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The X-Y-Z’s of COVID-19 | Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
What to others may feel like a dream is a reality. This year millions of people were expecting to enjoy the Olympics and other celebratory festivities such as the “Year of Nurse & Midwife.” However, many of these events were postponed indefinitely or transitioned into virtual events.
Vastly going undetected, spreading the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), leading to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulted in a pandemic and halted global markets. To date, more than 61 million cases lead to 1.5 million people succumbing to respiratory infection. In the United States, a significant percentage of the population filed for unemployment, and we all witnessed public outcry. Meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases continue to soar, and people misunderstood the point of wearing a mask.
Here’s a look at how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy, strategies to circumvent the impact, and opportunities for innovation.
What is the economic impact?
For almost ten years, the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) has amounted to more than 70 trillion per year. In 2019, the U.S. remained the global GDP growth leader even though healthcare expenditures rose in parallel. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis illustrates COVID-19 dampening growth and reducing the upward trend. The cost of stabilizing the U.S. economy has already added more than 2 billion to the current deficit.
Industries such as healthcare, technology, construction, and retail are essential drivers of the economy. No other sector has suffered greater than retail, which accounts for automotive, food and beverage, general merchandise, and e-commerce. We should note that companies adding unique value, including e-commerce brands, are less likely to be impacted by COVID-19.
The impact on our healthcare system
What happened to our healthcare system? In the early phase of the pandemic, scientists and healthcare professionals were scrambling to understand the symptoms and obtain the virus’s genetic information. A few health experts questioned the disease’s diagnosis as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) but instead favored high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Yes, a mouthful.
Across the U.S., hospitals were in short supply of ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE). The supply shortage meant hospital staff would wear contaminated PPE for weeks, and access to life-saving technology would become scarce. As hospitals began to overflow, this would put constraints on screening for COVID-19 and patient care.
COVID-19 Technology
Today, 194 FDA-approved Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) COVID-19 tests are available on the healthcare market. However, consumers do not have the freedom to select the type of analyte test or manufacturer. Hospitals and other healthcare services adopted drive-by testing to reduce the complexities of a full waiting room. In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD), purchased a 150 million 5-minute COVID-19 antigen test from Abbott Laboratories.
The common practice employed by public health officials during disease outbreaks is that of contact tracing. Entrepreneurs and software companies developed mobile applications to improve the identification of infected persons and their contacts within a specific timeframe. So far, privacy concerns and political agendas limit the adoption of contacting tracing solutions. A collaboration involving engineering teams from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Virginia Tech received a RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a secure application.
SARS-Cov-2 vaccination program
It wasn’t until May when the official announcement of the public-private partnership program (PPP) Operation Warp Speed (OWS) became public knowledge. OWS is a collection of countermeasures to produce 300 million safe and effective vaccine doses by January of 2021. Partnerships between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Moderna and Pfizer and Biontech led to two innovative messenger ribonucleotide acid (mRNA) vaccines. Both parties concluded their phase III clinical trial and reported meeting all of the study’s primary efficacy endpoints for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with more than 90% efficacy.
Another approach to developing a vaccine included the use of experimental drugs such as recombinant adenovirus technology, small molecule, and monoclonal antibodies. In recent news, Gilead’s Remdesivir (Velkury), Eli Lilly and Company’s bamlanivimab, and Regeneron’s casirivimab and imdevimab received EUA. However, not every experimental drug was successful in meeting primary endpoints or diversity goals for clinical trials.
Final thoughts
Without a doubt, 2020 is a complicated year. There are 60 million people infected with SARS-CoV-2, and the number of cases is starting to rise in regions that once had control. Unfortunately, political agendas marred an early response to the virus, and biosecurity programs were publicly tested. Through collaboration, hopefully, we understand the importance of PPP programs, which led to OWS. The outcome of a robust effort has led to more than 230 vaccine programs and 5% in phase III clinical trials while in the manufacturing phase.
Do you also see the opportunities for technology? Although we saw Google and Apple pair up to develop exposure notification API, this is just the beginning or one small step towards a climate that understands biosecurity’s significance. Companies such as LucasPye Bio, MICo Medical, and even a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team are developing technologies or correcting a colossal supply chain issue beyond COVID-19.
The unsung heroes are the essential workers, including farmers and healthcare personnel. Where would we be without food or excellent patient care? Perhaps this episode of 2020 will spark innovation and policy to support the often-forgotten essential workers. In introspect, we generated so much data to look forward to evaluating the gaps in the U.S. healthcare system. Maybe tomorrow, we will understand the correlations between population growth, the strength of biosecurity programs, and disease outbreak. And hopefully, COVID-19 fuels focus and correct our supply chain. | https://medium.com/@bio-innovator/the-x-y-zs-of-covid-19-71f9d4d48451 | ['Michael Amadi'] | 2020-12-01 21:01:52.921000+00:00 | ['Biotechnology', 'Coronavirus', 'Innovation', 'Covid 19', 'Science'] |
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDYİNG ABROAD? | WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDYİNG ABROAD?
The world has become a very well connected place thanks to the developments in technology and transportation. Due to globalization, many students now prefer to study abroad for various reasons. People want to improve themselves, follow innovations and be international. There are of studying abroad advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages are learning a new language and making international friends. The disadvantages are missing family and friends.
The first advantage of studying abroad is to learn a new language. Learning a new language allows you to get to know their different worlds and self-confidence to increase. People studying abroad find work easier because they know the language. For example, an import-export company needs an employee who speaks a foreign language. Therefore, they take people who speak foreign languages.
The second advantage of studying abroad is to make international friends. Students who study abroad meet many other students from various countries. And this situation gives people an advantage in both social and business lives.
However, there are disadvantages to working abroad. Such as missing family and friends. If you’re studying abroad, you can’t always go home. If your home is far away, it will be harder for you to go home. In conclusion, working abroad has its advantages and disadvantages. If you want to study abroad, you need to know these. | https://medium.com/@kubraang/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-studyi%CC%87ng-abroad-c938a4dee17 | [] | 2020-12-25 19:09:29.749000+00:00 | ['Essay', 'Teknologi', 'Disadvantages', 'Avantage', 'Internet'] |
6 Must-Have Items to Keep in Your Car! | Picture this, you’re driving home after a long day at work, and all you can think of is that you want to kick your feet up on the couch. Yet you just hit peak hour traffic and you see rain on the way. The first thing that comes to your mind is that you just had your car cleaned, and now it’s going to get dirty again, which you’ll need to spend another $20 for a carwash. You take a look around the inside of your car and decide to pass the time by listening to some tunes on the radio, however, it’s just a couple of people having a conversation and the other stations are playing adverts.
So you look for your mobile phone to play music over its loudspeaker…which you realize you misplaced somewhere. After having your little outburst, you give up, accept the circumstances, and tell yourself it’s time to organize your car properly once you get home. This may get you wondering, “what are the must-have items for my car”?
Here I’ve researched the top 6 must-have items in your car to keep it organized! I have divided them into categories and recommend two of my favorites in each category. Hopefully, this article will help you really organize your vehicle, and save you from ‘these’ situations happening again!
**Just so you know, there are some affiliate links in this post that I may receive a commission from. Thank you if you use my links, as it will help me greatly and I’d really appreciate it!**
Dash Cams
The first of the must-have items in your car is to have a dashcam installed! Mounted to the front and also the rear, a dashcam will not only capture what you see on the road but it can also capture what happens to your car when you’re not around it. It’s a perfect way to surveillance your car, and a great asset to have if you need to send an insurance claim!
Here are my top picks:
Featuring a high resolution, forward-facing camera, as well as an in-cabin camera both with IR night vision mode, a small and compact body for discreet recording, a built-in G sensor, and motion detection, the ToGuard has got to be the most practical and effective dash cam on sale today! If you are after a quality, high performing dashcam, look no further!
Goodts dash cams offer cheap pricing and no-nonsense usability.
With a 2.75-inch screen, 170-degree wide-angle lens, and a built-in G sensor, this dash cam gets very close and offers some competition with the other higher priced dash cams. Also included are the 24/7 customer support and 12-month warranty, so you won’t go wrong purchasing the Goodts dashcam! | https://medium.com/@allthingshorsepower/6-must-have-items-to-keep-in-your-car-ecfd51b54999 | ['Daniel Kouznetsov'] | 2020-12-23 11:35:05.704000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Dashcam', 'Must Have', 'In Car Infotainment', 'Car Gadgets'] |
EOS Çapraz Zinciri | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/bifrosty/eos-%C3%A7apraz-zinciri-888489e3b64c | ['Vincent J. Lionheart'] | 2020-10-25 15:14:24.836000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Eos', 'Polkadot', 'Bifrost', 'Crosschain'] |
Understanding Logistics — Global market size, segments & value chain analysis | In recent times, with the emergence of cross-border business operations, increased demand for consumer items, and a large area of operations of industries like retail, e-commerce, automobiles as well as fresh agricultural produce & food items, logistics has emerged to be an integral key in the global business supply chain management.
Logistics refers to the overall process of managing how resources are acquired, stored, and transported to their final destination.
Running complete end-to-end logistic operations requires an extensive set-up which includes — warehouses, essential equipment for storage & transport, an established network of different stakeholders for handling the products and this is quite a challenge for any business. This has prompted the companies to look outside their scope of operations and outsource all or parts of their supply chain to logistics specialists when it is not a core business. These outsourced logistics are oftentimes called third-party logistics (3PL). Their value proposition is:
Optimizing logistics costs for customers
Shortening the length of the order completion cycle
Reducing the number of fixed assets
Third-party Logistics or 3PL
Third-party logistics companies provide a variety of services that include transportation, warehousing, pick-up and packing, inventory forecasting, order fulfillment, packaging, and freight forwarding. Let’s take a look at the different segments of 3PL
Segments of Third Party Logistics
Contract Logistics
This includes — warehousing services (pick up, packing, labeling), postponed manufacturing (minor assembly, kitting, manufacturing, and quality control), payment, and customer management.
Freight Forwarding
Commissioned by companies to manage their freight overseas and overland. The service includes transportation, customs brokerage, insurance, and tracking.
Road Transportation
Structured into 3 different segments: Full truckload, part-load or less than truckload, groupage, and express
Contract Logistics
According to the report by Bain & Company, contract logistics are a very local and fragmented business, where few large companies dominate the market share such as DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, and DB Schenker from Europe, CH Robinson, XPO Logistics, and UPS from US, Nippon Express, Yusen Logistics, and Kerry Logistics from Asia.
The global contract logistics market is at $203.9Bn in 2017 and is expected to grow at a 5% CAGR until 2025.
It was also mentioned in the report, that market competition is revolving tightly around cost position.
The logistics market offers suppliers few opportunities to differentiate themselves.
Freight Forwarding
Freight forwarding is commonly used for cross-border or inter-island transportation.
Most freight services don’t own ships, planes, or other transportation assets. Instead, they act as intermediaries between customers and cargo carrier companies.
Freight forwarding services can directly be handled by cargo companies.
Airfreight business structure — Freight forwarders (integrators) handle almost all shipments through freight agents
Sea cargo business structure- two-thirds of all volume is handled without a middleman between customers and carriers
Source — Yusen.jp
Road Transportation
Road Transportation simply refers to land transportation and this is usually apparent in the first-mile to mid-mile part of the logistics value chain.
Road Transportation is structured into 4 segments, based on load type and weight.
Full Truck Load — single customer for a full truck
— single customer for a full truck Part-Load or Less than Full Truck Load — several customers with loads weighing more than 1 to 2 tons each
— several customers with loads weighing more than 1 to 2 tons each Groupage and express — consolidate several small shipments to create a full load. It also includes same-day deliveries with the point-to-point model.
The difference in the above types of road transportation all differs in the consolidation method that each type will do. In the full trucks load and less than full truckload, products are carried between two points. Since the customer are paying only for the one way transportation, the value-creating strategy will depend on the logistics company’s ability to fill the truck on its return trip.
Market Differentiation Strategy
Almost every major 3PL players are now evolved into operations with diverse activities, such as DHL, where they first started as air freight, and it is currently running every segments of 3PL.
Below figure shows the revenue allocation for each business segments.
Since there are limited ways of differentiation among logistics companies and these are the key differentiation points:
Pricing — customers are highly price-sensitive in choosing which 3PL partners they will choose Delivery speed — in modern times, more logistics companies started offering express services or fast delivery in both first-mile and last-mile shipping Delivery performance — number of successful deliveries and its number of attempts. This factor will become more important in the last-mile activities Digital enablement — ability to digitize the logistics process. This also includes the ability of the logistics companies to provide a customer-friendly interface or platform
Establishing different segments is also one of the ways to capture the whole logistics value chain such as DHL, capturing contract logistics, freight forwarding, and road transportation.
About Rocket Equities
Rocket Equities, a corporate finance and M&A advisory firm for fast-growing mid-sized companies in Southeast Asia.
Latest fundraising news on logistics from Rocket Equities - QuadX to raise $ 25 million to ride the e-commerce boom | https://medium.com/rocket-equities/understanding-logistics-global-market-size-segments-value-chain-analysis-9b8fc4a4bbe1 | ['Yuka Ueno'] | 2021-06-08 08:59:52.026000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Industry', 'Industry Insights', 'Asia', 'Logistics'] |
Culture Fit: Racial Bias in Tech #3—The Pipeline Fallacy | A common excuse tech companies make for their lack of diversity is to blame the “pipeline,” saying there aren’t enough qualified candidates from historically excluded groups in the talent pool. Why do tech companies lean on this argument, and what are they missing?
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Show notes
Blendoor provides diversity and equity tools for the workplace.
Natives In Tech is a coalition of Native and non-Native developers empowering and supporting Native communities.
What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa? is a book by Chakanetsa Mavhunga.
“The Ghost in the Machine: How new technologies reproduce racial inequality” is an article by Stephen Kearse.
Reforming Jim Crow: Southern Politics and State in the Age Before Brownis a book by Professor Kimberley Johnson.
LTX Fest is an annual conference for Latinx professionals in tech.
Out In Tech is a not-for-profit uniting the LGBTQ+ tech community.
“Is Silicon Valley using culture fit to disguise discrimination?” is an article by LeRon Barton.
StreetCode Academy is empowering communities of color with the skills, mindsets, and networks to use tech and innovation to fulfill their full potential.
“Here’s the clearest picture of Silicon Valley’s diversity yet: It’s bad. But some companies are doing less bad.” is an article by Sinduja Rangarajan.
Blck VC is a non profit with the goal of doubling the representation of Black investors by 2024.
TechEquity Collaborative is mobilizing tech workers to make our communities more equitable places to live. | https://medium.all-turtles.com/the-pipeline-fallacy-c11eb0457a4e | ['All Turtles'] | 2021-01-15 00:29:59.442000+00:00 | ['Racism', 'Diversity', 'Tech', 'Silicon Valley', 'Podcast'] |
Sophomore Year, She’s Still Marvelous | Better Late Than Never: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 2
I went into paroxysms of joy when the Emmys finally made restitution to Amy Sherman-Palladino for her divine, hysterical, and yes, marvelous comedy series for Amazon, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel last year. Winning eight Emmys — including Amazon’s first triumph in a Comedy — and deserved wins for Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein, it was a true work of art from one of the most incredible talents in the history of television. It is the nature of television that it took me the better part of six months to finally get started on the second season, and call me delighted, that its just as good as the first.
In the aftermath of her first breakout performance at the Gaslight, Midge (Brosnahan) has been trying to deal with a series of blows. Her marriage seems to be over after Joel learned how good a comic she was, she has been demoted to the switchboard at Macy’s, and as a quasi-result of her mother learning about her life, Rose (the criminally undervalued Marin Hinkle) departed in the premiere episode to Paris, much to the shock of Abe. Midge has been trying to deal with everything in her life since, as well as the obvious problem — how does she continue her burgeoning career as a stand-up comic while still trying to keep it a secret from her friends and her parents?
As is always the case with Sherman-Palladino’s work, the center of Maisel is a fast-talking brunette. Brosnahan continues to demonstrate the remarkable ability to deliver fast-paced, hysterical monologues that would make Aaron Sorkin need to breathe. But her humanity continues to show through — she is self-absorbed, but she is still a woman in the 1960s, so our sympathies go to her. Equal credit should go to Borstein as Suzie — the agent who seems capable of dealing with everything business wise — and incapable of anything else. There are always difficulties lying in wait — she was picked up my wiseguys to rough her up in the premiere, which led to a hysterical sequence where they have a conversation, which leads to dinner, which leads to them not being so bad-ass as they seemed.
And slowly but surely, the Weissmans are starting to earn their place in the likability pantheon of television couples. Rose’s departure to Paris led to some hysterical moments when Abe (Tony Shalhoub, in what is quickly becoming one of the great roles of his career) realized his wife had gone to Paris without him paying attention. He spent all of the first episode flying to Paris, under the impression Midge spoke French, and trying to get Rose to come home, only to be flustered to see she wouldn’t. The next delightful episode showed the two of them going cheerful native, Abe engaging in deep philosophical discussions, Rose going to art museum, and them dancing by the Seine.. When Rose seemed to think this was more than a vacation, Abe had to gently persuade her to come home, and it seem nothing had changed, albeit despite some truly gorgeous montages. But when they came back, Abe told Rose that he had signed her up for Art History classes at Columbia, and told her they were going to take some dance classes. Rose’s reaction was one of the most perfect moments the series has yet done.
And the series continues to demonstrate some of the most gloriously subtle moments. When Midge ended up doing an impromptu routine in Paris, it was hysterically funny considering there was what appeared to be simultaneous translation as well as culture shock. When the routine ended, there was the inevitable Jerry Lewis remark, but a woman in the audience handed her a therapist’s card, and said: “It worked wonders for my friend Sylvia Plath.” That’s one joke that registers across language.
Maisel has been a victory in the early awards seasons, sweeping the SAG Awards, and winning three Broadcast Critics Choice Awards this past January, as well as the second consecutive Golden Globe for Brosnahan. If it were just for recognition for the Palladinos, I’d be overjoyed. The fact that this is rapidly becoming the best thing that Amazon has put on — and slowly the rest of streaming — makes me feel that the Emmys are slowly coming around to the right way of thinking. Will they triumph over Veep’s final season? Hard to say. But they have proven you don’t need to be bitter acidic to be funny and awards worthy. Sometimes, you can just be Marvelous.
My score: 4.75 stars. | https://davidb226morris.medium.com/sophomore-year-shes-still-marvelous-4fdcfba08d | ['David Morris'] | 2019-06-18 03:19:22.806000+00:00 | ['Marvelous Mrs Maisel', 'Television', 'Amazon', 'Rachel Brosnahan', 'Tony Shalhoub'] |
Kubernetes Pods | Preface
This blog talks about the basic knowledge of Kubernetes Pods. But before exploring Kubernetes Pods, let us first go through what a Docker container is as it is the major container technology that we use to run our applications.
Docker Containers
Docker is an open platform that allows you to package and run applications in a loosely isolated environment called a container. A Docker container is a runnable instance of a Docker image and a Docker read-only template for creating a Docker container. In other words, we need to construct a Docker image before running a Docker container. Take the service foo as an example, here is the Docker file for creating its Docker images:
# Suppose the CI tool already build the `foo` service as a executable binary file and saved it in `./go-server`.
FROM alpine:3.5
RUN apk update && apk add ca-certificates && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*
COPY ./go-server /usr/bin/server
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/server"]
From the file, you can see a minimal Docker file can be as simple as only containing the following directives:
FROM directive specifies alpine:3.5, which essentially is a mini Linux system, as its parent container.
RUN apk update… updates container’s dependencies.
COPY command copies an executable binary file that contains all the business logic of the service foo from ./go-server to /user/bin/server.
from ./go-server to /user/bin/server. ENTRYPOINT tells Docker to executes /user/bin/server as this container’s entry point.
With this Docker file, our continuous integration (CI) tool is able to build and push a new image to the service foo’s Docker image warehouse every time when there is a new change in foo service's repo. Then with this Docker image, we can run and deploy the service foo as a containerized application in Kubernetes.
Pod Overview
A Pod is the smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes. It consists of one or more containers. These containers have their own CPU and memory resources but need to share other resources, including storage and network. As shown in the following picture, a Pod is very similar to an application-specific “host” running one or more “processes” (containers). These “processes” work together to construct a containerized workload or service.c
Use of Pods
The following example demonstrates how to use a K8s Pod to construct a single-replica microservice. This Pod consists of three containers: the container user-usvc has all the microservice's business logic, the container cloudsql-proxy proxies all the MySQL requests to a Google Cloud SQL instance, while the container datadog-agent sends the logs to datadog server.
# ConfigMap for user-msvc
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: user-msvc
namespace: user-msvc
data:
mysql-host: 127.0.0.1:3306
---
# Secret of user-msvc
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: user-msvc
namespace: user-msvc
type: Opaque
data:
datadog-api-key: XKSSAKCKANmOWQ5NDU1NWU2MWE2ZDI=
github-access-token: Yzk4MDZkNzAxNTQwMjkwOA==
# All other configs are omitted.
---
# Pod for user-msvc
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: user-msvc
namespace: user-msvc
labels:
app: user-msvc
spec:
# Storage
volumes:
- name: datadog-data
emptyDir: {}
- name: user-msvc-secret
secret:
defaultMode: 420
secretName: user-msvc-secret
# "Processes"
containers:
- name: user-msvc
image: gcr.io/path/to/user-msvc:1.0.0
ports:
- name: secure-port
containerPort: 443
protocol: TCP
env:
- name: MYSQL_HOST
valueFrom:
configMapKeyRef:
name: user-msvc
key: mysql-host
volumeMounts:
- name: ndatadog-data
mountPath: /var/log/user-msvc
- name: user-msvc-secret
mountPath: /etc/user-msvc/secret
requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 100Mi
limits:
cpu: 200m
memory: 200Mi
- name: cloudsql-proxy
image: gcr.io/cloudsql-docker/gce-proxy:1.12
ports:
- name: connect-port
containerPort: 3306
protocol: TCP
requests:
...
- name: datadog-agent
image: gcr.io/path/to/monitor:1.0.0
volumeMounts:
- name: datadog-data
mountPath: /var/log/monitor
- name: user-msvc-secret
mountPath: /etc/datadog-agent/secret
requests:
...
---
# External Service for user-msvc
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: user-msvc
spec:
ports:
- name: secure-port
port: 443
targetPort: 443
protocol: TCP
selector:
app: user-msvc
type: LoadBalancer
loadBalancerIP: 12.34.56.78 # This is a fake IP
The following picture shows the topology of the Pod user-msvc in Kubernetes.
From the above Pod configuration, we can see that:
The ConfigMap user-msvc and Secret user-msvc are created for storing configurations and sensitive data.
and Secret are created for storing configurations and sensitive data. The field spec.containers defines all the containers of the Pod. For each container, you need to configure which image it is going to run, all the environmental variables, and computing resources it needs, including storage, CPU, memory, and network.
defines all the containers of the Pod. For each container, you need to configure which image it is going to run, all the environmental variables, and computing resources it needs, including storage, CPU, memory, and network. Containers within the same Pod share the network, which means these containers reach each other through 127.0.0.1. However, a port can only be exclusively occupied by a container. In this case, the container cloudsql-proxy exposes itself by opening the port 3306 . Therefore, the container user-msvc is able to connect to it through 127.0.0.1:3306 . Moreover, the container user-msvc opens the 443 port for processing incoming requests from the container user-msvc Kubernetes LoadBalancer Service.
exposes itself by opening the port . Therefore, the container is able to connect to it through . Moreover, the container opens the port for processing incoming requests from the container Kubernetes LoadBalancer Service. The field spec.volumes specifies the shared storage resources for all the containers of the Pod. Kubernetes supports many types of Volumes. you can check this doc for more details about Kubernetes Volumes.
In this example, an emptyDir volume is created when the Pod is created. The volume is respectively mounted to the path /var/log and /var/log/monitor in the container user-msvc and monitor . Both containers share the data in this Volume. Because of this, the container user-msvc can create a file called /var/log/user-msvc-error.log and writes logs to this file, while the container datadog-agent can read the logs from the file /var/log/monitor/user-msvc-error.log and then sends them to datadog.
The Secret user-msvc is also used as Volume in this example. Then it is mounted in the path /etc/user-msvc/secret in the container user-msvc and the path /etc/datadog-agent/secret in the container datadog-agent . When a Secret is mounted into a directory in a container, each of its data will be created as an individual file in that directory. Moreover, a Secret Volume should be read-only. A ConfigMap can be directly used in a Pod’s environmental variables or can be used as a Volume as well.
All in all, this example demonstrates that a Pod is like an application-specific “host” that coordinates one or more “processes” (containers) to work together to provide some kind of service.
What Is Next
It is not a good idea to directly utilize K8s Pods to run applications as Pods are mortal. They cannot be resurrected when they are killed for whatever reason. Because of this, you should use K8s Deployments to run stateless applications and K8s StatefulSets to run stateful applications.
I recommend you read this document if you want to know more details about Kubernetes Pods, such as pod lifetime, pod phase, pod conditions, etc.
I recommend you read this blog if you are curious about how to utilize K8s Deployments to run stateless applications in Kubernetes.
I recommend you read this blog if you are curious about how to utilize K8s StatefulSets to run stateful applications in Kubernetes.
Reference | https://azhuox.medium.com/kubernetes-pods-e90845fd67c8 | ['Aaron Zhuo'] | 2020-11-30 16:53:07.187000+00:00 | ['Entry Level', 'Kubernetes'] |
(In)voluntarily becoming a festival drawing | It’s that time of the year, again. The time when holidays begin looming over right up to the point of eve. In India, the time starts few weeks earlier with the Diwali festival. The looming period has gradually transformed into the celebratory time. Markets are lit up, swarmed with people pouring over their wallets, ridiculous sale offers, steaming hot food, and all the hustle bustle that goes along. Brands, business owners rush to make that incremental sale, and consumers rush to grab every bit of things at a discount even though they don’t need them.
All that has ensued in the past two years, one would assume that the festive spirit may have dampened, but it doesn’t look like so. For me, personally, this part of the year has always been confusing. Rather, any festive time of the year is. Like everyone else, I too have been conditioned to look forward to these days and prepare to be happy. But I barely feel any happiness around these days, in general.
As a child I used to be excited about festivals and holidays. That was primarily because of the following reasons:
New clothes
Sweet treats
Rich food
No school
As I grew older, I could not help observe certain patterns emerging around the concept of holidays. Some of these patterns existed only in our household, and some in the extended family, locality, city, state, country, and beyond.
The build up to festivities…
Every festive or holiday season is preceded by days, weeks, and at times, months of build up. At home, it would take the shape of discussions around what to wear, eat, gift, or buy. House cleaning is also a significant part of the conversation.
…results in progressive ramping up of jobs and responsibilities …
The build up is basically a ruse to push whims and fancies on to as many people as possible. At home, the primary decision maker (quite often the lady of the house) would prepare a fungible list of to-dos. The idea is to keep the list as open-ended as possible. This is the time when she can persuade everyone to help in household chores in the name of having a ‘good family time together’. (Notice the careful choice of the words in quotes)
At school, the teachers need to keep the conditioning alive in the form of drawings, charts, plays, choruses, and allied activities. The objective is to push the students to come up with a large quantum of creative stuff that the school display board can’t accommodate. It serves the higher purpose of teachers showcasing to their peers and superiors how much ‘their’ students have learnt. And earn extra brownie points when parents are elated to see their child’s work pinned in a corner of the display board, even if it is in a damp corner of the room or corridor.
At work, the manager will start the conversation of ‘planned holidays’ early on. What it implies is that s/he wants to gauge which team member is distracted by the idea of unwinding at the upcoming festivities. As a result, that person is more likely to do anything prior to the holidays to ‘truly earn’ the right to relax. The manager would then craft an over ambitious list of tasks in the hope of overachieving the monthly or quarterly, and even better, the annual target.
The ‘priests’ in the places of worship, government, and media networks give sermons on how the upcoming festive season is likely to bring upon us God’s blessings. In plain terms, places of worship get more footfalls and donations. Government gets to either announce new projects (which will be funded by taxpayers’ hard earned money) or enforce restrictions to avoid any incidents by over zealous people (which they hope would happen that would justify the incremental spend on law enforcement), or both. Media networks get the ad revenue at premium rates, and air the much hoped for incidents for better ratings (more ad revenue).
…that increases stress and fatigue exponentially, …
Everyone, and I mean everyone, is exhausted at a sub-conscious level. For the lady of the house, that the ever-expanding to-do list and extensive cleaning drive means multiplication of activities. Teachers must come up with a novel task for the students which no other teacher has come up before. The student is burdened with the pressure to come up with an award-winning creative to outdo the classmates. This in turn adds to the pressure for the parents (more often than not, the mother). Because a child can come up with novel ideas but it’s the parents who are responsible for delivering it.
The manager is burdened with ‘Alpha Centauri’ high expectations of the management. (In this age of Marvel Universe, reaching for the sky high mounts to nothing. Sky is a mere portal for bad aliens to invade our planet.) So, s/he must come up with an idea akin to building a rocket that moves at the speed of light, requires no fuel, and can carry heirlooms of the entire human population so that the entire humanity can skyrocket to Alpha Centauri in one go.
Usually, it means creating two to three parallel sub-projects spawned from an ongoing project and/or data collection and analysis.
The ‘priests’ want you to enjoy the festival as long as you uphold their authority, add to the crowd in public places, defy the sermons and create ruckus, keep the media channels on the whole day, and skinny dip into social media platforms.
… increases reliance on compensatory behaviours, …
With so much happening around, the head is bound to spin. Add to that, the mounting pressure of fulfilling unsought responsibility of others’ agenda. You get into survival mode — flight or fight are the only choices. Choosing one is impractical.
So, most of us choose the invisible option — acquiescence. Unwillingly accept the responsibility and work half-heartedly towards to fulfilling it as much as you can to do things right. Even if it ends up in trying to salvage the situation.
Consequently, mediocrity becomes the acceptable benchmark. But, your conscience gets triggered and starts prodding you to do the right thing. Now, this conflicts with the mediocre choice of doing things right. All the stress of meeting expectations was hard to deal with anyway, and now your inner self is gnawing into you. You get into self-preservation by spending money on things that you never wanted in the first place (forget about needing them), and eating and drinking things that you should have avoided completely.
…and deepens guilt and shame.
On the day of the festival, you must wake up with near-maniacal excitement even though you barely managed to drag yourself out of the bed. It’s all good. Life’s good. That is the only energy you are allowed to exude while deep down within you seek solitude and peace. Now that you have managed to survive to arrive at the beach of Normandy, you must strive for victory. Victory of meeting others’ expectations, identifying tiny parts of those expectations as your own, and feeling good about the fact that you fulfilled all that (to whatever extent)! In 2021(2), it also means partaking in the social media race of sharing the most unseen images downloaded from Google Images. If you can string all these experiences with beautiful things to say which contain acceptable terms like ‘family time’, ‘teaming’, ‘socialising’, and ‘togetherness’, you are golden. You will be made whole, and enough.
That conscience of yours, that inner child that was standing right next to you at every step of this ordeal and pulling on your little finger, is now standing on a stool, staring straight into your eyes. A gaze that you want to avoid at all costs (and do most of the times), but can’t. Simply because you know that you signed up for all of this, but didn’t bother to ask why. You now face uncomfortable questions that are too hard to answer. You know the answers, too. But, it’s better to take the flight mode than facing the truth. So now you feel guilty about ignoring your inner self, and ashamed of making choices that you never wanted to. Well, most of them.
You, just like everybody else, wanted to have a nice holiday and enjoy the festivities. Some peace and quiet from the cacophony of life. To spend time with the only person you know the best and who knows you the best, yourself. But, at what cost and to what cause?
In ancient times, our ancestors came up with the idea of festivals to celebrate the things that nature and the Universe have to offer us. The very things that add up to give us the only thing that we have — this life, right now. Contrary to the foundational empirical data that science hails, and the diktat laced in stories that ‘great’ religious minds relay, our ancestors were smart enough to realise that if you made through the day to the night, and woke up the next day, the job was well done. Completing this process every day was enough. Worthy of being celebrated and expressing gratitude to that Unknown Force that allowed us to persist. Believe it or not, it still is.
Festivals were conceived to take a pause, recognise the presence of life in you, and be grateful. Holidays are the outcome of social engineering to make you slog so that the select few can truly celebrate life, while others profit, at your expense.
I realised this ‘truth’ about festivals and holidays many years ago. Still, I continue to partake in all these activities, (in)voluntarily. I still choose to be that festival drawing on the display board, even if it dampens my spirit. I find my pieces of expectations become true in the smiles of those who bother to look at me. This toxic positivity is attractive, because it gives you the false sense of achievement. Achievement of being able to ‘fit in’.
And the heart, like a fool, finds comfort in the accompanying guilt and shame no matter how toxic it is for the soul. A toxic connection, after all, is still a connection. | https://medium.com/@shivendralal/in-voluntarily-becoming-a-festival-drawing-c66cf6a42686 | ['Shivendra Lal'] | 2021-12-28 08:15:50.393000+00:00 | ['Holidays 2021', 'Festivals', 'Life Lessons', 'Meaning', 'Life'] |
The Land: Predators: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 7) | Welcome to Long Awaited seventh novel of the Best Selling LitRPG Saga, Chaos Seeds, by Aleron Kong.
A mesmerizing tale reminiscent of the wonder of Ready Player One and the adventure of Game of Thrones
#1 in Epic Fantasy || #1 in Cyberpunk || #1 in Video Game Fantasy
In The Land:Predators, the Mist Village has harnessed its power. Core buildings, Professional fighters and now, their own Dungeon, the settlement is primed to grow into a kingdom of true power and magic. The path to power has not been without risk, however. The MistVillage has been noticed.
Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins fromthe Serrated Mountains, an undead lord with a penchant for human sacrifice and fanatical kobolds from the Depths, all plot the village’s destruction. The predators are circling. Richter’s people are horribly outnumbered by foes whose own power has been entrenched for thousands of years.
Richter and Sion need to be stronger than ever before. Luckily, they are. New skills have been learned, stronger enchantments have been wrought and the hundreds of villagers have answered the call to adventure. The Companions do not stand alone. While many eyes have turned towards the mists, wanting to take the treasures within, the Mist Village stares back with a simple message.
Come and get it!
https://amzn.to/2JhxDOs | https://medium.com/litrpg/the-land-predators-a-litrpg-saga-chaos-seeds-book-7-675114ec961c | ['Alex Itsios'] | 2020-12-24 22:10:49.702000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', 'Aleron Kong', 'Litrpg', 'VR', 'Chaos Seeds'] |
Notes about privilege | Last semester, even with the uncertainty of covid, was my best one so far. Never had I learned and met so many motivated people in such a short time period. The reason for it is because I was accepted to CDTM, an add-on honorary program with a focus on entrepreneurship of the two main universities in Munich (in one of which — the TUM — I study). And I am extremely grateful for having this opportunity.
Now, this post is not about what I learned during the semester, or a recommendation to apply to CDTM, or a flex about what I’ve done so far. This post is about a feeling that I have been having for a while already that I must get out. To explain it, I will provide you with a bit about my past, then a bit about my future, and lastly a call to action. So, if you have made it so far already, please read this entry until the end. I will give my best to make the next 5 minutes worth your while.
The bit about my past
I moved to Germany from Bogotá, Colombia about three years ago to study computer science in the TUM. I was following the steps of my older brother who also came to Germany six years before me. Studying in Germany was possible mainly because I wrote the Abitur (the German exam to enter higher education) in a German school in Colombia.
When I introduce myself here in Germany I always get asked why I went to a German school. And to be honest that is a question that I also pose to myself. I had the luck of being born in a family that could afford a private school, and the German school was simply one of the best ones in Bogotá. I don’t know why life decided that I should have the opportunity to write the Abitur. In any case, I am extremely thankful for it.
But I also feel the injustice of it. I could have been born a couple of streets further south and my future would have been completely different. Most people in Colombia must work after school to support their families. Many teenagers end up having children early, forcing them to work extremely hard and in very difficult conditions. I was spared from such a future only because I had the support of my family. Hearing “you made it so far” gives me therefore a chill. Yes, I have probably worked harder than others. But mostly I have been just lucky.
That is the bit about my past that I wanted to share: that I am extremely lucky. I am incredibly privileged and I simply don’t understand why.
The bit about my future
Of course, it is not about understanding. Nobody can answer why my life has been the way that it is. In other words, why I’ve been so lucky. Feeling bad for having better opportunities than others does not help anyone. But something that I can certainly do is choose my future having this privilege in mind.
This is why I want to, after finishing my studies, work for those that did not have the same luck that I did. And especially work in giving opportunities to those in need of them.
I feel a voice, somewhere in my gut, to go back to Colombia and use entrepreneurship to help others. I want to go back and understand the problems that real Colombians have. I want to understand where I can help the most and give better opportunities to those that need them.
And that is the bit about my future that I wanted to share: That I feel a voice inside of me that asks me to go back to Colombia and support those in need.
The call to action
You might be wondering now why I am sharing these thoughts. First, I wanted to write them down somewhere to structure the cloud of thoughts that I had in my head. But I made this public because I also need your help.
You know now that I want to provide opportunities to those in need of them. And since you know my goal, please make sure that I stay on it. If in a couple of years you see me working with the sole purpose of saving for a vacation home in the Toscana, please knock on my door, throw me a bucket of ice-cold water and ask me what the hell I am doing — I want to provide opportunities. Not work solely for me.
My second request is about resources. I will be finishing my studies in around a year and after that, I want to work full time providing opportunities. But before I throw myself in the cold water, I would love to learn about helping. Do you know any resources that might be interesting to me? Do you know someone that has worked providing opportunities that I could learn from? Or do you have a motivation similar to mine? Please, get in touch. Just send an email to [email protected]
Thank you
This is the first time that I write something personal online and I had some respect before it. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Any feedback is of course very welcome. With this, I finish this first post. Cheers! | https://medium.com/@manuelcardenasprieto99/notes-about-privilege-417e7c8cc4d4 | ['Manuel Cardenas'] | 2021-09-06 13:20:09.370000+00:00 | ['Privilege', 'Opportunity'] |
A Story of Debugging an Unexpectedly Slow SQL Query Powering our Dashboards | A Story of Debugging an Unexpectedly Slow SQL Query Powering our Dashboards James Yeh Follow Mar 8 · 7 min read
Background
Abnormal has a data-driven culture that permeates the entire organization, from the engineering team to product, sales, and beyond. We make decisions by analyzing data monitoring relevant metrics.
For online analytics we use a great tool call Grafana, an open-source analytics and monitoring solution that can connect to a variety of data sources.
Grafana dashboard example (www.grafana.com)
Different teams build their dashboards to serve their unique needs. The types of charts we have range from systems stability monitoring to product performance metrics to business metrics. The data that feed into these disparate dashboards come from a wide range of sources, including traditional SQL databases and time-series databases like Prometheus and more.
An example of the types of sources you can integrate with Grafana (https://logz.io/blog/best-practices-for-monitoring-kubernetes-using-grafana/)
A conventional SQL database is central to our organization and is one of the most important and used data sources for our Grafana charts.
The Problem
A hyper-growth company naturally has growing pains. Some of the dashboards set up in the early days that were initially snappy were becoming slower and slower. For a long time, we decided to kick the can down the road and just put up with long load times for some dashboards. Like many startups, we always have more to do than we can take on and this seemed like a lower priority item. While the fifteen minutes it took to open these dashboards was just an annoyance, it had a distinct perk of providing a great coffee break in the morning. Finally, one day, some of them started to timeout entirely, which prevented users from viewing the data. Not having access to metrics can cause a lot of anxiety. Without metrics, we were essentially flying blind. We still needed them fixed ASAP. Therefore, we started investigating the issue and found a short-term solution that will give us 6 to 12 months of runway.
Initial Investigation
In the beginning, we were not sure what the underlying issue was. Many issues can lead to slow queries, but the two most likely are that the (1) the compute instance runs Grafana and (2) the MySQL database itself. The possibility that the Grafana instance was the culprit was quickly ruled out after a cursory glance at the instance’s systems metrics. The CPU, memory, and disk IO on the instance did not look significantly different when we tried to open these dashboards that were timing out.
That led to the next candidate: MySQL. One thing that immediately caught my eye when looking at the dashboards was that they were all utilizing this one particular view. Since a view in MySQL is essentially a stored query (not a result), the first idea that came to mind that we could make this a materialized view. Unfortunately, MySQL doesn’t support materialized views, so achieving the equivalent of a PostgreSQL materialized view on MySQL would require a bit more work.
Before jumping to the conclusion and doing the work to create something like a materialized view, I wanted to dig deeper. We had reports from users that exploding out the view would make a chart load much faster (that is manually running parts of the query). Because MySQL views are stored queries, it is surprising that exploding a view out in a query would result in a performance increase; the difference was most likely due to the queries themselves. However, it did signal something important: the queries involving the views were more inefficient and could be rewritten to be more efficient.
A Closer Look at the View
The above conclusion, that the view query was the culprit, surprised me because the view contained a fairly straightforward query. It was not clear why it would be slower than the manually exploded versions of parts of the query.
We will use the following tables over “Author” and “Book” as an illustrative example:
Based on a brief look at the query, one might expect this query to run quite fast since the WHERE clause’s column is indexed. But when I ran the query, it timed out. To figure out why we could use the SQL keyword EXPLAIN and look at the optimizer’s plan.
From the output of the EXPLAIN query, it was evident that the expected index, datetime_idx, was not used and author_idx was chosen instead. This was surprising. Why was the optimizer choosing an index that doesn’t use the column in the WHERE clause? The author_id in the author_idx might have helped with the join, but I failed to see how it could help the query run faster than selecting the datetime_idx. “using where” in the extra column was telling us that the date filtering was done by scanning through all the rows post JOIN without using the index. Surely this couldn’t be optimal.
After figuring out that the optimizer was choosing the wrong index, the impulse might have been to add a FORCE_INDEX to the SQL query. This would help but is this what you should do? The answer is no. The reason being that the MySQL query optimizer should pick a reasonable plan most of the time; that is what it is designed for, after all. If we forced it to use an index, we could get into a situation where we do not allow the optimizer to choose the best plan possible when the query is sufficiently complex. To figure out why the query optimizer chose the suboptimal plan, we have to understand why a plan is selected.
MySQL Query Optimizer
The query optimizer uses a cost-based approach in determining the execution plan to use and derives the cost from table statistics. For InnoDB, the storage engine we use, these statistics are an estimate and not the true statistics. InnoDB samples random pages from each index on a table to calculate the index’s cardinality to update the statistics. With that in mind, let’s look at what the index statistics looked like.
Again, the result here was unexpected. The number of rows in the Author table was roughly 200, but here, the estimated number was 20000, which was off by a factor of two! We knew joining Book with Author would produce the number of rows equal to the total number of rows in the Book table, but the query optimizer failed to recognize this because of the wrong statistics. The query optimizer first did a table scan on Author and saw only 200 rows (1% of the estimated number of Authors). Based on the inaccurate cardinality, it inferred the number of output rows when joining 200 authors to books would yield a much smaller number of rows in the Book table and thus, joining by using author_idx was the best choice.
So why was the estimation so far from the actual number? The first suspicion was that the statistics hadn’t been updated for quite a while. I first tried to fix it by running ANALYZE TABLE, but the statistics remained pretty much the same after the successful execution. It turned out that there was an option that one could tweak named innodb_stats_sample_pages, which had a default of 20.
To illustrate why this might be a problem, consider the following example: if there are 200 unique ids in 20 pages and supposed 20 of them only showed up once. For a total of 200,000 pages, the estimated number will be something like 20180. The actual estimation algorithm is probably a lot more complicated than this, but the same idea applies. A solution to this problem is to increase the number of pages sampled when calculating the statistics. This, however, has some downsides. First, we have to examine the statistics periodically manually and readjust the number of pages sampled periodically. The statistics are updated automatically whenever the table grows by 10%. However, as the table grows, we will likely need to sample more pages and ANALYZE TABLE will become slower and slower over time. While ANALYZE TABLE is not blocking, it can potentially lead to some downtime (link).
The Solution
What we ended up doing was using STRAIGHT_JOIN instead of INNER JOIN. STRAIGHT_JOIN forces the join order of the table. This way, the execution scans the Book table in the outer loop, and the query optimizer will choose the right index to filter it down first. This solution was certainly not the panacea and is not optimal in all cases. We picked it here because the view was a straightforward query, and most of the charts derived from this view were not complicated queries that might benefit from joins in a different order. Also, for the time being, we were anticipating the number of rows in the Author table to be much smaller than the cardinality of the datetime_idx. After the change, the charts went from timing out (5 mins) to running in ~10 seconds. Unfortunately, the team no longer has time for a coffee break, but fortunately, they no longer are smashing their monitors in frustration.
In the end, the solution was relatively simple, but the investigation was an enriching experience. I gained much more in-depth knowledge about how the MySQL query optimizer works and how to interpret the output from EXPLAIN to optimize queries. The fix is onlyshort-term, however. As the company grows rapidly, at some point, we will need to rework how we compute metrics as making ad-hoc queries won’t be a good idea when the data grows sufficiently large.
This year, one of the infrastructure and platform team goals is to scale the system to handle 10x the current traffic and beyond. Aside from metrics, there are also challenges around data processing, storage solutions, cost and scaling the engineers’ effectiveness, etc. If the challenges are interesting for you, yes, we’re hiring! | https://medium.com/abnormal-security-engineering-blog/a-story-of-debugging-an-unexpectedly-slow-sql-query-powering-our-dashboards-e7e02318490a | ['James Yeh'] | 2021-03-08 17:49:32.979000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Sql', 'Data Science', 'Debugging'] |
How to Use Tailwind CSS With Node.js, Express, and Pug | Project Configuration
The first step is to create and configure our application. Run the following commands to create an empty directory called nodejs-tailwind and change the current directory to it:
mkdir nodejs-tailwind
cd nodejs-tailwind
Now that we are in the nodejs-tailwind directory, we have to initialize our Node project. To do so, we need to run the following command:
npm init
For each Node project, we need a file called package.json . Its purpose is to store metadata about the project (e.g. name, description, version, author, etc.) and manage the project dependencies and scripts. We could create the file manually, but that would be tedious.
Thus, the purpose of npm init is to create the package.json file. Once you run the command, you get an interactive prompt where you can add information about your project. Or, if you are happy with the suggested information, you can press enter until the end. If you do not add any information, your file should look like this:
Now we need to create the index.js , which stores our basic server. You can create the file by running: | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-use-tailwind-css-with-node-js-express-and-pug-8591c47dd54f | ['Catalin Pit'] | 2020-11-09 17:03:03.253000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Tailwind Css', 'Expressjs', 'Nodejs', 'Programming'] |
Your sad life can be due to depression….it’s Ok to seek help!!! | Emotions and human life are inseparable……emotions are so omnipresent and omnipotent that even the thought, ‘i feel no emotions’ is full of emotions.……..that is the power of emotions…………….
DO YOU KNOW??
Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust
All these emotions hold their own importance. A fulfilled living is possible when there is a balance between these emotions. A disproportionate excess or deficit of any of these emotions is a red flag, giving the signal that you have to do something to get back to that state of equilibrium again.
WHAT IS SADNESS???
Since childhood, you would have experienced events which had happened against your expectations. Remember the time when you or your best friend changed school, your pet died, you lost your favorite toy or when you were not able to secure expected marks, you were sad. To date, you must be experiencing events that give you the same feeling.
This emotion of sadness in all these times has played a key evolutionary role; a role of signaling you that you need help or comfort in all such difficult times (by Paul Ekman). It plays an important role in the process of healthy survival.
Anything can trigger Sadness. A few of the examples are:
‣ Leaving some loved one
‣ Illness or death of someone close
‣ Failure
‣ Loss of some beloved object
‣ Not getting the expected
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN SADNESS AND DEPRESSION???
Sadness is temporary; it plays its role and subsides. However, if sadness has started governing your life, if you are feeling blue most of the time, if nothing seems to be cheering you up, if you are having persistent negative thoughts about self, the world, and your future, it is surely a red flag of depression.
The feeling of sadness along with some or all of the symptoms shown in the diagram below completes the picture of ‘Depression- A Common Mental Disorder’. As per doctors, if these symptoms persist most of the time in a day for 15 or more days continuously, then it is clearly depression.
Do you know, in some individuals, there may also be the presence of:
WHAT TO DO WHEN IT IS DEPRESSION?
WHEN SADNESS IS NO LONGER JUST AN EMOTION WHEN IT HAS BECOME YOUR LIFE,
IT’S OK TO SEEK HELP!!!!! | https://medium.com/@caremehealth/your-sad-life-can-be-due-to-depression-its-ok-to-seek-help-698aea8c9b63 | ['Careme Health'] | 2021-02-20 09:28:43.816000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Sad', 'Depression', 'Mental Health Services', 'Mental Health'] |
Square Hardcover Book Mockup Free | The Square Hardcover Book Mockup Free is getting trendy as they are now used to create designs for new books or novels of various authors. If you’re looking for a way to present your book design, you came to the right place.
In short, you have very many options and solutions to craft the look of your book/magazine mockup that will amaze and impress others.
For all of you graphic and print designers out there who are about to embark on this tedious creative journey, we have a square book mockup by Mockups Design, a set of 8 PSD files that will help you present your book designs in a crisp and aesthetic manner.
Different perspectives make the design really stand out and speak for itself. With a few easy steps, you can edit this set of beautiful mockups to be your own and reap high-quality rewards in the form of stunning visuals that will catch the eyes of audiences left and right!
These stunning square book mockups are obtainable in different colors and patterns, so you can make your selection from a wide variety of options.
You can present your front, back cover, and inner page designs in an astonishing style using these flat square hardcover book mockups. Offering customizable design, color, shadows, effects, and background. Simply use Photoshop for all customizations and present amazingly.
A Square Hardcover Book Mockup Free is a great resource for presenting your book design and cover in a great and professional way. A lot of time and energy goes into writing a book but if it is not presented to the audience or potential customers in the right way, it may not work.
For a book to become successful, it must be able to catch the eyes of the audience and that’s where a book mockup can really help.
Book mockup is a predefined pose in which a mocked-up book is placed. If you are familiar with Photoshop then it will be extremely easy for you to use these mockups.
All you need to do is download these book mockups and use the smart objects, insert your own designs. The design could be a cover or an internal page of the book itself.
The Hardcover Square Hardcover Book Mockup Free template is a PSD mockup with well-organized layers that will make it easy to edit the design and tailor it to your needs.
Books are part of everyone’s life to get useful information, historical knowledge, and stories. Some people find it helpful to increase their knowledge and improve their intellect or some love books to inspire them. | https://medium.com/@3dlogomockuppsd/square-hardcover-book-mockup-free-9e051990348f | [] | 2021-09-11 14:32:33.113000+00:00 | ['Cover', 'Mockup', 'Free', 'Book', 'Download'] |
The PlutusDEX Token Sale | We recently announced our plans to increase accessibility of PLU and apply for a banking license. If you are yet to read about our proposal, we recommend you read about the Pluton Liquidity Injection Programme (PLIP).
With majority support from the community to action this, we can now reveal the details of the first round of token sales held on our internal PlutusDEX.
Details & Token Bonus
PlutusDEX Sale Dates: October 7–10th
Participants will have 72 hours to submit their pledge. Individuals must pledge the amount of PLU they would like to purchase and submit their payment in either BTC, ETH, GBP or EUR within the designated dates.
Sale Price: $8 (+ 40% bonus in PLU)
The price of PLU for the sale will be struck at $8 which is equal to the 30-day average from 3rd Sep — 2nd Oct based on market price history. Once the sale has closed, the team will then calculate PLU distribution on a pro-rata basis and add a 40% bonus on top of your pledged amount. Participants will be informed about the PLU allocation on October 13th via email.
Cancellation Policy
We have a cancellation policy whereby participants can cancel their order and have their payment returned to them — this will apply for up to five days. Participants have until 18:00 BST October 12th to inform us of this cancellation via email to [email protected] if they change their mind.
Price-Floor Guarantee: $8.00
We have also implemented a price-floor guarantee. From today, the selling price of PLU will be locked at $8, meaning you can sell your PLU back at the same price at which it was pledged for during the sale.
The minimum rate lock on the PlutusDEX will last for over 90 days (08/01/2021) as a protective measure for participants. Rates are otherwise dynamic and our peer-to-peer DEX will support conversions between Plutus users at any market rate above this $8 price.
1) If Event is Undersubscribed
If the sale is undersubscribed, participants will receive the full amount pledged plus their bonus of an additional 40% in tokens on top.
2) If Event is Oversubscribed
If the sale is oversubscribed and the total amount pledged by all participants combined surpasses the 50,000 PLU cap, the tokens will be allocated on a pro-rata basis before the 40% bonus is applied. See details on pro-rata calculations in our FAQ section at the bottom of this article.
If participants do not receive their full pledged amount in the event of oversubscription, they will have some remaining balance. They will have three options with the remaining funds:
Load your Plutus Current Account with the balance and receive a 20% bonus in PLU. An opportunity to pledge for more PLU at the same sale price with a 20% bonus applied. A refund of the remaining balance returned via the same form of payment we received it in.
Refunds for the remaining balance will be processed within 5 working days.
How to Participate?
Our token sale page is now live! Here you can keep track of all our scheduled token sales over the coming weeks as well as a complete overview of Plutus. On October 7th, individuals can apply here.
If you reside in the UK/EEA and are yet to open an account, you can do so in advance here. An account with us is a necessary part of the pledge process for such residents. Customers can then participate via the Token Sale tab on their account once the sale goes live. Personal accounts will also get a 6-month free Premium account for participating.
Registrations from international participants, as well as business accounts such as crypto hedge funds, must apply on the day (07/10/2020).
Important Notes
Wallet Choice
During the pledge process (starting 7th Oct), you must submit an Ethereum (ERC-20) wallet that you would like to receive your PLU payment to. Please make sure that you submit a personal wallet rather than an exchange wallet or a centralised master wallet as these do not always facilitate PLU. We recommend MetaMask which you hold the private key to as that is fully integrated with the decentralised aspect of our services.
Minimum/Maximum Pledge
There are only 50k tokens available for sale in total. There will also be a minimum pledge of 100 PLU and a maximum pledge of 4,000 PLU for each user.
Lock-up
Your PLU will have a lock-up period of 60-days after the sale ends. The lock-up period is in place until all PLU-related exchange sales are complete. Participants will receive their PLU funds on Monday 14th December.
Price Guarantee at $8
From today onwards, and for over 90 days (08/01/2021), the minimum sell price on the PlutusDEX will be locked at $8 and we have a market maker in place to ensure all swaps can be executed.
PLU-Fiat Swaps
We are increasing the PLU-Fiat swap limits from £100 to £200 per month (including in Euro - €) on our platform from the start of the sale date. We will continually assess and update.
Why Buy PLU?
Pluton was one of the earliest concepts of a decentralised loyalty token released back in 2015. Unlike traditional centralised loyalty tokens like Avios Air Miles or Nectar Points, PLU can be earned anywhere in the world rather than restricted to a specific retail-chain. On top of the 40% bonus for sale participants, PLU carries several utilities:
Convert & Spend
The Plutus Visa debit card is accepted at over 60 million merchants and users earn 3% back in PLU. The decentralised nature of PLU means they can be converted into spendable fiat or transferred between accounts. Crowd sale participants can convert their PLU at the $8 sale price or higher depending on external market forces.
Redeem for Premium Services
One PLU can be redeemed for our Premium services which come with the benefits listed below.
Zero-fee conversions on the PlutusDEX (at spot rate)
Generous conversion limits
Pluton Rewards
Plutus Perks
Staking Boundaries
Our members can stake their PLU on the platform and unlock features such as increased crypto and cash rewards; free Premium and Pro accounts; as well as additional Perks with household brand partners.
100–500 PLU
Unlocks Plutus Perks
Increased Reward Rate
2,000 PLU
Free Premium Account
Up to 5% additional cashback on all Perks
4,000 PLU
Free Pro Account
Up to 10% additional cashback on all Perks
What is Pluton Rewards?
Every time a Premium/Pro member spends with their Plutus Card, they earn 3% back in crypto.
What is Plutus Perks?
Staking PLU will unlock additional fiat cashback (on top of the 3% Pluton Reward) at selected online retailers. Plutus has formed affiliate partnerships with household-name brands such as Amazon, Sky, Vodafone, Airbnb, Nike, and more to offer you cashback savings on top of your crypto reward. PLU holders can earn over 15% in rewards (cash and crypto) at the above retailers and more.
Upcoming Major Announcements
Trade and Stake
Not only is PLU available to stake for benefits on our internal Plutus platform, PLU will also be available to stake for higher rewards on one of our exchange partners from early next month. We are working with third-party services to create additional utility for PLU.
Co-branding & Awareness
We are working with each partner on various marketing-related campaigns including co-branded cards with one of our exchange partners.
Due to the contractual obligation, the details must be revealed by our partners themselves first. More details and the names of our exchange partners will be announced after the DEX sale has ended.
Launch in Asia & Latin America
In 2021, we will be releasing our services in Asia which holds nearly 40% of the world’s user market share. We will also be expanding to Latin America which will include the addition of new currencies to our platform.
Banking License
We are applying for a banking license which will allow us to develop a wider range of features, increase the efficiency of our systems, and cut costs.
Please visit the token sale page to view our complete road map.
What’s Next?
Staking from Personal Wallet
Our users can currently stake PLU via the Pluton dashboard, however, the next iteration will allow you to stake from your personal wallets including MetaMask and this is due in Q4.
BTC Integration
We are currently alpha testing our BTC implementation on the PlutusDEX. Over the next few months, we are planning to release a Bitcoin-Fiat DEX that is connectable with your personal hardware wallet. Not your crypto, not your keys.
Card Shipping
We have exceeded the demand for our cards and, as a result, many recent card orders have been backlogged which are now queued to be shipped from 4th November. Due to this backlog, card delivery may take slightly longer than usual which is normally between 3–5 days for the UK and 7–10 days for EEA region countries.
Sign Up Now
On October 7th, the sale will go live and you can pledge via the new Token Sale page. We will keep you updated as to the next steps across our social channels. Make sure you follow our Medium Publication and join our Discord or Telegram channels to speak directly with members of the team and other participants.
We will be hosting an AMA, on Reddit, on Monday October 5th (14:00 BST). Join us to ask any questions you may have. The link will be shared here and across social.
If you have yet to sign up to the app, we recommend UK/EU residents do so in advance via the web application here. Stay tuned for plenty more exciting news and updates to come! | https://medium.com/plutus/the-plutusdex-token-sale-d83c5a72e8e0 | [] | 2020-11-19 10:30:56.674000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Announcements', 'Fintech'] |
Listening Out For The Australian Powerful Owl | From studying law like a hawk to studying owls for science — QUT research student Callan Alexander is working with BirdLife Australia to help track and monitor Australia’s threatened powerful owl.
As part of his masters research, Alexander will develop an automated species recogniser — a computer algorithm that detects a species’ call from an audio recording.
To do this, he visited several nature reserves around Queensland and captured audio from the environment using acoustic monitors.
“We can take audio from an area and run it through the algorithm which should tell us if there are any powerful owls around,” Alexander said.
“This will help us accurately track the distribution of Australia’s largest owl, especially in remote areas that are difficult to visit regularly.” | https://medium.com/thelabs/listening-out-for-the-australian-powerful-owl-8bf729f4b759 | ['The Labs'] | 2020-12-02 23:25:50.007000+00:00 | ['Powerful Owl', 'Ecology', 'Environment', 'Science', 'Birds'] |
13 Bible Verses About Suffering to Help You Rely on God in Hardships | 13 Bible Verses About Suffering to Help You Rely on God in Hardships Mary Apr 25·6 min read
What does the Bible say about suffering? Why does God allow suffering? In life, when facing painful things or adversity, how should you seek God’s will? The following Bible verses about suffering and related content will lead you to understand God’s will in hard times and how to experience these hardships.
1. What does the Bible say about suffering?
These things I have spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. — John 16:33
But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. — Hebrews 10:32–33
But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. — 2 Timothy 4:5
The ropes of death entangled me, and the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow. — Psalm 116:3
2. Why does God allow suffering?
See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. — Isaiah 48:10
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him. — James 1:12
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. — Matthew 5:10–11
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith — more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.… — 1 Peter 1:6–7
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you. — 1 Peter 5:10
Relevant Words of God:
“The greater God’s refinement, the more people’s hearts are able to love God. The torment in their hearts is of benefit to their lives, they are more able to be at peace before God, their relationship with God is closer, and they are better able to see God’s supreme love and His supreme salvation. Peter experienced refinement hundreds of times, and Job underwent several trials. If you wish to be made perfect by God, you too must undergo refinement hundreds of times; only if you go through this process and rely upon this step will you be able to satisfy God’s will and be made perfect by God. Refinement is the best means by which God makes people perfect; only refinement and bitter trials can bring out the true love for God in people’s hearts. Without hardship, people lack true love for God; if they are not tested within, if they are not truly subjected to refinement, then their hearts will always be floating around outside. Having been refined to a certain point, you will see your own weaknesses and difficulties, you will see how much you are lacking and that you are unable to overcome the many problems you encounter, and you will see how great is your disobedience. Only during trials are people able to truly know their real states; trials make people better able to be perfected.”
3. How should we experience hardships?
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. — 1 Peter 5:7
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. — Psalm 46:1
Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. — 2 Corinthians 1:4
Jehovah is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in him. — Nahum 1:7
Relevant Words of God:
“While undergoing trials, it is normal for people to be weak, or to have negativity within them, or to lack clarity on God’s will or their path for practice. But in any case, you must have faith in God’s work, and not deny God, just like Job. Although Job was weak and cursed the day of his own birth, he did not deny that all things in human life were bestowed by Jehovah, and that Jehovah is also the One to take them all away. No matter how he was tested, he maintained this belief. In your experience, no matter what refinement you undergo through God’s words, what God requires of mankind, in brief, is their faith and their love for Him. What He perfects by working in this way is people’s faith, love, and aspirations. God does the work of perfection on people, and they cannot see it, cannot feel it; under such circumstances, your faith is required. People’s faith is required when something cannot be seen by the naked eye, and your faith is required when you cannot let go of your own notions. When you do not have clarity about God’s work, what is required of you is to have faith and to take a firm stance and stand witness. When Job reached this point, God appeared to him and spoke to him. That is, it is only from within your faith that you will be able to see God, and when you have faith God will perfect you. Without faith, He cannot do this. God will bestow upon you whatever you hope to gain. If you do not have faith, then you cannot be perfected and you will be unable to see God’s actions, much less His omnipotence. When you have faith that you will see His actions in your practical experience, then God will appear to you, and He will enlighten and guide you from within. Without that faith, God will be unable to do that. If you have lost hope in God, how will you be able to experience His work? Therefore, only when you have faith and you do not harbor doubts toward God, only when you have true faith in Him no matter what He does, will He enlighten and illuminate you through your experiences, and only then will you be able to see His actions. These things are all achieved through faith. Faith comes only through refinement, and in the absence of refinement, faith cannot develop. What does this word, “faith,” refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work does not align with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of. People are in need of faith during times of hardship and refinement, and indeed, faith is something that is followed by refinement; refinement and faith cannot be separated. No matter how God works, and no matter your environment, you are able to pursue life and seek the truth, and seek knowledge of God’s work, and have an understanding of His actions, and you are able to act according to the truth. Doing so is what it is to have true faith, and doing so shows that you have not lost faith in God. You can only have true faith in God if you are able to persist in pursuing the truth through refinement, if you are able to truly love God and do not develop doubts about Him, if no matter what He does you still practice the truth to satisfy Him, and if you are able to seek in the depths for His will and be considerate of His will. In the past, when God said that you would reign as a king, you loved Him, and when He openly showed Himself to you, you pursued Him. But now God is hidden, you cannot see Him, and troubles have come upon you — do you then now lose hope in God? So, you must at all times pursue life and seek to satisfy God’s will. This is called genuine faith, and this is the truest and most beautiful kind of love.”
Source from: Find the shepherd
Read more:
Why Does God Allow Tests in Our Lives? | https://medium.com/@worishipgod/bible-verses-about-suffering-c4a3210ebb2d | [] | 2021-04-25 06:17:52.154000+00:00 | ['Christian Devotional', 'Faith and Life'] |
Product Managing a Product Manager Pt.2 | No, YOU are the product
Welcome to the second part of this series where I attempt to learn about how I’m doing and how I can improve as a product manager. In part 1 I covered the questions that made up my survey and started digging into the feedback I received about how my co-workers view my role.
In this article I will be covering how I scored on the value scale questions and go through the uncomfortable process of consuming feedback I received on how to grow and improve.
The Grid
The three scale questions I asked my peers to rate me on were the following:
On a scale of 0–10, how valuable have my contributions been to you?
On a scale of 0–10, how valuable have my contributions been to the company?
On a scale of 0–10, how likely is it that you would recommend me to a colleague?
In the answers to all 3 questions the lowest I scored on any of the questions was a 7 (2 of them). There were a good number of 8’s and 9’s and the majority were 10’s (sigh of relief). Trying to sift through these scores and come up with a meaning full scoring system was a bit difficult because of how the numbers fell. Even with the semi-anonymous nature of my survey I get the impression that most of my peers wanted to be relatively kind in their feedback. As such I decided to try and grade the scale feedback similar to NPS feedback. Meaning 9’s and 10’s are promoters, 7’s and 8’s are passives and anything lower is a detractor.
In the category of the value my contributions bring to the individuals I scored 14 promoters out of 23
In the category of the value my contributions bring to the company I scored 21 promoters out of 23
In the category of how likely they would be to recommend me to a colleague I scored 21 promoters out of 23
The first thing that jumps out is I scored much lower in the value I bring to individuals than the other areas. I was left asking my self “how much weight I should put into this?” and initially was a bit dismissive about this score. As I stated in part 1, “I identified a couple of people from each department to get a good sample size and to make sure I wasn’t only asking people I work with closely”. Our interactions tend to ebb and flow depending on where a product or feature is in the lifecycle.
My takeaways here are twofold, I need to find and create more ways to stay closer to people in other departments and when I do have interactions with them I need to make sure they are quality and impactful interactions. Sharing customers stories, providing updates, receiving customer/product feedback and following up on previous feedback. My hope is making opportunities for each of these will help me bring more value to those I work with.
It was very reassuring to see that scored high on bringing value to the company. After having been here almost 5 years I would hope that I can continue to provide value. With that time comes a lot of tribal knowledge and one thing I’ve been thinking about is how I need to improve on the documentation of the things I’ve learned, my processes, and our product. To help empower those around me and to help “show my work” when it comes to getting buy-in and support around new products and features.
Feedback Dread
I’ll be honest, reading some of the ways to improve was something I wasn’t looking forward to. Part of me felt like I’ve got enough to worry about already and reading about my shortcomings was only going to make me feel like I have more I should be working on, on top of my other work responsibilities. But don’t I owe it to myself (and to some extent my peers) to take time for reflection to make sure I’m not still making the same mistakes and overlooking simple things that can help me become better?
And here is some of the feedback for growth and improvement:
Product
Continued focus on measurable outcomes… discovering ways to learn/fail faster, exploring multiple solutions versus jumping to one.
More direct communication with team members around expectations, timelines, and success metrics.
Themes: Focus on what success looks like and how it is measured, drive outcomes
Sales
Be willing to help get involved with other departments and help move things along faster.
sticking to a timeline/commit once you announce it.
Themes: Reliability and involvement
Engineering
Robison could possibly focus on ways to help his team be more organized and deadline-driven…Anything Robison can do to bring more intense focus to the things he and his team are working on would be a positive in my opinion.
increase punctuality
could benefit from delegating or splitting the scope of product that he covers
Themes: Reduce noise, increase focus, be more deadline and time driven
Marketing
managing workload because it seems like he has a lot on his plate
Onboarding
brief and to-the-point explanations
clearer communication in meetings and presentations, especially when demonstrating how to do something
Themes: Clear, simple communication
Success
more transparent to the customer-facing positions on what is being worked on and how it is being released… CS needs to be aware of these changes and how it will affect our customers so that we can better support them.
preparing members of meetings with questions beforehand, and things to think of before the meeting
being better at responding to slacks and/or emails
Themes: Visibility, meeting preparation, responsiveness
Support
I’d love to see more of a roadmap of what’s planned so we can get an even larger head start on some of it!
more documentation
Themes: Visibility and documentation
Training
focusing more on the user experience for new features
Digesting
Product feedback can be uncomfortable, but it is also very rewarding. While I’ve shared many of the areas I’m falling short in many of these comments were prefaced with things I do well. I couldn’t help but smile as I read words of appreciation and recalling specific experiences I have had with many of my co-workers.
Like managing a product you can’t make improvements unless you get feedback from your customers. This feedback left me looking back at my shortcomings, many of these things seem so obvious in retrospect, but I probably wouldn’t have stopped to recognize them without it being articulated by those I work with. As much discomfort as this caused me what would have been worse is continuing to work the same way and make the same mistakes.
Gathering feedback isn’t the end goal, whether in personal improvement or product management. Gathering feedback is really only the beginning of the process, the end goal is to make changes based on insights gained.
As for me personally I’m still working on how to execute on much of the feedback. I can say that I am trying to make monthly check ins with other departments part of my product/customer feedback, not only when I a new feature headed their way. I’ve also made it a goal to prepare for and provide structure to these interactions (I’ll try to follow up with what it looks like once I’ve developed it further.) Lastly, though it may seem small, I’ve made a goal to attend meetings on time. With remote work I’d found I had developed somewhat of a habit of joining meetings late.
This is a tradition I would like to continue yearly and would challenge anybody that made it this far to give it a try too. I would love to hear any variation or improvements to the questions I used to potentially use in future versions and would love to hear how your own feedback goes. If you made it through both of these articles thank you for your time and I hope at least one of my jokes landed. | https://medium.com/weave-lab/product-managing-a-product-manager-pt-2-7af5f9fe5549 | ['Robison Rogers'] | 2021-01-05 22:18:59.600000+00:00 | ['Product Development', 'Product', 'Product Management', 'Feedback'] |
Understanding Model Validation for Classification | In this blog we will walk through different techniques to validate the performance of classification model.
Define the problem : Predict whether it will rain tomorrow or not.
In the previous blogs you have seen different supervised algorithm to attack this problem.
Consider any supervised algorithm say as simple as logistic regression.
Data Set description : Rainfall data contains 118 features and one dependent variable (y_test) whether it will rain or not.
Sample of X_test
Features
Index(['MinTemp', 'MaxTemp', 'Rainfall', 'Evaporation', 'Sunshine',
'WindGustSpeed', 'WindSpeed9am', 'WindSpeed3pm', 'Humidity9am',
'Humidity3pm',
...
'NNW.2', 'NW.2', 'S.2', 'SE.2', 'SSE.2', 'SSW.2', 'SW.2', 'W.2',
'WNW.2', 'WSW.2'],
dtype='object', length=118)
Sample of y_test
0 No
1 No
2 No
3 No
4 No
5 No
6 Yes
7 Yes
8 No
9 No
Name: RainFall, dtype: object
The best practice is to save the model so as to directly use for prediction in future.
Below code snippet can be used to save the model.
Let’s load the model .
Its time for prediction
We have all ingredient to cook our various evaluation dish.
Metric is a technique to evaluate the performance of the model.
List of various metric we will be covering in this blog.
Accuracy Null Accuracy Precision Recall f1 score ROC — AUC Accuracy : This is the most naive and commonly used metric in the context of classification. It is just the mean of correct predictions.
We have just define a simple function to calculate the accuracy and evaluated it against our test data.
accuracy = 0.850170540455009
Instead of this , one can also used sklearn inbuilt score function to evaluate the accuracy . So we will calculate using sklearn and verify the accuracy we have obtained using the function above.
So both results matched .
2. Null Accuracy : It is defined as accuracy obtained when always predicting most frequent class.This is quite useful to check the absoluteness of model accuracy.
Null accuracy turns out be 0.7759414888005908 which is lower than model accuracy so we are good.
The question which immediately prop up in one’s mind is this complete information about model goodness. This is quite subjective , for example if we want to make less false prediction of rain .
Any classification model divides the prediction space into various sub space.
The best way to conceptualise this is via confusion matrix .
Let me draw a confusion matrix for our binary classification problem.
20892 is number of cases where we predicted it will rain and it actually rain.This is called true positive, quickly define other variables
True Positives Actual Rain and Predict Rain
Actual Rain and Predict Rain True Negatives Actual No_Rain and Predict No_Rain
Actual No_Rain and Predict No_Rain False Positives Actual No_Rain and Predict Rain
Actual No_Rain and Predict Rain False Negatives Actual Rain and Predict No_Rain
In our case
TP = 20892
TN = 3286
FP = 1175
FN = 3086
accuracy = (Total correct prediction)/Total prediction
= (TP + TN)/( TP + TN + FP + FN)
Leave it to the reader to verify the accuracy matches the one we calculated. We move onto some other metrics.
3. Precision : It is defined as proportion of correctly predicted positive outcome among all prediction. In other words of all the predicted positive outcome how many of them are actually positive.
Therefore ,
Precision = TP /(TP + FP)
In our case precision = 20892/(20892 + 1175) = 0.9467530701953143
This is quite vital in medical scenario when a 👩⚕️ prescribes medicine to normal patient for disease ,it can led to severe health hazard.
To elaborate this ,when we want to minimise FP , in case of 👩⚕️ FP is falsely predicting disease.
4. Recall : It is defined as proportion of correctly predicting positive outcome among all actual positive. In other words of all the actual positive outcome how many of them we have been able to predict as positive.
Recall = TP/(TP + FN)
here recall = 20892/(20892 + 3086) = 0.8712986904662607
Recall is quite important when you want to minimise the case of FN.
Consider a test to detect Corona virus 🦠 it is primarily important to not miss the case when individual was positive and test fail to detect.
Again ,
Precision = TP /(TP + FP)
Recall = TP/(TP + FN)
If sample size is fixed say (n) ,then
TP + TN + FP + FN =n
In order to have high precision and recall both FP and FN negative should be as low as possible.There is a constrain to that , as lowering both means it’s an ideal scenario .
How do we combine both ?
Before we move on ,
Recall is also called true positive rate or sensitivity Precision as true negative rate or specificity
4. f1 score: It is the harmonic mean of Precision and Recall. The obvious question is why harmonic mean(HM) and not arithmetic or geometric mean or some other transformation. I have written a separate blog on the explanation of HM to combine these two metric.
f1 = 2*precision*recall/(precision + recall)
here , f1 = 2*0.9467*0.8713/(0.9467 + 0.8713) = 0.9074
This measure is more contextual than accuracy , only it needs to be explained properly unlike accuracy which is easily interpretable.
Summary of above measure :
In python we have a module in sklearn , classification_report it generates all measures.
support is number of observation in each class.
5. ROC : The receiver operating characteristic curve plots TPR vs FPR for different threshold values. In other-words it shows model performance at different threshold level.
To understand this we need to understand the output of trained classifier.
Idx No_rain_prob Rain_prob
0 0.987328 0.012672
1 0.840071 0.159929
2 0.976743 0.023257
3 0.798552 0.201448
4 0.307343 0.692657
So the output of logistic regression or most classifiers are in terms of prob.
There is a default hyper-parameter called C(threshold) based on which this prob is converted into ‘No’ or “Yes”.
1 or No : No_rain
0 or Yes : Rain
if C = 0.5
predict_label = [No , No , No, No,Yes] == [1, 1 ,1,1,0]
if C = 0.8
predict_label = [No ,No ,No,Yes,Yes] == [1, 1 ,1,0,0]
ROC curve is generated by plotting TPR vs FPR for different threshold.
ROC AUC i.e Receiver Operating Characteristic — Area Under Curve ,measures area under the curve.
Higher the value better the model, best value is 1.
ROC _AUC score is 0.8729. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/model-validation-for-classification-5ff4a0373090 | ['Pushkar Pushp'] | 2020-04-24 17:06:56.614000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Towards Data Science', 'Metrics', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
March | MICRO POETRY
March
Micropoetry about changing times
Photo by Mohammad Ali Jafarian on Unsplash
“Every storm runs out of rain.” — Maya Angelou
Winter is tired;
she longs to lie down
in the arms of spring
among the sweet
white blossoms
and the ripening buds
of new beginnings. | https://medium.com/scribe/march-baaf1e92a1b9 | ['Caroline Mellor'] | 2020-12-06 15:03:14.959000+00:00 | ['March', 'Hope', 'Poetry', 'Change', 'Micropoetry'] |
If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that the kind of spaces that I’ve been trying so hard to… | ©Witted Roots, LLC | www.WittedRoots.com
If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that the kind of spaces that I’ve been trying so hard to create for the past 3+ years are so very necessary. Like everyone else globally, the introduction of a pandemic threw a wrench into our plans. Whether it was personal or professional, many of us felt more or less like a fish out of water, with no idea about the first step to take for just mere survival.
It wasn’t any different for me. Nothing that was planned or expected came to be. Very rarely was there a glimmer of hope that this reality will not be permanent. In spite of that though, while this year was rough, it showed me that the struggle of the past 3–4 years of building my own businesses have actually strengthened my pivot-muscles enough to carry me through. Truth is, building from scratch with no financial backing has been the most difficult experience of my life. Yet, I haven’t panicked. I’ve been sad on occasion, but a full-blown anxiety attack about the fate of my world + future? Nah. #Growth #WhoWouldveThought
We Need Help
So, while we’re all still trying to piece together the puzzle of what our lives look like going forward, I am asking for your help for the next phase of my business’ life.
Millennial women of color have always been underrepresented in the global health + wellness industry, and I’ve been determined to play my part in making a change to that reality, however small.
The problem is, I (& Witted Roots ) need some extra help to become the space that we’ve always aimed to be. A safe space for millennial women of color to be vulnerable + more expert resources for your mental health + emotional wellness.
To usher in the new era of Witted Roots, one where there’s no question about whom we serve and how we do so, we’ve recently launched our first crowdfunding campaign on iFundWomen.
6 Ways That You Can Help (That Don’t Always Include $$$)
Share the link to our crowdfunding campaign in a social media post. Seriously, it sounds like a lot, but the extra minute you will take out of your day to post the link on your IG, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, and anywhere else you regularly connect with your network will do wonders for spreading the word. It will also be extremely appreciated! Talk about us on your blog, podcast, YT channel, or other content-sharing platforms. We are ever-evolving but always focused on whom we serve at the core. Maybe you want to compile a list to highlight Black/Immigrant/Women Of Color entrepreneurs. Or maybe you are planning to compile a list of thoughtfully-designed products like our Journaling Cards (available as a reward on our crowdfunding campaign). Either way, spread the word! Share the link to our crowdfunding campaign in a group that you’re a member of. Of course, as long as it’s acceptable under the group’s code of conduct. Spread the word to individuals that you think would be interested in helping you spread the word even further. Contribute ANY amount to our crowdfunding campaign. Seriously, we appreciate every single cent that is offered to us as we continue to focus on our growth. Everything helps to do the work that we need to do to be a worthy resource to our community of millennial women of color globally. Invite me to have a chat with you on your social media or other content-sharing platforms. I would greatly appreciate chatting with you about who I am and what Witted Roots is all about. It would go far in helping me to make my own contribution to millennial women of color being more visible in the global health + wellness industry. Tell just one friend/colleague/acquaintance about us. Even if it’s just one close friend, a professional acquaintance, or just someone you follow that you believe will connect with the goals propelling us at Witted Roots, go ahead and tell them what we’re trying to do. It would be greatly appreciated.
It’s never been easy for me to ask for help, so I will greatly appreciate you helping me to spread the word on Witted Roots, our upcoming private membership community for millennial women of color, and our thoughtfully-designed rewards available through our crowdfunding campaign. Thank you! 😊 | https://medium.com/@shanicejdouglas/if-2020-has-taught-me-anything-its-that-the-kind-of-spaces-that-i-ve-been-trying-so-hard-to-85fc46f9181f | ['Shanice J. Douglas'] | 2020-12-26 18:45:33.736000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Crowdfunding', 'Millennials'] |
Big Data as a Service | Technology, Data Science, Business
Big Data as a Service
Business Value and an Architectural Overview
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
In this article, I want to introduce the business value, architecture, use cases, deployment, and service model of Big Data as a Service (BDaaS) which is a novel and rapidly growing Cloud-based service.
The service is offered to support big data and analytics solutions in a cost-effective manner. This service can be considered as a type of outsourcing model for the deployment of big data and analytics projects rapidly and inexpensively.
It is considered inexpensive because we can use the service without upfront investment for costly underlying infrastructure hosting the big data and analytics solutions.
Underlying infrastructure costs can include computing servers, storage, network, appliances, racks, hosting facilities, and more importantly infrastructure management and support costs.
The service presents multiple use cases and solution goals. The primary use case for BDaaS is a supply of data management and analytics tools performing the actual analysis and providing required reports to the relevant stakeholders in desired formats.
Some DBaaS service providers can also offer additional cost-effective services such as advisory and consulting services to complement their consumption-based services.
BDaaS can be an excellent opportunity for small business or start-up companies, and even for large business organizations with a limited budget and resources allocated for big data and analytics solutions.
The use of this service can increase competitiveness, innovation, and revenues for consumer business organizations.
From an architectural perspective, BDaaS is based on SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) combined with virtualised storage, scalability, event-driven processing, and analytics tools.
The delivery mode of BDaaS is based on Cloud consumption model. The critical consideration for the big data solution architects is to be aware of the big data and analytics requirements and which service model can fit into the requirements of the solution in the most cost-effective way.
For the deployment practitioners’ consideration, there are different deployment models for BDaaS.
Some BDaaS providers can provide, core, performance-based, feature-based, and integrated services. The terms and conditions may be different for each service provider hence the deployment practitioners need to understand T&C and negotiate the proposals accordingly.
The primary value propositions for BDaaS are rapid deployment capability, capacity extension, scalability on-demand, and established Quality of Services for network speed and Service Level Agreements. The key business outcomes are the agility and cost-effectiveness with guaranteed service levels without an investment of funds on massive internal IT costs.
BDaaS is a relatively new service however it is proliferating globally. We can find many Cloud service organisations providing big data and analytics based on self-service in their data platforms. Some established and popular BDaaS providers are Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Dataproc, Salesforce Wave Analytics, IBM BigInsights on Cloud, Microsoft Azure HDInsight, and Qubole Data Service.
BDaaS is well received and considered a valuable proposition by consumers. It also poses profitable business for the service providers hence the number of service providers is globally increasing.
In addition, more and more granular, customised services, and bespoke solutions are being offered by emerging service providers. I informed and highlighted BDaaS in this article because it can be a valuable business proposition for data-driven investors, start-ups, and big data entrepreneurs.
References
You are welcome to join my 100K+ mailing list, to collaborate, enhance your network, and receive technology newsletter reflecting my industry experience. | https://medium.com/technology-hits/business-value-of-big-data-as-a-service-73d5a8c30aec | ['Dr Mehmet Yildiz'] | 2020-12-06 06:40:28.546000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Leadership', 'Big Data Analytics', 'Innovation', 'Cloud Computing'] |
10 Changes Leaders Must Make to Truly Address Diversity and Inclusion | As a leader, I consider it my highest priority to ensure that my employees are happy. They invest more than eight hours a day, five days a week in my organization; it’s almost like their second home, so, they deserve to feel at home.
An employer’s responsibility does not end with issuing the paychecks on time, giving pep talks, or holding monthly status meetings; it is their duty to plan and establish a work culture that does not inhibit, exclude, or discriminate against employees.
Addressing diversity and inclusion in the workplace is important because it not only enhances employee experience, but also drives innovation and change across the organization. Simply having physical diversity within the workforce can help improve performance and motivation, as it presents an opportunity for employees to look at things from a different point of view and learn something new.
Why Diversity and Inclusion?
A 2018 research conducted by McKinsey confirms the link between workplace diversity and company financial performance. According to this study, organizations that are in the top quartile for gender diversity and ethnic diversity are more likely to outperform the companies in the fourth quartile by 21% and 33% respectively on EBIT margin (earnings before interest and taxes).
While this is excellent news, leaders should be excited by diversity and inclusion initiatives for reasons beyond the incentive of an increased financial margin. This requires that they be mindful enough to take the necessary steps for uprooting bias — regardless of gender, race, sexuality, age, religion, disability, marital status, or court records — that levels the playing field for every employee to have a chance at equal opportunities. In my experience, having a solid diversity and inclusion strategy helps attract top talent to the organization, and most importantly, makes them want to stay.
Here are 10 changes to make for an effective diversity and Inclusion initiative:
Instill a Sense of Belonging Mold Empathetic Leadership Focus on Connections not “Culture Fit” Re-examine Evaluation Processes and Recruitment Policies Shape a Multigenerational Workforce Revisit and Reinforce Anti-discriminatory Policies Build Inclusive Workspaces Conduct Pulse Surveys Within Minority Groups Have an Open-door Policy Understand that This is an Ongoing Exercise
To Read Full Article Visit HERE... | https://medium.com/@ptpchicago/10-changes-leaders-must-make-to-truly-address-diversity-and-inclusion-935296d4bab3 | ['Peterson Technology Partners'] | 2020-12-09 21:52:26.123000+00:00 | ['Inclusion', 'Diversity', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Thought Leadership', 'CEO'] |
Isn't everything moving too fast? | I’ve been trapped in my room trying to finish my final assignment for this last couple of days. Working nonstop for approximately 10 hours a day. (BUT WHY HASN’T IT FINISHED YET????) Other than that, I just do my usual stuff trying to stay alive and sane.
Despite the privilege of having a balcony, I don't know what's going on outside. My world is just this 3 by 3 box. I don't remember how the winds felt like and how beautiful the lights when the golden hour arrived. Because I always shut my balcony door. When I turn around, all I see is the night sky, and I need to go to sleep for tomorrow.
For me,
time is just a mere digit now, not how the sun and the moon changing. Is it how time supposedly measured? I don't even feel the movement of the time anymore. I feel numb and disconnected from everything around me.
But,
The once a week trip to the grocery store has been nothing but a blessing. The monotonous scenery looks quite different every time I go out. It somehow takes me to many different parts of my brain and recharges many different feelings. connect me back to the place and space I’ve been living.
I see the blue sky, feel the wind,
and I always surprise to see the bits different in this scenery. It's always the same route. But it always felt different.
Well,
Today,
I remember how it feels to connect again to your surrounding. But tomorrow, perhaps I will be lost again in my 3 by 3 world. | https://medium.com/@rnnabila/isnt-everything-moving-to-fast-dd7493b83447 | ['Rn Nabila'] | 2020-12-23 20:20:42.170000+00:00 | ['Im Tired', 'Quarantine'] |
Oh My God — It’s a Person! | The look of fear
“You’re going to deliver the baby, right?”
It was said as more of a statement than a question. A hopeful assumption that must often get asked of would-be dads in the final stressful moments before liftoff. All I could do was nod, open-mouthed, more focused on what my wife was going through than I could ever be about my fears or excitement of catching a baby on its way out of the womb.
It’s a helpless feeling watching someone you love go through something both painful and amazing at the same time. You want to help, but there isn’t much to do besides try to be encouraging and/or giving space when its needed. I ended up primarily taking a seat on the bench next to our overnight hospital bags — trying to stay out of the way.
For all the talk of dilation diameter and contraction timing, from an outside perspective, it’s hard to know just how close to the big moment you are. But the nurses and midwives have a low-key way of ramping up. You barely notice them moving supplies into position and getting their scrubs on before it’s go-time.
I snapped back into the moment when the midwife came over, still with the full assumption I’d be delivering the baby, to show me how to put on the gloves without touching them. At that point I was committed. There was no going back. My wife was going through the craziest experience of all. I couldn’t call in scared because “it’s gross” or use some lame excuse like that.
As things started to progress, they maneuvered me into position at the foot of the bed. My wife, it must be mentioned, was crushing this entire process. Not only was she focused on pushing out a baby, she was being encouraging towards me as I was standing there watching. To me! I didn’t even have to do anything. That’s a powerful woman right there.
“Stand here. Put your hand here. Don’t touch here. Put your other hand here. Be ready. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to do.”
I was in position. I was briefed. I was… crying.
Ok. It’s getting real.
“Are you sure you guys want me to do this??” I kept repeating to the crew of professionals through near-panicked breaths, hands trembling.
Meanwhile, my wife, was actually going through a challenging situation — unmedicated and owning it — and pushing out a baby. Our baby. It was happening. The sheet was pulled up to her knees, the “work area” illuminated by spotlight and she was pushing like crazy. There it was. The head — I guess. (It didn’t look like any head I’d ever seen, but I took the midwife at her word.)
She reiterated where to put/not put my hands and how to catch it. The head came out first, face up. Once that was through the rest seemed to fall right out. And just like that I was holding a slippery, healthy baby girl in my gloved hands.
“Oh my god! It’s a person!” I yelled like an idiot.
I did it.
Just kidding. I didn’t do much. My wife did everything, all I had to do was not fumble the handoff.
A lot of people talk about the miracle of birth and what women go through during that process, but I don’t think you can really appreciate it until you’re standing at the foot of the bed watching it happen. The days of dads hanging out in the lobby (or bar) while their wives give birth is on its way out, and rightfully so.
Men have it easy. The least we can do is be there for our amazing wives and maybe even help deliver a baby. | https://medium.com/way-out-writing-club/oh-my-god-its-a-person-17382856feff | ['Chris Zimmerman'] | 2019-05-16 21:41:03.903000+00:00 | ['Dads', 'Pregnancy', 'Just Write It', 'Midwife', 'Childbirth'] |
Ten Things Addiction has Taught Me | Ten Things Addiction has Taught Me
Something inside me sent a clear message: enough is enough
Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash
When I started my teenage years with my children, I never imagined it would end with their substance abuse and addiction. One of the things that are deceiving for parents is that if you experimented in high school or college and left it at that — experimentation — you expect that your children will as well.
Some parents may not be surprised if their kids try drinking and maybe even if they smoke marijuana, as they feel this is still within the range of normal teenage behavior. Everyone agrees that harder drugs are dangerous.
Many teens do try drinking and smoking pot and don’t become addicted. Our inner feeling and hope are that this is a temporary situation and it will pass as our children grow and mature.
Yet, this experimentation can become an issue because our kids are taking a risk. We have no way to predict whether our child will later become addicted to alcohol, marijuana, or any number of other drugs. I know, as a former parent of a teenager, this is one of the biggest challenges.
Did you ever experiment with drinking and drugs? I did. Many of us tried drinking during our teen years, and many of us have memories of occasionally overdoing it. We were not comfortable with how we felt the next day. It just didn’t feel right.
When I graduated from college, married, and started working, any experimentation with drugs and drinking to excess had no place in my life. Something inside me gave that clear message, that enough is enough. It is time to grow up and be responsible. I followed that inner voice. Call it maturity or the end of a rite of passage, but it was not difficult. I hardly remember the transition at all.
That is the difference between what alcoholics call “normal” people and people with addictive personalities. When you are an addict, there is no inner voice strong enough to let you know that it is time to stop. Your habit has taken over. You know deep down that your habit is unhealthy, but you have lost all control. That inner voice is never heard because the drug is the one who is now in control of your brain.
You cannot tell in advance if you will become addicted. It is true that some people are more at risk than others — if you have a family member with drug problems you may be at greater risk since addiction is about 50% genetics.
Prescription drug abuse is now the latest drug of choice. For your children, this drug may be the easiest of all to find. It is “legal” and can be found right at home in your medicine cabinet. Take a moment to lock up your medications. This is an overall good practice, but especially if you have teens living at home. It is a protection for them.
Where does that leave our kids? It leaves us all in the situation of understanding that when our kids drink and use drugs, this may be a phase, or it may be the start of their downhill slide into alcoholism or drug addiction that will turn into a battle for their life.
Addiction has taught me many things. Here are ten:
Addiction doesn’t discriminate. No one is immune and I am not alone with this disease. I never thought addiction could happen to our family, but it did. You cannot control anyone’s addiction. Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that goes beyond the addict’s use of drugs. To help yourself and your child, you need to educate yourself about addiction. Let go of expectations. Worry or future tripping has no positive outcome. Addiction disconnects us from ourselves, others, our spirituality, and our life. Finding a quiet time each day to access your inner thoughts will bring you closer to peace and serenity. Al-Anon gave me the strength to carry on. Parents in this situation need support. We can support each other. Take the time for self-care to keep your body and your mind in a healthy state. The stigma of addiction holds us back from getting the help we may need, and from having addiction reach the same level of awareness as other worthy causes such as Breast Cancer or AIDS.
At the end of the day, addiction is the card that I have been dealt with. For some reason, it was meant to be part of my life. I’ve needed to accept and understand why this disease affected my family. With every experience, there is a lesson and usually a silver lining.
I would not wish this disease on you or any of your family members, but since I’ve already experienced it, I can say with all truthfulness, that although my life will never be the same, it is better for having had the experience. I have met some amazing people because of it, and I hope through my journey, I have become a better person. By educating yourself on the dangers of substance abuse and addiction, my hope is that your family will be spared this devastating disease. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/ten-things-addiction-has-taught-me-45093facf434 | ['Josef Cruz'] | 2020-09-21 14:27:49.815000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Addiction', 'Psychology', 'Self', 'Health'] |
- Seb Grynko | When it comes to the mind You have to be kind Don’t worry, you won’t be left behind Close your eyes, you won’t be blind | https://medium.com/@sebgrynko/meditation-poetry-a-still-mind-c09288a2915d | ['Seb Grynko'] | 2020-10-18 07:18:08.475000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Words', 'Lyrics', 'Poetry', 'Poems On Medium'] |
Information & Photos - womenlotusstyle - Medium | About
“As I go about my days, form new relationships, take on new challenges in my career, encounter obstacles and celebrate accomplishments in life. I take the time to remind myself of who I’ve come to be on my own terms, not who other people have deemed me to be.”
https://womenlotusstyle.blogspot.com/2020/12/mia-sand-missmiafit-episode-2.html
Name
Mia Sand
Date of Birth
October 11, 1987
Age
30
Weight
175–185lbs (79.4–83.9kg)
Height
5’7″ (170cm)
Nationality
Danish
Profession
Fitness Model, Social Media Personality
Era
2010 | https://medium.com/@womenlotusstyle/mia-sand-missmiafit-episode-2-information-photos-201b50111964 | [] | 2020-12-10 12:13:39.946000+00:00 | ['Women Health', 'Women Leaders', 'Women In Business', 'Women Fashion', 'Women'] |
I Want a Threesome. But Do I Really Want a Threesome? | I’m seeing a guy in a casual way. We don’t call it a relationship, we are not in love, but we really like to fuck each other. He’s nice and funny and respectful. He emanates a very strong masculine energy and I can easily be a woman next to him.
Our main focus is sex, and even though he seems genuinely interested in my day and my job and never forgets to ask about my kids, sex is what binds us together. This is how we pass our time together; this is what we chat about; this is what we talk about on the phone.
Recently he asked me if I was open for a threesome anytime.
I felt very brave and unthreatened, so I said an enthusiastic yes.
Today he brings it up again, that we should really go for it — if I still think it’s hot. I am nodding again, with a little lump in my throat, but mainly from finding it sexy and from being just a little bit frightened.
And he drops the ball in my court. If I want a threesome and I want the third party to be a woman then I should get someone.
We’re through the conversation whether I have a friend who I could ask — I am a little ashamed to admit that I don’t really have close friends, and I’m not twenty anymore where friendships are about partying together with my girlfriends, involving lots of booze, loud electronic music and French kissing strangers and each other in the heat of the moment.
In short: no, I don’t have a friend to ask.
He offers that he has a friend who would join, but then it would be two men and one woman, and it makes me immediately anxious. We have been seeing each other casually for a few months now, I trust him but it still makes me freak out. To think about it, I have to admit it’s hot, but the possibility is just too close. And his friend was a little bit too eager to join us. And I didn’t like his picture as much as he was crazy about mine.
So, we quickly ran out of options.
Well, it didn’t take too long for him to suggest me to get on Tinder to look for a woman.
And as hot as it sounds, it freaks me out.
And I start to wonder if this is really what I want. Is having a threesome really an unfulfilled fantasy that I wish to pursue or is it just a vague image that is nice to think about while touching myself and rocking myself to sleep?
I am thinking about female bodies a lot. If I watch any porn it is usually lesbian porn, with beautiful bodies, long thighs, nice breasts and shaved pussies. Watching a woman licking another woman’s clit is double the sensation, as I am imagining myself both as the giver and the receiver at the same time.
I like the gentleness and the smoothness visually — it makes me horny and it makes me want to be both of them.
When it comes to lesbian porn, pleasure looks a lot more authentic, they enjoy touching each other, licking each other, making each other come. Orgasms look credible and genuine, and if it’s a really good piece I can pace myself to come together with them.
Also, there is something incredibly arousing to think about making a guy crazy just by being occupied with each other — make him horny, make him hungry, to exert double the power than I would alone anyway.
And then after all the softness, smooth skin and limbs — finishing it with some rough masculine power, strength, hardness and preferably a bearded face kissing her taste away.
It sounds all very… hot. But am I ready for this?
I keep telling myself I am ready, but… it would be nice if I didn’t have to organise it, if I didn’t have to worry about how will it fit my schedule (you know, where do I put my kids or how do I leave them home alone), if I could be sure that I didn’t start to freak out about my body and being judged by another woman.
When you fantasize about something you don’t imagine your own cellulite, you don’t think about how firm your skin is — in my fantasies she is perfect and so am I. And unless we are paying for a very high-quality escort girl, I cannot expect any more perfection from an everyday woman that she could expect from me.
And there we are back to me being self-conscious about my own body.
Which sucks, because this casual boyfriend of mine happens to love my body and curves and even though we are not calling our encounters a relationship and we are focusing on sex — he still validates me. And now this whole situation of a possible threesome is just bringing up issues I shouldn’t worry about in the first place.
I envy him, because he doesn’t worry about this at all. He wants another body, and that’s it. He doesn’t have any more preference but what I find good enough. Talk about responsibility! | https://medium.com/bare-with-me/i-want-a-threesome-but-do-i-really-want-a-threesome-300400b5d66e | ['Octavia Morrison'] | 2019-11-14 11:39:47.349000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Sex', 'Sexuality', 'Self', 'Lifestyle'] |
Why Morality is Outdated- Moving On To Something Better | It is far past time to rid our society of useless human constructs…
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
If you are reading this, you are most likely a human. At the time of this writing, humans are the only known life form anywhere in our universe that exhibits the capabilities to reason, analyze, and create/compare ideas. Nothing else can; you cannot have a philosophical debate with your dog or the tree in your backyard. So because of this fact, humans are special. The abilities that we have are unique and have allowed us to do incredible things, which are simply not possible for any other life forms to do, or even dream of. Human ideas have transformed the Earth into the advanced state it is in now.
All this to say is that human ideas have power. And that power can be good or bad. But one long-lasting human construct has had a negative impact on humanity ever since it was conceived, and we as a society have yet to rid ourselves of this artificial burden.
I’m talking about morality, the concept of right and wrong. We act like there is a way that humans should and should not act. But why?
We are primates that have come from a primordial soup that originated, along with everything else, from a singularity a very long time ago. There has been no proof of any sort of extraterrestrial life or some higher power that has had any involvement in the development of life on this planet.
What does this mean? There is no purpose or reason to our lives, other than that which we ascribe to ourselves. Yet everyone is conscious of how they are perceived by others, and most everyone has an idea of how others should act in society.
This might sound nice, right? But morality is simply a form of control. All forms of oppression on this planet have originated with some form of morality. The concept of right and wrong is a way to mentally enslave people to do your blindly follow your priorities. When people are bound by your notions of “right and wrong”, they may as well be unthinking robots.
Racism, colonialism, imperialism, veganism, homophobia, misogyny, white supremacy, transphobia, xenophobia, manifest destiny, human rights, slavery, economic inequality, crime, jails- these are all the products of morality. Morality causes suffering.
Do you want a better world and an end to your problems? Cast off your notions of right and wrong. Do you think murder is wrong? If so, why? The truth is, there is no why. Morality does not exist- it is a human construct. Why do we allow such constructs to dictate the actions and paths of our lives? Things change, humans change. So what should we do?
THE SOLUTION: You must cleanse yourselves of all notions of shoulds. There is no should. There is only you, and what you want is all that matters. Feed your consciousness. This is the individual solution.
At the societal level, we must begin by abolishing all prisons and laws. Criminals are not bad, for there is no bad. We deny so called “criminals” their right to their choices when we incarcerate them because we want control. There are no human rights either. This too is a construct, it is not backed by anything objective. So why do we force people to believe in some sort of inherent worth? This is the institutional solution.
Once we observe these two important truths, we can have a perfect world. Trust your feelings. What you want is ultimately always for the best. When has acting on your personal desires ever resulted in an unsatisfactory result? Don’t care about anyone else. Stop fighting against “injustice”. There is no such thing.
Do what you want to do, and that will make a better world. | https://medium.com/@genderbender246/why-morality-is-outdated-moving-on-to-something-better-912805a9299d | ['Sirius Naught'] | 2020-12-18 00:25:12.411000+00:00 | ['Right', 'Wrong', 'Cookies', 'Morality', 'White Supremacy'] |
Farm Laws 101 | Farm Laws 101
How things worked
Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC), set up by various states in the country, were essentially where the farmers’ first sale of agricultural produce happened. These “mandis” were instituted in an effort to protect farmers from exploitation by large retailers. The produce collected at the mandis were then sold out by auction. The mandis operated on the sale of produce at/above MSP or the Minimum Support Price, fixed by the government, twice a year, for every crop with recommendations from the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). MSP has historically protected the farmers from the fluctuating market rates and the unpredictable monsoons by promising a minimum income on their produce.
The laws
The Essential Commodities Act 2020 amends the Essential Commodities Act, which was initially established to regulate the supply of foodstuff, fuel, and drugs against the backdrop of hoarding or black-marketing. The new amendment act delists certain commodities, allowing for their regulation only during a natural calamity, war, or super-inflation. The Farmers’ Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 provides a legal structure for farmers to engage with retailers on a contract basis and details a dispute resolution procedure. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce Act 2020 allows farmers to work outside the framework of the mandis, sell their produce to retailers not restricted to their trade areas, and promotes e-trading. It doesn’t allow state governments to collect cess or fees from the farmers, traders, or online retailers on this produce.
What’s happening
The farmers from Punjab and Haryana had been protesting against the farm reforms, touting them to be “anti-farmers” and suggesting that these laws would leave the farmers at the mercy of large money-minded corporates. In line with their protests, the farmers of Punjab staged a “Rail Roko” for almost a couple of months, disrupting the supply-chain of agricultural goods and produce from within and outside the state. While there was a shortage in the supply of fertilizers and other necessities, the piling up of food grains that couldn’t be transported also caused trouble in terms of their storage. Consequently, mission rail roko had to be aborted. Following this, on failing to get the support of their state governments, on 25th November, these farmer unions decided to pressurize the Centre by marching to New Delhi (“Delhi Chalo”). These protesting farmers clashed with the police, at Haryana’s border and within Delhi, who then employed the use of water cannons, tear gas, barbed wires, and sand barriers to stop the protesters, causing at least three casualties. Notwithstanding the police’s measures, the farm unions reached the national capital demanding to repeal the laws. While talks are still on between the farmer unions and the Union Ministers, a consensus is yet to be reached with the Centre proposing to amend the laws and the farmers unwilling to compromise for anything short of repealing the laws.
Photo Credit: PTI
As many as 500 farmer unions are protesting all over the country, with 2–3 lakh farmers converging along the borders of the NCR, and many transport unions representing truck, bus, and taxi drivers coming out in support of these farmers, threatening to stop their services if these farmers are not heard.
What needs to be understood
While the first two laws do not particularly concern the farmers, it is the third law that has caused this ugly upheaval. The FPTC Act, prima facie, should be welcomed by the farmers because it weeds out the middlemen at the mandis; but the farmers look at it as a path for the government to back away from the MSP-based procurement system. Although the government says that it has no intention to do so and will continue procuring their produce, and if so, the farmers question the necessity of such a law in the first place. The APMC mandis acted like a cushion for the farmers, buttressing their livelihoods during the uncertain market and monsoon trends. Subjecting the farmers to the vagaries of competitive markets with storage and contract related issues would leave them beholden to the monopolies of large corporates.
But why are only farmers from Punjab staging these protests?
The states of Punjab and Haryana are highly dependent on the Indian government to procure their grains at the MSP. About 90% of rice and wheat produced in Punjab is procured by the government, with the Public Distribution System (PDS) being the lifeline of this North Indian state.
Rice Procurement as a percentage of Production in different states
Rice Procurement by the GOI from different states
Government’s Obligations
The government needs to procure the produce from these two states just as much as these states need the government to do so, if not more. This is because of its obligations under the PDS and National Food Security Act (NFSA). Support under the NFSA is a legally binding right. There are around 80 crore beneficiaries, with almost 60 lakh beneficiaries being added this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year nearly 51 million tonnes of rice and 40 million tonnes of wheat have been procured (most of it from Punjab), more than 15 and 14 percent respectively, over the last year to account for the migrants displaced due to the Covid-induced lockdown. This is about 44% of the total rice produced and 37% of the total wheat produced in the country. Thus, the government needs to procure in large quantities from these farmers because it cannot afford to go to the open market where the prices will immediately skyrocket.
It might seem that the government rushed into passing these laws without having consulted farm unions or having drafted a very well laid out plan, and there also arises the question of federalism. Agriculture is essentially a matter of the states, and many experts, including the farmer unions and the opposition parties, think that the government has overstepped with the passing of these laws. But it is clear that doing away with the procurement system will serve no good to either the farmers or the government. It is, therefore, imperative that the government resolves the issue and puts an end to the ongoing crisis at the earliest.
Glossary
Written by- Chinmayi Lanka
Analysis by- Vignesh Vasudevan
Illustration by- Sai Krishna | https://medium.com/@chinvv9899/farm-laws-101-a718a41d6ece | ['The News Story'] | 2020-12-11 12:37:50.030000+00:00 | ['Farmers', 'Agriculture', 'News', 'Protest', 'Policy'] |
How can I earn from a school solver? | School Solver is an amazing website to earn money and learn. This website useful for all types of students, you can ask questions as a student and also answer questions as a tutor.
How can we earn?
1)First you have to register on the school solver website and go to (my school solver) add your details to my account (option).
2)Complete the School Solver Rules quiz with above 90 percent. It consists of 27 questions in 20 minutes.
3)Take any subject test by adding funds through PayPal, The test must be passed with above 90 percent to become a tutor. It also provides other options such as write 400–600 words about school solver in a public blog.
3)After completion of the test you become a tutor. Now you can solve student questions, assignments, etc
4)This website preview your answer (small part) to students.When students like your answer they can be bought.
Pros
a)In school solver money transactions are in dollars. So it is the best advantage for the currency which country has a high amount in dollars.
b)School Solver checks plagiarism, So you cannot fraud.
c) It is strictly bound by their rules. Please follow rules,otherwise, they will kick out you.
d)When you have any doubts, you can email through this [email protected], They can respond very fastly.
e)The best thing about this website is you can’t stick to one subject. You can solve any subject.
e)Whenever Student bought your answer money is added to your account.
How can we answer?
1.You can type in a word and make a pdf to post
2.They will accept handwritten answers
Pros
a.If you put a wrong answer, students raise query you can edit answers. This is the best option available in the school solver.
b.After resolve student query they will rate your answer to become a popular tutors.
c.Whenever your answer is not sufficient, you can edit your answer.
d.When you posted your answer, you can make a price for your answer. You can make fewer dollars by student price.
e.The best thing about this website is you can post answers if already someone is posted an answer.
f.Student has their own choice to buy any tutor answer.
Prepayments
If you are familiar with a student’s question, you can make a prepayment with the student to solve his /her problem. It is a better way to earn money. If you failed to solve, money automatically deducted from your account.
Finally, School Solver is the best website to earn money and their rules are very good against fraud.
Website link:https://www.schoolsolver.com
Thank You.
Best Wishes,
Amit Rathod. | https://medium.com/@amit-rathod/how-can-i-earn-from-a-school-solver-783fc61624a1 | ['Amit Rathod'] | 2020-12-09 11:21:54.473000+00:00 | ['Tutor', 'Student', 'Education', 'Teaching', 'Question'] |
In an Age of High-Definition Digital Audio, Why Do We Still Use Human Stenographers? | For full disclosure, I am now a software engineer. But I’ve worked as a professional freelance stenographer for six years prior to my transition. Although my main source of income no longer comes from providing live-captioning services, stenography is and always will be a passion of mine. It is such an intelligently and ergonomically designed input system that, whether it be code or prose that I’m writing, it makes my experience on the computer feel fluent and effortless—unhindered as compared to having to tap my thoughts out character by character on a normal keyboard. As an engineer, I write code, write PRs, review others’ PRs, and deploy to production all from my steno machine. Thanks to steno, I can send Slack communications at the speed of thought. I have shortcuts in the hundreds ranging from Docker and rake tasks to git commands programmed in so I can perform pulls, pushes, stashes, pops, checkouts, and countless other functions with one swift motion of the hand (TKRA*EUBG = docker-compose run — rm app rake repo:db:init).
I’m seldom without a steno machine if I have my computer on me. And, yes, I have more than one of these keyboards. My portable one, as shown above, is a 3D-printed mod and it uses light-touch mechanical-keyboard switches—perfect for when I’m on the go or working from one of our satellite offices.
With a single chord, KPWRAERBGT (IMPRAERKT), I can import React faster than you can hit “i” on your keyboard. 😝
If you aren’t familiar with what stenography (or “steno” for short) is, it’s the system of chorded input performed on a special keyboard communicating with shorthand-to-text software that court reporters and captioners use to quickly write down what is said in a courtroom, on TV, in lectures, or at Coachella (video). Basically, this amounts to a single person being able to catch and write down what a roomful of people are saying, verbatim, in real time. Olympic-level note-taking.
People normally speak English at around a rate of 160–220 words per minute. A skilled stenographer is able to hold a writing speed in excess of 200 words per minute for hours. To become nationally certified, one must pass a series of speed tests on a shorthand machine—the final of which requires one to transcribe a two-voice Q&A dictation at an unrelenting rate of 225 words per minute at >95% accuracy for five full minutes… in one take. The world record for steno speed is 360 words per minute for one minute, set by Mark Kislingbury. If you’ve never seen one of these steno machines before, meet Andromeda:
You can thank Andromeda for this story you’re reading now. And, no, what you’re looking at is not a “cash register.”
As for how steno actually works, that’s for its own article entirely. What I’m here to discuss in this piece is why this craft is still integral and relevant to the legal and hearing-accessibility realms. It is currently under siege by numerous unscrupulous wielders of magic microphones who profess, “Digital recording is the future!” and fallaciously claim that simply replacing the stenographer with a microphone will cut costs and produce comparable, if not better transcriptions than one taken stenographically by hand. After all, stenographers are humans, too: we make mistakes, we need breaks, we get hungry, and we tire like everyone else. Technology, including a microphone, does not. So much easier and cheaper; right?
“Hey, yo! Just throw one of these babies in, check!”
Well, this seemingly obvious and viable alternative is problematic for several reasons.
I mean, if you’re fortunate enough to have a smartphone, you have an audio recorder right in your pocket. Go to Best Buy, and you can find recorders with great audio quality for a fairly cheap price. Memory is also now extremely cheap. But go talk to any lawyer who’s conducted a deposition, and they’ll quickly tell you that stenographers’ fees aren’t cheap and can raise the cost of litigation by several figures depending on the length of the transcript and how many copies are sold. Court reporters typically charge a flat appearance fee and then by the page, so if you have a 300-page transcript and all parties are ordering copies, you might be in for sticker shock. So if we have this much-thriftier alternative, doesn’t it just make economic sense to let a recorder do the “work” and commission a bargain-basement transcription service to type it up for you later? | https://medium.com/swlh/in-an-age-of-high-definition-digital-audio-why-do-we-still-use-human-stenographers-60ca91a65f39 | ['Stanley Sakai'] | 2020-02-02 19:00:32.355000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Stenography', 'Court Reporting', 'Keyboard', 'Tech'] |
eCommerce in 2020: Key Insights | Recently RetailX conducted a survey to wrap-up this year and define how global pandemic has impacted the eCommerce business in 2020. Here is a brief overview of their instructive report on the top 1000 best online retailers’ progress made in such a tough time.
How has Covid-19 influenced eCommerce?
Obviously, these unprecedented circumstances have set the stage to progress of digitization. Many people, who were not fans of online shopping before, had to make purchases through the Internet. According to a RetailX report, starting from early spring 2020 up to 2 million customers have made an online purchase for the first time. This number includes a major part of elderly people.
It contributed to an increased demand for omnichannel businesses. To be competitive, there was no way out for retailing companies except going eCommerce and expanding channels of cooperation with clients.
Thus, omnichannel has become a question of survival. Zara can serve as a prime example of a prompt reaction to consequences of these uncertain times. The company made it possible for clients to search for items on their website and check its availability in a selected store. Lately this pick up option has been implemented to various retailing companies. Inditex plans to invest nearly 1,7 billion euro in this idea.
Improving customer experience
Ease of use is one the most important aspects that has a positive impact on customer retention. Fashion and jewelry sectors run websites with the most convenient navigation. Food and gardening industries are the worst. Speaking about geolocation, Ireland, Great Britain, Austria and Italy succeed in this approach the most. And the worst performers are Estonia and Cyprus.
One more crucial factor for customer well-being is a location of the Internet domain. Websites that offer multiple languages and currency are highly appreciated. Nearly 45% of sellers have a website that enables customers to select their country.
What else matters is an exact product description and product presentation. The more complex a type of product is, the more detailed description it requires. Czech Republic performs the best in this manner. And Great Britain still didn’t accomplish this task.
To sum up, the tendency to switch into digital activity is evident. But it’s rather a pleasure than a challenge, as the digital world is full of opportunities.
Thinking how to make your client satisfied? Consider the PWA First approach, as it can definitely facilitate your omnichannel plans. Follow the link for more information. | https://medium.com/@dinarys/ecommerce-in-2020-key-insights-7f7a814e4017 | ['Jane Vishnova'] | 2020-12-22 11:17:01.427000+00:00 | ['Covid', 'Userexperience', 'Progress', 'Insights', 'Ecommerce'] |
The road to Flutter cross-platform | At Flutter live in December 2018 the Flutter team used a desktop app for their slide, they also give us a sneak peak of what has become Flutter web.
At google IO 2019 Flutter Web was open to everyone in a technical preview.
Today we will speak about Flutter application that work on Desktop, Mobile and Web with a single code base. To illustrate that we will use the well known counter example and add support for persistence of the counter for each supported platform.
The final code is in this repository all_platform_example
We need some sort of ‘plugins’ that work across all platform, for this example we will use 2 plugins that are located in the rc_cross repository.
The first plugin is rc_cross_platform who give us the platform we are running on !
The second plugin is rc_cross_preferences who allow use to save small data by using the best solution for the platform we are running on !
So if we are on mobile rc_cross_preferences will use the shared_preferences package, if we are on the web it will use the local storage, and on desktop it will write your key/value in a file.
Some screenshot of the application :
android :
linux:
This seems really cool but how it work ?
We will take the rc_cross_platform as an example.
If you look at the source code in lib/src you will see 4 files :
Let’s open platform_base.dart in this we define what we need across all platform it’s the base class for platform. We also have some code that are the same for each supported platform.
In platform_io.dart and platform_web.dart we have custom code for io (desktop / mobile) and web.
In platform_io.dart we use the Platform class from dart:io to back our value.
In platform_web.dart we set the web value of the PlatformBase to true (other are set to false by default).
Then we need a single file to import so it’s easy to use for the end user that file is platform.dart. We use conditional import to import the good file depending on where we are running. Here by default we import platform_io.dart but if we are in a js library, which happen when you compile your application with dart2js/ddc, it will replace that by platform_web.dart
We use the same technique in rc_cross_preferences the only change is that we use rc_cross_platform on the io side to choose between shared_preference/custom key/value file.
Manage State
We use Mobx as stated in the readme. It allow us to have a reactive way to be notified when the counter change. We have an extra Widget that load/save the counter. The rest is almost the same counter app from flutter create.
Sort of conclusion
WARNING: This is highly experimental and is subject to change drastically, as Flutter support more thing like Platform Channel for Desktop and Web.
It will be a really exciting time when all this will really come together.
There will be awesome opportunity to contributes to plugins to add support for these new platform. | https://medium.com/@segaud.kevin/flutter-cross-platform-a2371fe790e7 | ['Kevin Segaud'] | 2019-06-14 09:40:38.506000+00:00 | ['Desktop', 'Mobile', 'Flutter', 'Dart', 'Web Development'] |
What a Recurring OutOfMemory Error Taught Me | The Recurring Error
The back-end runs flawlessly for about two weeks. Day by day, data becomes bigger, and users making concurrent requests increase. During the third week, I get the first OutOfMemory error. Logs are pretty clear: the VPS failed while trying to create a new thread, running out of memory. I immediately ask for advice from Dario Pellegrini, a colleague and developer with 5+ years of experience. Together we decide to double the RAM of the VPS and the maximum heap size limit consequently.
Problem fixed, right?
Nope!
3 days later, the same OutOfMemory exception strikes again! This time I want to tackle the problem for real and look for a real solution.
These my attempts to fix it…
1. Trying a Practical Solution
Running some tests I find out that a query returning 20k rows can easily become the bottleneck of an application. This is especially true if the @Entity mapping class consists of more than 130 attributes (just like mine). Instead of retrieving 10/20k rows each time, mapping them into Hibernate objects, iterate through them to retrieve a single computed value, I replace it all with a very advanced query. By defining a custom mapping class and writing a highly optimized query, I am able to achieve the same result with a much more efficient single-row query. With this (not so) simple trick, I increase the performance by 70/80% and reduce significantly the heap size.
Not to brag, but this time I’m pretty sure I’ve solved the problem…
Not yet…
2. Looking for Esoteric Reasons
Since the story is still going on, I’m not proud to say that it didn’t work out. 6 days later my back-end fails for the same OutOfMemory error.
I decide to take it seriously this time. I look for someone with a similar issue online and come across some interesting, but somewhat esoteric, topics.
Firstly, a couple of APIs are really complex and require hundreds of queries. Then, the query plan cache provided by Hibernate may be the culprit. By default, the maximum number of entries in the plan cache is 2048. An HQLQueryPlan object occupies approximately 3MB. ~3 * 2048 = ~6GB, and I the heap size is limited to 4GB…
Finally! That must be the cause!
The solution is simple: decreasing the query plan cache size by setting the following properties:
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.query.plan_cache_max_size : controls the maximum number of entries in the plan cache (defaults to 2048 )
: controls the maximum number of entries in the plan cache (defaults to ) spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.query.plan_parameter_metadata_max_size : manages the number of ParameterMetadata instances in the cache (defaults to 128)
I set them to 1024 and 64 respectively.
Secondly, I find out that IN queries with a variable number of parameters are a bit tricky for the Hibernate query plan cache (further reading here and here).
The solution is easy again. You can improve the statement caching efficiency with IN clause parameter padding by setting the following property to true:
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.query.in_clause_parameter_padding
Thirdly, my application is multi-thread. Since the error seems to occur while it tries to create a new thread, why not reduce threads stack size from 1024KB to 512KB by adding -Xss512k to my Procfile?
Each of these properties should decrease the amount of heap used and therefore fix the OutOfMemory problem, once and for all. Right? Nope!
3. Surrendering to Reality
Last but not least, I decide to do what I should have done immediately: reviewing my code! The JVM Garbage Collector gathers all the unreachable objects to try to delete them. In the case of too many unreachable objects, the heap will fill up before the GC intervenes. In this case, an OutOfMemory exception is thrown as soon as the application tries to allocate a new object. Reviewing my code I find nothing suspicious.
My application is multi-thread and I used thread pools more than once, especially ForkJoinPool . I have not used it for ages, so the problem could be there. I started looking online for well-known memory leaks and during my researches I come across this interesting GitHub page. I immediately realize what a beginner mistake I made. I forgot to shut down each of the ForkJoinPool objects I used!
Oops! | https://medium.com/quick-code/what-a-recurring-outofmemory-error-taught-me-11f2061063a1 | ['Antonello Zanini'] | 2020-11-17 19:50:41.842000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Life Lessons', 'Kotlin', 'Spring Boot', 'Programming'] |
Shitcoins.club: +1% free Beam at 100 Beam ATMs ❤️ | Beam girl could be seen last week activating Beam protocol in the Shitcoins.club Beam ATMs
Beam + Shitcoins.club ATMs = better privacy
A few days ago, over 100 Bitcoin ATMs in Europe officially started supporting Beam. You probably recognize these Bitcoin-shaped devices that pop up in the news and Tweets sometimes? Now you can just walk up to one in your city and buy/sell Beam. If you happen to walk by during a discount, you could get an extra +1% free Beam.
These machines belong to Shitcoins.club, the company known for:
improving our individual privacy via secure crypto transactions
selling and buying Beam with cash at the ATMs
at the ATMs crazy ATM designs which they make on their own
extravagant locations of ATMs
discounts enabling trading Beam and other cryptos without fees
getting additional BTC and Beam per transaction
crazy marketing events: eg. machines that start spewing cash at passing people in the shopping malls! Yay!
Look at all that flying cash in the mall. It seems crypto-maniacs will go any length to show contempt for fiat currency. Back in my day, you used to establish dominance simply by looking into the fiat holder’s eyes and saying: moon soon.
Or: Privacy matters. Beam.
It’s happening!
Turns out privacy matters for both Beam and Shitcoins.club
Let’s talk about what has just happened. First of all, Shitcoins.club’s ATMs have been the choice of investors aiming for high levels of confidentiality (within legal KYC limits) as it turned out to be as important for their customers as for the privacy enthusiasts. Shitcoins.club reacted to the needs expressed by its community on social media channels and eventually added Beam to the machines. What amazing news for all of us! It turns out Beam’s Github comes in handy, after all.
The study conducted by Shitcoins.club confirms that there is an increasing demand for individual privacy and security. This is probably why so many people were interested in exchanging Beam at the ATMs. We can talk about privacy-oriented tech all day long, but there’s just nothing that beats simply walking up to a secure ATM on the way back from daily duties, and then anonymously buying / selling Beam for fiat banknotes. At 0% fee. Easily. And sometimes even with an extra 1% Beam for free.
Audio in this video summarizes the news — for the visually impaired
ATM + Beam = privacy overload
In the recent article, Groot already summed up why privacy is important for all of us. It’s not to hide anything, rather as a basic human right that has to be respected above all else, especially in today’s world where spying on individual data and then trading it to corporations and governments is an everyday reality. Let’s talk about privacy, and what ATMs + Beam have to do with it.
We are going to present 4 tips to gain better privacy. Yes, Beam allows for anonymous transactions by default and should suffice, but ATMs and using VPN are also something that we should look into as they could affect the evolution of private coins. Besides, if you have an individual Bitcoin address at your disposal, and not Beam, the sending and receiving addresses are also public, which is simply bad for privacy.
Privacy tip #1: Changing the address
The transaction address is similar to your nickname on the blockchain. This means that if someone manages to link your identity to it, they will be able to discover all of your transactions from that address. Therefore, changing your address every now and then helps. By the way, did you know that on Beam there are no addresses?
Privacy tip #2: VPN
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) can help you to cover your tracks of network activity. How does it work? A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a large number of servers around the world before it reaches its destination. Sometimes, in the VPN network, one IP address is used by several users, which makes it more difficult to detect a single traffic originator.
Keep in mind that you need to trust a VPN provider. Some still save your internet traffic history on their servers. Also, remember that if you buy Bitcoin from exchanges or places that require you to provide personal information, a VPN is not very useful.
Privacy tip #3: Beam ATMs / Bitcoin ATMs
100 ATMs implemented Beam this Easter. These devices allow you to buy and sell Beam, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and other crypto for cash. The entire operation only takes a few minutes, yaaay!
Beam plus Bitcoin ATM equals double privacy
The great advantage of Bitcoin ATMs is their availability — we can make transactions using them 24 hours a day, just like using traditional ATMs. Along with convenience, another advantage is privacy — each of them is repeatedly tested for security and receives patches and updates on a regular basis, which is possible thanks to a permanent connection to the Internet.
When you decide to use the device, you do not need to present any documents — you only need to provide your virtual wallet address and telephone number or e-mail to receive the transaction confirmation. Verification is not required unless you trade sums exceeding 15.000 EUR (depending on the country).
Now, let’s see what you can get from using both Beam and Shitcoins.club.
I’ve acquired +1% more Beam than I should have. What the heck?
In some countries, there seems to be a stigma associated with Bitcoin ATMs due to an outdated association with high fees. It used to be like this: “they need to keep the ATMs running, so the transaction fees are high”. However, the unexpected truth nobody seems to be talking about yet is that networks such as Shitcoins.club can afford to organize discounts enabling transactions at 1–2% fees, or even as low as 0% for special occasions.
During these special events that come once every couple of months, you are able to acquire free Beam or additional cash at an ATM. No extra steps necessary, no registering, affiliate links, and other tedious hoops that usually come with airdrops in the crypto world. So why is nobody talking about it yet? Where’s the catch? Let’s examine the situation in-depth.
Photos of these machines just keep popping in articles that aren’t related to ATMs at all
The bizzare no-brainer discounts in Shitcoins.club Bitcoin/Beam ATMs are organized in order to change the stigma associated with the machines and popularize this method of conducting transactions. The impact of turning the fees off is so huge that it draws more customers to the machines and is more beneficial long-term for the ATM operator than just having standard fees.
It’s best to consult this map or CoinATMradar to find the nearest location. There is information next to each ATM on whether it supports Beam and whether you can get free Beam (look for+1% fee).
Beam girl: You can now meet me face to face in most European cities. Check one nearby
The future of Beam ATMs
Could it be that other machines follow Shitcoins’ footsteps and start adding Beam? Perhaps. It depends whether other operators react to their fans’ requests to do so. Shitcoins.club as the pioneer on the market can afford to listen to their fans and keep up with the projects in the crypto world. Will others also manage to gather the strength to do so, or drop out, unable to keep up? Time will tell!
To know about any special deals follow Shitcoins.club on social media.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shitcoins.club/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShitcoinsClub
Telegram: http://t.me/shitcoinsclub
YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkEvjeyN-QgI6Qpysww8VuA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shitcoinsclub/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shitcoinsclub/
It’s like Matrix, but BeamGirl is teaching martial arts to the ATM
Come discover Beam and join the community!
Download Beam Android Wallet: on Google Play
Download Beam iOS Wallet: on App Store
Learn more about Beam: on our website and blog
Telegram: t.me/BeamPrivacy
QQ Beam 中国官方社区: https://jq.qq.com/?_wv=1027&k=5Mbs8N4
Reddit: reddit.com/r/beamprivacy/
Twitter: twitter.com/beamprivacy
#beam #shitcoins.club #privacy #cryptocurrency | https://medium.com/beam-mw/shitcoins-club-1-free-beam-for-you-at-100-beam-atms-%EF%B8%8F-4babe5416ebb | ['Martin Sviders'] | 2021-04-12 19:40:01.552000+00:00 | ['Beam', 'Bitcoin Atm Machine', 'Discount', 'Privacy', 'Bitcoin Atms'] |
5 cold email templates that will generate warm leads for your sales team | 5 cold email templates that will generate warm leads for your sales team Alexandre Gaillard Jun 17·9 min read
Salespeople and company founders are eager to find the perfect cold email template. COVID19 did not change the benefits of email marketing. To those saying that it does not work… I say that the most important part is to be able to adapt quickly templates based on the feedback and the responses. In this article, we will share with you the 5 cold email templates we’ve been using. To scale your business you will need to develop a solid sales process with powerful sales emails.
What do you want to achieve with cold emails?
The goal of your cold email should be either to set up a meeting or a call with a prospect or to get referred to a person. It should not be anything else. In each email, a question or call to action should stand out clearly. If you are sending a cold email do you want to find the fastest way to reach the decision-maker within an organization without a pre-existing relationship?
A sales guy should ask himself the following questions :
Who is receiving your email? Who is your perfect customer? How do you find the ideal customer?
The more specific you are and better are the chances that you will succeed in your email outreach. It is easier to write it in English than French. As you know that in French, like Spanish, Chinese, Russian too, we have more specificities when writing to someone we don’t know. Nevertheless, you can still write a broad enough message that will touch anyone just put the company name and a positive message.
To write effective cold emails you have to focus on an industry specific first and then move on to the next vertical.
In your sales emails, you want to specify something special about the industry with higher precision.
In your email, you want also to speak in the same language tone so let your sales rep speak freely.
Then you want to make sure that you spot the right type of decision-maker. The decision-maker can vary based on the company size.
Where to find email addresses?
There are four ways to get email addresses.
The first highest quantity/lowest quality is to buy lists. The second high quantity/low quality is web scraping. The third low quantity/high quality is outsourced, lead generation team. The fourth lowest quantity/highest quality is to create customer profiles.
You can also scan your card with CamCard, export list from Linkedin, enrich them with Dropcontact…
Another way to do it is just to look into your most successful customers. When I mean by successful customers it is customers that give you must value to your solution. They pay you the most or just simply endorse the DNA of your company. If you find a DNA match then this is the ideal customer you’re looking to harvest.
What are their common denominators:
● How large is the company?
● How many staff do they have?
● What other software tools do they use?
● What are the titles of all the employees?
● What kind of social media do they use?
● Where are they located?
● What’s their average deal size?
● How long have they already been in business?
● How did they hear about you?
● How did we acquire them?
Based on those elements, you will find a way to write effective cold emails. Then you will try to find 5 to 30 other businesses that have the same DNA in their core values. You don’t need hundreds of thousands of prospects just focus on 30 to 50 companies per month. Then try to focus on the right response rates gaining some insights about the latest flavor, the rights problem they have and this is how you will convince decision-makers to contact you.
If you’re asking the higher-ups for a referral down at some point someone will forward your message your phone call to the right person in the organization.
Test, measure, optimize your emails
You have to capture positive responses from prospects to expand your strategy to the next targeted audience. It is important to optimize your templates to create a better result in your niche market. InvestGlass keeps track of all your email and phone communications and has powerful reporting and analytics features that allow you to show open and response rates for all of your templates.
Here are the metrics that you should care about and your sales team too:
What’s your open rate? You should expect a +45% open rate. What’s your response rate? You should expect a 15% response rate. What kind of position/title responds to your emails? How do responses convert into qualified leads? Do not include undeliverable emails in your stats. If you send out 600 emails and get 100 undeliverable messages, use 400 for your calculations. If 40 people respond, you’ll calculate that as a X% response rate.)
Your email template will have only one goal. You want to make sure they understand exactly what to do. The cold email template should have only one link to click for example:
Click this link…
If you’re the appropriate person to speak with, what does your calendar look like? If not, who do you recommend I talk to?
Please refer me to the person responsible for media buying.
When to send cold emails?
Well, some people say the best time to send emails is between Tuesday through Thursday. I would say that there’s never a good time or bad time to send an email. Definitely, Mondays or holidays are not the best days. Then Friday it’s a complex day because people are out at least in their minds. Sunday could be also a good day … but if you are dealing with people in the Gulf this day is their Mondays.
Your email should be smartphone-friendly emails
You should keep your email short and also you should try not to add any pictures to your email to prevent any additional spam blockers. Your email should appear to be a real email sent by a real person. Therefore we should avoid any complex HTML designs. It’s a called email template right this is not a blog post.
How to respond to responses?
If you get an answer… well done!!! How do you respond? You should have some pre-defined answers. Here are some examples :
Positive set up call/meeting
Not interested
Not interested right now
Send me more information
We are already working with someone
I told the right person about you, and they’ll get back to you if they are interested
Out of office notifications
“Urs Gaillard from buying is the person you want to talk to…”
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
Just following up, does it make sense to talk about this? If not, who would be the right
person to talk to?
Thanks,
Kind regards,
A good cold email template starts with a clear subject line
Your subject line should be short and clear such as “who is responsible for this”, “who is responsible for that”, perhaps you can also put into the subject line the company name.
Let’s say you asked for a referral to the right person. When you write your subject — the correspondent should know if you are prospecting or selling. In an ideal world, you don’t want to let account execs and sales reps prospect do the same job and therefore the subject line will be different.
When it comes to subject lines try those ideas:
Use their name/company name in the subject line when it makes sense. Make the subject line as specific as possible — the more personal the subject line, the higher the open rate. If you wonder if it sounds too much like a marketing email then bingo it’s a marketing email. Experiment with questions in subject lines.
Cold email subject lines that get open rates of +40%
1. “Introduction: {Name}” or “Introduction {your name/company} <> {their
name/company}”
2. “quick request”
3. “Trying to connect”
4. “{Name of their company}”
This subject line is not only a promise that the message will be relevant — it’s a key factor for a higher open rate. Try not to be misleading but sharp and short to get your emails opened.
Cold email template body wording
Using the right — prose — words is an art ! It should be a short sweet and precise request — no more than 4 sentences.
There are two approaches to cold emails:
You are emailing someone high up in the company and asking for a referral down to the right person You are emailing the decision-maker directly, pitching them to sign up, setup a call
With InvestGlass.com you can copy and paste those text directly into your email template so if you’re an InvestGlass.com happy user, you can copy and paste them directly into InvestGlass.com as an email template.
— — — — — — — –
Cold email: Referral V1
Short subject line
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
My name is {{user.first_name}} and I head up business development efforts with {{organization.name}}. We recently launched a new platform that [one sentence pitch].
However, based on your linkedin online profile, you appear to be an appropriate person to connect with… or point me in the right direction.
I would like to speak with someone from {{lead.name}} who is responsible for [handling something that’s relevant to my product/service].
If it is you, are you open to a fifteen-minute call on [time and date] to discuss ways the {{organization.name}} platform can specifically help your business? If not you, can you please put me in touch with the right person?
I appreciate the help,
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
— — — — -
Cold email: Referral V2
Short subject line
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
I hope I’m not bothering you. Could you please refer me to the person in charge of [something that’s relevant to your product]?
Thanks for your time,
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
— — — — — — — — —
Cold email: Referral V3
Short subject line
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
My name is {{user.first_name}} and I’m with {{organization.name}}. We work with organizations like {{lead.name}} to [one sentence pitch].
One sentence unique benefit.
Could you direct me to the right person to talk to about this at {{lead.name}} so we can explore if this would be something valuable to incorporate into your events?
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
— — — — — — —
Subject line : Can you point me in the right direction?
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
Would you be so kind as to tell me who is responsible for [insert your biggest pain point here that resonates with your ideal customer OR insert function like “sales” or “recruiting”] and how I might get in touch with them?
Thank you,
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
Organization cold email referral are short — i saw your company online doing this and that … can we talk… time and date cheers.. and a call to action.
— — — — — — —
Cold email: Selling V1
Short subject line
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out because [explain how you got their contact information and how you relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw their company online, etc.] {{organization.name}} has a new platform that will help [their team] at {{lead.name}}. [One sentence pitch of benefits.]
We do this by:
Benefit/Feature 1
Benefit/Feature 2
Let’s explore how {{organization.name}} can specifically help your business. Are you available for a quick call [time and date]?
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
— — — — — — —
Cold email: Selling V2
Short subject line
Dear {{contact.first_name}},
I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because [explain how you got their contact information and how you relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw their
company online, etc.].
{{organization.name}} has a new platform that will help [their team] at {{lead.name}}. [One
sentence pitch of benefits.]
I know that {{organization.name}} will be able to help {{lead.name}} [insert high-level
benefit].
Are you available for a quick call [time and date]?
Kind regards,
{{user.first_name}}
Let’s get them with InvestGlass Email feature!
Now you know the secrets to successful cold email templates. Actionable sales advice gets real when you test them. You have to adapt the templates until you find your own magic sauce.
InvestGlass team is glad to share with you more CRM sales tips resources so don’t hesitate to contact us. Email subject lines cold test first then measure your result inside InvestGlass.com CRM. Engaging a quality prospect is better than a large quantity. Effective cold email templates contain only one call to action!
Your sales teams are now ready to engage a quality prospect strategy. Don’t forget to match your ideal customer to the right email template. | https://medium.com/@investglassmedia/5-cold-email-templates-that-will-generate-warm-leads-for-your-sales-team-2e6222f4411e | ['Alexandre Gaillard'] | 2021-06-17 17:15:33.201000+00:00 | ['Growth Hacking', 'Email Marketing', 'CRM'] |
Consensus in simple words or “does decentralization play dice?” | What is the consensus protocol? Suppose we have a distributed system, consisting of independent actors (i.e. “decentralized”). Consensus protocol is used to get an answer to the core question: “How to update the state of the system? Who has the right to do it?”…
… and there are only three options available to achieve a consensus:
1. Anybody. The industry calls this option DAG – directed acyclic graph.
High resistance to network failures
Fast, unlimited number of participants
An absence of the notion of the "current state of the system" as a whole: each participant has its own view on the state of affairs.
2. Participants must agree on each update: a family of Byzantine-fault tolerant (BFT) protocols coming from the last century and telecommunications industry.
Low resistance to network failures
Slow, very restricted number of participants (time required to reach the agreement growth polynomially or exponentially with the number of participants)
There is a notion of the current state of the system at any moment of time (so-called "finality")
Frankly speaking dPoS consensus protocols (used in the family of Graphene-based blockchains, i.e. BitShares, Steem, Golos and recently EOS) with very strict number of participants (called there “witnesses”), which can update the global state of a system also belong to this group: such witnesses need to agree upon the order of the blocks. The dramatic speed of dPoS consensus does not contradict what was said above: it is achieved only by significantly compromising with decentralization.
3. Some "objective randomness" randomly points participant who can update the state at some point in time.
Moderate resistance to network failures
Moderate speed, independent or with sub-linear dependence on the number of participants.
Quasi-finality: some recent historical state can be considered as final with some calculable (or nearly-calculable) probability.
Seems like the golden ratio! But wait, here is the problem: how we’ll achieve a common view on the randomness in a system with independent agents/actors? If there were some “random” deterministic process that can be reproduced by all of the participants, it would not be random in fact by the very definition of “randomness” (which, basically, cannot be reproduced). And vice versa, a truly random process will give different (i.e. random) results for each participant…
Adam Back was the person who proposed a very elegant solution to this problem: instead of getting some common randomness we should use some random process that will give different random numbers to all of the participants, and we’ll define some criteria by which only one (or very few) participants will be selected. How to achieve that? Let’s use radioactive decay as a sample random process: each of the participants will take some small radioactive probe of a given size and will calculate the number alpha-particles each second; the one who will get the lowest number wins. It’s a kind of dice, so the participant with the smallest number wins.
But here is another problem: how to prove that you really had the smallest number and not cheated with the size of the probe (by making it smaller) or just generating “0” out of thin air without counting at all? That’s where the elegance of Adam Back’s solution comes to place: he invented a process (called hashcash) where each of the participants can’t cheat with their “dice”. Those who are familiar with cryptography know about the existence of “hash functions”, which can be easily computed one way and require really big effort to compute the other way. And if we ask all of the participants to find some number where hash can be smaller than some pre-defined value, (1) all of them will spend a lot of time doing that, (2) the one who finds the answer first will be doing that by a chance, which is strictly proportional to the number of his efforts/economic spending, (3) it can be easily proved that there is no cheating since it’s really simple to re-check the result of the hash function once the solution is found. And this protocol became the famous Proof of Work used in bitcoin!
But wait, can we re-do the trick and find some other type of randomness, suitable for selection of a player in the multi-agent system, but without doing a lot of unnecessary computations? Past years have shown that it is not an easy task… At this moment there are no other succinct, provably secure and resistant in the presence of adversaries protocol for the distributed randomness (collective coin flipping) on the market … yet. And here our story of Prometheus protocol begins — we will unveil it in the following articles. | https://medium.com/pandoraboxchain/consensus-in-simple-words-or-does-decentralization-play-dice-55ce74084e07 | ['Orlovsky Maxim'] | 2018-08-10 07:12:53.496000+00:00 | ['Consensus', 'Proof Of Work', 'Bitcoin', 'Decentralization', 'Blockchain'] |
Remote Work — Not so Normal. Thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, remote… | Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels
Thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, remote working has become a new way of working, but it is anything but normal. We no longer have lunch with our co-workers, casually see each other in hallways and say hey, take a break and walk and talk about life outside of work. Also, we don’t often stop at 5pm to catch our train home, the subway, or pick our kids up from school.
Humans are social creatures. Most of us thrive around others to bounce ideas off of, vent about a frustrating moment, and feel safe to be part of a team. We need that for our well-being. We don’t get that working remotely as easily and most of us will find another way to have some sort of interaction, going to the grocery store, calling a friend who can listen, going to a gym, or attending a church service.
All of that being said, we can create a great remote work environment when everyone understands the needs of everyone else. I use that word specifically, “needs”. It is not a desire that we have, it is a need to feel part of, to feel connected, and to feel valued. That leads to the ultimate questions:
“How do I know what they need and how do I express what I need?”
ASK THEM UP FRONT AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO TELL THEM UP FRONT.
You need to set the expectation the moment you join a team. You need to understand the “unspoken” rules of the team, and get them spoken. We often hold people accountable to an expectation that we have never told them about. We then get resentful at them for not living up to an expectation that they are not even aware of.
Recently LinkedIn hosted a poll about least appreciated quality in a remote co-worker. Here are the results.
An overwhelming amount said, unresponsive. Keep in mind there are 4 options there, that is like having an election with 4 candidates and no runoff needed because one candidate got a majority. That is a landslide victory, or in this case, concern.
Let’s talk about remote working etiquette and some rules you should establish for your team.
Communication
This seems obvious, but for the introverts out there, they may love this lack of human interaction, this lack of transparency, and the ability to actually focus without human distractions. They need to know about your needs for communication.
Methods of communication and rules:
Email — Slowest form of remote communication, if a task is assigned or question is asked, a response should be given within 2 hours during working hours, a response can consist of simple acknowledgement and that you will review it by a specific time frame, don’t say “I’ll review this later”, say, I’ll review and respond to this by End of Day, End of Week, by Noon tomorrow.” It acknowledges that you have received the email, the person who sent it can get a response by the time frame you set, and the lines of communication are open. Video Call/Phone Call — Fastest form of communication and also the most intrusive. Do NOT call someone because you have an immediate question unless it is that urgent. I like to always start with a request, do you have a minute to chat. Or schedule a call to discuss it. Slack/Teams — The ubiquitous remote communication medium. There are rules for this also. If you need to get information out there, then post it in the channel and no response is required. If you need a response, tag that person specifically, or in slack you can use the @here tag to alert everyone in the channel. If you are tagged, you should respond quickly (under an hour during work hours) simply to acknowledge the notification. Some responses may take more time for you to research the answer, but acknowledge the request.
As you can see the rules for communication are simple — Acknowledge a request, set a timeframe for a response, and respond. There was a company (I believe it was in NYC) that made ghosting a fireable offense. You were given 2 warnings about not responding (24 hour window for a response) and on the third no response you were terminated. That is a bit extreme, but I think they probably had a GREAT communication, but that was driven by fear not respect, so not my recommendation.
Simple Rule of Thumb: Be respectful of others communication and respond as if you were in the office sitting next to them.
Breaks
We all NEED breaks, we need breaks even more working from home. We need a bathroom break, we need to take our dogs out, we need to eat, we need to answer the door for deliveries, etc… It is crucial for our well-being that we take them. Being remote, we need to let others know if we are going to be gone for an extended period (over an hour). I do NOT need to know you are going to the bathroom, but thank you for over-communicating. Take your breaks, eat lunch, relax, and then get back at it. If you are taking lunch, maybe you do a zoom lunch with your team, maybe you go for a walk on facetime so they can see your neighborhood. Maybe you need to get away from screens completely, but let the team know. You don’t need to email, slack, and schedule the entire company that you are going for a walk, but your immediate team members should know since they may need you and can’t find you.
Work Hours
The second top complaint was not respecting work hours. This is easily fixed. Define work hours and stick to them. You can respond after hours, if you want, but that is a precedent you are setting. I have my phone while I watch TV to relax and if something comes through on slack, I may respond. If an email comes through, I usually will not respond until the next work day.
I know you are all saying, but what if… of course there are exceptions, and it is a case-by-case basis. Be respectful. Be considerate. Be a team player.
That actually will solve almost all remote working problems:
Be respectful. Be considerate. Be a team player.
I hope this helps you a little in your remote working and no, it is not the new normal. It is the current state, but definitely NOT normal. | https://medium.com/@startupsandcode/remote-work-not-so-normal-28a83c64b48b | ['John Mann'] | 2021-09-12 11:17:14.120000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Working From Home', 'Remote Team'] |
What is Product-Market Fit and Why Achieving It is Essential For Your Startup | Product-Market Fit and Startups
What is Product-Market Fit and Why Achieving It is Essential For Your Startup Madhur Dixit Follow Jun 13 · 5 min read
Image by Syda Productions
Failing to achieve a product-market fit is a major reason why 9 out of 10 start-ups fail. For a startup to be successful, it is essential to embrace the value of this least understood concept.
When customers are willing to stand in lines for hours outside a store to buy your product, or when your product runs out of availability on online stores, i.e., when you as a brand are unable to match customer expectations (demand) with the supply of your product, you have achieved a product-market fit.
Achieving product-market fit starts with understanding your customers, their needs, how they feel about your product, and whether they believe that hiring your product would help them with their job at hand (as I mentioned in my article on Jobs To Be Done Framework: https://medium.com/swlh/incorporate-jobs-to-be-done-framework-with-buyer-personas-up-your-marketing-game-f5b0414bd878 ).
Designing a product that no one needs is a sure short recipe of failure. That is why it is very important to divide your time equally between product development, customer research, collecting feedbacks and identifying key traction channels.
To get to a product-market fit it is essential to start with a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ as explained by Eric Ries in his book “The Lean Startup”. A minimum viable product is the very first draft of what you actually want to put out in the market. Testing this product with your customers, asking them for feedback and collecting all the meaningful data on how this product could be improved is the best practice that would lead you to create products which your customers actually want.
Achieving this product-market fit i.e. designing products that would blow your customers’ minds away is not a task limited to your business’s design or product development team. This task requires the product development team, design team and the marketing team to join hands and work on it collaboratively.
Another important thing to remember is that achieving a product-market fit does not mean that you cannot lose it. This changes as the market changes and therefore, constant upgrades must be made to your product in order to be well received by the market. In order to be able to make these upgrades, constant testing, iterations and analyses of both the product and customers’ needs is of high importance. In other, words it is a constant loop of gathering information and data and then validating your product based on this information via constant iterations and testing.
Image by Bruce Mars
Let us take a look at how one of the most loved apps was born and how it achieved a product-market fit. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzen were two close friends from Sweden who were frustrated with the limitations of finding and listening to music using a computer. The year was 2006, and the music industry was in a crucial state of flux with two extremes in the market. At one extreme was Sean Parker’s Napster which was highly popular but was suffering from tons of thousands of copyright infringements. At the other extreme was Apple’s iTunes which charged users as much as $2 per track. Ek and Lorentzon identified and carved out a niche between these two extremes and as a result, Spotify was born. Ek and Lorentzon believed in testing their product and started out by developing a peer to peer music sharing service like Napster. However, from their constant testing and feedback loop, they identified that piracy’s limitations existed beyond illegality (infringements): It took several minutes to download a single song. The audio quality of pirated tracks varied wildly. Even popular torrents were infested with viruses and malware.
What made Spotify so brilliant was that it, at its core, improved on the Napster experience in every way. Spotify delivered music instantly, with high-quality audio, no downloads, and completely legally. Ek and Lorentzon invested heavily in engineering to nail down every aspect of Spotify’s user experience.
“We spent an insane amount of time focusing on latency when no one cared because we were hell bent on making it feel like you had all the world’s music on your hard drive. Obsessing over small details can sometimes make all the difference. That’s what I believe is the biggest misunderstanding about the minimum viable product concept. That is the V in the MVP.” — Daniel Ek
Ek was obsessed with making the Spotify user experience so good that users would happily pay $10 per month and would not turn to the free music that existed out there. What both Ek and Lorentzen created with continuous testing and an insane focus on MVP and user experience is what we know as Spotify; the most loved and used music app worldwide.
Image by Omid Armin
Being open to feedback, asking customers questions and using data to create meaningful insights is a key for your startup to get to a product-market fit.
Change is possible, but for that you as a startup need to be open, flexible and willing to iterate and reiterate.
To conclude, let us view product-market in a very simple scenario. Imagine a kid trying to sail her paper boat in a river. The product market fit could be seen as the boat actually sailing with the flowing water. The paper boat here would be the product and the water current would be the market. This boat sails if it could withstand the water current (market). If it does, the kid reaches a product-market fit for her boat. If not, the boat sinks! | https://medium.com/cornertechandmarketing/what-is-product-market-fit-and-why-achieving-it-is-essential-for-your-startup-bd7cbe239359 | ['Madhur Dixit'] | 2020-06-16 00:29:07.679000+00:00 | ['Product Market Fit', 'Digital Marketing', 'Growth Marketing', 'Startup', 'Marketing'] |
Summary of the Decentralized Gaming Working Group 6th May 2020 | This post summarises the video presentation shown on 6th May 2020, our first montly meeting for Decentralized Gaming Workgroup happening on
You can also view the Presentation Slides online
It was the first presentation from the Decentralized Gaming Working Group run by Edward Thomson from the Web3 Foundation and involving several member companies from the Blockchain Game Alliance: Xaya, Planetarium, Cartesi, and Ethernal.
This working group is interested in discussing decentralised gaming technology. The emphasis is on games that aim to be fully decentralised. It is worth pointing out that fully decentralised blockchain games can have a variety of different architectures and that a monolithic architecture where the entire game resides on-chain is just one option. In the presentation we presented an overview of the different architectures available to highlight that game developers have multiple options available.
The presentation is split into two halves. In the first half, we introduced a simple definition of a decentralised blockchain game, provided the advantages of this approach, and gave a quick overview of the different architectures. In the second half, we had live demos from the featured teams.
Introduction
Timestamp (11:09)
The introductory section provides a brief summary of what is meant by decentralisation. This ‘definition’ was taken from Wikipedia, so hopefully there is no contention there. Taking this as a working definition along with the notion of a game we can inductively reason what is meant by a decentralised game.
The use of blockchain technology within the tech stack of a decentralised game is to provide a base layer of trust that can enforce the properties of decentralisation. The video features a brief working definition of a blockchain plus a highlight of the key problem that Bitcoin solved: the Byzantine Generals Problem, which is essentially a problem of trust and agreement in a hostile environment. If Bitcoin is anti-cheating for money, then we suggest there is a way for blockchain to be anti-cheating for gaming.
Advantages
Timestamp (18:17)
Building a fully decentralised game is a tough challenge and one that requires solving additional problems that traditional game developers wouldn’t have to think about. In this section, the intention is to convince you that the additional challenges bring a set of advantages.
There is a reason that blockchain has attracted a lot of value in such a short space of time. The technology solves a very hard problem of trust. Blockchain technology allows such value to be transferred and stored in a trustless manner.
This is why we can see a single transfer of $1 billion on a decentralised network, but nothing even comparable in a centralised online game. Players will be able to truly own their assets with a decentralised game, that they can trade when they desire, and have no fear of them being confiscated by the developers.
Of course, it can be possible that players lose items during gameplay such as via PVP or dying during combat against a tough monster such as a dragon. However, all players are agreeing on a set of rules in the code. No one can break those rules, not even the game developers.
A summary of the advantages are as follows:
True Ownership
Fault-Tolerant (Anti-Cheating)
Provably fair gameplay
Fair item trading and acquisition
Trustless
Censorship Resistant / Permissionless
Transparent Economics
Unstoppable / Autonomous
No Centralised Servers
Architecture
Timestamp (29:33)
Probably the boring part of the presentation, but it is worth diving into a little detail here to explain how the different decentralised blockchain games compare in the back-end. Essentially, this section outlines the various architectures. We denoted them as:
Monolithic
Layered, and
Hybrid
Demos
Timestamp (44:20)
The demos featured in this video were:
Soccer Manage Elite
A soccer manager real-time multiplayer game, utilising blockchain technology, giving you true realism, ownership and total control. SME runs on the Xaya blockchain.
Creepts
First Fully Decentralized Tower Defense DApp. Proofs of the game moves are stored on Ethereum.
Ethernal
A multiplayer dungeon game that’s generated & owned by the players. Still in Alpha and running on an Ethereum sidechain.
Taurion
A fully decentralised MMO that is a new twist on the Real-Time Strategy genre. Taurion runs on the Xaya blockchain.
Xaya ships
Xayaships is a blockchain version of the classic naval warfare Battleship game. It uses game channel (state channel) technology which allows for real-time, decentralised trustless gameplay and runs on the Xaya blockchain. | https://medium.com/blockchain-game-alliance/summary-of-the-decentralized-gaming-working-group-6th-may-2020-bc39caadcd46 | ['Blockchain Game Alliance'] | 2020-05-21 20:50:14.663000+00:00 | ['Decentralized', 'Gaming', 'News', 'Blockchain', 'Resources'] |
A Teen in 2020 | This is the first of my papers where i will be writing about my thoughts as a teen in this age. I will be writing about mental health, school, family and religion.
In my first paper i will be writing about my thoughts on covid-19 and everything that has come with it but from a teens perspective.
Covid-19 has been different in many places across the world yet there was a similar view that everyone was in it together and that we were all to do are bit, that was all good in the beginning in march to June but after that we lost faith. i know by that point that i struggled to see what was going on, as there was a lot of confusing and false information surrounding the corona virus.
On the 20th of march was the last day for schools across the U.K as to stop the spread of the viruses as it was said as teens and young children were super spreaders. The news wasn’t much of a shock as there was already talk but no one had predicted that it the government would go through with yet they did and to take it one step more they put the whole of the U.K in a lockdown. All non essential shops would close, leisure facilities would close and no one were allowed out of your house as long as it was an emergency.
The moment the news broke, it felt the world stop and not even for a second but the whole night i wondered what just happened and what was going to happen.
The following week people were to work from home and my school work was online. I, like many teens my age had the feeling of strangeness as the freedom we had for meeting up with friends and other family relatives was gone yet we now had a new freedom of our education, a freedom i personal never felt before. This brought new challenges and struggles, the first month or two i enjoyed although the subjects i once never liked i didn’t do, things became more open as i would mostly do tasks when i felt like them instead of when i would be forced to do it. As time flew by things started to get worse and i couldn’t find away out, i was lonely and depressed, in a constant battle to find some hope or anything to keep me going but i found it hard, daily tasks were a struggle all the time, getting out of bed in the morning was the worst one of all as i saw no reason to getting up when my days were reduced to nothing. i felt that i wasn’t living but a zombie that shuffled around the house, my only purpose was to consume any food item i locked eyes on.
It was in this days were a felt all my hope lost and humanity striped away when i found the world of WitchTok.
In my next paper i will writing about the beginning of witchcraft and more. | https://medium.com/@adamfergus19/a-teen-in-2020-5fb654cca027 | ['Adam Fergus'] | 2020-12-20 00:46:22.891000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'Carona Virus', 'Mental Health'] |
Rails 裡的 Partial Render ( 局部渲染 ) | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/%E5%AE%B8-%E5%AD%B8%E7%BF%92%E7%AD%86%E8%A8%98/rails-%E8%A3%A1%E7%9A%84-partial-render-%E5%B1%80%E9%83%A8%E6%B8%B2%E6%9F%93-98f7cf4f9516 | ['Henry Huang'] | 2020-12-24 07:42:58.183000+00:00 | ['Backend'] |
Why we’re bringing Fractal to New York City | I’ve joined some of my favorite people to open an office in New York for Fractal, to do transformational software-, team-, and culture-building for our enterprise and startup clients here. Why?
1) To get back to basics on what works best
I feel that so many people, teams, and companies have a squandered opportunity to become their best selves. There’s so much waste, distraction, and churn when making software products. People don’t communicate well enough and earn each other’s trust. The true needs of users, customers, and stakeholders aren’t engaged or understood. Best practices aren’t established, learned, shared, grokked, improved, or replaced.
I’m grateful to have had the privilege and pleasure of working alongside so many teams, methods and challenges in my career so far. One approach that always stood out was the extreme programming culture I experienced at the height of Pivotal Labs’ consultancy practice. Pair programming, continuous delivery, and a particularly effective flavor of Agile reliably delivered on a promise some people believed impossible: taking the risk out of delivering software while simultaneously creating happy teams.
I missed that and how it felt for me and for clients, and wanted to always get back to something like it. I thought I’d never open another office for a consultancy, but when Fractal, a team founded by former Pivots (including some of my favorites!) invited me to join them and open and lead an office for them in New York City, I jumped at the chance.
The exciting thing about Fractal is that it’s more than just a return to what worked a few years ago. We’ve all learned a lot since then. For the technical among us, what we’ve effectively done is “rolled back” to a known-good state and “hard-forked” — adding on top of that.
2) I wanted to recreate on the East Coast what had made Fractal grow so quickly in LA.
The first thing I did was to get on a plane (remember when that was a thing?) and spend two months in LA working alongside Fractal’s team there to understand what made them tick — and why they had twice the demand they could handle. I observed the culture there and found a Southern California chill and water-off-a-rubber-duck’s-back attitude, combined with an almost New-York-style intense drive and curiosity.
I saw Fractal at work. We shortened planning, development, testing, and deployment alongside a RedBull client team, rallying full teams around clearer-than-ever user-facing Sprint goals, and helped make the process joyous. We leave a great team behind once we finish, including helping teams hire people permanently as soon as our clients have a culture and process where new people can flourish. This week we’re celebrating hires we’ve made for EVGo and Private Suite and that feels great.
On these client projects and others like for Disney and Starz, I saw a slew of learnings about what our clients really need to deliver great software quickly. Software that’s easy to use and consume, and is easy to scale and maintain. At Fractal, our clients’ success is our success; and we can get there without being dogmatic. We tackle juicy software, product, design, and team challenges with our clients. We meet them where they are, make them faster and more chill, and propose the right adjustments at the right time. The result? Teams hum, and positive delivery and change can take root.
3) New York has such fantastic talent, many of whom I know well, and I was eager to work with them.
Many years ago, I spent way too long building something I didn’t enjoy that people didn’t want. That business failed. That’s why working alongside client teams, and helping them to be continuously better, and helping them learn by practicing and by delivering work together has been my passion for the last decade. I’m so excited to be building that team here.
I returned to New York at the start of the quarantine, and joined forces with Jonathan Berger on design and product and Aldric Giacomoni on development, whose work I’ve known and admired for many years. Jacob Bear finds and hires the best and most diverse long-term culture fits for our clients, and Elizabeth Gansen keeps our operations running smoothly here and emerges in us a culture that sings.
I know I’ve gushed a lot here — I’m really loving this work, and wanted to share my experience. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can be a sounding board or help with any challenges. We love to tackle the most difficult software product, design, development, and team problems, and to help even the best teams to deliver much better.
I’m grateful and excited to be doing this here. I ❤️NY. | https://medium.com/thisisartium/why-did-i-start-a-fractal-office-in-new-york-527fff04761b | ['Trace Wax'] | 2020-05-12 17:08:00.834000+00:00 | ['Xp', 'Product', 'Agile', 'NYC', 'Extreme Programming'] |
What Could We Imagine? Relationship Infrastructure as Central to Crisis Response | In a year like 2020, how do you begin to make sense of the future? It feels like we have been weathering crisis after crisis; at times, it can start to feel like we are just making it to the next crisis. And at some point the crises will slow and we will live in whatever “new normal” remains — right?
PACE had a different idea. What if when the status quo is in total upheaval — the way it has been in 2020 — we see that the previously impossible becomes possible? What if we had an opportunity to proactively and intentionally envision what we want our “future state” to look like, rather than be pushed into a “new normal” we didn’t mean to create? Where could our imagination lead us?
We were so inspired by these questions that we developed a new way to explore them: Imagination Sprints. Imagination Sprints are opportunities to fully immerse ourselves in the creative and collaborative process of re-imagining a new reality for our future around particular topics. In the civic engagement and democracy space, we were intrigued by the ways we might deploy imagination around topics such as civic learning, trusted relationships, and a few post-election topics like voter turnout and mis/disinformation.
But there was one topic that we knew we wanted to tackle: crisis response. Earlier in 2020, PACE started to reimagine what could be different on “the other side” of crisis, and we wanted to continue those conversations with a particular focus on the role of relationship infrastructure in crisis response. We selected this focus because we needed to look no further than the events of 2020 to see how critical relationships are to our individual and collective ability to respond to any number of crises. In a crisis, relationships provide tangible things (food, medical attention, emergency housing) and intangible things (information, problem-solving support, moral support) and in a broader sense, they contribute to a collective social fabric (community-level connection, solidarity, and resilience). Nothing helps us understand the strength of our relationships and communities better than the stress-test of a crisis. But we also know trends indicate we are doing less together as a society and relationships are often deprioritized. For example:
A majority of Americans (57%) say they only know some of their neighbors; almost a quarter (23%) of people under 30 say they don’t know any of their neighbors. [Pew]
“Organized religion and unions have become far less central. Neighborhoods have stratified by income, with people spending less time with coworkers and neighbors.” [The Atlantic]
Over half of U.S. adults under 50 (and 60% under 30) say most people “can’t be trusted.” [Pew]
In addition, research indicates that when community members engage and have relationships, communities are better prepared to respond and recover when emergencies strike. For example, a 2012 study found that communities with stronger social cohesion were not hit as hard during the Great Recession. What if we had a more intentional relationship infrastructure ready to be activated in times of crisis? What if we were proactive about building that?
In October 2020, PACE hosted an Imagination Sprint focused on imagining relationship infrastructure as central to crisis response. The sprint engaged fifteen participants with diverse backgrounds spanning philanthropy, academia, research, business, emergency management, national service, crisis communications, DEI, civic science, and the arts. Together, we engaged in a series of exercises designed to do three things:
identify assumptions we carry about relationships and crisis response, which helps us break down the current frames that may not be serving us in our new reality; spark insights about relationships in crisis, which helps us build new scaffolding upon which we can envision a new reality; and create the conditions for kernels of new ideas about relationships in times of crisis to sprout.
For example, one of the exercises we did prompted the group to explore how different groups might leverage relationships to respond to specific crises, which encouraged us to “try on” different situations as a way of accessing deeper truths about relationships in crisis response. Groups spent time working through how we might help seniors living along respond to a climate event or help immigrants respond to potential post-election violence using relationship infrastructure. Each scenario in this exercise — and all of the sprint’s exercises — prompted discussion that surfaced important assumptions and identified useful insights for the imagination process.
Uncovered Assumptions and Insights
By way of further sharing what imagination transpired during our time together, I want to provide a glimpse into the assumptions and insights about relationship infrastructure and crisis response that were revealed to us through our process. While these points are not exhaustive of all the conversations or angles we touched on, I consider them the “greatest hits” as I reflect back on the sprint.
We often say in our imagination work that each word is a universe to explore, and that was evident in this Imagination Sprint. At times, it felt like crisis response was the context in which we were imagining new things about relationship infrastructure. At other times, it felt relationship infrastructure was the context in which we were unearthing new insights about crisis response. Our group grew to appreciate the interdependency of these two topics as ways to apply parameters that made the imagination for both richer. After all, you’re shortchanging any discussion of crisis response if you’re not talking about the role relationships play, and similarly, you’re not getting to deeper truths about relationship infrastructure if you’re not able to learn from the ways crises test and strengthen them.
That said, there was much discussion about the uniqueness of relationship infrastructure in crisis response, and as one participant shared, “Relationship infrastructure does what no other infrastructure can do.” It’s the web of relationships that support individuals and communities, and it serves as critical connective tissue, especially in times of crisis. We see it play out in a variety of ways — both in settled and unsettled times. It’s the group of friends who start a google doc to organize homemade food deliveries when a new baby arrives. It’s the neighborhood watch group that keeps the community safe. It’s the group of community leaders who organize donations delivered after a hurricane hits. Sometimes, these roles fall into formal job descriptions for people at organizations, but often, they are the informal workings of compassionate people who see that we can do more together and that a little coordination can go a long way. This insight left us to ask: who is responsible for relationship infrastructure? Is there a “system” that can/should provide this infrastructure, or is it inherently and necessarily individual? Is anyone accountable (or incentivized?) for the infrastructure’s efficiency, inclusivity, and effectiveness? And further, what are the indicators of “good” relationship infrastructure? How do we measure it, particularly in a culture that doesn’t always value investment in relationships?
The group talked a lot about the role of trust in relationships and how that plays out in moments of crisis. There has been a lot of focus on trust in America, motivated by data indicating that Americans trust each other and government less and less. In order to deploy relationships to respond to a crisis, trust is a necessary condition; there has to be enough trust in those relationships to be effective in emergency situations. We hear a lot about the need to “build trust” but that can sometimes feel conceptual and aimless. In some ways, crises present big opportunities for trust to deepen and broaden. After all, trust is only required to the extent that someone has an unmet need and seeks support from someone else to fill it. And because there is no greater moment of need than when someone is in crisis, it led us to identify an assumption we might reevaluate: We often think trust is built first and then we are ready for crisis, but perhaps there is value in the crisis coming first and forcing the trust in relationships to blossom in ways it wouldn’t on its own.
Looking more closely at crisis response, we unearthed an insight that felt foundational to our imagination. As we began our sprint, we spent some time dissecting what we meant when we said “crisis.” After all, are we talking about natural crises (like hurricanes and earthquakes) or man-made crises (like mass shootings or polluted water)? Are we talking about unexpected/quick-to-appear crises (like COVID-19) or long-term/protracted crises (like systemic racism)? We learned that relationship infrastructure is important in all of these scenarios, but we also learned that the world may be operating with different levels of urgency in each crisis category, and we suspect that is driven by assumptions and value judgements underneath them. We didn’t fully explore this with our limited time, but some considerations that seem to matter include the degree to which we feel proximate or connected to a crisis, the ways we value — consciously or unconsciously — the people or communities impacted by a crisis, and the extent to which we believe our efforts can make a difference.
Related, a lot of participants shared that they were interested in this topic because they saw too many people falling through the cracks during times of crisis. When the systems that support people in crisis are overwhelmed, relationship infrastructure can catch people before they fall into worse conditions. But when people or groups are not connected to others or they don’t have robust and trusted relationships to turn to, what happens to them in crisis? This is where we think relationship infrastructure can play a role and fill a gap. As one participant shared: “We must build upon existing infrastructure in ways that are driven by the people at the receiving end… We need relationship infrastructure that supports a culture of belonging, equity, and civic participation.” It was important to focus on who we are designing relationship infrastructure for, and it helped remind us that the people who don’t have anyone else to turn to might be the first priority.
Kernels of New Ideas
From those assumptions and insights, these kernels of ideas emerged:
Pulling on this thread about prioritizing imagination for vulnerable populations, or people who are not already connected to a relationship infrastructure, a group of participants sketched out what Little Free Libraries for Crisis could look like. Imagine that across communities, little free library structures were constructed, and inside were burner phones for people in crisis — whether that was because a storm hit and needed care or they were experiencing domestic abuse and needed safety or they were experiencing homelessness and needed resources. The phones could be pre-programmed with support lines and depending on your crisis, you could confidentially make a connection to someone who was willing to help.
Participants started to put shape around an idea they were calling “HospitalBNB.” This idea takes what works in the model Airbnb has popularized in the travel and home-sharing space and applies it to healthcare. HospitalBNB would match healthcare workers who can provide care in their home with people experiencing homelessness. This would enable a way for people without the relationship infrastructure or the ability to ask their “doctor friends” a quick medical question to get care before their condition worsens.
While it was less of a tangible idea, there was a lot of conversation about how we might practice resilience. Are there smaller-scale experiences we could engineer that would require people to self-organize and work within effective and equitable crisis relationship infrastructures so that once a larger, more serious crisis hits, people are ready? Participants started to play around with this idea of “relationship infrastructure drills” as a way to stay resilient and pressure-test where the gaps in a community’s infrastructure might exist.
Areas for Further Exploration
A revisit of our recordings, virtual white boards, and notes from our sessions reminded me of just how rich the discussions were in our imagination sprint. Insights were abound, and they deepened our collective understanding of the role relationships play when crises hit. They also helped us see where further exploration and imagination could be helpful, such as:
The roles racial equity and inclusion play in relationship infrastructure during crisis
What equitable relational infrastructure might look like
The role of in-group/out-group dynamics in imagining solidaristic crisis relationship infrastructure
The potential for building and leveraging relationship infrastructure to mitigate and prepare for crisis (before it hits)
The metrics and ways to measure relationship infrastructure, particularly in crisis
How we might insert a “learning period” into the response-recovery-mitigation-preparedness crisis cycle
One of PACE’s learnings at the end of the year is pushing us to think about how we evolve our understanding of crisis and urgency. Instead of thinking about what philanthropy might fund in response to a crisis, could we instead accept that there will be another crisis in the future and think about funding the capacities and capabilities that will increase our resilience for crisis long-term? Could we shift our paradigm from crisis response to crisis resilience? Our sprint delivered a lot of truths, insights, and ideas about the role relationships might play in a crisis resilience mindset. While this sprint was intended to “get the juices flowing” on how we might imagine new ways of responding to crises, we now have a keener sense of the topic and a strong community of participants who are thinking deeply on how it might shape their work moving forward. These feel like important tools in our toolbox as we move onto whatever the world presents us in 2021 and beyond.
To learn more about PACE’s Imagination Sprints, please visit: www.PACEFunders.org/imagine. | https://medium.com/office-of-citizen/what-could-we-imagine-relationship-infrastructure-as-central-to-crisis-response-42da9af8d519 | ['Amy Baker Mcisaac'] | 2020-12-28 18:15:23.946000+00:00 | ['Crisis Response', 'Relationships', 'Philanthropy', 'Imagination', 'Pace Imagination'] |
How To Achieve Happiness (It’s Easier Than You Think) | How To Achieve Happiness (It’s Easier Than You Think)
Want to be happy most of the time? It’s easier than you think because you can do many things on your own that significantly increase your chances of achieving happiness.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
What is happiness?
“The term happiness is used in the context of mental or emotional states, including positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.” — Wikipedia
What is happiness in life?
If you feel that life is fulfilling and satisfying your needs, you probably feel happy. If you believe that your life is just as it should be, and thus you are contented, you probably feel happy. You probably have reached the state of perfect happiness if all of your needs have been satisfied.
What are some ways to achieve happiness?
Here are some good ways to achieve happiness:
Your own happiness should be a top priority.
In your life priorities, be sure your own happiness is right up there at the top. You will always have other priorities to attend to, of course, but if you take care of all those at the expense of yourself, you will not be happy.
Hang around people who make you happy.
We’ve all done it. We’ve found ourselves hanging with people who are negative influences on us. And if we’re smart, we recognize the bad effect their behavior and attitudes are having on us and stop associating with them. Life can be hard enough without being around people who do nothing but depress you. So if someone is a “Debbie Downer” or a “Wally Whiner” most of the time, you should just ditch them and move on to someone who’s much more upbeat and makes you happier.
Since it’s your life, you should take responsibility for it.
It’s easy to blame other people and other things for your not being happy. But that’s counterproductive. Playing the blame game and shifting the fault to others, is not going to make you happier; in fact, it’ll have the opposite effect. The right thing you should do is to take full responsibility for your happiness, and do whatever is needed to make you happy.
Be yourself, not someone else.
In today’s society, we have lots of celebrities who appear on the surface to live perfect lives and thus are worth emulating. But if you pull the curtain back, you’ll see that all of these people have their own problems to deal with that cause them unhappiness from time to time. Your best course of action is to rely only on yourself for happiness. You are the master of your own fate and thus your happiness.
Make your own happiness.
Think carefully about those things that are causing you to be unhappy. Then make a determined effort to address each one by taking positive remedial actions. You will find that most things are quite fixable, if you sort out what’s wrong, and then create a plan to resolve the problem. Don’t just throw up your hands and say, “woe is me”; do something about what’s making you unhappy!
Look for the silver lining.
We should all look for the silver lining when bad things happen to us. But in terms of trying to turn unhappiness into happiness, looking for silver linings is precisely what you should do. If you lose your job, you are not happy about it, of course. However, you will eventually get another job, and there’s a decent chance it will pay more than the one you had, and possibly be more fulfilling. Silver linings are almost always there if you take a little time to look for them.
“Sometimes life events break your heart. Even as you grieve, allow light to seep through the cracks, uplift, and illuminate a healing. Baby turtles emerge from the cracking of shells; new life can burst forth. Clear away all broken belongings as a metaphorical pathway fresh, loving experiences in uncharted waters.” — Laura Staley
Be kind to people.
Although this one should be a no-brainer, it’s incredible how many people forget that if you are kind to people, they are likely to be kind to you. Kindness begets kindness, and kindness leads to happiness. So be kind to people whenever the occasion presents itself. You’ll be happy you did.
Be open with others.
Closing yourself off to others is a prescription for unhappiness. In these days of widespread, easily-accessible social media, you can stay in touch with friends and family and share what’s going on in your lives. Just be sure to accentuate the positive in these interactions.
Don’t hang on to the past; just let it go.
There’s not a thing in the world you can do about what’s happened in the past, other than to reflect on it and learn some lessons. Dwelling on the past, especially any painful events, will only ensure that you relive that pain over and over instead of putting it behind you. Of course, if there’s a happy memory you want to revisit from time to time, that’s okay. But what’s better is to focus on creating the best present and future you can that’s filled with happiness.
Take some chances.
If you find that you’ve fallen into a rut in your life, and are doing the same boring things over and over, you’re likely not happy about this situation. So do something about it! Look around you and find some new things to experience. Take a dance class. Participate in a local play. Go skydiving. Volunteer to help people. Just do something different that requires you to take some chances and gets you out of your comfort zone.
Be mindful by living in the moment.
We’ve already discussed the perils of living too much in the past. And while it’s important to plan prudently for the future, that’s not the place in which you spend time every day. It’s the present, the here and now. To make the most of the present and what it offers you toward being happy, you need to practice being mindful. So, what is mindfulness?
The Oxford dictionary defines mindfulness as:
1. the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something; “their mindfulness of the wider cinematic tradition” 2. a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique
You’ll almost certainly be happier if you pay attention to each moment of each day and be aware of what’s happening around you and to you.
Don’t worry about things you can’t control; focus on those things you can control.
There are a lot of things in life you can’t control at all, but when they occur, you get unhappy. That’s just not a rational reaction. Better to acknowledge those things we can’t control, and to focus on those things we can control. For example, there may be a politician who makes you unhappy with the things he does and says, but the only way you can do something about it, is to vote in the next election and try to get that person out of office. You can control whether you vote or not. If voting for or against someone makes you happy, then do it!
Tackle your problems head-on to make a positive change.
Many people know what’s making them unhappy, but don’t get off the couch and do something that causes a positive change. It’s all about tackling problems head-on and doing everything you can to resolve them. Just the act of doing something, anything, will make you feel better. And as you see progress made, your level of happiness will go up.
Always appreciate what you have.
When Thanksgiving rolls around each year, those of us who celebrate that holiday try to make a point of giving thanks to all the good things in life we have. While that’s nice, we’d be better off to take a few moments each day and count our blessings. If you do this, you will quickly find out that there are far more things to be thankful for than the other way around. Following this daily ritual is sure to increase your happiness.
Be sure to love everyone around you.
Love is a beautiful word. But it’s just a word if you don’t do your best to demonstrate your love to all those around you. How can you show your love? There are many ways: by kind words, by giving a helping hand, by any warm and thoughtful gesture you make toward someone, etc. There are so many ways to display love. And love begets love. The more love you give out, the more you’ll get back from others in return that results in happiness all around.
“In my life I’ve learned that true happiness comes from giving. Helping others along the way makes you evaluate who you are. I think that love is what we’re all searching for. I haven’t come across anyone who didn’t become a better person through love.” — Marla Gibbs
Conclusion
If you want to be happy in life, take charge of your own destiny. If it’s something you can control on your own, then you should get rid of or correct anything that’s causing you unhappiness. Treat happiness like a beautiful garden and cultivate it as much as possible.
Let happiness rule your life.
References:
Lexico powered by Oxford Dictionary, Psychologies, Forbes, Action For Happiness, The Happiness Lab, The Happiness Research Institute, Very Well Mind, edX, Project Happiness, Harvard Health, GoodTherapy, Time, Healthline, The How of Happiness, WebMD, LiveScience, The Pursuit of Happiness
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These are my most popular pieces, with many thousands of Reads: | https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-achieve-happiness-its-easier-than-you-think-6603b3bddcd5 | ['Terry Mansfield'] | 2020-12-29 01:11:26.261000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Happiness', 'Life', 'Self Improvement', 'Happiness In Life'] |
The Day the Future Died: The 2006 Lathen Transrapid Collision | The Aftermath
Seconds after the accident one of the dispatchers can be heard asking what happened, his colleague sums it up: “We forgot to move the maintenance car.” The crew members in the back of the train are barely injured, a minute after the accident one of them radios dispatch. “There was an accident. Send help.” Dispatch obliges, alarms the facility’s fire department. Around the same time Mr. Hegge, voluntary firefighter, is headed to the grocery store with his mother. He hears a bang and sees smoke rise up behind some trees. After dropping off his mother he heads to the origin of the smoke. He compares what he saw to a plane crashing onto a giant shelf. The train is torn apart almost to the end of the leading unit, parts of torn metal and destroyed interior dressings have fallen off the elevated track. A smell of burned rubber fills the air, sparks emit from the wreckage. He fears an explosion could kill survivors aboard the smoking, heavily damaged train, and he can see people moving inside the train, trying to punch or kick out windows. But he cannot reach the train. He calls the fire department, his descriptions trigger the needed large-scale response. Up above him the two employees on the maintenance car regain consciousness, moving to the driver’s cabin saved their life. They hear banging on the underside of their wrecked vehicle, after unscrewing the floorboards they manage to pull 3 survivors from the forward section of the Transrapid. The employees in the rear of the train use emergency slides to escape, similar to those found on aircraft, 15 minutes after the collision firefighters, ambulances and a crane reach the scene.
A photo taken shortly after responders arrive, using ladders to reach the smoking wreckage.
In minutes 200 responders have reached the scene, while medical personell and firefighters start cutting up the wreckage and trying to pull out survivors along with victims the police does their best to keep relatives and random civilians from the wreckage, directing the former to the visitor center where they give briefings every 30 minutes. The victims are lined up on the beam, photographed for identification and then lowered to the ground. By the early afternoon the last ambulances leave, all survivors have been recovered. The chief superintendent (“Kriminalhauptkommissar”) of the Osnabrück Police Department assembles all relatives he can find at the visitor center and reads off a lists. It’s the survivors, anyone not on that list is dead. Some relatives scream and cry, others just quietly sit down. The fire department brought chaplains to take care of the relatives, help handle the shock.
23 people are dead, including 2 crew members.
Among them Mr. Schubsky, six employees from the elderly care service and the invited couple, leaving their 4 children orphaned.
8 passengers escape the train with injuries, as do the two people on the maintenance car.
A crane removes a piece of the wall, allowing access to more victims.
At 6:30pm Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, arrives at the site. She talks to one of the firemen, both can be seen fighting against tears. She leaves the site soon after, not wanting to be in the way of the experts. The wreckage is illuminated with floodlights while relatives brought candles and flowers to a makeshift memorial on the edge of the barriers set up a short distance away from the site.
Wooden crosses replaced the flowers and candles, marking the point of impact.
The blame is quickly placed on the two dispatchers, both are arrested the day after the accident. Their negligence, forgetting about the maintenance car, killed 2 dozen people and injured nearly a dozen more, most of which severely. After interrogations and evaluations both are placed in protective custody, as they are seen to be at a high risk of suicide. Charges are also filed against their supervisors as well as the CEOs of the facility. Had Mr. Schubsky survived the collision he would have found himself charged as well, since he departed despite technically being easily within sight of the maintenance car. The order alone from the dispatch center does not start the train, pressing the button to start is still at the discretion of the crew member in the front of the train.
A photo from the station looking towards the site of the accident, the maintenance car parked near the white box in the distance.
Four days after the accident Bishop Franz-Josef Bode holds a memorial service at the local church, attended by 1500 people. He reads from a letter addressed to Mr. Schubsky, written by his daughter. He talks about he and the chaplains on site were asked where god was that day, how he could let that happen. He admits, there is no good answer. He does not spell it out, but essentially going to the limits of new technology always holds a risk, human error cannot be eliminated. Later that day a recording from the service is aired on television, with lots of people tuning in.
The day after the service the papers are full of messages to the victims, the tragedy shook the small town to the core.
Most of the wreckage of the train sits on the track until November 2006, police patrols try to keep tragedy tourists away from it, before it’s removed on flatbed trucks.
The investigation finds several flaws in the operation. Mr. Schubsky couldn’t communicate with the maintenance car as the train and the maintenance car used separate radio systems, an electronic safety-mechanism that avoids power being given to the section occupied by the maintenance car wasn’t used (presumably) to save time.
In May 2008 the two supervisors were sentenced to pay 24 and 20 thousand Euros respectively (29 and 24 thousand USD). They are found guilty as they discouraged the use of the electronic safety-mechanism that would have kept the Transrapid from reaching the maintenance car. The trial against the two dispatchers is put on hold, their mental health has deteriorated to the point of not being fit for trial anymore. They’re eventually sentenced in June 2011, receiving suspended jail sentences of 18 and 12 months respectively.
While the facility looses the public transportation permits after the accident some testing restarts in Juli 2008. In May 2009 the newly arrived Transrapid 09 is allowed to take passengers around the course, but no longer from the general public.
The site today
Part of the straight section in 2017, starting to show signs of disuse.
Usage of the site ends in 2010, in late November 2011 the last 60 employees are let go. The accident did serious damage to the image of the Transrapid, except for one line in China none of the proposed routes ever materialized. The track is meant to be removed, the rest of the facility is meant to be reused.
Regardless the track still sits abandoned in 2020 as discussions about who pays how much for the removal continue. Already, the project cost 1.4 billion Euros/1.7 billion USD with nothing to really show for it. A revival is impossible, the electrical systems have been removed from the tracks already. The discussion-point are the 16m/52ft deep footers.
The official memorial, unveiled in 2007 opposite the station, is engraved with the names of the victims and surrounded by 23 beeches. The cracked stone is meant to symbolize the disruption in the lives of relatives.
The facility itself lies relatively untouched, along with the official memorial next to it. The forward section of Transrapid 08 is scrapped after the accident, the center section is stored at an unknown location and the rear sits at the facility, inaccessible for the public.
The forward part of Transrapid 07, the part that was on display at Munich Airport, sits in the yard of the facility. While the outside shows severe signs of abandonment the interior is reported to still be pristine.
In 2017 Transrapid 09, made for a route in Munich that was cancelled the same year the train was built, is bought by relatives of the system’s inventor for around 200 thousand Euros and shipped off to their sausage factory in nearby Nortrup. The interior was mostly removed, part of it is now a conference room, the rest a museum. A video (German language) of the transport can be found here: https://youtu.be/ZJ-x6ms2zdI
Transrapid 09 sitting in it’s final resting place outside the Kemper factory. This marks the end of the Transrapid program.
China
In 2002 the Shanghai Maglev Train opens to the public, a 30.5km/19mi public Transrapid connection. Transporting passengers at up to 431kph/268mph this train, based on the Transrapid 08, was meant to be a “working prototype” of sorts, instead it remained the only Transrapid to ever be in public service. In 2011 a train completely constructed was introduced to service, meant to replace the German-made one.
The Shanghai Maglev Transrapid in operation.
Transrapid routes in Germany, the Netherlands, England, the USA, Switzerland or Iran never went beyond the planning stages, with Munich’s planned route to the airport getting the furthest with the train being built. All but the third generation are preserved in some way.
Drone footage of the abandoned facility in 2020.
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Join the discussion about this post on Reddit! | https://medium.com/@mx-schroeder/the-day-the-future-died-the-2006-lathen-transrapid-collision-144ca4a4ef23 | ['Max S'] | 2020-12-25 10:28:22.128000+00:00 | ['Crash', 'Disaster', 'Trains', 'Germany', 'Technology'] |
[Pinterest Help] How Pinterest Unblock My Site in 7 Days [This Is Exactly What I Did] | Back in the days, Pinterest blocked my site and mark as spam.
I was so disappointed… And curious to know ‘How to unblock pins on Pinterest?’
Finally, I got the solution…
And In this guide, I’m going to reveal what I did to unblock my site on Pinterest in less than 7 days.
Let’s face it…
A LITTLE STORY OF MINE
On 3 August 2019, When I logged in to my Pinterest account and clicked one of my pins, here what I got…
My domain was completely blocked from Pinterest. And all pins on my account were redirected to an error message shown above…
It’s terrible…Right!
All my Pinterest traffic went to zero. It was totally new to me.
After further investigation, I found an email from Pinterest saying, “We wanted to let you know we’ve blocked your website on Pinterest because of some activity that goes against our spam policies.”
Now let’s talk about what I exactly did to unblock my site.
THIS IS HOW PINTEREST UNBLOCKED MY SITE IN 7 DAYS
STEP 1. CONTACT PINTEREST HELP
If Pinterest has marked your site as spam then the first step is to contact Pinterest help.
Many people say that Pinterest’s help is helpless.
But to be honest, it helps. All you need is ‘patience’
Let me show you how to deal with it…
The only way to unblock your site from Pinterest is ‘contact Pinterest help’
So this was the exact message I shot to Pinterest.
You can also write something like this…
Hello, Pinterest support,
I’m [Shailesh Shakya]. Thanks for creating such an awesome platform. I love using Pinterest daily.
But something wrong happened to me on [03/08/2019].
And I was unable to create pins and Repins from my verified domain [https://beginnersblog.org].
Whenever I tried to create a pin, I got an error message saying “sorry! This request can’t be completed” and also when I clicked on existing pins I got the error message saying “sorry! This pin is blocked, this request can’t be completed”
To be honest, my domain doesn’t hold any spam or inappropriate content.
I’m just adding value to this platform like others. And mistakenly, my domain is reported as spam. I think some of my competitors have reported my domain as spam to kick me out of the competition.
But I’m sure, I haven’t done anything wrong.
Therefore I request you to unblock my site. I shall be grateful to you for this kind act.
Thank you…
NOTE: — If you copy the above message then make sure you replace name, date, and URL with your name, date, and URL.
After that, I got an auto-reply something like this…
NEXT…
STEP 2. WAIT FOR TWO DAYS
Once you’ve contacted, it’s time to wait for at least two days.
Usually, Pinterest unlocks good sites within 24 hours. But sometimes, it may take a week or more.
So you need to wait for two days and contact Pinterest again.
My second message to Pinterest
But it’s my bad luck again I got a reply from Pinterest like this…
And it disappointed me a lot. But I didn’t give up.
So…
STEP 3. CONTACT AGAIN
I contacted Pinterest many times.
And finally, I got this reply…
On 9 August 2019, Pinterest unblocked my site completely.
That’s it…
If you follow these steps, you’ll get your domain unbanned from Pinterest.
Now let me tell you…
How to contact Pinterest Help support and unblock your site & pins [with screenshots]
First, head over to the Pinterest help section
Here you see a couple of options…
Next, Click the “APPEALS” option and from there choose the last option ‘Pinterest block my site’
Now scroll down and click the ‘continue’ button.
As you click, it will ask you about the issue. (You can choose the first option as shown in the screenshot)
Once you have completed the overview section, you can now jump to the ‘About You’ section.
Here Pinterest asks about your name and email address.
Just fill up this section and click the continue button.
Now you will move to the ‘The Problem’ section where you’re asked to describe the issue in detail.
In this section, you need to answer the following questions…
Subject: — Your subject is ‘Pinterest blocked my site’
Description: — Here you need to describe everything as I did above. You can copy & paste the above msg I sent to Pinterest [But make sure you replace the name, date, and URL with your name, your data, and URL]
What’s the link to the page or Pin we should look at?: — Here you need to put a link that pops out ‘Pinterest error’. (Your URL format similar to this: –
https://in.pinterest.com/offsite/?token=925-384&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbeginnersblog.org%2Fpunctuation-checker-tools%2F&pin=859343172631308312&client_tracking_params=CwABAAAAEDYwMzM2MzUzMTE4NzgxNDIA~0)
Content Removal Reason: — Do not put anything here. Just leave it as it is.
Is this a secret board or a public board?: — CHOOSE your preferred option
Are you trying to create a Pin, or is the Pin already on Pinterest?: — Choose the second option.
Link to the Pin, board, or account: — Put your Pinterest profile URL. (Similar to this: — https://in.pinterest.com/beginnersblog1/)
Next, CHECK all details thoroughly…
If everything is good, click to continue button.
Next, tell Pinterest about your device.
Once you’ve filled this out, hit the continue button.
Then, Pinterest asks you about the ‘error message’.
You need to write about the error message that you are getting while clicking on your pin.
Lastly, you can add an image or a video that better describe your error message.
And submit your request.
That’s it…
Congratulations!!! finally, you’ve submitted your issue for review.
Last thing I would like to say that if you don’t get any response within one week then try again. Keep contacting and submitting your issue until Pinterest unblock your site.
CONCLUSION
I’ve explained everything to unblock pins on Pinterest.
Now, it’s over to you. If you follow these steps then I’m sure Pinterest will consider your issue and remove your site from spam.
Lastly, I would like to say that you don’t post inappropriate content on Pinterest. If you do, your Pinterest account will be suspended forever.
If this article has helped you in any way then please share it on social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Originally published on beginnersblog.org | https://medium.com/@beginnersblog/pinterest-help-how-pinterest-unblock-my-site-in-7-days-this-is-exactly-what-i-did-9db3ae9b8ba4 | ['Shailesh Shakya', 'Owner Of Beginnersblog'] | 2021-01-16 13:24:04.898000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'How To', 'Pinterest Tips', 'Blogging', 'Pinterest'] |
Change Your Life Before You Wake Up | 6 steps to start your day and change your life:
1) BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO MAKE A CHANGE
Whether it´s making more money, losing weight, lack of freedom to do what you really love to do, becoming a better person — whatever your goal is, it´s simply not enough to just wish that you could change your life. The point is to be brave enough to actually do it.
Jim Rohn, author, and motivational speaker says: “Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development.”
Keep having the greatest positive impact on your life, at the forefront of your mind as you establish the habits that will propel you toward that goal.
2) YOUR TIME MATTERS
It´s very important that you start the day in a positive way. You´re programming your mind as to how to approach the rest of the day, and you´re creating a positive expectation for what follows.
At the moment you wake up and start the day, the quality of your entire day is changing. There are some people that argue that how you start the morning is the most important thing you can do to change your life.
Honestly, since I started to read a lot of books, I warmly recommend reading a book named “The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod. This book is about to show people How to wake up each day with more energy, motivation, and focus to take your life to the next level.
By that being said, time is what matters. Most people come home from work, turn on the TV or spend spare time on social media, and their day is done. There is no recovery from that.
It usually becomes a routine. That´s why I´m excited to share a better start with a positive morning ritual.
3) CLEAR YOUR MIND
Spend a few minutes listening to meditation and being mindful of what is going on within your body. Tune out the world and yourself. Part of meditation is training your mind.
4) BECOME A BOOKWORM
Seek out books that can teach you knowledge and skills to accomplish what you want, desire, and accomplish your goals. Building a habit of reading books have something to teach you, so it will be natural for you to seek out those with wisdom to help you through it.
5) SAY THAT YOU CAN, INSTEAD OF “I CAN´T”
Too often, people use self-lies as affirmations, or statements that are too general- “I attract wealth” or “I´m stuck on this job, I will never be happy whatever I do for a living”. These simply are not true, and saying them to yourself doesn´t make them happen.
If you understand what I state here, things don´t happen simply by saying or wishing them so. If you really want to make a change in your life and take the next step, find an online educational program that helped thousands of people around the world to start doing what they really love so they created a lifestyle, both personal and professional.
6) WRITE IT DOWN
There are a couple of ways to approach your morning ritual. One is to write what you want to accomplish, and the other is to write about what you´re grateful for.
Be specific and write it down what you are grateful for, or use your journaling time to set your priorities for the day and create an action plan based on affirmations and visualizations.
For instance, write down what you focused on in the affirmations and visualization exercises, which propels you into action.
Here I wanted to share the great ways how to enjoy and get the most out of your morning to enrich your life:
1) Prepare a heavenly breakfast
2) Find your passion if you haven´t yet. Successful people have a passion for what they do.
3) Start dreaming on your goal
4) Read a book
5) Learn a new language
6) Start a blog
7) Start working out, cycling, walking or yoga
8) Take an online course
9) Meditate 5–10 minutes in the morning before work
10) Start your own business from home
11) Make your life simple | https://medium.com/@matea-dragosavljevic/change-your-life-before-you-wake-up-4b41ea56e325 | ['Matea Dragosavljević'] | 2020-12-27 21:20:26.194000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Change Your Life', 'Life Changing Moment', 'Personal Development'] |
8 tips to win elections in Nigeria | The 2019 election is just around the corner and a lot of money is being spent to canvas for support and ultimately votes. As a prospective voter, do you think you can be swayed by what you see online? To answer, I turn to the 2015 election.
The 2015 election was a huge leap for digital marketing in Nigerian politics. All candidates needed to connect with voters through various channels. We saw a switch from tv and radio ads to web and social media campaigns as the major communication channels. Goodluck vs Buhari was the ultimate showdown that kept us on the edge of our seats. The handlers of Buhari’s campaign used tantalizing visuals, relatable content and had tons of influencers on their side. Goodluck’s team was mostly on the defensive and barely articulated his achievements in office. In the end, an epic digital marketing campaign unseated an incumbent president for the first time in Nigeria’s history.
How can you run a digital marketing campaign to win elections in Nigeria?
1. BE ONLINE
This is obvious. You can’t be a serious candidate and not be online. Prospective voters are online, constituents are online. You must engage them. Every aspiring candidate must have a strong online presence in today’s political sphere.
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2. HAVE A DIGITAL MARKETING TEAM
To effectively carry out digital marketing for your campaign, you need an efficient digital marketing team made up of marketing strategists, content writers, designers, photographers, SEO specialists, web developers, social media managers, data analysts & influencers. By the way, touts, hired guns, and tugs (who snatch ballot boxes and unleash mayhem) are not needed in your team.
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3. GET A WEBSITE
Once you announce your candidacy, people will google you up. They want to know your plans for them and you don’t want a third party website to shape your agenda, you want to take the lead with a user friendly website were your supporters can get to know more about your story, your ideology and of course, your manifesto. Best part is, it’s more economical than billboards and wall posters. All your campaign materials (videos, pictures, schedule, and manifesto) need to be on your website. You can have a blog for your website where you share fresh perspectives from time to time and a fund-raising section.
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4. BRAND YOURSELF
Perception is reality. Nobody wants to vote for a loser or a candidate that looks or feels unprepared. Your name, initials, logo, colors, tag phrase, party banner and every single design must resonate and portray you and what you are about. Be consistent when it comes to the messages that you are sending. Build a positive image for your campaign. Carry the same message across all platforms, posters, handbills, hand bands, every promotional material. Claim your domain name and verify your social media handles accounts with speed. You don’t want a parody to be more popular than you, or do you?
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5. START A CONVERSATION
There are over 8.7 million Nigerians on Facebook alone. Social media provides a deeper connection with your campaign team and audience. Facebook, twitter and Instagram are the largest platforms used by Nigerians. You need to leverage this to engage your supporters, sharing exciting messages of hope and inspiration while keeping them up to date with your campaign. Alongside having a personal account, social media pages/fan pages should be opened. Other social media platforms you can use include, Youtube, Linkedin & of course, Whatsapp. Do not be afraid to jump on hot trends. Of course, you want to go viral, but for the right reasons. Bottom-line? Get them talking.
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6. ADVERTISE
You can’t rely on organic reach to win an election. Boost your most engaging posts and target prospective voters by factors such as demographics & interests. Deploy pay per Click advertising on Google, Bing, YouTube videos, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. Use the analytics data from the beginning of the campaign to target voters.
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7. CONNECT WITH BLOGGERS AND DIGITAL INFLUENCERS
Like fuel to fire, you need them to spread the gospel of your campaign. You need influencers with an oversize following and a crazy fan base to be on your side. You need them shouting your name from the roof tops and flaunting your credentials at every turn. Japeth Omojuwa is one of the reasons Buhari is in office today. He and his goons set twitter on fire for the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket. You also need a team of volunteers ready to support your campaign.
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8. MONITOR YOUR CAMPAIGN AND EVALUATE
Peter Drucker once said “what cannot be measured cannot be managed”. Ask your team to keep you updated with weekly campaign reports and constantly analyse them to optimize your campaigns and overall strategy. Constant analysis is a must in political campaigns which are usually much more volatile than commercial ones. You must be ready to respond to any scandal or allegation and you must be proactive in furthering your agenda and making a claim to the crown.
CONCLUSION
To win elections in Nigeria using digital marketing, you need to be online, have a digital marketing team, get a website, brand yourself, start a conversation, advertise, connect with influencers and monitor your campaign.
Don’t forget that the key goal is to convert a passive supporter or follower into an active fan and ultimately a passionate voter. Ensure, you can back up all your social media stunts with competent leadership. And when you win, don’t ignore your digital marketing team as your team will be important for a successful tenure.
Just before I pop the champagne, what is that 1 tip you’d like to add to this list? Drop a comment. | https://medium.com/epower-blog/8-tips-to-win-elections-in-nigeria-8390f6c8fac3 | [] | 2018-03-26 15:02:18.498000+00:00 | ['Nigeria', 'Epower', 'Digital Marketing', 'Election'] |
Introducing FastBert — A simple Deep Learning library for BERT Models | Usage
Import the required packages. Please note that I have not included the usual suspects such as os, pandas, etc.
Define general parameters and path locations for data, labels and pretrained models. (some good engineering practices)
Tokenizer
Create a tokenizer object. The is the BPE based WordPiece tokenizer and is available from the magnificient Hugging Face BERT PyTorch library.
The do_lower_case parameter depends on the version of the BERT pretrained model you have used. In case you use uncased models, set this value to true, else set it to false. For this example we have use the BERT base uncased model and hence do_lower_case parameter is set to true.
GPU & Device
Training a BERT model does require a single or more preferably multiple GPUs. In this step we can setup GPU parameters for our training.
Note that in the future releases, this step will be abstracted from the user and the library will automatically determine the correct device profile.
BertDataBunch
This is an excellent idea borrowed from fast.ai library. The databunch object takes training, validation and test csv files and converts the data into internal representation for BERT. The object also instantiates the correct data-loaders based on device profile and batch_size and max_sequence_length.
The DataBunch object provides the location to the data files and the label.csv file. For each of the data files, i.e. train.csv, val.csv and/or test.csv, the databunch creates a dataloader object by converting the csv data into BERT-specific input objects. I would encourage you to explore the structure of the databunch object using Jupyter notebook.
BertLearner
Another concept in line with the fast.ai library, BertLearner is the ‘learner’ object that holds everything together. It encapsulates the key logic for the lifecycle of the model such as training, validation and inference.
The learner object will take the databunch created earlier as as input alongwith some of the other parameters such as location for one of the pretrained BERT models, FP16 training, multi_gpu and multi_label options.
The learner class contains the logic for training loop, validation loop, optimiser strategies and key metrics calculation. This help the developers focus on their custom use-cases without worrying about these repetitive activities.
At the same time the learner object is flexible enough to be customised either via using flexible parameters or by creating a subclass of BertLearner and redefining relevant methods.
The learner object does the following upon initiation:
Creates a PyTorch BERT model and initialises the same with provided pre-trained weights. Based on the multi_label parameter, the model class will be BertForSequenceClassification or BertForMultiLabelSequenceClassification. Assigns the model to the right device, i.e. CUDA based GPU or CPU. if Nvidia Apex is available, the distributed processing functions of Apex will be utilised.
fast-bert provides a bunch of metrics. for multi-class classification, you will generally use accuracy whereas for multi-label classification, you should consider using accuracy_thresh and/or roc_auc.
Train the model
Start the model training by calling fit method on the learner object. the method takes epoch, learning rate and optimiser schedule_type as input. Following schedule types are supported (again courtesy of the Hugging Face Bert library):
none : always returns learning rate 1.
: always returns learning rate 1. warmup_constant : Linearly increases learning rate from 0 to 1 over warmup fraction of training steps. Keeps learning rate equal to 1. after warmup.
warmup_linear : Linearly increases learning rate from 0 to 1 over warmup fraction of training steps. Linearly decreases learning rate from 1. to 0. over remaining 1 - warmup steps.
warmup_cosine : Linearly increases learning rate from 0 to 1 over warmup fraction of training steps. Decreases learning rate from 1. to 0. over remaining 1 - warmup steps following a cosine curve. If cycles (default=0.5) is different from default, learning rate follows cosine function after warmup.
warmup_cosine_hard_restarts : Linearly increases learning rate from 0 to 1 over warmup fraction of training steps. If cycles (default=1.) is different from default, learning rate follows cycles times a cosine decaying learning rate (with hard restarts).
warmup_cosine_warmup_restarts : All training progress is divided in cycles (default=1.) parts of equal length. Every part follows a schedule with the first warmup fraction of the training steps linearly increasing from 0. to 1., followed by a learning rate decreasing from 1. to 0. following a cosine curve. Note that the total number of all warmup steps over all cycles together is equal to warmup * cycles
On calling the fit method, the library will start printing the progress information on the logger object. It will print training and validation losses, and the metric that you have requested.
In order to repeat the experiment with different parameters, just create a new learner object and call fit method on the same. If you have tons of GPU compute, then you can possibly run multiple experiments in parallel by instantiating multiple databunch and learner objects at the same time.
Once you are happy with your experiments, call the save_and_reload method on learner object to persist the model on the file structure. | https://medium.com/huggingface/introducing-fastbert-a-simple-deep-learning-library-for-bert-models-89ff763ad384 | ['Kaushal Trivedi'] | 2019-09-14 00:24:58.232000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'NLP', 'Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Bert'] |
Cities are about to experience drone and air taxi tragedies and the FAA and NASA are not doing enough | Is it just me or does anyone think UTM (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management) is nearly enough for urban environments?
After reading the UTM documentation and talking with quite a few folks, it seems to me this industry is burying its head in the sand? Including NASA and the FAA?
NSA UTM — https://www.nasa.gov/ames/utm/
If any dense urban area grows to a point they have any level of density or complexity UTM is not going to come close to mitigating disasters. All pilots and AV systems real-time deconflict for themselves? Adding V2X isn’t gonna do enough either. (And there are significant issues there too, especially with the 30mhz bandwidth. See my first post below.) How is it there is no verbal concurrence many urban areas will need an AWACS type system?
More on the V2X issues here
The V2X 30mhz Issue should be addressed now with DoD Technology and Approaches
· https://imispgh.medium.com/the-v2x-30mhz-issue-should-be-addressed-now-with-dod-technology-and-approaches-c382839b4a5a | https://medium.com/@imispgh/cities-are-about-to-experience-drone-and-air-taxi-tragedies-and-the-faa-and-nasa-are-not-doing-a20fcafaa84d | ['Michael Dekort'] | 2020-12-23 01:34:34.534000+00:00 | ['Faa', 'Smart Cities', 'NASA', 'Drones', 'Uav'] |
The Adrenaline of Public Relations | As a professional working in public relations, the scene in ‘Workin’ Moms’ the Netflix TV show, where Catherine Reitman’s character is saving the face of a Men’s Rights Activist after he hunted a rare species of an animal, by asking him to make a donation to a campaign that is attempting to save the species made me realize how closely we work with storytelling. This magnificently done scene is an illustration of how PR officers have to manage the image and reputation of their clients in times of crisis. Crisis management is, in its essence, identifying what could be a threat to the image of a company or brand and managing the threat through various methods.
At the first thought of a ‘crisis’, an academic or even a health professional, by virtue of the nature of these professions may think of ways through which ‘crisis’ can be averted, but as a PR professional, one knows that expecting crisis is the best way to get through a crisis. As Bray Brockbank has written in his article, “There’s a crisis in the news and social media virtually every day. The key is to know how to prepare and respond to your future crisis” What exactly is crisis management? Essentially, crisis management involves a crisis, which has the potential to cause damage to either financially, professionally or even damage reputation. One of the characteristics of crisis is that there is a sense of urgency and there is also the added responsibility for the crisis manager to resolve the issue within a specific amount of time. One of the examples of such a crisis is when people had found worms in two Cadbury chocolates and Cadbury, in order to gain back the trust of their consumers launched project ‘Vishwaas’ and their brand image was focused on Amitabh Bacchan, it helped them gain back trust quite well attributing it to the trust-worthy image that Mr.Bacchan has.
As a PR professional myself, what I enjoy most about crisis management is how it demands from you the ability to see through not one, but multiple perspectives. It demands you to not only understand the point of view of the company, but also the consumers, and all those who are the stakeholders of a certain image. Personally, I think that it is one of the most challenging and creative jobs of the PR professional. Sufficiently balancing preparedness with spontaneity along with an understanding of all stakeholders is a good way to begin thinking about managing a crisis. There are a few ways in which one can handle a crisis, first and foremost, one must always be calm and jot a plan down, create a framework and not react to situations but mindfully tackle them. | https://medium.com/@aggarwaltanya123/the-adrenaline-of-public-relations-25239b4b1da3 | ['Tanya Agarwal'] | 2021-12-24 03:58:26.981000+00:00 | ['Crisis Communications', 'Public Relations', 'Crisis Management', 'Professional'] |
How to Do Mobile App Personalization that Drives Engagement and Retains Users? | Is your app engagement dropping? Are you losing users left and right? You should consider mobile app personalization.
People are tired of generic interactions with their apps. That includes content and notifications that are not relevant to them. That’s very common. Would you use an app that doesn’t solve your specific problems or caters to your specific needs? You wouldn’t.
That’s why you should include personalization in your mobile marketing strategy. It will boost engagement and increase user retention.
What Is Mobile App Personalization?
Customization is all about the user making changes and choosing what they want in an app. Personalization is much more dynamic and happens in real-time. It’s about tailoring the app experience to meet the needs of a specific user.
When you go to Starbucks and order a latte with soy milk, sugar, and extra foam — that’s customization. But when the barista already knows what kind of coffee you like — that’s personalization. So personalization is a step beyond customization.
The thing about us humans is that we want to feel special. We want to feel that we are understood and that our needs will be met. That’s why users love personalization. It’s as though everything is tailored made just for them.
Mobile app personalization can include push notifications, recommendations, suggestions, tips, discounts, special offers, etc. All of it individualized and relevant to the user.
Benefits of Creating a Personalized Application
Still wondering why go through all the trouble of mobile personalization? Here are a couple of benefits that will change your mind.
Higher User Retention
With over 5.4 million apps available in app stores right now, it’s safe to say that the market is very crowded. Why would anyone use your app, when there are hundreds of similar ones in the app store? Add to that the fact that 25% of users abandon apps after just one use, and the future of your app is looking pretty gloomy.
But don’t give up just yet. This is where app personalization comes in.
By creating a personalized app experience for the users, you give them more reasons to keep coming back to your app instead of ignoring it. If an app is tailored to your needs and provides you with relevant offers, discounts, or recommendations, wouldn’t you use it regularly?
Personalization also makes your app stand out from the crowd. Why? Only 28% of all apps are personalized according to Evergage. So in a crowded market, that’s a great way to gain an advantage over your competitors and improve app retention.
Better Customer Experience
Which app would you prefer as a customer?
An app that offers you generic products that don’t interest you and offers that are not relevant to you. An app that offers you products and services based on your shopping history, interests, and preferences.
The second one, right?
Mobile app personalization has a huge impact on overall customer experience. It takes care of the users, makes things more convenient, easier, and faster.
In a study done by eMarketer, 35% of users say they want more personalization. So if you’re wondering how to improve customer experience, listen to what people are saying. In research done by Evergage, 84% of businesses report that customer experience is the key driver behind personalization.
More Engagement and Conversions
All of us know that an app is just a piece of software, not a real human being. However, we still don’t want to feel like we’re getting messages from a robot. That’s why people love personalization. It gives them an illusion of human interaction. And that drives engagement.
When users are presented with relevant content that’s tailored to them, they will engage with it. And what do you think happens when a user receives a personalized offer or discount? They’re much more likely to make a purchase. It shows them that you understand and take care of them.
When you give people what they want, need or like, they’ll engage with it. It’s that simple.
Increased Brand Loyalty
No matter what kind of business you have, brand loyalty is paramount. Loyal customers make repeated purchases, recommend you to their friends, and engage often. According to Localytics, they generate 25% more in-app purchases than other users.
And when you have a personalized application, brand loyalty goes up. When you cater to the specific needs of a user, they repay you with loyalty.
Keep in mind that 33% of customers abandon a business (according to Accenture) because personalization is poor or non-existent. So if you want to keep your customers and make them loyal to your brand, focus on mobile personalization.
Besides an increase in brand loyalty, personalization can also bring you higher revenue. Gartner reports that by 2020, personalization will boost the profits of digital businesses by 15%.
How to Personalize Your Mobile App?
Now that you know why personalization is important, let’s get into how it’s done. It’s not that hard.
Collect User Data
Before you can personalize your app, you need to collect user data. That will help you understand your users — who they are, what they want, what they need, what their preferences are, etc. Once you have a clear understanding of that, you can create a custom experience for them.
Here’s the kind of data you should collect:
Age
Gender
Interests
Profession
Location
When they’re using the app
Which devices they’re using
User preferences
Likes and dislikes
Purchase history
App activity
Etc.
After you collect all the necessary data, notice patterns that emerge, then create groups of similar users. Segmentation will make the app personalization process a lot easier.
Personalize Push Notifications
Did you know that 68% of users have push notifications enabled? So it’s not like users don’t want to interact with the app. The challenge is sending them relevant and engaging push notifications. If you personalize push notifications based on user demographics and behavior, you will keep things interesting.
Push notifications are used in many different ways. One is location-based. Factual reports that 9 out of 10 marketers say location-based marketing resulted in more sales. So perhaps you can send a discount code when the user is near the store. Or you can recommend a type of restaurant they like in their vicinity. Or even alert them of severe weather in their area.
If they haven’t used the app for a while, you can send a reminder. Perhaps you’ll send tips based on their specific interests. Or you’ll alert them that their favorite shoes are on sale. The possibilities are endless. No matter what kind of app you have, you can benefit from sending personalized push notifications.
However, keep in mind that the users need to opt-in to receive them. And also make it easy to opt-out. You don’t want to harass people.
Personalize In-App Messages
Unlike push notifications, users get in-app messages while they’re using the app. And you should personalize them as well.
A simple way to personalize in-app messages is to address each user by their name. It’s basic, but it’s still a nice touch. You can also notify a user when they complete a milestone related to your app. Or you can send product recommendations based on their interests, needs, purchase history, etc. Noticed that the user didn’t buy anything through the app? Offer them free shipping as an incentive to buy.
Segment’s research found that 49% of people purchased something after getting a personalized recommendation.
No matter what kind of approach you take, make sure in-app messages are tailored to that specific user. You can’t go wrong with that.
Respect the Privacy of the Users
Another important thing to mention is the privacy of the users. Studies show that users generally have no issue with giving out data to get more personalization. Salesforce’s study found that 57% of people will trade personal information for personalized offers. And according to Statista, 48% of consumers say it’s fine if businesses use their purchase history to create personalized offers. But they want to be able to opt-in and out whenever they want.
So generally people are open to you collecting their data in exchange for personalization. But that doesn’t mean you should take advantage of that. Be transparent about the data you’re collecting and how you’re using it.
The same goes for notifications. Don’t go overboard. If the user has enabled push notifications, that doesn’t mean you should spam them 50 times a day. No matter how personalized the notifications are. People will delete your app in seconds.
Best Examples of Personalized Apps
Many apps are doing a great job when it comes to personalization. And you could learn a lot from them.
Here are some of the best personalized apps:
Spotify
When it comes to personalization, Spotify is leading the game. With their personalized playlists like Daily Mixes, they combine user’s favorite songs with ones they haven’t listened to in a while.
But that’s not all.
In-app messages and notifications alert users when their favorite artist released an album or is playing a show near them.
Their latest feature is a personalized podcast playlist where users can discover new podcasts and follow the ones they like.
Nike Training Club App
Nike Training Club app is another fine example of personalization. It is a fitness app that offers users a personalized workout plan. What’s cool is that the workout plan changes and adjusts according to the progress they make. Users also get tailored guidance that helps them reach their goals. So it’s like they have a fitness trainer with them at all times.
The app also sends personalized tips about nutrition, health, and mindfulness. Those engage users even when they’re not working out.
Instagram
Instagram makes it easy for users to find the content they like in the Explore tab. That content is based on their usage history, which means it’s personalized and engaging.
The content in the newsfeed is also personalized according to what the user likes. And the ads are tailored according to the interests and behavior of the user. So you’re constantly surrounded with content you like and want to engage with.
Instagram alerts you when someone likes your post, starts following your, or your friend posts a Story. All of those notifications are very personalized and relevant to specific users.
To Sum-Up Mobile App Personalization
App customization is no longer enough. Users want personalized content that will make them feel heard and taken care of. That’s why the main goal of your app should be to offer them a personalized user experience. It will make the app more convenient to use and more useful to users. And that will result in more engagement, higher user retention, and an increase in brand loyalty.
What are your thoughts on mobile app personalization? Have some questions about it? Reach out in the comments below!
Read More About Mobile Apps 👇
About Udonis
In 2018 & 2019, Udonis Inc. served over 14.1 billion ads & acquired over 50 million users for mobile apps & games. We’re recognized as a leading mobile marketing agency by 5 major marketing review firms. We helped over 20 mobile apps & games reach the top charts. Want to know how we make it look so effortless? Meet us to find out. | https://medium.com/udonis/how-to-do-mobile-app-personalization-that-drives-engagement-and-retains-users-1ad6c6fd525f | ['Andrea Knezovic'] | 2019-12-02 10:39:44.952000+00:00 | ['Mobile Apps', 'Mobile Marketing Tips', 'Mobile Marketing', 'Mobile', 'Mobile App Marketing'] |
Trading Tether | Given the recent volatility in the tether markets, we’d like to share our tips for trading tether. We think it’s an important cryptocurrency to understand as it facilitates trading and access to some of the most liquid currency pairs in the crypto markets (e.g. — BTC/USDT on binance). It’s also an important linkage between different exchanges, allowing for arbitrages between fiat and non-fiat exchanges more efficiently due to its relatively stable price.
Spot Price: The challenge of finding a good price of tether comes from the fact that there are few direct USDT/USD pairs listed. Kraken offers a USDT/USD pair but volumes there are relatively light compared to the tether market as a whole. We suggest avoiding the use of coinmarketcap price data for trading decisions as the crypto markets are fragmented and using an aggregate price across all exchanges results in inconsistent pricing.
Our pricing benchmark of choice is a BTC/USD index such as Tradeblock’s XBX or CME BRTI and the binance BTC/USDT pair (which tends to be more liquid than Bitfinex’s own BTC/USD pair). Dividing the BTC/USD index price by the BTC/USDT price should yield an implied tether price. For example, as of November 13, 2018 the implied tether price would be (6279 / 6466 = .9711 USDT/USD price).
The chart below compares the various ways USDT/USD can be calculated. Notice how they sometimes differ quite significantly.
Sources: binance, coinmarketcap.com, kraken, tradeblock
Supply/Demand: It’s useful to monitor the activities of the Tether Treasury wallet:https://www.omniexplorer.info/address/1NTMakcgVwQpMdGxRQnFKyb3G1FAJysSfz
This is where tether goes when it’s minted and it’s also the wallet that houses tether before it’s destroyed. Since the beginning of October, over 1 billion USDT has been sent to this address and 500 million USDT has been destroyed. As tether has been removed from circulation, the price has recovered from its lows.
The chart below summarizes wallet activity over the past 6 weeks.
Sources: omniexplorer.info
On the demand side, we’ve observed an interesting phenomenon, which is a drop in volumes, particularly on Binance’s BTC/USDT. It’s not entirely clear why volumes have dropped off but one reason could be that people are less willing to hold USDT and so are avoiding that particular trading pair in favor of fiat alternatives. One data point supporting this idea is the fact that most of the tether that has flowed into Tether’s treasury wallet has come from Binance, which at one point, held over 1 billion USDT. That figure is down by almost 400MM as of November 13th: https://wallet.tether.to/richlist
The chart below shows the drop in volumes on Binance, which was averaging 36,000 BTC per day during September, but only averaging 12,500 BTC per day since October 15th following the sell-off in tether.
sources: binance.com
Bitfinex, Tether, and Convertibility: If you monitor the tether address linked above, you’ll notice that Bitfinex’s own tether wallet often makes deposits and withdrawals from the Tether Treasury. While this is not a definitive sign that Tether is facilitating convertibility between tether and dollars, it is a suggestive data point. Note that due to Bitfinex’s special relationship with Tether, the exchange’s BTC/USD price will most often track the BTC/USDT price rather than the BTC/USD price. In this way, fiat pairs on Bitfinex are essentially “equivalent” to tether pairs.
Going Forward: Since announcing that Deltec was Tether’s bank, transfers from Bitfinex to the Tether Treasury have slowed down, with only a single transfer of 70MM on November 11. Tether’s price had stabilized at a discount below 1, trading in a range from .98 USD to .993 USD for the most part although it recently sold off again due to reports of new withdrawal limits and fees. At this point, the market has priced in a healthy risk premium for tether as the supply of outstanding tether has stabilized around 1.7 Billion USDT. It will be interesting to see if further reductions in the tether circulating supply could help push the tether price back towards parity with USD. | https://medium.com/galois-capital/trading-tether-5130aa34ee95 | ['Yi Zhang'] | 2018-11-14 22:00:16.071000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Tether', 'Bitcoin', 'Trading'] |
Put That On Your Playlist: Slum Beautiful | Song: Slum Beautiful
Album: Stankonia
Honourable mention: You’re Beautiful (Interlude) (Idlewild)
— — —
You’ll excuse us but we are firmly back on, as they say, our bullshit. We’re here to tell you again why Big Boi aka Sir Luscious Left Foot is one hell of a rapper who’s become underrated and underappreciated by folks on the timeline. Don’t get us wrong, this isn’t an anti-Andre post, far from it. It’s just not an overtly pro-Andre post, because the last thing anyone needs is to read about why Three Stacks is great. It’s been done so many times and Google is just a click away. This is merely a pro-Big Boi post because the world needs more of those.
When you typically look to identify the most versatile rappers in history, the usual list of suspects come up. Wayne. Andre (here he is again). Now Thug or Future. Biggie. Kendrick. Drake. Etc., etc. Those names and a large number of others we’re forgetting or not mentioning because it’s not really the point of this post are among the most versatile emcees of all time. But Big Boi’s name is more often than not absent and it’s a shame because he undeniably belongs on the short list. It’s not merely that Daddy Fat Sax can and will rap about plenty of subjects, from boisterous playa anthems to love missives, though it is that. It’s not merely, either, that the man can and will rap on any kind of beat you want, from the drum & bass or electronic adjacent to the modern trap, though it is also that. Finally, it’s not merely that Big Boi can and will rap along with the greats and adapt his flow for every kind of rap in history, from the fast, multisyllabic triplet flow to the slower or more classical flow. No, it’s more that Big Boi does all of those things and does them all at once and better than more or less anyone else. He’s a dexterous and entertaining rapper who understands he can make any kind of rap song he wants, so he does; rather than looking at branching out of the borders of the genre, he works within in and pushes its boundaries outward while making better music than your favourite rapper likely does. There’s beauty in that.
And before he rapped on a rocket ship of a beat that’s GhettoMusick, or the Kid Cudi love ballad that’s She Hates Me, or the horns-heavy General Patton, or the pop jam that’s The Way You Move, he rapped on Stankonia’s Slum Beautiful and a beat that’s all bass, twinkles and sparkles and drums that play hide and seek with the listener. It’s a hell of a song and it’s also one where Big Boi definitely shines, rapping that “What I like to do most is spit this game like sports announcer. And will pity pat them hoez down like a gentlemen club bouncer.” The man spits a great verse that showcases everything we’ve come to love from him, the swag, the metaphors, the wordplay and the talent. “Like plug sockets and babies, possums, raccoons, and rabies. Maybe Lady Luscious oba kaybee so they say thee.”
Go ahead and try to say the previous quote five times in a row without slipping up.
— — —
Beat: 8/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Overall: 9/10 | https://medium.com/amanmusthaveacode/put-that-on-your-playlist-slum-beautiful-3a1fd008d1a1 | ['Charles Blouingascon'] | 2020-12-16 15:29:30.643000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Culture', 'Outkast', 'Rap', 'Hip Hop'] |
Democracy Is An Action Word | Democracy is a verb.
Your participation matters
Maths always take center stage
One plus one is two in every
nook and cranny of the world.
Maths’ answer in Efik — Calabar is
the same response in French — Frenchville, Maine
Maths correct answer can
make some people happy or furious
Democracy is a lifestyle.
Democracy is not perfect.
She gives us a little bit of freedom.
Never give up on your freedom.
Your action matters
Democracy is a lifestyle. | https://medium.com/the-yessba/your-democracy-is-an-action-word-646317d550a2 | ['Bassey Elimian'] | 2020-12-07 15:25:47.279000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Lifestyle', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Self Improvement', 'Self'] |
Oink! | Oink!
One bang, two bang, three bang, four
they celebrate when his body hits the floor
too many shots in the air
for his life, they have no care
It’s a lose-lose scenario, you see
even when you obey
they still hold the power to take your life away
and they take advantage of that
knowing they’ll get paid leave
and the tip of a cap
15, 20 times too many
how many shots does it take
to show it’s the black man you hate?
They’ll let the school shooter walk
but will shoot the black man if he talks
our bodies destined to be surrounded in chalk
there has to be a standard for all
because who do we call when the police man breaks the law | https://medium.com/@j-herring2000/oink-e537cf036638 | ['Josh Herring'] | 2020-12-23 23:41:18.960000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Police Brutality'] |
4 Months After Going Sober, This Is My New Normal | By now, everyone in my social spheres knows that I’m sober. It’s mostly past the point where people are congratulating me, trying to talk me out of it, or privately asking me follow-up questions. Seems like the buzz has died down and everyone is moving on with their lives. But it remains such a powerful experience that I want to continue examining Life Without Alcohol™. So although nobody’s asking, I’m answering. You’re welcome.
For one, I am physically renewed with a new sense of normal, one gloriously free from hangovers. I wake up most days by 6:30 a.m. and meditate. Often, I will do some yoga or stretching before work. Mornings are quiet and calm, and I move through them with a grateful mind. Evenings are expansive and productive. I have hours to write or cook or paint. I have time for self-care. I’m able to give myself what I truly need with more consistency.
Without the intoxicating fog of a few drinks (and it was almost always a few), my body’s signals come in much clearer. I can now generally distinguish whether I’m hungry, thirsty, tired, stressed, or stir-crazy. Sitting in front of a computer all day, my body can get restless. But I’m never “too drunk” for a run or an emergency call to my mom. Maybe I’m cranky and irritable (that doesn’t go away, unfortunately), but I’ve been known to put myself to bed at 8:30 or 9 p.m. if things are really dire.
I am actually happy most of the time. No amount of drunken celebration ever gave me that.
It’s astonishing to me now how heavily I relied on alcohol to manage discomfort. Even if the day was terrible and I argued with my boss or my boyfriend, I knew I had wine in my near future. I so often ignored my feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, or unhappiness. And why not? I could rely on an austere Oregon pinot to make them fade away. Of course, those vile feelings would reliably shock me awake the next morning with a sickening intensity. Cue self-loathing and shame. But at least there was always the next glass to look forward to.
Sober and spicy at four months. Photo: Jemma Jorel
After four months of sobriety, I have so many other, more sustainable tools in my belt. My mind is sharper and more self-aware. I’m able to look at my thought process and assess it, taking a beat before getting dragged into drama against my will. I can have the negative emotion without wholeheartedly buying in. I am getting much more skilled at guiding my thoughts out of the catastrophic and into the curious, grateful, or creative. I can address things directly with other people and shift problems or tension. I can set boundaries and leave—or ask other people to.
Speaking of which, my relationships have changed too. I want to spend my social time engaging deeply and positively, hammering out goals and figuring out how to make them reality. Helping each other feel powerful and seen and loved. I want to be super present, open to the miracles of life that are constantly presenting themselves. That… wasn’t always happening in the past. There’s certainly a lot to complain about in the San Francisco of 2019. In fact, there’s a never-ending supply of things to complain about. But I noticed that dwelling on misfortune or being critical was a big part of my boozy social life, and in sobriety, it’s simply lost its appeal. I’m seeing opportunity everywhere, and I’d rather talk about that.
I also find other people’s mental states more intense. I don’t have that insulation provided by liquor that keeps me focusing on myself (and my plans for the next drink). When I’m with you, I’m with you. That can be really uncomfortable, for both of us. It’s weird to be with people who are drinking to get drunk. A glass with dinner is fine, but much more and the connection drops like a bad signal. And it doesn’t stop with a tipsy night out. I had a day date recently with a hungover someone and that sort of sealed its fate. I’m not going to deal with anybody’s hangovers anymore.
But the people who remain are solid. Those who remain are trustworthy and life-affirming. I have started bimonthly video dates with a dear friend in Pittsburgh, also sober, a complete and utter treasure. We’ve gone deeper in eight FaceTime sessions than I have with some friends over years. Not to mention that my mom (sober too) and I are suddenly thick as thieves, a gift so precious words cannot adequately describe it. A part of me that was resigned to surviving on my own has reconnected with my source.
And I think that’s the best thing about sobriety. I am intentionally connected to what gives me life. As I deepen those connections, I am clearer on what’s important to me, and I’m able to make room for those things in my life. I can enjoy what I only paid lip service to in the past: health, creativity, relationships. I am actually happy most of the time. No amount of drunken celebration ever gave me that.
I’m proud to know I’m capable of making such an empowering change. I would not have said it was possible a year ago.
My friends and family who have supported me in this experience continue to teach me. Four months in, I feel like I’ve scaled a mountain, but I’m reminded that it’s still early in this process. If I continue indefinitely on this track, what will it feel like after a year? Or seven? My goals are so much more graspable. I’m thinking bigger. I’m audacious and powerful.
The truth is this is isn’t really about alcohol. But sobriety has given me the space and support to make mindset shifts that would have taken years to do while drinking, if at all. I’m proud to know I’m capable of making such an empowering change. I would not have said it was possible a year ago.
For those of you who are considering trying it, do it. For those of you who are early in your journey, kudos and keep it up. For those of you miles down the road, tell me your secrets. For those of you who don’t want to try sobriety, ermm… Why did you read this far? (I’m mostly teasing.) I hope this has given you a little insight into what life might be like for the sober of us around you. And also, know this: It’s been an absolute joy. | https://humanparts.medium.com/an-update-after-four-months-of-sobriety-66f3eed81a09 | ['Jemma Jorel'] | 2019-04-14 08:37:38.452000+00:00 | ['Body', 'Mind', 'Addiction', 'Self', 'Alcohol'] |
Mirror in the Bathroom | You’d be surprised what you can see in the mirror when you let the fog clear. | https://backgroundnoisecomic.medium.com/mirror-in-the-bathroom-667edb3a77fb | ['Background Noise Comics'] | 2020-02-01 16:32:44.659000+00:00 | ['Self Love', 'Humor', 'Comics', 'Body Positive', 'Body Image'] |
Discovery of Female Hunter-Gatherers Question Gender Role Hypotheses | Discovery of Female Hunter-Gatherers Question Gender Role Hypotheses
A read for when you still doubt the equality between men and women
Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer Reconstruction by Oscar Nillson — 1 October 2019 (modified in black and white)
Until now, it was generally agreed by the scientific and historical communities that early male hunter-gatherers hunted animals and the women gathered herbs, fruits, vegetables, and reared the children.
However, in 2018, the discovery of the burial site of a 9000-year-old woman in the Andes Mountains, Peru, by Dr. Randall Haas and his team started to shed some doubt on that hypothesis. Indeed, the woman was buried with an impressive array of twenty-four stone tools that an ancient hunter would need to take down big prey.
The grave goods (items buried with the dead) were to be used by the deceased in the afterlife; therefore, their favourite foods or everyday objects were left with them. Often, social status played a role in what was left.
When looking at more recent hunter-gatherer societies, the repartition of the daily tasks was very sexualized. One could think that sexual inequalities might have been seen as natural. But this discovery provides a commencement of proof that tends to show that gender roles between men and women were more equal in our distant past.
However, this could be an isolated case.
The only way for the palaeontologists to be sure was for them to analyze the remains of 429 individuals in 107 sites linked to the same time frame as the Andes huntress. The results from the study were undeniable: 30% to 50% of hunters were probably biologically female.
In a society that presumably had a more binary gender role distribution of daily tasks, age was probably more important than gender insofar as criteria to be allowed to hunt.
Our ancestors were equal
Another study from five years ago, led by the anthropologist Dr. Mark Dyble, suggests that male and female hunter-gatherers tended to have equal influence on where their group lived and who they lived with. The idea that sexual equality is a modern invention might be a fallacious assumption.
Dyble said: “There is still this wider perception that hunter-gatherers are more macho or male-dominated. We’d argue it was only with the emergence of agriculture when people could start to accumulate resources, that inequality emerged.”
Sexual equality may have been an evolutionary benefit for early human societies. It would have given them a broader range of social networks and interactions with unknown individuals. When you can communicate with more people on an equal level, it allows you to share innovations, ideas, tools, and to have more opportunities to reproduce. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/discovery-of-female-hunter-gatherers-question-gender-role-hypotheses-8ec7345acd96 | ['Oliver Pines'] | 2020-11-14 12:02:33.307000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'History', 'Life Lessons', 'Feminism', 'Women'] |
An SQL solution for Jupyter | An SQL solution for Jupyter
A few months ago we released xeus-sqlite, a Jupyter kernel that allows users to make SQLite queries directly from the notebook. With the needs of the Jupyter data science community in mind we decided to expand on this project.
RDBMSes supported by xeus-sql
Today, we’re happy to announce the next step of this endeavour, bringing you xeus-sql a general-purpose database access tool for Jupyter, which allows you to make SQL queries on many different databases:
MySQL
PostgreSQL
SQLite3
DB2
Oracle
Firebird
and any database with an ODBC driver.
To offer all these integrations we rely on the SOCI library as the backbone of the project. SOCI abstracts all the different database connections and query details behind a unified C++ API. xeus-sql uses SOCI and xeus to expose SQL functionalities to Jupyter.
Xeus-sql, as well as the MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite3 backends of SOCI are available on conda-forge, meaning you can install them easily with conda or mamba:
# Installing xeus-sql and the mysql backend
mamba install xeus-sql soci-mysql -c conda-forge # Installing xeus-sql and the postgresql backend
mamba install xeus-sql soci-postgresql -c conda-forge # Installing xeus-sql and the sqlite backend
mamba install xeus-sql soci-sqlite -c conda-forge
There are idiosyncrasies between these different SQL backends which we detail in the xeus-sql documentation and examples.
Visualizing your queries
HTML and text table visualizations for different Jupyter interfaces
You’re probably familiar with visualizing your SQL tables and query results in the form of… tables, of course. Jupyter’s rich display system offers the option of showing them in rich-text display or plain-text display depending on which application you’re using.
Beyond displaying queries with tables, you can now easily create Vega-Lite graphs from your query results directly in the notebook:
Running a series of examples on a notebook
To support this feature xeus-sql relies on xvega, a C++ backend to vega, and custom Jupyter magics for plotting through a mini-language implemented in the xvega-bindings utility library. Besides using the mini-language you can directly provide the JSON specification for your visualization, thanks to contributions by Wang Fenjin.
Vega-Lite is a powerful library and there are many different visualizations you can create from your relational data using xeus-sql. You can see some other examples below:
Examples of different visualizations generated with xeus-sql and xvega-lite by Wang Fenjin
We’re looking forward to exchange with users and learn more about their use cases for xeus-sql and xvega, so if you have any questions please drop them on the public QuantStack chat, or open an issue at the project’s GitHub page. As always, contributions are welcome!
Try it online!
You can try the master version on binder without the need of installing anything on your computer just by clicking on the image below:
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Wang Fenjin for his contributions with respect to the use of vega specs in xeus-sql. The plotting mini-language was built upon the xvega library by Madhur Tandon. We are also grateful to the SOCI contributors for their awesome package that made this work possible.
About the author
My name is Mariana Meireles and I’m a software developer working for QuantStack. I care deeply about the impacts that technology has in the world and try my best to be the change I want to see by contributing to open source projects that stand upon libre and diverse standards. | https://blog.jupyter.org/an-sql-solution-for-jupyter-ef4a00a0d925 | ['Mariana Meireles'] | 2021-02-05 17:52:09.151000+00:00 | ['MySQL', 'Sql', 'Oracle', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Postgres'] |
First Look to Django Admin Panel | One of the best part of Django is having an automatic admin panel with user interface. With this admin panel, user who has permission can create new records or view, update and delete all records in database.
When we create a project all the configuration required to include admin panel in our website will be done automatically.
This feature can save us a lot of time during development. Because it can make very easy to testing our models and data. Also, there are many ways to customize this admin panel. We can change ordering of models and we can change which columns of model will be visible in list. We can give different permissions to different users who has access to admin panel. These are only a few examples for what we can do with Django admin panel.
Accessing Admin Panel
As a default, django is using /admin url for admin panel. To access the admin panel, first we need to run our project.
Note: If you don’t know how to run server or how to create project in Django, I recommend you to read my article called as Creating First Django Project.
Firstly, let’s open our urls.py file. This is the file which contains project level URL routings. When we create new web pages or APIs, we need to add these URLs to urls.py for routing.
Django is using apps for making project structure better. I will talk about apps in Django in another article. But if we add URLs in app level urls.py file, we need to include them in our project level urls.py file.
Now, take a look at project level urls.py file.
As you see in the above picture, I have marked line 20 with red rectangle. Here, first parameter says what is our URL and second parameter says that this url will be the admin panel of our project.
After running our server successfully, let’s open our browser and go to this website http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin
Note: If you run your project in different url, don’t forget to change this area.
When we go to our admin page in browser, we will see this form. To access admin panel, we should have super user. But for now, we don’t have any super user and we need to create new super user.
Creating new super user
To create new super user, we will use command line. We can run following command:
python manage.py createsuperuser
If we run the our project first time and didn’t make any migration on database, we will get an error as shown in the below:
As I marked in red rectangle, error message gives us some hint about the error. The error caused because we have unapplied migrations on database.
To fix that problem, we can run following command.
python manage.py migrate
With this command, python will do all migrations and give outputs about them to us. If everything is fine, that means we are ready create our first super user.
Let’s run the our “python manage.py createsuperuser” again and let’s see what is going to happen.
Python will ask us 3 information. These are username, email address and password. We need to fill these information form which is about us. We will access the admin panel with username and password which we will define in this form.
Now let’s go to “http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin" url and login with our username-password. | https://blog.berkberber.com/first-look-to-django-admin-panel-1c54628e9c87 | ['Berk Berber'] | 2020-12-18 19:30:53.096000+00:00 | ['Backend', 'Django Rest Framework', 'Django', 'Python'] |
7 Things I Learned About True Love From My Time in a Cult | “You were in a cult? How does a guy like you end up in a cult?” are questions I get asked a lot.
While I was in the military and deployed overseas, the standard phraseology was that we would find one of three things while separated from friends and family. We would, either:
Find alcohol,
Find the gym, or
Find God.
I was an amateur, feeling out of place, in both the drinking and lifting worlds. I had some experience of going to church, so I chose to try and find God.
It turns out, many things look and sound, and even smell like God, but God proved to be elusive. It’s a lot like love. But I’m getting to that.
So, how does a reasonably level-headed, former honor roll student end up in a cult? The formula is quite simple:
Cults use the strategy of love bombing to influence you to join and eventually believe their cause.
Here are some examples of their love-bombing:
They smiled and used my first name (military folks called me by my rank and last name).
They invited me to their house and cooked dinner for me.
They made me feel like I belonged and that they needed me.
They told me that I was special.
Bit-by-bit, they indoctrinated me and programmed me to believe everything they said. I buried the red flags in my head and ignored the warnings from my own family. I was convinced these people loved me.
It was all a game, a ruse, a show.
Do you know what, though? They did one thing that ended up as their demise: they encouraged me to read the Bible.
I read through that thing six times in three years, taking copious notes. A LOT of what they taught didn’t match their source material.
The final straw that broke this camel’s back was their teachings about giving to the poor. They didn’t. So I left. But that’s another story. This story is about true love.
Here’s what the Bible says about true love, taken from “the love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/7-things-i-learned-about-true-love-from-my-time-in-a-cult-5f3e0c915a56 | ['Ryan Dejonghe'] | 2021-01-18 19:53:06.145000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Love', 'Bible', 'Self', 'Acceptance'] |
Prevent 3 Nasty Habits by Wearing a Mask | Prevent 3 Nasty Habits by Wearing a Mask
Resist the urge to pick your nose.
Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash
“Put your mask back on!” I tell my friend incessantly for the last few months. It’s not that he doesn’t understand the importance, and he’s not too proud to wear the mask, but it’s been giving him more acne than he’d like. I’m not sure if that’s actually the mask or the copious amounts of fried foods he eats, but hey, whatever explanation he’d like to provide for himself works for me.
Being one of the few people whose whereabouts I am completely aware of for the entirety of quarantine, I see this friend a lot. When we’re together we don’t wear masks, and I’ve started poking fun at some habits he has — that we all may sometimes have — that wearing a mask would prevent. The following is a fun little list of some of these habits and an upbeat, light-hearted way to convince your friends that wearing a mask — aside from all of the health benefits — is actually a really great thing.
1. It Prevents Nail Biting
My friend and I were sitting in my apartment watching football, and I knew he had some money on the games. When it came down to the last few plays and the scores were close, I could see him getting nervous. One of his nervous ticks is nail biting, and he immediately went for his nails every time the team he didn’t bet on looked like they were going to win.
“Wouldn’t be biting your nails if you wore your mask!” I said to him with a smile on my face. Wearing a mask keeps you from putting your hands in your mouth. It may help a child (or my 26-year old friend) stop from biting their nails.
2. It Prevents Nose Picking
We all may go digging for gold every now and then, and my friend is no exception. I caught him with his finger near his nose during an outdoor workout, and I immediately yelled, “Wouldn’t be picking your nose if you wore a mask!”
He immediately slid his mask up and continued his workout. Because the mask should always cover your nose (that is kind of the whole purpose), it’s way more difficult to get caught with any fingers up there.
3. It Prevents Pimple Popping
My friend’s main reason for disliking his mask is because it’s causing him to get pimples. Yet, for some reason, whenever he gets pimples, he immediately touches, scratches, and pops those pimples, which makes them even worse. I saw him popping a pimple during football that same day. Not only was it nasty as is, but also, it started bleeding.
“Wouldn’t be bleeding if you wore your mask!” I said to him. He cleaned his face and put his shirt up over his nose.
The Low Down
Wearing a mask is important right now no matter which way you slice it. But if people don’t want to wear it to save lives, then maybe these fun reasons will help. If people don’t want to wear them because they’re too proud, then maybe these nasty habits the mask can prevent will make them realize wearing a mask can actually be a positive. | https://medium.com/curious/prevent-3-nasty-habits-by-wearing-a-mask-b763eea29c31 | ['Jordan Gross'] | 2020-12-03 06:04:29.232000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Creativity', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Inspiration'] |
Machine Learning: Python Linear Regression Estimator Using Gradient Descent | Simple Linear Regression Estimator in Python | Towards AI
In this article, we describe how a simple python estimator can be built to perform linear regression using the gradient descent method. Let’s assume we have a one-dimensional dataset containing a single feature (X) and an outcome (y), and let’s assume there are N observations in the dataset:
A linear model to fit the data is given as:
where w0 and w1 are the weights that the algorithm learns during training.
Gradient Descent Algorithm
If we assume that the error in the model is independent and normally distributed, then the likelihood function is given as:
To maximize the likelihood function, we minimize the sum of squared errors (SSE) with respect to w0 and w1:
The objective function or our SSE function is often minimized using the gradient descent (GD) algorithm. In the GD method, the weights are updated according to the following procedure:
i.e., in the direction opposite to the gradient. Here, eta is a small positive constant referred to as the learning rate. This equation can be written in component form as:
If you would like to find out more about the GD algorithm and why it works, see the following article: https://medium.com/@benjaminobi/machine-learning-how-the-gradient-descent-algorithm-works-61682d8570b6
Implementation Using Python Estimator
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
class GradientDescent(object):
"""Gradient descent optimizer.
Parameters
------------
eta : float
Learning rate (between 0.0 and 1.0)
n_iter : int
Passes over the training dataset.
Attributes
-----------
w_ : 1d-array
Weights after fitting.
errors_ : list
Error in every epoch.
""" def __init__(self, eta=0.01, n_iter=10):
self.eta = eta
self.n_iter = n_iter
def fit(self, X, y):
"""Fit the data.
Parameters
----------
X : {array-like}, shape = [n_points]
Independent variable or predictor.
y : array-like, shape = [n_points]
Outcome of prediction.
Returns
-------
self : object
"""
self.w_ = np.zeros(2)
self.errors_ = []
for i in range(self.n_iter):
errors = 0
for j in range(X.shape[0]):
self.w_[1:] += self.eta*X[j]*(y[j] - self.w_[0] - self.w_[1]*X[j])
self.w_[0] += self.eta*(y[j] - self.w_[0] - self.w_[1]*X[j])
errors += 0.5*(y[j] - self.w_[0] - self.w_[1]*X[j])**2
self.errors_.append(errors)
return self def predict(self, X):
"""Return predicted y values"""
return self.w_[0] + self.w_[1]*X
Application of Python Estimator
a) Create dataset
np.random.seed(1)
X=np.linspace(0,1,10)
y = 2*X + 1
y = y + np.random.normal(0,0.05,X.shape[0])
b) Fit and Predict
gda = GradientDescent(eta=0.1, n_iter=100)
gda.fit(X,y)
y_hat=gda.predict(X)
c) Plot Output
plt.figure()
plt.scatter(X,y, marker='x',c='r',alpha=0.5,label='data')
plt.plot(X,y_hat, marker='s',c='b',alpha=0.5,label='fit')
plt.xlabel('x')
plt.ylabel('y')
plt.legend()
d) Calculate R-square value
R_sq = 1-((y_hat - y)**2).sum()/((y-np.mean(y))**2).sum()
R_sq
0.991281901588877
In summary, we have shown how a simple linear regression estimator using the GD algorithm can be built and implemented in Python. If you would like to see how the GD algorithm is used in a real machine learning classification algorithm, see the following Github repository.
Thanks for reading. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/machine-leaning-python-linear-regression-estimator-using-gradient-descent-b0b2c496e463 | ['Benjamin Obi Tayo Ph.D.'] | 2019-05-27 15:04:05.394000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Gradient Descent', 'Python', 'Linear Regression', 'Optimization'] |
Architectures for Distributed Systems | Hello guys, how are you? Today I will write about architectures for Distributed Systems.
An important distinction who we need to do about concepts is what are system architecture and software architecture.
A system architecture is about how the components of a distributed system are placed across multiple machines. It focuses on the entire system. An example would be a e-commerce system containing a web front-end, a service layer, and a database.
About the software architecture, it tells us about the logical organization of software components, that is, how they interact between them, your structures, how they can be independent of them, and so on. Focuses about components. It is at a lower level than the system architecture. Software architecture is a type of system architecture. Example: A component of a e-commerce system is the web front end.
System architectures
We have two main systems architectures that we use today: client-server and Peer-to-peer (P2P).
The client-server architecture has two main components: the client and the server. The server is where all the necessary processing takes place, while at the client it is where the user can access the services provided by the server. Usually, there is only one server that is on the remote side, but for security we use multiple servers, which will use load balancing techniques (I will write about it in another article). This architecture has advantages such as being easier to build and maintain, in addition to better security. On the other hand, it has disadvantages such as a single point of failure and less scalability. A client-server architecture reflects the traditional way of modularizing software, which is one module invoking functions in another module. Placing different software components on different machines leads to a natural physical distribution of functions over a collection of machines.
In the Peer to Peer (P2P) architecture, a node can request a service or provide it. The main idea of this architecture is that there is no central control in the distributed system. Each node can be a client or server at a certain time, depending on its action. Each node is generally known as a peer.
Architectural styles in Software Architecture
Now let’s talk about the logical organization of distributed systems in software components, that is, software architecture.
A common keyword in literature when we talk about distributed architectures is architectural style. An architectural style is formulated in terms of components, it is the way in which these components are connected together and how data is exchanged between the components. Components are modular units with well-defined interfaces. In addition, they have characteristics of being replaceable and reusable. Connectors are communication links between modules that coordinate between components. Therefore, the idea behind distributed architectures is to have components presented in different ways, where the components can communicate with each other over a network. The use of different configurations of components and connectors leads us to four main architectural styles for distributed systems:
Layered architecture
Objects-centered/SOA architecture
Resource-based architecture
Events-centered architecture
We can have a combination of these architectural styles. I will tell you a brief idea about each of the styles, since we will cover the main topics in more detail in the next posts.
Layered architectures: the idea in this architecture is simple: components are organized in a layered format where a component in a layer can to do a downcall a lower-layer component, and usually waits for an answer. Only in exceptional cases a component can to do a upcall to a higher level component.
Object-based architectures and service-oriented architectures (SOAs): This architectural style is based on an arrangement of loosely coupled objects, it is less structured. Each object corresponds to what we define as a component. The connector is an RPC (remote procedure call) or RMI (Remote method invocation). Some popular examples are Java RMI, Web Services and REST API Calls. In the case of distributed systems, the calling object does not need to be executed on the same machine as the called object. Object-based architectures are attractive because they provide a natural way to encapsulate data (called the “state” of the object) and the operations that can be performed on that data (which are called “methods” or behavior of the object) in a single entity. The interface provided by an object hides implementation details, meaning that at first we can consider an object completely independent of its environment.
Someone could say that object-based architectures form the foundation of encapsulating services in independent units. Encapsulation is the key word here: the service is seen as a separate entity, although it can make use of other services. Separating services so that they can operate independently leads to service-oriented architectures, often abbreviated as SOAs. In a service-oriented architecture, an application or distributed system is essentially built as a composition of different services.
Resource-based architectures: one of the problems with service composition is that connecting multiple components can easily lead to an integration nightmare. Alternatively, someone can view a distributed system as a large set of features that can be individually managed by components. Resources can be added or removed by applications, and can also be retrieved or modified. This approach has been widely adopted on the Web and is known as REST. RESTful architecture has become popular due to its simplicity.
Publish-subscribe architectures: It is an architecture in which there is a strong separation between processing and coordination. The idea is to view the system as a collection of processes operating autonomously. In this model, “coordination” deals with communication and cooperation between processes. The key feature is that the processes have no explicit reference to each other. Communication takes place describing the events that the subscriber is interested in. | https://medium.com/@jraphael/architectures-for-distributed-systems-2ba4d191ffff | ['Jhonatan Ríchard Raphael'] | 2020-12-04 15:49:08.067000+00:00 | ['Distributed Systems', 'Software Architecture', 'System Architecture'] |
Machine Learning, Trust, and the Whole Transparency Thing | Machine Learning, Trust, and the Whole Transparency Thing
Don’t think transparency will solve all your AI trust issues, we need more complex AI systems. — by Olaf T.A. Janssen and Gerard Schouten Olaf T.A. Janssen Apr 23, 2020·31 min read
The recent cry for transparent and explainable AI originates not only from our curious nature and a sense of fairness but also because we fear losing control over what we once thought we could control (algorithms) and the need to blame someone for mistakes. Machine learning algorithms are inherently opaque. Not only because of intentional corporate secrecy, but more importantly owing to the technical illiteracy of most people and the dismal human mental capabilities we all have to deal with. We try to mitigate these issues using laws (GDPR) for privacy and fairness, deploying auditing systems, creating better algorithms and defenses against attackers, and also by reverse engineering human understandable explanations for machine learning decisions. These solutions miss two things. Deep learning algorithms are complex dynamic systems that by their very nature are prone to be misled by attackers, exhibit catastrophic errors and are impossible to predict, limiting the usefulness of current strategies (giving us a false sense of security). In addition to improving current strategies, we should embed AIs in even more complex systems where adaptive fail-safes, redundancies and checks and balances are in place to stabilize most catastrophic machine learning failures and where we involve humans. This caters much more to our human sense of trust than cold explanations alone. Modern forms of democracy, the economic system and banks, and our relatively crime-less society are evidence that humans trust complex institutions even though they do not fully understand them and are aware that politicians may creatively bend the truth, bankers may be grabbers and humans may be deceitful. Once the fail-safes of these institutions crumble and trust disappears, the results are disastrous. Sadly, we see this in recent development in some modern democracies and our response to the recent Corona pandemic. With AI-assisted institutions, we can do better.
Introduction
We inhabit a society where we not only encounter so-branded smart thermostats but also smart toothbrushes, umbrellas, forks, and egg trays (examples here). After being notified of our dental state by our toothbrush, we turn to our smartphone and read updates from our friends that social media platforms decided interested us. When we venture outside, we are sharing the road with more-and-more autonomous vehicles that try to learn their way around traffic. Unaware, your online resume is scraped and you are matched to a job that according to some machine fits who you are.
To be fair, most serious applications are developed with the best intentions. Cities and governmental bodies may look to enhance the safety of citizens by predicting crime or plan urban facilities (Goldsmith, 2014; Sisson, 2018). Science tries to discover patterns in a myriad of collected experimental data to unravel new mechanisms (CERN; Kleinberg, 2016). Banks may determine whether you are eligible for a loan (Jia, 2018) so that both you and the bank don’t get into financial problems. The police may decide where it would be best to patrol the streets. Insurance companies may want to determine a personal monthly rate on your behavior. Self-driving cars should make decisions that will ensure the safety of its passengers. The military should have control over its weapons systems to prevent collateral damage and to prevent inadvertently going to war.
Despite the best intentions, it is far from surprising that these developments elicit a whole range of well and lesser substantiated critical reactions. Some responses, fueled by fear, are about AIs taking over our jobs or worse: human extinction in an event ominously called “the singularity”. Some reactions understandably focus on privacy concerns. It does not sit well that companies eavesdrop in on our actions and profit from them. Somehow, we should be in control of how machines get to see us. The most neutral reactions are those that question the accurateness or validity of these algorithms, wonder what reasoning these algorithms use, and who is to blame if things go bad? Is the decision fair or discriminatory? With what data was the model trained? Can it be hacked?
What does not acquiesce the turmoil are statements about machine learning algorithms operating like black boxes that conceal their inner workings. Or that marketers and self-acclaimed innovators try to brand anything as AI for a whole range of ‘intelligence’ levels. This makes it hard for us to differentiate the admirable technology in complex systems such as a self-driving car and the less sophisticated AI in a smart fork that warns us we are eating too fast. To make matters worse, deep fakes and similar experiments show the average human that they should no longer trust their senses about what is real and what is fake. And most machine learning models can be attacked in such manner that an attacker can produce any desired outcome.
A lot of recent developments therefore trigger very basal feelings of fear, anxiety, of being out of control, lack of trust and diminishing of autonomy. Being in such a state of mind often results in tunnel vision and simplified world views about how to deal with this new state of the world, which is reflected in the extreme opinions of media personalities and pundits. This has been the case for all technological breakthroughs, but for AI it seems even more prominent. Nonetheless, around the world serious initiatives are undertaken in response to the cries for more fairness, accuracy, confidentiality and transparency (FACT) (Dwork et al, 2011; VWData).
It all starts with our beliefs
The remainder of this text explores what concepts such as fairness, transparency and trust mean in the context of machine learning applications.
Dictionary definitions teach us that something opaque is literally something that you cannot see through and figuratively is something hard to understand. Conversely, something transparent is free from deceit, readily understood and accessible. This means that trust and privacy play a role. Therefore, we see fairness, accuracy, confidentiality as aspects of this broad definition of transparency.
In the above we have acknowledged that some underlying human desires are:
a general curiosity of how the world and systems work and can be improved
fear of losing control over our algorithms and a sense of control over our world
a sense of justice; we like to be treated fairly (to our definition of fairness)
the need for accountability, we have a desire to be able to blame someone or something (preferably not ourselves)
In modern, connected societies these desires are almost treated as human rights, taking for granted the complex systems in place that try to keep us safe from injustice, illness, ill-fortune and natural disasters. In remote areas of the world, where nature rules, people are more accepting of the fact that they can die alone from a heart attack because a hospital is out of reach. Our fake sense of control becomes painstakingly clear when you see part of the Western world react too late and in disbelief to a force such as the recent Corona pandemic. Something we will address towards the end of this article.
Section 1 discusses three fundamental bumps on the road towards transparency. Section 2 focuses more on the deceit aspect relating to vulnerability to attacks. Subsequently, in Section 3 the focus shifts to how humans make decisions and experience trust. The section both links human and machine decision making and the relation between man and machine, a necessary background for trying to come up with solutions to make machine learning algorithms more explainable and trusted. In Section 4, existing and future solutions are described and compared. In Section 5, we question whether the current strategies are enough by exploring the nature of complex system dynamics, leaving our ideas for further research in Section 6.
1. What is the opacity issue?
Before making a case for more transparency of opaque machine learning systems, we should first establish what it exactly means for an algorithm to be opaque. We discuss three types of opacity (Burrell, 2016) that each have their origin and that consequently require different strategies if more transparency is wanted.
Intentional secrecy
The first origin of opacity is that of intentional secrecy. It can be corporate secrecy: a company trying to have a competitive advantage using their proprietary models and algorithms or state secrecy for national intelligence agencies. Training and tweaking the hyperparameters, usage of exotic (non-common) cost functions, of a good model takes effort and money and others should not be able to take advantage of this prior work by stealing the model. Also, the model is trained with painstakingly obtained data. The training data is usually also kept secret because it is the basis for training the model. It is also often private user data that should be protected under privacy laws. However, the data could be severely biased. If the training set is intentionally kept secret this is hard to judge and generalizations might be hard to trust.
We will briefly describe the different ways machine learning systems can be attacked in a later section. For now, it suffices to say that as a general rule of thumb intentional secrecy is fallible and we should always assume that to an attacker all parts of the system are known (Ateniese et al., 2013).
Technical illiteracy
The second type of opacity rises from the technical illiteracy of the public. A verdict by a judge can be understood by his explanation and verified by consulting related laws and legal precedents. Ambiguities and biases of the judge can be discussed. Reading legal documents is already quite a high threshold for most people and familiarity with legal jargon and procedures is required. If those same laws and rules are coded in programming source code, there is an even smaller group of people that would be able to understand the decision that is made, because fewer of people that are well versed in law can read source code.
For complex systems, even programmers will not immediately be able to understand the full decision process. Statistical machine learning models and algorithms are written in source code but the algorithms themselves require a certain level of mathematical understanding to appreciate the results. Also, they require a feeling about the limitations of the algorithm and when results can be trusted or not. In general, the person who is being affected by a machine-learned decision does not have the technical ability to understand how the decision was formed, even if there was no intentional secrecy with classifier model, training data, and algorithm source code made public. We are in a familiar position of needing to trust a system that we cannot understand technically. There is enough trust in cars, trains and airplanes, and software that we use them without understanding their exact functioning. However, a lack of understanding can easily feed conspiracy theory thinking about the designers of the product. In some cases we can event attribute magical or omniscient properties to systems of which the boundaries are not understood.
While making the public more literate and aware of the systems currently in operation is a good initiative, it can never be expected that all people will understand all systems completely. It is attainable and feasible to have a global understanding of such systems, similar to how we have a simplified mental model of how cars function and how they can be operated safely.
Insufficient mental capacity
The third type of opacity of machine learning systems arises from a fundamental characteristic of these algorithms. Often the decision model depends on a complex interplay between the input variables that humans just cannot fully grasp in a mental model, no matter their education or training. Also, the way machine learning algorithms treat data and relations does not match human-style and scale of reasoning and semantic interpretation. We can easily understand the decision to supply a loan based on the height of a person’s income. We can imagine how a factor of risk of still having that income in a few years might weigh in. These factors are monotonous and more or less linear, meaning: a higher income is always better. In practical machine learning algorithms, factors may not be monotonous and linear and might be impacted by tens or hundreds of additional factors. Such a model goes beyond our human understanding, even if the decision is otherwise made fully transparent to us.
To mitigate this type of opacity, the computer system should be able to reduce its decision-making process into bite-size steps and with concepts that humans can understand. For a good overview of such interpretable models read Hall and Gill, 2019. We also touch them in Section 4.
2. What does it mean for a learning machine to be attacked?
The three reasons of the previous section are fundamental in the sense that we cannot solve them, only be mindful of them. In practice, the transparency issue deals mainly with trust in the workings of the system. Let us first assume that machine learning models are created with the best intentions and trained with the best data, giving very accurate results. Can we still trust them? How do we know whether a machine learning algorithm is tampered with and hacked? Before turning to real-world examples, it is interesting to observe in what manner a machine learning system can be attacked.
A first type of attack, or intrusion of a machine learning system is one that targets the computer system itself. One can try to break into a system and steal knowledge about the system, ideally by obtaining the classifier model, the algorithm source code and the training data. Another way to attack a system is to cause, for instance, an overload so that the system can no longer adequately perform. Such system-stress attacks are not specific to machine learning so we will not further discuss them. Instead, we focus on two types of attacks specific to machine learning systems, which are exploratory and causative attacks (Barreno, at al., 2006).
Exploratory attacks
In exploratory attacks, the attacker tries to gain knowledge of a system by exploring how a system responds to given input without trying to change the system itself. If for a spam filter an attacker can test whether his message is considered spam by the system, he can continuously alter his message until, finally, he gets his spam message passed as regular mail.
A targeted attack would be one where a specific input, a single spam message in the last example, would pass the spam filter. An indiscriminate attack would be one where the attacker finds that a particular combination of words or headers in his message will ensure that he can pass the spam filter with any message of his choosing.
Causative attacks
In causative attacks, the attacker tries to alter the system by influencing the training data. Suppose an attacker wants to bypass a spam filter with a spam message, he can flood the system with emails that are regular emails but that resemble the desired spam message. If the system uses this data to train the spam filter, it may consider the spam message to resemble the slur of regular mails and the attacker has thus bypassed the spam filter. Conversely, the attacker can try to disrupt the spam filter by sending spam that resembles existing real messages to where the system will learn to treat regular mail as spam. Again, this can only occur if the model is trained continuously or if at least the model is retrained regularly and includes the attacker’s data.
Systems that learn continuously, so-called online learners, are more susceptible to causative attacks. Usually, systems are only trained once, and then only updated regularly with a selected training set, so that causative attacks are harder.
Examples of adversarial interventions
Most recent examples of adversarial interventions let the machine learner recognize something utterly different from a human observing the same input. Most of these are based on exploratory attacks.
Some attacks are so-called black-box attacks, so the attacker does not know the system other than the interface available to the end-user. For so-called white-box attacks, the attacker has full knowledge of the machine learning system. White-box attacks are easier, and the level of trickery is higher than black-box attacks. Tutorials to easily create an adversarial network are readily available (Athalye, 2017) for anyone to try.
If a machine learning system can be probed, even as a black-box system, a classifier can be trained based using the output of the attacked system as input. It is shown that in this way, an attacker can learn about the training data of the original system (Ateniese et al., 2013). For instance, it was found that a particular voice recognition system was trained for 95% with English-speaking people with an Indian accent. More specific queries could be possible where it could be deduced whether the data of an individual is part of the training set or not, breaking differential privacy rules.
Voice-activated devices and voice assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo, are now commonplace. It is possible to hide voice commands in sounds to activate such systems, where a human does not recognize the voice command, but the device does (Song, 2017). Demonstrations can be found here.
Deep neural networks are successfully used in image recognition and classification learning systems. Often a system returns a series of labels of possibly detected objects including its accuracy. Attackers can use this information to create a gradient: how does a small perturbation of the input image affect the labeling and the accuracy of this labeling. In another way, the attacker can use a guide image that the learner should detect instead of the original input image. The attacker now has to solve an optimization problem, in which he continuously perturbs the image into the direction of a different label than the correct one. While many optimization algorithms can be applied with mixed success, it is possible to create images that with a minimal perturbation undetectable by humans, are consistently labeled by a learning system as a different object (Goodfellow, 2015). Because of the similarity between deep neural networks and classifiers with the same task, an adversarial example can sometimes fool even systems for which the example was not designed. This means that an adversarial image created to fool one neural network, will often also misclassify on other networks.
As an example of how dangerous this might be, research has shown that by small alterations (stickering) of road signs a STOP road sign could be interpreted as a speed limit road sign (Evtimov et al., 2017). But more recent examples are plenty, fooling face recognition software into thinking you are someone else and faking entire videos (deep fakes) that show people saying things they have not said with gestures they have not gestured in locations they have never been.
3. Human and machine decision making
Bad actors may hack machine learning systems and this has a detrimental effect on the trust we have in such systems. But trust is about much more than that, so we should dive a bit into human-machine interaction.
Machine learning is part of the larger field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that in its broadest definition deals with mimicking human intelligence using a machine. This means that while current AI techniques do not accurately simulate human intelligence, it may be illuminating to draw parallels between human and machine decision making. Also, the decisions of AI have an impact on humans, sometimes directly in human-machine interaction and sometimes indirectly.
Truth and decision-making in humans
We demand machine learning algorithms make decisions given a particular situation parametrized as a set of input parameters. We also demand that the decisions be accurate, or more in human terms be truthful.
We can discern three interpretations of truth: factual, logical, and ethical (Hume, 1739). In correspondence theory, a statement is true if external reality supports it. Factual truths rely on historical or sensory data and depend on the world we live in. Instead, logical truth is true in all possible worlds. Using logical reasoning, new logical truths can be deduced. Yet other truths are neither factual nor logical, but are considered being true in a socially constructed manner. These social or ethical truths are widely accepted within a culture but are essentially freely chosen. Examples of these are many and range from strictly local or cultural rules (traffic regulations and signs, table manners) to highly personal or ethical rules (religious doctrines, utilitarian ethics).
In our decision-making process, we make use of all interpretations of truths; we balance factual knowledge and previous experiences with logical reasoning and are sensitive to our ethical framework. Our brains have a fast and intuitive system of making decisions based on how our brain is wired and trained by experience. But we also have a slower, rational system of making decisions that we can train by learning reasoning skills. Because this second system is slower and requires more energy, many decisions we take are made by the faster intuitive system that is based on factual truths and less by logical truths that can be uncovered by the slower rational system (Kahneman, 2011). Moral (or ethical) truths can be part of both systems. As social and culturally constructed rules, they are embedded in the factual experiences of the world. At the same time, we can use moral truths as ground truths in reasoning about new problems.
More often than we would like to admit, our intuitive system makes us pick the wrong choice from a rational perspective. Such deviating ways of thinking are called cognitive biases. We overestimate small probabilities, prefer statements that align with our present beliefs and so on. Other intuitive systems in our brain are also susceptible to being fooled, such as our visual system by optical illusions, although this occurs rarely in everyday life. More often, our logical thinking is flawed. Such errors in logical thinking are called logical fallacies from rhetorics. These errors occur from both lack of training in logic and interference of our logical thinking by the intuitive system.
Untangling arguments in public discourse becomes interesting. Imagine two people agreeing based on entirely different grounds: one using magical (irrational) thinking and the other dismissing rational arguments on moral grounds. While agreeing with each other, both disagree with a third person who appears to be the only one free from biases and logical fallacies but supports an ethically deplorable position. Which of the three would you trust?
Because we don’t have the time, energy, or will-power to make a balanced decision we may simply decide all politicians cannot be trusted, or we support one party no matter the discussion. Who we trust is then not fully determined on standpoints but other aspects that we will discuss later on.
Truth and decision-making in AIs
AI systems can be interpreted along similar lines considering the different forms of truth and levels of decision making. In the last ten years, machine learning classifiers are trained using ever more amounts of data. While the training of the classifier can take a long time, once it is trained it can almost instantly predict from new input data. These statistical algorithms are based on factual data. The choice of training data determines the truths it uncovers about the world. An AI system based on factual data can make accurate predictions on new input data that is not part of the training set as long as it originates in the same world as the training data. When the training data is biased, the predictions will be too.
Unfairness in algorithmic decisions can often directly be traced back to an imbalance or bias in personal data–for instance concerning gender or ethnicity–that are fed into these algorithms. Consider the news headline of October 10th, 2018: “Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women”. The algorithm appeared to put women at a disadvantage compared to men. It was not rating candidates for software developer jobs and other technical posts in a gender-neutral way. The outrage was profound. Understandable, but also short-sighted, because discrimination in the Amazon case primarily showed Amazon HR’s prejudices against women. A fun read related to this is Hannah Fry’s Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine.
In summary, these machine learning algorithms learn from historical and factual data. They are characterized by slow learning, but fast decision making, and they are prone to biases. We can draw a parallel with our fast human intuitive decision-making process based on factual truths and proneness to cognitive biases.
During the AI winter of the 1970ies and 1980ies, much research has been conducted in AIs that try to analyze natural languages, so-called natural language processing. Such symbolic AIs use algorithms and programming languages such as Prolog and Lisp that are based on formal logic. Resulting systems are, for instance, expert systems that mimic the decision-making process of a human domain-expert. It does this by representing the knowledge of the human expert in a knowledge base and then applying a relatively slow inference engine to deduce new facts or rules based on the existing knowledge. Because knowledge bases had to be filled by human experts, expert systems that are trained by data instead have taken their place. (But often, in supervised learning, labels associated with data have to be provided by experts as well. This is costly and time-consuming.) Initiatives such as the semantic web or Google knowledge graph, which try to create a relational base of all knowledge, may eventually bring back logical inference AIs.
In summary, these algorithms use a fixed knowledge-base to deduce new logical truths using an inference engine. It is relatively slow and may fall to logical fallacies when the knowledge base or its relations are ill-defined or incomplete. Drawing a parallel to our slower, rational decision-making system is easy.
Moral truths are not an integrated part of AIs. Some moral truths are trained implicitly by the (morally biased) training data and may also be encoded in the knowledge base of symbolic AIs. Until, if ever, AIs are developed that can learn to be ethically acceptable citizens in our society, we can resort to manually applying a set of base moral rules on AIs as boundary conditions. Most famous are the Three Laws of Robotics devised by Isaac Asimov. More recently, others suggest that moral AI is feasible Pearl, J., 2018.
What is our reason for drawing parallels between human and machine decision making? It clarifies that there are multiple ways to represent knowledge, and in practical cases, there is no best way to represent knowledge. Just as we use multiple kinds of knowledge to solve commonsense problems, we should also seriously consider using multiple kinds of knowledge representation for machine decision making.
How can AIs induce trust in humans?
“Trust involves the juxtaposition of people’s loftiest hopes and aspirations with their deepest worries and fears.” (Simpson, 2007). This quote tells that trust involves intimate interpersonal relations that balance expectations with the risk and fear of betrayal of this intimate relationship. Fear and uncertainty are often seen as the opposite of trust. We do not trust people for which it is uncertain that they will say or do the right thing, nor do we trust people consistent in doing the wrong thing.
Simpson describes a two-fold model of trust. It describes that both parties in a trust relationship should be aware of each other’s disposition toward working together. To enter a trust relationship, there should be a willingness from both parties. Then they can engage in trust diagnostic situations. In trust-situations, both parties make decisions that are mutually beneficial and in this way build more and more trust, while decisions that only benefit one party will decrease trust. In stress-strain situations, trust can be lost or built when one party sacrifices, or refuses to sacrifice, his gain to benefit the other. The exact dynamics depend of course on the disposition of each partner, and attachment issues.
Statistical machine learning methods will make mistakes. Often, mistakes may not be a big problem for an end user, such as a misplaced recommendation in a movie recommendation engine. For other applications, accuracy is more critical. Either way, if an algorithm is consistently making mistakes, it will erode the trust of the end user (Stumpf et al., 2009). This erosion of trust can be mitigated by involving the end user in the entire decision-making process. Indirectly, the accuracy of the system will also improve and help maintain trust in the system.
Enhanced user interaction with a decision-making algorithm is key to building trust. This interaction can be broken down into three steps. First, the machine learning algorithm should be able to explain the decision it has made. Second, the user should be able to give feedback about the decision. Third, the system should be able to use the feedback to improve the system.
Implementing these steps is not trivial. Explaining the decisions of a machine learning algorithm is not trivial. Even decision trees, which allow for a clear insight into the decision-making process, are not easily presented to end-users. Opacity because of technical illiteracy and our limited mental capacity is a real concern here. Explanations by the machine learner must be usable and comprehensible by the end user. It should also be represented in such a way that the end user can give meaningful feedback and show where in the decision-making process a mistake was made (according to the user). Finally, the machine learning system should be able to translate the user feedback into trainable new information. This is also not trivial since the domain language of the end user may differ from that of the domain expert that trained the model and the training data it is used to train.
4. Strategies for increasing transparency
More accuracy
An engineer’s first response to increasing transparency and trust in machine learning models is simply to improve the algorithms to even better capture hidden patterns or generalize from a dataset. Our inquisitive nature fuels the quest for different and better algorithms almost automatically. Sadly, increasing accuracy and increasing the amount of data does not fully address the trust issue as explained in the previous section.
Fight fakes
Around the same time that the existence of adversarial attacks was discovered, defenses have been proposed. Hiding training data or the algorithm is not enough. One can try to detect when an adversarial network is probing its system, or provide misleading feedback. In the last few years, many defenses have been devised particularly for deep neural networks, ranging from blurring input images to remove the harmful perturbations in adversarial examples to using Principal Component Analysis to detect images that are not natural, or by looking at the internal structure of the networks. All these defenses were bypassed (Carlini & Wagner, 2017) showing that while looking for better algorithmic defenses, we should also consider other options at the same time. An arm’s race follows which has been going on for many years for spam filters. We see this now in efforts to fight fake news, although in practice such efforts still rely on human fact-checkers.
Remove biases and ensure privacy
A more straightforward task than staying ahead of bad actors is devising ways to decrease bias and discrimination in our machine learning models. While humans are susceptible to biases (and sadly often downplay that they are), computers can be programmed to detect and then mitigate biases in datasets. A good effort is done in the IBM AI Fairness 360 Open Source Toolkit that brings together 70 fairness metrics and multiple bias mitigation algorithms. In addition, privacy is a battleground fought with, for instance, the GDPR and ideas such as the decentralized web (Solid).
Explain decisions
The hardest route towards more transparency is finding out how a model decides by letting it explain itself. While in the previous solutions we can unleash the power of math and brute computational force, now we have to deal with the technical illiteracy and limited mental capabilities of humans.
First, we discern two different target audiences. They are the experts that have created or are auditing the quality of a specific algorithm and end users that are affected by decisions of the algorithm. The experts have enough technical knowledge to understand the working of the algorithm, and the quality of the algorithm can be assessed by statistics or abstract visual representations. Trusting the quality of a model will be a more rational decision based on these parameters. End-users cannot be assumed to have the same technical know-how and for them to understand the model a translation has to be made that befits their level of understanding. Also, trust to an end-user is based more on the interaction with the algorithm as described earlier. Models are easier to understand when they are linear and monotonic, because they can be translated into simple rule-based decisions.
Second, we can differentiate between understanding and trusting isolated decisions made by the machine learning model and understanding and trusting the model as a whole. This is often referred to as local interpretability and global interpretability, respectively. While experts will often consider global interpretability, by checking if the model as a whole seems sound, end-users will mainly be concerned with the decisions that affect them and demand local interpretability.
Third, some strategies are model agnostic and can be used independently of the underlying machine learning algorithm, while others are specific for an algorithm or type of input or output.
To test if a model gives sound and trustable output, experts can look at many parameters (Hall, 2017). They can look, for instance, at a 2D representation of the data using dimension reduction (PCA, MDS, t-SNE, autoencoder, SOM) to see if categories are smoothly distributed. They can look at partial dependence plots to see whether the response of the system changes smoothly for specific parameter changes. They can check whether the difference between predicted and recorded values (the residuals) is randomly distributed so that there are no hidden relations left in the model. They can do sensitivity analyses and check for basic measures to check for over- or underfitting. They can also check whether their algorithm can withstand documented forms of adversarial attacks.
Some machine learning methods are more straightforward to interpret than others. If possible, a decision tree or Naïve Bayes model should be used because it allows for direct interpretation. When problems become too complicated and need to be solved with Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), such solutions do not exist. The internal representation of the neurons often bears no contextual resemblance to features understandable by humans. One solution is to fit the model (locally) with another model that is easier to interpret such as a decision tree. This interpretable model will often be less accurate and only offers an alternative view of how the DNN can also be interpreted in cases where both models agree, not how the DNN actually interprets the input data to reach a particular decision.
Locally, however, this may be enough. Small parts of the input space around a given input can be represented by a simpler model. A decision tree or linear regression may work fine locally to explain an individual decision. For end-users, proper visual encoding and representation should be chosen so they can easily understand the local decision. A decision tree is already hard to read for a typical end-user. One can simplify the tree, called pruning the tree, or find smart other ways of representing the data. A particular model that can locally create interpretable insight into machine learning decisions is LIME (Ribeiro, 2016), and is compared to other methods (Budzik, 2018). While it chooses a simple list of keywords to explain an e-mail categorization decision, for complex image labeling LIME shows which pixels contribute to a particular label. This gives the user a direct insight into whether the algorithm bases its decision on the right data. For instance, users were shown that a model labeled an image containing a wolf (instead of a husky) because of background snow pixels and not inherent wolf features. The users decided the model could not be trusted to make correct decisions, even though the accuracy for the training set was very high.
In such local explanations, global understanding or trust can be achieved by taking a sample of representative inputs. However, for models with a large input space or concern less intuitive features than pictures of animals, this only gives limited insight.
5. Dealing with complex systems
So far, the different aspects of transparency, trust, and corresponding strategies have been discussed. Good progress is being made everywhere.
However, there is one elephant in the room that has so-far eluded the discussion and may cast a different perspective on the issue of transparency. Many machine learning systems and deep learning systems can be classified as complex systems. Here, we do not mean complex in the colloquial sense of being hard to understand but as defined in formal complex system theory. Such a complex system comprises interdependent small elements that are adaptive and have non-linear responses. We know that a deep learning neural network of small artificial neurons can be used for classification and prediction. But this is an emergent property of the network that is not obvious from the elements by themselves.
Complex systems share a few other properties that are worth noting. They are very stable for the known context, in our case, the trained dataset which makes them generalize well and so successful in modern AI systems. But their non-linear dynamical behavior allows them to be brought off balance into a very unstable regime. This is what adversarial networks exploit to obtain any desirable outcome.
Even worse, complex systems are known to produce extreme events. Often we expect a normal distribution of events, where outliers far away from the average can be neglected. Complex systems follow a power law instead, which means that extreme outliers can still occur. A strange and unforeseen combination of circumstances can cause a self-driving AI to make a fatal mistake. When such events seem impossible beforehand, they are sometimes called Black Swans. These Black Swans remain even if you try to exert more control on the system by increasing the amount of data or tweaking the hyper-parameters to improve accuracy (What are black swan events?)
This means that a machine learning system alone can never be 100% trusted to not make any severe mistakes or be immune to hacking. Efforts to prove the contrary can only lead to a false sense of security.
But hopefully, our efforts to better explain machine learning decisions are not in vain? A fundamental property of complex systems is their unpredictability. To understand and predict its behavior, you must compute every step of the system, which is basically what you do when you infer a classification from a deep learning model (Mok, 2017). You can, luckily, understand its general behavior by deducing basic laws. This is what physicists have done in describing gases in the laws of thermodynamics or complex flow dynamics in the Navier-Stokes equations. And while even these explaining models can become increasingly elaborate, they will only ever describe the system partially where behavior is idealized and predictable. They will be of limited value when the system classifies or predicts in unexpected ways.
Because complex systems are unpredictable by nature, any explanation of a deep learning decision is made after the decision was made and not 100% trustworthy. Compare this to our mind’s desire to think up explanations for the decisions and actions we take. We may be perfectly capable of coming up with plausible explanations for why we ate that scrumptious cookie while trying to follow that strict diet, but will those convince anyone else? We admit, in most current systems understanding a models’ behavior with tools such as LIME is very useful, but with increasingly complex models local explanations may only give a false sense of understanding why a decision was made. It will perhaps satisfy the need to find a scapegoat for a Black Swan event. However, the explanation may be understandable, it is not the full and true story.
The cry for more transparency in machine learning follows from the human desire to turn complex systems into simple models to give us the illusion of being in full control. The success of traditional hand-coded rule-based algorithms has been in the control that programmers have over them and that they can be relied on to always work as intended. With machine learning models becoming more and more complex we should not get too hung up on the fallacy that full transparency should be attainable, or that it is the definitive way to enhance trust by the general population.
6. Beyond the transparency fallacy
Progress on developing defenses in adversarial attacks and interpreting machine learning decisions should continue just as developing better algorithms and new types of networks that are better suited to specific tasks, but this should not get our only attention.
By realizing we are dealing with complex systems, we should embrace rather than work around their properties. Instead of trying to harness a specific machine learning algorithm to prevent Black Swan-like events, we should learn from how we deal with extreme events in other complex systems. This means adding fail-safes, redundancies, checks and balances. We should strive for even more complexity instead of less.
Combining strategies
Ensemble learning is a strategy where many models are trained and policies are used to combine the many outcomes into a final decision. An ensemble of decision trees is called a random forest, but it is also possible to stack or blend machine learning models of entirely different types. While transparency is not increased by increasing the number of models used, the amount of consensus between models can indicate the soundness of a decision. However, such ensembles are not better protected against adversarial attacks since they are all trained with the same data.
Taking it a step further, we should combine different types of knowledge to solve machine learning problems. While our visual cortex handles most image processing, we use rational thinking to not be completely fooled by optical illusions once we are made aware of them, and we use symbolic representations of objects and relations to assess what we see and explain why we see what we see. Minsky already said that there is no best way to represent knowledge. To solve most real-world commonsense problems, a mind must have at least several kinds of knowledge (Minksy, 1990).
Let’s propose a simple machine learning algorithm for detecting street signs. An adversarial attacker may fool a deep neural network into classifying a STOP road sign as a speed limit sign instead. However, a symbolic representation of the image should raise a red flag that a sign that is mainly red and octagonal cannot be a speed limit sign, or that logically a speed limit sign should not be spotted at an intersection where one would expect, among others, stop signs to occur. Such Deep Symbolic Networks (DSN) are proposed that would allow for image analysis based on a symbolic interpretation of the images which would be more easily interpretable (Zhang, 2017). Similarly, probabilistic logic reasoning has been proposed to allow for learning machine learning models with logic relations (Orsini et al, 2017).
It is not that we should focus only on symbolic learning because those systems are also prone to biases and mistakes. The main point we try to make is that we can increase stability and resistance against biases and attackers, and increase the explainability and trust, by linking several adaptive elements into a new whole. This can encompass: several machine learning algorithms able to decide based on different input and different principles, (ethical) ground rules, and adversarial algorithms trying to find flaws in the above algorithms and to check compliance to the ground rules.
The success of Alpha Go Zero is not solely in its sheer computational power and reinforcement learning algorithm, but also in its use of ground rules about the playing board and proven search tree algorithms. Critics may call this cheating or a weakness, but it is the strength of the system, that allowed it to be the most powerful and stable system thus far.
The human factor
Finally, as has been said already in the section on human decision making and trust: the relation between the complex dynamic system and humans is of utmost importance. The tendency is to put forward machine learning models as smart, more accurate than humans, and eventually infallible. If not now, then soon when we tweak the algorithms and add better data. Systems portrayed as omnipotent and omniscient will only scare us more and erode trust in the long run.
Instead, we propose to put forward developing humble AI: algorithms that try their best but know that they have biases and are prone to make ludicrous and potentially lethal predictions. Such algorithms exhibit doubt, ask (humans) for help, second-guess, allow to be reprimanded, and critically assess feedback to learn from their mistakes. But in essence, it is us that has to change. We should develop a different perspective towards AI, so we can build AI with a different self-image.
Conclusion
We have always struggled to make sense of the complex world around us, trying to create understanding by modeling and simplifying what we see around us. In the last century, we have been helped enormously by the advances of computers allowing us to compute, simulate, and automate a lot of the world with algorithms written using those simplified models. Our understanding of the physical world, economics, and societies have grown immensely because of it. But now, with deep learning algorithms, we are losing the control we thought we were gaining on the world by introducing inherently unpredictable complex systems into our software. Once again, we bump into the limits of our understanding. It is no surprise that we try to force these new models to become controllable again, demanding transparency: fairness, accuracy, confidentiality, and explainability.
Despite all good efforts into improving and constraining single machine learning models, we should not forget what makes us trust (properly organized) institutions, each other and in a possible far future AIs as moral agents. It is because they are all embedded in a stable, adaptive, network of moral agents.
Educating the best judges that can explain their decisions well is an asset to our judiciary system, but we trust the legal system for its hierarchy of appeal and its grounding in law and constitution. We should also still be wise to trust a democratic system of checks and balances over the rule of a genius and eloquent despot. Comparing the ways in which certain individual world leaders and governmental institutions react to a Black Swan event such as the covid-19 pandemic exposes where we should put out trust.
We should embed AI systems into AI-assisted institutions. We distribute responsibilities over several elements. Transparency is now required of the way this institution works, which is more compact and within our range of understanding, while relaxing the constraints on the individual AI elements that are now allowed to be humble and incomprehensible.
( This work was supported by NWO as part of the project “Verantwoorde Waardecreatie met Big Data (VWData)”.) | https://medium.com/@o.t.a.janssen/machine-learning-and-the-whole-transparency-thing-ac85577be382 | ['Olaf T.A. Janssen'] | 2020-05-11 08:31:13.629000+00:00 | ['Complexity', 'Transparency', 'AI', 'Machine Learning', 'Trust'] |
Things Rapists Say: How Entitled Criminals Try To Hide Assault From Victims. | Rapists Are Insidious…And You Might Not Even Recognize It When They Assault You.
I now understand what it means to be raped by your own husband. It took me nearly 3 months to recognize it for what it really was, then when it happened again multiple times, there was no denying I was literally married to an active rapist.
I was actually raped by another man while I had been married, and hadn’t told my spouse that it happened because I was afraid and ashamed, and ended up blaming myself for years that it happened— so I thought I knew the full ways which rape could occur. But I didn’t even think about the possibility that a person could be raped by their own partner — who does that? Well, it turns out that there are many of us.
I had no idea this person I loved and had trusted for years sleeping beside me…would be capable of becoming openly sexually violent with me and others — we’d been married for ten years before he started fully showing his true colors. Marital rape is real violence, and those who’ve endured it know the affects of trauma are even greater than by a stranger.
So here are some statements that I’ve both read and heard that rapists say before, during, or after rape that might clue you in to recognizing an assault. | https://medium.com/we-are-warriors/things-rapists-say-how-entitled-criminals-try-to-hide-assault-from-victims-18972c0fa159 | ['Samantha Clarke'] | 2020-11-22 17:45:36.161000+00:00 | ['Sexual Assault', 'Metoo', 'Culture', 'Crime', 'Human Rights'] |
Programming inside Containers | Step 1. Create Environment inside Image
Build a base image called custom-env-image containing required dependencies for the application using a Dockerfile.
#Using base python image
FROM python:3.10.0a2-slim-buster #Changing to project directory inside container
WORKDIR /project #Exposing flask's default port
EXPOSE 5000 #Installing flask library
RUN pip install flask==1.1.2 #Command to execute flask app when container is created.
CMD [“python”, “app.py”]
Additionally, I have also included a CMD instruction to execute the flask application when the container runs.
Step 2. Write some code / Clone code from a repository
The code for a minimal flask application is displayed below. Though robbed of complexity, it can be considered as an example for an existing project, which needs to be extended with some additional code.
#Path: /home/user/project/app.py from flask import Flask app = Flask(__name__)
def hello():
return ‘Hello, world!’ @app .route(‘/’)def hello():return ‘Hello, world!’ if __name__ == “__main__”:
app.run(host=”0.0.0.0", debug=True)
Step 3. Run container with bind mount volume
In step 1, the development environment was compacted into a base image, which can be effortlessly run to create a container with all required libraries for the application.
Remember! Containers are ephemeral, and immutable. Any modifications made within them, will be futile and destroyed when it is removed. For this reason, the code must be detached from the short-lived container using persistent storage which can be achieved with Bind Mounts.
docker container run \
--name web-app \
--volume /home/user/project/:/project \
--publish 5000:5000 \
--detach custom-env-image
Step 4. Check the application
Let’s have a peek at the application in its current state. Since, the container has been published in port 5000, it should be accessible from the browser.
Application output prior to modification
Step 5. Modify the application, build on it!
Instead of returning “Hello World”, let’s modify the application to return the html document shown bellow.
<!--#Path: /home/user/project/templates/page.html--> <html>
<head>
<title>Message</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>hi, welcome to the website </h1>
</body>
</html>
Make corresponding changes to the flask application, to return page.html
#Path of flask app /home/user/project/app.py
#Path of html document /home/user/project/templates/page.html from flask import Flask app = Flask(__name__)
def hello():
#Lets render a html page instead of "Hello, world!"
return render_template('page.html') @app .route(‘/’)def hello():#Lets render a html page instead of "Hello, world!"return render_template('page.html') if __name__ == “__main__”:
app.run(host=”0.0.0.0", debug=True)
The application gets automatically updated in the browser after a refresh, without having to re-run the container.
Make changes in code, and it runs on the fly!
Step 6. Adding additional Libraries
Seldom does an entire python web application require only the flask library. Installing additional libraries is simple, and can be accomplished by creating a new base image from the old base image. As an example, requests library has been included in the new Dockerfile to create a new base image.
#Using earlier image as base image
FROM custom-env-image #Installing requests library
RUN pip install requests==2.25.0
(Bonus) Step 7. Handling multiple components of a project
Suppose the project includes additional components such as a database, proxy or API services. Then each component’s environment must be compacted inside separate images with bind mounts if required, allowing us to run them as separate containers using docker-compose. | https://reubensinha7.medium.com/programming-inside-containers-301767721de3 | ['Reuben Sinha'] | 2020-12-05 21:56:06.492000+00:00 | ['Flask', 'Containers', 'Docker', 'Programming'] |
The top 5 Altcoins in 2020: Which cryptocurrencies have the greatest potential besides Bitcoin? | The top 5 Altcoins in 2020: Which cryptocurrencies have the greatest potential besides Bitcoin? LetKnowNews Follow Jan 3, 2020 · 6 min read
The Christmas season is not only the end of the year, but also the beginning of the time of forecasts for the coming year. In the crypto-community the question is which coins have the biggest potential for the coming year. In this article we therefore want to take a look at which old coins are most promising in 2020.
However, as the Crypto News Flash Team we would like to point out that the following information cannot be regarded as investment advice. We only share our thoughts about the crypto market. Readers are invited to form their own opinion on the contents of this website and to conduct their own research.
In order to select the top 5 Altcoins in 2020, we have tried to take into account all the important factors that can significantly influence the price of a cryptocurrency. From our point of view these are: acceptance, demand and price. The most important point from our point of view is the degree of acceptance.
Only if the project creates numerous use cases, for example through new partnerships, the price is likely to increase. In this respect, it should also not be ignored that news are a major price driver in the crypto market. Ultimately, acceptance but also demand will increase through the creation of new use cases. The price plays a role for many private investors in as much as “cheaper” coins are more affordable. New investors in particular start with smaller amounts and prefer the so-called “penny” coins.
Based on these factors, we have selected our top 5 Altcoins for 2020.
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
The Basic Attention Token (BAT) is trading at around 0.17 USD at the time of writing and could benefit even more from the growth of the Brave Browser in 2020 than in 2019. At the beginning of December, the developers of the Brave Browser reported an increase in active users to 10.4 million. This corresponds to a tripling of active users within one year.
The Brave Browser aims to revolutionize the online marketing industry and build a decentralized ecosystem that brings users, publishers and advertisers together and distributes the monetization of advertising revenue through the Basic Attention Token (BAT). If the number of active users, especially the number of publishers and advertisers, continues to grow as rapidly as it did in 2019, when a 12-fold increase to 340,000 publishers was achieved, the BAT price could benefit greatly.
The team behind Brave and BAT also speaks for the success of the project. With Brendan Eich, co-founder of Firefox and Mozilla and creator of JavaScript, the project is led by a strong personality. The project also has a prestigious list of investors, including Founders Fund, Foundation Capital, Propel Venture Partners and Pantera Capital.
VeChain (VET)
VeChain already caused a stir in the last two months. For a long time the Singapore based project flew under the radar of many investors. In recent months, however, the project has received increased attention, and not without reason. Since the mainnet launch of VeChain Thor blockchain, the team has been able to establish more renowned partnerships than any other project in the crypto market.
VeChain Thor blockchain’s use cases focus on digital business transformations in various industries such as fashion, wine, automotive, food safety, carbon emission reduction and agriculture. Partners include global corporations such as DNV GL Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the National Research Consulting Center (NRCC) from China, DB Schenker, Kuehne & Nagel, BMW Group and Renault.
Most recently, VeChain has entered into a cooperation with the Anhui Tea Industry Association in China, under which up to 670 Chinese companies from the tea industry can use VeChain Thor Blockchain.
So why could the big breakthrough come in 2020? China’s head of state, Xi Jinping, gave a speech in October 2019, which was widely acclaimed in the crypto community, in which he called for a major blockchain initiative. As the VeChain Foundation pointed out in a recent blog post, the focus is on the creation of value through the blockchain. VeChain corresponds to this standard, as it was stated in the publication:
The cooperation between VeChain and the Anhui Tea Industry Association is in line with the government’s goal to increase the competitiveness of all stakeholders in the industry through blockchain technology.
In this respect, China could become an important factor for VeChain if further use cases and partners in China will follow.
Cardano (ADA)
The cryptocurrency Cardano (ADA)created by Charles Hoskinson definitely belongs in the “penny coins” category at a current price of USD 0.03. Despite the low price, Cardano has great potential. This became apparent not least a week ago when the Incentivized Shelley testnet with stake pools was launched.
Within the first 48 hours, 240 stake pools were formed and over 5.4 billion ADA, about 17 percent of the total supply, were delegated. The launch of Shelley on mainnet is expected to take place in 2020. Then the participation in the Proof of Stake is likely to increase significantly, especially as exchanges such as Binance will also offer staking to their users.
Furthermore, Cardano has announced a major marketing campaign for 2020, which will be developed by the well-known agency McCann Dublin, which has already worked with Microsoft, LinkedIn and Norwegian Airlines, among others.
Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink was already the biggest winner within the top 40 in 2019, as CNF analysed. With a price increase of 586 percent (until 15 December) since the beginning of the year, the LINK price recorded substantial growth. In June 2019 it was announced that Google is working on a project using Chainlink.
In detail, the tech giant wrote that it is working on applications that store cloud-generated data on a blockchain. To integrate the external data into the blockchain, the Google project used Chainlink. Chainlink also has SWIFT, Oracle, Gartner and IC3 as partners. In October, Intel, HyperLedger and EntETHAlliance joined the project to promote blockchain adaptation in the enterprise sector.
But why does Chainlink have great potential in 2020? In 2020, the topic of getting external data into the blockchain will become even more important. With its Oracle technology, Chainlink is well positioned to forge further strong partnerships and integrate into new services.
Ethereum (ETH)
Even though Ethereum as the second largest cryptocurrency by market capital is certainly not an insider tip and with a current price of around 130 USD is also not a bargain, Ethereum has a big year ahead of it. After slightly less than five years, Ethereum will enter the “Serenity” phase (or Ethereum 2.0). Even though the roadmap below (from May 2019) is no longer quite up to date, as the Istanbul hard fork and the Beacon Chain (Serenity Phase 0) have been somewhat delayed, it gives a good overview.
The launch of Ethereum 2.0 could be a strong factor in the price of ETH. Already in 2019, Ethereum has shown that it is still the number 1 smart contract platform. With the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, numerous strong partners and global corporations stand behind the project. For example, Microsoft launched a token-based reward program for the Microsoft Azure platform at ETH Blockchain in early December.
As Forbes reported, Ernst & Young, one of the world’s largest professional services companies, is investing in the development of data protection tools for the Ethereum ecosystem. The “Nightfall” project is, as Forbes writes, “a great example of how one day all companies will use the public mainnet for transactions with sufficient privacy comfort”.
One topic that has already dominated in 2019 and could become even bigger in 2020 is Decentralized Finance (DeFi). As ConsenSys recently stated in a report, DeFi has the potential to grow into a billion dollar industry. In this respect, there are numerous arguments for the Ethereum price to outperform 2019 in the year 2020.
LetKnow.News on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram | https://medium.com/letknownews/the-top-5-altcoins-in-2020-which-cryptocurrencies-have-the-greatest-potential-besides-bitcoin-ed4d8d936aab | [] | 2020-01-03 10:38:49.616000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Altcoins'] |
Forgiving, accepting, and surviving | Forgiving, accepting, and surviving
This story won’t be so hard to read, I’m just trying to tell myself, and to tell whoever read this, that life, is not always going to serve up what we would expect. There’ll be so much problems, bad dreams that will haunt you every day or every night, tears that will probably drawn yourself, but it’s alright — you just have to accept it, and survive.
What about forgiving? I know sometimes it gets hard for you to say the ‘sorry’ words to others, but again, that’s okay. Start from forgiving yourself. Stop asking yourself questions, ‘why should i forgive myself when i’m the one who’s hurting?’ ‘why should i forgive myself when i didn’t do anything wrong?’ When the answer is always: it’s because you should take care of yourself.
Be kind to yourself, it’ll lead your mind, and your health to a very good condition.
I do not force you for doing anything that you don’t like, if you don’t want to do it now — then, you still have time to find the actual reasons why you should forgive yourself, before you take care of the rest of your problems. But, the clock is always ticking, days turn into weeks, which turn into months, which turn into years, so don’t waste your time before lost it all. Life is not always about regrets if you use your time wisely.
I was a really young girl when I experienced my very painful grief, all I remember was: that was supposed to be a sunny day. I should be able to see birds flying, hear the waves crashing against the shore, and maybe — eating lot of ice cream. But as I said, life is not always going to serve up what we would expect, the truth about that day: the waves seems like it stop moving, I can’t see the birds flying, even the ice cream would taste bitter, like sorrow. There was no sun shining bright from the sky, it was raining, hard.
I didn’t cry. The rain do it for me.
I let myself drawn into a dark place, a very dark place. All I can see was a very-sad reflection of mine, begging for my life will come back to me like it used to be. I cried in my sleep, that dreams became my reality, and my reality became my enemy.
That was a hard time. I need to let go of everything that burdens me, I shouldn’t be on that stage, I shouldn’t felt that way, I shouldn’t pitied myself.
So, I accepted it. I accepted everything, but I still need to survive. I’m still in my unstable condition — I need to make myself find the meaning of this life, why should I stand tall on my own feet. It would take some time, but it’ll be alright.
To you, my everything, I hope you shine brighter than the sun, you are my brightest star, mama. I’ll live this life for the two of us, until we meet again. I’ll make sure that I’ll never let you go again from me.
I miss you, and love you always.
With love, N. | https://medium.com/@nisanamira/forgiving-accepting-and-surviving-ba3aa49e1413 | ['Nisa Namira'] | 2020-11-06 14:17:16.728000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Mothers', 'Grief', 'Mental Health', 'Missing Persons'] |
Dash’s “Klingon” Problem and How to Fix It | Dash has a Klingon problem.
No, not literally the fictional alien race from Star Trek, but clingers-on, people who attach themselves to the hard work of others in an attempt to steal credit. This happens internally between the various Dash-funded projects, as well as more notoriously in the rest of the cryptoverse, where countless copycoins seize the latest innovation and pass it off as their own. It’s not easy, but I have some ideas on how to address the issue on both fronts.
Treasury Klingons
The Dash treasury suffers from this problem due to the way the system is set up. Projects make a strong pitch to voters, receive funding, then continue to receive it after making a strong case that they are deserving of such. This skews incentives towards simply focusing on what your project can claim, rather than how Dash can get better with or without your help, leading to a certain degree of isolation between treasury proposals. What’s more, when voting time is coming up and you’re a little lighter on achievements than you would have hoped, promoting something someone else did and hoping they don’t notice becomes an easy way of padding your record. Of course, this has the effect of redistributing funding away from achievers and towards light producers, which is detrimental to the ecosystem as a whole.
Solution: Standardize claiming credit, reward collaborations
The biggest reason this happens is there is no standard process for presenting the product of the various treasury projects’ hard work to the general public. Certain reporting practices exist, for example posting updates on the proposals themselves, but are mainly internal and are only noticed once per month when voting time comes around. Standardizing a real-time formula for posting updates and day-to-day achievements across the whole network will significantly increase the chances that credit is given where due, and not swiped.
Another important aspect is to promote cross-project cooperation. When a proposal owner sees what’s going on next to them, they can be tempted to claim (or at least imply) credit in order to boost their chances of passing in the future. If, however, they are looked at favorably for joining forces with and supporting fellow projects, this becomes an easier and safer move than a credit swipe. Even further, looking with skepticism on a project that does not have collaborations with others can make would-be credit stealers have to minimize these claims in order to give some legitimate props, and getting involved with another group brings another witness to each group’s activities, increasing the overall accountability of the ecosystem. Not to mention, the network as a whole grows stronger the more projects help each other out.
Greater Cryptoverse Klingons
Of course, this problem is much worse outside of Dash, with a host of competitors trying to claim its innovations for themselves. This can be copying privacy functions, claiming to be the first DAO, improving instant confirmations, even plundering the “digital cash” tagline. Since these area all open-source projects with few limitations such as patents and licensing, it’s pretty easy to focus all your efforts on hype and branding while occasionally looking over what Dash is doing, swipe it, and claim it as your own innovation.
Solution: Win the media game, keep being first to market
For a while, Dash has lost out by not being included in the crypto intelligentsia who spread most of the hype around the space. The only way around this is to win the hard-fought scramble into the general public’s consciousness. This comes from improving Dash’s PR performance, winning over key influencers and pundits, and a relentless social media presence that’s impossible to ignore. At that point, it will be significantly harder to get away with claiming falsehoods like governance firsts or high involvement in a particular country without being immediately put in their place, while right now such claims can be made without much resistance.
Finally, Dash simply has to keep innovating, and implementing, first. It took years for others to notice the benefits of masternodes, improved privacy, on-chain governance, an instant confirmation mechanism, and a treasury budget. Still in relative obscurity are sporks, long-living masternode quorums, BLS signatures, the DAPI, and, of course, blockchain usernames and contacts. As Dash becomes a more complete and market-ready product, and achieves success in getting its innovations implemented in public commerce, this window between rollout and other projects swiping innovations will become more important and easier for Dash to profit from. Eventually, the series of “firsts” will become to much to catch up with. | https://medium.com/@DashNews/dashs-klingon-problem-and-how-to-fix-it-5ea011705d1d | ['Dash News'] | 2019-03-03 16:07:31.007000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Fintech', 'Dash', 'Blockchain'] |
Adding a Pandas Layer to AWS Lambda | A step by step guide to making Pandas available as a Lambda Layer in AWS …
This guide assumes a working knowledge of AWS Lambda functionality.
Why: When attempting to run Pandas in your AWS Lambda you receive the error code below.
“numpy: cannot import name ‘WinDLL’ from ‘ctypes’ (/var/lang/lib/python3.7/ctypes/__init__.py)”.
This is due to incompatibility between Windows compiled version of Pandas and AWS Linux.
The solution is to use an AWS Linux image with Docker to compile the Pandas libraries.
Working with Docker
Download docker at “https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop” and install using the default specs.
When installation is complete, open Docker. This will start Docker in the background. lick Show Hidden Icons on Windows Taskbar to verify that Docker is running. | https://medium.com/@christophjones/adding-a-pandas-layer-to-aws-lambda-38520872bd3d | ['Chris Jones'] | 2020-12-04 17:05:47.688000+00:00 | ['Pandas', 'AWS Lambda', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
How do I establish myself as a writer? | Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
A writer, similar to a coder, painter, or any other professional, just loves his job. Isn’t it? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with being a writer. If you love the job and it makes you happy, why not? But, not everyone accepts this profession whole-heartedly. Sadly, the “everyone” I’m talking about here includes our friends and even our family. Well, it’s okay up to one point as everyone has their perspective on things but the same perspective starts getting annoying when people say nasty things about your profession or make satirical comments at it.
I am an engineer by my academic qualification but a writer by profession. I don’t know how writing became a part of my life but trust me, I don’t regret even one moment of it. When I started writing, it was just a side gig for me and nothing else. I had never thought I would become a writer. It was not even my childhood dream! But the more I worked as a writer, the more I fell in love with the profession and ultimately I became a full-time writer.
Now, the reason why I am telling you about all this is that writing as a profession is risky. It might happen that you’ll be bankrupt at the beginning with no clients (if you want to delve into freelancing) or no job offers(if you look forward to working in an organization). But, if you are passionate enough, none of these things will matter and you will emerge victoriously.
When I started as a writer, I had no idea about this field. As I said, it was just a side gig. But after some time, I started feeling the need for guidance that could let me know if I was doing the right thing or going the right way. I started asking some people who were already established in the field of writing. But, it was not of much use because they would offer advice that barely touched the surface of things. And that’s when I decided to start sharing tips on how one could establish themselves as a writer.
The last article I wrote talks about how you can create engaging content. In this article, I will let you know how you can establish yourself as a writer. Having said that, let’s get started !!
JUST START WRITING, NO MATTER BIG OR SMALL
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash
A lot of newbies refrain from starting small because they think it’s shameful that they won’t earn as much as their friends. But, trust me, it’s completely fine. As long as you think that you’ll learn enough, please don’t consider money as the deciding factor. The experience you’ll get is way more important than the remuneration. Also, refrain from people who invite you for non-paid work just because you’re a newbie. If you work for someone, never do it for free. Always quote a charge; be it small or large.
MAKE A PORTFOLIO AND SHARE IT WITH PROSPECTS
Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash
If you’re an established writer, you’ll obviously have work samples that you can share with your prospects but if you’re a newbie, it might be a problem for you to share something meaningful. Well, don’t worry because I have got an amazing solution for it!
There are some platforms such as Medium and Contently which let you create a portfolio of your won. All you need to do is grab your laptop and start typing. Also, make sure you cover at least four to five niches such as health, fashion, lifestyle, tech, etc. while adding it to your portfolio. You can also choose to post regularly on platforms like LinkedIn or even make your WordPress blog. And voila, you will have a portfolio ready!
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
From the day you start working, you start adding experience to your profession. And, it pays you a lot in the long run. Therefore, make sure you start looking for relevant experience right when you decide what you want to do as a professional.
LEARN TO SAY A NO!
Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash
See, it might happen that when you’re establishing yourself in the industry slowly, you’ll get several offers at the same time. But, you need to be really balanced in your approach and consider choosing the ones that are more important to you. Also, please refrain from choosing more than 2 to 3 at a time because you need to take care of your health and give proper attention to the work you’re entitled to.
REJECTIONS ARE IMPORTANT!
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Now, when you read the title you might think I’m a maniac. Who likes rejections? But, trust me, there’s no better teacher than rejection. It’s only when you get rejected you get to know what your shortcomings are and how you can improve them. So, don’t get disheartened when you get rejected, instead, work on your weaknesses and get better.
DON’T UNDERSELL YOURSELF
Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
By not underselling, I mean that you should not accept bogus offers or work for a rate that’s way below the market standards. For example, when I started as a writer, I used to charge 60 to 70 paise per word. Soon, I joined a company that offered me the same rate at the start but reduced the rates to 40 paise soon by telling me that the client wasn’t paying them enough. The next step was obvious. I stopped working for them. So, stay away from such a bogus offer and don’t undersell yourself.
Well, that was all for this article. If you would like to add some points, please let me know your suggestions in the comments. And, until next time, keep reading! | https://medium.com/@sonalipandey/how-do-i-establish-myself-as-a-writer-7bc5f65110de | ['Sonali Pandey'] | 2020-12-25 08:18:48.387000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Content Writing', 'Writing Strategies', 'Writers On Medium', 'Writing'] |
5 digital marketing tools for small businesses | In 2020 we have lots of digital marketing tools, but in this article, we focus on those which are more useful for you and we don’t talk about those tools that already people know about here such as Google Analytics.
These digital marketing tools will help you automate your work and focus on more valuable stuff and some tools that will help you rank on Google. So let’s understand some of the digital marketing tools for you to bring more value to your business or for your clients.
But keep this in mind, this will help you only if you have the mind to know how to use them for your benefit. These tools will help you but you need to put your time into understanding these digital marketing tools for your use.
Related :
Digital Marketing Tools #1: Buffer
Buffer is an excellent tool if you don’t have time to manage all of your accounts and post everyday. If you are a person who needs to focus on other essential things in business this tool is for you. It will handle all of your social media accounts. They have over 73,000 customers.
Post daily on all your social media accounts can be very hard especially if you have other things to do such as essential meetings etc. Buffer gives you this ability to automate your work and you focus on your important meeting and save time to learn new things.
This tool saves your time so you don’t need to worry about posting daily on your social media networks. This will also give you the graph chart about how your social media performance grows in a month.
Digital Marketing Tools #2:Similar web
Similar web will give you all the data about your website such as the country rank of your site and global rank. Also, it identifies who has given you a backlink.
Your traffic source such as organic referrals and the data about your advertising networks. Yes, this all-in-one tool is excellent. This will also give you data about how much traffic you gain in which country.
This data helps you gain more traffic to your site. For example, you type in your URL and you see that you have gained more traffic in the UK or you have not much traffic in the US.
So you have a better idea about what country has not much traffic on your site, so you advertise for that specific country.
There are lots of exciting features as well in this tool you need to use. If you want to check all the data about your competitor, so you understand which country has the most traffic they are getting and all the data about their website. Similar web will give you this information so you work best and always beat your competitor.
Digital Marketing Tools #3: Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a great tool to check your website performance. Ahrefs have their keyword research tool that will give you exact data about what people are searching for. There are lots of features in this tool that I can’t describe in one article.
Ahrefs give you specific knowledge about how much traffic you are getting from which source such as organic search referrals and social. Ahrefs gives you data about how many backlinks you have gained and lost from which site.
You also uncover the content gap between you and your competitor. This digital marketing tool (Ahrefs)is used by most of the successful marketers.
Digital Marketing Tools #4: Answer the public
Answer the Public is great for content creators and content marketers. In this tool let’s say you type digital marketing tools they will give you all questions and phrases that people type in google.
First, you get lots of questions and phrases so you create content about these, and secondly, this data is collected from Google and about which questions and phrases people are searching for.
So if you find some questions and check Google for what people create content about, then you have a better chance to rank on that topic.
Digital Marketing Tools #5: SEM rush
SEM rush is similar to Ahrefs. SEM rush also gives keyword research tools and the best thing is if you type in one keyword they can group similar keywords in one group.
This will ease your work so you don’t need to find lots of keywords again and again by typing in manually. Competitor analysis Tool will give you all data about your competitor for example, how much traffic he gets every month how many keywords they are ranking for.
SEM rush also has a tool that tracks your ranking on search engines. They have lots of tools such as link building, On-page, social media management which help you boost your online business site to the next level.
Conclusion
Buffer is a social media management tool that manages all of your social media posts. It is especially for those people who don’t have time to daily post on all their social media networks.
Similar web is for analyzing your site or your competitor site. They give data about how much traffic you are getting from which country you are getting the most traffic and many more.
Ahrefs is best for keyword research, analyzing your and your competitor site, and many more.
Answer The Public is for content marketer who doesn’t know about what topic they need to create content they give you all the data on what question people are asking in google so you create content about.
SEM rush tool is for keyword research, analyzing sites, competitor analysis, check Ranking, Link Building, and many more.
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Related : | https://medium.com/illumination/5-digital-marketing-tools-for-small-businesses-e6a19c4d3926 | ['Mr Arsalan'] | 2020-12-17 14:26:12.347000+00:00 | ['Small Business Marketing', 'Illumination', 'Small Business Owner', 'Business Tools', 'Small Business Growth'] |
CryptoMining — the big boom will explosive soon | One year in Crypto world, not long enough to make me become “ a book worm”, but I have learnt many thing. In my view, earn crypto by invest in mining cloud is one of the most effective and fastest ways to earn money. This is also the easiest and simplest ways , just deposit and wait, your money will bring money to you. But, we have a big problem with scammers, that is too hard to find legit site now. Do not worry, I will introduce Crypto Mining for you, great team with perfect project. So, let’s begin:
First, we should have a tour with Crypto Mining: https://crypto-mining.biz/?ref=tominer
Crypto Mining is new generation mining facility with the latest technology equipment and best location choices making it accessible and profitable for everyone. With expert management, technical and operative team, constantly expanding facilities with eco-friendly energy sources, constant investment in ecosystem and excessive research on technology; company pursues collective development as well as individual and social benefits.
Crypto Mining provides its users with an effortless cryptocurrency mining experience by operating state-of-the-art mining devices by experts in sheltered facilities. It differs from its competitors with its international operative capacity, numerous patents and research, the contribution of respected managers and experienced team, user-oriented thinking structure and investments in technology. With these features, it can offer the most affordable prices in the market without requiring additional commissions or additional fees.
There are many choices for you to invest: BTC, Ethereum, Monero, Dash,…In my experience, BTC price low is the greatest chance to invest and earn. BTC come to moon soon, specially after halving, do not miss this chance.
Now, how to register on Crypto mining, instruct step by step here:
Create An Account: Be a part of the family we care and be a partner of our investments. Start using platform features immediately with ease.
Choose Coins To Mine: Choose mining algorithm and available coins and start investing. Feel free to distribute your hash powe on plenty of coins.
Accumulate Daily Return: Platform allocates return on daily base creating the best cloud service yet. Platform wallet will display ROI with complete transparency. | https://medium.com/@tominer1110/cryptomining-the-big-boom-will-explosive-soon-2acd298acce7 | ['Timer Thomas'] | 2020-03-17 11:29:41.070000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Mining'] |
IOTA & The Millionaire Maker | Dan S [IF] 2020.05.03.
Yeah I’ve been doing a crazy amount of work behind the scenes to queue some stuff up. A lot of doors have opened up since the Crypto Ratings Council published rating.
Dan S [IF] 2020.05.03.
In my world they go hand in hand
yeh-tbh I’m waiting on one some work[eddsa; reusable address] from 1.5 to be published-some potential partners need it in order to support us.
I don’t think people really realized the significance of that announcement
Dan S [IF] 2020.05.03.
[Can you elaborate on the significance of that Rating and what it means for IOTA?]
Sure-The CRC is a group of industry leaders that came together to self govern and put a common framework around some of the legal aspects of approving digital assets on platforms. Rather than spending all this time doing it independently, they thought they could come together and combine their efforts. Saves time + money, but also shows US regulators that we as an industry are maturing and are serious about governance/regulation.
It was valuable for two reasons: You can’t even get on the organization’s partner platform without it -> and many other orgs outside of CRC look to that rating for guidance.
the second reason, as @Sissors noted, that the actual rating impacts people’s comfort engaging with a digital asset. IOTA being rated a 2 is signifcant. Bitcoin is a 1, Ethereum is a 2, Ripple is like a 3.75/4.
How to read the score:
One. A score of 1 means the Council’s analysis found that an asset has few or no characteristics consistent with treatment as a security.
2. A score of 5 means the Council’s analysis found that an asset has many characteristics strongly consistent with treatment as a security. | https://medium.com/@btlkhs/iota-the-millionaire-maker-3029b0e4261f | ['Owl Watch'] | 2021-02-19 15:55:14.474000+00:00 | ['Iota', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Technology', 'Future Technology', 'Insights'] |
The Most Curatable Tags On Medium | The Most Curatable Tags On Medium
These Tags Are Curator Catnip!
Photo by Ramiz Dedaković on Unsplash
Everyone knows that the secret to being curated on Medium is to choose the right tag. Your post may be brilliant but if you burden it with a humdrum or too-popular tag?
No curation for you!
But choose just the right tag? Doesn’t matter if your story is dreck — instant curation!
As a public service to my fellow Medium writers, I’ve spent hours of painstaking research to compile this sure-fire list of the most curatable tags on Medium.
Just apply one of these tags to your post and you’re good to go:
SELF-CRASHING CARS
THIS HAPPENED TO YOU
SHATTERED DREAMS
OUT OF FOCUS PHOTOGRAPHY
BIGGER ON THE INSIDE
QUID PRO QUO
INHUMAN PARTS
BLOCKCHAIN AT THE DISCO
BALLS
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
THESE AREN’T THE DROIDS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR
DULL LITTLE POEMS
ZOMBIE BATMAN
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REST OF THE PIE?
SEX IN SPACE
MAGIC HAMSTERS
DOOM
AVOCADO TOAST
OKAY BOOMER
If you’re aware of any other curation-friendly tags, please post them in the Comments section. If they’re outstanding I’ll add them to the list (and cut you in on a portion of the 47 cents I’m going to earn for this post.)
As for me? I’ve started tagging most of my posts MALARKEY. It doesn’t help me get curated but I enjoy it.
( Roz Warren, FBTA, is the author of two collections of library and book-related humor, Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection of Library Humor, and Just Another Day At Your Local Public Library, both of which would make great gifts for your favorite librarian or other bookish friend. If you enjoyed this post by Roz Warren, you might enjoy this one too.) | https://medium.com/the-haven/the-most-curatable-tags-on-medium-9e23f093d44c | ['Roz Warren'] | 2020-11-13 15:50:54.629000+00:00 | ['Parody', 'Writing On Medium', 'Humor', 'Tags', 'Malarkey'] |
Customer Reviews Analysis using NLP — The Netflix Use Case | In the era of digitalization, most companies have various sources of customer feedback, social media, call logs, mobile apps, to name a few. Therefore, analyzing such feedback to come up with actionable insights, is becoming essential for any business with an online presence.
1. Introduction
Some of the challenges businesses face while analyzing customers' feedback is the qualitative nature of the data and sometimes the huge amount of feedback they get. Ratings are quantitative and hence can be easily analyzed, however analyzing textual feedback, reviews, and free text is challenging. Likely, today we have Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to efficiently process a large amount of text without human intervention.
There are mainly two approaches that can be used to find topics in text data, Topic Modeling, or Text Clustering. In this tutorial, we will go through some techniques and ideas about the two approaches and try to understand what people are talking about in mobile app reviews. We will start by fetching some reviews data, taking as an example the Netflix's mobile app, then we will apply a series of preprocessing techniques to prepare the data for topic detection.
2. Data Preparation
In the following analysis, I used a dataset of 5000 recent reviews from the Netflix mobile app on Google Play. The following figure shows the daily number of reviews with a score of 1, it gives us an idea about the amount of data we are dealing with.
Image by Author
We can also look at the review length distribution. As we can see, usually people submit short to medium size reviews (under 50 words).
Image by Author
I used a maximum length of 48 words for all reviews, longer reviews are discarded from the dataset.
3. Data Preprocessing
Text preprocessing is an important step for natural language processing. It transforms text into a more digestible and usable form so that machine learning algorithms can perform better.
In our case, I applied the following transformation:
Remove URLs, emails, phone numbers & punctuations.
Remove tags, emojis, symbols & pictographs.
Remove stop words.
Convert to lowercase and lemmatization.
Duplicates removal.
Spell checking.
Non-English reviews removal.
Once preprocessing is done, we can look at a random review example.
Original review: {'It has all the boring movies and episodes'}
Preprocessed review: {'boring movie episode'}
4. Reviews Topics Modeling
In topic modeling, a topic is defined by a cluster of words with their respective probabilities of occurrence in the cluster. The goal is to find the topics in a set of documents, without having prior knowledge about those topics. In most cases, we only need to specify the number of topics and leave the rest of the algorithms.
4.1 Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)
Probably the most popular topic modeling approach, it treats each document (text) as a mixture of topics, and each word in a document is considered randomly drawn from the document’s topics. The topics are considered hidden (thus the ‘Latent’ in the name) which must be uncovered through analyzing joint distribution to compute the conditional distribution of hidden variables (topics) given the observed variables, words in documents. This takes into consideration the fact that documents can have an overlap of topics which is somehow a typical case in the natural language.
I performed LDA for topic modeling using the amazing library gensim, and also use it to tokenize the data and prepare dictionary and bag-of-words features.
In order to have a good LDA model, we need to find a suitable number of topics that give good quality topics. One of the commonly used approaches to evaluate topics is measuring the Topic Coherence, it’s a single score by topic where it measures the degree of semantic similarity between high scoring words in the topic. These measurements help distinguish between topics that are semantically interpretable and topics that are artifacts of statistical inference. I used C_v measure which is based on a sliding window, one-set segmentation of the top words, and an indirect confirmation measurement that uses normalized pointwise mutual information (NPMI) and the cosine similarity. Read more about coherence measures here.
I ran multiple LDA models with different numbers of topics and picked the one with the highest score. We could also finetune other hyperparameters like document-topic density (alpha) or word-topic density (beta), however, I keep it simple and only finetune the number of topics.
Image by Author
We pick the number of topics with the highest coherence score: K=30
Image by Author
As we can see, we got many topics related to technical issues about the app, controversies, and people not satisfied with the app. we will dig deeper into the clusters in the next approaches.
Despite its popularity and usefulness in the context of medium and large documents, LDA generally performs poorly with short documents. In our case, reviews are generally short texts (> 50 word) with typically one topic, which is not necessary LDA’s assumption. In order to solve this issue, we will try out a Short Text Topic Modeling.
4.2. Short Text Topic Modeling
In order to model topics in short texts, we use an altered LDA approach called Gibbs Sampling Dirichlet Mixture Model (GSDMM) where the main assumptions are :
Each document corresponds to only one topic.
The words in a document are generated using one unique topic.
The GSDMM model can be explained with a process called the Movie Group Process, where a professor is leading a film class and students are randomly seated at K table. Students are asked to make a shortlist of their favorite movies and each time a student is called, he or she must select a new table regarding the two following conditions:
The new table has more students than the current table.
The new table has students with similar lists of favorite movies.
After repeating this process consistently, we expect that the students eventually arrive at an optimal table configuration. where some tables will disappear and others to grow larger to form clusters of students with similar movies’ interests.
We adapt rwalk’s implementation for our STTM.
we start with a K = 30 number of topics and let GSDMM find the optimal number of topics.
Image by Author
Similar to LDA, STTM did a good job in highlighting the main topics.
5. Reviews Categorization using Text Clustering
In this section, we will look into how Text Clustering can help with detecting topics and categorizing reviews. In clustering, the idea is to group documents, with potentially semantic similarities, into different groups. First, we represent each document with a numerical vector in a way similar documents should have closer vectors in the space (using a similarity metric). We will test out different approaches, from classic ones like tf-idf to recent and advanced ones around the idea of documents embedding.
5.1 Features & Embeddings Extraction
a. TF-IDF & LDA
TF-IDF stands for Term Frequency — Inverse Document Frequency and is have been explained in many articles and tutorials in the data science community, but I will remaind you of the main formula :
tfidf(w,d,D)=tf(w,d)∗idf(w,D)tfidf(w,d,D)=tf(w,d)∗idf(w,D)
with : tf(w,d)=log(1+f(w,d))tf(w,d)=log(1+f(w,d)) and idf(w,D)=log(N/f(w,D))idf(w,D)=log(N/f(w,D))
where :
f(w,d) is the frequency of word w in document d.
d is a document from our dataset
w is a word in a document
D is the collection of all documents
N is the number of documents we have in our dataset
An other way to vectorize document is to use LDA features where each vector represent the probabilities of belonging to a topic. We fix number of topics to 20, for example, to have 20-dim vector for each review text item.
Sklearn made it easy to calculate TFIDF and LDA features.
b. Embeddings
Embeddings are low-dimensional learned continuous vector representations for words, sentences, or documents. They can be used in many use cases like finding similar documents, do machine learning on text, and visualizing text and relationships.
For our use case, we want to represent reviews as vectors representation to be able to apply clustering algorithms to detect topics. Reviews are usually short sentences, thus, we should look for a suitable embedding approach for this situation.
Here is the list of the approaches I have tested :
Sentence Transformers using BERT.
Vanilla BERT: CLS token as an embedding, Averaging last hidden layer outputs as an embedding, Averaging the concatenation of last hidden layers outputs as an embedding
Facebook’s InferSent: using GloVe or using FastText
We will use the first approach with the model bert-large-nli-stsb-mean-tokens, as it showed the best performance in general.
In order to visualize the chosen embeddings, we should use a dimensionality reduction approach to represent reviews in the 2D space. We have many options like PCA, t-SNE, TriMap, AutoEncoders, and UMAP. I tried most of those techniques, but I will stick with UMAP as it’s is a dimension reduction technique that is gaining a lot of popularity recently.
We reduced the embeddings to 16 for better clustering, and we will use a 2-dimension reduction for the visualization.
5.2 Clustering embeddings
Once features are ready, we can proceed with applying clustering algorithms to hopefully detect relevant topics in our reviews dataset. As we don’t know the number of topics, we will avoid using k-means, where it’s always programmatically difficult to find the best K, and usually performs poorly if the assumptions on the shape of the clusters aren't met.
As an alternative, we will use HDBSCAN (Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) which is a density-based clustering algorithm. HDBSCAN extends DBSCAN by converting it into a hierarchical clustering algorithm and then using a technique to extract a flat clustering based on the stability of clusters.
We can summarize how HDBSCAN algorithm works in the following steps:
Transform the space according to the density/sparsity via building the minimum spanning tree from the mutual reachability distances. Construct a cluster hierarchy of connected components Condense and extract the stable clusters from the condensed tree
To learn more about HDBSCAN, check this detailed article. Likely, we have a high performing implementation of HDBSCAN clustering that we can use to do our clustering.
HDBSCAN has a couple of major parameters that we need to tune to get good clusters. we will focus on two main parameters, min_cluster_size which should be set to the smallest cluster size that we wish to consider, and min_samples measures how clusters are conservative to the noisy points. You can read more about parameter selection for HDBSAN here.
Let’s fix those parameters and run the HDBSCAN on the embeddings. We choose min_cluster_size = 40 and min_samples = 10 .
Now we can visualize the embeddings in a 2D space with their associated clusters to have an idea of how the clusters are dense.
Image by Author
In order to better evaluate clusters and highlight the best coherent ones, we will sort them by size (i.e, the number of reviews in a cluster), and the median outlier score for the items in the clusters. this score can be found in the attribute outlier_scores_ in the clusterer object. it provides a value for each sample in the original dataset that was fit with the clusterer. The higher the score, the more likely the point is to be an outlier. Let’s explore the results! we remove the clustering representing the noisy points and order the clusters by their size or how dense they are.
Image by Author
The figure shows the word cloud for each cluster detected by HDBSCAN, the title contains the cluster/topic number, the percentage, and the number of reviews belonging to that topic.
Few insights from the clusters :
The biggest two clusters, (Topics 20,22) representing around 16% of all reviews, are related to the topic of boycott and controversy around the French movie ‘Cuties’.
Another prominent cluster (Topic 35) is related to people experiencing issues when they open the Netflix app, especially after installing some updates.
Topic 18 is mainly about people leaving negative reviews about the content on Netflix.
Another recurrent issue reported many times is when the video freezes after a certain number of seconds.
A lot of reviews are related to hurting Hindu sentiments and promoting propaganda. Apparently, it's about another controversy caused by Netflix.
In some clusters, people are asking about more movies that aren't currently available on Netflix, many of them are related to Bollywood movies.
We can see many topics related to technical issues about the app: Issues with login, a black screen when playing a video, app crashing after the start, payments can’t be processed, people requesting other payment methods (Rupay), video/audio isn’t working properly…
5. Conclusion
As we have seen, Natural language processing can be very useful when it comes to customer feedback understanding. We have used topic modeling and text clustering to detect relevant topics in Netflix Android app reviews from Google Play. All mentioned approaches can be improved further via more hyperparameters finetuning. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Originally published here. | https://towardsdatascience.com/customer-reviews-analysis-using-nlp-the-netflix-use-case-92b3645770e1 | ['Salih Boutadghart'] | 2020-12-09 11:21:46.273000+00:00 | ['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Data Science', 'Clustering', 'Machine Learning', 'NLP'] |
A Few Ingredients Is All You Need | A Few Ingredients Is All You Need
With a handful (okay maybe two) of ingredients, your options are nearly limitless
I admit it. I eat out at restaurants far more than I should. I like going to a bar, having a couple of drinks, trying new food, and really just hanging out. Perhaps it’s because I’m an ambivert, or whatever fad term people want to use. But it’s hard on my wallet, being a “starving” writer and all. So I do try to cook as much as I can. And honestly, I’m rather impressed with myself.
But perhaps I shouldn’t be. It’s amazing what you can do with a handful of ingredients. Ensure that you have a well stocked pantry, which doesn’t cost much to keep full, and you can make a lot of food, if you’re in a pinch. Add in a handful of fresh ingredients, and the options are nearly limitless.
Core Pantry Ingredients
The initial cost of setting up a pantry supply might be a little high, but maintaining it isn’t that hard. You could probably do without a number of items on the list, but having them all will mean that you can have a lot more variety in things you make.
Flour, salt, sugar, oil, vanilla extract, vinegar, baking soda, baking powder, and yeast are enough ingredients to make a number of kinds of breads and pastas. I’m a decent bread baker at this point. I’m still working on getting pasta down right. But it’s so nice being able to just grab some ingredients and end up with fresh baked bread in a few hours.
These ingredients are cheap and last for quite a while. If you’re willing to take the time, you can even keep a sourdough sponge going and never have to worry about yeast again. I did this for a time, and had a pet sourdough sponge named Buster. I certainly do miss Buster. He (they?) made great pancakes!
There are also a bunch of no knead bread recipes out there, which rely on fairly long rise times and high moisture content. I use about a 2:1 flour to water ratio when baking most of my breads. I’ll also use a lot of oil if I’m trying to make a super soft white bread, or when I’m making pizza dough/focaccia. Pinch of Yum has a nice and simple no knead recipe, which uses that ratio. The recipe calls for an 12-18 hr resting time, which allows the yeast to do the work that kneading would normally do.
A simple boule type bread that I made a while back
Herbs and Spices
Okay. I left out a few ingredients. Really, the ones above are enough. But we really should add some spice to our lives. If you have enough space, growing fresh herbs will give you an endless supply of them. But dried herbs work just fine in a lot of recipes. And you can buy a whole set of herbs for a reasonable price. A small set can run about $30. A large set can be more pricey, especially for a fancy one. The Simply Organic Gourmet Top 24 Spices Set on Amazon runs a little over $150, but the jars will probably last you a good year or two.
Fresh Ingredients
Eggs and cream are probably two of the most important fresh ingredients, though powdered milk, condensed milk, etc could also go in your pantry if you don’t want to worry about spoilage. With these ingredients, you can make even more kinds of pasta. You can make cakes, custards, ice cream. The other day I made something like a dutch baby, which is a cross between a custard and a pancake. All I needed was milk (I tried it out with powdered goat milk), eggs, sugar, flour, a pinch of salt and baking powder, and a half stick of butter.
Now, I didn’t include butter on the list above. Why not? If you have cream, you can make butter. You can make cheese. You can make yogurt. I’ve even made some basic cheese curds from powdered goat milk. It turned out alright. Personally, I wish I had a few chickens and a goat, and then I’d be set on eggs and cream.
Fresh veggies are probably the next most important items to add to the fresh ingredients list. With the above list, you could already make homemade cheese ravioli and other nice pasta dishes, with some tomatoes and other veggies, you can make wonderful sauces to go with your pasta dishes. Fried ravioli in a homemade tomato sauce? What could be better?
Housewarming Gift
I think every house should have a well stocked pantry. It’s probably one of the most important investments you can make when getting a house, or even just getting your first apartment. So one of the best housewarming gifts that you can give a person is something that they can use to stock it. If you’re worried about getting the same stuff someone else is giving the person, the easiest option is to just give a gift certificate.
Further Reading
Navigation: Master Index|Food and Drink | https://medium.com/the-spiritual-anthropologist/a-few-ingredients-is-all-you-need-829e629f389b | ['Daniel Goldman'] | 2020-04-21 12:11:52.019000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Food', 'Budgeting', 'Living'] |
Secret Email System Review+Bonus | Welcome to secret email system review.
In this review we are going to know what is secret email system and who is the creator of this system. Moreover we will learn about how it could be beneficial for you and how much Profit you are going to have by using this system.
》Note: This is not a fake review of secret email system. I have completed my research on it, and sharing my Personal experience about this system.
Honestly asking that this system is going to be very much beneficial for you and the money you will spend here is not going to be wasted.
The reason why I am recommending this to you because I have completed my research on it and it is truely beneficial for everyone.
Now let’s get started
About The Product
PRODUCT NAME: Secret Email System
RELEASE DATE: 28th SEP, 2020
CREATOR: Matt Bacack
PRODUCT TYPE: Email Marketing Training Book+Additional Services
RATING: 4.6☆
Who should purchase this Secret Email System?
If you are thinking to start an online business this system could be very much beneficial for you. If you have an online business and is not running well then this system can also be helpful for you. Either if you have a business and is running very well then this can boost your business.
( It is necessary for you to purchase it and later on I am going to explain it to you WHY. )
Packages
Main product: The Secret Email Systen (ebook including all bonuses)Price: $5.60 (one-time)
After your purchase the following offers will be presented to you:
First One-Time Offer: The Ultimate Email Marketing Package Price: $97 (one-time) - or $47 deal price
and
Second One-Time Offer: The Secret Email MastermindPrice: $84 yearly - or $9.95 monthly
Why you should buy this SES?
Let’s suppose you have an online business, then it is obvious that you need traffic. If I talk about myself, I heavily rely upon paid advertisements and search engine rankings to let my business run.
The risk of loosing my ad accounts overnight or search engine rankings by an algorithm update is real. If I don’t have an email list when things like this happen, I’m back to square zero.
I want a traffic source that I could Own And Control and I think you should do the same.
About The Creator Of This System
OWNER NAME: Matt Bacak
•Owner at InfoSoft 360
•#1 Best Selling Author.
•Award winning Email Marketer
•Lives in United States
•Matt Bacak
He’s the founder of the secret email system and sold over $23,000,000 worth of digital, physical, low ticket, high ticket, and recurring products and services. Matt Bacak is the king of email marketing. Over the last 18 years he has sent well over a billion emails, ran over 8000 email split tests and his email lists are growing by up to a mindboggling 10,978 subscribers per day.
I think now you know better why you should learn email marketing and why you should trust this guy. If you want to learn it then there is not other better option than this guy.
Learn more about Matt
Click To Get Matt’s Product
What Is Secret Email System? How It Is Different?
The Secret Email System is an approach to create and run an online business. Essentially it’s email marketing with a special twist.
Matt wanted to create a tool that allows you to build a sustainable and profitable long term business that gives you freedom.
But it's more than that, it's a surefire way to shortcut your way to online business success by someone who has done it multiple times.
The Secret Email System consists of an ebook where you learn the whole system and an advanced 90-Minute video training that will walk you through the exact steps Matt goes through, to get up to 10,978 leads per day. Plus you will get some serious bonuses.
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No fulfilling services, no paid ads or customer service needed. And the best part of all, by only working 2 hours a day while automatically generating sales 24/7.
》Take a look on this Flow Chart《
I know you have learned much about Secret Email Marketing till now, If no then, keep reading ☺
The Secret Email System is an email marketing ebook that shows you how you can generate leads and sales for everything from digital products, physical products, low ticket sales, to high ticket sales, to fill seminars and book out webinars, to selling books, nutritional supplements and even consulting services.
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The Secret Email System allowed Matt and his students to get rid of 99% of useless, time-stealing activities and instead simply focus on high-impact, income-producing actions that simply make money.
What are the Bonuses that come with Secret Email System?
Glad you asked!
The Secret Email System comes with 10 additional, high-value bonuses:
Irresistible Offer Video Guide - How to find a pick high converting offers that workSecret Email System Checklist - Step-by-step flight checklist that makes sure you implement the system in the right order so you can get results3x Formula Calculator - The profit equation Matt uses that breaks down subscribers, clicks, and EPC to help you maximize your sales2.1 Mill Email Swipe File (1,000 Emails)- Matt’s own private email swipe file of 1,000 emails that’s responsible for $2.1 million in salesMatt’s Secret 357,582 Lead Gen Template - The same exact lead gen template he used to generate 357,582 leads10,978 New Leads - Daily Masterclass - How to generate high quality leads each and every daySecrets Of The Internet Millionaire Mind Book - 9 Common characteristics of internet millionaires and how to adopt them for your own successGigantic Swipe File Book - Words, phrases, sentences, attention grabbing headlines that you can use in your emails and for ideas and promotions that trigger leads to open emails which lead to salesFree Breakthrough Session With Matt’s Team - A free 45 minutes strategy session with Matt’s team to help you get clarity and figure out how to implement the secret email systemMatt’s Private Facebook Community - Access to a private group of 20,000+ email marketers where you can learn, share and network with some of the top email marketers in the world
Recab Of What you Will Get
Peace of mind to be learning from a true Heavywheight Champion (priceless)
Secret Email System eBook
10,978 New Leads-Daily Masterclass
3x Formula Calculator
Irresistible Offer Video Guide
$2.1 Million Email Swipe File (1000 Emails)
Secret Of Millionaires Book
Secret Email System Checklist
My Secret 357,582 Lead Generation Template
Gigantic Swipe File Book
Total Bonus Value: $997
Update 29. September
Free 45 Minute Breakthrough Session With Matt's Team
Access To The Private Facebook Group (Priceless)
Detailed Recab
Secret Email System eBook
This is the eBook where you learn the whole Secret Email System.
10,978 New Leads-Daily Masterclass - (197 Value)
How to generate high quality leads each and every day.
3x Formula Calculator - ($97 Value)
The profit equation Matt uses that breaks down subscribers, clicks and EPC to help maximize sales.
Irresistible Offer Video Guide - ($97 Value)
How to find and pick high converting offers that work (Nothing is going to save a bad offer. If you're getting it wrong at this stage you're doomed!)
$2.1 Million Email Swipe File (1,000 Emails) - ($497 Value)
Matts own private email swipe files of 1,000 emails that's responsible for $2.1 million in sales.
Secret Of Millionaires Book - ($19 Value)
Nine common characteristics of internet millionaires and how to adopt them for your own success.
Secret Email System Checklist - ($47 Value)
Step-by-step checklist that makes sure you implement the system in the right order, so you can get results.
Secret 357,582 Lead Generation Template - ($297 Value)
The same exact lead generation template Matt used to generate 357,582 leads! (I'm already curious for that one ;))
Gigantic Swipe File Book - ($297 Value)
Words, phrases, sentences, attention grabbing headlines that you can use in your emails and for ideas and promotions that trigger leads to open emails, which lead to sales.
Free Breakthrough Session With His Team - ($97 Value)
A Free 45 minutes strategy session with his team to help you get clarity and figure out how to best implement the system.
Private Facebook Community (Priceless)
Access to a private group of 20,000+ email marketers where you can learn, share and network with some of the top email marketers in the world.
100% Guaranteed
Matt takes all the risk and gives a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. He even lets you keep the book.
I think till now you have realised that it is completely safe and Profitable. In case if you dont like it you can get your money back.
My Honest Opinion
After going through the ebook and the bonuses I have to say, I never got so much out of a $5.60 investment.
If you have a business, even an offline brick and mortar business, invest in yourself and buy the ebook and get the bonuses for FREE. The value given, considering the price, is insane.
If you have a business you need email marketing. If you do email marketing you need to buy this ebook. It's as easy as that.
What Was the Actual Point Of Review
Knowledge without application is worthless.
Nobody is going to do the work for you.
The only time you will get results with this system is once you implement it.
So I want you to make a decision:
Either you do nothing, move on and nothing changes.
Or you get the knowledge, take massive action and see results.
Closing Note
This concludes my personal review on Matt Bacak’s Secret Email System.
I really think you should at least check it out here.
Thank you for reading
Stay Happy.
Affiliate Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Matt Bacak’s SES. That means, I’ll get a small compensation from him if you buy it through one of my links.
I only recommend helpful products and services that I use myself and truly enjoy
Click Here To Get It From My Link | https://medium.com/@abacy.abb0/secret-email-system-24739bc9c717 | ['Saifullah Abbasi'] | 2020-12-23 10:27:38.369000+00:00 | ['Secret Email System', 'Email Marketing', 'Email', 'Email System Review', 'Email Management'] |
The New Underdogs of Food Delivery | Mrs. B cannot be found on Deliveroo, or Uber Eats, or Just Eats, and doesn’t give discounts. Yet every Thursday, she cooks, packs and delivers for a waiting list of customers who would be the envy of any restaurant on those apps.
Under the radar of a world in ‘peak food delivery’, a small movement hums — that of the home chef. Mostly found through Facebook and Instagram, these micro businesses are serving a people who are craving home food and either don’t have the time to make it, or the skill is being lost generation to generation as working couples become the norm. More importantly, it comes on the back of people now accustomed to ordering online and too many restaurants serving far too similar food, anonymising the connection between the eater and the maker — people are feeling the need for authenticity, not ‘what the data says’ restaurants should serve.
“First of all, I’ve never eaten chicken tikka masala in my home in my life”. So tells me Gavin, who helps his mum run Mrs. B. They sell exactly what they would eat at home — dishes like keema with peas, and aloo baingan. His response represents a rising sentiment within the younger South Asian community in the UK — Indian food is nothing like what is eaten in the homes of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.
For Mrs. B, it began when they would cook huge meals at home and offer extra food to their friends and colleagues the next day. The response from non Asians would be ‘oh my god, that food was amazing, it’s so different to what we’re used to’. Although she works part time as a teacher, her son kept encouraging her to start a side business, ‘My mum was nervous yet excited about the challenge but the feedback we received gave her confidence to persevere’. And so they initially tested on WhatsApp groups, until eventually Gavin took on the marketing side of the business and set his mum up on Instagram and Facebook. Now, a set menu is released every week for scheduled delivery, and each week they sell out, fast.
This story is a microcosm into a larger movement; a reaction to delivery apps where restaurants are losing individuality and character. With the ubiquity of food delivery, it’s easier now to start a restaurant and so cue a gold rush of burger and fried chicken joints appearing as virtual restaurants. These are quick to set-up brands, run out of existing restaurants or cloud kitchens by having the same chefs cook dishes with existing ingredients and rebrand as a newly listed restaurant on the delivery apps. As these new brands pop-up and outpace genuinely great restaurants, delivery food is in danger of tasting very similar in quality and losing the specialisation of chefs. For a great in-depth commentary on virtual restaurants, check this excellent article by Food Sheikh.
On one side therefore you have an increasingly anodyne delivery selection. Meanwhile, meal kit deliveries are also on the rise; both Gousto and Mindful Chef recently raised series funding for hyper growth. Again, a response to a market not having the time to cook at home. But is there a crack beginning to appear amongst people for whom healthy food is not exciting and food delivery is hit and miss — especially ethnic communities?
Home chefs are people who love what they do, and specialise in particular types of dishes not easy to find on apps. It’s in the home kitchens where we are seeing what used to be part of our favourite local restaurant: high quality control, high expertise, limited speciality dishes. Again, this is partly a reaction to people who don’t have the time to cook at home any more and are craving something authentic. But I want to offer a more interesting observation. This is supplanting what used to be the human connection with the chef-owner at the local mom-n-pop store. “I wouldn’t be able to afford the commission the apps charge for a business of my size. But what’s really important for me is the connection to my customer — they all chat directly with me and I love to have a bit of friendly banter with them. I think that’s what makes ordering my food extra enjoyable for them’, says Muhanna who runs Tiffin St., cooking up a more modern take on desi home food. This was also one of the most important things for Mitha, who started Mithas Munchies to showcase true Bengali food on the table in response to a community missing home food.
It’s still quite early to say where any of this will go, especially after life begins to slowly return to normal and people want to be social again. But it’s a warning for unchecked overcrowding of virtual brands built on data, encouraging lack of differentiation, and monolithic food delivery anonymity. The best thing about home chefs is discovering a micro culture, a speciality dish not found in restaurants, or a familiar dish cooked in its most authentic version. I for one hope they are here to stay and champion these underdogs as I continue discovering London’s food scene — and what better place to start than its kitchens. | https://medium.com/@tahirshah77/the-new-underdogs-of-food-delivery-7e00c42474a4 | ['Tahir Shah'] | 2021-02-20 15:45:20.461000+00:00 | ['Apps', 'Food Delivery', 'Startup', 'Restaurant', 'Uber'] |
MY GENESYS DIARY: PART I – MEANINGFUL FRIENDSHIPS | I remember getting stuck with a copy I was working on. Copywriting isn’t my best strength as every day there’s relearning to do. I was to write a comprehensive review/sales copy for software built by the incredible humans of Genesys. Did I panic? Yes. It was the imposter in me trying to struggle with proving that I deserved my job and I was also good at it.
Yvonne was the only one I could comfortably meet to help my brain function better. On my first day at the job, she told me it was okay to ask for her help whenever I get stuck with writing- I didn’t hesitate to do that. She explained what I had to do and it made the process of writing more straightforward for me. Yvonne is my go-to person at work when I’m unsure about what to write.
Bosses are said to be scary sometimes, unapproachable also. Not David and Nino. I think what they have is a superpower, to be this intelligent and also have a friendly approach to everyone that works in their team. I think my old boss should ask them for their handbook or a manual on how this intentional leadership thing is done.
For some weird reason (blame it on the coffee mostly), I see Tappi, Ezra, and Jerry as triplets. Maybe because they share an apartment or the fact that they have inside jokes and this obvious bromance thing going on with them (I promise, I’m not jealous). For me, its how Jerry walks into the office and gives everyone a fist bump with a very contagious smile on his face. It’s hard for you not to smile back at Jerry. If you ever come to Genesys and have a reason to smile, maybe you walked past Jerry.
There’s Ezra with his jokes and the word “foolish,” which he has given a polite meaning to. The first time I met Ez was in the kitchen, I remember making sloppy sounds with my cup of coffee and him saying I disgust him. Trust me; if Ezra says a hurtful word to you, it’s coming from a place of love. When he calls you foolish, it’s low-key his way of saying he loves you.
Tappi and I would video call each other in the office and laugh until one person drops the call. It’s how we bonded. I would randomly text him a Whatsapp sticker and he will return the energy. Taps is one of the happiest people in my workspace. It’s easy to cheer him up.
At this point I’ve realized how long this read is about to be and also the fact that I’ve made a lot of friends in a short time. Why I’m making this particular post? You will find out at the end.
Richmond defines the word “multitasking.” I have no idea how we became friends, but I know before the reshuffling of desks, Richmond and Frisky were my best mates. We had inside jokes, and it takes only a word or eye contact for us to disturb the quietness with our laughter. With Richmond, comes the caring Stephanie. I like her, don’t ask me why but it’s hard not to like Stephanie.
If there’s anyone that needs a space of his own and a break from the rest of the brand team sometimes, it’s Atoms. He walks into the door and gives handshakes to everyone, and heads to his desk to start work. | https://medium.com/genesys-tech-hub/my-genesys-diary-part-i-meaningful-friendships-d4394e8031f3 | [] | 2021-06-17 23:58:05.893000+00:00 | ['Workplace', 'Friendship', 'Diary', 'Productivity', 'Work'] |
US Presidents and the relative age of their successors | When he takes office on January 20th, Joe Biden will become the oldest ever US President. And, assuming Donald Trump doesn’t rage quit the Oval Office before then, it’ll also mark the second time in a row a US President has handed over to a successor who’s older than them after Trump replaced the younger Obama in 2017.
That got me wondering about how different Presidents and their successors have been in age over the years. Because time remains stubbornly linear, and no one has yet lived to be the 289 years old they’d need to be older than George Washington, we’d expect that it would be more likely for a President to be replaced by a younger successor than an older one.
There have been 44 Presidential transitions so far (George Washington obviously didn’t succeed anyone, though he was older than King George III and Prime Minister William Pitt) and 31 of them have seen Presidents being followed by younger successors, while 13 Presidents have been older than the man they replaced. Those thirteen were:
Andrew Jackson, 118 days older than John Quincy Adams
William Henry Harrison, 9 years and 299 days older than Martin Van Buren
Zachary Taylor, 10 years and 343 days older than James Polk
James Buchanan, 13 years and 214 days older than Franklin Pierce
Andrew Johnson, 45 days older than Abraham Lincoln
Chester Arthur, 2 years and 45 days older than James Garfield
Benjamin Harrison, 3 years and 210 days older than Grover Cleveland
William Howard Taft, 1 year and 42 days older than Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson, 261 days older than William Howard Taft
Lyndon Johnson, 8 years and 275 days older than John F Kennedy
Ronald Reagan, 13 years and 238 days older than Jimmy Carter
George W Bush, 44 days older than Bill Clinton
Donald Trump, 15 years and 51 days older than Barack Obama
(Joe Biden is 3 years and 206 days older than Donald Trump)
A huge gap, record-breaking, the biggest (picture: BBC)
The only other time both a President and his successor were followed by someone older was the early 20th century — Theodore Roosevelt succeeded by the older William Howard Taft in 1908, who was then defeated (with the assistance of Roosevelt) by the older Woodrow Wilson in 1912. However, the age difference between the youngest and oldest of the three (Roosevelt and Wilson) is less than that between Trump and Biden.
Also of note in that list is that George W Bush and Bill Clinton are the closest in age of any two successive US Presidents, born just over six weeks apart in 1946, while Bush and Donald Trump are the closest in age of any two Presidents, having just 22 days between them. (The closest gap between a President and a younger successor is the 160 days between Ulysses Grant and Rutherford Hayes)
Biden will be the first President to be older than four of his predecessors (Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton). Previously, the record was three, held by James Buchanan (older than Pierce, Filmore and Polk) and Ronald Reagan (older than Carter, Ford and Nixon).
The 15 years between Obama and Trump is the biggest gap between a younger President and their older successor. The counterpart in the other direction is when Dwight Eisenhower handed over to John F Kennedy, who was 26 years and 227 days younger than him, beating the previous 17 years and 290 days between James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. | https://medium.com/@nick-barlow/us-presidents-and-the-relative-age-of-their-successors-3399da43a638 | ['Nick Barlow'] | 2020-12-15 17:26:51.658000+00:00 | ['Aging', 'History', 'Presidential Trivia', 'US Politics', 'President'] |
Linux++ (March 29, 2020) | Linux++ (March 29, 2020)
Hello and welcome to the tenth edition of Linux++, a weekly dive into the major topics, events, and headlines throughout the Linux world. This issue covers the week starting Monday, March 23, 2020 and ending Sunday, March 29, 2020.
This is not meant to be a deep dive into the different topics, but more like a curated selection of what I find most interesting each week with links provided to delve into the material as much as your heart desires.
If you missed the last report, Issue 8 from March 22, 2020, you can find it here. You can also find all of the issues posted on the official Linux++ Twitter account here or follow the Linux++ publication on Medium here.
In addition, there is a Telegram group dedicated to the readers and anyone else interested in discussion about the newest updates in the GNU/Linux world available to join here.
For those that would like to get in contact with me regarding news, interview opportunities, or just to say hello, you can send an email to [email protected]. I would definitely love to chat!
There is a lot to cover so let’s dive right in!
Table of Contents
Personal News
Linux Community News
Community Voice
Explore Linux Content
Linux Desktop Setup of the Week
Personal News
If you don’t care what I’ve been up to over the past week, feel free to skip ahead to the Community News section :)
Linux++ On Linux Spotlight!
Linux Spotlight official logo. (Credit: linuxspotlight.fireside.fm)
If you have been following along with Linux++ for some time, then you will know that I’m a huge fan of Linux podcasts. One that I absolutely love is called “Linux Spotlight”, which is hosted by Rocco from the Big Daddy Linux community. The idea of this particular show is to interview the people behind Linux and the community to shed light on their origins, their views on Linux itself, and their personalities. It is such an awesome show!
So, of course, when Rocco asked me to be a guest on Linux Spotlight, I was both extremely surprised and humbled by the request. Of course I said yes! So, this week, my own Linux Spotlight (Episode 41) was released.
Yes, this was my first time in a public video setting and yes, I was a bit nervous at first. However, thanks to Rocco being such an incredible host and just generally a great guy to chat with, I quickly forgot that we were even recording for a podcast and it truly felt like I was in a normal conversation about my life and opinions.
There are definitely some incredible quotes that came out of the conversation including “I can talk to Linux about them”, “I like many different type”, and, my personal favorite (and might even become my tagline!), “I love reading blog, I read a lot of blog.” Just incredible and so insightful! I think I’ll stick to writing ;)
So, if you would like to get a small window into my past with Linux and a bit of who I am, search for Linux Spotlight on any of your favorite podcasting platforms, or you can check out the YouTube video linked below:
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Toward the Future
On a semi-related note, the future of Linux++ is coming into view and it is time to announce that I will be joining the wonderful people at the Destination Linux Network as a content creator! This is an extremely exciting venture for me as I have long been a fan of all the content that DLN produces along with the amazing community surrounding it.
I will continue writing Linux++ each week, however, it will be hosted on their platform in addition to the normal release on Medium for those who are subscribed here for the time being. This marks a major turning point in the life of Linux++ and I can’t wait to start working with the wonderful people over there.
I wholeheartedly want to say thank you to Destination Linux Network for the opportunity to join your community in an official capacity. Thank you Ryan for first asking me to join and getting me setup. Thank you to Jason and Eric for believing in me and being some of the first people to share my writing around the community. Thank you to Michael for putting up with me and being an absolutely awesome guide through this process. And, of course, thank you the all the content creators at DLN for welcoming me with open arms. You guys are awesome and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
Make sure to look out for the official announcement, which should drop on the Destination Linux podcast later this week in order to learn more about this project.
As always, thank you for the continued support. It means the world to me!
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Community News
KDE: Onward and Upward!
With the recent release of Plasma 5.18 LTS earlier this year, the developers over at KDE are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The Plasma team has already put out multiple point releases and now are at 5.18.3, which is pretty impressive in such a short amount of time. However, now the development has shifted to work on the next iteration, Plasma 5.19.
There are a ton of improvements that have been introduced in the past few weeks that it would be impossible to mention all of them in the format of this publication. However, some that I think are extremely exciting include the Dolphin file manager getting a duplicate feature for creating copies of selected folders/files, integration of the KDE global menu applet with Wayland support, support for restoring paused SFTP file transfers, the fixing of ssh:// links, the ability to run arbitrary user-specified shell scripts in response to switching activities, the Pin button in the System Tray and Digital Clock pop-up are now more appropriately sized, the cursor hint showing what will happen to a file in Dolphin now changes appropriately when modifier keys are pressed, and Discover now respects the user-configurable APT update interval on Debian-based systems.
Of course, with 5.18 being a long-term support release, the KDE team mainly focused on polishing the desktop and squashing as many bugs as possible as it will be used by a large amount of people for a very long time. However, with the LTS out of the way, 5.19 will pave the way for a flood of new and interesting features. Expect to see plenty of news regarding the innovative folks at KDE in the near future!
Plasma’s new Pin Button in the System Tray. (Credit: pointieststick.com)
With that being said, if you would like to stay up-to-date on the happenings over at KDE, I highly recommend you check out the “This Week in KDE” blog that represents a short release note style article detailing what the KDE developers have been working on over the past week. You can find the blog here.
In other KDE news, a major announcement by the KDE team this week included a sneak peak of a new project, Plasma Bigscreen. From the official KDE announcement post:
“Plasma Bigscreen powers the interface on a Single Board Computer and uses the Mycroft AI voice assistant to provide a Smart TV platform. Plasma Bigscreen will deliver not only media-rich applications, but also traditional desktop applications redesigned to fit the Bigscreen experience.”
Plasma Bigscreen main menu (Credit: Paul on dot.kde.org)
With platforms like Plasma Mobile gaining increasing interest, it is truly incredible to see KDE take on device convergence. There are a ton of extremely exciting developments with this announcement including the work on transforming the highly-popular Plasma desktop into a platform that can be manipulated with the use of a simple remote control, voice control with open source AI software that is guarunteed to keep your privacy and security at utmost importance, as well as extensibility of the AI software to create new “skills” that allow it to perform more complex actions using just Python and QML.
Of course, as with all KDE products, Plasma Bigscreen is supported and developed by the open source community itself. This means that the awesome innovation consistently seen by the team at KDE will ensure that the project continues to improve with each iteration and is developed in the open so that anyone can see what is happening under the hood and even contribute their own ideas to the platform.
The YouTube application on Plasma Bigscreen. (Credit: Paul on dot.kde.org)
Currently, the upcoming beta release for Plasma Bigscreen has already been integrated to work with the most popular Single Board Computer on the market, the Raspberry Pi 4. Right now, there is only experimental support for HDMI-CEC, however, that is likely to change as the product moves out of beta. For the voice assistant technology, it is recommended to use a USB or Bluetooth remote with a built in microphone to utilize the service.
The KDE developers even provide suggestions on which USB remotes to use including the WeChip G20 or W2 remote controls. Moreover, the platform can be controlled with a keyboard, mouse, and any USB microphone.
This is extremely exciting news and I know I can’t wait to try this out when the beta drops! Congrats to the entire KDE team to make something like this happen! The possibilities with Plasma are quickly becoming quite endless.
If you would like to learn more about Plasma Bigscreen, you can find the official announcement post here. In addition, the official website for Plasma Bigscreen can be found here.
With that, I’ll leave you with a promotional video that KDE recently posted for the Plasma 5.18 release below:
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SUSE Battling COVID-19
It surely is a strange time in the world right now. With unending headlines revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic, people are shut away in their houses, most businesses except the essentials have been closed down, and the numbers of the sick are growing every day. However, even in a time like this, people are banding together and there is some good coming out of it.
One company that is actively trying to help in the battle against COVID-19 is the largest independent open source company in the world, SUSE. With a press release issued earlier this week, SUSE outlined the actions that they are taking to help the people on the front lines.
The major announcement from SUSE regarding their initiative is that they will offer free services (support and maintenance) for its operating system and container technologies to be embedded in and run critical medical devices in the industry. This offering was made available immediately in order to speed up the time to market for medical device manufacturers.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Linux installer. (Credit: Ashok Raja on initpals.com)
SUSE’s CEO, Melissa Di Donato, made a statement regarding the new initiative and the company’s position in the battle:
“The current global pandemic requires more from us than simply trying to survive as companies and individuals. We are determined to help others as much as we can, doing what we do best. We have cutting-edge open source technology and know-how that can help others in the fight to save lives, and we will share it immediately and without charge. Our customers, partners and communities know of and share our commitment to making a difference — and that extends to our neighbors and fellow human beings around the world.”
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), the flagship product from SUSE and popular Linux-based operating system, can be embedded into and run various kinds of medical devices, hardware, and appliances with an optimized system footprint for very specialized products.
In addition, SLES is one of the most popular operating systems running in research facilities utilizing high-performance computing technologies. Many of these research facilities are already focusing their resources on the COVID-19 pandemic in order to find solutions like preventative treatments and actual vaccines.
This is a wonderful move by the open source company and shows that some still believe that people are more important than business. I know that I’m grateful for having companies like SUSE that are willing to step up with helpful initiatives in order to better our world.
Thanks, SUSE, the world is indebted to you!
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System76 Releases New Lemur Pro Laptop
System76’s new Lemur Pro. (Credit: system76.com)
Last week, the arrival of a new laptop from System76 was teased by Carl Richell, CEO and Founder of System76, in his Linux++ interview segment. This week, we are happy to announce more details about the newest (and quite impressive) offering from the Linux-first company.
The new Lemur Pro is System76’s lightest laptop available coming in at a minuscule 2.2 lbs (.99 kg). However, don’t be fooled by the lightweight nature of this machine, it still holds up in the performance category quite well.
Another major focus of the Lemur Pro is that of battery life. If you’ve been running Linux for a while, you probably have dealt with the issue of reduced battery life compared to the proprietary operating systems. Thankfully, the Lemur Pro, as are all System76 offerings, is specifically tweaked to run Linux more efficiently. Consequently, System76 has been able to make some massive improvements to battery life.
From the official System76 website:
“Watch all of Lord of the Rings in 10 hours, read Wikipedia articles for 16 hours, or write code in VIM for 21 hours straight without plugging in.”
That is quite an impressive claim.
Though shipping laptops with coreboot isn’t new to System76 users who own a recent Galago Pro or Darter Pro, the new Lemur Pro indeed comes with System76’s Open Firmware which includes coreboot, EDK2, and their own firmware applications. However, in addition to the Open Firmware package, the Lemur Pro is the first System76 offering to also ship with their Open Source Embedded Controller Firmware. It seems with every new release, System76 is slowly chipping away at all the proprietary bits of their machines. Soon, with the announcement of their own in-house laptop on the horizon, there will be a completely open source offering from the Linux powerhouse.
The System76 Lemur Pro technical specifications. (Credit: system76.com)
The new Lemur Pro is at this time expected to open for orders in early April, however, with the supply chains badly damaged from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unknown when this laptop will make it into the hands of System76 users. The starting price of the Lemur Pro is set at $1099 for the base model, with additional upgrades costing more.
Keep your eyes on all of System76’s social media accounts for updates on the Lemur Pro. In addition, there is a link to early access by providing your name and email address that can be found on the System76 Lemur Pro page here.
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Bodhi Linux 5.1 Released
Bodhi Linux wallpaper. (Credit: wallpaperjam.com)
Bodhi Linux is well-known as one of the most lightweight distributions that can be run with ease on older hardware. However, that is far from the only thing that Bodhi brings to the table. Released in 2011 as an Ubuntu-based distribution following the LTS release cycle, Bodhi has come a long way in the near decade of its life.
One immediately obvious and unique aspect of Bodhi is that starting in April 2015, it created and implemented its own default desktop environment, Moksha, which was forked from the once-popular Enlightenment 17 (E17) desktop environment. Moksha is built upon that release instead of following the current Enlightenment release (E23), which differs from E17 quite a bit.
Bodhi Linux 5.1 desktop. (Credit: Joey Sneddon of omgubuntu.co.uk)
After nearly a two year long wait, as well as a change in leadership for the project, the team behind Bodhi has finally announced that version 5.1.0 is available to the public as a stable download. Due to the leadership change and sporadic nature of the project, many in the Linux community had feared the worst — Bodhi was no longer alive. However, those claims have now been put to rest with the official release of Bodhi 5.1.0 arriving early this week.
Some default applications have been altered in the newest release including switching out the default Midori web browser with GNOME Web (formerly Epiphany) as well as the ePad text editor with the more lightweight Leafpad. Also, Bodhi’s GUI software updater, eepDater, has been removed from the distribution entirely. It is likely that Bodhi is focusing on using the popular Synaptic Package Manager from here on out.
GNOME Web browser. (Credit: wiki.gnome.org)
In addition to these application level changes, Bodhi has also updated to the newest LTS version of Ubuntu, 18.04.4. However, it now comes with two different 64-bit ISO images. One of these is based on the Hardware Enablement (HWE) version of Ubuntu 18.04 that comes with Linux kernel 5.3 from the newer Ubuntu 19.10 release. In addition, Bodhi Linux supports a legacy ISO image for 32-bit computers as well as an AppPack ISO that includes more popular (and heavier) applications in the distribution.
Overall, this appears to be a solid first release for Robert Wiley, who took over the project in June 2019. I’m definitely happy to hear that the project is alive and kicking and look forward to seeing what the future brings Bodhi users everywhere.
If you would like to check out the official announcement from the Bodhi team, you can find it here. In addition, if you would like to download Bodhi 5.1.0, you can find the official images here. Also, the Bodhi team put out an offficial release video, detailing the upgrades to the distribution, which is linked below:
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elementary OS AppCenter For Everyone Update
Just a little while ago, the team at elementary were high up in the Linux headlines for their crowd-funded AppCenter for Everyone project. However, with the recent pandemic spreading around the world, the team behind elementary made the hard, but smart decision to postpone the in-person development sprint until a time that is less dangerous for travel and congregation. However, that doesn’t mean that they have been putting aside the development work, quite the opposite actually.
This week, Cassidy James Blaede, the Co-Founder and CXO of elementary, published a blog post detailing what the elementary team has tried to do in leiu of getting together in person — namely, a remote sprint. Though this was not what was intended and there are plenty of challenges that come along with trying to get different people together from different time zones and continents, the team did learn a lot about the project and discovered a clearer picture of where the project needs to head going forward.
Rough sketches from the elementary remote sprint. (Credit: Cassidy James Blaede on blog.elementary.io)
Though design is an extremely difficult concept to convey over video messaging, the elementary team started sketching out what their AppCenter for Everyone could look like and a few prototypes came out of the discussions.
One area that the team spent some time on was cleaning up the code relating to the Online Accounts and Wallet in the elementary System Settings (as well as their UX), which should pave the way for a much more consistent workflow in the future. In addition, the web development team began looking into the different web compontents that will be vital to create a full Flatpak store. This included building a very rough prototype web service mockup to begin integrating with the Flatpak Authenticator. Moreover, the team worked on the desktop side of the project by working on a shared library for the components that will be vital to the Flatpak Authenticator as well as the Wallet plug.
Prototype of the elementary Sync functionality. (Credit: Cassidy James Blaede on blog.elementary.io)
In addition to work on the AppCenter for Everyone project, the elementary team began working toward some of the vision that they have for the next major release, elementary OS 6, which included work on the upstream Mutter window manager and Vala programming language to fix some aspects of the codebase.
Though not exactly what the elementary team had in mind, this is sure to at least give them a better launching point when they are finally able to coordinate the in-person sprint. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this interesting and innovative project!
If you would like the gritty details of what the elementary team worked on during the remote sprint, you can find Cassidy’s blog post here. If you would like to learn more about the AppCenter for Everyone initiative, you can find their Indiegogo campaign here.
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Nitrux 1.2.7 Now Available
Nitrux artwork. (Credit: @[email protected])
Nitrux is quickly climbing up the Linux popularity ladder due to its visually stunning design, user efficiency, and reliability on universal application formats like Snap and AppImage. Nitrux utilizes a highly customized desktop environment built on top of KDE’s popular Plasma desktop called the NX Desktop. Nitrux was started in 2016 by Uri Herrera, a Linux designer responsible for the creation of many icon themes including Plasma’s default Breeze theme. With a background like that, it is no wonder that Nitrux is one of the most beautifully polished distributions in existance.
This week, the team behind Nitrux announced the next release of the distribution, version 1.2.7. With this release comes quite a few upgrades including an updated 5.5.13 Linux kernel, KDE Plasma 5.18.3, KDE Frameworks 5.68.0, KDE Applications 19.12.3, and Qt 5.14.1. In addition, the Calamares installer now officially supports full-disk encryption during installation, an issue with VVave has been fixed, Firefox has been updated to the latest 74.0, and the NVDIA drivers have been updated to version 440.44.
Nitrux and its technologies. (Credit: @[email protected])
All in all, a solid update by the Nitrux team. This is definitely one of the top distributions that I have my eye on and will continue to watch with great interest.
Congrats, Nitrux team, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!
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Ubuntu Podcast Returns
Ubuntu Podcast featuring Mark Johnson (top-left), Alan Pope (top-right), and Martin Wimpress (bottom). (Credit: @ubuntupodcast on twitter.com)
If you’ve been reading this publication for a while then you will know that I am a big fan of the Ubuntu Podcast. Not only because it was my introduction to podcasting as a platform, but it also is filled with great, geeky topics intermixed with plenty of wit and laughs.
This week, the very first episode of the podcast’s 13th (wow!) season has dropped, appropriately titled “Thirteen”. This episode covers quite a bit of ground considering that a ton of important events have happened in the Linux community (and greater world in general) since the finale of the 12th season aired.
Some of the topics covered include Xubuntu’s wallpaper contest for 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu Studio’s wallpaper contest winners announced, Felicity the Focal Fossa, the World Cup of Ubuntu Desktops (8.04 “Hardy Heron” won!), elementary OS’ AppCenter for everyone idea, and much more.
It was a very enjoyable episode and can’t wait until they are back in the full-swing of things, especially with the long-awaited release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS coming out in less than a month!
You can find Ubuntu Podcast on any popular podcasting platform, but I have linked the YouTube video for the episode below, just in case:
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Microsoft: Friend or Foe?
Microsoft Loves Linux? (Credit: cloudblogs.microsoft.com)
There may be no other word in the Linux community that brings a more negative reaction than “Microsoft”. This is deservedly so as the company behind the most popular desktop operating system, Windows, has a terrible history of fighting the open source software movement, and Linux in particular, attempting to stamp out any kind of competitor that could cut into their profits. However, many open source engineers who work with Microsoft employees say that this is a “new” Microsoft that no longer supports their malicious actions of the past. Haven’t you heard? Microsoft loves Linux.
Now, it is difficult to argue that Microsoft’s involvement in open source projects has grown substantially in the past few years, however, many see this as a possible attempt to take back control over major facets of the open source community. Because, no matter how many smear campaigns Microsoft has tried in the past, open source (and Linux) is flourishing more than ever. So, how do we know what is really going on here?
By the time of this writing, Microsoft has just recently closed a deal to purchase npm, the company behind the highly popular JavaScript platform, the Node Package Manager. However, instead of outright saying that Microsoft made the deal, the headlines read, “npm is joining GitHub”. Now, there are quite a few positives to this statement over the previous. Many people use GitHub and although it is a proprietary service, a ton of open source projects are hosted there. In short, GitHub does not bring with it the negative connotation that the “M” word brings to the wider open source community.
Official npm logo. (Credit: Catalin Cimpanu on bleepingcomputer.com)
Make no mistake though, GitHub is now a subsidiary of Microsoft after their acquisition just last year. So, with Microsoft buying up large portions of the open source community, what are they trying to do? Is it really about control?
When GitHub was acquired, their CEO stated that without an acquisition and infusion of cash, the platform would inevitably die. Some could say that GitHub chose the lesser of evils by partnering with Microsoft, instead of even more controlling corporations like Google or Oracle. So, what’s the story with npm? Is this another money problem? It’s hard to tell, however, npm is definitely utilized extensively by some of the largest companies in existence, including Microsoft, Slack, Netflix, Adobe, Visa, Salesforce, IKEA, Zillow, the NFL, and even Docker. Having npm go down would be massively detrimental to Microsoft itself. Maybe Microsoft is attempting to hold up the open source community that it now finds itself relying on?
Open source projects by Microsoft. (Credit: Devin McElheran on fossbytes.com)
However, there are some other questionable actions by Microsoft occurring at this moment. The most controversial of these is the decision by Canonical, creators of Ubuntu, to partner with the tech megalith to bring Ubuntu into Windows utilizing the rapidly growing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Of course, to me, this seems completely backwards. I think it is Windows, not Linux, that best serves to be sandboxed in a VM, if at all.
One of the worst aspects about this partnership is that it appears that Canonical is doing most of the leg work for the project. For instance, the latest WSL conference that took place just a couple weeks ago was hosted and sponsored by the modest-sized Canonical, not the trillion dollar tech giant who can hire engineers at will. I don’t know about you, but it seems like quite a waste of resources to be doing all this work for a company who would never give the Linux community anything substantial in exchange.
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2. (Credit: thomasmaurer.ch)
In addition, many in the community think that this is not only a waste of extremely valuable open source developer resources, but will also hurt the adoption of desktop Linux in the long run. Why would anyone switch away from Windows when they can just open up WSL and have the full ability of an Ubuntu workstation at their fingertips sometime in the future? However, as always, there are some optimists that believe that having access to Ubuntu through Windows may bring people to the Linux desktop. Unfortunately, in my personal experience, I have only seen the opposite happen with this. People are no longer installing Linux because they can utilize WSL.
Only time will tell how much of an impact Microsoft will have on the open source world. Personally, I hope that they truly are a “new” Microsoft, even if my reflex is telling me otherwise.
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Community Voice: Thomas Castleman
Thomas Castleman of Drauger OS. (Credit: Thomas Castleman)
This week Linux++ is very excited to welcome Thomas Castleman, founder and lead developer of Drauger OS. Drauger OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution aimed at making the Linux gaming experience as easy, intuitive, and efficient as possible. In addition, it plans to work on integration of different controllers along with the keyboard and mouse for a much more consistent experience in Linux gaming. It is fairly new in the Linux world, but is definitely a project that should be watched, especially if you are a Linux gamer. So, without further ado, I’m happy to present my interview with Thomas:
How would you describe Linux to someone who is unfamiliar with it, but interested?
“The best I could describe it would be to imagine basically any other desktop operating system (OS), but with updates that only apply when you want them. You don’t have to restart, you rarely have to deal with viruses, and it’s often more lightweight than Windows. It’s WAY more configurable, almost like Legos, and it can look however you want, as long as you are willing to put in the work.”
What got you hooked on the Linux operating system and why do you continue to use it?
“The configurability and modularity are are what got me hooked first. I have always loved tinkering and it’s way easier to do that on Linux than anything else. Lately, it’s not just been those two things, it’s also been the community.
The Linux community is large and diverse and except for the occasional troll — it’s fun and welcoming. If you don’t know the answer to something, chances are you can find the answer. A lot of people have the patience to walk you through how to fix a problem you are having step-by-step. For instance, I constantly have to call on my friend, Logan L. Johnson, to help me with web development and networking. That’s why he helps as the web developer for Drauger OS.”
Drauger OS splash screen. (Credit: @DraugerOS on twitter.com)
What do you like to use Linux for? (Gaming, Development, Casual Use, Tinkering/Testing, etc.)
“I use Linux for just about everything. When I switched over to Linux roughly 6 years ago, I went all in. Since then, I haven’t used Windows or macOS on a personal device, outside of whenever I have to update my UEFI.
So yeah, I’m a Linux gamer and developer, but I also use it to surf the web and do homework. I tinker with my system to see what it’s capable of and occasionally test out a new distro with the Big Daddy Linux community over on YouTube and Telegram.”
What is your absolute favorite aspect about being part of the Linux and open source community?
“Well, this would have to be exactly what I said earlier: most people out there are willing to help you if they know how to.
But, I also love that one moment you could be talking about anything else with a group of strangers, and then when someone hops into the chat with a new project, an update to an old project, or with some issue they are having, the conversation immediately shifts to that. All of a sudden, you have 10 or 20 people working to help someone or freaking out about new stuff. And both are so much fun to see and experience.”
Do you prefer a distribution (or family of distributions) that you find yourself being drawn to most and why? Do you prefer a particular desktop environment(s) for your workflow and why?
“Personally, I prefer Debian-based distributions. Apt just feels way more intuitive to me than pacman or dnf or most other package managers. But, all things being equal, I would prefer Arch because it feels much lighter on my system and has much newer software by default.
Debian, the stable base upon which many distributions are created. (Credit: wiki.debian.org)
As for specific desktop environments, I prefer Xfce and GNOME. It’s really easy to get both of them configured to fit my workflow and desktop layout preferences. When I started on Linux, I got used to Unity, then when Canonical dropped it, I moved to a heavily modified version of GNOME. After a while, I got tired of how locked-down and heavy GNOME was, so I hopped to Xfce and haven’t looked back since. Because of the way Unity was laid out by default, as well as the way Canonical configures GNOME, I prefer a desktop that resembles the way these two work. Furthermore, I want something lightweight and configurable. Because of all these reasons and my preference for GTK applications, Xfce is a natural choice for me.”
What is one FOSS project that you would like to bring to the attention of the community?
“The FOSS project that I most have my eyes on right now is Pine64. These guys are ahead of the curve in that in a few years, more and more devices like laptops and servers are going to be moving to ARM64 CPUs, which are similar to the processors you would find in a phone versus a traditional desktop or laptop. Their Pinebook Pro shows that you can already use an ARM CPU to do just about anything, aside from PC gaming.
But, even if that wasn’t the case, their PineTime and PineTab are both super interesting to me because you can get some nice hardware, that’s about as open sourced as is practical, and get decent performance. I would love to get them both when they are ready. Their hardware looks nice, is extremely affordable, and is fun to tinker with.”
Pine64’s PineTab (left) and PinePhone (right). (Credit: #pinetab on twitter.com)
Do you think that the Linux ecosystem is too fragmented? Is fragmentation a good or bad thing in your view?
“I don’t think that Linux is too fragmented. Having multiple approaches to the same problem offers developers and engineers the ability to try to find the optimal approach to a solution. This means that, while it looks like different distros are competing against each other, and in a business sense they may be, from an engineering standpoint, they are working together, albeit in a non-traditional manner.
That being said, I do understand why others say that Linux is too fragmented — it makes it difficult for new users, it creates tribalism or strong loyalty to one’s own social group, and at the end of the day, can make things very confusing for the end user.
I think an idea I heard from Rocco in the Big Daddy Linux community, is what we need: a singular Linux distro that the majority of the community can point to and say, ‘This is Linux, for the rest of the world. This is the best of what we have to offer. This is all of us, working together as best we can.’ Of course right next to it would be ‘The Rabbit Hole of Linux’ where users could try different distros, package managers, and DEs, but that one singular distro that we point to and say, ‘This is us’ would be what most people would end up using.
Big Daddy Linux Live virtual Linux User Group. (Credit: BigDaddyLinux on youtube.com)
That way, Linux doesn’t become like Windows in the sense that it’s ubiquitous. We could still gain a larger market share and the public might see us in a different light — from the stereotypical OS for hackers that requires the use of the terminal to a normal desktop operating system that takes a completely different approach on how you use your computer, while also protecting your security and privacy.”
What do you think the future of Linux holds?
“In the short term, I feel like Linux will probably make progress in gaming. Hopefully in working around, or even with, anti-cheat solutions and DRM schemes. I think we will be more widely accepted in the market and more people will take it seriously, thanks to work from writers and other content creators, as well as the Linux community itself promoting it.
As for the long term, I can’t imagine. I just feel like Linux has already come so far since its inception in the early 90’s. At this point, all I can say is that I expect the same kind of growth in the next 20 years as we saw in the last 20.”
What is your absolute favorite part about working on Drauger OS?
“I have a hard time just choosing one favorite here, so I’m going to cheat a little and do two favorite things.
My first favorite thing is the community. It’s small, but people genuinely enjoy using Drauger OS and when they have an issue, they work with me to figure it out. Just about any time of day, I can drop into our Discord server, send out a message, and someone is there.
Drauger OS 7.5.1 desktop. (Credit: draugeros.org)
My second favorite thing is when I get something to work that I hadn’t been able to release yet because I had been having issues with it. Almost any programmer will tell you after working on something for weeks and it finally starts working at 4am and you’re running on caffeine, that feeling you get is one of the best feelings in the world.”
Are there any Drauger OS specific features that you think sets it apart from other distributions? Is there a particular “target audience” that Drauger OS is trying to reach?
“Drauger OS is aimed specifically at gamers on Linux. More specifically, those who have a system they only run games on. That’s why it doesn’t come with things like LibreOffice, Audacity, etc.
A lot of the features specific to Draguer OS aren’t Drauger OS specific at all. They’re just features taken from other distros and mixed together to try to make the best possible experience. For instance, we have:
The ability to login directly to Steam Big Picture Mode, from SteamOS
Newer NVIDIA drivers, like Pop!_OS
Newer Mesa, Vulkan, and kernel, like Arch
Lutris, and low-latency kernel, like Sparky Linux Game Over Edition
Xfce desktop from Xubuntu
Budgie lightdm theme from Ubuntu Budgie
And more!
As you can see, Drauger OS is kind of a melting pot of things from other distros, so I can’t say that one thing sets us apart. Instead, it’s like one of the community members says, ‘It’s everything in one place, which makes less work for the user, that sets Drauger OS apart.’”
How did your adventure into developing for Linux come about?
“My first foray into Linux development was a now-abandoned project called Ubudroid. The point of it was to port Unity 8 to Android as a new launcher, and hopefully bring some form of convergent experience along with it. This is where I first began with Python. Unfortunately, the project fell through after a couple months and never saw the light of day, but I kept the skills I gained and found that I have a love for programming.
The Python programming language logo. (Credit: bytec0de.com)
After I learned a little more Python and Bash scripting, I started working on other odd projects until Drauger OS was born in 2018. From that point on, almost everything I made was either to help someone with a specific problem or to fix a problem or add a feature to Drauger OS.”
What has running the Drauger OS project been like? Any rough bumps in the road as well as periods of absolute enjoyment?
“Absolutely. Any major project is going to have a rough patch here and there. I think our worst moment with the project as a whole would have to be when we moved hosting providers and almost lost the entire website. Thankfully, I have backups of the apt repositories on both my local machine and my Nextcloud server, so while it would have been down for a while, I could have gotten it back up quickly.
As far as periods of enjoyment, whenever there is media coverage, I get super excited! It’s like when a parent sees their kid on the front page of the local newspaper for winning the school spelling bee or something and wasn’t expecting it. It’s super exciting and you can’t help but be proud.”
Is there anything exciting planned for the future of Drauger OS, without giving too much away?
“For the immediate future, we have a yearly report planned for May. We don’t normally do videos, but this one is an exception. Hopefully, we might have another video coming out sometime in late September. Beyond that, I can’t really say too much as a lot is up in the air right now. Definitely keep an eye on our Twitter or Mastodon as anything major will be posted there.”
Do you have any major goals that you would love to achieve in the near future related to your involvement with the Linux community?
“My major goal for the near future is fixing as many bugs as I can in the current beta release of Drauger OS and also improving performance. I’ve been trying to work with our community in bug hunting and bug fixing, so thanks to the entire Drauger OS community for helping me track down these issues and providing feedback with everything from performance to design and everything in between.”
Drauger OS in action! (Credit: draugeros.org)
I just want to wholeheartedly say thank you to Thomas for taking time out of his busy schedule to complete an interview for Linux++. As you can tell, Thomas is an extremely passionate developer and gamer with a great vision for the Drauger OS project. I know I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him!
If you would like to get in touch with Thomas and the Drauger OS community they can be found on Mastodon, Twitter, Telegram, and Discord.
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Explore Linux Content
This section will dig into some of the major content created in the Linux world and disect it to understand the reasoning behind it. Linux content is extremely important because it is one of our only ways to market the operating system to people who may be unfamiliar with Linux and what it is capable of. It is one of the most effective ways of bringing new users into our community and is even one of the primary reasons that Linux++ exists in the first place.
Ten Reasons Why Linux is the Best Operating System
Linux “Tux” custom wallpaper. (Credit: FOXYRIOT on free-artwork.org)
Nearly a month ago, the highly popular technology-related Linus Tech Tips channel released a video on YouTube entitled “10 ways Linux is just better!”. Now, this was meant to be explored in previous issues of Linux++, however, due to time constraints, it was dropped. This week it is finally going to be covered with it’s own distinct section!
The reason that this video is so important is that Linus Tech Tips covers a wide variety of topics from hardware to gaming and often includes videos relating to Windows, as that is the most popular operating system on the planet. In other words, it is not a Linux-only channel by any means, which will help to facilitate exposure to those who are not currently running our favorite operating system. The fact that the channel produced this video is somewhat surprising and extremely welcome in the Linux community. Oh yeah, and the channel has over 10 million subscribers at the time of this writing!
Now, the reasons stated in this video probably sound second nature to long-time Linux users, however, for those new to the operating system, I think that it is really advantageous to showcase the multitude of ways that Linux is the superior technology, including some of the benefits that they might not even realize they are gaining from utilizing it.
So, here are the top ten reasons that Linux is just better according to Linus Tech Tips (with suggestions from the community):
Freedom: The Linux operating system is completely free of cost for anyone to utilize around the world. This is due to the massive open source community at large, which has built the GNU/Linux ecosystem from the ground up through primarily volunteer development. However, the freedom goes far beyond simply monetary. Anyone can change, alter, or even expand upon the Linux source code in their own way, because it is open sourced with the GPL license. In addition, this means that you can configure the operating system in almost any way that suits your personal workflow and desires, in fact, customization is the lifeblood of Linux users everywhere. Software Management: Unlike proprietary operating systems like Windows and macOS, Linux uses a multitude of package managers (depending on the distribution) to perform updates to software. These automate the processes behind installing, uninstalling, and upgrading software and these days can even be used through intuitive Software Centers that provide GUIs for the average user (and yes, like many innovative ideas, Software Centers/App Stores were included in Linux long before Microsoft or Apple implemented them). Moreover, Linux puts the power in the hands of the user to choose when they want to update their systems, unlike Windows and macOS. Another important feature is that of the live kernel, which allows the operating system to be completely updated while running most of the time. Performance: The Linux kernel is so configurable that it can run on just about anything, from the largest supercomputers in the world, to the smallest Single Board Computers available. Not only is some form of Linux likely to be running on your smart devices, but it also can provide full GUIs for smaller hardware like the Raspberry Pi. Additionally, Linux has been known to bring old hardware back to life in a way that Windows or macOS can only dream about. Still have that decade old computer sitting in your basement? Why not bring it back to life using Linux and turn it into something useful. For these reasons, Linux can be configured to perform much better than alternatives on a wide variety of different devices. Stability: Once Linux is configured, it is one of the most stable operating systems on the planet. This is a major reason that Linux completely dominates the server market. In addition to the kernel being extremely stable, that vast majority of drivers are also open source. This allows developers to configure the code to be optimized for running Linux software in a relatively short period of time. Spying, Privacy, Transparency: Because Linux is developed in the open, anyone can check out the source code to see what is really going on. This prevents developers from trying to add in malicious code, and even if they do, it is often caught long before it is released due to tens of thousands of developers who constantly monitor the source code. In addition, as a user, there are a variety of tools available that allow you to see exactly what is happening on your system including all incoming and outgoing data. This transparency is a vital component of free and open source software that is just not available with proprietary alternatives. Customization: One major feature that Linux provides is the ability to literally configure every single component on your system (even ones you definitely should not touch). Due to the domination of Linux on the server marke, it was developed so that the entire system can be navigated with nothing more than a command line interface. Additionally, it isn’t just visual features that can be customized in Linux, literally anything from tools and applications that are not even available in your distributuion can be added. Linux is like a box of Legos with modularity as a priority. That allows the user to choose exactly what is on their system and change or alter it to suit their own personal needs. The Command Line: Though the command line (or terminal) might appear as an archaic tool of computers long past, it is actually one of the most powerful features of Linux. There are a variety of different “shells” that can be utilized with different features, functions, and configuration options. In fact, due to the power of the command line, much of your system can be completely automated with executable scripts that can be written and run whenever they are needed or as a daemon that continuously runs in the background. The command line brings with it a tier of efficiency that is just not possible with GUIs (even though tiling window managers come as close as possible). Since the command line relies on textual input, everything can be done from the comfort of your keyboard without having to reach for that mouse. In addition, the flexibility of the command line’s input and output functionality allows users to send, recieve, and transfer data between files, directories, or even entire filesystems quickly and easily. Portability: Linux is by far the most portable operating system in the world. In fact, an entire Linux system can be run off of a tiny USB stick! This allows for easy troubleshooting of problems with a main operating system, including Windows or macOS. Also, users are able to share their home folders among a variety of operating systems allowing them to access their documents, files, and even configuration settings. This allows users to run multiple operating systems at the same time and even test out different versions of Linux without losing their data. Moreover, the ability to load an operating system from a USB stick allows users to browse the web and perform other activities with as much privacy and security as possible. Learning: Linux provides the best platform to learn about computers, hardware, and software. Users who start out on Linux likely will utilize a more friendly distribution to get the hang of it. However, if they ever want to go down the rabbit hole, there is a plethora of information on the Internet, including guides, tutorials, and documentation that provide the ability to discover anything and everything you need to know about your system to begin configuring it to your personal taste. Once someone has learned enough about how their system works, the efficiency that Linux provides is second to none. Community: As with any large community, there are always bound to be “bad apples”, however, the vast majority of the Linux community is engaging, helpful, and kind to users of all skill levels and experience. The Linux community is incredibly passionate about the operating system and the massive ecosystem that accompanies it. Many in the community simply want to see Linux grow and will take time out of their life to answer even the most basic of questions that newcomers have. This is quite impressive and pretty much unprecedented with other operating systems like Windows or macOS, because most of the people who utilize the proprietary alternatives do not really care about computers or technology in general. Linux has long been a place for tech saavy individuals to congregate and make friends out of people all around the world. However, as Linux has progressed, it is no longer only for computer masters, it can literally be used by anyone from System Administrators to your grandmother if the right distribution is picked.
So there we have it — the top ten reasons that Linux is just plain better according to Linus Tech Tips with input from the community. I tend to agree with most of the reasoning here and it is absolutely awesome to see one of the largest tech-related content creators out there giving Linux the visibility it deserves.
If you would like to watch the video from Linus Tech Tips on YouTube for yourself, it is linked below:
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Linux Desktop Setup of the Week
This week’s selection was presented by u/xexpanderx in the post titled [Fluxbox] I’ve never found a four leaf clover. Here is the screenshot that they posted:
The Desktop of the Week: Fluxbox. (Credit: u/xexpanderx on reddit.com)
And here are the system details:
WM: Fluxbox
Theme: Qogir-light (modified) [GTK3]
Icons: Tela-Green
Style: Custom Fluxbox configuration
Wallpaper: OS: Slackware 14.2WM: FluxboxTheme: Qogir-light (modified) [GTK3]Icons: Tela-GreenStyle: Custom Fluxbox configurationWallpaper: https://postimg.cc/0MpPdLsV
Thanks, u/xexpanderx, for an extremely clean, unique, and lucky looking desktop!
If you would like to browse, discover, and comment on some interesting, unique, and just plain awesome Linux desktop customization, check out r/unixporn on Reddit!
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See You Next Week!
I hope you enjoyed reading about the on-goings of the Linux community this week. Feel free to start up a lengthy discussion, give me some feedback on what you like about Linux++ and what doesn’t work so well, or just say hello in the comments below.
In addition, you can follow the Linux++ account on Twitter at @linux_plus_plus, join us on Telegram here, or send email to [email protected] if you have any news or feedback that you would like to share with me.
Thanks so much for reading, have a wonderful week, and long live GNU/Linux! | https://medium.com/linux-plus-plus/linux-march-29-2020-e6da4c7cd66e | ['Eric Londo'] | 2020-03-29 23:43:57.952000+00:00 | ['Computers', 'Technology News', 'Technology', 'Computer Science', 'Linux'] |
According to Your Body, There Are Only Two Seasons | According to Your Body, There Are Only Two Seasons
New research suggests human biology only knows winter and spring
Image: Xuanyu Han/Getty Images
Autumn leaves changing color. The first winter snow. Daffodil blossoms signaling the start of spring. The long, hot days of summer. At temperate latitudes in Europe and the Americas, nature’s four seasons are a big part of people’s lives. But it turns out human biology has a different schedule.
In a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, Stanford geneticist Michael Snyder, PhD, looked at how people’s biological data changed over the course of the year. Armed with a vast trove of information — over 1,000 measurements from more than 100 people assessing genes, proteins, metabolic markers, immune system markers, and the microbiome — he discovered that instead of four distinct seasons, the body seems to undergo two shifts: one at the beginning of winter and the other in the middle of spring.
Elemental spoke with Snyder about the recent study, what might explain the biological seasons, and what they mean for your health. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Elemental: What inspired you to look at seasonal changes in biology?
Michael Snyder: I had recently been wondering, why do we think there’s four seasons? It’s kind of arbitrary. Maybe there’s 15 seasons, maybe there’s three, I don’t know. Why don’t we let the data tell us how many seasons there are, at least from the standpoint of human biology. Meaning, are there patterns in the data to tell you just how many seasons there really are? So the inspiration for this study was really the combination of those two things: always trying to understand people’s health patterns, and the concept that seasons are pretty arbitrary, when you think about it.
What did you find?
We’ve been profiling this group of 109 people for a number of years, and we had over a thousand measurements in total. We just looked for biological patterns in the data. First, we started with individual molecules, and we saw [patterns] that were known already. For example, hemoglobin A1C [a test that measures blood sugar levels] was known to peak in the spring. We also found a lot of new [patterns], as you might imagine, because we looked at so many molecules, so there’s a lot of stuff that hadn’t been reported. One was [the expression of] this circadian rhythm gene that’s called CIR1 that’s known to fluctuate during the day. But what’s interesting is that we found it actually showed a seasonal pattern and peaks in late April/early May. Then, there were changes in various cytokines [immune system proteins] that are involved in fighting off viral illnesses. We were also very interested in the microbiome, which had been studied a little bit, but again, not at the level we did, and we saw quite a few changes there as well.
After we saw these individual molecule changes, we said, “If we take all these molecules together, do they fall into major patterns?” Turns out, they do. There are two major patterns [in these 109 people]: one is what you would expect, it’s late December/early January — a winter pattern, if you will. But then you might have thought the other pattern should be July or August when it’s really hot — late summer. But that wasn’t the case at all, actually. The pattern that came up was late April/early May. So that was, at least to me, a surprise.
All of the people in the study are from Northern California, and obviously the seasons there are different than in New England or the Southeast. Do you think that the two-season pattern that you found would hold up elsewhere, or do you think it would be dictated by local weather patterns and temperature changes?
I don’t know, but I think the approach we use now can be applied anywhere, we’ve just got to get the data. There’s no reason it has to be two; in some places it might be three seasons, in other places it could be 10. Who knows? I think it would be really fun to figure that out.
What different kinds of molecules did you look at? I know that in prior studies, you’ve analyzed the genome, the metabolome, and the microbiome. Where did you see the biggest differences in this study?
We measure as many molecules as possible. A number of them are clinical markers, but the bulk of them are RNA — your transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. We measure all those. It’s about 20,000 molecules overall, plus microbes.
We saw tons and tons of microbes in people’s nasal cavity changing, plus some changing in the gut. I think that makes sense given people’s exercise and probably the food they eat [change with the seasons], so they should see some shifts in their gut microbiome. Also in their nasal cavity because, again, you’re sucking up whatever’s around you, and that’s going to change through the year.
Fascinating. What do you think explains these seasonal patterns? Is it driven by the biology or the environment?
The winter pattern is what you would expect, it’s viral infections and things like that showing up [and changing the biology]. But there’s some other cool stuff too, [particularly with the microbiome]. Bacteria associated with acne, for example, actually peak in the winter. In the late spring, early April, asthma and allergies [drive a lot of the molecular changes], again which you would expect. But there are also a lot of metabolic changes I didn’t really expect. Our explanation is that people are kind of dormant through the rainy season in California. That is to say, they exercise less than they would in summer. So what we think is that stuff builds up through, say, March and April. Then as people come out of that, they start exercising more, and their metabolic health and cardiovascular health improves. In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense.
Can you talk a little more about the relationship between the environment and people’s health? The changes in the immune system and inflammation that you’re seeing, for example, is that solely driven by the increase in viral infections during the winter, or could that be a change that makes someone more susceptible to a viral infection?
That’s a good question. I think it’s probably in part due to the viral infections, because we’re seeing cytokines go up. We’re only showing associations, so we can’t prove one versus the other, but there’s most likely an increase in viral infections. But it’s true that people are less healthy in winter, so that probably does make them a little more susceptible as well. They probably go together.
The spring pattern is much more complex. It definitely has the allergy and asthma signature, but it also has all those metabolic markers, like hemoglobin A1C, which is associated with diabetes and insulin resistance. Some of the type 2 diabetes markers are high in the spring pattern; same with the cardiovascular disease markers. And again, I think it does relate to the external environment — in this case, we can correlate it with pollen. We haven’t published this yet, but we can definitely see correlations between external exposures and some of the internal metabolites, meaning we see things happening on the outside, like pollen, can correlate with metabolic changes inside of you. So we think that some markers correlate with the environment, and some correlate with people’s lifestyle.
What are the implications of knowing our “health seasons”?
I think the implications are twofold. One is, we don’t really use longitudinal data very well in medicine. One of my biggest gripes is that when you walk into a doctor’s office, they measure you and they compare you with what they’re expecting across the population. They’re not looking for trends, and I would argue that you really should be following people’s trends. For example, if your hemoglobin A1C is going up, you really want to follow that. But it’s nice to know what the seasonal effects are, too. So if something’s running a little bit high in late April/early May, you can say, ‘Well, that’s probably because they’ve been less active and it might be seasonal, but they probably can get it down as they head into summer.’ Now, if it’s running high in winter, then there’s probably something going off there and it’s good to have caught that. So you can take this into account as you’re interpreting people’s health.
Or it could mean that you need to work a little bit harder, so you don’t have a higher peak of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease markers in late April. Maybe people should be pushing themselves a little bit more during those rainy seasons to keep those markers down. That would be another way to interpret it. I think it helps interpret people’s health and what to do about it. | https://elemental.medium.com/according-to-your-body-there-are-only-two-seasons-f17b9e130a70 | ['Dana G Smith'] | 2020-12-26 04:54:35.773000+00:00 | ['Biology', 'Health', 'Seasons', 'Science', 'Body'] |
The Greatest Story Ever Told | Here’s the address I wrote to commemorate this weekend’s Latter-day Saint general conference 🌝
•••
gospel topic / sabbath school for today:
the New Testament is what happened after a lot of people met this very intriguing “miniature professor,” who gave lectures and recitations about his favorite bedtime stories / superhero escapades / sci-fi movies in the marketplace; a sweet little Jewish boy with curly hair and big brown eyes and dusty skin, who defied their gender norms (he insisted he was a GIRL chicken, a MOMMA hen), led a bunch of scrappy rascally anti-establishment type teenagers around and called it his own kingdom, spoke in simile, became very overcome with empathy and performed a rage-curse on a fig tree, had a dry wit and a passion for puns and plays on words, had a remarkable knack for understanding the relationship and symbiosis of metaphysics and biology (the human body and humankind and somatic awareness and how bodies keep the score — his body was scored with scourges and scars), stood up for the underdog every single time until it got him in mortal peril and still he refused to back down. (these are all hallmark traits of autism.)
the story of Abinadi is what happens over and over and over again to misfit folks who get a little too outspoken. (look up the origins of “faggots” and “flaming.”)
so idk maybe we keep giving pedestals to politicians and crucifying/lynching the actual seers and visionaries, those who “dream a dream” and are “least of these among us.”
it keeps happening over and over and over, the same test repeating itself and we have an infinite number of chances for improvement. *this time* we’ll understand and hold it in remembrance. and when we finally all get it right, together, we’ll have made it. one perfected body (of Christ of humans of selves of earths of wholes).
atonement. that we may be at-one-ment.
but we have so many storytellers guiding us. because humans love a good story. there’s adam young (of owl city and good omens), madeleine l’engle, pi patel, george lucas, lin manuel miranda…..
•••
the call isn’t out there at all; it’s inside me
I AM MOANA!
•••
so what is it that we owe to each other? (love. radical kindness. exactly and precisely, just the way you are.)
•••
It’s great to be able to stop
When you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:
I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish
I can stop, stop, stop any time
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine
Know that there’s something deep inside
That helps us become what we can
•••
You can’t change nature, son!
Change IS nature, dad, the part we can influence. And it all starts when we decide. | https://medium.com/@ashrowan/the-greatest-story-ever-told-eb7baab746b9 | ['Aisling', 'Ash'] | 2020-10-05 17:08:49.844000+00:00 | ['Faithfullylgbt', 'Nonbinary', 'Latter Day Saints', 'Transgender'] |
Op-Ed: I’m sick of the words “diversity” and “inclusion” | Hire qualified people of color. Then listen to them.
I absolutely applaud hiring diverse employees. I am one. However, that is where most companies stop when it comes to championing inclusion. It isn’t enough to just hire people of color. Speaking from my many experiences of being the only Black person in a corporate meeting, you have to actually make them feel like their voice, their thoughts and their insight are actually valued. Make space for them to speak up, don’t allow others to silence them and listen, deeply.
You can’t just talk the talk about diversity and point to your employment quotas as a measure of how diverse the company is. Eventually, those numbers will decline as people of color leave the company because they find they simply aren’t valued in the same way their white colleagues are, defeating your original purpose.
Another reason to listen to your employees of color? We’re often the canaries in the coal mine, pointing out serious issues the company faces. Which brings me to my next point…
2. Prepare to be uncomfortable, and let that discomfort turn to action.
Culture change is hard. It’s especially hard when the culture you’re fighting is ingrained in all of us — biases, bigotry, stereotypes. As you listen to your diverse employees, they may reveal uncomfortable truths about your work environment. You’ll be tempted to brush it off as a one-off, or not representative of the company at large. Don’t.
As someone explained it to me once, the fish doesn’t see that it is swimming in water, that it is breathing it in. It’s the same thing with systemic racism - it’s the “water” we are all in, hard to see but ultimately surrounding us.We have to actively fight against it, and that takes tough and honest conversations with employees, and a lot of self-reflection. It takes challenging long-held beliefs, some you didn’t even realize you held. Then it takes action.
One example of a company that is starting to do it right is Boeing. (Disclaimer: I currently work for said company.) After the George Floyd protests and widespread unrest this past year, the company decided to take a firm stance against racism.
In the months since, the CEO released a Racial Equity Action Plan that included: a promise to hire more Black employees over the next few years publishing that data publicly for accountability; commitment to having frank conversations with teams about racism; creating a Racial Justice Task Force within the company; and donating $10 million to social justice nonprofits and programs.
3. Commit to promoting qualified people of color. There are plenty.
Most companies already have plans for recruitment and retainment of employees. What many fail to realize is that they have trouble keeping workers of color because they do not feel they have a future at the company.
One way systemic racism operates in a corporate culture is that qualified employees of color are often passed over for opportunities for advancement, many at the managerial or executive level. As of January 2020, there are only 4 Black Fortune 500 CEOs, less than 1%. One CBSNews piece points out that only 3.2% of executive jobs are held by Black people.
This is disheartening for obvious reasons, but also for its trickle effect: other employees of color look up the corporate ladder and see little to no faces that look like them. So they look elsewhere for employment opportunities.
“The lack of promotions are causing black employees to change jobs more frequently. More than one-third of black respondents said they plan to leave their company within two years, as opposed to 27% of whites.” — CBS News
The talent pipeline exists — it’s often sitting right in your office. Investigate why your employees of color aren’t being treated as if they’re valuable, and make steps to ensure their success with the company.
If you find they aren’t being set up with the right opportunities to take on more responsibility, make it a goal to develop them with the right tools, training and/or projects so that they can grow into leadership. Often, this is already being done with your white employees, by the way.
If you want a diverse, inclusive and equitable workforce, you have to cultivate it, encourage it and live by the values you espouse. If we do that, we can achieve a better, more engaged and successful workforce than we have ever had. | https://medium.com/@millennialbri/op-ed-im-sick-of-the-words-diversity-and-inclusion-d49e924eb7df | ['Brianna Jackson'] | 2020-12-10 08:05:00.260000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Workforce Development', 'Workforce', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Timnit Gebru'] |
Dear Fathers, Your Gay Sons Are Hurting | If you’re a father to a gay son, there’s something I want to tell you. My intention is not to make you feel guilty, but rather, to help you understand your son better. He may have tried to tell you this before in his own way, but being vulnerable isn’t easy, especially with you.
Your gay son is hurting.
He hurts because there’s something that’s missing in his life that no one else can give him other than you. He tries to get it from his job, accomplishments, men, money, style, and countless other ways. Wanting it for so long and living without it has led him to do things that weren’t always good for him. What he gets in return never quite measures up to what he wants — your love and approval.
Your gay son was your child before anyone knew he was gay. As an infant and throughout his childhood, his admiration and adoration toward you created a bond much like the one you developed toward your father. No matter what type of person you were or if you were even present in his life, he thought the world of you. He was your number one fan, even when others spoke unkindly or truthfully about you.
When a child loves his father, his father’s love becomes the most cherished and sought after thing in the world. Your son tried his best to make you proud. He played the sports you wanted him to play, prayed like you wanted him to, and convinced himself to date girls, or tried to, at least.
When your love was denied to him for being gay, he developed a belief that he was unworthy of love. To believe that you’re unworthy of love can be one of the most damaging things to the human spirit.
Again, I’m not here to shame you. The reality is that society doesn’t prepare men to be fathers to gay sons. It’s hard to be good at something you were never taught to do. Men are raised to be tough, strong, and pursue women, aggressively at times. This then becomes the way in which men raise their sons, and so on. An idea of “the perfect son” begins to form in the minds of men before they even have a child.
A gay son spoils the idea of “the perfect son” for many fathers. It’s tough to realize your son will not live up to the expectations you were taught to have for him. You experienced the loss of a dream and you weren’t equipped to process that loss in a healthy way. For that, you have my empathy. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/dear-fathers-your-gay-sons-are-hurting-3b9b6af0a6c1 | ['Armando Sánchez'] | 2020-11-16 01:33:30.655000+00:00 | ['Family', 'Love', 'Fatherhood', 'Healing', 'LGBTQ'] |
Mike Holmes, Will You Be My Gerry? | Hi Mike Holmes,
My dad was the handiest person I knew. He was a union electrician in NYC for 30+ years. He loved teaching, and instructed apprentices for many years. He was mad for music, loved being on the water, and was passionate about boat safety. He passed away on Jan 1st 2018 from cancer. (fuck cancer)
He was also the handiest person everyone knew. At his memorial service, many spoke about his friendship and his passion for helping others. Here are a few highlights:
Well, you’re all screwed. Because I don’t know who you’re going to call with electrical questions anymore. Seriously show of hands. Look around.
He’s been known to do interstate electrical repairs via phone and texted pictures
He helped rebuild homes in upstate New York destroyed by Hurricane Irene.
My dad was the king of getting the right tool and letting you know you’re using the wrong one. Sometimes I think he’d go out and buy a tool, just to lend it to you, so he could tell you he was right.
We had a really nasty flood in our basement…so we did what we usually did in these situations, we shined the bat signal, and Gerry arrived.
It strikes me, that if Gerry was here, this microphone would have been fixed by now
I sent him the inspection report on my first home so he could scrutinize, and tell me what was bullshit, or what I should pursue. He looked at the pictures from the report and found additional items to fix. A year later, when he came to my house to help re-do our basement after some flooding, he uncovered 70 years of bad wiring in our ceiling. An eight hour job snowballed into five days of work where he meticulously addressed everything. That was the Gerry way.
My dad thought most people on tv talking about home repair were crap. Most people, except you. He had dozens of Holmes and Homes episodes DVR’ed. He blew insulation into my parents’ house to your exact specifications. Their gutter guards are the ones you highlighted as a Mike Holmes approved product. He referenced your recommendations when making purchasing decisions or working on a home repair task.
Now we all find ourselves in a world without Gerry, and we we are muddling through the best we can. So, Mike Holmes: will you be my Gerry? I need that voice of reason. The straight shooter. The person who has the answer, or the right tool, or will tell me how to get the answer or the exact right tool for the job. That voice to cut through the endless Google results. To right size the questionable recommendations. And the voice who can tell me, “Stephanie, don’t waste your time and money; do it the right way the first time.”
We are facing a big move. We relocated to my hometown in NY to be closer to my dad in his final months. Two and a half years later, we are moving to Omaha for my husband’s career, and to be closer to his family. We just put an offer on a house and I’m paralyzed at the thought of doing this without my dad. I don’t know exactly what I’m asking from you. If you want to fly out for an inspection for the next house we buy, FANTASTIC! If you just want to read the results, or let me message you if I need an opinion, that’s great too. Or maybe this was just catharsis as I face this next phase of my life without my dad. Anyway you cut it, thanks for listening. | https://medium.com/@stephanie.adams_98680/mike-holmes-will-you-be-my-gerry-d15ad488615 | ['Stephanie Adams'] | 2019-09-10 17:15:51.670000+00:00 | ['Dads', 'Hgtv Canada', 'Home Buying', 'HGTV', 'Grief And Loss'] |
Processing data for Machine Learning with TensorFlow | Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash
Turn your dataset into TensorFlow for the beginner step by step
It is so confusing when training your data using TensorFlow, seeing errors showing shapes or dtype is not right. This is my note trying to organize the tf dataset in an easy way for movie review classification.
In this article, I’m going to deal with the Large Movie Review Dataset and train a Keras.models.Sequential model, which is a plain stack of layers model.
My steps:
1. Load Dataset 2. Create tf.data.Dataset for input 3. Create TextVectorization layer (including tokenization and padding) 4. Create Bag of Word 5. Create the model 6. Fit and train model
Load dataset
Starting from checking what files in the zip file, we can use os.walk(filepath). Then we will have something like this:
Load data
/root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb [‘imdb.vocab’, ‘imdbEr.txt’, ‘README’] /root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb/train [‘labeledBow.feat’, ‘unsupBow.feat’, ‘urls_neg.txt’, ‘urls_unsup.txt’, ‘urls_pos.txt’]
All files are in lists under their folders. We will use reviews under these 4 folders, training and test datasets with positive and negative semantic respectively.
/root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb/train/pos /root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb/train/neg /root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb/test/pos /root/.keras/datasets/aclImdb/train/pos
4 paths
Make the 4 paths. They all contain 12500 reviews. (12500, 12500, 12500, 12500)
Create TensorFlow Dataset, using tf.data.TextLineDataset
For simplified, I’m not making a function here. We can directly put the list of paths into tf.data.TexLineDataset. Remember to turn paths into the string format. Here are what we do:
1. Pass paths into tf.data.TexLineDataset() and generate 6 tf.data.Dataset 2. Add labels into datasets, using the method of tf.data.Dataset.map(). 0 for negative, 1 for positive. 3. Combine neg and pos, using tf.data.Dataset.concatenate() 4. Shuffle training set, batch, and prefetch all three sets. (we can also skip prefetcf for now)
<PrefetchDataset shapes: ((None,), (None,)), types: (tf.string, tf.int32)>
Processing the reviews
We make a simple tf.constant to make sure our steps correct and then create a function.
Preprocess words and padding
After preprocess_word(X_example) for the simple example, it should be like this:
<tf.Tensor: shape=(3, 50), dtype=string, numpy= array([[b”It’s”, b’a’, b’great,’, b’great’, b’movie!’, b’I’, b’l’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’], [b’It’, b’was’, b’terrible,’, b’run’, b’away!!!’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’], [b’I’, b”don’t”, b’get’, b’it!!’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’, b’<pad>’]], dtype=object)>
Create TextVectorization layer
1. get all vocabulary, by word frequency 2. make tensor of word and index to create the initializer 3. make a table
word frequency: use top 1000 words as the vocabulary
frequency of words
Next, we will output a list of the top max_size most frequent words (setting 1000 for now), ensuring that <pad> is first.
Create the text vector Layer
to look up the index of each word in the vocabulary
We have to create the text vector class and adapt it before we use it in our model.
Bag of Words
This is also a layer we need to add to our model. This could let you have a summary of words counts. For example,
tf.constant([[1, 3, 1, 0, 0], [2, 2, 0, 0, 0]])
we count the occurrence and get this (not the output)
[[ 0:2 , 1: 2 , 2:0 , 3:1 ] , [ 0:3 , 1:0 , 2:2 , 3: 0 ] ]
remove 0 (<pad>) , so it is [[2., 0., 1.] , [0., 2., 0.,]]
Create a class to add to the model later, and we will pass our input in the model.
Bag of Word
Summarize and train the model
Movie review classification using TensorFlow
Without fine-tune the parameter, we could get an accuracy of around 0.73.
Epoch 1/5
782/782 [==============================] - 12s 15ms/step - loss: 0.1737 - accuracy: 0.9498 - val_loss: 0.6392 - val_accuracy: 0.7236
Epoch 2/5
782/782 [==============================] - 12s 15ms/step - loss: 0.1060 - accuracy: 0.9794 - val_loss: 0.7092 - val_accuracy: 0.7214
Epoch 3/5
782/782 [==============================] - 12s 15ms/step - loss: 0.0605 - accuracy: 0.9944 - val_loss: 0.7724 - val_accuracy: 0.7258
Epoch 4/5
782/782 [==============================] - 12s 15ms/step - loss: 0.0327 - accuracy: 0.9989 - val_loss: 0.8467 - val_accuracy: 0.7179
Epoch 5/5
782/782 [==============================] - 12s 15ms/step - loss: 0.0177 - accuracy: 0.9998 - val_loss: 0.9208 - val_accuracy: 0.7253 <tensorflow.python.keras.callbacks.History at 0x7fb437eb2d68>
Next article, I will try to summarize my notes for processing image data for training using TensorFlow and Keras.
Reference: Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems 2nd Edition | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/processing-data-for-machine-learning-with-tensorflow-9119a0d45954 | ['Sean Wu'] | 2020-06-29 13:09:41.921000+00:00 | ['TensorFlow', 'Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Keras', 'Classification Models'] |
Biden, It’s Time to Show Your Hand | Photo Collage Made in Adobe Spark
Biden, It’s Time to Show Your Hand
Mr. Biden, we need you to be aggressive; announce a plan for sensible marijuana reform.
We are living in an era where everyone seems to be pitted against everyone, and even the most fundamental topics have become political statements. And yet, in a virtual hot box of political smoke, there is one pivotal card that neither party seems to be willing to play, and ironically, it will likely earn a significant portion of the bipartisan vote.
The Promise of Federal Marijuana Legalization
To some, it seems that Biden refuses to broach legalization because he’s read a few studies about the potential for adverse effects. According to a recent article I read in the Atlantic, Stef Feldman, Biden’s policy director, explains, “As science ends up with more conclusive evidence regarding the impact of marijuana, I think he would look at that data. But he’s being asked to make a decision right now. This is where the science guides him.”
But, clearly, he’s not aware of the public support of the movement. In a recent piece published in Marijuana Moment, even Congress is showing signs of supporting a 2021 legalization effort. In another article in Forbes, both parties show majority support for legalization.
Support the Leaf, Win the Vote
When looking at the statistics, it becomes even more difficult to understand the opposition. In November of last year, Pew Research released new survey results showing that a whopping 91% of Americans supported marijuana legalization in some form. Only 8% of participants are against legalization entirely. Name one other political platform topic that garners that kind of widespread public support.
In fact, the following week, Pew Research continued their deep-dive into cannabis support showing the breakdown of opinions by various demographics. As the data clearly showed, the only generation still expressly against the legalization of cannabis was the silent generation, those born before 1945 — Joe Biden’s age. Yet the Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials all overwhelmingly support ending marijuana prohibition.
Political positioning plays a small role, but support for marijuana, in general, is increasing across the board. In a recent survey published by YouGov and Marijuana Moment, 67% of Democrats believe in the overall success of the industry, while 54% of Independents agree, just 41% of Republicans will say the same. Although Republicans still lag in their cannabis industry confidence, Republican support has grown tremendously over the last decade.
Stop Waiting on Restricted Science, Lift the Veil and Make it Happen
There seems to be one caveat that many lawmakers, including Biden, have forgotten. Before you can demand that we need more research, you must first reschedule marijuana to make it easier for scientists to do the warranted research. While the FDA is cracking down on cannabis and hemp businesses for making unfounded medical claims, the lawmakers have done nothing to remove restrictions preventing the necessary analysis they need to support those claims. It’s the epitome of a “Catch-22.”
For far too long, studies regarding the medical efficacy of cannabis and its derivatives have been squelched. Laws, regulations, and mountains of red tape have limited the abilities of qualified professionals to even question the plant, let alone study it. Frankly, without federal legalization, the United States is falling behind the curve.
Public Health Concerns?
Although Biden, along with every other politician for the last decade, chooses to ignore the will of the people for his own perceived notion of protecting public health, there’s a glaring in error in their prioritization. Before we can predict the possibilities of potential, future public health threats, could we first take a more in-depth view of public health concerns that exist today?
Clearly, priority needs to be given to the problems that are real, not imagined.
Racism: Remember that many cities and counties are taking steps to declare racism a public health crisis. Statistics show that black men are arrested for marijuana offenses 4:1 over their white counterparts. Decriminalizing marijuana could be the first step to ending systemic racism and prevent a disproportionate number of black juveniles entering the criminal justice system too early.
COVID: A contagious disease is a current public health crisis, stealing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. And while cannabis over-consumption can certainly lead to problems, we know that fatal overdose isn’t one of them. While I’ll make no unfounded claims, with unrestricted research, who knows what could be discovered about the benefits of cannabis, there’s little doubt we need to remove limitations on research:
University of Georgia: CBD, ACE2 Inhibitors, and COVID-19
University of Miami: COVID-19 and Cannabis Use
University of Lethbridge, Alberta, CA: COVID-19 Prevention
Private Canadian Study: Cannabis for Controlling Inflammation Response in COVID
Israel Cell Therapy: InnoCan Uses CBD for COVID Treatment
Israel Institute of Technology: Exploring Cannabis Terpenes for COVID-19 Inhalation Treatments
Opiate Addiction: Without alternatives, tens of thousands of people will die from opiate abuse this year. This is a public health crisis fueled by the very industry that fights against marijuana legalization. Drug overdose fatalities are on the rise as people are losing medical coverage and losing support systems due to the pandemic, legalizing cannabis could be the miracle someone is praying for right now.
The Biggest Fish to Fry
Over the last four years, we’ve watched our country fall into despair, torn apart by selfish, greedy businessmen, ulterior motives, and shady politicians. More than anything, we need a voice of reason, compassion, and understanding to start to heal the division. If playing the marijuana card is what seals the deal, then by God… let’s make that happen!
We cannot pussy-foot around and pretend that this election isn’t the most critical factor in bringing a little normalcy back to the White House, and back to America. Mr. Biden, I understand that you may not be so sure of the decision, but at least set the stage and win the vote. You don’t have to agree to legalization across the board, but commit to removing the veil of secrecy regarding the research, commit to moving forward, commit to being open to discussion. Commit to anything, but make a public declaration of support for the cannabis industry.
It’s time to trump the Trump — play the magical marijuana card, get the vote, and save our nation. | https://kristina-etter.medium.com/biden-its-time-to-show-your-hand-99b2cf7b6b79 | ['Kristina Etter'] | 2020-08-10 23:38:41.913000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Cannabis Legalization', 'Politics', 'Marijuana', 'Voting'] |
Book Review: “Star Wars : Thrawn Ascendancy — Chaos Rising” | It’s pretty much accepted wisdom that Thrawn is one of the best villains that has ever emerged out of Star Wars, and that’s been the case since Timothy Zahn released his first Thrawn-focused book way back in the early 1990. It was something of a tragedy that, when Disney bought LucasFilm and booted everything out of the canon, that they didn’t do more to bring Thrawn back into the mainstream fold. Fortunately, that has begun to change a bit because, in addition to his appearances in the Rebels TV series, he’s also been featured in a new series of books and, as fans of The Mandalorian know, he seems poised to appear in more TV series.
When I happened to see the new book, Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, sitting on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble, I knew that I had to read it. I absolutely loved the other books in Zahn’s new Thrawn series, and I very much looked forward to this new entry, particularly since it promised to shine a light on some of Thrawn’s younger years and the events that shaped his later perspective and destiny.
Narratively, the story flicks between the past and the present, showing how Thrawn was from a young age encouraged by those in power, even as some among the ruling Chiss saw him as a threat to the Ascendancy as a whole. In the novel’s present, the great conflict t is with General Yiv, a powerful presence whose motivations remain somewhat clear but are nevertheless explicitly focused on conquest and possibly bringing about an end to the Ascendancy itself.
It’s immediately very clear that Thrawn is the same brilliant tactician that we got to know in earlier novels, which is a never-ending source of both frustration and awe among his colleagues and superiors. As with the earlier Thrawn books, most of what we learn about Thrawn is conveyed through those that surround him, most notably Ar’alani. Though some readers might find it a bit frustrating that we don’t get to see inside of Thrawn’s mind — thus leaving him something of an enigma, even in a book that is all about him — I actually think there’s something a little brilliant about Zahn’s strategy here. He clearly wants us to understand the forces that shaped this brilliant man, without quite tearing away the veil of mystique and mystery that has always surrounded him.
Embedded within Thrawn’s strategy is a compelling bit of philosophy. It’s well-known by this point that Thrawn has a bit of an obsession with art and the way that it reflects the thought structures of the people that produce it. Time and again, he’s shown that understanding society’s cultural productions allows for a nuanced, and militarily significant, grasp of their decision-making apparatuses. Anyone who’s even studied in a literature program will recognize that bit of philosophy, and it’s rather refreshing to see it make its way into a Star Wars novel.
This book focuses a bit more on the nuances of the Ascendancy and what makes it work than previous installments in the new saga. For, while Thrawn is an undisputed master of military strategy, he’s notoriously bad at navigating the treacherous waters of politics; no matter how hard hard he tries, he simply cannot grasp the motivations of politicians. For many of his Chiss antagonists, bringing Thrawn down isn’t a matter of personal vengeance, or at least not primarily so. Instead, they see him as a potent threat to the well-being and stability of the Ascendancy. Given that their society is both ancient and enormously powerful — and given that it has devoted itself to maintaining the peace — it makes sense that they would do so, and at times we even find ourselves sympathizing with them, even though they’re opposed to the main character that we’re supposed to be caring about.
However, the book isn’t entirely about politics, and there’s quite a lot of space battle and war tactics for those who enjoy that aspect of a Star Wars novel. Zahn has a firm grasp of both technology and battle tactics, but he conveys this with a light touch. Even I, who prefer to read more about politics than battles, found myself caught up in the adrenaline rush that he manages to capture.
And, of course, there’s still an enigma at the end of the book, in that it’s revealed that there is another force that has been observing the confrontation between Yiv and the Ascendancy, one whose name remains unknown. This little epilogue raises so many questions. Who, exactly, is this person and what do they have against the Ascendancy? The obvious suggestion is that it might be Palpatine, adopting one of his many personae as he continues to pull the strings of those even far away from him. Given his yearning for power, it would make sense that he would be the one responsible for bringing about an end to the Ascendancy, which he would most certainly see as a threat to his own hegemony. However, there’s also the possibility that it’s someone not at all connected to the main Star Wars narrative and that, it seems to me, is an even more frightening prospect.
Overall, I quite enjoyed Ascendancy. It is true, as some fans of the franchise have argued, that it doesn’t really advance the plot of Star Wars appreciably, especially since there are clear end-points. We know, after all, that Thrawn ends up serving in the Galactic Empire under the rule of Palpatine, and we know that he survives at least until the time of The Mandalorian. Nevertheless, it’s always a pleasure to spend more time with Thrawn, especially since he’s not straightforwardly evil. Even now, it’s hard to say exactly what his motivations are. However, I would argue that it’s precisely this opacity that makes him such a fascinating character to return to and, indeed, it goes a long way toward explaining why we keep reading about him. Like the people that surround him, we want to know more, even though we know we might not get it. | https://medium.com/darcy-and-winters/book-review-star-wars-thrawn-ascendancy-chaos-rising-b2e5be8caab | ['Dr. Thomas J. West Iii'] | 2020-12-16 17:14:49.743000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Science Fiction', 'Culture', 'Star Wars', 'Books'] |
Top 15 Python Packages You Must Try | Top 15 Python Packages You Must Try
A handpicked list of the most useful and surprising Python packages from PyPI
Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash
Why do we all love Python? For starters, it’s a beautiful and easy to learn programming language. Another reason: it comes with batteries included, meaning Python has many excellent libraries included by default. But in my opinion, it’s the 230,000 user-contributed packages that make Python really powerful and popular.
Earlier this year, I showed you the 22 most downloaded Python packages in the world. Although that was fun and I learned a lot, it was also a bit frustrating. Why’s that, you ask? Because I was not able to show you my personal favorites!
In this article, I handpicked 15 packages that I found most useful during my 10-year career as a Pythonista. Let’s go! | https://medium.com/tech-explained/top-15-python-packages-you-must-try-c6a877ed3cd0 | ['Erik Van Baaren'] | 2020-06-27 13:31:47.616000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Productivity'] |
Flutter : flip animation. An easy way to animate card flipping… | When I first saw the AnimationSwitcher widget, i thought in my mind that I will be able to flip a widget, revealing its rear side.
What we want to achieve
I was all wrong: the AnimationSwitcher allows you to… switch between several widgets, with an animation you define (the default animation is a fade transition). This component is too generic for that purpose.
I should have read carefully…
But its usage is very generic, so I will show you how that animation can be done.
I discovered a flutter package that may do that flip animation, named animated_card_switcher, but it seems to be not properly maintained, and the code is too complex.
Here is the development steps :
Create the front and rear widgets
Use AnimationSwitcher widget to animate
Code your custom transition builder to rotate your card
Add curves
Create Front and Rear widgets
In this example, I will take simplified versions of front and rear widgets, because it’s not very important.
The only thing to keep in mind is that you have to set a key to your top-level widgets, to let the AnimationSwitcher detect that the widget has changed (and therefore execute the animation).
Like a piece of cake !
Here is an example of widgets layout I will use :
Widget __buildLayout({Key key, String faceName, Color backgroundColor}) {
return Container(
key: key,
decoration: BoxDecoration(
shape: BoxShape.rectangle,
borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(20.0),
color: backgroundColor,
),
child: Center(
child: Text(faceName.substring(0, 1), style: TextStyle(fontSize: 80.0)),
),
);
So my widget front and rear views will be:
Widget _buildFront() {
return __buildLayout(
key: ValueKey(true),
backgroundColor: Colors.blue,
faceName: "F",
);
}
Widget _buildRear() {
return __buildLayout(
key: ValueKey(false),
backgroundColor: Colors.blue.shade700,
faceName: "R",
);
}
Use AnimationSwitcher widget to animate
Now, we can use the AnimationSwitcher widget to animate transition between front and rear widgets.
In a StatefulWidget, I override the build method to create a page that will show the animation in its center.
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
@override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
bool _displayFront;
bool _flipXAxis;
@override
void initState() {
super.initState();
_displayFront = true;
_flipXAxis = true;
}
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(this.widget.title),
centerTitle: true,
),
body: Center(
child: Container(
constraints: BoxConstraints.tight(Size.square(200.0)),
child: _buildFlipAnimation(),
),
);
}
}
I separated the animation from the page into _buildFlipAnimation method, to clarify my code.
Here is a first version of that method:
Widget _buildFlipAnimation() {
return GestureDetector(
onTap: () => setState(() =>_showFrontSide = !_showFrontSide),
child: AnimatedSwitcher(
duration: Duration(milliseconds: 600),
child: _showFrontSide ? _buildFront() : _buildRear(),
),
);
}
When we click on the widget, we can see that the front widget is fading, revealing the rear side. Clicking again will fade the rear widget to reveal the front side.
At least something is happening.
We want to rotate widgets from the Y axis. Hopefully, the AnimationSwitcher allows us to redefine the transition, thanks to the input transitionBuilder.
Code your custom transition builder to rotate your card
So here is the plan: we want a rotation of 180° (pi). We will wrap our widgets into an AnimatedBuidler, and use the Transform widget to apply the rotation.
Widget __transitionBuilder(Widget widget, Animation<double> animation) {
final rotateAnim = Tween(begin: pi, end: 0.0).animate(animation);
return AnimatedBuilder(
animation: rotateAnim,
child: widget,
builder: (context, widget) {
return Transform(
transform: Matrix4.rotationY(value),
child: widget,
alignment: Alignment.center,
);
},
);
}
Flip is correct, but we don’t feel depth.
That’s a good start, but not exactly what we want. We can see that when animating transition, the rear widget is on top from beginning to the end.
The display of the final side comes too fast.
We need that the front being progressively replaced by the rear widget.
So we need to modify two things:
The display order must be reversed: the widget to replace must be on top of the stack.
At the middle of the animation, the widget to be replaced must disappear.
To do that, we will change the layoutBuilder input of our AnimationSwitcher instance.
layoutBuilder: (widget, list) => Stack(children: [widget, ...list]),
Then, at the middle of the animation, the rotation of pi/2 makes the widget‘s width to 0.0. So we will block that rotation for the previous widget (only) to animate.
Widget __transitionBuilder(Widget widget, Animation<double> animation) {
final rotateAnim = Tween(begin: pi, end: 0.0).animate(animation);
return AnimatedBuilder(
animation: rotateAnim,
child: widget,
builder: (context, widget) {
final isUnder = (ValueKey(_showFrontSide) != widget.key);
final value = isUnder ? min(rotateAnim.value, pi / 2) : rotateAnim.value;
return Transform(
transform: Matrix4.rotationY(value),
child: widget,
alignment: Alignment.center,
);
},
);
}
That’s better now, but we haven’t finished yet! To reinforce the feeling that the widget is rotating, we will add a little “tilt” on the widgets.
We need depth… A lovely little fluffy depth.
This “tilt” value must be 0.0 at the beginning and the end of the animation. Also, because we will apply an animation for each side of our widget, then their tilt must be opposite. For example, if front widget tilt is 0.2, then the rear tilt must be -0.2.
Widget __transitionBuilder(Widget widget, Animation<double> animation) {
final rotateAnim = Tween(begin: pi, end: 0.0).animate(animation);
return AnimatedBuilder(
animation: rotateAnim,
child: widget,
builder: (context, widget) {
final isUnder = (ValueKey(_showFrontSide) != widget.key);
var tilt = ((animation.value - 0.5).abs() - 0.5) * 0.003;
tilt *= isUnder ? -1.0 : 1.0;
final value = isUnder ? min(rotateAnim.value, pi / 2) : rotateAnim.value;
return Transform(
transform: Matrix4.rotationY(value)..setEntry(3, 0, tilt),
child: widget,
alignment: Alignment.center,
);
},
);
}
To apply the tilt to the widget, we manually set one specific value to the Matrix4 object defining the rotation.
You can get more information about Matrix4 here: https://medium.com/flutter-community/advanced-flutter-matrix4-and-perspective-transformations-a79404a0d828
Add curves
Finally, to add a little vigor / strength to the animation, you may want to modify curves inputs parameters of the AnimationSwitcher.
It’s always better with curves !
Here is my first attempt:
Widget _buildFlipAnimation() {
return GestureDetector(
onTap: _switchCard,
child: AnimatedSwitcher(
duration: Duration(milliseconds: 4600),
transitionBuilder: __transitionBuilder,
layoutBuilder: (widget, list) => Stack(children: [widget, ...list]),
child: _showFrontSide ? _buildFront() : _buildRear(),
switchInCurve: Curves.easeInBack,
switchOutCurve: Curves.easeOutBack,
),
);
}
I have to show you in slow motion what the problem is.
Ho nooooooooooo …
As the curves are not totally identical, and because the previous widget animation will be played reverse, you will get that artifact where the two widgets are not properly superimposed. There will be a slightly shift between the two.
The animation during few frames…
To avoid that, we have to use the flipped property of the curve we want to use.
switchInCurve: Curves.easeInBack,
switchOutCurve: Curves.easeInBack.flipped,
Sloooow Mooooo … (now perfect)
Conclusion
As you can see, it is not a big deal: I made this animation with around 30 lines of code (animation only), using only one attribute (the displayed side of the widget).
I don’t think it’s wise to create a package for that. Adding dependency to your code means that if it does not work on version update (for example), your project will be stuck for a certain amount of time. Worse, if dependency is not maintained anymore, you won’t be able to guaranty that your project will compile correctly in the next 6 months, 1 or two years…
Copy-paste this example wisely :)
So feel free to use my code. I’m not fan of copy-paste, so I would say “appropriate my code”, meaning copy-paste it, understand it, modify it to your needs!
You will find the demonstration used in this article here:
Follow Flutter Community on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/FlutterComm | https://medium.com/flutter-community/flutter-flip-card-animation-eb25c403f371 | ['David Gonzalez'] | 2021-01-12 11:34:12.728000+00:00 | ['Flutter', 'Android', 'Flutter Widget', 'Animation', 'iOS'] |
Want to work in UX? Pay attention in English class. | Want to work in UX? Pay attention in English class.
With special guest Andy Welfle, Adobe Senior Content Strategist Lead
Building the Perfect Designer
There seems to be a bit of an arms race to standardize the skill sets that are required by employers when it comes to UX-ers, digital product designers, UI designers, or whatever you want to call “us”. I’m acutely aware of this arms race specifically, because I’m in it. Over the past few years we (Adobe and myself) have been working with the University of Utah on developing curriculum for their Digital Product Design program. The core question driving most of our decisions has been a simple one:
What do we want the designers that we hire in the future to look like?
Some of the answers to that question have been pretty straight forward. We need Adobe designers to have a strong understanding of design thinking principles. We need Adobe designers to have a process for discovering problems. We need them to be able to work through those problems with that process to deliver designs that improve the user’s experience. We need those designs to be visually compelling and thoroughly tested using best practices. We need those designers to be able to pitch those ideas through presentations to cross-functional stakeholders.
There’s a lot we need from our designers.
Being that this has been a topic that has been so top of mind for me, I’m constantly looking at parts of my day-to-day process and trying to incorporate the skills needed to complete those things into the curriculum we’re developing. And that’s when I had the “aha” moment a few days ago. There was one aspect of my job responsibilities that touches every single step of the process that we hadn’t accounted for: writing.
Sharpen Your Pencils
Want to set up user testing? You’re going to need to write an email. Are you defining a persona? You better write that thing up. What’s the user’s journey that you’re shooting for? You’re probably going to need to write a narrative. Need to sell some stakeholders on a design? You’re definitely going to be writing up a presentation.
However, if writing isn’t one of our strong suits, it can leave us in a bit of a quandary. So I pinged a colleague of mine, Andy Welfle, who is Senior Content Strategist Lead here at Adobe on the design team. He also happens to be a super awesome guy willing to bestow some of his writing knowledge on us. I asked him a few questions about writing in the UX world and he had some incredibly valuable insights not only just in terms of writing, but specifically for writing in a UX context.
Andy Welfle
As a UX content writer, what similarities have you observed between writing and digital product design?
It’s obvious when it’s pointed out, but a lot of times, designers don’t think about words being part of the user experience. At best, they blend seamlessly with the visuals and the UI, and at worst, they’re jarringly noticeable.
UX content strategy has a lot of parallels with UX design. In fact, when designers ask me what I do, I tell them that I write using design thinking. Instead of traditional copywriting which is usually very linear and finite (and often comes much later in the software development process), UX writing happens at or near the same time UX design does. We iterate alongside designers, and think about the system of language as they think about the visual system.
Here are a few similarities I see in our disciplines: | https://medium.com/thinking-design/want-to-work-in-ux-pay-attention-in-english-class-53245944cc30 | ['Kris Paries'] | 2018-05-21 18:03:33.369000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Creative Career', 'Writing', 'UX', 'Design'] |
The fuss over Brexit continues | The Brexit-referendum was over 4 years ago, but the split-off still creates a lot of uncertainty. In June 2016, 52% of British voters decided that they no longer wanted to be members of the European Union. Now the British do not see themselves as part of Europe anyway. Europe is, above all, an indication for the European continent, not for the British Isles. For years the British have pursued a policy of divide and conquer and obstructed further integration of the European Union. A common market is fine for the British, but further political integration is out of the question. And that political integration has become unavoidable again with the advent of the euro.
The deadlines for an agreement on the terms of the British’s departure are butter-soft. Everything liquefies under high pressure, so it is even possible that the deadline of a hard Brexit, an exit from the Union without a new trade agreement, will be stretched even further. The most likely scenario is that a bare trade agreement will soon emerge. The European Commission must reach an agreement with the United Kingdom to that end. It will then have to be ratified by the European Council and the European Parliament. The European Parliament has a veto but cannot change the terms of the agreement. A simple majority is sufficient, but the agreement must first be ratified by at least three different committees. This process will normally take at least three weeks, possibly even six. The last plenary session of the European Parliament this year is from 14 to 17 December. It is likely that after that the agreement will also have to be ratified by all the national European parliaments and by the regional British parliaments, but this can be done next year. The last session of the British House of Representatives will be on 20 December this year.
A breakthrough in the short term will give everyone just enough time to get the agreement through the various parliaments. In particular, the departure of Dominic Cummings is seen as a signal that an agreement is imminent. Cummings is a staunch supporter of the Brexit. He led the campaign in 2015 and 2016 to vote in favour of the departure. Until recently, he was special advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Even if a deal is made in the first half of December, the politicians are bound to find creative solutions to make the agreement legally valid. Europe is accustomed to negotiating late into the night and only reaching a meagre compromise after many earlier deadlines. There is already talk of an extraordinary session of the European Parliament on 28 December this year.
As time goes on, both sides will have to prepare for a hard Brexit. That is a Brexit without an agreement, one where the United Kingdom falls back on the basic terms of the World Trade Organisation for trade. EU trade rules for the UK will then expire on 1 January. That means that there will be import duties coming back and forth overnight. Think, for example, of exports of animals or plants. That is not a problem at the moment, but we will soon have to check whether a consignment complies with the rules of the exporting country. This is a big step backwards for the British, but it is not the end of the world either. Moreover, the economic impact of the corona crisis is difficult to measure at this time in particular. So there is a political advantage for Johnson, he can blame the economic decline on the coronavirus and not on the Brexit.
The negotiations are stuck on three issues: fisheries, a level playing field and who is allowed to decide when there is disagreement. British fisheries are economically useless. It is 0.1% of Britain’s GDP and the British financial sector is already contributing more to Britain’s GDP in a week. Fishermen from other EU countries are still allowed to fish in British waters, but the British will soon want to set their own quotas again. The level playing field is inextricably linked to free trade within the European Union. This includes, for example, the ban on state aid to businesses, competition conditions, workers’ rights and environmental requirements. It is impossible for Europe to give in in this area. If the British concede to this, it is a Norwegian or a Swiss variant. Those countries, although independent, have to comply with the European Union’s requirements in terms of a level playing field. Only then can there be free trade. These two countries are not allowed to take part in this and the British were allowed to do so before departure. Part of this free trade is also the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. If there is no free trade, then border posts must be re-established on that border. That immediately puts at risk the Good Friday Agreement, the peace signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland on 10 April 1998. Most political parties in Northern Ireland supported that agreement. The Protestant Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) sees the alternative, border controls between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, as the beginning of the unification of Ireland and is therefore totally opposed to it. Furthermore, it does not help Johnson that Trump should be succeeded by Biden. Trump fought a lucrative trade deal after leaving the Union, Biden is a representative of the Irish exodus, the Irish emigration triggered by immense poverty and famine under the domination of the English. The Irish Americans are in favour of a united Ireland. Finally, there remains the question of who has the last word in the event of a conflict. The British want their sovereignty back and will not accept a ruling from a European court.
Many European countries, including France, do not want to give in to the British. In France, there will be elections in 2022 and it now seems to be a neck-and-neck race between Macron and Le Pen. The American elections have shown that populism is alive and kicking and Le Pen is spinning yarn in Macron’s corona approach and the many terrorist attacks that plague the country. According to Le Pen, with the departure, the British will regain their freedom. Macron, therefore, wants the British to suffer as much as possible if they leave the Union, otherwise, the barrier to leaving the Union for Le Pen or for the Italians, for example, will be very small. That would be the end of the euro and of the European Union.
After four and a half years of fuss over the Brexit, the British economy has already suffered most. Because of the uncertainty, many companies have (partly) relocated their activities. Because of this long period of uncertainty, the British stock exchange has lagged behind many other stock exchanges. The British pound is also historically cheap. The British stock exchange and the British pound can benefit from a trading deal or a further extension. This, of course, applies, particularly to local British shares. There is already more interest in the British stock exchange because of its highly cyclical nature. Mining companies, oil companies and banks and insurers are strongly represented. But even with a hard Brexit, the chances of the British stock market and the British pound sinking further are less than people think. Investors would prefer to see an end to this long period of uncertainty. Hard Brexit or soft Brexit, once it is over, will finally allow investors to reduce their heavy underweight in British assets. The low valuation, the cyclical sensitivity in a year when the global economy is growing by more than 6%, combined with the sharp fall in uncertainty, is already making British investment interesting. | https://medium.com/@teuwie/the-fuss-over-brexit-continues-f41c844a2937 | ['Robert Jan Teuwissen'] | 2020-12-10 14:42:05.961000+00:00 | ['Brexit', 'Economy', 'European Union', 'Finance'] |
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