected patients there. Scientists at the U.S. National Institutes of Health began to work on a vaccine. The code became the backbone of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which owe their development to the speedy identification and sharing of the genome.
The exact sequence that Holmes tweeted is now a relic. The virus it represented is gone, replaced by many, many, many subsequent generations. New lineages have arisen in different parts of the world, and hundreds of thousands of slightly different sequences have been added to an international database. There are now thousands of unique SARS-CoV-2 genomes, each the result of myriad permutations of mutations in the code. There is no single, standard genetic code for this coronavirus, any more than there is a standard human genome.
“The term variant is misleading, in that it creates the idea that all the other viruses are the same,” explains Ramon Lorenzo Redondo, a genomic analyst at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Technically, every version of the virus is a variant. Even within a single person, the virus changes and evolves many times. If you were to have your bodily fluids sequenced on different days, the viral strains would show new mutations. “Viruses operate as a cloud of mutants — a swarm of mutants,” Redondo told me.
This is not a flaw in the system, but rather the way viruses work. When it comes to reproduction, viruses are sloppy. The speed and scale of their replication come at the cost of accuracy; they operate like a spam email marketing scheme, favoring inundation over meticulous grammar. Insofar as a virus can be said to have a “goal,” the goal is to ensure as many future generations as possible. To that end, it fires off shotgun blasts of imperfect clones, gambling that a few will make their way to other cells and penetrate them.
Almost all of these accidental mutations are inconsequential: The virus still looks and functions just as its parent before it did. Over time, though, sets of mutations can layer on top of one another and accumulate, and the virus begins to function differently. Some of these differences confer an advantage of one sort or another — for example, increased transmissibility.
“What we’re observing is very expected,” Paul Turner, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, told me. “If a population can improve in its environment, evolution lets that happen. The virus population size is expanding, and mutations spontaneously occur.”
Although it’s not news that the virus has mutated, it’s extremely important to keep an eye on the general direction of the changes — and what they mean for the humans whose cells are being hijacked. “If you see a mutation that could allow the virus to escape detection by the immune system, or escape vaccine coverage, that’s very worrisome,” Turner said. “We don’t have evidence of that yet.”
The likelihood of these scenarios depends on a few factors. Some viruses mutate more readily than others: Influenza mutates so quickly that new strains spread around the world each year, requiring the creation of new vaccines. Measles, by contrast, mutates slowly, so people who were vaccinated decades ago are very likely still protected. “Coronaviruses typically don’t mutate very quickly,” Turner said. “I don’t see any evidence that this coronavirus is going to suddenly become like influenza. But right now there are so many people infected, and the virus is in a new environment [humans instead of bats], so I’m not surprised that evolution is pushing it to improve.”
In the long run, he believes, the spread of this coronavirus will more closely resemble measles than flu. Although we may need to update our vaccines occasionally, we won’t need to do so every year. But as long as rates of infection remain high, the coronavirus is likely to acquire, over months or years, the ability to at least partially bypass our immune responses. Second-time infections may be less severe, but their severity also depends on how the virus evolves. And we may develop immunity to one variant but not to another.
In anticipation of such complexities, Redondo and others have been creating and updating phylogenetic maps — essentially, family trees — for this coronavirus. Groups with a common ancestor are referred to as a “lineage.” A lineage is something like a human family: different individuals sharing a common ancestor. (B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 are separate lineages that evolved similar changes in their spike protein independently.)
Genetic commonalities can also define broader groups called “clades.” Last spring, a clade known as D614G came to dominate the world. This was attributed to a mutation in the spike protein that made this group more transmissible than previous strains. And this was just one part of a family tree that’s now more like a forest. “The two first clades that were defined have disappeared,” Redondo said. Right now five major clades are jockeying for dominance, he said, but the picture is constantly shifting.
The emergence of a new clade can be as difficult to predict as any rise to global domination. Obsolescence and dominance are determined by the qualities of the lineages, the characteristics of the host populations, and the legacies of previous microbial invaders. The fact that a lineage or clade is dominant in one place, within one group of humans, does not mean it will be in others. So far, the U.K. and South African variants are dominating local surges, but they are not expansive enough to be considered clades. The South African variant, for example, accounts for about 90 percent of the genetic sequences analyzed in the country, but remains a minor player elsewhere.
Similarly, the B.1.1.7 variant was identified in the U.K. in September, yet so far dominates only one geographic region. Although genomic testing in the U.S. is relatively sparse, “we’re doing enough sequencing that we know it’s not that common in the U.S.,” says Nathan Grubaugh, a microbial epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. “This variant doesn’t seem to be more than 1 or 2 percent of cases at the moment. It’s here, and it’s very widespread, but it’s low in frequency. I think, for the most part, this is true globally.”
For now, these variants may be thought of like weeds in a garden. They have shown that they have the capacity to take over in some areas. There is a plausible mechanism that could allow them to do so elsewhere: Both the U.K. and South African variants share a mutation that manifests as a subtle change in a key site where the virus binds to human cells. But weeds take over for many reasons, and sometimes they have more to do with the garden than the weed. Human populations vary in so many ways — behaviorally, genetically, immunologically, geographically, environmentally — that the degree to which a regional surge in cases is due to a change in the virus itself is extremely difficult to discern. And that leads to some uncertainty. “We may have it wrong in the end, [and] it’s not actually more transmissible,” Grubaugh told me. “It seems to be, but we may have been fooled.”
Even if these variants are indeed as transmissible as the rising case numbers suggest, transmissibility is only one determinant of a virus’s overall potential to do harm. Sometimes viruses become more transmissible but ultimately less dangerous. And of course, each new variant is but an intermediate step toward some other form of the virus. The real challenge is understanding how any given change fits into all of these larger patterns, and what that means for us.
The plot of Michael Crichton’s 1969 novel, The Andromeda Strain, hinges on an extraterrestrial microorganism that “mutates” its way out of containment. A similar narrative device drives the film Outbreak, in which a bleed-from-the-eyes virus suddenly becomes airborne. What amounts to a lazy screenwriting cliché has loaded the word mutation with such horrifying subtext that it’s almost unusable. The process of viral evolution is much subtler, and requires a careful eye to detect. That subtlety is what makes it dangerous.
There are two basic ways that a coronavirus can become more transmissible. One is by binding more effectively to human cells. When this happens, a person who inhales viral particles becomes slightly more likely to develop an infection. The other is by replicating more efficiently, creating higher numbers of viral particles (higher “viral load”) in an infected person, so that they exhale more particles with each breath (making it statistically more likely that one of the particles will infect someone else). If a breath contains 10 percent more viral particles, it is that much more likely that one will land in someone else’s nose.
It’s unclear whether one or both of these mechanisms are at play in the U.K. and South African lineages, but we know their effects can be complex. If a person is carrying a much higher viral load, for example, they may get sick more quickly. That sounds bad — and it certainly is for that person. But a shorter asymptomatic period could ultimately make the virus easier to contain. This was the case with the first SARS coronavirus, in 2003 (SARS-CoV-1), which caused a more severe disease than SARS-CoV-2 does, but killed far fewer people in total because each case was identifiable.
By the same token, this coronavirus could evolve to cause a somewhat less severe illness — something slightly closer to that caused by the other four endemic coronaviruses. The common cold is extremely transmissible, yet rarely fatal. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective: Viruses that kill their hosts are less likely to become dominant than those that don’t. “It could be that transmissibility correlates with being ‘kinder’ to your host,” Turner said. “We’ve observed that in other realms of virus evolution.” Natural selection would, hypothetically, favor the versions that leave people feeling well enough to be out and about, spreading the virus to other hosts.
Major changes in the severity of the disease — in either direction — are unlikely, but the scale at which this virus is operating means that small differences in things like transmissibility are amplified, and can manifest as significant changes in how many people get sick. Experts widely agree that playing it safe in the coming weeks is prudent. Oliver Pybus, a professor of evolution and infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, emphasizes that understanding why B.1.1.7 took over the U.K. “is extremely scientifically difficult.” He has been at the forefront of identifying and tracking the variant, but says huge questions remain unanswered. “There’s still considerable uncertainty as to the long-term consequences” of B.1.1.7, Pybus told me. “We don’t even know whether this lineage truly originated in the U.K., with so many countries not doing this surveillance.”
Though much of the world is now on alert for this particular variant, Pybus said that very few places are sequencing genomes as comprehensively as the U.K. is. In some places, institutions are sampling but not sharing findings in the public domain. Both elements are crucial. Testing with PCR or antigen tests alone is no longer sufficient. Positive tests must be followed by analyses of the genomes of the virus. The more genomes we have, the more effectively we can identify anomalous patterns, both to raise alarms early and to avoid raising false ones.
The U.S. is especially far behind the U.K. in this regard. Without a baseline level of genomic surveillance, Yale’s Grubaugh told me, we do not know if a city like New York would be as devastated by B.1.1.7 as London has been. The forecast for any given variant depends on context that we lack. “I don’t think any one state is doing enough sequencing yet,” Grubaugh said. “Sequencing is the most important thing. We don’t have a big organized project like in the U.K. What we have is a bunch of individual labs, mostly at academic medical centers.” Sporadic sequencing is arguably as bad as none at all, in that it can fail to represent how and why variants are spreading. And focusing too narrowly on hunting one particular variant can mean failing to notice other, possibly more consequential warning signs.
The hunt for any one variant also introduces selection bias, making it hard to know if the variant is truly spreading more readily than others, or if we are just looking harder for it. After finding a person carrying B.1.1.7 in New York last week, for example, state health officials sequenced the genomes of nearby cases — an approach that is likely to find a disproportionate number of B.1.1.7 cases. Without constant, widespread surveillance testing, Pybus said, it’s difficult to discern an accurate overall picture.
“The field of genomic epidemiology is going through its adolescence in public, developing in full view of the most extraordinary event of the century,” Pybus told me. The ability to identify new viral lineages before we even understand how they will affect people may allow epidemiologists to warn of consequential variants — but may undermine their credibility when strains don’t prove as dangerous as headlines predict.
Even if we cannot contain this particular variant, we’re learning from its spread. Preventing more virulent strains from becoming dominant — when they inevitably do arise — may be possible if we can track genomic patterns more widely, so that we have the context needed to determine whether a strain is indeed uniquely dangerous. If we can take steps to contain a new threat early enough, it may never become widespread. If we miss these opportunities, we risk repeating the kind of mistake that allowed the original SARS-CoV-2 strain to escape China in the first place.
Last week, Eddie Holmes reflected on the fateful moment when he tweeted the virus’s original genetic code. It was a moment of triumph for collaborative science, but the work was just beginning. The triumph must be repeated daily. “What worries me most of all is if politics gets in the way of data sharing and science,” he told Medscape. “Step one has to be immediate, rapid, open data sharing. Speed is of the essence in a pandemic. Any barrier to working together makes this a much less safe world. That should be the lesson of this outbreak.”
The changing genetic code of the coronavirus will not nullify our fundamental strategies for ending the pandemic. With better data, we can keep our vaccines and antibody treatments up to date and our shutdown measures as minimal as possible, and we can sever any ominous new chains of transmission. The spread of new variants is a stark reminder that we all have an immediate part to play in this. If you carry the virus, it will mutate within you. You could be the person in whom a new, even more threatening variant emerges. You could seed the entire world with it. But no matter how the virus mutates, the same basic preventive measures — the unglamorous ones we’ve been lectured about for nearly a year — will still have the power to ensure that you don’t. | https://medium.com/the-atlantic/the-evolution-of-the-coronavirus-4bb1e1ebc16b | ['James Hamblin'] | 2021-01-15 19:41:25.380000+00:00 | ['Genetics', 'Science', 'Coronavirus', 'Pandemic'] |
I will generate a responsive business website with wordpress and elementor pro | I will generate a responsive business website with wordpress and elementor pro Ittyhadul Islam ·Dec 22, 2020
★ Are You Looking to Create a complete WordPress website with responsive design and elementor pro?
★ Do you want a business website / product website?
You have come to the right place.
What I services provide
====================
➤ Make Website with Responsiveness
➤ WordPress Speed Optimization
➤ FaceBook Pixel
➤ Mailchimp Pop-up / subscriber Automation for Web-site
➤ Messenger Chatbot for Web-site
➤ Payment Gateway
More Included
===================
+ All type of Forms
+ Wordpress Security
+ Website SEO for Google
Elementor Page Builder
Hire me : https://www.fiverr.com/share/2AGekk | https://medium.com/@ittyhadulislam/i-will-generate-a-responsive-business-website-with-wordpress-and-elementor-pro-51a5b3a6d1af | ['Ittyhadul Islam'] | 2020-12-22 16:01:34.444000+00:00 | ['Website Design', 'Web Design', 'Website', 'Web Development', 'WordPress'] |
I wrote two books this way. | I wrote two books this way. It’s not for everyone, as I know many writers who do incredible work while creating detailed outlines. But I believe in letting my stories lead, and for me, that means following the words as they fall on the page rather than following an outline. | https://medium.com/@ricakeenum/i-wrote-two-books-this-way-4e0b835bf52e | ['Rica Keenum'] | 2020-12-16 10:36:37.776000+00:00 | ['Writing Life', 'Writing Tips', 'Books And Authors', 'Creative Writing', 'Creative Process'] |
Beyond Python and R for Data Science — Part 2 | Rust
The buzz of this year in the general programming community has been the language Rust, a fairly new language with its first stable version released in 2015. It’s no surprise because, as noted in its Wikipedia entry, the language is a statically typed, compiled, multi-paradigm system programming language focused on safety, especially safe concurrency. It is also syntactically similar to C++ and is designed to provide better memory safety and high performance. In a sense, it seems to be born out of the family of ML languages such as Haskell.
The elegant design of the language, combining the power of C/C++, the safety of Python, and the expressiveness of ML languages such as Haskell, increases programming productivity. This is especially seen in large development teams.
Rust can be viewed as a second or a third programming language in the data science stack to learn. Learning it will require both experience and knowledge about many deeper system programming issues such as memory, concurrency, and data integrity.
Some argue that Rust is faster than C. For those who are new to it, there’s a thread on Reddit that is a great starting point to investigate just how fast Rust is.
Rust also compiles to LLVM, which contributes to its speed. Here’s a blog post about how Rust goes beyond LLVM.
To start with learning Rust, you’d want to get the book “The Rust Programming Language” by Steve Klabnik.
For deeper dives into Rust once you start learning it, here are two reasons that developers use Rust:
Memory safety and management
Rust does not use a garbage collector (time savings). Instead, it doesn’t allow null pointers, dangling pointers, or data races in safe code. The compiler will complain. However, Rust does not guarantee no memory leaks. It has the concept of borrowing, which means that you can borrow a reference to any value. This is similar to the smart pointer in C++. It favors a deterministic way of managing resources.
Here are some resources for Rust memory management:
Concurrency
Concurrency is the reason most developers choose Rust. Rust has the concept of ownership to offer access and control to system resources. According to a piece about fearless concurrency on the Rust Blog, it has the concept of channel transfer of messages, lock-on data and not the code, strict enforcement on thread safety to provide concurrency with safety in mind. It also goes a step further with the sharing of stack frames that offer robustness without compromising safety.
Here are some resources for Rust concurrency: | https://medium.com/better-programming/beyond-python-and-r-for-data-science-part-2-c90d9293e8af | ['Jun Wu'] | 2019-11-25 17:00:14.112000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Programming', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Software Engineering'] |
“I’m Sorry, Sir, But Your Card Has Been Declined.” | “I’m Sorry, Sir, But Your Card Has Been Declined.”
Why I’m secretly grateful for my recent financial worries
I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.
For many people, money worries are a way of life. There are people who spend every day worrying about their finances, being unsure about how they’re going to pay their rent/mortgage, feed their children, or keep the lights from shutting off. I’m extremely fortunate to have never been in that situation, I’ve always known that my paycheck would last me until the end of the month. Until recently.
Do You Have Another Method Of Payment?
Yesterday morning I was asked this question for the first time, amidst a wave of panic after my debit card was declined when I tried to make a purchase for £10 worth of diesel. I’ve had my card declined before, by mistakenly using the wrong card or a faulty card machine. But never before has my card been declined because I’ve genuinely run out of money. I know what you’re thinking, first world problems, right?
I come from a middle-class background. My parents both worked when I was growing up, and my brother and I always had what we needed. I want to stress the word ‘needed’ there because even though our household income was above average, my parents certainly didn’t always give us what we wanted. They aren’t secret millionaires (that I know of), but they earned enough that we had a more than comfortable lifestyle. That being said, they both tried to teach us the value of money, and that you can’t always get what you want.
Harry Potter And The Screaming Child
Of all the memories I have growing up, one in particular has always stuck with me. Did your parents ever drag you shopping as a kid when you were too young to be left at home alone? I’d try and get something out of it, to make it worth my while, to make the best of a bad situation. On this particular shopping trip, I begged them to buy me the Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone game on PC. And I mean begged. But they wouldn’t buy it for me, and I had an absolute meltdown in the middle of the shop. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t have it. ‘Don’t they love me enough to buy it for me?’ asked my child's brain. No, they were trying to teach me the value of money, that you can’t always get what you want just because you want it.
Some Lessons Have To Be Experienced, Not Taught
They tried to instill in me the value of money, the importance of not taking the things I have for granted. The only problem with that is, as the saying goes, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’. My parents have always been willing and able to help me if I’ve found myself in a sticky situation, be it an unexpected bill, car repair, etc. I appreciate that more than I can say, but because I’ve always known subconsciously that they are there to fall back on, I’ve never been as responsible with money as I should have been.
I’ve always been very good at rationalising the wasteful purchases I make. Why not spend £20 on pizza from Papa John’s, it’s only £20 after all? Why not pay £8 a day to park my car close to work so I can stay in bed a little longer in the morning? Do you know how many times I’ve paid to park in the last month? Eight times. That’s £64 (around $80) that I’ve thrown away needlessly to stay in bed a little longer when if I left for work earlier, I’d be able to park for free. Using that money I could have paid for my fuel six times over! These are just a few examples of my reckless spending, so when my financial situation took a drastic turn last year and I lost the majority of my savings, I was completely unprepared for it.
I spent all of yesterday in a state of panic because I’d been unable to pay for £10 worth of diesel. I know that sounds crazy. I know that there are people out there in much worse financial situations who have a damn lot more to worry about than putting fuel in their car. But as someone who has never really had to worry about having money enough in the bank, to find myself completely unable to pay for something without resorting to a credit card was a nerve-wracking experience.
But it’s one that I’m grateful for because today I feel like I have a new-found appreciation for the things that I have, and I will (hopefully)no longer fritter money away. With more and more young people turning to their parents to get by, this is for you. Learn from my mistakes. Spend your money on the things and the people that make your life better. Don’t spend it for the sake of convenience, on things you don’t truly want or need. Because if the time comes when your Mum and Dad aren’t able to help you anymore, you’ll sure as hell wish you hadn’t thrown your money away on pizza and parking.
To those of you who made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this article. If you’d like to read more of my musings, you can find my profile here. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/im-sorry-sir-but-your-card-has-been-declined-dabaee57b012 | ['Jon Peters'] | 2019-07-15 19:06:36.940000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Money', 'Finance'] |
Different Types of Special Diet Cakes | Baking Courses | “If it tastes good it can’t be healthy”, isn’t it what we have heard our whole lives?
Well that’s not entirely true. It depends on how you look at it.
Most people believe that eating cake and baking is “unhealthy” and try to limit eating a slice only during special celebrations. While eating cake every single day is not the healthiest option available, having a piece more often than just at birthday parties can actually give your body some healthy benefits!
There are many healthy cake diets out there which you can easily bake at your home. Baking cakes that are healthy for you is not very complex. There are different types of special diet cakes like and many more. Since all of them claim to be superior, it can be hard to know which ones are worth trying.
Image Source- Mantle Magazine
The truth is that no one diet is best for everyone — and what works for you may not work for someone else.
Two of them are Keto desserts and low-fat cakes.
Let us look at Keto diets, so, what is Keto diet anyway,
Keto is short for “ketogenic diet” — a way of eating that is high in fat, moderately high in protein, and low in carbohydrates.
The premise of the keto diet is to stop your body from burning glucose (sugar) for energy and force it to burn fat for energy instead. Carbs are restricted to 10% of daily food intake; protein is just 20%. The rest is fat.
Eating high fat and very low-carb forces the body into “ketosis” — a metabolic state where your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose.
Image Source- Kirbie’s Cravings
Most common ingredient for keto cakes include:
almond flour and coconut flour
coconut cream/full-fat coconut milk
heavy whipping cream
full fat cream cheese, preferably cultured
nuts or seeds, preferably soaked or sprouted
berries, cranberries, lemon, and lime
cacao powder, cocoa butter, and stevia-sweetened chocolate chips
unsweetened, shredded coconut
almond, peanut, and pecan butters
eggs
fats like butter, ghee, coconut oil, and avocado oil
Keto cakes are further set apart in that they do not contain grains or grain-based flours or any form of sugar, whether white sugar or a whole sweetener like honey or maple syrup.
Many desserts are made with artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda or NutriSweet, but do not buy the claim. By nature, a keto diet is healing — and these sweeteners are the antithesis of healing.
Image Source- EatingWell
So, what makes keto cakes sweet? Typically a combination of several keto-friendly sweeteners is used to make keto desserts sweet. The most common keto sweeteners are:
Erythritol
Xylitol (should not be in homes with dogs!)
Stevia — powdered and liquid
Monkfruit
or any combination of the above such as brands like Lakanto and Swerve
Benefits
So here we are, the health benefits of sponge cake is given below.
It helps beat depression and makes you happy:
Mood is incredibly important when it comes to your health. Yet, it’s something we neglect. We read so much about what we need to eat, and what we need to do to keep ourselves healthy, but your happiness has a huge impact on your body It gives you energy:
Carbohydrate is an excellent source of energy. Yes, overindulge, and you’ll get a horrible slump later on when your blood sugar drops, but for a quick boost, there’s not much better than a small, sugary snack. Sponge cake can literally keep you going and get you through a tough day. Helps you with Digestion
If you are having digestion problems or just want to improve your overall health, try incorporating cakes made with fruit into your diet. Some of the most popular fruits to bake into your cake are pineapples, berries, and apples, all of which are a great source of fibre. If you want an even healthier option, carrot cakes are a great choice for your fibre intake! Improves weight loss
Ketogenic diets consist of foods that fill a person up and may reduce hunger-stimulating hormonesTrusted Source. For these reasons, following a keto diet may reduce appetite and promote weight loss. May reduce risk of certain cancers
Researchers have examined the effects of the ketogenic diet in helping prevent or even treat certain cancers.
One studyTrusted Source found that the ketogenic diet may be a safe and suitable complementary treatment to use alongside chemotherapy and radiation therapy in people with certain cancers. This is because it would cause more oxidative stress in cancer cells than in normal cells, causing them to die.
A more recent studyTrusted Source from 2018 suggests that because the ketogenic diet reduces blood sugar, it could also lower the risk of insulin complications. Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar that may have links to some cancers.
Although some researchTrusted Source indicates that the ketogenic diet may have some benefit in cancer treatment, studies in this area are limited. Researchers need to carry out more studies to fully understand the potential benefits of the ketogenic diet in cancer prevention and treatment.
Image Source- Desserts With Benefits
If you are a beginner and want to bake cakes at home for you and your family then you can easily learn baking with Hunar Online. The curriculum of this course is very simple and can be understood by all. Baking cakes is a fun activity and can refresh your mood at any time. If you are someone who loves baking and want to make a career in it, then here is good news for you. Hunar Online courses brings you a new baking course where you can turn your baking dreams into reality and have your own bakery. At Hunar Online, you will get access to detailed video lessons and can learn from anywhere. You will get 24/7 faculty support and a chance to learn from the experts of the industry.
So, what are you waiting for? Join Hunar Online Courses and start paving a new path to your career. | https://medium.com/@begumayesha5233/different-types-of-special-diet-cakes-baking-courses-f8ce8d2f5c29 | ['Ayesha Begum'] | 2021-09-09 13:01:23.393000+00:00 | ['Cake', 'Baking'] |
The Love Story of Millennials and Start-Ups. | Image Courtesy: Helena Lopes
Why the New Generation is preferring to work in Start-ups more than Corporate giants?
The usual answer to the question above is that everyone wants to be that hoodie-wearing, coffee-sipping guys who work in tiny groups. But that’s just one of the motives for millennials to work at startups and there are a plethora of other reasons Startups have become a more popular place to work rather than a big corporation.
1. The Passion.
Millennials are extremely passionate about what they do. They are not a generation who work just for the money or other perks. As a generation who grew soaking up popular culture, they are heavily inspired by stories of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and others. They do not just want to work but make a difference.
They prefer to stay in the start-up as long it satisfies their quench for learning even when they are underpaid or the company is not doing well in terms of revenue. Startups offer more knowledge and experience than a Corporate setup because in a startup usually, one person is doing a job which is usually done by multiple men and women in bigger companies. In the long run, Startup will make a person good at their job more than a company could, a smartass jack of all trades.
2. The Desire to Start a company on their Own.
This is one of the major motivations. As I pointed out earlier People work in startups to learn how everything works in a start-up, what are the challenges and sacrifices involved? what are the things at stake? Startups give them experience and mental space to think it through.
3. Flexibility and Recognition.
In Start-ups you have the freedom to try what you want and if your work is good it will be very easily recognised than it will in a big company. And you can climb up the ladder in a relatively short span if you keep performing well.
In a corporate environment, this isn’t possible. Most corporate follows a seniority structure which means the rise would be slow compared to a successful Startup. Some people think the millennials are taking the easy way out by doing this.
But on the contrary, the startup world is also very competitive than you think but the common threat of failure bonds the team members together. While the large companies often experience harsh infighting and office politics, in a startup scenario it is easier to communicate and agree on a vision for the product or service.
In most Startups, founders hand-pick the employees and develop a relationship with each them. Because of this, Startup CEOs are seen as much more approachable than large company leaders, who are often unreachable by low-level employees. The founders treat their employees as friends (In most cases are Friends). Which also helps in preventing any office politics.
4. The Work-Life Balance.
For the new generation work-life balance was the most important factor they considered (outside of financial benefits) when they are evaluating a job opportunity. Millennials have reshaped the definition of success. No longer is a flashy, lucrative career the hallmark of true achievements.
This generation values true balance they don’t just want a big paycheck, they also want their jobs to be efficient in every way, a family and time to pursue their hobbies. And these aren’t empty demands millennials want it all and know that they can have it all, with the help of modern technology.
There is a common misconception that millennials are disloyal to their companies. The idea that this generation is constantly on the hunt for a better-paying position or an easier job is not only unfair but untrue.
This generation’s interest in creating a functional, happy work environment which is productive and is actually an indication of their loyalty. Millennials want to create a positive work scenario where they can thrive and remain loyal to the organization.
They understand the practicality of using technology to work remotely. And the preference for remote work options is not just a self-interested one. They understand that offering flexibility and remote work options is a positive move for the company, too. This generation is not asking employers to make a huge sacrifice and put a damaging work technique into place. It’s repeatedly been shown that work flexibility not only increases employee satisfaction, but it also increases productivity. A win-win situation for both. | https://medium.com/@throughmyglasses/the-love-story-of-millennials-and-start-ups-4f45712bf803 | ['Anurag Nair'] | 2020-11-23 14:29:13.682000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Success', 'Corporate Culture', 'Work Life Balance', 'Millennials'] |
Why physical businesses need Stardust | Augmented reality today
When we started to explore Augmented reality 3 years ago, coming from a VR background, we didn’t expect AR & VR to be so different. As a matter of fact, basic skill sets are similar, both in terms of asset creation, engine used or even deployment platform (most commonly used phones support both AR and VR). Back then, iOS’s ARkit and Android’s ARcore just got released, paving the way for mass adoption. Vuforia, Kudan, Blippar and other big players were also offering solutions to developers, but from a user point of view, everything remained “gimmicky”. No offense to Pokemon GO (excellent game but not an AR game), Just a Line (short-lived line in space), YouCam (virtual makeup), Houzz or IKEA places (visualizing furniture), Snapchat/IG/FB or every virtual try-on experience for shoes, dresses, glasses or hats and many more AR developers out there. They all play a role in building spatial computing, but the hype has been too big to match users’ expectations…
Image from arvrjourney.com
Speaking about the hype, every geek, techy and innovator is waiting for smart glasses which could eventually replace our smartphones. Well funded startups like Magic leap, Nreal or Madgaze, just to name a few, are competing with Microsoft’s Hololens, Google Glass or Apple glass (if they finally come in 2021 or 2022). As exciting as those glasses can be, we won’t see a mass adoption before years.
SO WHAT’S MISSING IN AUGMENTED REALITY?
Using a smartphone to add a virtual object or information to a packaging, a face or a floor is now very easy, but augmenting an entire physical space is much harder. The difficulty comes from enabling a phone camera to recognize the physical world despite its constant changes. In other words, making sure the camera can “locate itself” in space.
“Computer vision engineers have been knocking their heads on the wall for decades to solve that localisation issue” — LC, a good friend at Alibaba
Think about how our eyes are doing it: if you move objects, change the color of your walls, add 100 people in a conference room, you’re still able to know where you are. That’s because our brain has been trained for years to perform that task almost instantly, processing important information and discarding what’s not. Over time, our brains retain some information, a process called visual memory. The short-term version of visual memory is most important in moment-to-moment construction and stabilization of the visual world.
The traditional approach to replicate this extremely efficient eyes-brain mechanism has been to use point clouds, initially extracted by depth sensors such as Lidar and now also provided by Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. This approach does work over a short period, typically a few minutes to a few hours. Apple’s World Map, Google’s Cloud Anchors, Azure Spatial Anchors are some examples. But the point cloud approach has many limits, namely its short-lived use-cases. If you’re a business and want to provide information or experiences to your visitors, investing a non-persistent content might not be very appealing.
Introducing Stardust visual positioning SDK
Stardust chose a different path by harnessing some of the most powerful AI algorithms to provide a long-term solution to the localisation challenge. We’ll dig in another post about those algorithms, but in a nutshell, we map multiple times and train our model ~ a form of biomimetics.
Stardust SDK logo: an N, an arrow, a location point or a turtle?
With that in mind and looking at Stardust SDK logo, you’ve probably guessed what the technology enables. Hyper-accurate positioning, visual navigation, but also persistent content in space and in theory real-time multiplayer experiences and games (in theory because we’re not that far on our roadmap, but all good things come to those who wait).
Why is Stardust visual positioning SDK a key piece to spatial computing and therefore a solution for physical businesses
Whether you’re a mall operator, an hospital, an airport, a theme park, a shop, a museum or gallery, a restaurant, a hotel, a public space, a school, a campus or a factory(to name a few), Stardust enables applications that weren’t even imaginable few months ago. At core Stardust offers:
#1 accurate visual positioning system
#2 natural 3D human interactions
#3 visual navigation 4# persistent content #5 multiplayer experiences #6 personalised interfaces #7 3D reconstruction #7 occlusion are just side features built upon #1 and #2.
How Stardust SDK works
BUILT FOR UNITY DEVELOPERS WITH BUSINESSES AND USERS IN MIND
Non-technical people don’t care about how it works, they just want to see it working. To that end, we’re developing an online editor which we hope will be as easy to use as MS PPT. It is an essential brick of our platform since it allows anyone to remotely drag and drop content in space. Visual navigation to various points of interest, information anchored in space, large scale immersive experiences, every piece of content is visible and editable from the online editor.
Work in progress, 3D point cloud to visualize the physical space from the online editor
SO WHY BUSINESSES NEED STARDUST
Let’s make it clear and simple. Stardust enables businesses to offer new services that we not technically feasible in the past. In a nutshell, any physical spaces / businesses can:
Offer a “3D GPS” with centimeter accuracy to indoor and outdoor places
Help visitors knowing where they are in those spaces
Guide visitors to their selected destinations
Overlay content (information, marketing, entertainment) on the top of the real world
More? We’d like to hear from your own industry expertise!
See below how this “accurate 3D GPS” locates users and guide them with visual navigation:
AR navigation and AR way-finding after being accurately
Conclusion
We obviously can’t list every single application and industry which will eventually use Stardust (or some of our friends and competitors, you can also check out ARWAY, VISUALIX, PLACENOTE OR IMMERSAL). However, given the number of business requests we’ve received recently, we believe Stardust is answering real business needs and therefore bringing AR to new heights. | https://medium.com/@neogoma/why-physical-businesses-need-stardust-2bc4bebe23cd | ['Neogoma Stardust'] | 2021-01-05 03:49:49.234000+00:00 | ['Stardust Sdk', 'Neogama', 'Ar Cloud', 'Augmented Reality', 'Computer Vision'] |
經典網路系列(13) — prototypical network | gitE0Z9/classical-network-series
GitHub is home to over 50 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build… | https://medium.com/@acrocanthosaurus627/%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF%E7%B3%BB%E5%88%97-13-prototypical-network-360f0e411d21 | ['Mz Bai'] | 2020-12-15 06:57:52.982000+00:00 | ['Computer Vision', 'Deep Learning', 'Pytorch'] |
What’s Company Culture? | “Fear is like fire — if you let it control you, it’ll burn you up … but if you control it, it’ll make you red hot” — Mickey to Rocky in Rocky V
Being controllable as a manager, CEO or a strategic thinker is the ultimate way to create culture.
By ensuring trust in other people’s ideas you create a culture where leaders and C-level executives envision strategy and products. Then they pass those ideas on to lower layer managers and the whole organization. Those lower level managers need to synthesize their knowledge and envision a more defined version of the product or a service. Then they pass their knowledge further to yet lower level managers who further enrich the concept and add layers of compexity. This complexity is necessary to avoid blunt concepts which may be too rigorously implemented therefore limiting growth of concepts on all levels of organization.
At any point of concepts and strategy’s drip towards implementation level employees any ideas, suggestions and decisions which may be strategic should be informed up-towards managers to ensure alignment between teams and avoidance of development of conflicting technologies.
Creating synergies is crucial to create a product which is competitive on scope and cost levels it is also crucial for essential operations.
Concepts created at any levels define a product which is created and envisioned by all levels of the organization in a structure where lower /regional / operational managers inform C-level executives of opportunities and make decisions themselves due to higher ability to define what is the correct strategic decision due to higher knowledge in a given aspect or field. Sometimes decisions made on lower levels may in fact change knowledge of C-level executives to change the strategy once new information is available.
The whole company is informed of C-level executives and strategic thinkers’ ideas of what it means to create the product or a service and what the product or service is but they dont inform them how to do it. Finally, concepts which enrich original intention of C-level executives close the knowledge gap as Stephen Bungay explained in his book “The Art of Action..”. As well as the effects gap which is the misalignment of initial concept with actual outcome.
In the end it is board members and C-level executives who must be most flexible in terms of how the product or a service will be implemented and the most vigorous in ensuring the right strategy and vision for the product..
To be continued.. | https://medium.com/@adamzasada/whats-company-culture-36f7f72e24d7 | ['Adam Zasada'] | 2020-12-19 19:40:34.790000+00:00 | ['Operations', 'Software Architecture', 'Product', 'Company Culture', 'Strategy'] |
Wipe Her Lips|Love Quotes|Couple Quotes |TheSimplyPoems | QUOTE: He didn’t want to know her battling brain….He never expected her justifications….All he wanted was….To wipe her lips, with her eyes closed
The relationship between lovers or married people gets interesting when it becomes old. At the nurture stage it tests the love of each other.
Let’s see what the quote says
When she had her own problem with her life, she was mad at everything and everyone. He was no exception from her madness, but for people in relationship it hurts more seeing their partner suffering. Instead of fighting her or asking any explanation for her madness, he just wanted to be with her and go through the tough process together. That was what all relationship are about!
“Love alone can rekindle life.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel
Everybody needs love to be rejoiced in their life. It heals the soul. Fixes the heart. Guides you in the right path of life.
When you get the true love, the first thing you need do to is respect it. You can give it back in all ways, but respecting the true love you get from your partner is the more important. In the long run it will take your relationship into great heights.
“To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.”
— Doménico Cieri Estrada
When you are in relationship, you don’t own your partner, the relationship should exist by your mutual understanding and not take any ownership on anyone. Respect each other’s feelings at the right time.
Share this with your loved ones and rejoice your wonderful journey together. Best wishes!
Follow us on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesimplypoems/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesimplypoems/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/poems_simply
Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/thesimplypoems/
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thesimplypoems
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1aClmpxhF91a4HwF__Wovw?view_as=subscriber | https://medium.com/@thesimplypoems/wipe-her-lips-love-quotes-couple-quotes-thesimplypoems-1d1a53a2071e | [] | 2020-10-13 06:46:04.659000+00:00 | ['Couples', 'Relationships', 'Quotes About Love', 'Quotes', 'Lovestory'] |
The 9 Types Of Intelligence | The 9 Types Of Intelligence
Photo by Tamara Gak on Unsplash
Howard Gardener, a psychologist and professor at Harvard University came up with the concept of multiple intelligences. He believed that the IQ itself is not all-telling and that it doesn’t reveal the full scope of a person’s potential, strengths and abilities. He introduced this theory to the world in his book Frames of Mind in 1983.
Simply put, not scoring as high on an IQ test, which is primarily directed to logical problem solving, doesn’t have to mean you’re not intelligent. Just as we all have varying personalities, we all have a different type of intelligence which is usually in close relation to our interests.
To find out which is your type, try giving the suggested activities a try and see which are most up your alley and come to you with the most ease. | https://medium.com/@anna-prasilova1/the-9-types-of-intelligence-54d46e1442f4 | ['Anna Prášilová'] | 2020-12-05 15:39:32.495000+00:00 | ['Emotional Intelligence', 'Intelligence', 'Linguistics', 'Brain', 'Howard Gardner'] |
CEZ-ETH Uniswap Liquidity Lock | Upon requests from the community, CEZO team is happy to announce that a liquidity lock on the CEZ-ETH Uniswap trading pair was completed today on 24 December 2020.
This liquidity lock has been executed via Unicrypt, a popular liquidity lock solution used by numerous projects.
Liquidity has been locked for a period of one year with the unlock date being: 24/12/2021 23:59.
Users may verify this liquidity lock using the following link: https://v2.unicrypt.network/pair/0x16b377608460265adc7d7aeca01444588f5ceafe
We thank you once again for your support and hope this liquidity lock provides additional assurance for our community members.
Website: https://cezo.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cezo_io
Telegram: https://t.me/cezo_io | https://medium.com/@cezo_io/cez-eth-uniswap-liquidity-lock-57f7f8011178 | [] | 2020-12-24 16:21:04.741000+00:00 | ['Cezo', 'Unicrypt', 'Uniswap', 'Binance Smart Chain', 'Dapps'] |
The sexuality of Chopin | The sexuality of Chopin
A journalist just demolished centuries of official denial
As a researcher in sexuality, I’ve had my eye on Frédéric Chopin, the 19th century Polish composer. He struck many contemporaries as highly androgynous.
You might even get it from his music—so delicate, magical, energized. A scholar writes in 1996:
“People who heard and saw Chopin play the piano, who encountered his music, or who made his acquaintance repeatedly tried to share their experience by evoking various otherworldly beings, in particular fairies, elves, sylphs, and angels.”
I flip through books on Chopin, finding snippets of commentary over the years, like “Chopin was a man with a woman’s genius,” or “so womanly is he.”
For the most part, though, his sexuality isn’t discussed. That he sells a lot of product, and is celebrated as Catholic, makes it especially tricky.
Maria Wodzinska, date unknown, c.1830
Of course he had a thing with George Sand.
That was a woman novelist, supposedly, who dressed like a man, and was, come to think of it, maybe lesbian—or a man? Their romance was a great love story of the 19th century. Hollywood loved it, like in movies like Impromptu in 1991.
It was beguiling to think of a romance of two androgynous beings, drawn to each other, if never quite to the point of being so vulgar as to be sexual. Sand would write:
“He seemed to despise (in the manner of a religious prude) the coarser side of human nature and to blush for the temptations he had had, and to fear to soil our love by a further ecstasy.”
It was all straight enough for biography, which would never think vulgar thoughts like a gay guy and a lesbian were covering for each other?
Only on occasion do scholars muse on queer possibilities in the evidence of Chopin’s life, like the “erotically charged imagery in the early correspondence with his friend Tytus Woyciechowski,” as a biographer notes in 2003. She adds context on how Chopin was perceived:
“His frail physical presence, the ‘short form’ of his most popular compositions and the lightness of touch at the keyboard evoking ‘small faery voices,’ fused into a single impression: Chopin was not a man. Sand herself called him an angel in the early, most passionate days of her love. In the 1840s, Parisian slang gave only one meaning to the word ‘angel’ (ange): homosexual.”
Here we have a clear case for Chopin being called, in code, a ‘homosexual’ by someone who knew him very well. But there is little effort to identify him, even, as ‘queer’.
He was straight enough for Christianity, which is even better at denial.
It’s quite a remarkable religion for having so many “angels” running around, and being unable to see them? In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI praised Chopin to the heavens:
“May the music of this famous Polish composer, who made such a great contribution to the culture of Europe and the world, bring those who listen to him close to God and help them discover the depth of man’s spirit.”
Gay people often suspected there was more to the story. “Chopin was the nelliest thing that ever existed,” Jobriath says in Interview magazine in 1973. “He got hooked up with the dyke of the century — George Sand. She was just another groupie. They never fucked.”
But gay intuition is little regarded. And scholars don’t like outing people, or looking underneath the layers of codes and subterfuge. Even scholars who supposedly specialize in ‘gender studies’ will omit evidence of sexuality, tuck it away into footnotes, or decline to draw conclusions.
We don’t often find scholars looking for sexuality under the surface of dramas like, for example, Chopin agonizing over his Christianity.
“But in Paris, his faith dwindled, and life became more tormented. Many of his new friends were ‘men and women without principles, or rather with bad principles’.” —J. Huneker, Chopin: The Man and His Music (1918)
A queer dilemma for so many—who often end up home, alone, perhaps, listening to Chopin.
This week we’re seeing the remarkable story of Moritz Weber, a Swiss music journalist.
During the spring lockdown, he thought to investigate Chopin’s sexuality, finding, as he summarizes, a “flood of declarations of love aimed at men,” with Chopin talking of his flings with women being a “cloak for hidden feelings.”
Weber put together a two-hour program on a Swiss public radio channel. It was picked up by the media, and became a ‘story’.
“You don’t like being kissed,” Chopin wrote to his school friend Tytus Woyciechowski in one of 22 letters. “Please allow me to do so today. You have to pay for the dirty dream I had about you last night.” Letters to the friend, who was actively involved in Poland’s January uprising of 1863, often start with “My dearest life” and end with: “Give me a kiss, dearest lover.”
In coverage, The Guardian solicits comment from Chopin scholars, who brush it all away. “The way Chopin uses language is so musical and complicated, to translate all that is madness,” one says.
We realize, if we didn’t know it already, that biographers have openly lied about subjects, even destroyed evidence. Translations of Chopin’s letters, Weber notes, have changed pronouns from male to female.
He discovered that heterosexual evidence had been cited, but to look up the books—it didn’t even exist. He found cultural categories had been employed (“bosom friend”) to minimize the closeness of Chopin with male friends when homosexuality might better describe the motivation. Biographers have used terms like “psychological confusion” and “passing homosexual affair” to neutralize the ‘problem’.
If the relationship with George Sand was important, Weber found that Chopin’s greater love might really be Tytus Woyciechowski, to whom he had dedicated his Variations On “La ci darem la mano”, Op. 2, and composed for him the Waltz Op. 70 №3 in D flat.
Were they queer love letters—hiding in plain sight?
Has Chopin been outed—171 years after he died?
It might have happened sooner, but note that it isn’t easy to get evidence for queerness discussed in public. Weber discovered that references to Chopin’s sexuality, when posted even to the German-language Wikipedia, were instantly removed.
The key to the media coverage now seems to be that Poland, presently, has a conservative Catholic government, and discussing Chopin’s sexuality is thought by liberal media to embarrass them. And so 18th century queer history is bound up into concerns that are fairly remote. I imagine the amusing idea of sex researchers having to campaign for right-wing governments just to get evidence for their subjects acknowledged.
Weber hopes for more research. It might happen? He notes a sea-change in understanding classical music might might be called for, as many beloved composers seem to look a little funny. There’s Schubert? We have little evidence of his life, but he seems to be off with the boys most of the time.
I think everyone has given up on Tchaikovsky. But there’s polite silence about Handel. And on and on, to the point that music itself, as Jobriath would say, seems “a very feminine thing,” and often practiced by men who led—strange lives? More so than we knew how to conceptually manage, and there was strangely little interest in doing so.
And is there something about the human race that we’re missing? D.H. Lawrence, the 20th century’s great thinker on sex, writes in 1913:
“I should like to know why nearly every man that approaches greatness tends to homosexuality, whether he admits it or not…”
If someone was interesting, magical, energized—there might even be a presumption they were . . . “that way”? | https://medium.com/belover/the-sexuality-of-chopin-b7c4ebc6383 | ['Jonathan Poletti'] | 2020-11-28 08:02:08.072000+00:00 | ['Sexuality', 'History', 'Music', 'Classical Music', 'LGBTQ'] |
Why Medium Should Curate Responses | You want an incentive to greater engagement in articles? Curate the responses. Curating responses would motivate people to leave thoughtful, sincere and edifying replies and help promote further tangents of discussion. By rewarding responses in this way you could also bring more traffic to the original article. And this might spur readers to invest more time in the comment section overall. Curating responses seems like a win-win. But how to make it work?
First, the algorithm would have to eliminate responses under the 100 word count and responses that a person has not tagged. A person tagging their response would show that they intend to submit it for potential curation. Then Medium would need to dedicate at least one person just to response curation. This might be an interesting job. You get something that is on topic, but also infused with the responders own unique take on the subject. This could lead down a number of interesting paths. The possibilities are endless.
What happens to a curated response? It becomes an Editor’s Pick in a new section on the home page: The Best Responses This Week. And it gets moved to the top of the pile under the article. And the article now has a star showing that it has a curated response. Wouldn’t that take away from the article itself? Not at all. In fact, it would boost the article’s legitimacy.
Would this lead to responders writing mini essays underneath articles? Hopefully. That would be a great addition to the discourse. Medium is a wonderful site that works on many levels, but if it lacks for anything it lacks incentive to engage. When you compare the number of articles published to the number of responses written it is clear that Medium hasn’t made it easy for us to talk to each other. Curated responses could help ameliorate this problem. Now people know they have something to gain from putting their best effort into responding. They might write more cleanly, more seriously and more impactfully.
Curation is a powerful tool and, if used wisely, it could create a new dynamic on the site. I’m sure the curation team is rolling their eyes at the utter unfeasibility of my proposal. Things are hectic enough as it is. But this is doable. I remember a man once said sometimes the responses can be better than the original story. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. I’ve had responses on my articles that have impressed me and thrilled me with the quality of their content and which I felt should be worthy of recognition.
So let’s do this. Let’s make it work. You know you’ve written a response that you were proud of and more than satisfied with. And you know you’ve received a response that stood out to you. It’s time to reward these responses and develop a more robust system of engagement.
Medium could use it.
I’d love to hear your ideas. And remember, make it count! | https://medium.com/grab-a-slice/why-medium-should-curate-responses-9c8fc14f6180 | ["Timothy O'Neill"] | 2020-08-17 17:36:50.288000+00:00 | ['Médium', 'Writing', 'Responses As Posts', 'Medium', 'Creativity'] |
THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME | When it comes to the safety of journalists, Mexico hasn’t changed
By Témoris Grecko
Témoris Grecko is a Mexican journalist and political analyst, author of “Killing the Story” and documentary “The Truth Shall Not Be Killed”.
On October 29, two gang members shot local TV anchor Arturo Alba Medina, 49, in Ciudad Juárez, right on the Texan border. His body was found in his car with eleven bullet wounds. Three days later, a similar fate awaited independent reporter Jesús Piñuelas Montes, 43, in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora State. On November 9, Israel Vázquez Rangel, 31, was shot dead while investigating the discovery of human remains in Salamanca, a city in Central Mexico. That’s three murdered journalists in just twelve days.
On the same day that Israel was killed, in the east of the country, in Cancún, a women’s rights protest was attacked by police. Officers appeared without warning, shooting overhead but sometimes aiming at protesters. Five people were wounded, including the two journalists. Meanwhile, in the south, the city of Iguala in Guerrero, reporters were figuring out how to react to a message sent to their private WhatsApp accounts by an organized crime group. They were told to stop covering crime. If any of them dared to disobey, one of the journalists said, “someone will be murdered the same way our colleague Pablo Morrugares was shot dead back in August.”
Renowned journalist Javier Valdez was murdered in May 2017 by unidentified gunmen. Valdez covered organized crime and drug trafficking in Mexico, particularly the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
In 2017, twelve journalists were killed in Mexico, the highest number in the world, equal only to Syria, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Then, on November 15, reporters in the Pacific resort of Mazatlán staged a public demonstration in support of photojournalist Carlos Zataráin, 25, fearing for his life as he had been abducted the previous night. He was released a few hours later.
I feel like I am back in March 2017, the most violent month in history for Mexican journalists. In that month alone, three reporters were murdered; there were direct attempts on the lives of three more (a reporter’s bodyguard was killed); a colleague who was covering a street fight between groups in a workers’ organization was wounded in the crossfire; three foreign correspondents were stopped, interrogated, and robbed in the countryside; and a group of seven journalists was beaten up and robbed at night on a highway by a mob of intoxicated teenagers goaded by a criminal gang. Despite being threatened with death, they were eventually released. All within four weeks, in nine states.
That year, twelve journalists were killed in Mexico, the highest number in the world, equal only to Syria, according to Reporters Without Borders.
In Mexico, “It’s infinitely more dangerous to report on an assassination than it is to commit it.”
Violence was one of the reasons motivating a massive, historic popular vote in 2018 against all parties who had ruled Mexico thus far. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a maverick Leftist candidate, steamrolled his rivals, garnering 53% of the votes (30 points ahead his nearest competitor), campaigning on a platform against corruption and impunity.
On his inauguration day López Obrador announced the dawn of a new era. He portrayed a country that had changed overnight. We knew that was impossible, but we gave him time to fulfill his promises. We still are. The tune we hear now is no different from before. The number of murdered journalists may not be as high as it was under Peña Nieto, but it’s getting there, and the last two weeks have left us with a sense of a dejà vu. Already, in 2020, eight reporters have lost their lives in Mexico, double the number of the country with the next highest number of murdered journalists: Iraq. Pakistan, Syria, and Honduras have each seen three journalists killed.
Journalist Miroslava Breach was murdered in March 2017 in retaliation for uncovering a politician’s ties to the Sinaloa cartel.
Journalist John Gibler says that, in Mexico, “It’s infinitely more dangerous to report on an assassination than it is to commit it.” This is because killing a journalist comes without penalty. The vast majority of cases do not even go to trial, and in the very rare cases that they do, those charged are usually restricted to those who directly carried out the killing. The intellectual authors of these crimes never find themselves in court.
López Obrador had little to say about the violence against journalists. He is deep in an ongoing feud with the country’s most influential media: the one that lined their pockets under previous regimes and now feel aggrieved at their loss of power and revenue. Every day, the president and the media trade attacks. He despises them, and as a result, he seems to despise all journalists. Although he defends freedom of speech, he ignores the fact that non-partisan journalism still exists and that journalists are still working in conditions of extreme peril nearly two years into his administration.
When it comes to the safety of journalists, Mexico hasn’t changed and it doesn’t seem to be changing, certainly not while politicians, businessmen, and gang members know that they can get away with murdering any reporter they are unhappy with. Two years after López Obrador announced a new era, the song remains the same.
Killing the Story: Journalists Risking Their Lives to Uncover the Truth in Mexico is on sale now. Support your local independent bookstore and order through Bookshop.org. | https://medium.com/@thenewpress/the-song-remains-the-same-74b2bc021663 | ['The New Press'] | 2020-12-18 17:59:15.072000+00:00 | ['Javier Valdez', 'Human Rights', 'Drug Trafficking', 'Journalism', 'Mexico'] |
Distributed SQL Summit Recap: Justuno’s Database Journey from Ground to Cloud | At the Distributed SQL Summit 2020, Travis Logan — CTO & Co-Founder at Justuno, presented the talk, “Evolve: A Database Journey from Ground to Cloud.”
With over 14 years of experience with Microsoft SQL Server, Travis is well-versed in the evolution of transactional databases. In this talk he summarizes his experiences with traditional RDBMS while trying to improve their redundancy, scaling characteristics, and performance. Ultimately he walks us through how the cloud has helped usher in the new era of distributed SQL databases where many of these concerns like distributed ACID transactions, horizontal scaling, and fault tolerance are handled natively by the database.
Step #1: SQL Server On-Premise
In Travis’ first story he tells how in 2006 he had to wheel in his own hardware into a Los Angeles datacenter that was kept below 50 degrees. This hardware was the foundation for the installation of his first Active / Active Microsoft SQL Server cluster. 12 hours later, he was unsuccessful in getting the cluster up and running and had to wait on Dell to provide a patch so he could complete the installation. Here’s the pros and cons of an Active / Active SQL Server cluster that he discovered after using it in production.
Servers are redundant, but data storage is at the mercy of the SAN device (which creates a SPOF)
No zone availability
In reality, Active / Active meant you had to split up your database onto two instances so that each one is “active” for its own database, while being the failover for the other
Although online updates were supported, in reality it meant a minute or more of application downtime while the cluster failed over
Step #2: SQL Server in the Cloud…Kind of
In the second story, Travis talks about how in 2009 they migrated from an Active / Active SQL Server cluster to a SQL Server database in the cloud because they began to hit CPU and storage limits. At the time, SQL Server was only available on Amazon EC2, Azure, and Rackspace. Ultimately, they went with an Active / Active cluster on StrataScale’s infrastructure. Here’s why:
AWS didn’t have the necessary flexibility to allow the deployment of an Active / Active cluster
Azure was still in beta and did not support many of the required SQL and TSQL features
StrataScale was able to provide a hybrid setup that ultimately worked. They made it easy to swap out the storage underneath the cluster and they even offered to set the whole thing up!
Unfortunately, because all of StrataScale’s customers relied on the same underlying storage infrastructure, it also meant that failures in this part of the stack led to catastrophic outages for everyone. As Travis puts it, “There were constant network outages, dropped disks, and outages that could last from an hour to 36 hours.”
Step #3: Apache Cassandra on the Cloud
Heading into 2015, Travis started ramping his own company called Justuno which is a cloud-native website visitor conversion optimization platform. The database requirements of the platform were:
Horizontally scalable so it could support millions of visitor profiles and billions of requests
Could be easily deployed on the cloud
Support large amounts of data
Deliver very low latencies, near real-time
Redundant by default
Travis next walked us through his experience with using Apache Cassandra to meet his new set of requirements. After using it in production, he came to a few insights:
It’s easy to add nodes
Monitoring is easy with the right tools
Although nodes could support up to 2 TB, best practices dictated that no more than 50% of the storage be used or run the risk of repairs failing
Secondary indexes were not usable, despite being available
Step #4: YugabyteDB on Google Platform
In the most recent step of Justuno’s evolution, Travis and his team took a fresh look at revamping the platform’s data infrastructure so they could avoid the previous challenges they had experienced. Their new database requirements included:
First class support on Google Cloud Platform
Everything needed to be scalable and automated to a high degree
Needed to support SQL, but at the same time be friendly to NoSQL-styled workloads
At first they tried Spanner, but found that it was very expensive and that the latency numbers were surprisingly poor.
After evaluating several other possible databases, Justuno ultimately settled on a YugabyteDB cluster on GCP. With YugabyteDB they were able to achieve:
Single-digit latency for both writes and reads
Point-and-click on-demand scaling of clusters
Low Total Cost of Ownership with minimal operational overhead
High scalability, especially during workload spikes on a multi-tenant system hosting tens of thousands of websites
To learn more about Justuno’s deployment architecture, implementation details and performance numbers make sure to watch the video or read the case study.
Want to See More?
Check out all the talks from this year’s Distributed SQL Summit including Pinterest, Mastercard, Comcast, Kroger, and more on our Vimeo channel. | https://medium.com/yugabyte/distributed-sql-summit-recap-justunos-database-journey-from-ground-to-cloud-15ba34b9cc6c | ['Jimmy Guerrero'] | 2020-12-02 21:47:31.191000+00:00 | ['Sql', 'Postgres', 'Open Source', 'Database', 'Google Cloud Platform'] |
How To Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 LTS using command line | How To Upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 LTS using command line
Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS (Focal Fossa) is the current latest stable version the Ubuntu OS. LTS stands for long-term support, which means five years, until April 2025, of free security and maintenance updates, guaranteed.
In this article we will show you an easy and fast way on how to upgrade your Virtual or Dedicated server from Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS or 19.10 to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS using the apt / apt-get command.
Step 1 — Make a Backup
Using Acronis Cloud Backup you can easily backup your entire Ubuntu server or choose specific files/folders which you do not wish to lose in case something goes wrong.
If you wish to use any other backup software you are free to do so, just make sure your data are placed in an offsite/off-server repository. With Acronis Backup, your data will be hosted in Acronis’ cloud datacenter and can be easily restored/recovered to a new server.
Step 2 — Upgrade all installed packages on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Once you have completed your existing Ubuntu server’s backup process, you can begin with the OS upgrade.
Using a root-privileges account type the following commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt list --upgradable
sudo apt upgrade
and then type ‘Y’ to continue when prompted
Sample Outputs:
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y Hit:1 http://cy.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease Get:2 http://cy.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB] Get:3 http://cy.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB] Get:4 http://cy.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [88.7 kB] Fetched 252 kB in 2s (113 kB/s) Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree Reading state information… Done 53 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them. Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree Reading state information… Done Calculating upgrade… Done The following NEW packages will be installed: motd-news-config The following packages will be upgraded: base-files bcache-tools cloud-init cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin dirmngr friendly-recovery gnupg gnupg-l10n gnupg-utils gpg gpg-agent gpg-wks-client gpg-wks-server gpgconf gpgsm gpgv initramfs-tools initramfs-tools-bin initramfs-tools-core iproute2 libaudit-common libaudit1 libc-bin libc6 libcryptsetup12 libnetplan0 libnss-systemd libpam-modules libpam-modules-bin libpam-runtime libpam-systemd libpam0g libpcap0.8 libsystemd0 libudev1 locales lshw multiarch-support netplan.io nplan pollinate python3-distupgrade python3-httplib2 sosreport systemd systemd-sysv ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-release-upgrader-core ubuntu-server ubuntu-standard udev update-notifier-common 53 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 16.9 MB of archives. After this operation, 13.3 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Upon completion, reboot your server by issuing the following command:
sudo reboot
Step 3 — Remove unused old kernels from Ubuntu 18.04
Run the following command:
sudo apt --purge autoremove
Sample Outputs:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: linux-headers-4.15.0-45* linux-headers-4.15.0-45-generic* linux-image-4.15.0-45-generic* linux-modules-4.15.0-45-generic* linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-45-generic* 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 334 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y (Reading database ... 138353 files and directories currently installed.) Removing linux-headers-4.15.0-45-generic (4.15.0-45.48) ... Removing linux-headers-4.15.0-45 (4.15.0-45.48) ... Removing linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-45-generic (4.15.0-45.48) ... Removing linux-image-4.15.0-45-generic (4.15.0-45.48) ...
At this point you need to install the Update Manager on server as it may or man not installed on your server.
Do so by executing the following command:
sudo apt install update-manager-core
Step 4 — Upgrade Ubuntu Linux to latest 20.04 LTS
Execute the following command:
sudo do-release-upgrade
You might notice the following message appearing after you issue the above command:
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
There is no development version of an LTS available.
To upgrade to the latest non-LTS develoment release
set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.
In that case, re-execute the command with the -d option appended in order to get the latest supported release forcefully:
sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Sample Outputs:
Reading cache
Checking package manager
Continue running under SSH?
This session appears to be running under ssh. It is not recommended
to perform a upgrade over ssh currently because in case of failure it
is harder to recover.
If you continue, an additional ssh daemon will be started at port
'1022'.
Do you want to continue?
Continue [yN] y
Starting additional sshd
To make recovery in case of failure easier, an additional sshd will
be started on port '1022'. If anything goes wrong with the running
ssh you can still connect to the additional one.
If you run a firewall, you may need to temporarily open this port. As
this is potentially dangerous it's not done automatically. You can
open the port with e.g.:
'iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 1022 -j ACCEPT'
To continue please press [ENTER]
No valid mirror found warning:
Updating repository information
While scanning your repository information no mirror entry for the
upgrade was found. This can happen if you run an internal mirror or
if the mirror information is out of date.
Do you want to rewrite your 'sources.list' file anyway? If you choose
'Yes' here it will update all 'bionic' to 'focal' entries.
If you select 'No' the upgrade will cancel.
Continue [yN]
Just say Yes (y) to use the official Ubuntu repo.
You are almost done. Once prompted with the following message press ‘y’ to finish the Upgrade and get your server rebooted.
System upgrade is complete. Restart required To finish the upgrade, a restart is required.
If you select 'y' the system will be restarted. Continue [yN] y
Connection to 52.xxx.yy.zz closed by remote host.
Connection to 52.xxx.yy.zz closed.
Step 5 — Ubuntu OS Upgrade Verification
Check your Distro version by running the following command:
lsb_release -a
Sample outputs:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
Verify Linux kernel version and other log files too:
tail -f /var/log/my-app.log
uname -mrs
Sample outputs:
Linux 5.4.0-24-generic x86_64
Congrats! Your Ubuntu server has now been successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 20.0.4 LTS!
Not comfortable with Linux Systems administration? Let us do it for you!
NetShop ISP’s experienced Linux system admins can help you with full server management, whether it’s a virtual or a dedicated server. From Operating System installations, troubleshooting and OS distro upgrades, we can take care the whole aspect of your linux machine’s administration.
Browse our VPS Plans and Dedicated Servers to find the server that satisfies your needs and budgets and get started!
Source: https://netshop-isp.com.cy/blog/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-18-04-to-20-04-lts-using-command-line/ | https://medium.com/@netshopisp/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-18-04-to-20-04-lts-using-command-line-e5985bb4e8aa | ['Netshop Isp'] | 2021-03-19 07:39:17.087000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Linux', 'Ubuntu', 'Servers', 'Linux Tutorial'] |
Thank You & Work Insights: Week 50 | Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash
Dear readers of Work Today,
work is as essential part of the lives of million people. Most can’t just decide not to work — they have to make ends meet in their families or dream of climbing the social ladder.
Work has always been a vehicle with different functions: It allows you social mobility, facilitates integration into new groups, grows your skills and knowledge — and if you’re really lucky — it might be a place of fulfillment.
Work is called work for a reason: It’s not an easy thing to do and most jobs contain at least a small share of annoying tasks. But spending a large chunk of your time working, work should at least become more bearable, humane and productive.
To find ideas, visions and hacks to create better work, I started “Work Today” one week ago. I dream of it becoming the home for writers who question the status quo of work-life and have valuable insights for a better work life.
The first week has been an interesting ride: I found contributors with original ideas and a creative mind. Here’s what you should definitely read:
2. Kristi Pelzel analyzes the quality of videoconferencing tools in terms of quality and security — ‘Safety vs. Convenience in Video Conferencing Apps’:
3. Adam Prescott teaches you how to get most of your one-on-one meetings — ‘Do One-on-Ones, Like a Boss’:
4. Mike Curtis has some valuable insights on how to be extraordinary at work — ‘How to Be Extraordinary at Work in 2021 and Beyond (Part 1)’:
5. Catherine Syme shares how she applied a growth mindset to public speaking — ‘What I Learned from (Finally) Applying a Growth Mindset to Public Speaking’:
6. Kasinatha Rao asks you to stop wasting time on too many meetings — ‘Too many meetings, and no time to get sh*t done’:
7. Victoria A. Fraser has a practical tipp for your writing work — ‘How Using an Outline Can Improve Your Writing’
Thank you all for those contribution and making the start of “Work Today” so pleasant and exciting!
Want more ideas?
I’m a firm believer that good ideas are everywhere and I want to use this newsletter to shine light on my favorite pieces from other publications which were published last week:
4. Nir Eyal published a bright piece about how jobs have been changing — ‘Are You a Wage Slave?’ | https://medium.com/work-today/thank-you-work-insights-week-50-f74d8490e55e | ['Alice Greschkow'] | 2020-12-13 13:14:43.348000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Work', 'Productivity', 'Meetings', 'Workplace'] |
Video surveillance, CCTV and video management software development with IP cameras | by Polina S.
2000 IP cameras stream in our video surveillance system ipivis.com. It works at 450 US police departments, medical education, and child advocacy centers.
What features we develop for closed-circuit television (CCTV) software
📹Live video streaming from internet protocol (IP) cameras
Full HD quality — like most movies on YouTube and television. Watch it on a cinema size screen in an auditorium — students will see the details.
Video and audio are so in sync — speech pathologists work with these streams.
🔎Pan-tilt-zoom — PTZ
Pan means the camera moves left and right to show the whole room.
Tilt means movement up and down.
Zoom — enlarge the view. E.g., from the whole room observation zoom to a sheet of paper on the table, to distinguish what a patient is writing.
To use PTZ, you need to buy PTZ-enabled IP cameras.
🎬Video recording from digital IP cameras
Hit the record button when you want — or schedule recording. The stream will start recording automatically.
Set recurrence — e.g. daily, weekly. Decide for how long to repeat: end after N repetitions, endlessly, till a certain date. Set a starting position to record for PTZ cameras.
Save to any popular format, e.g. mp4. Convert.
💻Software-as-a-Service
No hardware equipment on site, except the IP cameras. We program all the functions that Digital Video Recorders (DVR) and Network Video Recorders (NVR) have. So video is processed and stored on a server. The servers are usually in the cloud — rented from providers like Amazon. However, the server can be in your local server room too.
🗣Talking CCTV
Some IP cameras have speakers. So you can speak into your laptop mic and someone will hear you near the IP camera. Scare intruders away 🙂
📼Marks on video
Add comments on video while watching live or pre-recorded ones. Police officers mark confessions — and don’t have to re-watch the whole interrogation to find it again.
📸Closed-circuit digital photography (CCDP)
Take pictures with your IP cameras and save them.
❌Permission control
Video of people is sensitive content and subject to law regulations. For example, doctors must access interviews of their patients only and not their colleagues’. We develop software with as many user roles as you need. When a user logs in, he only has access to the content permitted to him.
🕹Operate with hardware buttons
Push a real button on the wall to start streaming and recording. A sign “In Use” lights on. Stop the recording from your computer or the same button.
👋Movement and object recognition
Some IP cameras have movement detectors. Cameras may start recording or play some warning sound to scare away the intruders. Get an SMS or push notification about that.
Define “suspicious objects”, and the system will warn you when a camera spots one. We developed an app where military drones monitor land for opponent soldiers and cars this way. Neural networks teach the app to recognize them better and better. We recognize objects on live video with OpenCV.
👂Voice recognition
Type a word, and get all spots on the video marked where it sounds. Police officers search through interrogation recordings this way. For sound recognition, we use Amazon Transcribe, one of Amazon Web Services (AWS) products.
🎬Create clips
Crop videos and save short clips. Delete unneeded parts.
Burn video on CDs. Yep, the police still use them in 2020.
Devices for which we develop VMS and video surveillance software
What IP camera to pick for a video surveillance application
Start with those that support ONVIF standards and program your software to support them.
Most IP cameras support the ONVIF standard. It’s a standard API — application programming interface. It’s a “language” a program can speak with the IP cameras.
Axis, Bosch, and Sony founded ONVIF. Most of their cameras should support it, but it is not guaranteed. Other manufacturers want their cameras to sell well — so they are interested in supporting ONVIF. However, not all the cameras are supported — the standard is voluntary.
If the camera does not support ONVIF, the support of such IP camera is programmed separately. So you can’t program once and for any camera.
So, a safe bet among IP camera brands is starting with Axis. Axis has the largest market share — your software will support more cameras than it would with any other choice. Many Bosch and Sony cameras will work too as they support ONVIF.
What industries we developed video surveillance and management software for
👮♂️Police interviews
🔎Forensic interviews
🔬Clinical observation and recording
🧨Military drone observation
🎰 Poker: recognition of chips in real casinos, recognition of cards in online casinos
How much it costs to develop video surveillance software
The initial working version of a video surveillance website takes us about 3 months, around USD 24,800. Add IP cameras, watch live streams, record.
However, custom software needs individual planning and estimation.
With ipivs.com we work on an ongoing basis — provide a dedicated team.
Send us a message through Request a quote. We’ll estimate the time and price for your project. | https://medium.com/@forasoft/video-surveillance-cctv-and-video-management-software-development-with-ip-cameras-dd456c6a537d | ['Fora Soft'] | 2021-07-23 15:52:34.542000+00:00 | ['Security Services', 'Video Surveillance', 'Cctv', 'Cctv Security Cameras', 'Security Camera'] |
Help — my baby only takes short naps! | Photo by Brytny.com on Unsplash
I struggled with this with my younger one, too. You’ve probably already tried a white noise machine, blackout curtains and keeping the room cool… but no matter what you do, your baby only naps for 20, 30 or 40 minutes. It takes just as long — or longer — to get the baby down as he/ she is actually napping. If you’re taking care of more than one child, exhaustion kicks in fast. Plus, the baby wakes up super cranky and stays that way for the next 60-90 minutes until it’s time for the next nap. Ugh, I get it. I really do.
Ok, first things first — know that daytime sleep and nightime sleep are very different for babies. Many don’t get into a solid rhythm around napping until around 6 months or so.
Also, know that baby sleep cycles are usually 30–40 minutes depending on the kid. So what’s happening is that your baby is waking up after only one sleep cycle. Until your baby begins to link cycles, the naps will be short. Well, how do we go about helping them link sleep cycles?
Here are some tips that helped us and other mamas we spoke with:
When the baby wakes up from nap, give the baby a few minutes to settle. If the baby is cooing or talking to themselves, don’t go get them right away. Even if the baby sounds like he/she is whining, give them a few minutes. Learn to distinguish between a cry to settle themselves back into sleep and a cry for help. If my baby was settling himself, tossing and turning or fussing a little, I’d give him 5 or 10 minutes. If it was a cry for help, I went in right away. (Note: This is NOT the same as the cry-it-out method.) When your baby is awake, it’s time to play. Brighter lights and healthy stimulation. Tummy time. Playing with siblings. Reading books. Listening to music, tickling, singing. This will help them to better distinguish between sleepy time and awake time as well as increase their body’s natural “sleep pressure” which a baby needs to take a nap. Babies, like adults, need a certain amount of sleep pressure to fall asleep. Ever notice how even if your baby is tired, they can’t fall asleep 45 minutes or 1 hour after waking? It might actually make them more frustrated and take them longer to get down. For babies older than 2 months old, try to wait at least an hour so that they can fall asleep with ease, but also follow your baby’s lead… Their waking time will increase to 1.5 hrs and then to 2 hours. Knowing how much waking time your baby needs to build up amble sleep pressure will also lessen the amount of time it takes to put the baby to sleep. If your baby is 3-4 months old, start to set them down in their crib or bassinet drowsy but awake. This helps curb any sleep associations from sticking which can be really hard to curb later. Also, regardless of your baby’s age try to get into awake-feed-play-asleep cycle. If all else fails and you’re able to take a time out, try to lay down with your baby once he/ she wakes up from a short nap. Doing this can help them start to link their sleep cycles.
Finally, be patient. I know it’s hard. It’s like entire days are just about transitioning from nap to nap. Those turn into weeks and then months, but this too will pass. Our baby didn’t take longer than 40 minute naps until he was almost 5 months old. They will take longer naps when developmentally ready, and yes, there are little things you can do to help them along. | https://medium.com/@sashaheron/help-my-baby-only-takes-short-naps-48bb4b56b882 | ['Sasha Heron'] | 2021-01-11 15:47:23.101000+00:00 | ['Attachment Parenting', 'Motherhood', 'Baby Sleep', 'New Mothers', 'Gentle Sleep'] |
5 Minute Writing Exercise Part 2 | Have you ever tried writing in the dark? I like it because it helps me to not edit while I am writing. Writing and editing work best when done separately.
When I was taking art classes in college, our professor had us start each class by doing two 5 minute drawing exercises.
The first was to spend five minutes continuous contour line drawing. The second was blind continuous contour line drawing.
Continuous contour line drawing means to draw the outside edge, the contour, of something without lifting the pencil.
Blind continuous contour line drawing is the same but without looking at the page.
Our professor explained how important it was to warm up before starting a drawing; how important it was to keep your hand moving.
Writing exercises are just as important as drawing exercises. The goal is the same: keep your hand moving.
Another important lesson I learned in drawing class was to first sketch my drawing without erasing. To erase when my sketch was complete.
These writing exercises are teaching you to first draft your story without editing. To edit when your draft is complete.
In lesson 1 you learned about lizard brain and monkey mind. In lesson two, we are going to (temporarily) blind monkey and let lizard roam free.
In this lesson, I would like to challenge you to write in the dark. It is also acceptable to write in the dim. It just needs to be dark enough so that you cannot easily see the words you have written. It can be light enough to see the lines on your paper.
The tools you will need for this exercise are the same as in lesson 1:
Notebook Ink pen Timer Blindfold or dark room
If you are very disciplined (I am not) you could forgo the blindfold and just close your eyes. My eyes always creep open seemingly of their own accord. So I sit in a darkened room or use a blindfold.
It is important to remember that this exercise is about writing without editing. It isn’t about what you write. It is about how you write it. You may not even be able to read all of what you have written. I often cover words with other words getting to the end of the line and beginning a new line under the first is a challenge when you can’t see. It ends up being an illegible mess.
Those line drawings, and especially the blind line drawings looked nothing like the subject being drawn. But the uninterrupted contour drawing isn’t about the picture. It’s about the process.
This exercise is about keeping your hand moving. If you can’t see what you’ve written you can’t go back and erase, cross out, or in any way change it. You will get in the habit of writing this way (without simultaneously editing, you don’t need to get in the habit of writing in the dark!)
Blind writing is about practicing. Practice makes perfect. Except, I do not believe any artist truly achieves perfection. Every successful artist continues to learn and grow, continues to hone their craft.
I recommend doing three 5 minute blind writing exercises before you begin your writing project.
Just as with lesson 1, between 5-minute sessions, get some circulation going. Clap your hands, jump up and down, sing lalalala, whatever you need to do to get oxygen flowing to your brain.
After you have taken your three deep breaths, open your eyes and set your timer. You may want to set the timer for 6 or 7 minutes, depending on how long it will take you to get blindfolded or turn off the light.
Next, all you have to do is begin writing. If you find it hard to start, you can start with a repeating phrase.
“In the dark” or “I am in the dark”
Write this phrase without looking over and over until something else pops up.
This is what my blind writing exercise looked like this morning (what I could read of it, anyway):
I am in the dark I am writing in the dark my nose itches this blindfold is weird. I used to believe I could make myself completely flat under the covers. I would hide from my mother and get very upset when she found me. I thought she must be a witch. In the dark in the dark My mind wanders in the dark. Tell me what you don’t know. what don’t I know?it is too dark.
As you see from the example above, when I got stuck I simply went back to the phrase “in the dark.” What you can’t see are the lines that I wrote one on top of the other. Something about hide and seek, a closet, and Bloody Mary.
Do blind writing two or three times and then do an “I am” exercise. And remember, these are warm-ups. It can be fun to focus on these 5-minute exercises, but you DO still have a writing project to get to.
Again, please don’t throw away your exercises. We will come back to them for later exercises.
If the darkness and writing take you to a painful place, please do not force yourself to continue. Take a break. Take your time. This is your rodeo. Let’s make it the best rodeo ever.
One more quick note before you get started: I would love to hear how you are doing with the writing exercise/warm-up lessons. Feel free to leave a response here when you are finished.
Are you ready?
Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and slowly three times. Open your eyes. Set your timer. Blindfold your self or turn out the light. And…GO! Write for 5 minutes, get up, and jump around.
Rinse, repeat. | https://medium.com/the-writers-bookcase/5-minute-writing-exercise-part-2-f29b7f9538c8 | ['Jonica Bradley'] | 2019-11-08 11:53:30.729000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Work', 'Editing', 'Self', 'Creativity'] |
How to quickly estimate the impact of players during a basketball game? | An Overall Basketball Player Impact Visualization.
Although graphical innovations have enriched access to sports statistics recently, not all of them seem to meet the now well-established specifications of Data Visualization. Major sports insiders are still using traditional table charts displaying a bunch of raw statistical lines for players and teams.
Besides that, some analysts are trying to imagine simpler ways to illustrate advanced and basic statistical data collected during the games. This is the case in Viziball, a free basketball game analysis website based on Data Visualization techniques and dedicated to a large community of fans, gamblers, journalists, basketball professionals, and even data science enthusiasts.
I would like to introduce you to some features that these techniques provide.
In this article, I am focusing on the Game Overview chart from the post-game page. This chart brings several pieces of information regarding how players have performed during the game. With a single chart, we can quickly estimate the overall impact of each player depending on the time he spent on the floor. This is done using several statistics: minutes played, +/- and PIE (Player Impact Estimation).
The PIE shows the overall contribution to the game for a specific player. This presents the contribution of a player as a percentage. Adding the PIEs of all players from both teams gives 100%. Each time a player contributes to a positive game event (point, rebound, assist, block, interception), it will lower everyone else’s PIE score. Though an identical stat line on two different games won’t necessarily give the same measure of impact, and conversely, two identical measures would not necessarily come from identical statistical lines.
Knowing this is not even essential to get relevant insights from the chart. All we have to know to start with is that bubbles represent players and that these bubbles have different sizes depending on the impact value (PIE) and are based according to the time each player has spent on the floor (horizontal) and +/- (vertical). On this basis, it is pretty simple to compare all players together.
Who had a significant impact on the game? Which bench players had a great night? Which starters had a poor impact? How is the impact shared among the team? Does a player polarize the game? All comparisons might be possible, and all these interrogations can be translated in an easier way. Who has the larger circle? Who has the top-based circle? Which players from the left have big circles? And reciprocally, which players from the right have small circles? Are circle sizes equivalent? Is there a circle significantly bigger than others?
For example, we can observe a post-game analysis from game 6 of the 2020 NBA finals. Very easily, we can see that two players from the Lakers (LeBron James and Anthony Davis) are bigger and higher than the rest of the team, which is mostly represented by small and low circles. This is also the case with the Miami Heat with one big red circle (Jimmy Butler), some medium-sized circles (Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn), and a few smaller ones. We can also quickly view that players with significant impact are not those who played the most and reciprocally. This is the case for dimension (Jae Crowder is second on Miami roster in minutes played and has the smallest circle of the team), but also positions (Danny Green with few minutes but high +/-, which means that while he was on the field, his team had a positive point differential).
Players impact overview during game 6 of 2020 NBA finals
The layout algorithm avoids circles overlapping using force-directed repulsion. Big nodes push smaller ones. That’s the reason why circles are not exactly positioned where they are supposed to be. Visual analysis doesn’t need to be exact down to the last comma. It has to be understandable.
This gives a quick and easy picture of the game, where more precise information is available with a click. For example, scrolling over a player, one can read his exact PIE and +/- values.
And like straight numbers, these visual observations have to be taken as insights and not as real facts. Traditional limits dealing with statistics are logically inherited from the measures on which this chart is based. PIE formula aggregates basic stats like points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, but also missed shots or personal fouls. If a player has an impact beyond this, it will not be recorded. And as everyone knows, basketball is not just filling the board. Screens, deflections, active hands, ball control, shot contesting, dribbling skills, cross over, aggressiveness, ball movement, rhythm, mentoring, or even speeches: those are important elements that are not considered by PIE measure.
Once, a professional head coach from a french franchise told me that he has a player who always ends the game with a poor PIE. But every time he removes him from the roster, he has lost the game. Indeed, we have to find ways to identify those types of players. Maybe we have to start thinking about how we can enrich our measurement by integrating those invisible stats. But coming with a new formula, we will still have to collect new data.
For now, we have decided to pair PIE with plus/minus. This helps in highlighting players with invisible impact, although it is still limited by the fact that players enter the game at various moments (starting lineup, garbage, money time) and that the impact of players extracted from the +/- stat is drawn among other players’ impact.
To go further, Viziball experiments with new techniques on each post-game analysis page: point differential evolution, player impact dynamics, or also impact on specific aspects of the game. Overall impact is just the starting point.
I wish to bring more details in a future article about how the rest of the game analysis works, but everyone can experience it right now on Viziball for more than 30,000 basketball games. | https://medium.com/@gllmeblot/overall-basketball-player-impact-visualization-ed45eb11dc0d | ['Guillaume Blot'] | 2021-02-17 11:07:45.503000+00:00 | ['NBA', 'Sport Analytics', 'Basketball', 'Data Visualization', 'Statistics'] |
When Covid-19 took away our fittest uncle. But his eyes live on. | And just like that, he is gone — one month after successfully recovering from Covid-19. It is a cardiac arrest apparently. But he has no cardiac history. We google afterwards and find that this is a trend globally. It seems that among other side-effects, Covid-19 seems to thicken the blood. Later when we speak to others who have recovered, some of them tell us that their doctors had put them on blood thinners.
What is puzzling is that uncle’s ECG had been checked just the day before. It was normal. Apart from a momentary blackout on the previous day, everything has been normal. Just as precaution, a scan was scheduled for early morning on the Christmas day at 8 am. But destiny has other plans at 5 am.
But his eyes live on
The family is in shock. For some time, I too am disoriented. I run to be with the family and be of whatever help I can, at that hour. Some time later, a thought strikes me. I am faced with an awkward dilemma.
“To Say or Not to Say”, that is the question
“How about eye donation?”, I want to ask the family. But truth be told, the grief around is sober, but overwhelming. It seems insensitive to make that proposition in an atmosphere of shock, deep personal loss and sadness. Our super dynamic uncle ji, is lying there on the mat in the closed garage area, in the cold Delhi winter with a white cloth on him. This is all that is left of him. These are their final moments of togetherness with his physical form. Should I ask them a question that is awkward to refuse, but not everyone may have an enthusiastic yes either? While the family has been good to us, we are tenants after all.
I recollect a few years ago I had broached similarly, and it was declined. I’d felt a bit stupid about myself. But a decade later, reflect again.
I learn an important lesson: In my concern for how they might see me, I am robbing a visually impaired person the opportunity of seeing itself.
I gather the courage and speak to the nephew. I’ve googled the FAQs. I assure him there is no disfigurement in the process. He considers for a moment, and offers to bring it up with the daughter. To my relief, she says yes. As it turns out, Naren uncle had requested organ donation just the previous day, even though he was all fine.
The Practical Implementation — what to do
The logistics are left to me. Truth be told, I am now more nervous. Again, I turn to “Google Baba”. The National Health Portal’s 1919 helpline doesn’t work, at least from my mobile. I call the several hospital numbers thrown up by the search. I call the government hospitals. My hope is that the under-privileged get help. No one picks up.
I find an NGO, OrganIndia.org and call their helpline. Promptly, a helpful volunteer lady takes my call. She explains that the numbers I called are board lines, not the eye banks. She highly recommends the Guru Nanak Eye Bank, at LNJP hospital as being highly responsive and professional.
I feel a wee-bit happy. Without my stating my preference for a government hospital, she has recommended one. Besides, it is a Delhi Government hospital. We hear a lot about the Delhi State Government Healthcare Transformation, including from the likes of former U.N. Secretary Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon. But it is even more powerful to hear it from an onground NGO who deals with health authorities in real time.
True to word, in 180 seconds flat, I receive a call on my mobile from a functionary of the Guru Nanak Eye Bank.
What is even more heartening is that the gentleman is out of Delhi, on a personal vacation. Yet he responds pronto and addresses several of my concerns, at that early winter hour.
I learn that for 6 to 8 hours post death, the cornea can be taken. The team from the eye bank will leave within 5 minutes, and come and do the extraction at our place. The process is simple and takes ~15 minutes. Meanwhile, we just need to put a pillow below the neck at 45 degree angle, and keep water soaked cotton on the eyes. And that’s how it unfolds. The team arrives promptly. The team led by a young lady doctor checks medical records, carries out the process courteously. There is no disfigurement.
At centre: Mr. Narendar Khandelwal, or simply Naren chacha. Holi, March 2020
Naren uncle lives on, his eyes lighting up the darkness in the lives of possibly two people. He lives on in our memories with every act of kindness, and his moonh-phat daleri. A bell would ring at our door, every birthday, every festival, and on every practical hands on problem, like me trying to figure how to configure an Ikea contraption from Singapore.
As shocking as his sudden departure is, perhaps that is how lions go — with their independence and pride intact. And lighting up the lives of others.
Naren chacha: Lived like a lion and went like one.
PS: Since sharing this, I’ve received heart-wrenching stories of a former IB Chief of India — a gentleman and soldier, who lost his life waiting for a lung transplant. He was just 65. He was not alone. In India, 400,000 people die every year waiting for a transplant and for other the wait for a match can be as long as 18 years. His daughter started Gift-an-Organ along with CII-Young Indians. I’ve also received heart-warming stories from a fellow IIM alum who runs Krishna Netralaya of the sheer joy of witnessing people regain their vision. Further, I’ve just pledged all nine of my usable organs here. You may consider too. So a personal thanks to readers, and to Naren uncle for inspiring action. | https://medium.com/@rajen-mak/when-covid-19-took-away-our-fittest-uncle-but-his-eyes-live-on-13b77288cf1e | ['Rajen Makhijani'] | 2021-01-09 12:15:33.091000+00:00 | ['Eye Donation', 'Death And Dying', 'Post Covid 19 Recovery', 'Overcoming Fear', 'Covid Diaries'] |
Rewind “Audience Meter wanted more. So we gave it more. (and other stuff)” | Version: 0.0.17
Update: #4
tldr;
- Mixer support added for Audience Meter
- New action “Generate Mixer Clip”
- New action “Moderators”
- Added volume slider for the Rewind Instant Replay source
- Added volume slider for playing Twitch clips on your scene
- Next few updates planned out ❤
Mixer support for Audience Meter
We are really excited to bring support for the Audience Meter to Mixer. You will be required to connect your account to the application so we can watch chat for the phrase you set.
If you are unfamiliar with the Audience Meter, check out this great guide by one of our founders(Josh Belkin) here.
New Actions
Generate Mixer clip
Calling all Mixer partners! You can now generate Mixer clips with the press of a button! Connect your Mixer account to Rewind and set the action with ease. We have put in to their request forum for the ability to embed clips. When this is enabled we can start playing those clips on your active scene!
Moderators
Starting in this update you can now set a chat command that you or your moderators can use to execute either of the options below.
Save the replay (default chat command !saveReplay)
Play the replay on active scene (default chat command !playReplay)
We hope this helps with other scenarios that we might not be thinking of!
Volume Slider
A few users have requested the ability to manage the volume of the Rewind Instant Replay source. Starting in this patch you can easily change this.
Note: The FFMPEG_SOURCE available on Streamlabs OBS sets the audio to be heard by your audience and not by you. If you set the volume on the “Generate Twitch clip” action, the sound will be heard by you and your audience.
What’s next?
We were testing the YouTube integration for Audience Meter and ran into a few things that we didn’t feel comfortable with releasing. We will be working on making sure the experience is the best and release this soon.
After YouTube support we have a very spicy update. This feature will allow you even more freedom with your clips and we hope this enables your creativity even more. Stay tuned!
Will Smith on YouTube
Not subscribed to Rewind? More information here
Not ready to hit fast forward? We got you covered.
Easy Setup
Advanced Setup
Rewind v0.0.16 Update
If you have questions or need help, feel free to get in touch with us via Discord or Twitter!
All the best,
The Layer One Team | https://medium.com/layerone/rewind-audience-meter-wanted-more-so-we-gave-it-more-and-other-stuff-12fda9dda7d | ['Thom Swann'] | 2019-04-29 20:51:46.604000+00:00 | ['Live Streaming', 'Mixer', 'Streaming', 'YouTube', 'Twitch'] |
Seller Spotlight: Former Pitchers Find Amazon Success Right Off the Bat | Big league talent, first class humility, and a knack for e-commerce… you have just read the ingredients for one very interesting interview! This week, Helium 10’s own Karyn Thomas sits down with former AAA baseball pitchers David and Ryan Ledbetter.
Not only do we get a peek at what life is like for twin brother pitchers in the MiLB but also a rare glimpse into the early success of a new Amazon venture. Diversifying strategies, goal-setting revelations, Helium 10 Certification study tips, 100 mph fastballs… this one has it all.
Karyn: I’m so excited for today’s seller spotlight. I’m joined by Ryan and David Ledbetter, who are not only brothers, but twins, best friends, business partners, and confidants. How are you Ryan and David?
David: Doing well, how are you?
Karyn: I’m doing amazing. You two are my favorite twins of all time.
Ryan: You need to expand your twin selection if we’re your favorite twins!
Karyn: I’m not just saying that! You guys are salt of the earth, genuine, inspiring people!
David: *Takes a breath, inflating his ego*
Karyn: And with a great sense of humor!
Ryan: We are so thankful to be here and so glad that you reached out. I don’t think you realize how big of fans we are of Helium 10 and what Amazon can do for people who are not only buying products, but selling products.
Early Innings — David & Ryan’s Background, Pre-Amazon
Karyn: Before we get into your Amazon journey, do you guys mind sharing a brief background of what you were doing before selling on Amazon?
David: Ryan and I both went to a small, Christian school and we both ended up marrying our high school sweethearts.
We ended up getting drafted in the MiLB draft of 2013. We got to play professional baseball for about five years. Ryan retired in 2017 and I retired in 2018. Ryan is now a financial advisor with Edward Jones and I work with a startup company that invests in minor league baseball players.
We also do Amazon part time because we wanted to pursue some entrepreneurial endeavors. A friend of ours became successful through Amazon and ended up leaving his job for it. He told us “You gotta get in on this.”
Karyn: What position did you guys play?
Ryan: We were both pitchers. David was a starting pitcher and I was a relief pitcher. I come in to close the game. David has been a starter since high school. We had some cool success in high school, winning two state championships. Then we went to a small Christian university in Ohio. We were what many called “late bloomers” — played a little high school ball like everybody, then started getting bigger, stronger, and throwing harder. Everyone was like “What? What happened to these kids?”
Karyn: Wow! What’s the fastest you’ve ever thrown?
Ryan: I was clocked at 100 mph by one gun and 99 on another. But that was literally one time!
David: Ryan. If you hit it once… it counts.
Ryan: It’s true. But the faster it goes in the faster it goes out, remember that. If they (the batter) can get a piece of 100, it’s gonna leave the park real fast.
David: Those were our past lives! We don’t play baseball anymore, we just teach it.
Covering All the Bases — Amazon Mentor and Diversifying Business
Karyn: So you touched on how you got into Amazon — you had a friend who was doing it and he kind of tested the theory that you could indeed make money being a seller on Amazon. Can you tell me when you got started and your journey from then until now?
David: 100%. So, our friend was doing retail arbitrage. Most people try to teach the three ways to sell on Amazon: retail arbitrage, wholesale, and then private label. He started doing retail arbitrage for about a year and was finding success, but it just requires so much time. It requires a little bit more in the way of logistics. You have to go buy this stuff. You have to know what’s on sale and then resell it. Then it just becomes hard with Amazon, as they kind of cracked down on needing to disclose where you bought the item so that they know you can officially sell it. So he kind of left that bottle, went to wholesale, and started doing really well.
He ended up leaving his job and he’s like, “Guys, I’m doing like, $2 million in sales.”
He also had a strong margin. He’s a very smart guy, we trust him a lot, and I’m glad we stayed in touch. But he told us we really needed to dive in. Ryan and I had wanted to be doing something together and this just happened to be what we started.
I feel like our company was founded, you know… you gotta be a “founder” to be a millennial these days… in late 2018, but we really didn’t do anything with it until probably March of this year (2020).
Ryan: Yeah, COVID. Whenever COVID hit. We were like, shoot. We need to be doing something online.
David: So we decided — “Hey, we’re going to start pursuing this. We’re going to reach out and we’re going to find good products.”
And of course, we found those products through none other than Helium 10, the greatest piece of software that any Amazon seller could use. It really is the truth. I don’t know how anybody does anything without Helium 10.
We started growing our sales and since March, we’ve added a bunch of products. We’ve hit 100K in sales this month and have been steadily increasing. We sell about $16,000-$20,000 on average a month now. So it’s just cool to see the trend go up. Will that continue forever? Probably not. We don’t want to do wholesale forever.
It’s just a lot more fun to do private label. You get to own the brand.
We want to work on a non-linear scale. So, how many ways can you make income through selling on Amazon? One of those ways is wholesale. It’s a great intro because, “Hey, I know I could buy this, I can sell it at a certain amount, then all I need to do is really manage my cash flow well.” But we’d like to move into private label. Now what we’re doing is partnering with brands using Helium 10. That’s why we got Helium 10 certified!
We want to partner with brands, bring them into what we’re doing, and market their product for them. Basically say, “Are you non-existent on Amazon? Because you should be on Amazon. Or are you just existing on Amazon and not thriving? We want to help you thrive on Amazon.”
So that’s kind of where we’re moving. Now we have two or three relationships with some great brands, great people. We’re much more relationship-driven individuals. So we see that as more of the long term value we add.
Karyn: It’s so smart that you guys are doing it the right way, where you’re not just putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Just from experience, I started out selling on Amazon one way with private label, which is great. It’s a fantastic way. But I have learned that it is really important to have multiple eggs in different baskets. Also, like you were saying, it’s so important to manage cash flow.
You know, as a millennial business owner, just thinking, “Ooh, I’m making money on Amazon. I’m going to really just love life.” It’s like, oops, you also have to keep buying inventory, invest in marketing, etc. You guys are really smart to do it the right way from the beginning.
David: It’s definitely a testament to our friend. He’s helped us tremendously. He’s a very by-the-book guy. He was an accountant previous to leaving his job. So, I would say we need to give it all to Rob Nesteroff. Gotta give him the credit.
Karyn: It really helps having a mentor. Somebody that can give you personal advice, has proven the model, and can kind of say, “Here’s what we did well and here’s where we made mistakes.” Then you can kind of do even better, right? When you know the pitfalls to avoid.
A Team Sport — Doing Business as Brothers
Karyn: Can we just touch on the fact that you guys do this together? Ryan, can you tell me a little bit more about your relationship and how you guys do this business together as brothers and best friends… how does it work?
Ryan: So we’ve always done everything together. I mean, we were married on the same day, one year apart. Getting into this business was just an excuse to hang out more and then have something that we can do with our time that’s profitable as well.
The way that businesses evolve is communication. “What is the goal? What is the vision for this business in the first place?” Some people ask if it’s money that drives us. You dive into those things and you go, “How much is enough?” David talked about non-linear income streams. We talk a lot about finances and all that stuff, especially with me being a financial advisor, blah, blah, blah.
But we want to make sure that we have different streams that we’re sending up and then come back to pay you over time. Those streams are enough to basically pay for your lifestyle. And that’s real freedom.
That’s when you really get to: “I can spend time with my kids today and not have to worry about all this other stuff that I have to do.” So that’s kind of where this was born from. Let’s set this up and build something, then keep going and learn new skills that will help in the future. Also we love spending time together. So it’s pretty fun.
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball — Business Goals
Karyn: Let’s dive a little bit deeper into what you mentioned about business goals. What might that look like? Is it once you have five clients that you’re helping on Amazon? Is it when you have five privately owned products? Or is it hitting $100,000 a month?
Ryan: So that five client thing was a big one for the brands we help. We only want five clients because we feel like that’s when you can really get to know someone and you can literally say, “Hey, it’s just me, my brother, and another guy that we work with as well, but it’s just us three. We are going to make you the highest priority possible. You won’t get this level of service anywhere else. We don’t have 120 other clients that we’re looking after. It’s literally you. If we’re not doing a good job, tell us what we’re doing wrong, because we want this to be fun for both of us.”
In terms of private label and wholesale, we don’t really have a number. It’s more of how much time we want to spend packing products or marketing. So it’s more based on how much time we have available. That’s how the business grows. All the goal settlers probably hate hearing that, but I mean, it is what it is!
Karyn: No, I get that. I’ve gotten to know you guys a little bit over the past few weeks and I feel very much that you guys are people driven — that you really care a lot about giving back and serving your family and your community. That was really incorporated in your goals a lot.
Can you explain maybe a little bit more David, what your vision is like? Let’s say when you’ve made it. You’ve hit your goals. What is your ultimate desire to give back to your community?
David: Ryan didn’t mention it, but our first goal was just to pay off our homes. Like, this business literally just exists for us to pay off our houses. Then once we achieve that, what else is there to do? Again, how much is enough? I deal with young, minor league ball players who think they’re gonna make a hundred million dollars. I have to be the one that tells them, “Is that going to make you happy making a hundred million dollars? Because if it is, you’re going to have a really sad life.”
That’s the biggest reason for the businesses. Let’s do this, but we like to do it together.
If you can win as an individual, that’s fantastic. That should drive you. But it doesn’t support anybody else, but yourself.
That’s why I think we’ve enjoyed moving to this “agency” kind of idea. The wholesale model is very similar too. Our goal, right now, is just a means to an end. But eventually, we can ask ourselves, “Can we start hiring young adults who also have that entrepreneurial drive?” Maybe they just want to make some extra cash and we can be, hopefully, good examples for them. We can teach them the way to go.
A leader is one that knows the way, goes the way, shows the way.
So we would love to be those examples for these younger kids. So that’s kind of where the wholesale model is. But we don’t see ourselves doing that on a really grand scale.
Then private label. Obviously we would just love to have our own products and our own brand that we’re able to eventually sell. That can maybe pay for our homes or whatever we want. And we can give it to somebody else when we’re done.
The goal of a business is not to just make yourself ridiculously rich. It’s to give back, in whatever capacity that is.
I think that’s that’s the long term. We don’t really know the future. There’s only one man that knows the future, that’s God. But while we’re here, we’re doing this right now. Our goal is to figure out how to best assimilate our knowledge to others to help them reach their goals.
Students of the Game — Helium 10 Certification Program
Karyn: You’re looking at trends and you’re assessing what you can do to both achieve a great lifestyle, to be able to work together, to generate an income, and to pay off your homes. But also to plan for the future. It’s amazing to me that you started back in March and saw where the economy was going with COVID and the shut down. You saw this opportunity with our Helium 10 Certification Program.
Can you explain more your thought process behind that, David? And also what the certification process was like. Was it hard? Was it no big deal?
David: It was just like going back to school! When I retired from baseball, I was halfway through my MBA. So I finished that and I was like, “I have no idea what I’m going to use this for,” but I knew it was important. I knew that I’d already spent money on it. When I start something, I want to finish it. But with the Helium 10 Certification Program, it was kind of a similar mindset. I was out of school, but I had just been there. I knew like, “Hey, this is how school works.” You have to study. Ryan and I had been using Helium 10 a ton, and we were getting questions about how we use Helium 10 to find good products.
As we got more questions, we learned there are people who don’t know what they’re doing on Amazon, but they’re trying to sell on Amazon. There’s a need for people who have this knowledge.
Apparently the Helium 10 Certification Program hasn’t been out that long. I did not know that. I thought it was just an absolute, no brainer. I was like, “Oh, Helium 10 has a Certification Program! We gotta get that.” So I just started studying and it probably took me a month — going through each module, watching each video. That’s why, Karyn, you and Brad… you guys are celebrities. I’ve seen you guys so much…. Now, I’m like, “Oh dude, they’re talking to me!
Ryan: “They’re real people, what?!”
With the Helium 10 Certification, I’m basically paying $80 for a degree.
David Ledbetter
It’s not just a measure of past success. We needed Helium 10 today because we don’t have a huge track record with brands that we partner with yet — we just started. But now I can say, “Hey, I know what I’m doing. I’m Helium 10 certified. How many people do you know that are Helium 10 certified?”
Also, I had no idea how extensive the suite of available tools are at our disposal. It helps knowing what you can actually do with the software as opposed to just knowing the basics of Xray or the Helium 10 Chrome extension. Like yeah, that helps. But there’s so much more.
Karyn: Many people don’t have the time to learn, but sometimes they also don’t have the desire. It is tricky, right? That’s why degrees are valuable in a lot of ways, because it shows you are a master of something.
Calling Their Shot — Favorite Helium 10 Tool
Karyn: What is your favorite Helium 10 tool?
Ryan: I say Scribbles, every time!
Karyn: Woo!
Ryan: It’s the colors! But really, it makes it fun to optimize listings. And who thought optimizing listings would be fun?
Karyn: Are you good writers?
Ryan: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think so.
David: Ryan is a great writer.
Ryan: I just try to put words in there and find the good keywords.
David: Didn’t you guys just introduce the tool where you can use X-ray and then move it into Cerebro too?
Karyn: Yes!
David: That’s why, again, back to the Helium 10 Certification Program, if you know how to use Helium 10 as a collective tool, instead of just little bitty tools, you are capable of so much more in the Amazon marketplace. Imagine the ability to decipher data from Amazon to a point you can say, “I know exactly what market I need to be in. I know what products I can sell in that market. I know how to sell them. I can track how well they sell. AND I can do PPC! There’s no end to it!
Karyn: That was a mic drop moment! Right?
Ryan: He’s the copywriter.
David: I had it written down…
Karyn: Haha! I want to ask, what in your life experience like brought this out? Like you’re obviously really good with people, you’re really smart to see the trends, and you work well together.
Major League Motivations — Faith, Humility, and Inspiration for New Sellers
Karyn: Was there an “Aha!” moment in your life or was this just how you were raised?
What made you guys who you are?
David: I just follow Ryan around.
Ryan: That is a hard question. The Lord, that would be number one — his sovereignty in our lives has been unmistakable. It’s his glory that we’re here for in the first place. So I always have to recognize, any profit that we can ever have comes from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
I would also say our dad and mom have been very, very strong influences in our lives. Just teaching us: What does work look like? What is work ethic? How do you learn something? How do you adapt to change?
Sports was big too, because when you’re failing in front of 10,000 people and they’re all looking at you and you can’t make an adjustment… you’ll remember that moment. Which has happened!
David: Ryan, I think that’s so true. I want to build on that too, about our faith. You can be Christian and not be humble, right? But that will quickly lead you to humility.
I think understanding how small we actually are in the picture of this world and this life — it helps you realize we’re all just learning and we’re all just a part of the same thing.
We’re all just walking through this life together, trying to figure out the best way to live. But it’s hard when you’re not living according to the word. I think our faith plays a huge part in that. That’s directly influenced by our parents who have taught us, “Work is your best friend. Learn to love the whole journey.”
Baseball taught us that too. Ryan, even building on that failure…. You want to get a laugh? Look at my stats from 2015. I pitched the whole year and still had a 7.5 ERA (earned run average). I gave up, I think, over 30 home runs… just got trampled on! But the point is that I finished the year — I picked up the ball every time I needed to. And we still made AAA.
You can be terrible, and there will be seasons of failure. But all you gotta do is just pick up the ball and keep going.
That doesn’t mean drive your head into the stone wall until you black out. But it does mean: adapt, be smart. Look ahead, keep your head up. Don’t get too down on yourself.
Karyn: In closing, can you each share your biggest piece of advice to someone just getting started? Someone who was where you guys were six months ago… and give them advice on how they can have success in this fun, crazy world of selling on Amazon as a business owner?
David: First, the hardest part in the marathon is that first step. So choose to do something. If you don’t like the way that your life is going right now, or you don’t like what’s happened in your life, or are you looking to make income… or are you just trying to have fun! Just start with one thing. Recognize you want to make a change. Make that change right now.
Then two, like I just said, keep picking up the ball. It’s not going to be easy.
Anything that is worth doing and enjoying is not going to be easy.
The easiest thing to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. Don’t do it. Learn as much as you can.
If you need help, reach out to us!
A special thank you to David and Ryan for taking the time to sit with us and share their inspiring journey. Authenticity seems like it’s harder than ever to come by these days and you guys were such a refreshing (and charming!) look at the industry. We hope the both of you continue to knock it out of the park!
Reach out to David and Ryan Ledbetter at www.betterledconsulting.com/ | https://medium.com/@amazon-seller-tools/seller-spotlight-former-pitchers-find-amazon-success-right-off-the-bat-68c3b12d6698 | [] | 2020-12-28 17:27:43.265000+00:00 | ['Amazon Sellers', 'Ecommerce', 'Selling On Amazon', 'Entrepreneur', 'Business'] |
Behind the Try Guys, there are stories too | Behind the Try Guys, there are stories too
Five years ago, I learned that the best gift that one could ever get is to be able to give. And one thing that I need to do to deserve the gift, is to try. It took me lots of watching the Try Guys being open to new experiences that allowed me to realize that saying “Hi” to a stranger or taking opportunities won’t be so bad at all. Owren Dec 19, 2020·5 min read
I think people my age at one point, were obsessed with Buzzfeed content, the Try Guys included. They entertained us when the internet was full of stress-inducing stuff. How could four guys, who just seem like ordinary employees working in a company to produce videos, suddenly became viral, and developed a brotherhood? We did not know why or how it happened but fast forward to 2020, they are still raking up views, establishing their own company, snatching partnerships, became #1 New York Times Best-seller authors, who put up an amazing tour which I was lucky to be able to go in Singapore last September, and now released a documentary, “Behind the Try”. They’re all in their 30s when they started.
I had already followed them when Buzzfeed was still thriving and got to listen to the audiobook version of “The Hidden Power of Fucking Up”. The documentary offers not so surprising details or side about them; we knew that last year a pivotal moment for Eugene when he put together his coming out video and the fact that his relationship with his parents had a bit of avoiding talking about the issue and hoping that things change on their own. Zach had already opened up about his childhood and insecurity. And we knew that Keith and Ned had all bits of comedic bites and fatherly love in their beings. So what we are seeing isn’t so much about how much has been revealed about them, but more of witnessing the testament of their hard work in keeping themselves and their company together, just to continue to show everyone and themselves that we can still make a value out of our lives by trying.
What is interesting about the Try Guys is that they weren’t childhood friends, college, or bandmates, nor they had a similar life goal at first. They were walking different paths of life and somehow just got into the deep pool because they just somehow tried to do something together — it might start with a why not? They have shown pieces of their lives in every video ever since, which is one of the biggest reasons why we love them because there are some things that we do not like, we struggle with, or we are guilty of taking pleasure in too.
Apparently, there were a couple of things that we did not realize were happening as well. The stress in preparing a show and a tour — little things could frustrate you for weeks especially when the budget spiked. Of course, the last thing they wanted was a setback when it was about to be the biggest thing they’re not sure if they would ever get to do again or not. The tour scraped some part of their lives — we could not imagine how difficult it must be for Ned to be away from his newborn baby, Wes, and his wife. The rest of the guys to be away from their partners too. Some even had to balance between their personal projects just to be on the road, promoting their book, and meeting with the “views” — as they said that views represent the people who watch and receive their message. So of course there were things at stake. The documentary showed what was at stake right in the beginning and the things that they missed out on. Brotherhood isn’t all nice and flowers, something’s gotta shake because the road is rocky. I did not actually expect Eugene’s mom in the documentary at all — because I kind of did not want to get emotional watching it in the morning (while it was premiering), but guess what, it did make me cry. I also did not expect how sentimental Ned keeping up with Wes, or something did actually happen to one of their videos. This particular thing that happened, showed a glimpse of their dynamics as a quartet. Zach had been taking more parts behind the scenes — and when you have someone in a position like him, of course, friction is inevitable. Eugene providing a more objective suggestion to do a rollback and helping the other guys process their emotional blowback.
We have every right to be concerned about each of the guys but always remember that they are grown-ups who probably can figure things out themselves thus we need to learn how to stay out of it. We can only hope for the best work, relationship, their partners, families, and the company. We hope that they will continue to encourage others to be in the thumbnail — like how they encouraged Eugene to be in the center of attention.
I do not know if seeing most of what you had already expected in a documentary is a good thing or not — because usually, the public does not know what is happening, who these people are, or how are their relations with other people. With the Try Guys, at least we think that we know some of them because they have been very open with almost everything. They have poured so much into their book too.
“Behind the Try” is a landmark for all of us that reminds us of how they started and why they still try to do more — we have learned from them, we don’t just enjoy their content or admire them from afar. It is also a nice memento for those who got to see the tour — it had bits of some memorable moments, from Keith’s fried chicken galore, a forecast of Ned being an awkward dad who tries too hard, Eugene’s queer fiesta, and Zach’s heartfelt and uplifting monologue to leave all the bullshit and just have fun. And even after years, they still could open up and teach us about things. They are not short of life experiences or points of view.
They have been present in our bedroom, living room, classroom, commuting route, or by our side when we sit in a cafe. At the same time, showing the audience an example on how to embrace the 30s. And a reminder that there’s someone out there who has tried and will always tell us that it’s okay to try. | https://medium.com/@owrenkwan/behind-the-try-guys-there-are-stories-too-7cee44049467 | [] | 2021-03-06 13:15:00.491000+00:00 | ['Try', 'Documentary', 'Pop Culture', 'Internet', 'The Try Guys'] |
The Top Game Designer Apps for Mobile Creators | There are now over 2.2 billion active gamers around the world, and the market is expected to reach $143.5 billion by 2020. In such a massive market, it’s hard to stick out from the crowd. Here are a few of our favorite game designer apps to help make your great ideas just a little bit better.
Unity — the Top Mobile Game Engine for a Reason
Choosing the right engine is a complex decision for mobile game designers and studios. The competencies and preferences of the team, structure of the game, tech stack, community, and a host of other features all play a role.
Unity is always a serious contender for mobile designers and developers. Currently, Unity powers over 50% of mobile games and 60% of augmented and virtual reality content, including 34% of the top 1000 free mobile games. It’s a great game design app for both Android and iPad, along with virtually any platform you can think of, including multiple VR platforms and console gaming systems.
This looks like a really cool mobile game universe.
Unity is a usually touted as a developer tool, but there’s plenty for designers to love too. It integrates with virtually any graphics or animation tool and has extremely sophisticated functionality in a designer-friendly interface. Animation, physics, lighting, and post-processing effects are gorgeous, and best of all: there’s a large community to draw on.
That community keeps the asset store well-stocked with templates, textures, pre-built characters and environments, and other digital assets. With access to so much great content, Unity can speed up the design process, provide inspiration for designers, and ensure you never have to reinvent the wheel.
Stencyl — A Simple Tile-Based Game Design Engine
While few video game design apps offer the power of Unity, not every game requires it. For simple concepts and indie developers, sometimes simpler is better.
Enter Stencyl, a development platform built with an eye to accessibility. The app is designed for creating two-dimensional games, using an intuitive drag and drop interface. A tile-based system makes level design a snap. The system also has good support for active objects, allowing you to design fairly complex character behavior, and tweak physics, animation and collision for the perfect look and gameplay.
You can do all of this without coding, building games for Android or iOS, along with Mac, Windows, Linux, and even Flash (remember Flash?). For those who want more control, Stencyl does support coding via Haxe, and offers both engine and toolset SDKs, along with third-party plugins and coding-free ad integration for monetization.
We love these old school styled games.
Stencyl does have some hard limits. If you’re into virtual reality or traditional 3D games, it’s not the tool for you. Likewise, there are more sophisticated 2D tools out there. However, for indie developers and anyone creating simple, addictive mobile games, Stencyl is a great option. Check out their mobile showcase to see some of the games users are creating.
Stencyl offers a free account for education, testing, and publishing on Flash (which obviously won’t get you mobile users). To get access to mobile platforms, you’ll need a Studio license, at $199 per year.
Spine — Vivid 2D Skeletal Animation That Doesn’t Hog Resources
In mobile game design, tools are more than just tools. The software you use, the workflow, benefits, and constraints can profoundly affect how your game looks, feels, and plays in its final iteration.
As a tool optimized for 2D skeletal design, Spine can transform your approach to game animation, leading to a more efficient workflow than traditional sprite sheets. A character can be animated in multiple scenes with only a single set of images.
It doesn’t matter whether the character is running uphill, jumping between platforms, or sitting down — once you get your character right, you can animate them in any situation without drawing frame by frame animation (although Spine does support frames as well). You can even reskin characters, using the same essential skeleton for multiple characters to save work.
This can accelerate your workflow, making it much easier and less time consuming to animate complex movements smoothly and realistically. That in turn allows you to do more with motion, creating complex animations that might not have fit into your timeframe otherwise.
It also redefines what your app can accomplish. Sprites take a lot of memory — still a limited resource in mobile apps — and too many animations could lower adoption and use. Spine can expand the limits of what’s possible in mobile game design.
Definitely looks like the monsters under our beds.
Spine isn’t confined to classic humanoid characters with firm textures. Mesh deformation can give softness and stretch to support realistic body textures, and bones can be used to impose path constraints, allowing you to fluidly animate moving vines, rubbery or stretchy bodies, and complex mechanical movements using the same tools you’d use for a conventional human character. Check out the Spine demos to see it in action.
For pricing, Spine bucks the trend of perpetual subscription in favor of one-time, relatively affordable prices. Small businesses and private users can buy Spine Essential for $69. There are also Professional licenses (with perpetual updates) at a fixed price, along with Enterprise and Educational licenses available.
Overflow.io — Get User Flow Right
Mobile games are played by a diverse audience, in a wide range of situations. Your game will likely have seasoned pros who intuitively grasp gaming conventions, along with new players who might need a little hand-holding to learn the basics.
Your players will enjoy it during lunch break or on their commute (assuming they’re not driving!) where they may have frequent interruptions, as well as at home, where they’re less likely to be disturbed.
You don’t have to accommodate all these players and situations, but it’s to your benefit to do so. If busy gamers can’t play short sessions on the go, some of them will uninstall your game before they find out how great it is. If new gamers don’t have a tutorial and/or clearly laid out controls, they’ll never become dedicated fans. It’s not enough to make a great game, you need to build a great experience — and that requires well-designed user flow.
Overflow.io helps you conceptualize and plan a great user flow early in the design process, ensuring your app will be built around user needs. Overflow.io does one thing, and it does it extremely well: creating playable user flow diagrams.
Creating your user flow is incredibly important in mobile game design.
Designers can quickly build vivid, realistic screens, then connect them together into a flowchart that simulates the behavior of the app very quickly (about 20 minutes to link 60 artboards together). Users can then click buttons to navigate through the chart — either in the diagram view, or in a rapid prototype that simulates the flow of the app (check out this example user flowchart to see how it works).
Not only is this useful for designers conceptualizing and developing flow, it also helps them communicate their thought process to other stakeholders effectively. Therefore, it’s also a useful tool for entrepreneurs, developers, and anyone else who needs an easy and effective way to illustrate their app ideas.
Overflow is available in a free beta for MacOS. A Windows version is already in the works.
Proto.io — How to Build an App the Right Way
With the power of modern video game design apps, it’s tempting to jump into building the actual game a little too quickly. Tweaking backgrounds and character appearances, playing with physics and building smooth animation is a lot of fun, and it’s the point where the game starts to become “real” for a lot of designers.
But when a game is thrown together without enough planning, players know it. Inconsistent design and behavior distract users from your game, settings and characters don’t mesh as well with each other, and plot elements (if your game has any) feel tagged on. Poor planning can turn beautiful design and engaging mechanics into a game that’s not worth the space it takes up on your phone.
Proto.io helps designers turn their vision into a strong game blueprint, setting their team up for success. Proto.io lets designers build realistic, playable prototypes using animations, gesture controls, and interactions to bring the idea to life — all without writing a line of code.
Thanks to functional prototypes, Proto.io can help you launch a mobile game with fewer bugs.
Of course, this allows you to keep working on the elements that make a game exciting without losing track of how each piece fits into the game as a whole or diverging from the vision of other team members. Add in integration with design tools like Photoshop and Sketch, it’s easy to fit in with your existing workflow. Combined with an intuitive, user-friendly interface, that makes it a lot easier to bring your vision to life.
Proto.io offers a number of pricing options, making it a great option for anyone from freelancers to major game development studios. But don’t take our word for it — start your 15-day free trial to see if it’s right for you.
The Right Game Designer Apps
Mobile has changed gaming forever, transforming it from a niche interest to a hobby enjoyed by billions worldwide. At the same time, gaming has transformed mobile apps, challenging developers to make everyday tasks more engaging, beautiful, and enjoyable.
The right game designer apps can help you stay on the cutting edge, making innovative games that challenge and delight your users. Here are a few more articles, with tips and inspiration for your next mobile design project:
Proto.io lets anyone build mobile app prototypes that feel real. No coding or design skills required. Bring your ideas to life quickly! Sign up for a free 15-day trial of Proto.io today and get started on your next mobile app design.
Know a great mobile game design app we left out? Let us know by tweeting us @Protoio! | https://protoio.medium.com/the-top-game-designer-apps-for-mobile-creators-843641bb6e52 | [] | 2018-10-10 14:01:01.895000+00:00 | ['Game Design', 'Mobile Apps', 'UI', 'Tools', 'Design'] |
The Canadian Video Game Industry: A 2020 Analysis | Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
Introduction
The Canadian video game industry has been booming. In 2019 Nordicity commissioned a report titled The Canadian Video Game Industry 2019 that found there were 692 active video game companies in Canada. Of the 692 companies more than half about 55% had fewer than five people. The entire sector brought in approximately 3.6 billion in revenue in 2019 and 76% of revenues came from markets outside of Canada. The sector employed 48,000 full time employees in 2019 and the average age of the workforce is 31 years old. The makeup of women in the workforce sits at 19% and the industry overall contributed 4.5 billion in GDP contribution[1].
Each of the metrics mentioned have increased greatly from 2017 and showcase the raw growth and size of the industry. The Canadian video game sector represents a massive opportunity for Canada and to allow the sector to succeed there have been a variety of policy decisions taken. The world of game development and video games has been changing dramatically over the course of the past two decades from various technological and economic factors.
What has stopped game development from thriving in other markets outside North America and Japan are the lack of government supports for the industry and censorship rules. Canadian game development has succeeded in large part due to the federal and provincial governments providing strong incentives and the opportunities for growth in the sector. In this paper we will analyze important factors affecting the industry, key players, policy decisions taken and the future issues that need to be addressed. The main questions this paper focuses on is: what has been successful for the industry? And what will allow the Canadian video game sector to continue and succeed?
Analysis of Key Issues and Trends
Opportunities Analysis
Today, video game related content permeates YouTube’s trending page globally, and allows for widespread exposure in regional markets across the world. In fact, the popularity of gaming content on YouTube has grown exponentially and a significant portion of top subscribed channels on the platform are gaming related channels. The growth of e-sports, digital streaming with Twitch as well as the global uptick in playing games during the pandemic has led to massive growth for game communities and sales for the industry[2].
Many older gamers have fond memories of playing games in an arcade or purchasing game cartridge and CDs. Today, thanks to digital video game platforms such as Steam millions of people can download the most popular games. There has been increasing interest and development in other digital platforms as well such as Playstaiton Now, GeForce Now and Google Stadia. Physical games are still around, but the industry has accepted the digital first narrative and major game studios and developers have focused on providing a variety of options for how players can experience their content.
In Canada, resides a nation of gamers with diverse play styles for all segments of the population. 61% of the Canadian population plays video games and the split of gamers is 50% female and 50% male according to The NPD Group[3]. Matching the enthusiasm of playing games is the video game development that happens in the country. Canada is the third largest game developer in the world and has been behind the success of some of the best-selling international gaming franchises including Mass Effect and Assassins Creed.
Photo by Alex Carmichael on Unsplash
Threats Analysis
As traditional forms of media in Canada such as television were being hit hard with cord cutting as well as the growth of digital streamers it led to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR). Broadcasting and telecommunications members wanted to zero in on the lack of oversight in the creative industries in Canada to help keep jobs in Canada. In February 2020 when the BLTR panel released their report in the description of audio-visual content there was the inclusion of interactive media[4]. This meant video games may potentially fall under the broadcast regulatory framework.
Furthermore, in Canada video games are played in an equal split of 50% each between both men and women, but the makeup of the video game industry in Canada does not reflect that reality. Currently, in the industry only 19% of the direct workforce are women, which showcases that the industry has a long way to go to be reflective of the community it represents. In a similar area to gender representation is the need for more diverse BIPOC representation in the industry. Major gaming studios need to step up alongside the rest of the media and cultural sector with diversity of their workforce. With the growth of the industry has also come copyright and privacy issues. Many small game studios are not well versed with protecting their intellectual property and many large studios deal with “crunch” related problems. In addition, within the video game community globally there have been many a disturbing rise in cases of privacy breeches, safety concerns and hate speech[5].
Industry Firsts: Canadian Game Awards and Canadian Screen Awards
2020 represented an important year for the growth of the industry in number of players and policy decisions but also from the recognition it received in Canada. This is important to mention because it showcases that from now onwards mainstream video games are officially recognized in Canada as cultural media that is embedded into Canadian social and cultural fabric.
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash
In April 2020, the first annual Canadian Game Awards (CGA) produced by Northern Arena was set to take place to celebrate Canada’s video game industry at TIFF Bell. However, due to COVID-19 it was cancelled and was done through digital stream in September 2020. The award show was set to be broadcast on major channels such as Amazon Prime, Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Telus showcasing the mass appeal and potential the industry has to be something like a Juno Awards. The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television each year in March produces the Canadian Screen Awards which was also delayed and later done virtually in May 2020. Watching the stream revealed that there was the inclusion for the first time of Best Video Game Narrative[6].
Video Game Policy in Canada — Federal and Provincial
Federal Initiatives
In February 2020 when the BLTR panel released their report there was the inclusion of interactive media which could have led to video games being put under the broadcast regulatory framework. The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) was able to work with the Minister of Heritage’s office to ensure that video games specifically be excluded from any legislation. The purpose of the review and subsequent legislation to follow is to provide better jobs for Canadian creators and that mandate is being achieved and exceeded by game studios compared to other traditional forms of media. Had video games been included there could have been major ramifications for foreign owned studios that could have led to a shakeup in the industry. ESAC has been advocating for less oversight as they understand the importance of not placing content requirements and restrictions that have failed in other countries. The gaming industry has thrived in Canada because of the lack of restrictions and traditionally has focused on making games that can sell worldwide as more than 76% of revenues come from international markets.
Members of the industry such as ESAC also successfully lobbied so video games were defined as a technology product and not a cultural product in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement[7]. The federal government also introduced the Global Talent Stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, that has made the application process for international talent joining Canadian companies easier[8]. 2015 data from ESAC showed that 13% of the Canadian video game industry’s workforce had foreign workers who are essential to the industry for niche skill sets.
Ontario Provincial Policy
In 2019, Ontario provided an important policy change for small to mid-size game development studios. Prior, to the new policy studios in Ontario could apply for funding only after completing a game project and spending at least $1 million in each fiscal year for labour related costs. If they were able to meet those requirements they could qualify for the province’s credit. However, understanding the changing nature of the industry and the increasing average development time for game projects the Ontario government set out new rules[9]. Applying for the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit was changed so applicants would not need to be done a project and could also apply annually during the project. In addition, the qualifying cost of $1 million for labour costs was reduced to $500,000 per year allowing smaller studios the opportunity to qualify.
Game studios had previously been vocal in Ontario about the complex process to apply, but the new system has listened to those concerns and made it easier to qualify and complete the application. For some studios, the credit from the provincial government can cover a significant portion of their total labour costs for game production. This can allow gaming studios who are looking to grow quickly hire the necessary talent and make a quality game product.
The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) has been a big support for studios as well with grant funding from the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) fund. Through the IDM Fund there are four streams offered including a stream for production and conception definition[10]. 50% of eligible project expenses to a maximum of $50,000 are available for concept definition projects and $250,000 for digital media production project. On a policy front previously, Ontario Creates was having difficulties with too many irrelevant companies accessing the tax credit. As a result, Ontario Creates switched to a funding model and included more specific eligibility criteria and qualifying expenses for more oversight. Between 2018–2019 it was reported Ontario Creates invested a total of 8.9 million in 149 IDM projects across the four different streams[11]. Funding for the companies included areas such as early-stage development, market-ready content development as well as global market development.
Ontario has also set itself up well with strong domestic talent with established engineering and game production related programs in Ontario colleges and universities. For example, in animation Sheridan is one of the best in the world and has churned out many skilled animators through their program who have even gone on to work with Disney and Pixar[12].
Federal Incentive Programs
Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash
From the Creative Canada Report from 2017 the Canada Media Fund was given specific directive to increase funding for innovative and digital media content such as video games. As a result, the CMF specifically opened streams and programs that make it easier for video game studios and independent developers to apply[13]. These streams give an opportunity to test concepts quickly and are helping accelerate the growth of innovation in the sector.
The Federal government also has the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program (SR&ED) that can also be applicable to game studios. IRAP and SR&ED can provide innovative game studios with between $50,000 to $500,000 each year to help with supplementing development costs if they meet the specific criteria. Beyond those two programs game studios have also found an ally with Canadian banks such as the Busines Development Bank of Canada (BDC) which has shown strong support for Canadian video game studios. The past few years within BDC’s venture capital portfolio, Execution Labs, a hybrid game incubator has invested through fund investments in independent game studios or directly into game IP[14].
Future Issues and Policy Considerations
There are four key areas that will affect the immediate future of the industry that need to be zeroed in on. Those are privacy and safety concerns, reflecting diversity, work conditions for employees as well as intellectual property challenges for game studios.
Privacy and Safety Concerns
For privacy and safety concerns the next steps for game studios are to become familiar with the newly rolled out Digital Charter in Canada from the Digital Charter Implementation Act announced by the Minister of Innovation. The charter has ten commitments including safety and security and free from hate and violent extremism[15]. Game studios in the coming months will need to reflect deeply on their policies to protect the privacy of game users and the data they collect. Especially for multiplayer games this is especially important, as there have been increasing reports in large multiplayer games of safety and security concerns as well as hate speech appearing in games. These issues have hurt the global industry and it is important for Canadian game studios to work internally for mechanisms to combat these concerns and match the principles of the Digital Charter.
Photo by Alex Haney on Unsplash
Gender Diversity and BIPOC
Furthermore, the industry needs to contend with the reality that only 19% of the overall workforce in 2019 consisted of women. There was a slight improvement from 2017 when the overall percentage was 16% but much more is needed to be done. The disparity is largest in British Columbia’s workforce which had 14% of women representation and Ontario had the highest at 26% out of the provinces[16]. In addition, it is important to note large and very large game studios employ the smaller overall percentage of women when compared to small and medium sized game studios. As a result, two areas of improvement on a policy perspective is for the province of British Columbia to learn from Ontario and play catchup. In addition, large and very large game studios need to work specifically to address this gap in their corporate hiring practices. Potentially, options to consider are having funding tied to specific representation goals such as having female executives or founders in game studios.
In the same vein of gender representation, the need for more diverse BIPOC representation is also important. Major gaming studios need to step up and learn from the polices set recently within the media and cultural sector with diversity of the workforce being a priority such as with Bell Canada’s recent commitments. The Canada Media Fund this year showed a potential model for tying specific funding requirements to specific BIPOC goals that can also be modeled[17]. The industry is showing positive steps forward already for example, Ubisoft recently started a BIPOC online series that features diverse voices and profiles at the company[18]. This is a step in the right direction for the organization and the diversity polices for major gaming studios need to continue to reflect the people that play and use their products.
Crunch Time
There have been recent reports of employees in Canadian game studios having to work extremely long hours specifically during “crunch time” when project deadlines are approaching. In some cases, game design jobs can be 14–16-hour long workdays and large Canadian game studios such as Bioware are taking notice of the burnout that can occur and are taking steps to mitigate this issue. Chapters of Game Workers Unite that support a union for the industry are growing traction in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver[19].
Copyright
In March 2017, the Canadian Federal Court ruled against Go Cyber Shopping Ltd, the video game copier and seller for downloading copyrighted content from Nintendo of America Inc as being illegal under Canada’s 2012 Copyright Modernization Act[20]. This was a precedent setting case and sent a signal to the industry of the robust protection for intellectual property for video games. In fact, all elements of a video game are entitled to distinct copyright protection including the source code, story, music, voice acting, character design and level design. Problems however arise for small and medium sized game studios who do not understand the intricacies of IP and licensing for their games. The important steps for all studios need to take are creating IP assignment agreements to ensure they assign the game IP to the studio specifically, so it has the legal ability to own and sell the game. In addition, when studios work with independent contractors their agreements must specify that the studio owns all the contractor’s work. It is important that lawyers assist with drafting contracts and reviewing publishing agreements. There have been cases such as in the Superior Court of Québec case in 2015 where an artist who contributed visual content for a video game, was awarded $10,000 in compensation for the work since they still owned that copyright[21]. Potential policy considerations for this issue are public private partnerships that can work to provide resources and legal mentorship for smaller game studios. Already Ubisoft and Microsoft in Canada have started initiatives to help provide mentorship to independent game studios and including legal to the package is the right step for the industry.
Conclusion
The Canadian video game sector is primed for explosive growth in the next decade and continues to be a global force in the video game sector. The federal government of Canada as well as the provincial government of Ontario have set up enticing and helpful incentives for both small and large game studios. For the industry to reach even greater heights it needs to iron out these four important policy issues through a combination of internal reflection, support from others in the industry and government policy.
References
[1] ESAC. (2020). Entertainment Software Association of Canada Annual Report 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ESAC-Annual-Report-2020.pdf
[2] CRTC (2016, October 06). The online video gaming industry in Canada: What are the trends? Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ZKYWXUbw0
[3] NPD Group. (2020). Real Canadian Gamer Essential Facts 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/RCGEF_en.pdf
[4][4] Sector, S. (2020, January 29). Canada’s communications future: Time to act. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/110.nsf/eng/00012.html
[5] Mintel. (2019, March 14). Canada is a nation of video game lovers — despite worries of addiction and online insults. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-is-a-nation-of-video-game-lovers-despite-worries-of-addiction-and-online-insults-827292822.html
[6] ESAC. (2020). Entertainment Software Association of Canada Annual Report 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ESAC-Annual-Report-2020.pdf
[7] ESAC. (2019, November 15). Video Game Development Industry Contributes $4.5B to Canada’s Economy. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://theesa.ca/2019/11/15/video-games-contribute-to-canadas-economy/
[8] Canada, E. (2017, June 12). Government of Canada. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/global-skills-strategy.html
[9] Whan, C. (2019, May 29). Ontario government easing access to tax credits for video game developers. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://globalnews.ca/news/5326157/ontario-government-tax-credits-video-game-developers/
[10] Ontario Creates. (2020). Interactive Digital Media Fund. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://ontariocreates.ca/investment-programs/content-creation/idm-fund
[11] Ontario Creates (2019). Ontario Creates Annual Report 2018 | 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://ontariocreates.ca/uploads/About-Us/Eng/Annual-Report/Annual-Report-2018-19_en.pdf
[12] Sheridan. (2019, May 14). Sheridan College ranks as number one animation school in the world. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.sheridancollege.ca/news-and-events/news/sheridan-college-ranks-as-number-one-animation-school-in-the-world
[13] Heritage, C. (2017, October 19). Government of Canada. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/creative-canada/framework.html
[14] Execution Labs. (2020). Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.bdc.ca/en/bdc-capital/venture-capital/portfolio/execution-labs
[15] Canada, G. (2020, November 23). Canada’s Digital Charter: Trust in a digital world. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/062.nsf/eng/h_00108.html
[16] Nordicity. (2019, November). The Canadian Video Game Industry. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CanadianVideoGameSector2019_EN.pdf
[17] Willhelm, K. (2020, October 20). CMF Strategy [Interview by A. Sidhu]. Phone Call.
[18] Ubisoft. (2020, November 13). BIPOC of Ubisoft — Nikhil Ramburrun. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/20h6m7jIjrAe8se388SDSB/bipoc-of-ubisoft-nikhil-ramburrun
[19] CBCTheNational. (2019, April 26). Canadian video game creators face gruelling ‘crunch’ hours. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-pQUocvE4Y
[20] Practical Law Canada Commercial Transactions. (2017, March 20). Federal Court Awards Nintendo $12.7 Million in First Technological Protection Measures Case Under the Copyright Act. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://ca.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/w-006-8435?transitionType=Default
[21] Abramovitch, S. (2018, August 28). Rules Of The Game (Part 1): Copyright Protection Of Video Games In Canada — Intellectual Property — Canada. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.mondaq.com/canada/copyright/730946/rules-of-the-game-part-1-copyright-protection-of-video-games-in-canada | https://medium.com/@akashskysidhu/the-canadian-video-game-industry-a-2020-analysis-99aeebde5e2 | ['Akash Sidhu'] | 2021-01-08 19:47:03.784000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Technology', 'Videogames', 'Culture', 'Policy'] |
Stop Treading Water. Use the Lily Pad Method to Organize Your Goals. | As a kid, my dream was to get my drawings published in Highlights for Children (yep, the children’s magazine you find in dental offices across America). My plan was to draw a masterpiece, submit it, and then see my artwork grace the hallowed pages of Highlights. So I drew a few pictures and submitted a couple of times, but when my drawings didn’t get picked, I became disillusioned with the child art world, tossed my crayons aside, and gave up.
I mistook my dream for a goal, and that’s what set me up for heartbreak.
Was my dream simply too big? Of course not. Have you seen the infantile line work on those kids’ drawings? Derivative at best. Nevertheless, I let my understanding of success hang on something that was entirely out of my control: though I had complete control over making the drawings, I needed my parents’ help to submit them, and I needed the Highlights Art Committee (a woman in a cubicle in Honesdale, Pennsylvania) to approve my piece for publishing. And when it didn’t get published, I felt like a failure and gave up. As achievable as my dream should have been, I mistook my dream for a goal, and that’s what set me up for heartbreak.
If you want to continuously work towards your dreams without losing momentum, it’s important to focus your energy on the things you have power over so you don’t become disillusioned or burned out while waiting for a miracle or for other people to change your life. You have to make clear distinctions between your dream, your goals, and your wins. That’s where the Lily Pad Method comes into play.
The Lily Pad Method
In this metaphorically grounded method, you are a frog.
lil frog, big dreams
You are a frog trying to navigate the lagoon of life, guided by your north star (aka your dream).
You can see your north star, but how can you get across the lagoon? (Hint: you can’t swim because there are alligators, okay?)
1. Find your north star (aka define your dream)
Your north star is your big aspirational dream. It should be clear, inspirational, and compelling for you. It should not be something you could achieve in a weekend. It might take a year to achieve, it might take five years, it might take decades. Whatever your north star is, it has to be the thing you really really really want. To achieve it might require grit, sweat, luck, favors, and scientific breakthroughs — and that’s okay! Your north star is a guiding force that will set the direction for your actionable steps.
Example:
My childhood self’s north star was to “Get Published in Highlights.” As an adult, my north star is to “Get Staffed in a TV Writers Room.”
2. Locate your lily pads (aka set your goals)
Now that you’ve figured out what your north star is, let’s make sure you can move towards it by locating your lily pads. Lily pads are concrete actions you can complete that will lead you closer to your north star.
They should be something you can do by yourself (even if it scares you a little). But you MUST be able to complete a lily pad by yourself! If it’s something you can only check off through someone else’s decision-making (like getting a job offer or getting a phone call from Barack Obama) or luck (like finding a bag of money), it’s not a lily pad, but a dragonfly! It’s important to distinguish between these or else you get stuck treading water and you’ll lose momentum.
Lily pads are concrete actions you can complete that will lead you closer to your north star.
Example:
My childhood self’s lily pads:
Complete a drawing
Save up money for postage stamps
Send artwork to Highlights
Some of my adult self’s lily pads:
Take a writing class
Write a pilot script
Submit to a contest
Note that I didn’t say “sell a pilot script” or “win a contest” because those require the actions of other people.
You can complete your lily pads out of order and you can add more lily pads as you think of them. It’s the beauty of lily pads: they’re flexible and they’re achievable and they depend on you and no one else.
If you complete all of your lily pads but still haven’t achieved your dream/reached your north star, add more lily pads! They can be brand new ones or even duplicates of some of your old ones. For example, I might complete the “Write a pilot script” lily pad and then create another “Write a pilot script” since I can just keep writing. You can also break these down into more bite-sized chunks if that’s helpful.
As you complete these, celebrate your accomplishments! The lily pads are the real accomplishments. That’s you getting things done! That’s you working towards your goal! Pat your lil’ froggy self on your lil’ froggy back.
3. Eye the dragonflies (aka eye the potential wins)
Remember those things you mistook as goals/lily pads but actually required other people or luck or something that’s not quite in your control? Yup, those are dragonflies!
They’re the things we want on our journey, but we can’t achieve on our own. Dragonflies are the little victories that can give you a boost towards your north star.
Separating your dragonflies from your lily pads will let you keep track of those things you want, while recognizing that they’re not entirely in your control. They require patience, luck, and other people’s decision-making. Yes, celebrate when they come into your life, but don’t gauge your progress or success on whether or not you’re getting them. Remember: don’t go chasing w̵a̵t̵e̵r̵f̵a̵l̵l̵s̵ dragonflies. Spending all your energy chasing dragonflies is going to make you drown in the pond. You can’t control where they fly, so let them come to you.
Examples:
Getting a job offer
Getting a raise
Being asked to be the next Bachelorette
Getting a meeting with a very important person
Being written about on the news
Dragonflies are the little victories that can give you a boost towards your north star.
Just like any win you can celebrate, eating a dragonfly will give your lil’ froggy self a burst of energy. These will help you keep up your spirits as you complete more lily pads and get closer to your north star.
4. Hop across the lagoon, eat some dragonflies, reach your north star
Your energy and focus should primarily be on your lily pads. As you complete your lily pads, check them off and celebrate your accomplishments! If a dragonfly lands, take note of what lily pads you completed that helped that dragonfly land. Maybe you got a “Job Offer” dragonfly because of your “Study for Interview” lily pad or your “Send out resume” lily pad. You’ll notice that as you check off more of your lily pads, the dragonflies also come more easily, too. After all, the more lily pads you complete, the more places you’ve created for your dragonflies to land.
With consistent lily pad creation and completion, you’ll get those dragonflies, and you’ll reach your north star. | https://medium.com/@teabait/stop-treading-water-use-the-lily-pad-method-to-organize-your-goals-c08da94f3090 | ['Tea Ho'] | 2021-01-05 18:24:59.528000+00:00 | ['Planning', 'Goal Setting', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Goals', 'Self Improvement'] |
Introduction to Kotlin Coroutines | Introduction to Kotlin Coroutines
Coroutines for asynchronous programming
Introduction
In most of the programming languages, it’s quite a common thing of doing synchronous tasks like hitting an API and waiting for the result to process the next steps, waiting for fetching data from the database, etc.
We basically started handling this using the callback mechanism. We do something like hitting an API and wait for the callback to get invoked where we process the result.
A callback is a function that will be executed after another function has finished executing. And if there are a series of things to be done synchronously then we will fall into callback hell that can lead us to ambiguity in understanding the code. It depends on the number of steps and logic we have in our applications.
To avoid this callback hell and with the difficulty of managing multiple threads at a time, we adopted Rx Java in Android where the code looks cleaner and easily understood.
Also, exception handling and disposing of things can be handled in a good way. The main problem with Rx is like exploring its list of operators in-depth while performing complicated operations and apply them correctly. | https://medium.com/android-dev-hacks/introduction-to-kotlin-coroutines-72a951577468 | ['Satya Pavan Kantamani'] | 2020-08-25 13:49:52.499000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Kotlin', 'AndroidDev', 'Android', 'Programming'] |
How Big Is That in Elephants? | When you have important information to communicate, graphics can be invaluable. A good graphic can make even complex data easier to understand.
That’s because the human brain is exceptionally good at processing visual information. A team of neuroscientists from MIT recently established that the brain needs only 13 milliseconds to process an entire image. Compared to words, which are digested in a linear way using short-term memory, pictures are gulped down all at once and go directly into long-term memory.
So images win! But wait: the ice is slippery… Remember that your graphics should serve the information being presented. If the graphics instead distract or confuse your audience, you may have one of the following problems.
1. Everything Looks Like a Nail
Image credit: Bob Eggers, CondensedLight.com
Not every concept needs a graphic. Would a visual element enhance your audience’s understanding of the concept? If not, a graphic would just be a decoration — or worse, a distraction. Those “spurious correlation” graphs — plotting, for example, the “correlation” between the divorce rate in Maine and per capital consumption of margarine from 2000 to 2009 — are entertaining precisely because the visual representation does not serve the data, instead creating a fictional meaning (a suggested causality). | https://medium.com/swlh/how-big-is-that-in-elephants-15563222d2ec | ['Ellen Barber'] | 2019-06-15 21:06:56.579000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Infographics', 'Business', 'Design', 'Cognition'] |
Biden administration needs to fix the condition of migrant camps faster… | The injustices occurring in these camps are unfathomable…
John Moore/Getty Images
As we approach mid-March, I want to see more severe action from the administration, to deal with the atrocities occurring at these migrant camps. For migrants, who are escaping detrimental conditions in their home countries, it’s completely unacceptable to arrive in these camps and be subject to sexual abuse, theft, violence, and sordid living conditions. If it means calling it a crisis, call it a crisis.
In a piece by Carlos Iván Molina Aguilar, in The San Diego Reader, he details the kind of atrocities occurring at the migrant camp in Tijuana, Mexico:
Since February 19 when 25 cases of asylum seekers were accepted for review, around five hundred migrants have established an improvised camp in the Mexican side of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The Migrant Protection Protocols program announced by Biden’s administration has given hope to those stuck in Tijuana due to the Trump’s Remain in Mexico program. According to one of the Tijuana’s migrant officials, Jose Luis Perez, 25 asylum seekers crossed the border that day, and groups of that same number will be crossing every day. Most migrants in the camp (called El Chaparral) have no appointment, they heard about the new migrant program and decided to camp here hoping for legal help. That reason pushed Jenny Cruz and her family of two children and her husband to come. She has an appointment in two months and she pointed out that they had no other option than to stay there because they can’t afford a place to live while waiting. On top of that we have to pay almost 100 pesos ($5) daily just for using bathrooms here and to take a shower; a nearby hotel charges 50 pesos ($2.50) per person, even for kids” she explained. “We’re in a desperate situation in Tijuana; the other day the police detained me with my children and threatened me with deportation, took me right away in the patrol car, and demanded all the money we had to let us go. We gave them 800 pesos ($40), all that we had for food,” she added.
What happened to lawful asylum practices? Depending on the circumstances — and, in most cases, numerous migrants have justifiable cases — we should be allowing these migrants to reside in this country as they go through the process. Until Trump’s caustic tenure, I thought this was the way we conducted lawful immigration policy. However, after doing some digging, I found a very concerning disclosure; a disclosure that symbolizes the inhumane destruction the Trump administration inflicted on these migrants. This discovery came from a piece by Austin Kocher on theconversation.com:
Remain in Mexico” made it nearly impossible for asylum-seekers to find safety in the U.S. But the asylum process can have profoundly unequal results — regardless of who sits in the White House. Asylum outcomes are often determined as much by which asylum officer or immigration judge decides the case as they are determined by merit. For instance, immigration judges in Atlanta reject, on average, 97% of asylum cases, while those in New York City approve, on average, 74%.
This stuck out for me; I feel many people (especially “populist Republicans”) focus on the intricacies of immigration and the contradictions. Populist Republicans like to claim ALL migrants just sneak across the border, that the solution is a border wall when sometimes the problem is right in front of us. I’m not claiming all asylum cases should be granted in favor of the migrant, but why are immigration judges denying 80 percent of cases from Honduras and El Salvador? Furthermore, look at the issue related to location: 97 percent in Atlanta, 74 percent in New York. We have an issue, yet again, with how/who appoints the judges in these districts.
In regards to the impartiality of asylum, Kocher conveys another critical aspect:
Our system essentially sets up migrants to fail, based on this notion, and then we commonly wonder why we have such a problem. In other words, how can we expect people to flee violence and danger — which, of course, is a major impediment — and then put together the resources to fund representation? Look at the other point Kocher reveals; 14 percent of migrants forced to “remain in Mexico” found an attorney. The entire supposition is merciless, and concretely derived from Stephen Miller and Trump. How can we expect families to escape an environment where they can’t properly provide clothes for their children — as the cartels steal their income and shatter their livelihood — but immigration judges are approving twice as many cases when these migrants have representation? Come on.
The nonprofit organization Human Rights First documented 1,544 cases of asylum-seekers who became victims of violence while they waited in Mexico. In one case, Customs and Border Protection returned a Salvadoran family to Mexico in May 2019 despite their expressed fear. In November 2019, the father was stabbed to death in Tijuana, leaving behind his wife and two children.
“I told the judge that I was afraid for my children because we were in a horrible, horrible place, and we didn’t feel safe here,” his widow told the news outlet Telemundo. Another victim was a Honduran woman of the Garífuna Afro-Caribbean minority, who was kidnapped and raped in the city of Juárez while she “remained in Mexico.” And Vice Magazine reported on David, an asylum-seeker from Guatemala, who was kidnapped by a cartel five hours after he was sent back to Mexico in 2019. David escaped, but because the cartel had taken his paperwork, making an asylum claim became all but impossible. (Kocher, theconversation.com).
(Eric Gay / AP)
The Trump administration’s conception of these camps, especially in Matamoros, is outrageous. The entire purpose is to create an environment where migrants feel threatened, disenchanted, and forsaken. Miller intended to create an environment where these migrants would be without options and acquiescent to “give up.” The Trump administration was perfectly delighted with the cartel impairing migrants, as they had hoped for this outcome.
The exodus from the Matamoros camp, which once sheltered more than 2,500 asylum-seekers, marks the end of a Trump-era policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols. Commonly known as “Remain in Mexico,” the January 2019 policy forced 71,000 migrants who were detained along the U.S.-Mexico border back into Mexico to file for asylum and wait for many months while their claims were processed. The Trump administration claimed the Migrant Protection Protocols ensured a “safe and orderly process.” But it created a refugee crisis in Mexico, whose border cities were not equipped to house, feed and protect tens of thousands of refugees. Matamoros is one of many tent camps and Catholic shelters set up to serve this population.
Here’s what the Biden administration needs to do, and they need to do it, hurriedly. They’ve ended the Migrant Protection Protocols: this is a start, but not suitable until they overhaul everything. Our federal government needs to take responsibility for the condition of the camps still in place, due to the number of migrants “waiting” or “unable” to try and claim asylum. Next, the Biden administration should utilize the Department of Homeland Security to intervene and remedy the conditions in these camps, so that the U.S. can ensure resources are available for migrants in transition. Guaranteeing these resources may include soliciting Mexican authorities to curb the destruction of the cartels, and ensure the safety of the people in waiting. Even if these camps are deemed “U.S. responsibility,” I’m personally satisfied with this. Consider what Kocher laments: “border cities were not equipped to house, feed, and protect tens of thousands of refugees.” Biden is not responsible for Trump’s maltreatment of migrants through his inhumane design; but, now, it’s his responsibility to resolve the calamity.
Secondarily, the administration will have to work to ensure the asylum-seekers are given a fair shot. The U.S. can’t expect all migrants to be able to hire representation to be granted asylum. While immigration judges should remain circumspect on certain individuals who may be trying to claim asylum for malignant purposes (like gangs or cartel members), the system is very much broken. We can’t have a variance between judges in certain states approving fewer cases, and then say, a state like California, approving more.
Lastly, as the Biden administration catches up on rebuilding a lawful system, we need to make sure we put an end to all these camps, which have done nothing but harm migrants and led to a critically significant human rights crisis. While there’s hope Biden can start to provide aid and guidance to mend the foundationally destructive policies in these Central American countries, we must still provide an outlet for those seeking refuge — especially if they were fortunate enough to survive the journey and seek a better future.
“The day before we decided to leave, a grenade exploded in front of our house; we were in the crossfire. We were just able to hide under our beds. I had videos from that shooting, but cartels have checkpoints where they take pictures of your ID and share it with a group to see if they can let you pass. Most men are blackmailed to join the cartels, so is more difficult for them to leave”.
For now, these asylum seekers are camping on the asphalt in the hope of getting into the U.S., but they must wait at least four months to have an appointment and initiate their process. According to the Municipal Department of Migrant Attention 25,000 asylum seekers will be re-accepted in Matamoros, Ciudad Juarez, and Tijuana after this Biden program. (Carlos Iván Molina Aguilar).
There’s a lot of work to do, but the Biden administration will have to accelerate the process; for many, they don’t have the time to wait…
Works Cited:
1. Aguilar Molina Iván, Carlos. “Inside the Biden migrant camp in Tijuana.” The San Diego Reader. March 9, 2021. https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2021/mar/09/stringers-inside-biden-migrant-camp-tijuana/. Accessed March 10, 2021.
2. Kocher, Austin. “Biden ends policy forcing asylum-seekers to ‘remain in Mexico’ — but for 41,247 migrants, it’s too late.” Theconversation.com. March 10, 2021. https://theconversation.com/biden-ends-policy-forcing-asylum-seekers-to-remain-in-mexico-but-for-41-247-migrants-its-too-late-156622. Accessed March 10, 2021. | https://medium.com/@awnintzel/biden-administration-needs-to-fix-the-condition-of-migrant-camps-faster-e1f6544fc27a | ['Andrew Nintzel'] | 2021-03-11 06:30:07.104000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Trump Administration', 'Politics', 'Matamoros', 'Immigration'] |
Wondershare Filmora 10.0.6.8 Free Download | Filmora X
Filmora X is easy to apply for a video editing software program with an intuitive consumer interface, a wide range of editing gear, and heaps of video outcomes. newbie and intermediate video editors. YouTube creators and anyone considering beginning a YouTube channel. everybody who wishes a simple tool they could study quick.
Features of Wondershare Filmora 10.0.6.8
Video effects
discover creative transitions, filters, titles, and motion elements which are distinctive to Filmora.
green display screen
Reimagine your world by means of changing backgrounds and growing special effects.
cut up display
Multiply your amusing with more than one screens for a completely unique manner to tell your story.
greater functions
extend Your innovative possibilities
speed manipulate
rapid forward to the best part or sluggish down a unique second.
coloration Grading
supply your videos a Hollywood feel and personalize your introduction.
Audio Ducking
fast fade your music so your communicate sticks out.
colour in shape
keep time with the aid of making use of colour correction settings across multiple clips straight away.
Keyboard Shortcut
Edit quicker using hotkey instructions.
System Requirements for Wondershare Filmora 10.0.6.8
Operating System: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 Memory (RAM): 8 GB of RAM required. Hard Disk Space: 500 MB of free space required for full installation. Processor: Intel Pentium i3, Multi-core GHz or higher.
Download Links
Download Portable Setup | https://medium.com/@ezeemjoni/wondershare-filmora-10-0-6-8-free-download-eefb162aae7e | ['Ezeem Joni'] | 2020-12-16 05:32:35.281000+00:00 | ['Filmora', 'Video Editing Software', 'Video Editing', 'Editing'] |
Why I’m a Socialist | Why I’m a Socialist
When I was a kid, my mom would always tell me to be nice to the waitresses & cashiers. She said they’re just trying to pay their bills. Be nice to them & they’ll do their best to take care of you. Be mean to them & they’ll spit in your food. I didn’t know it then, but this was the beginning of me eventually forming class consciousness. I had my first real job at 15. I spent 11 years learning what it means to work for a living. As a service worker, I was overworked, underpaid, sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, & retaliated against. As a blue collar worker, my safety was always an afterthought. My injuries were my own responsibility. It didn’t matter to my bosses if, as a result of my working conditions, I got back problems, knee problems, & other chronic joint problems, I had to work through it, & that made all those things worse. I basically sold my body to the trucking industry for $20/hour. And I’ll never recover from it all.
The Capitalist class doesn’t care about us. We’re all just human-shaped dollar signs to them. Our worth is determined by how much money they can make off us. Our labor is our currency & our life force. If you’re well-educated, well an hour of your life force is worth a good amount of money, depending on how much profit you can generate. If you’re like me & you’re uneducated, with numerous joint problems, an hour of your life force is less valuable.
And if you’re old or disabled & can’t work, you can’t sell your life force to the Capitalists so you don’t matter to them. If you use your life force to take care of a child or a person with a disability, you don’t matter to them either.
I’m tired of living in a society that measures a person’s worth by how much profit they can generate for the ruling class.
I’m tired of living in a society that values the life of one person over that of another, based on education, physical capabilities, class, gender, race, sexuality, or national origin.
I want to live in moral society. I want a society where no humans are treated like Gods, but all people are treated like humans. One where we all treat one another like brothers & sisters, rather than like competitors in a race for our survival.
I’m a 26 year old autistic truck driver. And I’ve got more in common with a 50 year old black construction worker than I ever will with Jeff Bezos. I’ve got more in common with a 16 year old transgender Starbucks cashier than I ever will with Bill Gates. I have more in common with a farm laborer in Guatemala than I do with Mark Zuckerberg. I wanna live in a world where people recognize that reality. That all working class people have something in common. That thing is struggle. For some, the struggle is made much harder by things like disabilities, race, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin. And those of us who are in this struggle, with a degree of privilege, need to recognize that we cannot end our struggle without combatting the struggles of those with less privilege. If we want an equal society, a moral society, it will take unity. It will take solidarity.
Climate Change has brought before us the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. And if we let them, the rich will ride it out in underground bunkers or in a new society they’re building on Mars. They’ll keep digging the oil out of the ground while our planet burns. They’ve already shown that they’re incapable of stopping. They don’t care about us enough to end the for-profit healthcare system. They don’t care about us enough to guarantee housing as a human right. And so they damn sure don’t care enough to transition our society to green energy & stop climate change.
My name is Joshua Collins. I’m running for Congress in Washington’s 10th District. I’m running to represent the working class people in my district. But I’m also running to represent the working class people outside. Including those beyond our nation’s borders. Healthcare & housing are national issues. Climate change is a global issue, & we can only stop it with a global movement of the working class, & I’d like to see that movement happen. Please go to my website, it’s Joshua2020.com. | https://medium.com/@joshuacollinsusa/why-im-a-socialist-404b7ed19309 | ['Joshua Collins'] | 2020-04-23 07:22:22.791000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Bernie Sanders', 'Socialism', 'Politics', 'Trucking'] |
Let’s get to know The Planet of Animals project through a few FAQs. | What is The Planet of Animals?
The Planet of Animals is the first animal hunting game to function on the NFTs platform. Pick for yourself suitable animals, exploit various resources, buy meat to raise enormous animals, and enjoy the fascinating experiences of a hunting adventure in The Planet of Animals’ Ecosystem.
What is the vision of the game?
PTAT combines the best of the non-fungible token (NFT) and the decentralized finance (Defi) space, bringing entertainment to game economies while adding value to these virtual worlds by developing the content and economy of these games.
What blockchain platform does the Planet of Animals use?
The Planet of Animals is an NFT game that runs on the Binance smart chain (BSC) platform.
What is a user/plyer?
You, in-game user/player, using in-game tools to create your own unique experience.
How did your project get started?
The project was built by a group of game enthusiasts who wanted to figure out how to play different levels of meta-verse games. In addition, it was inspired by several remarkable projects such as Axie Infinity and The Sandbox.
What is the main goal of the project?
The Planet of Animals’ goal is to maximize the value of NFTs used in virtual worlds and blockchain-based games. Its protocol is automated by smart contracts instructed by consensus based on governance proposals and voting of a distributed network of token holders.
How to participate in the Planet of Animals?
To be a part of the Planet of Animals, you need to own a MetaMask wallet, and one animal to start your journey.
How to obtain the main contract tokens in the Planet of Animals?
There are a few ways to obtain the main contract tokens include purchases from DEX such as (Pancake, BabySwap), in-game challenges and adventures, etc. | https://medium.com/@AnimalPlanetNFT/lets-get-to-know-the-planet-of-animals-project-through-a-few-faqs-644ba786c5fa | ['Planet Of Animals Nft Game'] | 2021-12-30 12:58:31.014000+00:00 | ['Gamefi', 'Nft Marketplace', 'Nft Collectibles', 'FAQ', 'Nft'] |
Upgrading Your ATtiny85 Projects — An ATtiny412 Tutorial | The project I wanted to build (which you can check out the story here) was ‘somewhat’ straightforward, I had a RN4020 Bluetooth LE module that needed some initialization via it’s UART interface, and was going to hand over the communication to a USB to UART IC once the configuration was done. Having used the ATtiny85 in the past I know first hand that I am in for a wild ride if I want to have full duplex UART communication as the chip does not have an built in peripheral, only that not so friendly to configure USI (Universal Serial Interface); and using any ATmega was out of the question since I had a target size for the PCB.
Block diagram of the mighty ATtiny85, no UART module to be found =(
I started to wonder what chip would fit my bill since most projects I've done in the past usually involve a 64 pin or higher packages, so I decided to visit Microchip’s website and search for parts they have available.
That’s too many results, let’s narrow it down
Luckily their parametric search engine was comprehensive. Since I was aiming to 1 UART module in the tiniest available package, I navigated through the columns to select the features I needed and was left with few results.
Success!
Two parts stood out, the ATtiny402, and ATtiny412; not that different in price and feature set I went ahead with the ATtiny412. Then I paid a visit to my favorite parts supplier Mouser to check on it’s availability, because there’s no use if that chip is right for us but we can’t buy it, right?
That’s some good availability. Awesome!
Before making the commitment, I went ahead and checked the chip’s datasheet.
We always need to check the fine print of each device we use, otherwise we might be in for a nasty surprise when your gadget is not doing what you expected
A very prominent hint staring right at us! Sure it must mean something, right?
My focus was on knowing how setup the UART interface and the digital IO as I wanted to read one of the RN4020’s outputs to know when ATtiny was ready to let go of the serial lines. | https://medium.com/@lestherborge/an-upgrade-from-the-venerable-attiny85-to-the-new-avr-1-series-an-attiny412-tutorial-617932d31138 | ['Lesther B.'] | 2020-08-14 19:46:56.874000+00:00 | ['Embedded Systems', 'Programming', 'Hardware', 'Electronics', 'Tutorial'] |
From the archives #1: How to build your “Mind Palace” | This article was written by Shruthi Srinivasan in 2015, for the original Pragyan Blog hosted on WordPress. The present editors have taken the liberty to make minor changes, without changing the meaning of what the author intended to convey.
The human brain has a storage capacity of nearly 2.5 petabytes (a petabyte is 1 million gigabytes, or 1,000 terabytes). Yet, remembering where you put your keys, or the last digit of your ATM pin, may seem impossible at times. If it’s necessary, the mind can analyse any amount of data, listen with the keenest interest and remember the earliest dreams. However, it plays tricks on you too! Like, how you’re unable to remember all that you crammed into the late-night study session on the eve of your exam, right?
Right.
Perhaps.
That brilliant and mesmerizing brain of ours is a massive storehouse, powerhouse, etc. One technique of tapping the brain’s indispensable capacity and capability is the Memory Palace, popularly known as the Mind Palace. Also called Method of Loci (MoL), it’s a method of memory enhancement which uses visualization to organize and recall information.
The Method of Loci — visualized. Source: Neurofantastic
The acclaimed Sherlock, in the third series, revealed the unbelievable power of a Mind Palace in solving crimes, while the criminal mastermind, Magnussen, used this method to store vast amounts of information in the safest place, the Vault (read, “his mind”). We may have felt that this superior capacity of Holmes or Magnussen was surreal, or even non-existent.
But the technique in real exists.
We can only use 10% of our brain. So, this technique couldn’t be possible for a person with an average IQ, right?
Wrong. First of all, it is a myth that a person can use only 10% of the brain. During the entire course of the day, an average person ultimately uses 99–100% of the brain’s capacity. The Mind Palace has little to do with intelligence, but more with the technique of using regions of the brain that deal with spatial learning. It allows you to establish, order, and recollect memorial content of related or unrelated information. Anyone with patience and perseverance can master this technique.
How useful is the Mind Palace going to be?
What exactly is stored in a Mind Palace is up to each individual. It could be your thoughts, random trivia, facts, figures, images, ideas, conversations and a whole lot more, all in an ordered manner. Imagine the prospects of building a mind palace? It would be great. You would be unlocking your brain’s maximum potential to remember just whatever and whenever you want to. Something like categorizing your contacts list. It would give you immense control over your mind and yes, even your contacts.
So, even the smallest detail won’t go amiss. Your memory can never fail you. Even the most influential personalities from CEOs to scientists use this methodology to remember their employees’ birthdays to a super complex equation.
Go crazy on the conceptualization of your own ‘Mind Palace’. Source: CNN
Another remarkable feat achieved by a memory palace is the fight against depression. This works by shunning away the traumatic memories and only remembering the happiest ones. According to research, those trained with MoL, easily retrieve almost every single one of their happy moments.
Another prospect for mind palace architects, are the annual World Memory Championships. The competition needs committing to memory and recalling sequences of digits, two-digit numbers, alphabetic letters, or playing cards. In a simple method of doing this, contestants deposit the image that they have associated with each item at the loci in their heads.
How to build this Memory Palace?
Even though MoL is different for every individual, the overall technique remains more or less the same.
The basic steps involved are to:
Decide the place — It could be a familiar building, route or space.
Define a set route — There may be many stops on the way, so keep some landmarks in mind.
Location and Placing — Store different memories in different locations like shelves, rooms etc.
Draw, be Sensitive, use colors and symbols — Finally, commit to your memory by drawing using bold and colorful hand symbols. Or else write it out in a list form.
Follow these steps to start building your memory palace. Source: LearnPick
The Memory Palace could be a library with you walking down the aisle searching for the right book representing a particular memory. Or it could be a newspaper with each headline or each paragraph signifying a memory. For those of you who can’t keep things simple, perhaps you could create towns and cities where perhaps the Eiffel Tower is your memory of travel experiences.
Depending on the creativity of each person, the mind palace would be a fascinating abode to everyone.Try practicing the Method Of Loci and it could change the way you learn and read. Definitely, it will give you a chance to free up your mind and give you the much needed space to think and have some peace. | https://medium.com/pragyan-blog/from-the-archives-1-how-to-build-your-mind-palace-513b5c701de8 | ['Content For Pragyan'] | 2019-08-09 13:45:34.554000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Learning', 'Archive', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'Students'] |
On Some prevailing misconceptions about Blockchain | There is a lot of misconceptions around what a blockchain is — especially in the government sectors. A lot of the discussions with various government stakeholders gave me the impression that the following misconceptions are most prevailing and must be addressed by blockchain technologists:
a. Blockchain is like the Internet — you need to build a network infrastructure around the country or in a state — so that everyone can use that infrastructure to do their e-governance and other applications. A case in point is a publication by the Tamil Nadu E-Governance organization — they have claimed that they are building a state-wide blockchain which will enable all stakeholders to build applications on — this is a very misleading concept. Blockchain protocols sit on top of the Internet (be in the private or public blockchain) — what you need is the software that runs on various nodes (the nodes could be heavy-duty — like servers or lightweight — like mobile phones, depending on what the role of the node is in the blockchain)
b. Blockchain is secure — this is another dangerous misconception. Blockchain — if the mining, ordering, or consensus nodes are programmed correctly, and have the requisite redundancy — can guarantee information integrity — i.e. the information on which consensus has been reached cannot be changed without getting caught. However, blockchain nodes run programs, and for second and third-generation blockchains they also get transactions done on behalf of people — through smart contracts. There have been numerous cases where smart contracts have been found to have security vulnerabilities — which led to huge monetary losses, exfiltration of information, etc. So Blockchain does not guarantee security — it is the designers of the blockchain and programmers of smart contracts who must do either secure systems or do post facto remediation when security bugs are discovered — and provision for remediation must be in the design itself.
c. Cryptography guarantees Blockchain data integrity — this is a partial misconception. Not all blockchains use quantum-safe cryptography — which means that it is not forward secure. If post-quantum cryptography is not used in the blockchain primitives — one can in the future lose all integrity and security.
d. Government must design a blockchain on its own and force every government organization to use its implementation of blockchain — this is another dangerous misconception. First, interoperability between distinct blockchain technologies is an active area of research, and depending on which existing blockchain you use — there may be ready-made methodology and solutions. So, interoperability cannot be the reason for this. However, a number of government people argued with this justification for government designed and mandated blockchain platform. Second, for every application — depending on the complexity of the business process of governance — one has to benchmark various blockchain solutions to select which works the best — some blockchain is designed only for mining cryptocurrency (Bitcoin and Blockchain-1.0 solutions), — some are designed to process complex transactions — currency or otherwise and requires smart contract programming (Ethereum and other Blockchain 2.0 solutions), — some are designed for legal contract enforcement and alarming violations of contracts — not necessarily financial contracts (Corda and Blockchain 3.0 solutions) — some blockchains are only used for time-stamping documents permanently (the KSI blockchain and Hashgraph of other kinds). Besides the purpose — there are other issues — such as what transaction volume is predicted in the application and whether the chosen blockchain can support that, the consensus mechanism and its robustness and speed, the volume of the blockchain data that can be handled, whether ordinary lightweight nodes can do transactions and verify sanctity of transactions and many other issues. Therefore, any attempt to fix the blockchain and forcing everyone to use it would mean ill-fitted for the purpose, ill-fitted for the semantics of the business process to be automated, ill-fitted for transaction volume or usage requirements, and so on. Another issue with the government producing its own implementation or basic skeleton implementation. The most important primitives in a blockchain base — are crypto primitives. The government may even select to use crypto that it can break — and then no one will trust any of the applications built on top of the base. On the other hand, the most compelling reason for using blockchain-based decentralized e-governance solution is to create trust among stakeholders — that the signatures cannot be forged to create forged transactions on someone else’s behalf, that the hash are conflict-free so there is a guarantee of tamper resistance, in case data is encrypted on the chain — that the data is confidential, etc. — if that purpose is subverted by insisting that the e-governance project can use only government built blockchain — it will completely defeat the purpose of blockchain-based e-governance.
e. One has to have a government vetted closed source blockchain platform to run e-governance solutions: One must understand that open source software such as Linux has been shown to be less ridden with security bugs than proprietary ones such as Windows — the reason being that the open source community is a worldwide community of conscientious and top programmers — — the government cannot have at its disposal that quality of software developers — and hence its implementations will have security bugs — and black hat hackers will make use of that. Also, fixing bugs in the open source community happens immediately once reported — as somewhere some programmer in the world would fix and publish patches whereas unless a long-lived development team of that high expertise is available with the government they should not even try.
f. Blockchain cannot have data-privacy: A lot of the people I found to be mistakenly thinking that all data in a blockchain are public data. That is not true at all. First, one can always choose to put only relevant meta-data that would ensure the integrity of the data being protected — while the data fiduciary controls the ownership of data on their own premises. The blockchain is NOT a database — it is not meant to be burdened by all data generated. Blockchain only ensures data integrity — which can be ensured without putting the data on the blockchain. If the data needs to be shared among parties — even, then channels can be created between the relevant parties (like in Hyperledger) — to ensure privacy. Further cryptography can be used to keep the data confidential from anyone else on the channels.
g. “Right to forget” in the data privacy law (being tabled in the parliament) is incompatible with blockchain usage: Again, the point above addresses this issue to a large extent — also note that since the Data Privacy laws will come soon which will define what information is to be considered private — one can always avoid putting that kind of data on the blockchain and only put the witness certificate of data integrity into the chain.
h. Data localization is not guaranteed if we use off the shelf blockchain — as the data will be replicated worldwide. But for e-governance, you will not put data on bitcoin or Ethereum or something of the kind that is replicated worldwide. You will use a private blockchain run by nodes whose identity can always be established by their cryptographic identity (digital certificates). So, all e-governance data will reside on the blockchain that will entirely reside on nodes within the country. Also, as explained before, blockchain does not have to contain all the data but metadata about data from which data cannot be inferred.
i. Government must regulate blockchain technology:, Lot of government agencies seem to think so but no one seems to know what to regulate. In my view, regulation may be needed in the future once it is clear where and in what manner blockchain technology is being used in the country. It seems too premature to consider regulation as a policy. The policy framework can be updated in the future after letting the technology being used extensively. Surely, the cryptocurrency should be regulated — and probably not be used until it is well understood by the RBI. I will write about the dangers of cryptocurrency in countries like India on a different note.
Overall, I think before we put forth a policy that becomes binding on all government departments — we need to seriously create a very large-scale awareness drive with extensive training programs — in the government sector. The industry stakeholders playing in this field understand blockchain but many of them know it in silos. So, companies dealing with cryptocurrency blockchains seem to have many of the above misconceptions as well. Companies dealing with supply chain blockchain do not find the restrictions on cryptocurrency very understandable and so on. | https://medium.com/national-blockchain-project/on-some-prevailing-misconceptions-about-blockchain-b2212b401341 | ['Sandeep K. Shukla'] | 2020-12-26 12:34:29.377000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Covid 19 Crisis'] |
Derek Fisher, the Unsung Laker | Derek Fisher, Lakers Legend.
Derek Fisher was an underrated Lakers star during their 2000–2009 championship era. While Kobe and Shaquille monopolized the limelight, Fisher did the little things needed for victory. He dove for loose balls, took charges, set hard picks and guarded the opponent’s star player. He was humble, tenacious and tough. He was also a calming presence in the the ongoing feud between Shaq and Kobe.
Fisher was drafted in 1997, the same draft as Kobe Bryant. Where Kobe was a prodigy, Derek had to toil for everything he achieved. During their rookie year, Fisher and Kobe played constant one-on-one games after practice. They went at each other hard almost coming to blows. Fisher earned Kobe’s respect, and the two became a back-court pairing for nearly a decade.
Lakers fans remember Fisher for his “0.4” miracle shot against San Antonio in 2004 but he’s assembled a career of great basketball moments. In 2001, Fisher missed the first 62 games with a stress fracture in his foot. The Lakers struggled in his absence. After his return, the Lakers went 24–5 and rolled into the post-season.
In the 2001 Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Fisher set an NBA playoff record by shooting 75% from the three-point line (15–20). In the 2001 Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, Fisher was outscored in a Game 1 loss by Allen Iverson 48–0. Fisher responded in Game 2 by posterizing Iverson with a dunk, a moment that changed the series momentum and spurred the Lakers to the championship.
In Game 2 of the 2009 Western Conference Finals against Houston, the Lakers were being manhandled and bullied by the Rockets. Fisher gave a cheap shot elbow to Rockets’ center Luis Scola. Fisher was ejected from the game, but the incident woke up the Lakers physicality and changed the series in the Lakers favor. This was a seemingly small moment that highlighted Fisher’s basketball IQ. The Lakers needed to awaken their toughness and it took a 6'1" point guard to do so.
In Fisher’s one year with Utah, he led the Jazz to the playoffs. He returned to the Lakers and saved Game 4 of the 2010 Finals against Orlando with two amazing end of game 3-pointers. The following year in the 2011 Finals, he helped defeat the hated Boston Celtics in Game 3 with an amazing 4th quarter scoring spree.
Derek nearly gave up his basketball career in 2007 to devote himself to his one-year old daughter Tatum who was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. His daughter survived and Derek and his wife became spokespeople in the battle against retinoblastoma. Derek was so respected by his peers he was voted as president of the NBA Players Association. He helped end the owners lockout against players which saved the 2012 basketball season. | https://medium.com/buzzer-beater/derek-fisher-the-unsung-laker-10e162ed5294 | ['Loren Kantor'] | 2020-12-19 21:12:09.837000+00:00 | ['Lakers', 'Sports', 'Kobe Bryant', 'Derek Fisher', 'NBA'] |
The Policy is the Service | The legislation is the service.
The regulation is the service.
The policy is the service.
If you look at any public service and ask yourself, “Why is it like this?”, you can usually find most answers to that question in some form of a policy document. Bad design is less often the fault of any particular team or person. Bad policy begets bad design. When I say policy, I mean policy with a capital P, as a broad term that encompasses all government direction setting.
Bad policy begets bad design
If you pour through the myriad of policy documents that underpin a service you’ll piece together a mosaic of policy directions that form a picture of the service design: Inter-provincial agreements that dictate data requirements, embedded forms in regulation, service times as operational policy, privacy legislation that limits information sharing, internal decision requests that deny or approve feature development, etc.
I’m going to assume that for a new designer to government, spending a few days reading through policy is not at the top of their list when they start a project. For me, this is the first thing I do. As the saying goes, “You can’t play the game if you don’t know the rules.”
As a way to help designers understand the rules of the game, I’ve put together this high-level overview of the different types of policy that enable service operation and how it may impact the service design. This overview is far from comprehensive, and admittedly I don’t have a background in public administration. Just a keen interest in public policy, design, and a reflection on my experience.
I’ll use the service of getting a student loan in Alberta to illustrate some of the concepts and the different types of policy below.
There is a hierarchy of policy, so let’s start at the top.
Legislation
Government is able to do things because it passes laws (legislation) that grant itself the legal authority to do something. Without legislation in place, government can’t legally do things.
So legislation is the place to start for any service because it sets the legal foundations for a service to exist. Each service is legislated by one or more “core” pieces of legislation. For example, getting a student loan in Alberta is legislated by the Student Financial Assistance Act.
The language of legislation can be dense with legalese. This is because legislation is in fact a legal document. You’ll come across awkward phrasing and terms because these words have a specific meaning in the legal world and this creates clarity of legal interpretation. It can be incredibly dense, boring, and inaccessible:
23(1) Notwithstanding section 25, the whole of the repealed legislation, as it existed immediately before the commencement of section 25 but as amended, if applicable, under subsection (2), continues to apply with respect to student financial assistance within the meaning of, and provided before that time under, the repealed legislation as if the repealed legislation had not been repealed.
What?
But, legislation can be interesting because it will outline the intent of a law and provide you with a high-level awareness of what it aims to achieve. If you’re lucky there will be an explanatory note (the TL;DR of legislation). Understanding the legislation will give you a sense of the domain in which your work operates, and will give you an idea of who or what this law is intended to affect. In many cases, this forms the groundwork for service eligibility, the different actors involved, and the different mechanisms of a service.
Besides the core legislation, every service will be ruled your jurisdiction’s privacy and information legislation usually called the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP/FOIPPA/FIPPA/FOIPOPA) or some variation of that.
Among other things, this is the law that states how information can be legally collected, used, shared, and disclosed. It provides the legal authority for the government to collect and use people’s information to provide services. If this law didn’t exist, government services as we know them today would not be able to operate. Learn it, know it, live it.
Bonus tip: Develop a relationship with information and privacy officers, and involve them early in your work.
At a strategic level, you should also understand how your work aligns and supports cross-government legislated initiatives. For example, in Alberta the Red Tape Reduction Implementation Act seeks to “reduce the regulatory burden for businesses and make services more efficient for people”. You should see a clear connection to service design in that statement. Or if you're in B.C. your work may support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The more your work can find connections to these legislated priorities, the better positioned it will be for implementation and support.
Legislation is hard to change. So putting things in legislation that may need to change is best left to other policy mechanisms. More often than not, the interesting material is found in the regulations.
Regulations
Regulations are the legal requirements that start to define the specifics of how a service operates and how it must be delivered.
A regulation will be associated with a piece of legislation, and you’ll find the power to create these regulations in the parent legislation. Carrying on with the student loan example, the Student Financial Assistance Act has the Student Financial Assistance Regulation.
Regulations begin to tell the story of service delivery. You will see the specifics of how and why a service is delivered. Eligibility requirements can usually be found in more detail, and sometimes specifics fees and service delivery timelines will be outlined. Standards of operations, conditions for licenses, and reporting requirements are other types of information you’ll find that have a direct impact on the service.
Sometimes you’ll see actual forms outlined in the regulation (see Schedule 1). This isn’t a good thing if you want to redesign a form.
You’ll find a lot of “must” statements, which often translate into requirements that people, businesses, or government needs to do. These are things the service has to deliver on.
Regulations can be hard to change, but not as hard as legislation. But big changes to how a program delivers a service will probably need some kind of regulation change.
Policy
Policy, with a lower case p, gets into the more operational side of service delivery. Legislation and regulation will tell you the what and why, policy speaks more to how.
This level of policy is the broadest in scope because direction setting can be found in many different forms: procedure manuals, guidance documents, directives, standards, etc. I see it as anything that formalizes how the organization carries out what it does or does not do.
Student aid publicly posts their policy and procedure guidelines that outlines all the rules and processes of getting a student loan. These kinds of policy and procedure documents demonstrate how the legislation and regulation are carried out in operational terms.
Policy documents aren’t always publicly posted and may not even be well maintained internally (or exist at all). If you are working in government it may take a lot of digging to get a full picture of all the organizational policies in place. But bringing together all this information is worth it because this is the real material of service design.
Policy is the easiest thing to change because it is not enshrined within a legal document. It is typically developed and approved internally within the public service.
Folk Policy
Folk policy is the unwritten rules and myths of an organization that presents itself as official policy, but is in fact untrue or not the whole truth. Folk policy often arises because of assumptions or misinterpretation of an existing policy.
Things may be said in a meeting by a person, these statements are taken as fact, and then becomes an official position taken by a person or an organization.
Folk policy isn’t really policy, it’s more the stories and assumptions held by an organization about the policy. It usually isn’t developed out of malicious intent, but it can be an unchecked barrier to change. You might hear statements like “We can’t do that because the policy says so”. These statements may be true, but it might not be the whole truth. Sometimes policy is not so clearly defined and can come down to interpretation. So beware when you hear things can’t be done. Don’t let gatekeepers of change block the path forward by using policy as a barrier. Always verify policy for yourself.
Bonus: Inter-jurisdictional things
Some programs and services have very clear connections to other jurisdictions. This might be through formal agreements, funding transfers, or partnerships in service delivery. For example, Alberta student loans are jointly delivered with the Canada Student Loans and Grants Program. These kinds of formal relationships will add complexity to the work but are absolutely necessary in order to understand how a service can be designed.
Final thoughts
Policy, in all its manifestations, is not of divine providence. Policy is made up, developed, created, and enacted by people. People made the policy so people can change the policy. At the end of the day, changing policy is at the core of what the public service does, and designers have a real role to play in that change.
If you are working as a designer in government you should look at policy as one of the key materials of design and a lever for change. By understanding how it works, what it’s role and purpose is you’ll have a stronger foundation to make that change. | https://medium.com/@davislevine/the-policy-is-the-service-c34e155347f7 | ['Davis Levine'] | 2020-12-24 03:25:54.767000+00:00 | ['Public Policy', 'Design', 'Policy Design', 'Service Design', 'Policy'] |
Healthy Cooking. In one click. — Fun People Cooking App Case Study | Hi there!
Here at Ironhack’s UX/UI Bootcamp, we were faced with the challenge of designing a new app for Fun People Inc, a fictional educational company specialized in workshop camps, for people who want to take an online version of one of the courses.
To keep things short and sweet, Fun People Inc. needs a way to provide an engaging online experience for people who cannot attend the workshop camp.
The deliverables included an MVP of a mid-fidelity prototype including relevant features that help exemplify the proposed solution.But first…
Let me take you into the story:
It’s Monday morning and you set up this week’s resolution: you are going to eat healthy this time. Fast forward to Wednesday, its 8.30pm and you just got out of your job. You are tired, you are hungry and the last thing you want to do is to think about what you need to cook. You get home, quickly browse around your kitchen and you only find some spinach, corn and a lonely and sad chicken sitting on the dark corners of your fridge.
Got the picture? Now let’s dive in.
Research: Competition
Everybody’s got to eat, so is there really a need for a need for cooking course?
I was genuinely curious to know what is out there and if there is a gap in the market for this course or not. So I started by doing some market research to understand the competitive landscape.
Competition Analysis
So, what?
Not surprisingly, there is a vast amount of companies in this industry. From more professional online courses like “Le Cordon Bleu Online Learning” to “Top Chef University”, people have plenty of options to choose from if they are interested in following a more “traditional” course.
And if they are just looking to learn a new recipe, Google or Youtube offers hundreds if not thousands of choices of cooking sites. If you are looking for an App, the same thing applies. And let’s not forget about a more indirect type of competition, but super important nonetheless: Glovo, Deliveroo and other food delivery Apps. Why are these important? Well, if you are hungry and don’t have time to cook, what’s easier than ordering a Glovo?
Research: User
Do people enjoy cooking?
For the user, I continued by defining some research objectives to help me frame my research. “How is the cooking experience like? What is the stage people like the most, and the least? Why?”
I conducted 8 user interviews and 1 survey that was answered by 66 people. Here’s what I found:
Insight 1:
Millenials want to eat healthy but don’t have a lot of time to cook
Some of the primary research I did help me confirm this. Most people tend to think of cooking as a “second job” which “stresses them out.”
Insight 2:
Millenials feel pressured to live a healthy life
but because they have no clue of what to eat or how to mix different food types, they end up eating the same meal every day.
Insight 3:
The hardest part of cooking happens even before getting into the kitchen
only 10% of all the people who took the survey enjoy the first stage of cooking (organization, shopping, recipe search), meaning 90% doesn’t really enjoy it at all.
User Persona
Meet Vanessa, 33 yrs old, full-time worker.
“Where there is a will there is not always a way.”
User Persona
Scenarios:
User some has ingredients at home to cook. User doesn’t have any ingredients at home to cook.
With the help of my user persona, my next step was to define my Design Question:
How Might We help young people who want to start living a healthier life but have no time, to improve their organization and initial learning experience in healthy cooking, so they don’t stress out?
Following this, I started to define my MVP. I listed a bunch of features that my App could have and that of course, answered the needs of my user persona and to my value proposition. I then used the MOSCOW framework to categorize and prioritize them:
MOSCOW
Value Proposition
Fun People Cooking App. Healthy Cooking. In one click.
Fun People Cooking is an App that offers organisation and personalised learning tools to help find the ingredients and healthy recipes, in the easiest and fastest way, for young people who want to learn how to cook in a healthy but stressless way.
I then created my sitemap to understand the different pages I needed to bring my value proposition to life, and most importantly, to understand the different relationships between these pages. Immediately after this, I created two user flows for the two scenarios I had picked before: 1. User has no food at home and wants to cook a healthy meal, and 2. User has some food at home and wants to cook a healthy meal.
User flow 1: User has no food at home
User Flow 2: User has some food at home
With the help of these two user flows, it became a little more clear how the user was going to navigate through the App. I was ready to move to my prototype.
Mid-fidelity Prototype
After working on and testing some initial low-fidelity wireframes, I learned a lot about how the user was expecting to find information and also the type of words and language they preferred to use.
I iterated quickly and moved to mid-fidelity prototypes. Here I will explain only a couple of screens, but feel free to test the whole prototype out here.
Flow 1: User has some ingredients at home
Flow 2: User doesn’t have any ingredients at home
Next steps
Basic more “traditional” cooking workshops
Based on secondary research showing the vast amounts of workshops online, suggesting this is still relevant to the market.
2. Smart it up: Siri and smart fridges
So the users can interact more “freely” with the App, as well as connecting smart fridges that allow users to see what they have on their fridges before even getting home.
3. Partnering with local supermarkets
So they can advertise particular products or recipes for a given fee, and help with the delivery of groceries.
Key Learnings
Fail fast
That is, to share my ideas as soon as possible to get feedback and iterate right away.
2. Read the brief several times
during the whole process, as sometimes we can become distracted by one particular insight, but then realise that it sadly doesn’t fit the brief.
What made this project special?
It taught me to pace myself and learn to love the process. Sometimes things fail, but that’s how we learn, right?
Thanks for reading all the way down to here. I hope you enjoyed reading about this mini-adventure as much as I enjoyed doing it! | https://medium.com/@danielladasso/healthy-cooking-in-one-click-fun-people-cooking-app-case-study-6d0b3d33f0cf | ['Daniella Dasso'] | 2019-11-16 15:24:18.654000+00:00 | ['UX', 'Design Thinking', 'Interaction Design', 'Research'] |
CalCPA Daily Clips | Dec. 15, 2020
BUSINESS
How you benefit from using vacation time
Pandemic-related restrictions might have disrupted your usual vacation plans, but it is still important to take time off at the end of the year. Time off gives you a better perspective on your job, letting you reassess your priorities and schedule.
Fast Company
— —
3 ways to professionalize your Zoom presence
Even when you’re working remotely, you want to look professional. These tips help you accomplish that during virtual meetings.
Journal of Accountancy
— —
The Psychology Of Workplace Burnout (And How To Prevent It)
Chances are in 2020 you’ve felt like you’re just scrambling to keep up with a conveyor belt, doing your best despite the fact that we have so little control over the speed of the conveyor belt — or in our case, the pandemic/economy/etc.
Forbes
PERSONAL FINANCE
Fed survey finds expectations of increased spending
The November Survey of Consumer Expectations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows households expect spending to rise 3.7% during the next year.
Reuters
— —
Set up your 2021 budget: Start by knowing your expenses, financial goals
You’ve probably heard time and again that following a budget is a great way to spend less, save more, and avoid costly debt. And while budgeting isn’t a difficult thing to do per se, the more strategic you are in your approach, the more successful you’re likely to be.
USAToday
POLITICS & POLICY
California may be losing its business mojo
The timing could not have been more ironic. As veteran Democratic operative Dee Dee Myers — she was Bill Clinton’s press secretary at one point in her lengthy career — became Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new ambassador to business this month, three of California’s biggest and best known corporate entities announced moves to arch-rival Texas.
CalMatters
PROFESSION
Do THIS — not THAT — in preparation for the upcoming tax season
Ready or not, tax season 2021 is rapidly approaching. These important resources will help as you prepare for busy season.
AICPA Insights
— —
Cost versus value: Is GAAP obsolete?
Past attempts to develop standards for financial reporting, whether in the form of the ARB, the Accounting Principles Board, or the more recent Financial Accounting Standards Board, took place in an economic environment where capital investment and productivity were the key drivers of revenue and profit growth in the private sector, and where classical economists proclaimed that maximizing profits was the only goal governing decision-making in corporate America.
AccountingToday
— —
How to innovate within a CPA firm
Innovation can push CPA firms past the old school ways of thinking and outdated processes. Once CPAs adapt a truly innovative mindset, their whole approach to business and client relationships change.
AccountingToday
— —
How to Overcome Auditing Challenges Among COVID-19
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, auditors are facing some real challenges in how they perform their work, including an increased risk in fraud and a greater chance of breakdowns in internal controls. Here are some resources auditors can use to make their jobs easier.
AccountingWeb
— —
Tax Season 2021 Guidance and Essentials
From critical tax changes and a process checklist for managing the workload to essential technology, get ready for tax season 2021 right here. AccountingWEB is proud to announce its 2021 Tax Season handbook to give a leg up on the upcoming busy season.
AccountingWeb
REGULATORY
Congress reportedly close to $1.4 trillion spending package
Lawmakers appear close to agreement on a $1.4 trillion spending bill to avert a government shutdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed spending and coronavirus relief Monday, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers has released a plan for an aid package that would be split in two parts.
The Hill
— —
Fraud on the rise amid coronavirus
COVID-19 has affected — and will continue to affect — the business environment in countless ways. And while these hurdles present numerous logistical and operational challenges, they also open the door to the increased pressure, opportunity and rationalization that can lead to fraud.
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
TAX
IRS warns of new scam targeting e-filers
The IRS cautioned electronic return originators about a new identity theft scheme aimed at holders of Electronic Filing Identification Numbers from fraudsters posing as IRS contractors.
AccountingToday
— —
IRS extends acceptance of digital signatures and emailed documents
The IRS is extending until June 30, 2021, the period in which it will accept digitally signed and emailed documents due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AccountingToday
— —
IRS cracks down on self-employed retirement deductions
The IRS is beefing up its controls to safeguard against improper self-employed retirement deductions, according to a new report.
AccountingToday | https://medium.com/calcpa-daily-clips/calcpa-daily-clips-1168e2bca2a2 | [] | 2020-12-15 15:35:45.862000+00:00 | ['Calcpa', 'Busines', 'Accounting', 'California', 'Irs'] |
Acolytes Versus Advertisers — Why Shilling Does More Harm Than Good | When getting into the world of cryptocurrency asking the intent for any advice is going to see you come in contact with bagholders who are staunch “shillers”. These early investors are convinced that their bet is a winner and now are trying to convince others to replicate their trade.
If you’ve put time or money or you’re getting rewarded for bringing in new users, you have a firm incentive to want to promote a certain coin or project and get more people involved. I get that, but to me, it seems counter-intuitive, if you’re placing a bet on something you’ve already priced in future growth so you would not need to shill.
To me,
shilling is a sign of lack of confidence rather than confidence in the platform
shilling is a short volatility trading strategy as those with bags want to get out some or all of their capital at a higher price in the medium term
shilling is someone not comfortable with their hedged risk and wants others to come in and deleverage their risk
The thrill of shilling
I have no personal problem with shillers honestly, shill you, little heart, out, get that WiFi bread, do your thing, but if you truly believe in a project don’t you think you’re assistance in promoting it should be a nice not to the need to have?
Shillers likes to believe they mean something, that their efforts have value and place a lot of correlation on their shilling since it isn’t exactly a quantifiable effort, they can tie it to any growth of their platform of choice.
Shillers tend to see themselves as self-appointed brand ambassadors, doing Gods work preaching the good news about their coin or project. The financial missionary spreading the good news and trying to convince people to come over to their Koolaid water fountain versus others.
We all want more people to back up our world view, to feel we’re right, there is safety in numbers, there’s conviction in the masses, and so shillers need that validation.
The Shiller bias
The funny thing is many of the early shillers were not shilled to but feel the need to shill to others. They don’t want to believe in the organic journey that they followed and want to force people down the rabbit hole. So much for liberty and freedom, when you’re telling people what to do and what to think.
Shillers aren’t always the best source of information; they can often be blind to the shortcomings of their investment due to their infatuation, this puts them in a dangerous position and even liable for financial damages in some cases.
I’ve seen many shillers up and disappear over the years deleting their YouTube channels and other social media the moment the shit hits the fan. Shillers aren’t going to go down with the ship or help with damage control; they’re only there for bag pumping.
Marketing matters
Yes, I get marketing matters, user testimonials matter, having community matters, but as someone who’s job is marketing I can tell you marketing only matters if the product is worth marketing. No amount of marketing is going to help the inevitable, ask the marketing team at Quibi or HQ Quiz if the product is shit you’re fighting a losing battle.
Instead of shilling outwards, shillers should be shilling inward if they want to get the most benefit, they should be the hackers of the product, breaking it, finding issues, improving it instead of trying to pull people in. There more inward shilling and discussion, the better the product becomes and THEN you won’t need to outward shill, the product will do a lot of the heavy marketing itself.
Not all you come into contact with is a target
From my years in eCommerce, I know everyone’s user journey is different; it takes between 2 and 12 visits for a user to convert depending on your product, niche, pricing and target market. Shillers naturally don’t know this and place a blanket view of every user and tries to convert them regardless of where they are sitting in the funnel.
When you put someone in a spot where they are not comfortable, they’re going to flee or fight you, instead of pushing people further down the funnel you actually chop the funnel off early and allow fewer people to make the journey.
Source: Leofinance | https://medium.com/@chekohler/acolytes-versus-advertisers-why-shilling-does-more-harm-than-good-b3902d640a1d | ['Ché Köhler'] | 2020-12-14 12:57:33.682000+00:00 | ['Affiliate Marketing', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Shill', 'Influencers'] |
Q&A with Monica Faronato, Biologist @ LabGenius | Hey! Who are you and where are you from?
My name is Monica Faronato. I was born to Italian parents in Germany, moved to Italy when I was 3, and moved to the UK when I was 27. People call me Mo’!
What’s your profession, and how did you end up doing it?
I’m a biologist at LabGenius, but I started out shark fishing as a marine biologist! I then moved on to cancer research in Liverpool and London, where the long nights and weekends spent in the lab were worth it to make even the smallest contribution towards better understanding the mechanisms behind these diseases.
What do you do at LabGenius, and how does that contribute to its success?
I’m working towards the optimisation of an assay, which we use for drug candidate screening. Thanks to our multidisciplinary approach, we’ve been able to automate 90% of the process, making it faster, more efficient and more reliable than traditional methods.
Work of this nature combined with understanding biological pathways means that we can increase the chances of identifying successful candidates and pick the right ones for pre-clinical evaluation!
What’s the biggest challenge in the work that you do?
Biology is not at all straightforward. Experimental data takes a long time to extract — and then to replicate and verify — so it can be hard to be patient with that process, as well as difficult to communicate what the results actually mean with others!
What’s your proudest moment at LG?
Finalising important data sets in a very short period of time — that’s as much as I can reveal. Confidential! :)
Why should others join your team? Why should anyone work at LabGenius?
For someone with no background in machine learning, I’m astonished by the predictions our ML models are creating — and how accurate they have been (successful every single time).
Culture-wise, LabGenius is made of young scientists, who are all incredibly smart, but also humble and fun to work with.
How do you balance your career at LabGenius with life outside work?
Outside of work, I’m quite a private person, so I’ve been really pleased with the respect for these boundaries!
What advice would you give any candidates applying to work here?
Technical skills are obviously important and will be fundamental to getting you the job — that’s obvious. But your attitude and spirit will play a big part, so be yourself! | https://medium.com/labgenius/hey-who-are-you-and-where-are-you-from-4bb79232e1c7 | ['Monica Faronato'] | 2020-11-16 12:02:51.539000+00:00 | ['Biologist', 'Drug Discovery', 'Machine Learning', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Pharma'] |
I will create an ecommerce website using wordpress and woocommerce | 🔘 Are you looking for a complete WordPress eCommerce website or a WooCommerce website with multi-vendor functionalities?
🔘 Woocommerce theme customize with Ocean wp or Woodmart, Astra theme and elementor pro
🔘 Payment gateway, shipping, tax, cart, checkout, PayPal, Stripe. You are in the right spot.
What Services You Will Get:
================================
⭆ Install WordPress
⭆ Install WooCommerce featured theme like Ocean wp, Woodmart, Astra, etc.
⭆ Multivendor with Dokan pro
⭆ WooCommerce Setup & Settings update
⭆ Setting up your basic eCommerce pages
⭆ Custom page design with elementor pro
⭆ Upload Product with the variation
⭆ P ayment integration
⭆ Cupon System
⭆ Dynamic pricing, Shipping Weight Calculation, Tax calculation
⭆ Order Tracking
⭆ Social media Integration, Membership
Some Extra Features:
================================
🏠 Responsive
🏠 Variable products
🏠 Premium WordPress Theme
🏠 Website Speed Optimisation
🏠 Web Security
Why I am Best for You:
================================
👉 I know how to communicate
👉 100% Privacy as your website
👉 100% Client Satisfaction
👉 Delivery fast
👉 24/7 support
Thanks,
Sumon
Hire Me on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/share/BwBZxz
👉 24/7 support
Thanks,
Sumon
Sumon
Hire Me on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/share/BwBZxz | https://medium.com/@swsumon/i-will-create-an-ecommerce-website-using-wordpress-and-woocommerce-12eb56c43453 | [] | 2020-12-24 05:12:19.351000+00:00 | ['Dropshipping', 'Build Website', 'Woocommerce', 'Online Shopping', 'Online Store'] |
The interplay of religion and media in the Japanese context of . | The interplay of religion and media in the Japanese context of “Spirited Away”. Loren Humphreys Jan 18·8 min read
Anime, “cartoon” in Japanese, measured as a product made for children’s entertainment and consumption, has become a significant aspect of Japanese popular culture, enjoyed by a vast audience. Within this significance, so has the religious aspect and nuances found throughout the canon of many anime become a field of intimate discussion. In this essay, I will be focusing on an anime called, “Spirited Away”, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. This anime has been widely viewed and praised on a global level. However, the interplay of religion and media in the Japanese context, through the representation of religion within the canon, has not been fully explored and analysed. In this paper, I will explore how, through his anime, “Spirited Away”, Miyazaki asserts a frame of ‘contemporary Shinto’ through conflating aspects of the modern world namely, popular culture — media and ideas and the incorporation of traditional Shinto religion. Miyazaki’s anime can be seen as “illustrative examples of contemporary religiosity” (Norichika 2014, 59). Through this, the idea of an implicit religious vocabulary and an explicit contemporary cultural representation and lexis in “Spirited Away” are present. What impact does this way of relaying information have on the viewer and why represent religion in this way? Secondly, I will analyse religious imagery through representations of Shinto mythology and rituals, and how the anime embeds itself into Shrine Shinto perspectives and milieu. Lastly, I will explore the contemporary relationship between nature and Japanese society, established by Miyazaki throughout “Spirited Away”.
“Spirited Away”, is the story of a young Japanese girl, Chihiro, who with her parents are relocating to a new city. Along the way, her father takes a wrong turn off, as they approach their new house. Along this dirt road, they pass many symbols relating to Shinto, an old torii leaning against a tree and clusters of small house-like shrines. The family arrives at, what looks to be, an abandoned theme park. The parents, keen to explore, set out to “take just a quick look”, however, Chihiro is apprehensive. The family ventures further into the theme park and eventually reaches an empty restaurant. There is a buffet displaying an array of food. The parents begin to divulge not paying any mind to Chihiro who refuses to join. Eventually, Chihiro decides to venture by herself and she comes upon a large building resembling an operative bathhouse. As dusk rises, a boy named Haku, orders her to leave immediately, telling her this is no place for humans. Confused, Chihiro runs to reunite with her parents but, to her horror, her parents have both transformed into pigs. She is now alone. It now appears that she has entered and is unable to leave a spirit realm. Haku comes to her aid and helps her navigate herself through this world, Chihiro is then given another name, in order to exist within this realm, Sen. She does not forget her real name and through this way she is still able to withhold her humanity. Eventually, she is able to leave, after passing one more test, identifying her parents, out of a sounder of swine. She realises that her parents are not amongst any and is reunited with them. Her parents have been worried about her whereabouts and then leave the theme park. Returning back to their car, covered with dust and leaves, the parents are puzzled thinking that someone staged a prank. The family gets in the car and drives to their new home.
Throughout the anime, we become aware of discrete appearances of Shinto. There are “many folks and Shrine Shinto perspectives embedded in the cultural vocabulary of this film” (Boyd & Nishimura 2016, 3). From the outset, we are introduced to torii and the cluster of house-like shrines. it is Chihiro who notices and is most sensitive to these symbols. The parents are oblivious of the symbols and pay no attention to all the questions Chihiro asks about them, as they venture along the dirt road. This communicates that not only does Miyazaki conflate traditions of Shinto and media into one realm, but also illustrates the actuality of Japanese modern society. According to Miyazaki, Japanese society, especially young individuals are losing and becoming more and more out of touch with the rich history of Japanese traditions. “It is a poor idea to push all the traditional things into a small folk-culture world”, and that, “children are more and more losing their roots. We must inform them of the richness of our traditions” (Reider 2005, 8). Central to the influence of this anime “is his (Miyazaki) use of religious elements (that) also plays an important part” (Jiang 2014, 9) in the representation of interplay between and within anime and religion. This is due, partly, to the secularization of religion in Japanese society. Religious traditions are involved in most facets of Japanese society, however, the preferred acknowledging this is to note it as “tradition and not a religion” (Mousavi 2013, 152).
Miyazaki not only conflates religion and media but also, his assertion of Shinto as being contemporary. “Miyazaki is reaffirming aspects of the Japanese tradition preserved in Shinto thought and practice that can serve as transformative sources of confidence and renewal for both the young and old” (Boyd & Nishimura 2016, 14). Shinto, is one of Japan’s oldest religions and is innate to and oriented towards Japanese society. “The mythologies and histories (of) the first two books in Japanese history, were created and written down in the early 8th century by the royal family” (Jiang 2014, 11). The ancientness of Shinto is what makes the mediation or aptitude of the religion to undergo a form of modernization, really interesting. For example, the ability of other religions worldwide to still be woven into the fabric of Hollywood popular culture is quite rare. It either is assigned to the character as part of who that specific character is, rather than it being the central theme. Miyazaki’s, use of Shinto throughout “Spirited Away’s” fabric, shows the interest to represent the authenticity of his religious beliefs as well as to encourage religious and moral ethics. The utilization of religious capabilities and capacities through concepts and imagery enhances the visual attractiveness and makes sense of the narrative of “Spirited Away” (Mousavi 2013, 156).
The merging of the worlds, kami, and human is the most explicit religious theme within this anime. “Spirited Away”, is set predominantly within the milieu of the spirit realm. This implicit nature shows how intricately Shinto is woven into the fabric of this anime. This shows how it is embedded into Shinto tradition; how the essence of Japanese devotion to kami, shrines and carious rituals is being echoed not only through the narration of the anime, but one come across Miyazaki’s voice too. In a Press Only “Q&A” held in the US, Miyazaki mentioned that “My feeling is that I have a very warm appreciation for the various, very humble rural Shinto rituals that continue to this day through rural Japan. Especially one ritual that takes place on the solstice when villagers call forth all of the local Gods and invite them to bathe in their baths” (Vallen & Thorpe 2002).
Another visual interpretation is the presence of the torii. A gate-like structure, that “indicates and separates the sacred from the mundane world” (JAANUS 2001). A torii is religiously significant and symbolic through Asian cultures. Its placement is usually appearing in front of or, as the case in “Spirited Away”, a few meters away from a religious building and spiritual realms. According to Boyd & Nishimura, “a torii marks a place of superior potency that can affect changes in one’s life” (2016, 6). It the who notices and is the most sensitive towards these symbols whose life changes, this is Chihiro. It is not only through her inquisitiveness but also, her being a body representing childlike pureness. Children, like Chihiro, are still ‘protected’ from the evils of the mundane and are not capable of full comprehension. So, Chihiro embodies, to an extent, one who not yet formed into an adult or new persona. She is still pure aesthetically and has a cheerful heart and mind (Kokoro). So, it is Chihiro, who benefits from kami by experiences and living in the spiritual bathhouse.
Nature, central to Shinto and is strongly reflected throughout “Spirited Away” both implicitly as well as explicitly. One aspect of nature in Spirited Away, particularly interesting is the parlance of the wind. Implicit at the beginning of the anime, in the car and then explicitly, when you feel the wind, pushing the family, especially Chihiro, into the tunnel leading them through into the spirit realm. Again, the wind helping unbinds Chihiro legs when she is trying to escape. This revealing way of engaging with human beings is characteristic of Shinto kami. Not only does wind mark the entry into other worlds (Ho 2017) but it also, displays the notion of dependence humans have on nature and vice versa. So, in order to survive in the human realm, we as human are in constant need and support of nature. And too, for nature to survive it is in constant need of humans help and cooperation. An aspect proving difficult in contemporary Japan, and globally. As humanity progresses, the consideration of nature declines. Distorting the fundamental traditions of Shinto.
In “Spirited Away”, Hayao Miyazaki asserts a framework that posits Shinto as a contemporary religiosity. He does so, by conflating realms of media, namely through his anime, and the incorporation of traditional Shinto. Through the asserting Shinto into the contemporary sphere of Japanese culture and society, the viewing of the specific anime becomes ritual in and throughout itself at this moment, establishing a nouveau consumption of religion. The explicit and implicit cultural elements, as well as religious imagery, shows how anime achieves this. In this essay, we looked at how the wind and torii are woven into the fabric of “Spirited Away” and the milieu it set in. Miyazaki, an artist yet, but also a teacher. “Spirited Away”, is but just one of many anime that captures the essence of Shinto tradition. It also positions itself as a teacher of religious tradition, not so much proselytization. His work illuminates new forms, junctures, and relationships between popular culture and religion, each re-forming itself, and adapting to the contemporary world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Boyd, James W., and Nishimura, Tetsuya (2016) “Shinto Perspectives in Miyazaki’s Anime Film “Spirited Away”,” Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 8: 3, Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol8/iss3/4
Ho, J.D. 2017. “Science and Magic: Wind in Seven Hayao Miyazaki Films” The Offing Magazine, July 18. Accessed 16 October 2018. https://theoffingmag.com/enumerate/science-magic-wind-seven-hayao-miyazaki-films/
Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. 2001. “torii 鳥居”. Accessed October 16. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/t/torii.htm
Jiang, Yuxin. 2014. “The Power of Religion in Anime: Hayao Miyazaki’s Methods of Persuasion in My Neighbour Totoro.” Thesis, Bryn Mawr College.
Mousavi, Saeedeh. 2013. “Entertaining Religious Ideas in Animation through the Study of Religious Elements in Japanese Anime”. 同志社グローバル・スタディーズ 4:145–166. Accessed: October 25, 2018. Doi: /10.14988/pa.2017.0000013516
Norichika, Horie. 2014. “REVIEW: Jolyon Baraka Thomas, Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan”. Religious Studies in Japan. 2: 59–63. http://jpars.org/online/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/RSJ_2014_Horie.pdf
Reider, Noriko T. “ Spirited Away”: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols.” Film Criticism 29, no. 3 (2005): 4–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44019178.
The Black Moon. 2002. “SPIRITED AWAY, MIYAZAKI AT THE HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE”. Accessed 15 October. http://www.theblackmoon.com/Deadmoon/spiritedaway.html | https://medium.com/@lorenhumphreys/the-interplay-of-religion-and-media-in-the-japanese-context-of-4388ba7a0951 | ['Loren Humphreys'] | 2021-01-18 08:41:39.239000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Médiá', 'Japanese'] |
The short break | Many encounters and yet I always felt out of place and wrong. I met you unexpectedly, yet we clicked so well instantly. So quickly, you frightened me with how much I cared. I felt I met my twin flame. You were my other half and the person who understood so well. You embraced me and cared for me beyond what I knew and did not give out conditional love to me. While you so very rarely said the word love to me you showed me every day, every hour in actions, and enveloped me in love through everything.
You pushed me away so you could break us off but you did it thinking of me long-term. However, you hurt more than anything. the flame so quickly turned into a house fire and burnt me alive. Nightmares haunting me when I finally could shut my eyes and rest. The thought of you breaking a faucet within me. My insides tearing within me, doubling me over when I sob. And yet months later, I speak to him. I tell him he was wrong to make our choice on his own and turn the lights off on me. through the months of pain and time to build resentment, none was built. I speak to him and melt my hurt away. Now, this isn't a fairytale and I don't mean to romanticize this. I still hurt, flashbacks forcing themselves into my head, me fearing the unknown. But I understand why he acted like this, he truly did so to give me the best chance at happiness in the long run, to him. He was wrong, but he thought he was acting right. He is truly flawed but I am more, no excuse to him but I understand more than anything. | https://medium.com/@caithartley/the-short-29bd31cdd60e | ['Cait Hartley'] | 2020-12-25 02:54:33.825000+00:00 | ['Loving', 'Heartbreak', 'Reconnect'] |
The Best of AI: New Articles Published This Month (January 2019) | 1 — How AI thinks when painting?
The first portrait painted by an AI and sold at an art auction
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are algorithms able to produce realistic outputs. For example, they were used to generate faces or produce fake videos of celebrities. They also created the first AI painting ever sold at an art auction.
Researchers from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab realized painting GANs could give humans information about how neural networks learn and think. Indeed they discovered that clusters of neurons had learned to represent specific elements (trees, wall, doors…). Those algorithms had learned, by themselves, to organize the pixels into sensible groups.
The team released an app, GANpaint, that gives the possibility to observe this phenomenon. By activating specific clusters of neurons of the neural network, you can draw doors, trees or clouds on pictures. This demo is puzzling!
And if you try to draw a door in the sky, nothing happens: The GAN also learned that it makes no sense to draw trees, windows or doors in the middle of the sky!
Give it a try, it’s worth it.
Read A neural network can learn to organize the world it sees into concepts — just like we do — from MIT Technology Review
2— Tensorflow 2.0 Learning by Doing
Tensorflow Team recently announced the release of Tensorflow 2.0. Introduced as a milestone, this new release is supposed to focus on simplicity and ease of use.
To get your own idea of improvements made, you can read this article that depicts the new features thanks to an implementation of deep reinforcement learning (DRL). I especially liked this article as it helps to understand what are the main changes of Tensorflow 2.0.
Tensorflow 2.0 is still in experimental stage, but you can already give it a try and answer the question: Will Tensorflow 2.0 make your life easier?
Read Deep Reinforcement Learning with TensorFlow 2.0 — from Roman Ring
3— Predicting stock price movement with deep learning
As Generative Adversarial Network are performant to generate lifelike data, have you ever thought to use them to generate the future price movement for stock? That is what the author of this article tried to perform!
It is rather unusual to use GANs to predict future stock price. Moreover, the author tried to leverage other deep learning, state of the art, algorithms to improve the performance of its model. You will read about Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Sentiment Analysis, about Reinforcement Learning, about Convolution… What a program!
And get ready, there are some python code snippets!
Read Using the latest advancements in deep learning to predict stock price movements — from Towards Data Science
4— Process sensitive healthcare data with Amazon Comprehend Medical
Healthcare sector is a huge field of interest for artificial intelligence. Recently it led to promising results in cancer or Alzheimer detection… But healthcare organizations are often slowed down by necessity to comply with protected health information regulations.
This should be easier now thanks to Amazon Comprehend Medical. This is a new AWS service that uses machine learning to extract medical information with high accuracy. This algorithm can, for instance, extract personal healthcare information. This is really good news, as it will allow to easily anonymize or de-identify sensible data.
Read Identifying and working with sensitive healthcare data with Amazon Comprehend Medical — from AWS Machine Learning Blog
5 — Natural Language Processing State of the Art models
In this project, you will find an updated presentation of state of the art methods used to perform Natural Language Processing (NLP). It explains how deep learning models like Word Embeddings, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are used to achieve a better “understanding” of human speaking.
You will also find reference datasets and a summary of state of the art results for main NLP tasks such as machine translation, sentiment analysis, and question answering.
I will definitely consider it as my new NLP Bible.
Read Modern Deep Learning Techniques Applied to Natural Language Processing
6 — Machine Learning fighting hackers
“Machine learning is a very powerful technique for security — it’s dynamic, while rules-based systems are very rigid”
A machine learning algorithm recently detected a hacker that had connected from Romania to the cloud account of a large retailer.
Former “rules-based” technologies that were designed to fight specific attacks are not enough adaptable to address new kind of intrusions. Moreover, strictness of those technics, lead to block or flag legitimate users.
New artificially intelligent software developed are able to adapt to hackers’ constantly evolving tactics. Those algorithms learn from massive amounts of data on logins, behaviors and previous attacks. They are able to distinguish more precisely legitimate and illegitimate users.
Hackers have better watch out!
Read Artificial Intelligence vs. the Hackers — from Bloomberg
7 — Endlessly generate complex and diverse learning environments and their solutions
A team from Uber AI Labs has been working on open-endedness problems. They were inspired by evolution on Earth that seems to be endless and that could be compared to a “creative genius unleashed”. Their idea was to generate an algorithm that would never stop learning ever-greater complexity and novelty.
With POET (Paired Open-Ended Trailblazer) algorithm developed by Uber Ai Labs, a randomly instantiated agent is first confronted to a trivial environment. More complex environments are then generated from the first one and the agent is therefore gradually trained.
What is enthusiastic about this algorithm, is that it could train robust agents able to solve problems not yet acknowledged by humans.
Read POET: Endlessly Generating Increasingly Complex and Diverse Learning Environments and their Solutions through the Paired Open-Ended Trailblazer — from Uber Engineering
8 — AlphaStar: the ideal StarCraft II team-mate
StarCraft II is a science fiction video game. It is considered to be one of the most challenging real-time strategy games. And that is what motivated DeepMind! The same company that developed AlphaGo finally managed to train an AI able to beat one of the world’s strongest professional StarCraft players. Let me introduce you AlphaStar.
AlphaStar is a milestone for Artificial Intelligence! Indeed, although AI algorithms had great results in lots of video games (Mario, Atari…), they never managed to overcome the complexity of StarCraft.
To obtain those results, DeepMind researchers built a deep neural network that has been firstly trained by supervised learning from human games. Its performance was then improved thanks to Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques.
If I played StarCraft II, I would definitely try to get AlphaStar in my team!
Read AlphaStar: Mastering the Real-Time Strategy Game StarCraft II — from DeepMind’s Blog
9— Retrospect the year 2018 of Google AI Lab
Google Lens can help you learn more about the world around you. Here, Lens identifies the breed of this dog.
If you have been kept far away from AI news in 2018, this article, published on Google AI blog, has been written for you. It is a complete summary of researches led by Google last year. And the least we can say is that the year has been prolific! You will read about AI for Social Good, Natural Language Understanding, Perception, Quantum computing, and released open-sourced datasets.
I don’t know what you are going to think about it, but, as far as I am concerned, I am looking forward to seeing what 2019 has to offer :)
Read Looking Back at Google’s Research Efforts in 2018 — from Google AI Blog
10 — First MIT AI Policy Congress
Compared to the range of skills needed in most jobs “Today what machine learning can do is much more narrow”
At the beginning of the month, scientists and policymakers gathered at MIT to discuss regulation of Artificial Intelligence.
They all agreed on the potential of Artificial Intelligence to solve issues that humans could not figure out so far: cure cancer, help to protect jeopardized species…
But their discussions were essentially about how not losing control. They studied the ethical and social issues raised by AI. For example, they addressed the risk that intelligent machines would massively replace workers.
This article gathers a lot of quotations of speakers and conclusions reached by the participants. This is really interesting to read what scientists and policymakers think of our future life along with Artificial Intelligence.
Read AI, the law, and our future — from MIT News | https://medium.com/sicara/01-2019-best-ai-new-articles-this-month-8e2113fbd17b | ['Antoine Moreau'] | 2019-12-05 11:00:22.666000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Best Of', 'Data Science', 'Articles', 'AI'] |
Bitwise Indices and CryptUnit Earnings now available in Cryptosheets | Cryptosheets is now available on Microsoft’s official store, Appsource
Investors need access to detailed and robust data. We wanted to give our users the deepest, cleanest, and most extensive cryptocurrency data. We are excited to announce powerful new datasets aimed at making your cryptocurrency analysis easier than ever before.
Our newest update includes:
Bitwise Index Historical: Full historical data for all of Bitwise’s indices
Full historical data for all of Bitwise’s indices Bitwise Ticker: Current ticker index price data, performance, and constituent weights
Current ticker index price data, performance, and constituent weights CryptUnit Earnings: Displays the earnings of a cryptocurrency based on user-input hash rate
Let’s take a deeper dive into each integration:
Bitwise
About Bitwise
Bitwise Asset Management pioneered the first cryptocurrency index fund and is the leading provider of rules-based exposure to the cryptoasset space.
Their index methodologies take into account crypto-native factors surrounding liquidity, security, regulatory status, market representation, network distributions and more to ensure they fully capture the investable cryptoasset market opportunity.
See complete index methodology here (https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/indexes/methodology)
Bitwise Index Historical
Description: Full historical data for all of Bitwise’s indices.
Data returned:
Index
Index Price (USD)
Date UTC
Example: Return historical data for the Bitwise 10 index from August 20, 2018 till August 26th, 2018.
How to pull
In the Cryptosheets ribbon, click Dashboard Login to the service through Google, or sign-up option Click the orange + button Click Bitwise Index Historical In the Index dropdown, choose Bitwise 10 Index Choose Start Time (GMT) and End Time (GMT) Click the Table Headers toggle Click into A1 of the current tab, click Highlight Range, and Place Data Verify that data has updated
Bitwise Ticker
Description: Load Bitwise’s current data by index with the option of daily, automatic refresh. This pull also includes index performance and a break down of the index’s weight constituents.
Data returned:
Bitwise 10 Value
Time UTC
performance 24h
performance mtd
performance qtd
performance ytd
Weights (Changes per index. Returns breakdown of coins and percentage)
Example: Return ticker data for the Bitwise 10 Index
How to pull
In the Cryptosheets ribbon, click Dashboard Login to the service through Google, or sign-up option Click the orange + button Click Bitwise Ticker In the Index dropdown, choose Bitwise 10 Index Choose refresh interval Click into A1 of the current tab, click Highlight Range, and Place Data Verify that data has updated You also have the option to choose a timed refresh interval.
CryptUnit
About CryptUnit
CryptUnit is a web-based Cryptonote mining profitability calculator.
CryptUnit Earnings
Description: Filter and search for current coin mining profitability.
Data returned:
COIN ID
COIN NAME
COIN TICKER
ALGO ID
ALGO NAME
ALGO ASIC
HASHRATE AUTO
HASHRATE MANUAL
REWARD DAY USD
REWARD MONTH USD
REWARD DAY COINS
REWARD MONTH COINS
VOLUME 24H USD
DATAAVG
DEVICE
HASHRATE
UPDATETIME
Example: Return profitability metrics for GPU coins, averaged over a 24 hour period with a hash rate of 10,000 hashes/sec.
How to pull | https://medium.com/cryptosheets/bitwise-indices-and-crypunit-earnings-now-available-in-cryptosheets-7a66bac85d2 | ['John Young'] | 2018-08-28 17:58:25.231000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Cryptocurrency Mining'] |
Dominican Republic: building a futureproof Tourism Portfolio | To help us understand the underlying dynamics in the tourism sector, we visualized it through a 3D model. This model helps us and partners visualize and articulate how different elements in the system (governance, i.e. how and how takes decision, Information: who holds it and how it flows; and Market: how resources are allocated) interact with each other to produce a certain set of outcomes. Understanding where the energy is in the current system and who and how allocates resources within it helped us identify “pressure points” (areas of interest) for interventions. If harnessed through a continuous process of sensemaking, learning from these interventions can generate options to shift to a new paradigm based on social inclusion, gender equality, management of natural capital and data use.
Since our last blog post, we have identified three areas of interest what we intend to engage with as a way to create opportunities for transformation. We think these areas are where most of the energy of the tourism sector is concentrated:
Diversifying the tourism model beyond the massive market by promoting and supporting a new local offer. New models of assets management that support a new economy for sustainable tourism. New mechanism and information systems that allows to harness data to create incentives towards behavioral change in order to support new economic models.
If you compare to our previous blog, you’ll see that these areas have gone through a refinement process and they are now more related to the intent of diversifying the sustainable tourism offer in the country. We refined the areas based on additional research and information (e.g. from our office’s regular engagement with the government), as well as by revisiting the process that go us here, iterating our problem analysis, etc. Furthermore, we have since our last post in March begun to identify specific interventions in each of these three areas of interest that can help us “probe” the system to understand its underlying dynamics:
Good practices and incentives to improve the quality of the MSME that works on the tourism sector Economic circular models to be used in tourist businesses. Inclusion labor schemes for disabled people and other collectives within tourism related activities. Demand for new unique offers (experiences) in the tourism sector that allow the sector to responsibly take advantage of the various natural assets in the country. Financial mechanisms to protect biodiversity in the context of tourism. Alternative natural protection ecosystems that at the same time bring access to tourism services. Developing a national ecocultural route experience all over the country. Designing an ecosystem for digital nomads
At this point, we already have what we call a “seed portfolio” where some of the options that composed the whole portfolio are developed. Our intention is to continuously revisit these as we deepen our understanding of the tourism sector and what keeps it stuck in its current paradigm. In the short run, these probes can help us generate new frames for different actors in the system. In the long term, we want to help build an ecosystem that can induce change through a comprehensive, dynamically managed portfolio of interventions that can generate new options for the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic.
Supporting the local ecosystem of stakeholders
At the end of September, to further the above, we convened a session with key stakeholders from the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic. Stakeholders included representatives from the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants, Ministry of Tourism, the National Central Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, researchers, as well as other organizations. At the session we presented the portfolio approach to tourism that we have been working on. This included describing the logic behind the process and the initial analysis of the sector, allowing participants to appreciate the systems analysis underpinning the portfolio as well as the possible entry points (areas of interest). We intended this session to be a conversation starter for different stakeholders in the Dominican Republic’s tourism ecosystem to come together and co-create a new vision for the sector.
The work was well received. Participants stated the value add of this process as it, in the words of one participant, shows “in one place an analysis that includes all the elements of the tourism sector in the country”. This type of analysis allowed participants to see the links between different elements of the vast and complex tourism sector. Furthermore, a participant also highlighted the importance of this type of analysis as a way to generate insights as inputs to the country’s economy recovery plan: “the National Government has a series of policies that must be prioritized to successfully reopen the economy after the pandemic caused by COVID-19. All this analysis you are presenting in which we are starting to work together, should be included in the Economy Recovery Plan to enable investment policies and job creation processes.”
We are delighted that this work has received attention and interest, and we plan to continue building on it and the initial systems analysis described above. We intent to officially establish a team composed of UNDP CO staff and key stakeholders from the tourism sector ecosystem and use this as a vehicle and forum for co-creating options for a portfolio that can help generate transformative change within the tourism system. In this connection, one of the session’s participants noted: “we think it is important to continue building on this platform, so we all together can have common vision on where to allocate resources and efforts to improve the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic”.
If you are interested in learning more about this process or to participate please don’t hesitate to keep in touch. Either way, we’ll also keep you posted through this blog series! | https://medium.com/@undp.innovation/dominican-republic-building-a-futureproof-tourism-portfolio-bbdd41fad094 | ['Undp Innovation'] | 2021-09-10 18:49:53.951000+00:00 | ['Sustainable Development', 'Systems Thinking', 'Dominican Republic', 'Tourism'] |
Challenging the myth of rape in court | Written by SAHR member, Natasha Latiff.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just published a new toolkit for lawyers and other professionals on strengthening medico-legal responses to victims of sexual violence. This toolkit addresses many of the myths of rape which we have been challenging for many many years.
One of the myths that we have been challenging in our work is that rape is not usually a violent crime committed by a stranger. In fact, most rapes are committed by someone known to the victim and most rapes do not cause genital injuries. As such, a medical examiner is not likely to observe genital injuries in the victim’s medical examination report. Sadly, the absence of physical and genital injuries has usually led to an adverse inference found against victims. We call upon health professionals, prosecutors and judges not to solely rely on evidence of physical or genital injury as an indicator of rape.
“Because many rapes do not involve a significant amount of physical force, in most cases of sexual violence there will not necessarily be any physical injuries. In non-conflict settings, only approximately one third of rape victims sustain visible physical injuries.”
It is up to lawyers to break the system’s pious reliance on genital injuries as conclusive proof of rape.
Some takeaways: | https://medium.com/strategic-advocacy-for-human-rights/challenging-the-myth-of-rape-in-court-692c32f01a66 | [] | 2018-02-25 11:43:36.519000+00:00 | ['Criminal Law', 'Sexual Violence', 'Womens Rights', 'Afghanistan'] |
Junø Tokenomics and Utility: Powering the worlds first fully interoperable smart contract blockchain. | Junø Tokenomics and Utility: Powering the worlds first fully interoperable smart contract blockchain. Junø Jul 25·5 min read
JUNO is the native asset of the Juno ecosystem. Below you can learn about its utility on the network & beyond.
The Role of JUNO
JUNO the asset will carry a variety of use cases within the JUNO ecosystem, including securing the proof of stake network, on-chain governance, act as transport fuel for all interoperable smart contracts deployed in the ecosystem, collateral in various smart contract usecases and work token to capture value from dapps built on top of JUNO.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Genesis Supply Breakdown
-
⚪️ Community Stakedrop: 30.663.193 $JUNO
⚪️ Community Pool: 20.000.000 $JUNO
⚪️ Smart Contract Challenges: 2.373.341 $JUNO
⚪️ Core Development Reserve (Vested 12 years): 10.383.370 $JUNO
⚪️ Core Team (Vested 12 years): 1.483.338 $JUNO
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
✅ Circulating Supply at Genesis: 33.036.534 $JUNO
✅ Vested at Genesis: 11.866.708 $JUNO
✅ Locked in Community Pool: 20.000.000 $JUNO
✅ Maximum Supply (Reached in 12 years/year 2033): 185.562.268 $JUNO
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Network Security (Staking)
As JUNO runs on the delegated Proof-of-Stake based Tendermint PBFT consensus engine, staking is integral to ensuring a secure and robust network.
JUNO will feature some of the most reputable validators in the proof of stake space. Asset holders will be able to stake (delegate) their JUNO and receive their share of the yearly fixed reward allocation.
Staking 2.0 reward schedule
Improving upon the reward model of other SDK based blockchains, JUNO will launch with a novel reward structure. Over a 12 year period (12 Phases) the max supply of 185.562.268 JUNO will be reached.
In order to get to the maximum supply, fixed yearly network incentives are allocated to delegators and validators that secure the network along the way. Early adopters initially enjoy the biggest benefit from staking their JUNO. After 12 years, the reward schedule ends and JUNO will become deflationary. At that point network incentives would primarily come from smart contract activity, regular tx fees on the network and IBC traffic.
Reward Schedule
⚪️ Phase 1: Fixed inflation 40%
New Juno in year 1 = (+25.961.297)
Supply after year 1 = 90.864.540 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 2: Fixed inflation 20%
New Juno in year 2 = (+18.172.908)
Supply after year 2 = 109.037.449 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 3: Fixed inflation 10%
New Juno in year 3= (+10.903.744)
Supply after year 3 = 119.941.194 $JUNO
Once the inflation reaches 10% it gradually reduces on a fixed 1% basis each year.
⚪️ Phase 4 = Fixed 9% (+10.794.707) Supply = 130.735.901 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 5 = Fixed 8% (+10.458.872) Supply = 141.194.773 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 6 = Fixed 7% (+9.883.634) Supply = 151.078.407 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 7 = Fixed 6% (+9.064.704) Supply = 160.143.112 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 8 = Fixed 5% (+8.007.155) Supply = 168.150.267 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 9 = Fixed 4% (+6.726.010) Supply = 174.876.278 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 10 = Fixed 3% (+5.246.288) Supply = 180.122.566 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 11 = Fixed 2% (+3.602.451) Supply = 183.725.018 $JUNO
⚪️ Phase 12 = Fixed 1% (+1.837.250) Supply = 185.562.268 $JUNO
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Governance
JUNO holders will be able to take part in protocol governance by issuing proposals and voting on various factors which will shape the broader JUNO ecosystem.
Each JUNO enables 1 vote in onchain governance.
The community pool used to fund ecosystem tooling & initiatives will have a 20.000.000 JUNO allocation at genesis which is substantially larger than any Cosmos SDK based project in existence. This brings a lot of freedom for the community to build out a strong ecosystem from day 1. Additionally the community pool regenerates based on a 5% block reward tax.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Work asset
Ecosystem dapps deployed on top of JUNO will bring value to JUNO the asset via fees generated on smart contract usage and from the usage of JUNO in vast usecases ranging from defi to nfts.
Similar to Ethereum (ETH) or Terra (LUNA), JUNO is the backbone of the ecosystem and plays a pivotal role in offering a designated smart contract platform that scales, interoperates and provides a fertile sandbox environment for developers from across the blockchain space and beyond.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
JUNO Genesis Distribution
64.903.243 $JUNO (64.9 Million) come into existence at genesis based on the Cosmos Hub 3 snapshot from February 18th 2021 (6:00 PM UTC).
Via a 1:1 stakedrop, 47% of the genesis supply goes to $ATOM stakers that had their assets bonded during the snapshot. Exchange validators and delegators staking with these validators are excluded from the stakedrop. Additionally the community has voted to implement a hard whalecap at 50k $ATOM to ensure a less top heavy distribution particularly relevant in distributing the network voting weight and ensuring a wide and even voter base in onchain governance.
Approx 10% of the supply difference is allocated to the development reserve (multi-sig) address for the funding of core-development efforts. The remaining 90% of the excess supply to be allocated in the following ways (20 million $Juno community pool, Smart contract competition 2.373.341,66 million to be managed/distributed by the development reserve. The remaining difference will not be included in the genesis file ie. burned).
✅ Learn more about the upcoming JunoHack 2021 and start building decentralized applications.
Get together on Discord & discuss your ideas with fellow Juno ecosystem contributors.
⚪️ Web: www.junochain.com
⚪️ Medium: https://medium.com/@JunoNetwork
⚪️ Discord: https://discord.gg/QcWPfK4gJ2
⚪️ Github: https://github.com/CosmosContracts/Juno
⚪️ Telegram ANN: T.me/Juno_Announcements
⚪️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JunoNetwork
⚪️ Price Discussions: T.me/Juno_Price | https://medium.com/@JunoNetwork/jun%C3%B8-tokenomics-and-utility-powering-the-worlds-first-fully-interoperable-smart-contract-ce9f490c4d97 | [] | 2021-08-26 14:21:52.929000+00:00 | ['Smart Contracts', 'Defi', 'Cosmos Network', 'Blockchain', 'Interoperability'] |
Top 10 Christmas eve quotes 2020 | 1 John J. Geddes “Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin — inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night.”
2 Nora Roberts “Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard, or too sad when you’ve got a Christmas tree in the living room.”
3 Alexander Smith “Christmas is the day that holds all time together.”
4 Ruth Carter Stapleton “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.”
5 Tom Baker “Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.”
6 Edwin Osgood Grover “Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows.”
7 Harlan Miller “Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words.”
8 Carolyn Wells “I love the Christmas-tide, and yet,
I notice this, each year I live;
I always like the gifts I get,
But how I love the gifts I give!”
9 Mildred L. Jarrell “Let us have music for Christmas…
Sound the trumpet of joy and rebirth;
Let each of us try, with a song in our hearts,
To bring peace to men on earth.”
10 David Grayson “As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year.” | https://medium.com/@wallpapersarmy/top-10-christmas-eve-quotes-2020-38f29c6d1d83 | ['Wallpapers Army'] | 2020-12-24 10:06:17.810000+00:00 | ['Quotes', 'Christmas Quotes', 'Christmas', 'Christmas Quotes 2020'] |
What To Keep in Mind While Ordering Bespoke Furniture? | What To Keep in Mind While Ordering Bespoke Furniture?
There are many things that you need to keep in your mind while ordering a bespoke furniture. Want to know what they are?
Buying bespoke furniture is a great tactic to make your home or office look the way you want it to be. But the thing is you need to be very careful while ordering any bespoke item. There are many things that you need to keep in your mind.
The layout of the space where the furniture is to be placed
Before you start shopping for bespoke furniture for your property in Berkshire, it is important for you to spend some time thinking about the layout of the space where it would be kept. If you have the design scheme in your mind, you can share it with the retailer from where you are planning to buy. There may, in fact, be a lot of choices when it comes to the aesthetic and profile and so it might be hard for you to know what would work best for your space. In such a case, what works best is expert help who can assist you with their decisions like whether the piece of furniture that you’re planning to order would fit well in your space and look good out there.
Know if it is worth customising
According to furniture makers in Berkshire, not all kinds of furniture are worth customising. You should consider placing the bespoke furniture in spaces, which are frequently used such as dining rooms or bedrooms. These rooms are places where you’ll have these furniture pieces for a long time. And seeing this furniture would make you feel more confident as you had the opportunity to customise it. So, you should opt for customising those pieces that you think you can place in bedrooms or dining areas.
Request for samples
If you get a chance to see any sample, you should do so. There is, in fact, nothing like seeing & touching a fabric in person. You will be better able to understand whether you can live with that fabric in your home and whether it suits your lifestyle. Along with the fabric swatches, the wood samples may be helpful as well. The wood tones, after all, vary from one brand to another.
Understanding the returns policy
Before ordering any piece of bespoke furniture it vis very important for you to understand the returns policy of the online furniture maker. Not understanding it prior to buying may disappoint you if you find that the piece you have ordered needs to be changed or altered.
Always consider these four points whenever you are planning to order a piece of bespoke furniture for your property. By considering these, you will be able to get a piece of your choice. The furniture will serve great value for you and your family. | https://medium.com/@corwellfurniture/what-to-keep-in-mind-while-ordering-bespoke-furniture-da5e2f66fb9c | [] | 2019-12-31 05:02:22.010000+00:00 | ['Furniture', 'Wood'] |
Globalization of R&D | As world continue to flatten and economies become increasingly inter-connected — globalization of R&D remains a successful approach. Booz & Company published its recent study of 1000 public companies sharing the trend; rationale and geographic growth. The study is pretty recent and it was published in Winter of 2008.
Check out the study here.
This study emphasize — what I have always believed in — that globalization of R&D is just not about lower cost. Although cost gets more touted than the overall perspective that globalization can bring. It is about Innovation, access to better talent pool and market proximity otherwise not available.
I also believe that doing it right require time and commitment. There is no quick fix. In fact, more established an organization — harder it can be. It is like any other execution effort where there are companies that has successfully implemented the model as there are countless others who tried and failed.
Snippet of message that sums up the study:
“… companies that invest wisely in a multinational innovation footprint are gaining far better returns on their R&D investment than companies that exclusively keep their laboratories at home — or that fragment them across a wide variety of locations.”
Here is a data point pertaining to the globalization of R&D as it relates to US:
“At first glance, observers might think that this represents a loss of jobs, intellectual power, and influence for the home countries of these companies. But innovation spending seems to flow in both directions at once. Even as the companies based in the U.S. performed $80.1 billion worth of R&D in other countries, companies headquartered elsewhere poured $42.6 billion into R&D conducted in the U.S. In fact, 40 percent of the money spent on R&D in the U.S. is spent by companies headquartered elsewhere. The total amount of R&D spending in the U.S. is 2.7 times as great as in Japan, whereas the spending generated by companies headquartered in the U.S. is only two times as great.” | https://medium.com/aloktyagi/globalization-of-r-d-8b0e6599b36f | ['Alok Tyagi'] | 2017-03-08 21:01:50.789000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Globalization', 'Innovation'] |
Ford v Ferrari: “They don’t (quite) make them like this anymore.” | James Mangold’s latest film, Ford v Ferrari, is many things. It’s a tale of friendship, a sweeping commentary on American exceptionalism & consumerism, and a highly entertaining film.
At the core, it is about two individuals’ love affairs with racing.
Let me interject something for context: Those who know me well understand that I’m not much of a sports person. This is a dramatic understatement when it comes to racing. I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than watch any form of cars go round & round in a circle for hours.
Why, then, would I go to see Mangold’s movie about an event that occurred, truly, even before my parents’ time?
Well, Mangold’s films aren’t *only* what’s in a preview.
Walk the Line was marketed as a Johnny Cash biopic, but in reality went deeply into the psyche of a tortured man struggling with paternal abuse and addiction. 3:10 to Yuma served as a great Western remake, but it morphed into a masterful commentary on the dynamic between fathers and sons, between what’s right and what’s easy. I’m sure that many other James Mangold films have had similar depth. I can only speak to those that I’ve seen.
Ford v Ferrari begins with a voiceover of Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) describing what it’s like when one hits his stride driving in a race. His description serves as a metaphor for the movie (which, like the drivers, takes some significant time to hit a certain stride) but it also sets the stage for the movie’s central question: How far we (as individuals, as companies, or even as countries) are willing to go to achieve inner peace coupled with outward success, while additionally championing strong performance? Moreover, what exactly do we accomplish in the process?
Ford v Ferrari starts as such: Ford Motor Company wishes to partner with Ferrari when it is lagging behind in more than one area- Sales, yes, but specifically, race car driving. After being not-so-politely snubbed by Ferrari during a trip to Italy- (through Jon Bernthal’s Lee Iacocca), Ford realizes tough competition is on. In true American fashion, Ford (the businessman, not the company, this time) - who’s disgruntled by the company’s dwindling financially and commercially, decides, Screw it. If I can’t join him, then I’ll build a better race car and beat them at their own race!
What an American mentality.
Enter, once more, Carroll Shelby, (this time as an engineer and salesman) and the gifted driver, Ken Miles. Shelby witnesses Miles’ racing talent and vigorous spirit, and enlists him, as a driver, then as an engineer and a mechanic. Christian Bale plays Ken Miles as a man who doesn’t back down from challenges, but invites them. Still, Shelby must earn his trust. Thus begins one of the most satisfying on screen friendships I’ve witnessed in film this year.
Something this film does well is that it builds a seemingly simple task into a complex problem gradually, all while never losing it’s watchability.
The challenge of winning is never simple enough to be conquered by two intelligent, talented men. No, it takes more trial and error, more throws at the wall to see what sticks. Ford, foremost the businessman, wants his race car and his driver marketed a certain way. He doesn’t like Ken Miles, or perhaps, that Miles cares more about engineering and winning races strategically then marketing a “brand,” or, doing things, “the American way,” for show. For performance. For glory. Miles, with his [kind of] “beatnik” look of a skinny, slightly underfed artist, and almost manic concentration, is the heartbeat of the operation, never once caring whether or not he’s liked. And caring deeply instead about winning.
Shelby, in his own right, too, clashes with Ford. He’s been a professional driver but had that taken away by a heart condition. Shelby and Miles seem to understand racing for the true sport that it is, and ultimately, that it’s just as much about the driver behind the wheel as it is about vehicle construction.
Much as they appear overreaching and disgruntled, you can understand Ford and Iacocca’s vision, too. Say what you will, but during this time in history, Mangold’s film tells us that America was nothing if not unapologetic and competitive.
This back and forth argument, combined with human elements of familial dynamics, selling a good, effective product (and ultimately an event) all while struggling to balance competitive drive and comradeship, make for some of the film’s most entertaining, compelling scenes. That, coupled with well-edited racing elements, gorgeous, heightened shots of California desert and European race tracks, make Ford v Ferrari a well-done film- all while being a stylish, watchable movie. Sitting in the theater I thought to myself, “At last, a watchable, somewhat relatable film about reaching a knowable, and dare I say, innately human, American goal.”
That goal? Winning to prove a point. :)
Fan as I am of both Damon and Bale (they’ve provided performances that have given me fascinating, charismatic, flawed men to watch for over ten years now) I was surprised, still, by how believable their friendship was on screen. They’re talented, and they play talented, forthright men. Sure. But even more so, together they prove that male friendship can be based, rather than on assumed machismo, on mutual respect, honesty, shared zest for life, and integrity. Moved too, I was, by the supporting performances. I loved Miles’ scenes with his young son, played with affection and smarts by rising star Noah Jupe.
I mentioned at the forefront that Ford v Ferrari takes some time to get going. Once it does, however, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, grinning because of funny, snappy, believable conversation and a story that moves well, gives you charters to root for an event to, even arrogantly, believe in, and at last, swells to a believable, if even unexpected, conclusion.
The result leaves us more than merely entertained; we’re intrigued. We want to know more. That, to me, is the mark of an entertaining film and a very good one. | https://mollycarter423.medium.com/ford-v-ferrari-they-dont-quite-make-them-like-this-anymore-94e4596beb5d | ['Molly Carter'] | 2019-12-18 22:15:28.214000+00:00 | ['Ford V Ferrari', 'Movies To Watch', 'Movie Review', 'Movies'] |
How Degree in Environmental Science Can Help You Get a Job | Environmental science is a relatively recent interdisciplinary academic discipline that combines biology, chemistry and physics to address the research of the environment and the solutions of environmental challenges. It emerged from fields such as medical science and natural science during the Industrial Revolution.
Although it has its roots in natural sciences, it does not have a strict discipline like chemistry or physics. Rather, it relies on the application of scientific principles to study a wide variety of environmental issues. A fundamental element of all aspects of environmental science is the study of how the environment interacts with human beings and their environments.
As a result, this branch of science includes the study of global climate change, the behaviour and health of living organisms, and the interactions among the natural environment and man-made pollutants. In addition to these, there are also a number of other areas of interest that relate to environmental science.
An environmental science degree gives students the necessary skills and knowledge for many jobs in fields like sustainability, conservation, and environmental research and teaching. Jobs that directly relate to the degree include environmental horticulturalists. This career is perfect for students who are also interested in learning about nature’s ecosystems.
The first and foremost area of interest in the field of environmental science involves the effects of pollution on ecosystems and the environment. These include:
The first thing you should know as an environmental scientist is that there are many different ways in which you can specialize. If you want to study the relationship between the environment and human health, for example, you can earn a doctorate in public health to study the impact of pollution and health on the world around us.
However, if you are interested in the relationship between pollution and the environment, you may be well suited for a career in environmental science. Environmental scientists may also choose to specialize in a particular aspect of science.
For instance, the geologist may study the earth’s surface and sedimentary deposits to understand why major changes in land use occur. In addition to the study of the environment and the physical sciences, there is also a study of human health and psychology. If you wish to study how the disease affects humans, you could specialize in gerontology or pathology.
Neurobiologist and anthropologist study human behaviour and consciousness in order to understand the psychological aspects of human life. Of course, you cannot get a degree in environmental science without specializing in a specific study.
There are also several courses that are required in this field. The most important ones include:
Some of these subjects are required while others are optional but you should not skip them since they are necessary if you want to succeed in your studies. You should be aware though that some subjects may require additional research. on your part to acquire an understanding of what you are studying. For instance, one course that will not be required but strongly recommended is Introduction to Earth Science.
The Environmental Science major prepares students for a successful career in a career in environmental science. Because environmental science requires the study of the environment, its focus is the study of human life within the environment and its interactions with its surroundings. This field of study helps you to develop a holistic approach to living a healthy and environmentally sound life.
Students who have earned an environmental health science degree can also pursue a career in education or medicine. In education, you may work as a teacher, coach, curriculum developer, or consultant. Your educational background will play a role in your job selection. Your degree program should teach you how to assess and design a learning system that meets the needs of your student.
The program is designed so that students learn about the various components of the environment as well as they learn about the processes that govern the earth’s environment. The core curriculum includes introductory courses in general sciences, earth sciences, physical sciences and microbiology, chemistry, and physics, among others.
An Environmental Science major is particularly beneficial for those with prior studies in physics and mathematics. It is also perfect for students who have an interest in environmental issues. As such, it is also great for working professionals that are already working in the fields of ecology, public health, or the environment because the major allows you to study many aspects of environmental science at the same time.
The same can be said for public health
If you are interested in helping people understand and improve their health, you can go on to work in public health. Many environmental health science programs also offer health care training, which would be extremely useful if you ever decided to work in this field.
For those who want to further their education and careers, research opportunities are very exciting. In fact, a lot of research has been done on the links between environmental conditions and health. If you study this area, you can easily earn a doctorate degree or even a doctorate in environmental health science.
You may choose to get into the field of biology to study plants, animals, and natural resources. However, there are other areas that also interest you and that are more related to environmental health science. For example, environmental health science programs often combine animal health studies with those related to humans. A good program will be able to explain the relationships between humans and animals.
A good health program should also give students the chance to experience various settings and see how things work in a real environment
You should not only be able to see how things work, but you should also be able to talk to others about their experience and opinions. When you are able to talk to those in the same position as you, it is easier for you to learn from them.
After earning your degree in environmental care, you can then move on to work as a health consultant or even in the field of health care itself. This may be a great career option for someone who wants to do something hands-on. and be a hands-on practitioner. Working in an environment that involves people is a great way to see first hand how environmental issues affect other people.
Environmental science degrees are often very popular because they offer a variety of career options. If you have the desire to go back to school and earn a PhD, consider a course in biology, environmental health science, public health, or public health care.
If you choose to go back to school for your bachelor’s degree, there are even many programs that allow students to earn two degrees. So if you are interested in a wide variety of careers, and environmental science degree is just the thing for you!
As you can imagine, graduate studies are very involved. You will have to spend a lot of time away from your family and friends. This can be a little stressful, but if you can manage to do this while still taking care of other aspects of your life, you should be fine. Just make sure that you have a plan and a good support system to help you along the way.
Graduate degrees are available at all levels of the program
In fact, some doctoral degrees can take over five years to finish. You may even be able to earn a master’s degree after you have finished your graduate studies. If you are not interested in getting a doctorate, you may not need to worry about getting a degree in environmental science.
Many of these programs require you to earn a master’s degree before you can apply for jobs in this field. You may not have to have a PhD in any of the areas that you choose to specialize in. If you have an interest in the environment and are interested in becoming a health researcher or teacher, you can get your degree through a bachelor’s degree in environmental science.
Entry requirements for an Environmental Science Degrees
The entry requirements for environmental science degrees vary between different institutions. People applying for an undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree in environmental science can expect to be asked for a diploma of secondary education, these include good grades in at least one of the following related subjects:
At the master’s level of the degree, you will need to have completed a relevant bachelor’s degree, either in environmental sciences or in one of the subjects mentioned above. Some universities may require applicants to attend a face-to-face interview, and/or to sit an entrance exam, often depending on national norms.
Environmental science degrees usually last for 3 or 4 years at the bachelor’s level and one or two years for a master’s qualification. The initial stage of your studies will include compulsory core modules, which aim to give you a general understanding of environmental science and introduce you to some of the main principles. You can discover some of the top Universities offering the environmental sciences courses
This program will not only teach you how to protect the environment, but it will also teach you how to handle health issues that are similar to those that affect the environment. You will be prepared to help others, so if you decide to go back to school or stay in the field, you will be ready for the challenges.
You can get a degree in Environmental Science by completing a Bachelor of Science, Master’s Degree, or PhD. The most popular programs are the Master of Science and PhD. | https://medium.com/@akinpedia/how-degree-in-environmental-science-can-help-you-get-a-job-7efe9a6ae4cc | ['Abiodun Lawrence'] | 2020-12-30 09:02:16.589000+00:00 | ['Planning', 'Career Advice', 'Environmental Issues', 'Urban Planning', 'Urbanism'] |
“Craft your own wings “ | “Craft your own wings “
2020 has changed the complete business model, need to build a strong relationship with consumer
Develop a true vision
Define your target
Know your customers behavior
Get your business updated with various marketing and technical trends
These are some very essential marketing strategies that every business required to grow
Content marketing is mostly free (unless you outsource it) and it allows you to rank for more keywords, keep your site content fresh, establish expertise and offer valuable information to your target audience — Network
This ties in a lot with the business card strategy, but it works online and in person. Leverage your network for all it’s worth (without being obnoxious) and you’ll see much better results
Email Marketing
Your email marketing can help to nurture relationships with customers and solutions like MailChimp are affordable for small businesses to use.
Offer Giveaways, Discounts, or Trials
If you want to get new clients quickly, offering discounts, giveaways or free trials to leads is a great way to drive some conversions. — Focus on the most powerful marketing channels
Use the best social networking site according to your business type and audience.
#marketing #digitalmarketing #marketingstrategy #socialmedia #seo #business #contentmarketing #socialmediamarketing #strategy #branding #motivation #businessmodels | https://medium.com/@jeetjohal-rk/craft-your-own-wings-ff6c7a10043f | ['Ranjeet Johal'] | 2020-11-20 07:06:03.816000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Content Marketing', 'Content Strategy'] |
Iron Man | Iron Man
A Myth in Disguise
Iron Man — movie poster (Marvel Entertainment, 2016)
Creating a movie poster is not an easy or simple task. The designers are tasked with drawing the viewer towards buying a ticket at the box office but also to get the reader to be intrigued by a greater story.
If anything, it’s an art — an art of creating a myth that viewers can “believe in”.
As Marvel is looking for a wide audience, their need to appeal broadly relies on accepted stereotypes for easy recognition and general acceptance by the public. In Barthes’ (1927) terminology, the original symbol that Marvel relies on is what is considered to be a “Hollywood action-thriller” per se.
The concept of a “Hollywood action-thriller” largely has already been signified by it means for something to be a “Hollyworld” movie or, colloquially, the stereotypes that are commonly communicated through billion-dollar productions that do not challenge the status quo. Predominantly, this includes James Bond-esque baggage: promiscuity, emphasized masculinity, fast pasted battles, and namely, more explosions.
Marvel’s movie poster for Iron Man alone checks all these boxes — a glimpse of the movie is need not required.
This implicit ideology or myth that Marvel is seeking to achieve in the name of widespread viewership is rooted in the composition of the work. Void of Stark’s now iconic red and gold, metal suit, the poster would otherwise be easily interpreted as a yet another generic “Hollywood action-thriller”. For this reason, significant attention is drawn towards the Iron Man suit for it to become a signifier that distinguishes it from an otherwise typical film. In effect, the cool persona of heroism from Iron Man is the signifier and the signified — an otherwise generic “Hollywood action-thriller” — to become the symbol that is Iron Man, the movie.
Perhaps the simplest but most effective element at play here at drawing attention to Stark’s suit is the black background. This draws greater attention to the distinct circle of light emanating from the chest of Stark’s suit and additionally the slight halo of light behind the suit’s head alluding to halos around the heads of saints. Additionally, the suit is positioned not quite eye-level and is slightly looking down on the viewer Iron Man. These components are what situate Iron Man as a figure to “look up to” and be trusted to add our distinct hero element to this myth.
In terms of other stereotypes that the poster uses, “traditional” roles and masculinity and femininity are apparent. From just a rudimentary glance at the poster, Pepper Potts, the woman in showy blue, is in a “power” pose but is rendered notably smaller size than the three male lead roles while positioned next to fighter jets and explosions. The movie poster does little to differentiate her positioning in the movie at first glance. By way of composition, Potts is relegated to playing just another part of the James Bond-eque ideology as before.
As much as Marvel is looking to create a story and a movie work while, they are creating a myth— a myth relying on implicit ideology largely through the use of stereotypes of what a “typical” action-thriller looks like. Barthes’ framework for semiology is precisely what is necessary for understanding the implicit and explicit.
If Barthes framework was more broadly but informally applied, it could allow the public to have a chance at really understanding the underlying ideas of what they are watching given an active — not a passive — mindset. Only when a viewer truly thinks about what they are watching do the underlying implicit ideologies and assumptions as they are explicit. Otherwise, we might as well be mindlessly accepting stereotypes and implicit ideologies as we sit back, relax, and watch the release. | https://medium.com/@JoshJBowIIT/iron-man-8c977cfef74 | ['Josh Bowden'] | 2016-10-27 14:53:45.592000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Marvel', 'Superheroes'] |
Family Winter Safety 101 | Winter safety is important. While it may be challenging and cumbersome to get everyone ready to go out in the cold weather, the extra time taken to prepare will ensure no one in your family gets sick.
Before You Go Out
Get you and your family prepared before you go out to play in the snow or even if you have to run an errand in freezing weather.
Put sunscreen on yourself and your children. People can still experience sunburn in the winter since the sun bounces off of snowfall on the ground.
Layer everyone with a thermal layer, then a regular outfit, then the final layer with an insulated jacket.
Remember to have everyone put on hats, gloves, scarves, earmuffs, and insulated snow boots.
Offer your children a glass of water. Offer the option of hot chocolate or even soup to warm up before going out.
Playing in the Snow
Do not send your children out alone. There should always be two or more children playing together in the snow as you and/or another parent or guardian watch the children.
Young children may need to come in for another warm drink or more water if they do not move around as much (i.e., babies on a sled ride).
Have your children only play for small intervals, such as a half-hour at a time.
Key Safety Tips to Remember
Be safe no matter what you are doing or where you are going by remembering these key safety tips.
If it under 16 degrees Fahrenheit, children could experience frostbite. Please do not send your children out when it’s this temperature or below that.
Make sure to have helmets and other necessary safety equipment if your children are snowboarding, skiing, sledding, or ice skating.
Check with your kids every 10–15 minutes to be sure they are not wet or cold.
Never let your children put metal objects from the snow into their mouths. No need to call the ambulance with a child’s tongue stuck to a pole. | https://medium.com/@karenkajmowiczchicago/family-winter-safety-101-69c342cc850a | ['Karen Kajmowicz'] | 2021-01-21 15:32:33.874000+00:00 | ['Winter Activities', 'Karen Kajmowicz', 'Winter', 'Safety', 'Snow'] |
Losing My Internet Was a Reminder of How Essential Broadband Has Become | Losing My Internet Was a Reminder of How Essential Broadband Has Become
And also of the fact that the Internet of Things has already arrived
Photo by Misha Feshchak on Unsplash
This Thursday, Comcast went around our neighborhood putting notices on everyone’s door about a “brief” Internet outage on Friday, which would happen while they were “working to enhance and strengthen the network” in our neighborhood.
On Friday, Comcast arrived as promised and shut off the Internet. All day, men with cherry-picker trucks fiddled with cables in the street. I saw a bunch of concerned posts on Nextdoor (that’s what Nextdoor is for, after all) about the “suspicious people” in our neighborhood “cutting wires and asking to access my electrical box.”
If you’re a Comcast customer, you know where this is going. On Friday afternoon, Comcast’s workers left for the weekend, leaving our Internet disabled. That meant a full weekend without Wifi or other Internet access in our house.
Overall, it’s a minor annoyance compared to what a lot of people in the world are dealing with. But losing Wifi also provided an interesting reminder of the extent to which the Internet of Things — long promised — really has begun to arrive. It’s also a reminder that in the age of Coronavirus, Internet access is an essential service — if not on par with electricity, than certainly as important as timely trash service or other utilities.
In the age of Coronavirus, Internet access is an essential service
I’m a tech journalist and I run a gadget-centered YouTube channel. So my home is probably far more tech-enabled than many. But lots of people now have devices that subtly connect to the Internet over Wifi — sometimes without you knowing (or remembering) that they do so.
Throughout the weekend, the number of these gadgets that I have in my home was made extremely obvious by the lack of Wifi signal. My Nest Learning Thermostat still performed admirably when I set it manually, but conveniences I’ve grown accustomed to (like changing the temperature via my phone while upstairs in my office) ceased to function.
More obviously, the Roku box which I use for all my TV and TV-like streaming services also stopped working. I don’t have traditional cable TV, so all the services I use to stream entertainment — Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, YouTube, and more — were all inaccessible. It was a reminder of the patchwork quilt of random streaming services (each charging me about $7 per month) that has replaced the cable TV providers of yore — and not necessarily at a lower expense, or with more convenience.
My voice assistants, also, became a lot less helpful. About 15 times throughout the weekend, I instinctively asked Alexa for something, only to be met with the confused, somewhat concerned response “Hmm, I seem to be having trouble connecting” and the slightly more upbeat, optimistic “I’ll keep trying!”
It’s a reminder both of the extent to which I use Alexa for minor tasks without even thinking about it (you try converting 10 tablespoons to cups without the Internet’s help), and of the subtle trickery behind these devices’ operation. When you ask Alexa for something simple, you’d think she could just handle it for you. But in reality, Alexa and her ilk record what you’ve said, send it out over the Internet to a central server for processing, wait for a response, and then play that response back to you.
This happens for complex queries (“Alexa, what religion is Justin Bieber?”) and simple ones, like setting a 10 minute timer while baking. It’s a testament to the ubiquity and also the fragility of voice assistant tech that in 2020, Alexa can’t answer either question without access to the Internet.
Absent the ability to phone home to Jeff Bezos and his mothership of servers and voice processing algorithms, Alexa can do little more than flash a yellow line on my screen.
It’s easy to forget that even when I ask for a simple on-device function like setting a timer, Alexa is beaming my voice off to Jeff Bezos and waiting for his response. When the Internet dies and this is impossible, Alexa’s fundamental feebleness is revealed. Absent the ability to phone home to Jeff and his mothership of servers and voice-processing algorithms, Alexa can do little more than flash a yellow line on my screen and apologize to me.
Other broken gadgets were more of surprise. When I stepped onto my Fitbit Aria wireless scale to take my weight, I was able to see a value, but then was met with 20 minutes of a spinning arrow, and finally the message “COULD NOT SYNC.” My Philips Hue lightbulbs couldn’t switch on and off remotely, nor could I control my office light via T-link dongle. My Nest cameras were unable to tell me when a package arrived at my front door. My crypto heated tomatoes went unmonitored.
All these broken gadgets are a reminder that the Internet of Things — long promised — has subtly arrived without most of us noticing. More and more of our appliances have some form of Internet connection, and many are actively recording what we do and beaming it all over the world. The fact that I can’t control my lights or use my scale without Wifi made the extent of my devices’ connectedness clear.
I wish I could say that losing Internet access allowed me a pleasant opportunity to unplug, and to be be more present in daily life. But it didn’t. Perhaps before the pandemic, a “digital holiday” would have been welcome. But with Covid-19 preventing most indoor activities and almost all gatherings — and wildfire smoke often rendering outside events impossible, too — Internet access has become a lifeline to the outside world, and a way to stave off isolation.
I wish I could say that losing Internet access allowed me a pleasant opportunity to unplug, and to be be more present in daily life. But it didn’t.
That was even more acute this weekend, since Saturday was the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah — a celebration of the Jewish New Year. Nearly all of our congregation’s services were remote this year, and without reliable Internet access, my family struggled to engage with them. We finally found a solution by switching a cellphone to hotspot mode, placing it in an exterior window (ironically, the same window where we usually place our menorah during Chanukah), and then connecting to its cellular-enabled Wifi signal using a laptop or another phone elsewhere in the house.
This workaround helped us to stay engaged with Zoom services and gatherings. Our temple is also very innovative in the face of all manner of challenges, and held a drive-through carnival for the holiday — and we have a family member visiting (yes, a real, in-person visit), so that helped as well.
But I can easily see how if were older, lacked the tech knowledge to implement a workaround, or simply couldn’t afford broadband Internet in the first place, it would be easy to lose crucial access to the outside world — and to be even more isolated from our friends, family and communities than the pandemic already makes all of us.
Thankfully, after a power cycle of my router, the Internet returned this morning. Otherwise, the molasses-slow connection from my cellphone hotspot almost certainly would have altered the kinds of work-related tasks I could get done. Already, I shudder to think of my Sprint bill after a weekend of sending all my family’s video streaming, downloading and Zooming through my phone’s tethered connection.
Internet access is the epitome of an essential service, allowing for connection to the outside world, as well as — in many cases — essential activities like ordering food, working, seeing a doctor, or educating our children.
All this was an important reminder of how crucial Internet access has become for post-pandemic life. Fast internet, before the pandemic, was a luxury which allowed thing like watching 4K movies or playing video games. But today, it’s the epitome of an essential service, allowing for connection to the outside world, as well as — in many cases — essential activities like ordering food, working, seeing a doctor, or educating our children.
That’s a point we should all keep in mind when considering issues like digital access and broadband equality. If you think fast Internet is a frivolous luxury, try living without it for a few days. It might change your mind about the importance of providing high speed access to all. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/losing-my-internet-was-a-reminder-of-how-essential-broadband-has-become-6974cabd1928 | ['Thomas Smith'] | 2020-09-22 13:42:41.909000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Internet', 'Analysis', 'Broadband', 'Internet Equality'] |
Lockdown Economy Indonesia in Shoe Cleaning Service with Rastono | The interview was translated and adapted into an article by Larisa Sitorus
Lockdown Economy: Interviews by think tank AlterContacts.org with real entrepreneurs sharing insights, challenges and successes during the COVID19 global pandemic to inspire, motivate and encourage other entrepreneurs around the world.
In this interview hosted by Karlina Lubis, we meet Rastono, the Founder of Green Shoes, a shoe cleaning service in Magelang, Indonesia.
Where are you at the moment? Are you at the shop, or at home?
Rastono: I stopped by at my friend’s place, I left the shop already.
Why don’t you introduce us to your business, so that the audience can know you and the business a bit more? Maybe you could start with a description of the business, where it is located.
Rastono: The business is called Green Shoes. It is a service for cleaning shoes. So, we have several services. The first one is a deep clean, for us to clean the inside and outside of the shoes. We also have a service to do just the outside. Aside from cleaning (washing), we also provide re-colouring of the shoes for the ones that are fading in colours, we can revive its initial colour. My business is located on Tentara Unit Pelajar street, in Dumpo village, in Magelang city, Central Java. I started this business in June 2020 and it’s on its fifth month. So when corona happened, I was just starting it. I have two friends, and with one of them, Irsad, we started this business.
So you actually opened the business in the middle of the pandemic. This is very interesting, could you tell a bit more, what made you decide to do this business, especially in the middle at these times?
Rastono: Yes, actually, this Green Shoes started at the beginning of 2020. We were planning to open it then. In 2019, we already put the plan together, aiming to open it by early 2020. But since I was still working on my thesis, I put it on hold. I finished in March, and in April, I wanted to open the business. But corona hit, and I couldn’t do it. Since then, a few months into the corona, we had to return home from university. At home, I was so bored since I didn’t have any activities and no income. So I thought “We don’t know when this corona will end. It was still unclear. So let’s just open the business for now. Even if we don’t have any customers, at least we started the business.” At that time, even when there was no customer, it was more important to open the business first. We would work on customers eventually. We opened last June. That is the short story.
But you’ve already planned for it quite a while back. How did you end up deciding to focus on shoe cleaning and re-colouring?
Rastono: It started with a problem. There are many college students in the UNTIDAR campus that have shoes. It was a trend in 2019, sneakers. So we noticed from the data, that sneakers sales increased. But many people do not know how to wash/clean shoes properly and correctly. So the tendency was to wash it recklessly, which ended up ruining the shoes, ruining the material of the shoe. That was the problem that became an opportunity for us. From then on, we started to learn about it. I have a friend that was already running similar business in Jogja. We went there to learn from him. After that, we practised it in Magelang for months, it was then when we had the courage to start our own business.
Aside from this, we noticed there were only a few similar services near the UNTIDAR campus and the Magelang city. After running a survey, online survey, and through offline, we found there were 5 to 7 businesses that specialized in shoes. But there were those laundry services that also provide cleaning for shoes, and there were plenty of these. But the ones that were specialized in shoes were still limited. So this was our opportunity to start the business.
How is the business going? Strategy to market the service? How do you reach the customers in the middle of this pandemic?
Rastono: Ok, for sure the pandemic situation is a bit different than the normal situation. So we do free pick-up since the government requested for people to stay home and not to go outside. So instead of them leaving home, the Green Shoes team goes out and picks the shoes up from their homes. Once they are cleaned, we will deliver them back to the customers.
But, we are different than the others. This pick-up and delivery service are already common. We want to leave an impression. So the team that picks up the shoes would wear something unique. We wear a suit and white shirts, and red tie, and we wear the blangkon (traditional Javanese hat for men). And we wear dress shoes and this was very formal. So we looked like directors, like the president. So when the customer saw us coming, they asked: “What are you dressed up for?” We answered, “Nothing, we are just picking up your shoes, and want to look decent.” So we wanted to leave an impression and it became the branding of Green shoes.
How are the sales, do you get sufficient customers?
Rastono: Yes. It increases significantly from month to month.
Did you have the strategy of wearing the suit from the beginning you started or just recently?
Rastono: From the beginning. From July, we didn’t yet wear suits. But we already dressed up, wearing a white or black shirt, with blangkon and tie. But in September, there was feedback from a friend: “If you wear a white shirt, it looks like you are going to a job interview to apply for a job. Why don’t you add a suit, it would look better?” So then, we added suits and it was well seen, we thought.
So there was an adjustment on the second month. In a situation like this, with the selected strategy, if you take a look at the whole picture of the business, do you think this business will stay stable? Or do you think, there must be other adjustments in the coming months?
Rastono: From looking at the progress and the incoming shoe data from July until now in late November, there is a significant increase in shoes and bags. We also do bags. And from these few months, the data shows an increase, I checked earlier. So I think, it will go up even more in the coming months. Why? Because there is information from the government that next year, the schools will start opening again. And the main target for us is the college students of the UNTIDAR. And once they start going to the campus again, for sure that would be a tremendous market for us. At the moment, the UNTIDAR students are already arriving, the ones in the last semester especially. But, this is not all. These are only 5%, they are here. And that is still considered as low. But we are thankful, there are still shoes coming in. There will be many more coming once the education starts opening again, and that will be a high potential market, I think.
Stay optimistic. What are three things that you would need help with, in relation to your business?
Rasatano: Let’s start with the challenges. Our challenge is financial. We need capital for growing our business. We still need it for purchasing equipment for the shop. Yes, we’re doing it slowly, but there are still things that we are lacking. The first is the capital for growth, for sure. And then, for promotion, for shop equipment and everything, for expanding.
The second thing is a business mentor. My team and I often attend training, workshops about business. But they were for just a moment. They do not help us continuously. So I really need a mentor that can monitor us daily. That’s my wish.
And then third, I really wish there are training for digital marketing, and for the financial side, for the production side, that for several of these there are specific training on these.
About the Guest
Rastono just graduated from University and decided to start his own business along with the team. The business name is Green Shoes. Located on Jl. Tentara Genie Pelajar, Dumpoh, Potrobangsan, Magekang. They provide shoe and bag washing services. Besides that, they also do repaint. The business started in June 2020. They have a pickup and delivery for free in Magelang City Area.
https://www.instagram.com/greenshoes100/ | https://medium.com/@altercontacts/lockdown-economy-indonesia-in-shoe-cleaning-service-with-rastono-a6ea1ce5656c | ['Lockdown Economy'] | 2020-12-20 13:16:55.717000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Shoes', 'Lockdown', 'Small Business', 'Indonesia'] |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.