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Midwives for CryptoKitties: Little Kitten is Yours, but Birthing Fee is Mine, Part 2 | CryptoKitties game
The CryptoKitties is a game that consists of collecting virtual cats. Cats in the game can be created by Axiom Zen, the company behind the game, or created by the players of the game who can breed two cats to generate a new one. The physical attributes of each is determined by its own genetic sequence, which is mainly inherited from its parents’ genes with some randomness.
A summary on the set of smart contracts related to CryptoKitties game is given below.
KittyCore: 0x06012c8cf97BEaD5deAe237070F9587f8E7A266d
creator: 0xba52c75764d6F594735dc735Be7F1830CDf58dDf
time: Nov-23-2017 05:41:19 AM +UTC GeneScience: 0xf97e0A5b616dfFC913e72455Fde9eA8bBe946a2B
creator: 0xba52c75764d6F594735dc735Be7F1830CDf58dDf
time: Nov-23-2017 05:40:25 AM +UTC SiringClockAuction: 0xC7af99Fe5513eB6710e6D5f44F9989dA40F27F26
creator: 0xba52c75764d6F594735dc735Be7F1830CDf58dDf
time: Nov-23-2017 05:41:47 AM +UTC SaleClockAuction: 0xb1690C08E213a35Ed9bAb7B318DE14420FB57d8C
creator: 0xba52c75764d6F594735dc735Be7F1830CDf58dDf
time: Nov-23-2017 05:41:27 AM +UTC
Among these smart contracts, KittyCore provides the main functions of the CryptoKitties game to the players such as kitty breeding and child delivery. The smart contract GeneScience provides functionality on determination of genomes for newly born kittens. The smart contract SaleClockAuction is the platform for buying and selling cats. Another market, which is for “renting” cats for breeding purposes is provided by smart contract SiringClockAuction.
For more information on the CryptoKitties game, please refer to part 1 of this article.
Smart contracts for Crypto-Midwife
In this part of the article, we introduce another set of smart contracts that together provide the midwife service for the CryptoKitties game.
The first smart contract in the set is the one that is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain by the following transaction.
Transaction Hash: 0x4e7b83562aca39002b5728198e232b85af5a9c3832636cb1d5ab61738a0b8829
Status: Success
Block: 6699405 1968240 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 323 days 7 hrs ago (Nov-13-2018 10:38:23 PM +UTC)
From: 0x1b0dff20922e219276ff0a3496afdc02d92948a2
To: [Contract 0x896b516eb300e61cfc96ee1de4b297374e7b70ed Created]
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.00035128 Ether ($0.06)
Gas Limit: 100,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 70,256 (70.26%)
Gas Price: 0.000000005 Ether (5 Gwei)
Nonce Position 3845 17
Input Data:
This smart contract is deployed by account 0x1b0d. The address of the smart contract is 0x896b, and its creation time is Nov-13–2018 10:38:23 PM +UTC.
As the creator of this smart contract did not publish the source code of the smart contract, we employ reverse engineering techniques to recover most of the source code.
The source code of this smart contract, called contracts _896b, is as follows.
pragma solidity ^0.5.1; contract contract_896b {
address constant master = 0x000007222Caeb29694719E804b24Fb3eE5116a8a;
constructor () public {
}
function () external payable {
uint8 firstByte = uint8(msg.data[0]);
uint256 len = 3;
uint256 num = uint256(blockhash(block.number - 1)); if ((num % (firstByte / 0x10)) == (firstByte & 0x0f)) {
// entire input except the first byte
len = msg.data.length - 1;
} // skip first byte
uint256 start = msg.value + 1;
bytes memory data;
assembly {
calldatacopy(add(data, 0x20), start, len)
} // invoke fallback function in master
(bool success,) = master.call.value(msg.value)(data);
}
}
The smart contract contract_896b consists of an empty constructor and the fallback function. Thus, all the functionality is implemented in its fallback function.
By looking at the fallback function, we can see that the function is quite simple. It takes a byte sequence as its input, then checks whether or not the block hash of the previous block follows the pattern specified by the first byte of the input. If so, the function simply uses the remaining input as an argument to call the fallback function of another smart contract at address 0x000007222Caeb29694719E804b24Fb3eE5116a8a, let us call it contract_7222. Otherwise, the function uses the first three bytes of the remaining byte sequence in the input as argument for the fallback function of contract_7222.
It is interesting that there is no access control on the invocation of the fallback function in contract_896b, so, everyone can trigger the fallback function.
As the fallback function of contract_896b eventually calls the fallback function in contract_7222, thus, the smart contract contract_896b is actually a wrapper for contract_7222.
The contract_7222 is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain by the following transaction.
Transaction Hash: 0x976535c0e6551af6423b8a5143ab11ebd87d4b9c4ea73a610953e9fc11b91ed6
Status: Success
Block: 6607801 2045496 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 336 days 2 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 10:11:02 PM +UTC)
From: 0x7e35ad5d816a1c4814a2c9e74f498db05dc3a038
To: [Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a Created]
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.001208895 Ether ($0.22)
Gas Limit: 241,779
Gas Used by Transaction: 241,779 (100%)
Gas Price: 0.000000005 Ether (5 Gwei)
Nonce Position 0 16
Input Data:
The deployer of this smart contract is 0x7e35, which is not the same as that creating the wrapper contract contract_896b.
The creation time of this smart contract is Oct-29–2018 10:11:02 PM +UTC, and it is about two weeks before the wrapper contract is created, which is on Nov-13–2018 10:38:23 PM +UTC.
Again, as the source code of the contract_7222 is not made by its creator to the public, we use reverse engineering methods to restore most of its source code.
The source code of contract_7222 is given below.
pragma solidity ^0.5.1; contract contract_7222 {
address constant admin = 0x3A91B432b27Eb9A805C9Fd32d9f5517E9dD42Aa4;
address constant target = 0x06012c8cf97BEaD5deAe237070F9587f8E7A266d;
constructor () public payable {
}
function () external payable {
if (msg.value != 0) {
return;
} address addr = tx.origin;
uint256 allow;
assembly {
allow := sload(addr)
} if ((allow == 0) && (tx.origin != admin)) {
return;
} uint256 len = msg.data.length;
bytes memory data;
assembly {
calldatacopy(add(add(data, 0x20), 0x1f), 0, len)
} uint8 cmd = uint8(msg.data[0]); if (cmd == 0x01) {
uint256 offset = 0x02;
uint256 slot;
assembly {
slot := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
} slot = (slot & 0xffff); while (true) {
uint256 matronId;
assembly {
matronId := mload(add(add(add(data, 0x20), offset), 0x04))
} matronId = matronId & 0xffffffff;
if (matronId == 0) {
if (slot != 0) {
assembly {
sstore(slot, 0)
}
} return;
} // function giveBirth() selector: 0x88c2a0bf
(bool success,) = target.call(
abi.encodeWithSelector(0x88c2a0bf, matronId)); if (!success) {
offset = offset + 0x07;
continue;
} offset = offset + 0x07; uint256 nonceStart; assembly {
nonceStart := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
} nonceStart = nonceStart & 0xffffff; if (nonceStart == 0) {
continue;
} for (uint256 idx = 0x05; idx >= 0; idx--) {
uint256 nonce = (nonceStart + idx);
if (nonce >= 0x010000) {
addr = address(uint160(bytes20(
keccak256(abi.encodePacked(
bytes1(0xd9),
bytes1(0x94),
address(this),
bytes1(0x83),
uint24(nonce)
))))); addr.call.value(msg.value)("");
continue;
} if (nonce >= 0x0100) {
addr = address(uint160(bytes20(
keccak256(abi.encodePacked(
bytes1(0xd8),
bytes1(0x94),
address(this),
bytes1(0x82),
uint16(nonce)
))))); addr.call.value(msg.value)("");
continue;
} if (nonce >= 0x80) {
addr = address(uint160(bytes20(
keccak256(abi.encodePacked(
bytes1(0xd7),
bytes1(0x94),
address(this),
bytes1(0x81),
uint8(nonce)
))))); addr.call.value(msg.value)("");
continue;
} addr = address(uint160(bytes20(
keccak256(abi.encodePacked(
bytes1(0xd6),
bytes1(0x94),
address(this),
uint8(nonce)
))))); addr.call.value(msg.value)("");
}
} return;
} if (cmd == 0x10) {
// 0x9c40 = 40000
while (gasleft() > 40000) {
new agent();
} return;
} if (cmd == 0x02) {
uint256 offset = 2;
uint256 slot;
assembly {
slot := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
} while ((slot & 0xffff) != 0) {
uint256 num = block.number;
assembly {
sstore(slot, num)
} offset = offset + 2;
assembly {
slot := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
}
} return;
} if (cmd == 0x03) {
uint256 amount;
assembly {
amount := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), 0x20))
} if (amount == 0) {
amount = address(this).balance;
} tx.origin.call.value(amount)(""); return;
} if (cmd == 0x11) {
bool success;
uint256 g = gasleft();
assembly {
addr := calldataload(0x14)
success := call(g, addr, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
} return;
} if (cmd == 0x20) {
uint256 offset = 0x14;
uint256 input;
assembly {
input := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
} addr = address(input); while (addr != address(0)) {
uint256 allow;
assembly {
allow := mload(add(add(add(data, 0x20), offset), 1))
} allow = allow & 1; assembly {
sstore(addr, allow)
} offset = offset + 0x15;
assembly {
input := mload(add(add(data, 0x20), offset))
} addr = address(input);
} return;
} if (cmd == 0xff) {
selfdestruct(tx.origin);
} return;
} }
contract agent {
address constant master = 0x000007222Caeb29694719E804b24Fb3eE5116a8a;
constructor () public {
}
function () external {
require (msg.sender == master);
selfdestruct(msg.sender);
}
}
In this smart contract, all functionality is provided in its fallback function. When entering the fallback function, it first checks whether or not the caller of the function has the authorization to use the service. If the caller is authorized to use the service, the function does nothing and simply exits. The caller is legitimate to the service if it is the administrator of the smart contract or if it is granted permit by the administrator.
The administrator is hard coded in the smart contract when the smart contract is created. The address of the administrator is 0x3a91, and it is stored in storage variable “admin”.
The input to the fallback function is a byte sequence. The first byte of the input acts as the “service type” the caller likes to use. The smart contract offers the following types of services.
service type 1: service for child delivery service type 2: service for creating a bank of storage slots service type 16: service for creating a pool of agent contracts service type 3: service for money withdraw service type 17: service for calling the fallback function in given address service type 32: service for granting access permit to specified addresses service type 255: service for destructing the smart contract
The main service is of course service type 1, which is used to give birth to new kittens.
In addition to this main service, the smart contract also provides other services that are mainly used to grant access permit to specified addresses, to create a bank of storage or a pool of contracts, and to withdraw money.
Similar to the midwife service introduced in part 1 of this article, the midwife service described above also takes advantage of storage refund and contract refund offered by the EVM of the Ethereum blockchain. When a storage slot is released, EVM gives the caller the storage refund as a reward. Similarly, the caller will get a refund when a smart contract is destroyed.
The service types 2 and 16 are provided by the smart contract to create a bank of storage and a pool of contracts, respectively.
The bank of storage and the pool of contracts are used to compensate the costs for child delivery. More specifically, when a kitten is successfully delivered, one storage slot will be released and 6 agent contracts will be destructed, so that the storage refund and contract refund can be obtained from EVM to cover part of the costs caused by calling the giveBirth() function in the CryptoKitties game. The key to the storage to be release and the starting nonce for the agent contracts to be destroyed are provided in the input to the fallback function.
To further reduce the cost of kitten delivery, multiple births can be delivered within a single transaction. the matron Ids of he to-be-born babies are provided in the input sequence to the fallback function.
The CryptoMidwife service in action
As pointed out before, contract contract_896b essentially acts as a wrapper for contract_7222, so all functionalities are provided by contract_7222. Therefore, users of the midwife service can interact with either contract_896b or contract_7222.
Right after the deployment of contract_7222, the administrator of the smart contract contract_7222 is the only one who can use the the service. To allow more users to use the service, the administrator needs to grant them permits.
Here is a sample transaction that triggers the service type 32 to give users permission to access the service.
Transaction Hash: 0x5129b522cd9b4f6b9431d0c5c3c9ad37d6afa0dc2e024b063afed475400cba99
Status: Success
Block: 6608078 2104470 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 345 days 7 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 11:11:53 PM +UTC)
From: 0x3a91b432b27eb9a805c9fd32d9f5517e9dd42aa4
To: Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.00043001 Ether ($0.08)
Gas Limit: 100,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 86,002 (86%)
Gas Price: 0.000000005 Ether (5 Gwei)
Nonce Position 20339 4
Input Data:
0x201b0dff20922e219276ff0a3496afdc02d92948a201cc5ddc48ba50a2e9564903eda9653f30a512f2b6011df10b78e4e523985e16d629fb12cd8b45e47ec701
The sender of this transaction is 0x3a91, which is in fact the administrator of the contract_7222. The service type requested by the transaction is 0x20 (i.e., 32). After the successful execution of this transaction, the following addresses will have the rights to access the services provided by the smart contract:
0x1b0dff20922e219276ff0a3496afdc02d92948a2 0xcc5ddc48ba50a2e9564903eda9653f30a512f2b6 0x1df10b78e4e523985e16d629fb12cd8b45e47ec7
It can be seen that within a single transaction, permits can be granted to multiple addresses.
Before the service for child delivery can be used, a bank of storage and a pool of contracts should be first created.
Here is a sample transaction that invokes the service type 2 to build a bank of storage.
Transaction Hash: 0x4547b3eadbcc47d1d93781692098ca5158a63eeeea14899812afcb34548ab155
Status: Success
Block: 6607879 2046505 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 336 days 6 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 10:27:31 PM +UTC)
From: 0x3a91b432b27eb9a805c9fd32d9f5517e9dd42aa4
To: Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.006101907 Ether ($1.12)
Gas Limit: 2,050,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 2,033,969 (99.22%)
Gas Price: 0.000000003 Ether (3 Gwei)
Nonce Position 20333 23
Input Data:
0x02000100020003000400050006000700080009000a000b000c000d000e000f0010001100120013001400150016001700180019001a001b001c001d001e001f0020002100220023002400250026002700280029002a002b002c002d002e002f0030003100320033003400350036003700380039003a003b003c003d003e003f0040004100420043004400450046004700480049004a004b004c004d004e004f0050005100520053005400550056005700580059005a005b005c005d005e005f00600061006200630064
It can be observed that the keys to the storage slots that will be created are enumerated in the input to the fallback function. Clearly, these keys are contiguous in most cases, thus, it seems quite inefficient to list them one by one in the input to the fallback function.
Here is a sample transaction for the creation of the agent contract pool by using service type 16 (i.e., 0x10).
Transaction Hash: 0xff0030c7fd9d60619ad6f54bb2a2841e75ab59aa87a5b6465410825a15abfcc8
Status: Success
Block: 6607900 2046485 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 336 days 6 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 10:33:00 PM +UTC)
From: 0x3a91b432b27eb9a805c9fd32d9f5517e9dd42aa4
To: Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.006734007 Ether ($1.24)
Gas Limit: 2,250,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 2,244,669 (99.76%)
Gas Price: 0.000000003 Ether (3 Gwei)
Nonce Position 20334 41
Input Data: 0x10
This transaction will create as many agent contracts as the gas limit allows. In particular, a new contract will be created if the remaining gas is still larger than 40000 units. For a gas limit 2,250,000 units, 60 agent contracts can be created as indicated by the internal transactions generated by this transaction.
The contract call From 0x3a91b432b27eb9a805c9fd32d9f5517e9dd42aa4 To 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a produced 60 contract Internal Transactions : Type Trace Address From To Value Gas Limit create_0 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xa72c69f93968698658bb6364a2a8048343c155eb 0 Ether 2,162,242 create_1 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xb69b62d0d43f260e3884d3e713db6534f3c9a8d0 0 Ether 2,125,767 create_2 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x02ab19151854e6b024f26cf511679e5ba4813956 0 Ether 2,089,292 create_3 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xa86c65cd57fd4ff39a293c013ce14ed6375fd8fb 0 Ether 2,052,817 create_4 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x452bcf8f243fb6d950d115305e288f164617ea7a 0 Ether 2,016,342 create_5 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x65804ea6e5f7eb1e31145037c93198479c09619d 0 Ether 1,979,867 create_6 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x858fb1aafdf0448e3bbca0d414e0b16757eef075 0 Ether 1,943,392 create_7 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x376ce66dcfb795256804e810113c7a5093419388 0 Ether 1,906,917 create_8 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x92ae297621b99a1c7c6bbc282697e8178eb1dca2 0 Ether 1,870,442 (This part is skipped to save space) create_51 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x282449b5358924058b8a59397911b19da041ad25 0 Ether 302,016 create_52 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xfaaa50e4f40b38f18c61745a667dfed38fbd27e6 0 Ether 265,541 create_53 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xae42d9359c02c8d42ab97472112d613cb595e6fb 0 Ether 229,066 create_54 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x3d0906967be6542d956ca98c2a587e434e3b4c28 0 Ether 192,591 create_55 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x09a55424cee414c3411cfedd3dbde6d840a962d4 0 Ether 156,115 create_56 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xcda5433eb89de1c0205cb8aa82a8c18f6fff3ccf 0 Ether 119,640 create_57 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x4274bc30cd3a0e8281461c0232636893b90dfcb7 0 Ether 83,165 create_58 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0x5b6a96fdf6675689bb230b39d52fab346c01081f 0 Ether 46,690 create_59 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0xc4285dafda00dadb4122e7f614a28f79452d9fde 0 Ether 10,215
It can be seen that the remaining gas is 10,215 units after the 60th agent contract is created. So, totally 60 contracts are generated by this transaction.
When the service for child delivery is used, the call to giveBirth() function in the CryptoKitties may fail if the transaction arrives late, meaning the the kitten this transaction tries to deliver has already been given birth by a transaction submitted by others.
Here is a sample transaction that attempts to give birth to a kitten but fails.
Transaction Hash: 0x3c7bd6024506caeb3c2022e573eea9797381ad0b8cc5de6fef74fd2d98759224
Status: Success
Block: 6607969 2064435 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 339 days 1 hr ago (Oct-29-2018 10:48:33 PM +UTC)
From: 0x6df71d63ad1bdd99b61aaf1d67f0b7a1274e5d03
To: Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a
Although one or more Error Occurred [Reverted] Contract Execution Completed
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.00103336198515 Ether ($0.18)
Gas Limit: 1,525,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 32,213 (2.11%)
Gas Price: 0.000000032079035953 Ether (32.079035953 Gwei)
Nonce Position 0 6
Input Data:
0x0100010011539a00000100066f490000070007898700000d000a9522000013000e973d000019
This transaction uses service type 1, which tries to give birth to kittens. Multiple cats are to be delivered within a single transaction. The matron Ids are: 0x0011539a, 0x00066f49, 0x00078987, 0x000a9522, and 0x000e973d.
Here is a sample transaction that successfully gives birth to a kitten.
Transaction Hash: 0x63a4295367a57df42b145076e08a726739c8afe979cf3a53f3a6a4b07209482c
Status: Success
Block: 6607970 2046429 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 336 days 5 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 10:49:01 PM +UTC)
From: 0x6df71d63ad1bdd99b61aaf1d67f0b7a1274e5d03
To: Contract 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0x2a88ab66ee13f831e588f3d34d5f9c15509cd2d1
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0xac063af7d326610bddcf4b9424881185e6324012
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0xbe78698b259727545452c037bffc57d3eeb30dc2
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0x1bad56e69e0730a6b1253e2440257f0ad7de5577
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0x175a8f764aae59027c21c9dcf9a37a2805b607d1
SELF DESTRUCT Contract 0x967bad08255e6cfeaafeb4c5f7544cb72bb7f2af Tokens Transferred:
From 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000To 0xef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610dFor ERC-721 TokenID [1138517] CryptoKittie... (CK)
Value: 0 Ether ($0.00)
Transaction Fee: 0.00770226456453 Ether ($1.42)
Gas Limit: 325,000
Gas Used by Transaction: 150,347 (46.26%)
Gas Price: 0.000000051229918552 Ether (51.229918552 Gwei)
Nonce Position 6 44
Input Data: 0x0100020011469400001f
Only a single new baby was born in this transaction. The Id of the new born kitten is 1138517. The matron Id for the new baby is 0x00114694. The key to the storage to be released is 0x0002 and the starting nonce for the contracts to be destroyed is 0x00001f.
The following is the information on the internal transactions generated by this transaction.
The contract call From 0x6df71d63ad1bdd99b61aaf1d67f0b7a1274e5d03 To 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a produced 7 contract Internal Transactions : Type Trace Address From To Value Gas Limit call_0_1 0x06012c8cf97bead5deae237070f9587f8e7a266d 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0.008 Ether 2,300 suicide_1_0 0x2a88ab66ee13f831e588f3d34d5f9c15509cd2d1 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0 suicide_2_0 0xac063af7d326610bddcf4b9424881185e6324012 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0 suicide_3_0 0xbe78698b259727545452c037bffc57d3eeb30dc2 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0 suicide_4_0 0x1bad56e69e0730a6b1253e2440257f0ad7de5577 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0 suicide_5_0 0x175a8f764aae59027c21c9dcf9a37a2805b607d1 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0 suicide_6_0 0x967bad08255e6cfeaafeb4c5f7544cb72bb7f2af 0x000007222caeb29694719e804b24fb3ee5116a8a 0 Ether 0
The internal transaction “call_0_1” clearly indicates that the birthing fee 0.008 Ethers is transferred from CryptoKitties (i.e., 0x0601) to the contract_7222.
The internal transactions “suicide_1_0” to “suicide_6_0” are generated by the 6 agent contracts that self destruct themselves.
During the execution of giveBirth() function, the smart contract KittyCore emits some events shown below.
Transaction Receipt Event Logs Address 0x06012c8cf97bead5deae237070f9587f8e7a266d
Name Birth (address owner, uint256 kittyId, uint256 matronId, uint256 sireId, uint256 genes)
Topics 0 0x0a5311bd2a6608f08a180df2ee7c5946819a649b204b554bb8e39825b2c50ad5
Data
000000000000000000000000ef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000115f55
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000114694
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001146cf
00006b16c2adc44a401380014012d79842309a84b0a41a8017bc2c30c4278c23 Address 0x06012c8cf97bead5deae237070f9587f8e7a266d
Name Transfer (address from, address to, uint256 tokenId)
Topics 0 0xddf252ad1be2c89b69c2b068fc378daa952ba7f163c4a11628f55a4df523b3ef
Data
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000ef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000115f55
From the event Birth(), I know that the matron Id and Sire Id of the newly born kitten are 0x114694 and 0x1146cf, respectively. The new kitten has Id of 0x115f55. The owner of matron cat is 0xef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d.
After the kitten was born, the owner of this new baby is the same as that of its matron, that is, 0xef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d as indicated in the event Transfer().
In fact, this new kitten is bred by its matron and sire in the following transaction by its owner.
Transaction Hash: 0xaca1df26d32e1fe4f7d23e83c9c8aef051d284c58d509f28bfd9406d3109adde
Status: Success
Block: 6604130 2125380 Block Confirmations
Timestamp: 348 days 15 hrs ago (Oct-29-2018 07:55:23 AM +UTC)
From: 0xef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d
To: Contract 0x06012c8cf97bead5deae237070f9587f8e7a266d (CryptoKitties: Core)
Value: 0.008 Ether ($1.45)
Transaction Fee: 0.000568613365 Ether ($0.10)
Gas Limit: 119,977
Gas Used by Transaction: 79,985 (66.67%)
Gas Price: 0.000000007109 Ether (7.109 Gwei)
Nonce Position 2148 153
Input Data: Function: breedWithAuto(uint256 _matronId, uint256 _sireId)
MethodID: 0xf7d8c883
[0]: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000114694
[1]: 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001146cf
The event generated by this transaction is as follows.
Transaction Receipt Event Logs Address 0x06012c8cf97bead5deae237070f9587f8e7a266d
Name Pregnant (address owner, uint256 matronId, uint256 sireId, uint256 cooldownEndBlock) Topics 0 0x241ea03ca20251805084d27d4440371c34a0b85ff108f6bb5611248f73818b80
Data
000000000000000000000000ef3d9ddf59f3622a04753c61e6c4d596e7fc610d
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000114694
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001146cf
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000064d462
The event Pregnant() shows that the block for the expected kitten is 0x64d462 (i.e., 6607970), which is exactly the block number where the child delivery service is triggered.
References | https://medium.com/@zhongqiangc/midwives-for-cryptokitties-little-kitten-is-yours-but-birthing-fee-is-mine-part-2-3783f0a8d8ad | ['Zhongqiang Chen'] | 2019-10-12 23:12:22.546000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Crypto Midwife Service', 'Storage Refund', 'Contract Refund', 'Cryptokitties'] |
Precisamos trabalhar? | 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/matheuspaulo/precisamos-trabalhar-f075160518b3 | ['Paulo Matheus'] | 2020-11-27 16:17:33.001000+00:00 | ['Cristianismo', 'Socialism'] |
7 Surprising Benefits of Having a Baby During the Pandemic | 7 Surprising Benefits of Having a Baby During the Pandemic
Seriously. There are some perks.
Image by author of my pandemic baby a.k.a “the coronial”.
Being pregnant with my second child during the Covid-19 outbreak was terrifying and unrelentingly stressful. However, after my baby boy was born in June, I discovered that unlike pregnancy… having a new baby right now has some definite upsides. Of course, if I had a choice of having a baby during a pandemic, my answer would be a firm “no thank you” every time.
But for those new mamas-to-be who are worried about what life looks like after their baby arrives, I am here to say it’s not all bad. Really. Truly. There are some benefits to having a new baby right now. And for me, looking at the positives helps all the hard stuff feel a little bit less impossible.
1. Strangers don’t touch my baby.
With my first baby, people would walk up to her stroller to say hello, and then grab her little hand or try to pinch her chubby cheeks before I could stop them. It was socially awkward for so many reasons. With baby number two, people cross the street to give us space — a definite improvement.
2. People actually want to see baby pics.
Usually after the first few photos of your bundle of joy, most friends are over it. But now, those same friends are starved for happy news and suddenly baby photos are just the thing. I even have people texting me asking for more. At this point it’s basically a public service, and I’m happy to oblige because of course my baby is adorable.
3. New food delivery and takeout options.
Stocking a freezer with healthy meals is a great ambition, but personally I never lived that dream. For baby two, social distancing restrictions forced restaurants to be creative with their takeout options — leading to a much broader set of choices than pizza delivery. Also, when I really can’t be bothered to cook — there is an entire pantry of panic-purchased food as a fall back.
4) FOMO no more.
The guilt attached to missing out on parties and social engagements has evaporated. There is nothing to miss! It can be difficult as a new parent to say no and stay at home. With my first baby, it would take two hours to get out of the house for a coffee date; no matter how early I started, I’d be 45 minutes late. Now, I don’t need an excuse to stay at home. This has made it easier to rest and deal with broken sleep while my body recovers from the ordeal of growing and delivering a whole, living, breathing human.
5) Sunglasses + face mask = invisibility cloak.
Ladies put that make-up away! Not that I wore make-up when my first baby was small (seriously, who has the time?)… but now I strut into the grocery store in my yoga pants and shirt covered in baby spit up to buy ice cream like a boss. I have no fear of judgement by someone I know because… honestly, who could recognize me anyway?
6) I’m not alone all damn day.
My partner is lucky enough to have a job where he can work from home. This means I get little breaks and adult conversation during the day. He can keep an ear out for the baby while I’m taking a shower or making a phone call. Occasionally, baby two will join him for a video call. We usually eat lunch together. Those little moments have made huge contributions towards my mental health and our relationship. They’ve been great for my husband too; those baby smiles and cuddles help to break up a day of Zoom meeting backdrops and Slack messages.
7) Change is on the horizon for working families.
Every family with kids has been forced to make it work during lockdown. But honestly, managing two careers with kids was not easy pre-pandemic either. Now it is all on display. This is optimistic but I have to believe the insanity of 2020 will bring more equality to parenting, more empathetic policies from both the government and employers, and crucially, more respect for our teachers and childcare providers.
If you are pregnant and reading this, I wish you all the very best of luck in the coming months; especially during the excruciatingly slow third trimester. My only advice for that is Epsom salt baths and chocolate chip cookies. Seriously that combo got me through some dark times.
I’m also interested to hear from other new parents in the comments about any unexpected bonuses you’ve experienced having a baby during this time. I don’t know about you, but I need all the positives I can get right about now. | https://medium.com/home-sweet-home/7-surprising-benefits-of-having-a-baby-during-the-pandemic-a3d416b1273b | ['Mikki Draggoo'] | 2020-10-21 03:11:29.343000+00:00 | ['Maternity Leave', 'Covid-19', 'Baby', 'Family', 'Parenting'] |
Memento Design Pattern in Java | Implementing memento design pattern using java 11
Memento Design Pattern Implementation in Java 11
1- Brief Introduction
The memento pattern is a software design pattern that is used to store and restore an object to its previous state. Memento pattern is categorized as behavioral pattern same as observer pattern.
2- Memento Design Pattern
Problem: It’s very easy. Have you ever seen undo button in any application?
A little more technical means storing state of an object step by step so we can restore it to any step any time we want.
Solution: Memento Design Pattern!!!
memento design pattern class diagram
3- Implementing Memento Design Pattern in Java
Now we know that we should have three classes.
1- Memento: is an object which is the same as originator state.
Memento class
2- Originator: is an object which would have some states which we want to store and restore them.
Originator class
3- CareTaker: is responsible to keep track of the originator states history by saving them as a stack. Also it is used to retrieved states.
CareTaker class
Now we can use them in out Main class.
Main class | https://medium.com/@omid-haghighatgoo/memento-design-pattern-in-java-6c193e582f46 | ['Omid Haghighatgoo'] | 2021-05-19 19:47:59.764000+00:00 | ['Java', 'Best Practices', 'Memento Pattern', 'Java Interview Questions', 'Design Patterns'] |
Mengapa Anak-anak ? | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/etsah/mengapa-anak-anak-bafad4adfe65 | ['Obed Nugroho'] | 2018-10-01 03:30:15.021000+00:00 | ['Sharing', 'Anak', 'Education', 'Gereja', 'Anak Muda'] |
down from the mountain (or a prefect day with her) | yes, eventually back to the beginning stuff
but not today
today we stay on the blanket
and pull clouds over our faces
today we stay across the street from the mountains
up the road from the answer
downstream from a random Ukrainian neighborhood
centering around a neat little motel with a ping pong table
and lots of strange food
today we dance on our blanket in bare feet
unconcerned about going viral
in the worst possible way
today she drinks the bottle of chardonnay she smuggled in
like we are picnicking quietly in a secluded wood of humanity. | https://medium.com/other-doors/down-from-the-mountain-or-a-prefect-day-with-her-599d19733f03 | ['Nicholas Petrone'] | 2020-05-20 15:17:12.650000+00:00 | ['Otherdoors', 'Poetry', 'Music', 'Love', 'Festivals'] |
This concept or notion that corporations or businesses are combating or giving the appearance that… | This concept or notion that corporations or businesses are combating or giving the appearance that racism is intolerable is merely a charade. There is money on the line here and they are very fine people on both sides that serve capitalism in this vein. The president has exposed this ignorance for what it is in many aspects of absurdity. Racialization is a cultural phenomena here and it is embedded in the psyche of all its citizenry as part of the assimilation process of being an American, it is impossible to wish it away or in the workplace deny its plausibility.
The actions of the Assistant General Manager is the corporation’s plausible deniability. The fact that there are people of various races working there serves as plausible deniability. The fact that they responded to you Marley K. serves as plausible deniability, and unfortunately those who will read your article (written by a Black woman stereotypically known to be angry) will silently express plausible deniability of your claims based on the persistence and thus plausibility of racialization.
This does not diminish your claim nor your reaction to the affront you faced during your stay at this establishment. But it does make a scapegoat out of racism on the part of the corporate entity making it unactionable legally as well as mentally because they have done the bare minimum to denounce and evade culpability.
This is where we come to the psuedo profoundly lame excuse you find mostly coming out of sophists, apologists, and the vanity and insanity of those who benefit. They call it the human condition. This specious reasoning or excuse is meant to leave you hopeless in your resistant to or fight against inequality and racism. It is very effective especially when it comes down to the “money over everything” concept, you will find widespread collusion with combatting it or even just calling it out. This is where I identify with your concept of colleagues of racism.
But there is always hope and it culminates over time. Sherry Kappel has highlighted many portions of your article as she may identify, become enlightened, or just relate to many instances and or concepts gleaned from your articulation of events. I have opined on them. This is hope. It is also an illustration of an overstanding of the issue, not just an understanding of them.
It is important not to look forward to some victory in this fight, it would not be logical nor will it or should it feel like one because we have lost so much in terms of lives and time. We can only look forward to this phenomena being a regrettable thing of the past. As you can see we are so far from making that a reality. | https://medium.com/@interculturalistic/this-concept-or-notion-that-corporations-or-businesses-are-combating-or-giving-the-appearance-that-641fad0531ec | [] | 2019-05-06 15:09:41.680000+00:00 | ['Racism', 'Workplace Culture', 'Life Lessons', 'Business', 'Diversity'] |
The Friday Evening of Life | Image: Boulderpress.com
I had to smile when I learned from a friend that he believed me to be a peaceful, thoughtful man, and was surprised to hear I was taking part in a protest march at my age. You’re not even in your own country! Haven’t you been involved in enough shit for one lifetime?
So, I smiled, because yes, I’ve fought, screamed, and caused trouble all round the world. I’ve been hunted like an animal, and thrown into several different prisons with varying degrees of hostility. They didn’t throw me there because I was thoughtful, or peaceful, so in truth, my friend is right, I’m a broken man.
Growing old, I had lost the will to fight anymore. I was never fearless, nor could I manage to turn away from a fight. That, at least, stems from my childhood experiences. I never got used to taking a beating, but neither did I turn and run. In the end, the other kids followed me. Not because I was a bully, but because I wouldn’t let anyone bully them.
But I’ve long traveled away from youth.
Reflecting, I’m mad sometimes for all the chances I never took, the places not visited, the midnights that passed unnoticed. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take a chance again, or stay awake long enough to watch the woman I love fall asleep. I ran to be elusive. More often than not, I missed the things worth stopping for.
I wondered, oftentimes, knowing my lifestyle, if I would ever meet the turn of the century, let alone be around in 2020. Looking back, I wonder if what I wanted was ever attainable? Or that in reality it was never out there anyway.
I felt a new attention today, caught almost, as if the need to be off and running still hasn’t diminished. That getting up in the morning and joining a protest march in another country felt wholly worthwhile.
As I look out at the world today, everything going on that I don’t quite understand, I might be forgiven for thinking myself a pitiable soul. I’m not a very bright bean — I see this very well as more and more happens in the world, even among my friends.
I see this very well, now that I am too old to be a clever boy — but I’ve got something. And that something is an incomparable sense of what is important to me in the world. Equal opportunity for everyone. An end to racism. To cast a vote for a government the rest of the world can look to and respect for their moral leadership.
But on a personal level, I was always looking for something else, something I alone could control. It took a while, but I have come to learn that this thing is nothing more than the simplicity of kindness and honesty and family. We don’t all have to find strength in fighting through the wilderness of absurdity to arrive at a straightforward and undeniable fact in this world— that family is love.
Given a second chance, I did learn it in the end. I was raised by a family not always accepting, not always tolerant, but a family that was a fighting force for love. We were not tongueless, we inhabited each other’s lives in ways too difficult to explain. Family can sometimes seem like an ugly language. It can make us want to hide behind walls. But it is a language that, once learned, brings great insight into togetherness.
I am about to accept two newly born grandchildren into my life and into a conflicted divided society.
When I was born, I was not welcome. I was not the result of a love story. I was not intended for this world, and that fact has left me — in so many ways, mostly creative —with wanderlust in a mind as dark as a self-confinement cell.
I’ve made egregious mistakes in my life, lied, bullied, fought everything except to face the truth of my life, even with the help of people who truly cared and loved me. It didn’t matter what came, how, or where, I never wanted to be found.
These two grandchildren, and any that follow, will have the most wonderful lives ahead of them, not because of fortune or fate, but because they entered this world belonging.
With each, I will learn a new language; one that will build as these children grow, with building blocks, toy towns, Christmas signs and Santa Clauses, with sleds piled high, marvelous worlds, changing then, to the language of geographical maps and travel, new experiences, and when every language is taught, it will be time to learn the language they will teach.
If life were a week long, I sit here on a Friday evening, never having stayed home enough. The shutters are almost down. The road I have traversed has never been unlit, even on the outskirts, but full of noise and lights and people. There have been carnivals, merry-go-rounds, dippers that sometimes dipped deep — but rose high.
I cannot wait to be a grandparent. I have so much to say, to share, to close out a chapter with so much joy.
The last part is where I am at. It is simplistic enough.
It is family. It is everything.
So I wake up, and march with others feeling the same way I do. The world has to be better for everyone — your world and the world of my grandchildren. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/the-friday-evening-of-life-62cebecb6a48 | ['Harry Hogg'] | 2020-06-08 05:49:44.091000+00:00 | ['Grandchildren', 'Nonfiction', 'Love', 'Relationships', 'Life'] |
You’re not failing because someone else gets better, | This part might contain a spoiler-
from My Wife is Having an Affair This Week
Bad luck for him, he found his wife actually met another man in the hotel lobby. Lost his mind, he’s approaching them and asking them several questions with an angry temper. Everything went wrong since that time. Instead of trying to save his marriage, he ruined everything.
Since that, he regularly asks the online community what should he do. Until someday, when he posted about he’s gonna forgive his wife it made someone in the online community went mad. This guy threatening to expose his wife's identity.
“You won’t get better because someone else’s fails. Neither you fail because someone else gets better.”
The community can’t allow this mad person to make everything going worst. Luckily, one of the community guys was an Internet Security Tech and help Hyun-Woo tracked the culprit. What a bit of shock, because it was his own boss who doing the threatening. His boss confesses the reason why he doing that.
Someone who hates you normally hates you for one of three reasons:
They either see you as a threat. They hate themselves, or they want to be you.
The main reason why the boss doing threatening is because he had an issue with his marriage life that made him feels so lonely. This issue makes him hate himself. Instead of seeing Hyun-Woo getting a happy ending with his problem, he wants Hyun-Woo to feel the same pain as he had and doing the threatening.
But in the end, it’s not worked at all. The community hates his action because you never look good trying to make someone else look bad. They stand together helping Hyun-Woo against the boss as known as the culprit.
Remember:
Being negative is a waste of energy.
Blowing out someone else’s candle won’t make yours shine brighter.
Do good and be kind, so people will respect you for a lifetime. | https://medium.com/@ardhyyss/youre-not-failing-because-someone-else-gets-better-f19df163c491 | ['Jumardin Taslim'] | 2020-12-27 14:36:27.604000+00:00 | ['Movie Review', 'Motivation', 'Life Lessons', 'Contemplated', 'Korean Drama Review'] |
How Can Innovation Eradicate The Pharma Supply Chain Management Risk? | Innovations in healthcare are going to be essential to subsequent generation of supply chains thanks to higher turnaround times to reply to emergencies. The pandemic pharmaceutical sector, like all other industry, witnessed the availability chain disruption. With the lockdown restrictions being partially uplifted, the assembly activity can resume , as there some relief within the movement of essential goods.
Challenges Faced by the availability Chain
The supply chain has been massively impacted by the cancellation of passenger flights and reduced freighter capacities. The pandemic impacted the ocean, also as land carries. There was a huge disconnection between ground realities and therefore the notification, however throughout the lockdown, there was more clarity on the way to overcome the challenges around land transportation. While the govt is performing all the measures to ease the movement of essentials, the availability chain has been impacted due to the cancellation of International flights leading to the capacity reduction for Air Freight, congestion at Airports, shortage of drivers, Seaports & availability of adequate labor across the country.
Check Out — Healthcare Business Review Magazine
The availability of transport capacity was also a big concern during lockdown scenarios where most drivers returned to their home base.
Steps Taken
It was essential to make sure that the movement of essential commodities, especially the health care supply chain, remains stable at this critical time. For this, companies have come up with various alternatives around passenger flights and freighter cancellations. The initiative has been undertaken to support the purchasers who are into healthcare, continuous manufacturing, and mission-critical applications, mostly vaccine manufacturing, personal protective equipment, and health care equipment. along side the charter facilities, security escort services also are being engaged for the safe movement of cargo to mitigate any challenges within the current situation. during this process, companies had to customize their transport flows and transit time counting on the zones or districts they were crossing because the interpretation of rules from zone-to-zone and district-to-district was very different. | https://medium.com/@healthcarebusinessreview/how-can-innovation-eradicate-the-pharma-supply-chain-management-risk-b406e5a07355 | ['Healthcare Business Review'] | 2020-12-22 06:57:20.278000+00:00 | ['Supply Chain', 'Pharma', 'Healthcare', 'Technology', 'Technews'] |
5 Effective Tips to Study for an Online Quiz — TUTORSSKY | Are you preparing for an online quiz? You must be reading through the format, training material, and guides. You may also be considering glancing through tutorials to know how to take the online quiz. Moreover, you’re required to attend classes regularly to get hold of topics.
You should know a few tips that can help you ace your online quiz, such as creating a study schedule, knowing the subject well, and removing distractions. However, implement these techniques to get better with time. And if you feel you’re not prepared or need time, you can approach learning assistance portals, such as Tutors Sky.
It can help you find a feasible solution to your problem. You can ask if I can pay someone to take my online quiz for me. Your query gets matched to a dedicated and expert test taker.
With all that said, you should not procrastinate and take immediate steps to ensure that you are ready to take over the quiz.
Let us help you know how you can prepare for an online quiz.
Know When To Study
The first thing you can do to prepare for an online quiz is to devote time to study. Besides online quizzes, you may have ten other things to do. You can’t afford to miss your homework and assignments. Also, you can’t write tests unprepared; it is about getting good grades. So, you can create a schedule that allows you to prepare for the online quiz and complete your assignments on time.
Know The Type of Test You’re Writing
It’s an online quiz, and it may include objective questions. However, you should also know about other formats. It can be a mix of both objective and subjective type questions. There could be instructions that you didn’t know. Refer guide books and other training material. With the invention of the Internet, the sky is the limit! Make use of it and grow your learning curve.
Ask for Help
When it’s about acing your online quiz, you should not be hesitant to seek help from your classmates, instructors, and professors. Remember, it’s only you who has to write the test unless you have approached educational assistance portals with a query: Can you take my online quiz? Even if you’re considering hiring a professional test taker, you need to look after completing the syllabus of other subjects as well. So, stay sharp!
Enjoy Breaks
You can’t study all the time; you need to give some rest to your mind. Therefore, you should take small study breaks. You can either make yourself a cup of coffee or chat with your friends in your leisure time. It can help you focus better when you sit to study after the break. That said, you should indulge in procrastination and spend more time chatting with friends and shopping online. Use this time to relax your mind.
Do Not Panic
Even if you’re not prepared for the online quiz, refrain from going into panic mode. Nothing will come out good from doing so. Therefore, meditate and keep your cool when sitting for an online quiz. And if that doesn’t work, you know where to go.
At Tutors Sky, it’s about sharing the load. So, if you’ve got an online quiz coming up, you can ask the academicians to take my online quiz for me. This way, you can concentrate on other subjects and complete your homework on time.
All these tips can help you pass through your semester and prepare for the next one. Aim for good grades and learning the subject better. | https://medium.com/@tutorssky/5-effective-tips-to-study-for-an-online-quiz-tutorssky-54732d19a5d4 | ['Tutors Sky'] | 2021-07-16 10:32:26.731000+00:00 | ['Study', 'Tips', 'Online Quiz'] |
My 3 favorite Crypto Projects | Being a newbie in this domain, my knowledge base has more width vis-a-vis depth, but as time passes, the relation will hopefully become inverse.
How I got interested in Crypto-verse?
In 2016,I heard the term Bitcoin first time,Read the Bitcoin whitepaper once though couldn't understand much.
In 2019, I read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile which has a quote “Small is beautiful but also less fragile”, This quote indirectly introduced me with the concept of decentralisation.
And,In 2020 during Covid Lockdown,The world was getting engulfed into chaos, lives were being lost, businesses were failing and the world was looking at its leaders to act sane but to their surprise they just did the opposite. The early warnings were not taken seriously and when they were, The implementation was dodgy. In retrospect, The way we had connected the world using globalization and made it one giant breathing creature and transferred wealth to specific points leaving other parts poorer.Suddenly decentralization made more and more sense and led to more questions like,
Is Centralisation always better?
Is Scalability always better?
Crpto as a concept is a belief, A belief that a group of people can communicate their financial transactions and validate them without the need of a central authority/King/Head of State.
So here is a list of my 3 favorite projects in Crypto-verse.
Blockstack
The first crypto information piece that made sense to me was a Ted talk by Muneeb Ali where he talked about how he wants to build a decentralized Internet and then it just clicked that the idea was to make a parallel world where decentralization was guiding everything as a core concept.
Blockstack is an open-source effort to design a network with the security of Bitcoin and the expressivity required for developing decentralized applications. In these decentralized apps, mass data breaches, loss of user privacy and lack of data portability can be a thing of the past.
Blockstack builds on, and extends, the Bitcoin blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto designed its limited scripting language for a single use case — tracking the ownership of Bitcoin. While this is one of the things that keeps Bitcoin secure, it also means you can’t program Bitcoin with enough expressivity to build decentralized apps. Blockstack adds this expressivity to Bitcoin without spinning up a new Proof of Work chain. Instead, Blockstack re-uses Bitcoin’s computing power and its blockchain for settlement and security.
Connecting Bitcoin and Blockstack: Proof of Transfer (PoX)
Bitcoin miners have already spent electricity on computation to mine blocks and earn Bitcoin. Instead of introducing another Proof of Work chain, Proof of Transfer (PoX) re-uses Bitcoin to secure the Stacks blockchain. Miners compete to mine blocks by sending Bitcoin to participants in the network. This Bitcoin becomes proof of computation, and by proxy enables the Stacks blockchain to share Bitcoin’s CPU resources.
Proof of Transfer is in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of new networks sharing Bitcoin’s computing power, but keeping additional data out of the Bitcoin chain.
2. Metamask
While exploring, I noticed one thing that the community can improve upon is the messaging part. The underlying technologies need to be communicated in a way that a normal user can understand it and find them appealing.
There is one initiative that has got this part right is Metamask. Its explainer video is one of the pieces of content that appeals to muggles as well and the explanation is simple and lucid.
MetaMask allows users to manage accounts and their keys in a variety of ways, including hardware wallets, while isolating them from the site context. This is a great security improvement over storing the user keys on a single central server, or even in local storage, which can allow for mass account thefts.
3. Coinbase
Now as an early bitcoin enthusiast, The next thing you want is to buy some bitcoin and store it in a safe place and you're looking for an application that is trusted and is easy to use.
Next, you find Coinbase which is simple to use and is easy to navigate. Their core mission is going to benefit the crypto ecosystem as a whole.
Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital currency. Our mission is to create an open financial system for the world and to be the leading global brand for helping people convert digital currency into and out of their local currency.
Some highlights of the platform include :
Solid variety of altcoin choices : Coinbase offers over 25 cryptocurrencies for investment, trading, and also staking.
: Coinbase offers over 25 cryptocurrencies for investment, trading, and also staking. Extremely simple user interface : Coinbase is perhaps one of the easiest on-ramps to crypto investing. It is easy to sign up and buy cryptocurrencies within a matter of minutes. It also has a learning program that pays users cryptocurrency to learn more about how cryptocurrency works.
: Coinbase is perhaps one of the easiest on-ramps to crypto investing. It is easy to sign up and buy cryptocurrencies within a matter of minutes. It also has a learning program that pays users cryptocurrency to learn more about how cryptocurrency works. High liquidity: Coinbase consistently ranks among highly liquid exchanges. This protects the investor from serious price slippage in an already volatile market.
So , These are my favourite projects in Crypto-verse.
Published for a Freehold Challenge
Footnotes:- | https://medium.com/@shubhamgirdhar/my-3-favorite-crypto-projects-45299818be04 | ['Shubham Girdhar'] | 2020-11-06 22:19:34.070000+00:00 | ['Binance', 'Blockstack', 'Coinbase', 'Metamask', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
How use Ledger in ZilPay wallet. | This article presents to you on how to connect your very own Ledger Nano S hardware wallet to ZilPay. I hope this article will be useful as a guide to you!
Step 1: Installing the Ledger Nano S app
Download Ledger Live on your computer using the link below: https://shop.ledger.com/pages/ledger-live;
on your computer using the link below: https://shop.ledger.com/pages/ledger-live; Navigate to the Manager tab, search Zilliqa in the application.
Install Zilliqa application.
When the application is installed you will see on your device.
Step 2: Accessing your wallet via Ledger Nano S
After successfully installing the Ledger Nano S app, you need to install the ZilPay wallet in your browser. ZilPay is supported: FireFox, Chrome and Opera:
Move to account manager.
To connect ZilPay with you Ledger, let us “Import” the account via “Hardware” and choose “Ledger” as the preferred option.
Import page.
Key in an account index (starting from Zero) and click on the “CONNECT” button. You will then be prompted to confirm the generation of the public key on your Ledger Nano S device.
Confirm by pressing the right button and you shall see your imported wallet address on ZilPay!
Step 3: Sending a transaction on ZilPay via Ledger Nano S.
Let’s got to dApp, you can move to zilpay.xyz:
fungibletoken maker.
nonfungibletoken maker.
scilla-editor for deploy your smart contracts.
Roll this game for rolling your zill.
I just play to the roll. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-use-ledger-in-zilpay-wallet-9c91e3c2c8d2 | ['Rinat Khasanshin'] | 2020-09-20 20:18:07.197000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Blockchain', 'Ledger', 'Zilliqa', 'Zilpay'] |
How to ensure remote employee engagement during COVID-19? | Remote Employee Engagement
While millions of people worldwide work from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, organizations face unprecedented pressure to keep their employees engaged as they face stress and anxiety, given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
Being physically away from the workplace lowers employees’ interest and hampers motivation levels. A study by Bain & Company has found, “Engaged employees are 44% more productive than workers who merely feel satisfied.” Hence, to ensure the workforce stays healthy and engaged, leaders need to demonstrate empathy and provide clear and consistent communication and support.
Employers must find ways to leverage technology to connect employees even when they are working from diverse locations. Companies can organize virtual townhalls, virtual water coolers, and well-being programs to keep people socially connected as they work remotely.
Essentials of Employee Engagement — The “4Cs”
Working from the four walls of home takes a massive toll on the overall well-being of employees. Lack of workplace activities and difficulties in effectively collaborating with team members lead to feelings of stress and loneliness.
Organizations must follow these 4Cs to keep their employees happy and engaged amidst these challenging times –
Communication — Organized communication is the backbone of an enterprise. Allocating work, checking on the progress, deliberating on projects, collaborating with team members, and much more require continuous communication. Moreover, regular conversations with the team help in recognizing the early signs of anxiety and providing necessary support. Hosting video calls, in addition to emails, is an effective way of staying connected with peers and subordinates. Therefore, leaders need to adopt the right tools and technologies to break through physical barriers as employees work remotely.
Organized communication is the backbone of an enterprise. Allocating work, checking on the progress, deliberating on projects, collaborating with team members, and much more require continuous communication. Moreover, regular conversations with the team help in recognizing the early signs of anxiety and providing necessary support. Hosting video calls, in addition to emails, is an effective way of staying connected with peers and subordinates. Therefore, leaders need to adopt the right tools and technologies to break through physical barriers as employees work remotely. Culture — A deep-rooted culture is the foundation of every organization. To reinforce its culture and inculcate a sense of “the company sees you,” leaders must take small measures, such as scheduling weekly conference calls to share success stories or organizing recreational activities from time-to-time. Promoting a culture that values inclusion and individuality creates a safe space for employees to voice their concerns. Another effective method to boost an organization’s culture is to set up a network of teams that promote cross-functional collaboration.
— A deep-rooted culture is the foundation of every organization. To reinforce its culture and inculcate a sense of “the company sees you,” leaders must take small measures, such as scheduling weekly conference calls to share success stories or organizing recreational activities from time-to-time. Promoting a culture that values inclusion and individuality creates a safe space for employees to voice their concerns. Another effective method to boost an organization’s culture is to set up a network of teams that promote cross-functional collaboration. Care — Leaders must display care and a deep interest in improving employee well-being. Initiatives, such as providing upskilling opportunities via online courses, promoting mental health and physical fitness through virtual yoga sessions, talks by motivational speakers, and much more, can help remote workers stay calm, focused, and feel connected.
— Leaders must display care and a deep interest in improving employee well-being. Initiatives, such as providing upskilling opportunities via online courses, promoting mental health and physical fitness through virtual yoga sessions, talks by motivational speakers, and much more, can help remote workers stay calm, focused, and feel connected. Compassion — With employees working from home, the line between personal and professional life is blurring slowly. Employees are juggling new responsibilities and problems, and they need their managers to empathize and provide the necessary support. Organizing virtual family days, granting additional leaves to care for loved ones, etc. can go a long way in ensuring remote employee engagement.
Besides the 4Cs, there are a few other considerations that organizations must focus on to improve engagement in the remote setup –
Innovation — Innovating is complex. It requires collective brainstorming and management of conflicting thoughts to come up with unique ideas. Achieving this in an office setup is easy; however, innovation within a remote structure requires leaders to invest in powerful collaboration tools and technology.
— Innovating is complex. It requires collective brainstorming and management of conflicting thoughts to come up with unique ideas. Achieving this in an office setup is easy; however, innovation within a remote structure requires leaders to invest in powerful collaboration tools and technology. Information Accessibility — While working remotely, employees need a one-stop-shop for all information relevant to their role. Sifting through multiple tabs, tools, and siloed applications is challenging and brings down employee interest, productivity, and engagement.
Build A Digital Workplace Tor Drive Remote Employee Engagement
Given that the workforce shall function remotely, at least for some time in the near future, employers must ensure scalable digital workplace tools are in place for seamless collaboration and communication.
A modern Intranet like Mesh 3.0 acts as a unified digital platform that provides employees access to core communication and collaboration tools under a single roof. It centralizes company-wide information and gives remote workers a sense of belonging.
Modern Intranets use advanced features to improve communication, collaboration, information accessibility, and sharing, and thereby help in boosting employee engagement and morale-
Application integration — Access to everyday applications and tools on a single user-friendly digital interface
— Access to everyday applications and tools on a single user-friendly digital interface Idea Management — Idea management tools encourage employees to share ideas, brainstorm with team members and come up with innovative solutions to business problems
— Idea management tools encourage employees to share ideas, brainstorm with team members and come up with innovative solutions to business problems Smart Content Management System — An easy to use to content management and publishing tool, that helps employees to publish articles and stories with predefined content templates
— An easy to use to content management and publishing tool, that helps employees to publish articles and stories with predefined content templates Personalized Content Recommendations — Personalized recommendations of daily content and company-wide knowledge based on users’ interests, profile, responsibilities, geographic location, etc.
— Personalized recommendations of daily content and company-wide knowledge based on users’ interests, profile, responsibilities, geographic location, etc. Communication and Collaboration — With core collaboration features and social capabilities, including blogs, group conferencing, workspace, communities, document sharing, and project management tools, a modern intranet enables top-down and bottom-up communication in a unified interface
Thus, a modern intranet can streamline daily operations and promote remote employee engagement during COVID-19 and beyond.
Start Engaging Now!
As the world continues to stay indoors to curb any further spread of the novel coronavirus, employers need to continually innovate and develop new ways to inspire and engage remote workers. An engaged workforce is an asset to any organization — as they are in sync with the organization’s vision and goals, and have the right attitude and motivation to outperform themselves while carrying out their duties.
From organizing video conferences, webinars, virtual lunches, and town halls to introducing well-being programs, leaders are now leveraging digital workplace tools to engage remote employees effectively.
Moreover, employees must have hassle-free access to all information and tools required to perform their jobs. As discussed, a modern intranet provides a unified digital interface for tools that build productivity and ensure effective collaboration, communication, and positive employee engagement at every stage.
And while you explore the exciting world of modern intranets, you may consider having a look at Mesh 3.0. Mesh is Acuvate’s autonomous AI-enabled SharePoint Intranet Solution that brings together the best of the Microsoft AI technologies (Office Graph, Azure, LUIS) to deliver the right content at the right time to the right people. | https://medium.com/@poonam-chug/how-to-ensure-remote-employee-engagement-during-covid-19-d1dff9bb7696 | ['Poonam Chug'] | 2020-12-14 06:08:34.489000+00:00 | ['Intranet', 'Remote Work', 'Employee Engagement', 'Digital Workplace'] |
Eye doctor seeks to get blind dog adopted | Eye doctor seeks to get blind dog adopted
On Sunday, Nov. 4 at 10:30 a.m., Friedman will lead Exerc-EYES for DIVA at Powerhouse Fitness and Yoga in Medford with the proceeds going directly to Diva and the dogs of One Love Animal Rescue.
Diva is a 9-year-old blind, lab terrier mix. She’s fearful of other animals but loves humans. Due to her fear of other dogs, One Love Animal Rescue cannot take her to adoption events. Enter the eye doctor.
Optometrist Kimberly Friedman of Moorestown Eye Associates has held yoga classes to benefit One Love in the past, so One Love Director Dawn Hullings approached Friedman about holding an event specifically to benefit Diva and help get her adopted.
“I thought the sound, atmosphere and calmness of Kim’s yoga class could be perfect for her to attend,” Hullings said. “Diva loves people, and I believe she will truly enjoy the chance to get out of her normal routine and meet some new people.”
On Sunday, Nov. 4, at 10:30 a.m., Friedman will lead Exerc-EYES for DIVA at Powerhouse Fitness and Yoga in Medford with the proceeds going directly to Diva and the dogs of One Love Animal Rescue.
One Love Animal Rescue started in 2013. The board members wanted to draw from their experiences as fosters in other rescues and make them even better. Today, the organization is close to its 700th animal saved.
“We wanted to be the most supportive rescue to our foster parents and the pets as possible. Our philosophy is never turn a pet away if we have a willing foster,” Hullings said. “This can sometimes be an expensive commitment due to the poor health condition of so many shelter pets so we do a lot of fundraising.”
In 2016, Hullings pulled Diva from a shelter in Philadelphia. At the time, she was a 7-year-old blind surrender. Hullings said Diva was very fearful of the other animals in the noisy shelter, and she knew she needed to get her out of there.
Friedman has been involved with One Love for several years. She said she and her husband have adopted several dogs with special needs throughout the years, but One Love always stood out as the most caring organization they worked with. As such, Friedman started doing fundraisers through her practice at Moorestown Eye Associates as well as through Powerhouse Fitness where she teaches yoga.
Dogs with special needs are often more difficult to get adopted, Friedman said. For that reason, Hullings and Friedman agreed it would be more impactful to have Diva in attendance at the event.
“My goal is to fill the room and show folks that blind dogs are just like sighted dogs,” Hullings said. “Diva does not need sympathy. She has a great outlook even though she cannot see with her eyes and everyone will see that.”
The class is by donation. The suggested donation is $20, but participants are encouraged to donate what they feel comfortable giving. In the past, the yoga classes have raised around $500, but since Diva will be in attendance, Friedman’s goal is to raise around $1,000 this go-around. The proceeds go toward the pets’ medical care.
“The founders of One Love do such a fabulous job of making every dollar count,” Friedman said.
Once the participants are settled in on their mats, Friedman will talk about her commitment to the rescue. Hullings will then walk Diva around to to meet everyone as they sit there.
“Diva’s message is take the time to see with your heart,” Hullings said. “I know Diva will put a smile on everyone’s face.”
Diva is house and crate trained and in certain settings does well off leash. She would do well in a home as the only pet. Visit Diva’s adoption page at https://www.facebook.com/Blind-Dog-Off-Leash-1841101579479129/. To find out more about One Love Animal Rescue, http://www.oneloveanimalrescue.org. | https://medium.com/the-medford-sun/eye-doctor-seeks-to-get-blind-dog-adopted-7719897b5634 | ['Kelly Flynn'] | 2018-10-30 19:01:01.766000+00:00 | ['Animals', 'Adoption', 'Events', 'Yoga', 'Dogs'] |
The latest cool presentation app | I saw this Tweet by Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen):
I agree fully, and as the CEO of an aspiring presentation app (SlideMagic), I am not contradicting myself. SlideMagic is of course cool, but not because it adds spectacular features. It makes you design slides in a very strict grid so that your slides look good regardless of your design experience. Try it yourself. | https://medium.com/slidemagic/the-latest-cool-presentation-app-1ed1b78a0739 | ['Jan Schultink'] | 2016-12-27 08:46:16.635000+00:00 | ['Software', 'PowerPoint', 'Slidemagic'] |
Lessons from a $7000 Budget Movie That Made over $2 Million | Anyone Can Be Ok at Anything
Rodriguez had to learn a lot of tough skills to make his movie such as editing, sound capture, set design, organising a crew etc. These ain’t skills you learn the usual way by being a good student at school, it’s what you learn by getting down and dirty doing something you really want to do.
We all have projects and ideas that we would like to act upon, but the skills gap between whats needed and what we have can be daunting. Do not let it fool you.
Let’s think of this mathematically. You, the person reading this, are likely an average human being (but probably above average since you’re reading the The Ascent 😉). So that means you can get up to an average level in 90% of the domains of human achievement, which leads to a lesser-known fact :
You can only tell if you’ll be successful at something when you get to being OK at it.
There’s a great lesson hidden here:
You can’t say ‘I’m not good enough’ until you’re OK enough.
This fear that ‘I might not be good enough’ is one I’ve felt and given into far too frequently, and one that’s killed more dreams than any other. But you can only have that fear when you’re at an average level, so get there first, then worry.
You will almost never be as good as you want to be on the first attempt at something worthwhile, but thats not the point of first drafts. All you need to be first is OK-ish, only then can you find out if you’ve got what it takes.
So, if you have an idea for a business, show, career — get yourself to a point where you’re OK-ish and then get good. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/lessons-from-a-7000-budget-movie-that-made-over-2-million-c2b4a0e98727 | ['S Pats'] | 2020-12-06 08:51:33.047000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Productivity', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
How This Writer Learned That Writing Is a Lifelong Pursuit | When did you join Medium? What influenced your decision to join?
2018. I enjoyed the platform.
When did you join Koinonia? What attracted you to this publication?
A couple of months ago. It’s a great platform.
How long have you been writing and how did you come to it?
I have been writing for 8 years. I started writing when I conceptualized an idea for a novel.
Who are some of the people who most influenced your decision to write?
Jesus. My therapist Michelle. My sister Christina.
Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you?
I get my ideas from Everywhere. Thoughts. Songs. Books. Out of thin air. The Holy Spirit.
What do you like most / least about writing?
I like to help others through my words. I don’t like that writing takes years to hone your skills.
How do you balance professional time with personal time?
Currently, writing fits in with my personal time. I try to take time each week to develop new ideas and work on my craft.
Personal photo of Michael Christopher
What Medium publications/writers are you currently following?
Invisible illness. The inspired writer. Nicolas Cole.
What are some of your favorite things? What makes you unique?
Guitar. Skateboarding. Going for walks.
How is your faith reflected in your writing?
I write to inspire and I aim to uplift.
What are some things you learned from your own writing? From others?
I learned that writing is a lifelong pursuit. I’ve learned this is in both my writing, and the writing of others.
What is your ultimate writing goal?
My aim is to reach others who are struggling in life and give them the tools to lift them higher. And to give glory to Jesus Christ. King of Kings.
What advice do you have for a newbie on Medium?
Be consistent and keep at it. Little by little. Don’t give up!
Where else can we find you on the Internet? Do you have a website, blog, Pinterest board, etc?
www.epiphanyartistry.com | https://medium.com/koinonia/how-this-writer-learned-that-writing-is-a-lifelong-pursuit-d6748944d436 | ['Kimberley Payne'] | 2020-12-05 15:13:16.025000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Consistency', 'Writers On Medium', 'Writers On Writing'] |
Why I don’t buy into Black Friday | Now that the dust has settled from Black Friday and Cyber Week, I thought it was about time to sit back and reflect on just what this retail phenomenon means and why we shouldn’t embrace it with quite the open arms that we seem to!
Black Friday isn’t an age-old tradition. Whilst it started in the US in September 1869, it didn’t actually hit our shores until a full 141 years later! Introduced by the online retail monopoly Amazon, the concept of Black Friday was brought to us digitally in 2010, with ASDA repping the IRL three years later.
For such a latecomer to tradition it has always confused me as to why we wholeheartedly embraced this. The run-up to Christmas for me has always been full of activities, themed outings and a slow, Christmassy, overly tinselled build-up from the beginning of December. It was always a time of counting Christmas Trees in car rides home, eating mince pies and wandering through the high streets checking out the over the top Christmas Windows.
This is why I’m not so sold on Black Friday. What used to be a slow build-up to the festive season, is not replaced with a huge rush for sales, making it feel like December now arrives with a bang (or a violent queue spreading through Oxford Circus). The end of November marks its arrival with utter chaos and unprecedented waste. We no longer have the gifting build-up that I love — pottering about the shops or scanning the Argos catalogue for what you want from Santa. We have a disastrous day where everyone panics to get the best deal and the majority of the money spent is on ourselves.
This promotion of needless consumption doesn’t even help our economy. The biggest winners of the Black Friday madness are high street retailers and big-name brands. Smaller, local brands — forced into pre-Christmas sales to not miss out on market share, are actually not seeing the benefits. As reported by Pricesearcher, ‘85% of UK retailers now feel pressured to participate in Black Friday despite knowing it’ll have an adverse impact on annual revenues’. It breaks my heart to know that all the little local brands who make Christmas feel personal and special are now being dragged into the end of November onslaught and have to participate so they don’t miss out on the attention. Some use the sales to buy presents, which whilst financially commendable — pulls further focus from the sheer pleasure of gift-giving. Price based decisions feel so much more impersonal than searching for the perfect gift and enjoying all the little touchpoints along the way.
The impact on the environment is even worse! A report published on Metro online shows that a massive 80% of items and the plastic packaging they are wrapped in will end up as waste, meaning they will be incinerated and dumped in a landfill. We get so caught up in the marketing and hype that we don’t stop to think about what we’re actually buying and whether it will make us happy.
What was once an exciting build-up to Christmas and the gifts to give and receive on the 25th, now feels like a mad panic to not get FOMO from the bargains. And it just feels so selfish. One of the most important output for me is memories. What we do, how we interact and ultimately the feelings we remember are so key to my happiness. The build-up to Christmas without Black Friday is something I miss. Waiting until the 25th to slowly unwrap your gifts and marvel that your family got it right far outweighs the heavy feeling of consumption across a few days so you can save the 20% on things you probably don’t even want feels really empty and I decide to not buy into it.
www.tailoredandmade.com | https://medium.com/@tailoredandmade/why-i-dont-buy-into-black-friday-786a19fbc660 | ['Tailored'] | 2020-08-11 11:12:09.529000+00:00 | ['Black Friday', 'Consumerism', 'Tradition', 'Consumption'] |
Proper Model Selection through Cross Validation | The Considerations Behind Cross Validation
So, what is cross validation? Recalling my post about model selection, where we saw that it may be necessary to split data into three different portions, one for training, one for validation (to choose among models) and eventually measure the true accuracy through the last data portion. This procedure is one viable way to choose the best among several models. Cross validation (CV) is not too different from this idea, but deals with the model training/validation in quite a smart way.
Photo by Anthony Intraversato on Unsplash
For CV we use a larger combined training and validation data set, followed by a testing dataset. A common way is to split data in 80/20% portions. Make sure to randomly select the data! The CV algorithm will use training/validation set for running multiple folds of cross validation — this is where the name “k-Fold Cross Validation” comes from.
This means, that training/validation data is implicitly split into several portions. To make it more tangible, we assume a k of 5 where the first 4 parts are used for training, the last part is then used for validation. In the next step, we are using the first 3 and the 5th whereas the 4th part is used for validation. You see where this is going.
What you need to remember: When we are creating 5 models, each data block is used k-1 times for training and once for validation. If this sounds confusing, just keep going. Have a look at the below illustration, showing different parts used per run.
Example: k = 5 Fold CV
Now having 5 different models for a k=5, the question is, what accuracy should be used? The answer is simple, for k=5 the overall model accuracy is the average of all five models. This is necessary to mention, in case we tested different parameters resulting in several different model-combinations.
After having decided which model (under which k) seems to work best, we run in once again on the whole test/train data (no split this time). Having our fitted model in hands, we then are required to test the the true performance on the test data. This step should sound familiar, it is basically the same as I have set out in the test-validation-training process.
Caveats
It is important that the model has never seen the test data before! Also note, if the models performance is not doing well on the test data, consider this to be your (potentially not desirable) result. It is not meaningful to tweak your model as you likely end up overfitting the model. The reason for this? You guessed right, random effects.
One more thing. Have you heard of Leave One Out CV? This is another form of the k-fold CV. In LOOCV we use a k value of n (the row dimension) — hence, we use all the data and create n models. From what I observed, LOOCV is often giving good results, however may take considerably longer than the usual k=10.
Do you have to write the CV function yourself? No, usually not. Referring to R programming language, you will often find functions that sound like the model you are about to fit, but having “cv” somewhere incorporated in its name. If you intended to create a simple linear model (lm), cv.lm is doing exactly what we were looking at above. Similar functions can be found for Python and Julia. Bottom line here, use a search engine to browse through your options — there are plenty.
Conclusion
Applying machine learning algorithms and statistical models has become quite straightforward. There are loads of available documentation and tutorials that guide you through the model fitting process. Why this rather “not so exciting” topic is quite important to me is simple: choosing the right data to create the model might have a sustainable influence on the model’s quality. Not considering the topic of CV and data that is used to create a model will likely result in overfitted and less accurate models overall.
Ending up with an “overestimated model” is nothing one should go with, and most certainly will come back to the creator sooner or later.
Equipped with knowledge about how and when to apply cross validation, hence reducing the risk of overfitting the model, you are well prepared to create all kind of machine learning models based on the right data and its implicit effects.
{See you next time.} | https://towardsdatascience.com/cross-validation-7c0163460ea0 | ['Günter Röhrich'] | 2020-11-19 23:03:36.205000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'K Fold Cross Validation', 'Crossvalidation', 'Regression'] |
How to Become Rich Overnight By Meditation | “When I had money everyone called me brother” — Polish proverb
There are such people on the internet offering meditation that will make you rich. When I see those meditations. I question myself, is that going to make me rich? Or can meditation make someone rich?
We are living in an information age. Countless books have been published online. Millions of blogs out there. Numerous videos on youtube talk about meditation. To illustrate more, I see profound authors continuously bragging about new methods and techniques. That will make you rich overnight.
“So the question is whether that's real or not”.
What do I think about meditation from my perspective? See, there are various teachings, methods, and beliefs around meditation. If you come to the north side you would experience different levels of beliefs and experiences about meditation. Similarly, if you go to the other side you would see meditation is like a process of enlightenment.
This traditional approach toward meditation is continued in all the dimensions. Now let’s try to get through meditation. “When meditation is needed?”
When you are exhausted. You want to change your state and therefore, you need meditation.
It reminds me of a quick story about my psychology professor. He said, “We always want to change our state.” Similarly, meditation is nothing but a process to calm your junky thoughts.
When you have an affluent thought. It creates a prosperous feeling and as result, you try to take action to produce that result. We can see the bridge between thoughts and reality.
There are numerous studies published online say. “A normal mind think more than 6000 thousand thoughts. Imagine you think 5000 prosperous thoughts and 1000 miserable thoughts.
If you want good results then think good thoughts.
Let’s talk about reality. So in reality we want negative things first then some positive.
WHAT?
See, If you are thinking 6000 thoughts per day. Do you know how many thoughts are positive in them?
The answer is: There are only 1% of thoughts you thinking are originally positive. The rest of them are negative. You won’t believe my words. Better you observe your thoughts right from this moment. | https://medium.com/illumination/how-this-guy-became-rich-overnight-by-meditation-e48cd64a8196 | ['Denny Enroll'] | 2020-12-25 14:57:19.962000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Meditation', 'Thoughts', 'Law Of Attraction', 'Psychology'] |
New Fee Structure | Dear Cred Users,
We’ve heard your feedback regarding our fees and have listened. Effective today, we’re removing our subscription fee and adjusting our transaction fees to 4%.
This means we will no longer charge existing and new members a monthly $4.99 subscription fee.
Regarding the transaction fee of 4%, here’s how that compares to Coinbase’s transaction fees.
If the total transaction amount is less than or equal to $10, the fee is $0.99 (or 9.9%, Cred would charge 4%)
If the total transaction amount is more than $10 but less than or equal to $25, the fee is $1.49 (or between 5.9% and 14.8%, Cred would charge 4%)
If the total transaction amount is more than $25 but less than or equal to $50, the fee is $1.99 (or between 3.9% and 7.9%, Cred would charge 4%)
If the total transaction amount is more than $50 but less than or equal to $200, the fee is $2.99 (or between 1.4% and 5.9%, Cred would charge 4%)
In keeping with our focus on micro-buying and not breaking the bank, along with our focus on regular consumers, our new fees reflect the less expensive fees we charge for smaller buys.
We will always notify you of all Cred Fees and any other service fees that apply to each transaction immediately before you confirm each transaction and in the receipt we issue to you immediately after each transaction has processed.
Thank you for your continued business,
Team Cred | https://medium.com/acreapp/new-fee-structure-fb0a9fdf244e | ['Acre Admin'] | 2018-10-23 18:28:46.270000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Feesmustfall', 'Bitcoin'] |
Presenting µWebSockets for Python | Presenting µWebSockets for Python
A seamless performance boost for Python backends
The Python scripting environment is shockingly well-designed. Almost every thing I dislike about Node.js, Python does better. For one, Python does not enforce any one particular event-loop but rather employs a plug in system where you can replace the whole thing, parts of it, or only a fraction of it.
µWebSockets for Python integrates with asyncio by replacing a small part of the event-loop; the Selector. Everything else is left as is, making a minimal change while allowing seamless integration without disturbing other asyncio projects running on the same thread.
import uws
import asyncio
# Integrate with asyncio
asyncio.set_event_loop(uws.Loop())
app = uws.App({})
def getHandler(res, req):
res.end("Hello Python!")
app.get("/*", getHandler)
def listenHandler():
print("Listening to port 3000")
app.listen(3000, listenHandler)
# Run asyncio event loop
asyncio.get_event_loop().run_forever()
The extension C API is much more lightweight and portable; you can easily do 125k req/sec or 155k WebSocket messages/sec on one single CPU core on a laptop. Enable pipelining and you’re in the millions — all from within Python!
Further on, PyPI the package repository is a lot more relaxed and liberal as compared to npm, allowing the author full ownership of code published while not having to agree to any indemnification clauses. I love it — it even supports uploading different distributions based on platform.
A single pip install uws and bob’s your uncle.
While some backends run directly on asyncio, others run atop WSGI — an abstraction hiding the web server from the application. This is a possible use case here; by implementing the WSGI interface one could move Python backends atop µWebSockets with little effort. Of course this would limit the gains since Flask and Django are going to bottleneck pretty quickly but there are alternatives to those.
For people who instead want to write something new or port existing projects, directly using µWebSockets and its router would give a far better outcome performance wise.
Currently the project for Python is still under heavy development, but foundations are already laid out and working perfectly. Continued work will focus on wrapping the whole interface and cleaning up for a stable release.
Please go ahead and have a spin and tell me about how it runs or doesn’t run,
Thanks! | https://alexhultman.medium.com/presenting-%C2%B5websockets-for-python-1cea801ab5b1 | ['Alex Hultman'] | 2020-01-24 23:31:55.111000+00:00 | ['Backend', 'Python3', 'Python'] |
The Coffee Shop | Amy and Jonathan grew up together in a suburb of Atlanta where they were teammates on the high school debate team. Without coordinating their decisions in any way — they both attended Emory University and graduated the same year — Amy with a degree in political science, and Jonathan in mechanical engineering. Jon entered the workforce, and Amy spent a few years in graduate school before doing the same.
After completing her studies, Amy moved to Nashville, and Jonathan — after stops on the East and West coasts, settled in a rural community outside of Phoenix in Arizona. They both have young families, with kids of similar ages.
While they had not seen one another for many years, they have “kept up” with each other’s family and other activities on Facebook, and are “linked” on LinkedIn as well. They both noticed over the last few years they didn’t necessarily agree on all political topics discussed in those forums, but weren’t willing to “unfriend” or “unfollow” one another as they were childhood friends who knew they in fact they shared a lot of common values.
Amy noted Jonathan, who has been very successful as an entrepreneur, mentioned he was presenting at a national engineering meeting in Nashville on one of his posts, and DM’d him to ask if he wanted to grab a coffee while he was in town.
He enthusiastically agreed.
A couple of days later Jonathan walked into the coffee shop where Amy suggested they meet and maneuvered between the other tightly packed small round tables filled with people to where she was standing. About half of the people in the coffee shop were wearing masks, including Amy as he approached.
She removed her mask, and gave him a hug. She then stepped back while holding his shoulders and exclaimed,“it’s SO good to see you Jon… and you somehow still look the same! What’s the damn secret?”
Jonathan laughed, “yeah, right…. I may look the same way I looked yesterday, but not like when we were in college, that’s for sure,” He pointed at his temple, “and I’ve got a few grays… and a more than a few extra pounds to prove it!”
They sat down, and a waitress who had been patiently standing by gently placed two cups of coffee, and napkins printed with the coffee shop’s colorful logo on the table in front of each of them.
“Anything else?”, she asked, smiling.
“I think this is great for now,” Amy replied.
“I assumed you still drink coffee…. I went ahead and ordered a cup for you.” Amy said, turning back to Jonathan.
“Absolutely.., totally addicted to caffeine, maybe my most exciting vice at this stage of life, unfortunately”, Jon sighed, smiling. They both picked up their cups and sipped.
“Crazy times,” Amy murmured as she nervously moved the paper napkin back and forth in front of her, and set her cup back down on the table. She then looked up and asked, “have you and your family been able to mostly avoid the ‘scourge’?”
Jonathan set his cup back down as well, the smile leaving his face. “If you mean have we avoided getting COVID… no, not entirely. My father got sick with it last June. He spent about six weeks in the hospital and eventually died in the ICU. It was terrible. He was only 66… a little overweight with some diabetes… and he probably didn’t have his high blood pressure under control. My mother was crushed, they were really just starting to enjoy retirement. She said goodbye to him on a freaking Ipad.”
“I’m so sorry, Jon”.
“Yeah, it sucks, but we obviously aren’t alone”.
“Thank God for the vaccine, huh?” Amy said, shaking her head.
“I guess,” Jonathan replied, “but I certainly haven’t agreed to take that crap. No freaking way.”
Surprised by his response, and not thinking about where the question might lead, Amy leaned forward and exclaimed, “you’re kidding… why not!?”
They both sat motionless for long moment, staring tentatively at one another. The sound of muted conversation, silverware clinking on ceramic plates and cups and the “whoosh” of the espresso machine manned by the barista across the room filing the silence.
“It’s complicated”, he replied, “but at its most basic — I prefer to make up my own mind.”
“Is there a medical reason?”, Amy asked, “or something else?”
Jonathan’s face darkened. He pushed his coffee cup forward on the table abruptly — hard enough to slosh some of the hot fluid onto the table. He slumped back in his chair and shoved his hands into the pockets of the worn tweed jacket he was wearing. “No”, he replied sharply, “and like I said, I prefer to make up my own mind. As far as I know, I have the freedom to think whatever I want, and decide whatever I want, about whatever I want.” He went on, “I just think it’s a bad idea. I’ve done my research. A lot of it. In my opinion, it’s not safe — lots of people have been killed by this damn thing. And who knows what Fauci and his cronies are doing here, really? Do you? I am about half-convinced this is some ‘big reset’ effort or something. I’m just not buying it.”
Amy listened intently, without changing her expression, still leaning forward. She sat back, picked up her coffee cup and took another sip. She looked away for a moment, her lips pulled tense and flat. She then looked back and replied, “You know I teach. So, I obviously believe the ability to think on your own and make up your own mind is important. Really important.”
His face still dark and his hands still shoved into his jacket pockets, Jonathan replied, “that’s right.”
Amy went on, completing her thought, “but I also believe what informs the way you think is important. Opinions are great, but facts and training are different.” She hesitated, “I have a question for you. If you were really sick, would you go to a hospital where the people caring for you weren’t doctors armed with facts — as they are admittedly best understood at that moment in time by virtue of the work of scientists and other doctors — and training, or would you go to one where there were people like you and me — using opinions and things they had researched online to treat you?”
Jonathan laughed, “of course I would go to a hospital with doctors… that’s ridiculous.” He went on — no longer laughing, “okay, I sort of get your point, but that doesn’t change the fact this damn thing is dangerous. Its killing people. Lots of them. Why would someone take that risk? The risk of dying from this goddamn Fauci vaccine is higher than if you get infected!”
Amy pursed her lips, and took a deep breath. “I don’t believe that’s true, Jon. My aunt called me a month ago and asked me whether or not she should take the vaccine, and said something similar. I looked up the statistics on the CDC website so I could give her some advice, and as it turns out, your risk of dying from COVID-19 vaccination is really, really low. About 7000 people have died following vaccination out of hundreds of millions vaccinated, and a lot of those deaths were likely not related to the vaccine, as doctors have to report deaths after vaccination even if they don’t know the vaccine caused it. Based on the number of vaccines delivered, that works out to something like 0.0020 percent chance even if you don’t adjust the number at all for coincidental causes. The average risk of dying of COVID-19 at our age — in our thirties — if we get infected, while low, is at least 100 times higher than from vaccination. This doesn’t even consider what they are now calling that “Long COVID” thing, which evidently can effect about one fourth of everyone who gets infected if they aren’t vaccinated as well. I have a friend who has this — she is incapacitated by headaches and she can’t think straight enough to do her job any more. My guess is you know someone who has this as well.”
He replied quietly, “yeah. I do — two of my employees…”. But what about this ‘messenger RNA’ thing, though… what the hell is that?”, Jonathan implored, “you put that stuff into your body without knowing that it’s doing to you? Some say that it can change your DNA. I mean c’mon, really!?”
Amy quickly responded, “the vast majority of scientists around the world and doctors say that it’s safe, and it doesn’t do anything to your body other than allow it to create an immune response. They say it basically dissolves after it does that work. The WHO, the CDC, all the recognized experts say this. When I asked my own doctor some of these things, he actually laughed.”
Jonathan stared at her, brooding. “First of all, it’s not a laughing matter, and furthermore I don’t believe most of those guys, and certainly don’t believe everything the WHO or CDC says — they’re all more or less run by liberals, or people who have other agendas.”
“That’s obviously your prerogative, but I don’t believe the science they quote is affected by politics, or anyting else for that matter. There are just as many conservative scientists and doctors saying this as those you would call liberal” Amy replied, fighting back her desire to utter a number of other, more divisive responses, “there are admittedly some doctors that disagree, but it seems a lot of those are either not really doctors, aren’t trained in the area of infectious disease or epidemiology, or at times… just may be a little crazy.”
“Maybe, but I’ll tell you what I think is crazy… As it turns out, none of this really matters, because even if I did believe you — the shots don’t work anyway,” Jonathan mumbled looking down at his lap, purposefully loud enough for Amy to hear. He then looked up, shaking his head, “vaccinated people are getting infected, so what’s the point? Since that’s true, there’s no point for any of this nonsense.”
Amy took in another deep breath, and replied, “you remember my brother Paul went to medical school, right? He’s a pediatrician in Omaha.”
“Yeah”, Jonathan replied, “but that doesn’t make you a doctor, or him an expert on anything.”
“Right,” she said, “but pediatricians give a lot of vaccines. When the first breakthrough infections were reported, I was panicked. Our mom got chemotherapy two years ago for her breast cancer, and I was super worried about her even though she got in line early to be vaccinated. I called him and he told me she could still get infected, because vaccines are actually not designed to eliminate that risk. They are designed to lower that risk, and lower even more your risk of dying if you do end up being infected. He said we have known this for almost 200 years, and pointed me at some more information from the CDC and other well-known scientific organizations. It looks as if the vaccine lowers your risk of infection alone by something like ten times, and your risk of dying even more than that if you are infected. If you add those two numbers up, then your risk of dying from COVID if you are vaccinated are remote. Haven’t you seen the reports of about 90 percent of patients hospitalized and dying now of the Delta variant are unvaccinated? Do you think all those hospitals are lying?”
Jonathan first glowered, and then surprisingly, chuckled, “whatever… let’s assume ALL of those things are true, even though I certainly don’t believe them. What this all boils down to, actually — and you know it — is freedom. Freedom to do what I and people like me want, freedom to make our own decisions, freedom to decide if our kids have a wear a mask at school, and to decide then whether or not we want to put something into my own bodies. Freedom is what made this country great in the past, and is what underpins not only American democracy — but democracy everywhere. It’s what people yearn for, and it is what a lot of Americans braver than you have died for. You can put up all sorts of questionable scientific information, but this particular point is simply not debatable.” He hesitated for effect, shrugged his shoulders, pointed his finger at Amy’s face and said, “you know it, and you know even if you can argue with the scientific and medical stuff, you just can’t get around this point.”
Amy sat back, seemingly deflated by Jonathan’s comments.
“It’s interesting,” she replied as she looked down at the table, “I am indeed not a doctor, or a scientist, but you know I did get a graduate degree in political science, and my thesis, as it turns out, was based on the concepts of freedom and liberty in early American thought. I actually still teach a course at the local community college on this topic on the weekends — in part to be honest to avoid having go to all of my son’s soccer games,” she laughed. “And for a number of perhaps obvious reasons related to your comments — I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately.”
Jonathan sat, still leaning back with his arms now crossed, listening — with a slight smirk on his face. “I can’t wait for you to enlighten me then.”
Amy began, now looking up at Jonathan again, “As it turns out, most of us are confused about the concepts of freedom vs. liberty. The founding fathers actually talked a lot about liberty, and how freedom related to it. They are in fact, not the same thing. You can’t actually even have freedom without liberty.”
“Seems to me as if they are the same — they both basically mean freedom to what you believe is right in a free state,” Jonathan said, a twinge of sarcasm in his voice, his arms still crossed.
“Yeah.., I understand,” said Amy, “and a lot of my students say that as well at the beginning of my course, but it is actually a little more nuanced.” She went on, “while the term freedom means ‘the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without restraint’, the term liberty, which the founding fathers talked a lot about, means ‘freedom from arbitrary authority’. They’re not the same, and as it turns out, freedom is obviously then dependent on liberty. There are always restraints on what we can do, but the restraints should make sense.”
“What do you mean?” Jonathan asked.
“It’s actually simple, what we want as Americans, and what the founding fathers really wanted for us was unfettered liberty, not unfettered freedom. They wanted to ensure the ‘authority’ of the government was never arbitrary — meaning the mandates and dictums — those that unavoidably come from governments — needed to be based on reason, and not on personal or political whim. We acquiesce to government authority all the time, especially if we feel it isn’t arbitrary.”
She stopped for a minute and took another sip of coffee, scrunching up her nose at the fact it had now grown cold, “if you drive your car the speed limit, and if you agree to vaccinate your kids for childhood diseases as a condition to enter school each year, or if you agree not to kill your neighbor for no good reason, you are bowing to authority. The thing is, we have agreed the laws and mandates related to these things are reasonable. Absolute freedom? In that situation, you could drive your car any speed you want, refuse to vaccinate your kids and shoot your neighbor in the head if his sprinkler got your grass wet. You can’t avoid mandates and laws — creating them and enforcing them is a part of what governments are supposed to do. What you can and should work very hard to avoid is arbitrary authority, and what we really want rather than absolute freedom — is absolute liberty.”
She hesitated, waiting for Jonathan to respond. When he continued to appear to be listening, she went on, “when Benjamin Franklin said, ‘they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security”, he used the word liberty on purpose — not freedom. He knew some essential freedoms would always be given up in the name of security. We do it all the time. Society doesn’t work otherwise. Thomas Jefferson said, ‘rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others’. If you drive two hundred miles an hour, send your kids to school with the measles or start shooting up your neighborhood, you are not only blowing past the equal rights of others, you are threatening their lives. And if you are able to walk around infected with a virus because you are exercising your freedom to choose not to try to prevent that with a vaccination or other means — things I have suggested tactfully over the past half hour are actually not arbitrary — that violates my rights and those of my family, and threatens our lives. It also threatens our way of life… the economy.., and if scientists of both parties are right about the fact this virus could mutate into a form that avoids vaccines and also possibly one more deadly and therefore capable of killing off a large percentage of the people in the world — that’s something that threatens our entire civilization.
“Unfettered freedoms always impinge on the freedoms of others, Jon.”
She put the coffee cup back down on the table she had been holding in both of her hands in front of her face, and put her hands palm down on the table, “ I desperately want you and I to live in a country that views liberty as its most cherished ideal, but I do not want to live here with you if you feel you have the right to any freedom you want. It just doesn’t work.”
Jonathan sat silent for several seconds with the sound of utensils banging on ceramic, others conversing in low tones around them in the coffee shop and the sounds of the espresso machine again filling the silence between he and Amy. He then replied, earnestly, “do kids in Arizona actually have to be vaccinated to start school each year? My wife keeps up… with that stuff… not me.”
“Feel free to take the liberty to look it up, Jon” Amy replied. | https://medium.com/@drroysmythe/the-coffee-shop-8420b4627c1a | ['Roy Smythe'] | 2021-09-13 18:47:24.058000+00:00 | ['Friendship', 'Misinformation', 'Covid 19', 'Freedom', 'Liberty'] |
Today, I Don’t Want To Be a Mother | Photo by guille pozzi on Unsplash
Today, I Don’t Want To Be a Mother
I Want To Be Mothered, Instead
“Does the Easter Bunny have Corona,” my four-year-old said. We were standing in our front yard under a blooming dogwood tree, observing our surroundings using our senses. It was part of a lesson her preschool teacher emailed us. The air was fragrant with spring blossoms, and birds chirped and flew above us. The neighborhood was busier in some ways, quieter in others, no cars were on the roads, but a lot of walkers and cyclists were, taking advantage of the mild New Jersey spring day.
“No, the Easter Bunny is okay,” I said, “and doesn’t have Corona.”
Easter is in a few days, and the Easter Bunny usually comes to our house. The days before the big day I fill baskets for my four kids, with bubbles and sidewalk chalk and chocolates and little toys. I stuff dozens of plastic eggs with candy for our annual hunt. We dye and decorate boiled eggs the night before. This year, I don’t want to do a thing.
The idea of Easter this year, a time of year that usually fills me with happiness and hope, is filling me apathy and dread, obligation and responsibility.
I’m like the yoyo that I put in my son’s Easter basket last year. I wake up energized and ready for the day. I’m going to rock home schooling, I’m going to cook a healthy and delicious meal, I’m going to be positive, I’m going to be productive. I’m going to look back on this period and be happy with what I accomplished. But by 3 in the afternoon I’m under a blanket on my couch, my fear pushing me into the brown leather cushions, begging for sleep to quiet my worries, while my kids amuse themselves with movies and video games.
I’m safe and grateful and lucky, but also scared and frightened and cheated. I can’t fall asleep at night, my chest is tight, and I can’t take a deep breath in, while my kids snore in their rooms down the hall. My bottle of Xanax, once saved for emergencies, is taken out most nights now and is almost empty. When I do fall asleep it’s not for long, I wake up in the middle of the night sweating, convinced my dad, a lung cancer survivor who lives in a nearby town, is dead.
I’m supposed to be a buoy for my children, I’m supposed to keep them engaged and upbeat, I’m supposed to keep them from being scared, I’m supposed to be their goddamn mother, but I’m drowning, a rusty heavy anchor falling into the bottom of the ocean floor.
Right now, at this moment, I don’t want to be a mother. I don’t want to mother my kids, I don’t want to mother my husband, I don’t want to mother my parents. Instead, I want to be mothered.
I want to crawl up on my mother’s lap and tell her that I’m petrified. That my anxiety comes over me like a rogue wave in a once calm sea. That one moment, all is well and I’m peaceful and stable, and then the next moment my fear shakes my world like an earthquake, making me unable to stand. I want to cry and sob and have my back rubbed and hear a lullaby sung in my ear. I want to have my hair combed through with her fingers and smell her lilac hand lotion. I want to hear her tell me that I am safe, that I am okay, that I am well. I just want to be mothered today. I want to be saturated in love and peace and have nothing to do in return but just be.
So today, I’m going to mother myself. I’m going to take a longer shower relishing the white noise of the rushing water, so I can’t hear the kids fighting. I’m going to not double check their homework assignments. I’m going to break my screen time limits and let them watch whatever they want. I’m going to serve cereal for dinner. And I’m going to use that extra time, to mother myself. To pray, to read, to write, and to breathe. I’m going to free myself from the responsibility of doing all my mother things, just for today, and instead mother myself.
I will find the strength to mother them tomorrow. | https://medium.com/heart-soul-pen/i-just-want-to-be-mothered-ff9d688df03a | ['Jamie Fiore Higgins'] | 2020-04-07 19:35:46.382000+00:00 | ['Homeschooling', 'Motherhood', 'Women', 'Anxiety', 'Coronavirus'] |
Real Dangers of the Higher Risks Local Governments Face with Limited Resources for Information Security | Data protection is critical for any organization and governments are not immune. LGITs have to manage and serve data across a variety of availability needs. LGIS teams have to make sure that data not only adheres to federal regulations, but also their local state and city laws. Just like no two organizations are alike, neither are two cities.
If some of these systems are disrupted, lives are at stake.
Not all the data is sensitive enough to fall under regulations, but that in itself can create problems. Governments are public and citizens can request releases of information through their various state laws regarding government disclosure. These requests are different in scope from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests used with the federal government. Each state differs on what information can be requested, which can create complications. For example, some state laws do not specify that data related to information technology systems can be redacted. Luckily, my state does have a provision to protect IT information, so when we receive a release of information for all our email addresses or all our database structures, we can deny those requests. One thing you can do for your local government as a security professional is read your state laws regarding the release of public information and send recommendations to your state representative to make those laws more secure.
Some of our information is confidential, especially within the public safety departments. The data collected by them is very attractive for all sorts of bad actors. To compound on that, most of that critical data needs to be accessible on a mobile terminal and around the clock. For example, the police and sheriff deputies need to be able to pull up all information collected on a suspect vehicle which could list cautions officers need to take before approaching. Without reliable access to that data, their lives are on the line. In this situation, not only is the data confidential, but it requires the highest availability. It doesn’t matter if you are a major metropolis of millions of people or a rural town of a dozen: The demand for reliable intelligence is the same. The infrastructure required to support that system is not significantly cheaper for the small town as opposed to the large city. According to Wikipedia, when counting populations that start around 100,000 citizens, 63% of municipal governments have less than 199,999 citizens. That leaves a lot of uncounted smaller towns that still have high cost government and public safety needs, but much more limited resources since the tax base is smaller.
Moving away from public safety, local governments also have critical infrastructure systems that need particularly special care to implement securely. Vehicles used in disaster recovery situations, like snow plows, require automatic vehicle location (AVL) and global positioning systems (GPS) to quickly and reliably offer services. Water and wastewater treatment plants require industrial control systems (ICS). The complexities in ICS security require specialized information security knowledge. This knowledge is unique enough that SANS now offers a catalog of courses focused solely on ICS security. When related to local governments who pay lower wages and have trouble adding information security positions, being able to hire and retain an ICS security specialist is out of reach for many municipalities.
The types of threats against governments are largely on par with the private sector. There is a slight increase in the risk of hacktivist campaigns, but business email compromises and ransomware are still very popular. What is different from much of private sector is that the systems needed to keep a city or town running require higher availability or the results can be disastrous. If some of these systems are disrupted, lives are at stake. In my previous article, I pointed out how LGIT and LGIS departments are already forced to hire less people and at lower wages than the private sector, but now we can see that this just increases the risks. In order to properly manage it all, you need staff with specialized knowledge of high availability systems and industrial control systems. Since wages are low, most municipalities have to hire less experienced staff and train on the job. With such critical systems, things get missed. Infrastructure is implemented incorrectly. And things can go unpatched.
How do we fix things so we can lower risks while working within the reality of limited resources? Next week I will share my thoughts on why the government model is failing its LGIT and LGIS departments while stealing some ideas from the private sector that, while a bit radical for the old school mentality prevalent in local government, might be the ticket towards better security. | https://medium.com/@infosec_taylor/real-dangers-of-the-higher-risks-local-governments-face-with-limited-resources-for-information-f6e38d44af9f | [] | 2019-06-06 16:39:17.978000+00:00 | ['Local Government', 'Government', 'Information Technology', 'Information Security', 'Risk'] |
Equality in Science Isn’t Just About “Men and Women” | Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
For people who pride themselves on being smart, scientists sure are being ignorant. I’m hard-pressed to come up with another explanation as to why non-binary and transgender people like me are consistently left out of visions for greater equality and equity in science.
Science, as many of us learn in elementary school, is a way of learning about the universe. Science is also an institutional edifice, with many different facets and roles that involve everything from funding agencies to students. And it’s no secret that Science the institution has a big problem with gender.
Study after study has underscored the point that women in science are underrepresented in research journals, are more likely to miss out on funding because of mens’ unfavorable impressions of women, regularly face harassment in the lab and in the field, and often have to fight twice as hard to even be heard.
Many men of science still don’t get it, and even wannabe allies often think running special “women’s only” events — instead of cultivating equality as the norm — is the answer. And in this ongoing attempt to detoxify Science from the inside, genderqueer people like me may as well be invisible.
Consider an article about the lack of gender diversity in science media posted to The Conversation earlier this year by science communicator Merryn McKinnon. The data crunching showed what you might expect — men are much more likely to write popular science articles or be featured in them than women. That’s a problem. It’s also a problem that nonbinary and genderfluid people were erased by questionable methodology.
Papers on gender parity in science, science media, and science publishing often follow similar methodologies. The authors set their search range — a particular publication over a year, a spate of publications over a larger time frame, or whatever the point of focus may be — and then they start collecting names. From those binders of scientists, the researchers then assign genders. Sometimes they go by what sounds right, like the assumption that someone named Jane would be a woman using she/her pronouns. Sometimes they use algorithms like Namsor to categorize names. Those names are then classified as male, female, or unidentified, the tallies then compared and analyzed.
Can no one else see how fucked up this is? For starters, there’s no such thing as men’s names or women’s names. There are just names, and issues like “A Boy Named Sue” come from the gendered framework we put onto names.(And that’s to say nothing of names like mine — Riley — that aren’t traditionally categorized as belonging to one gender or another.) More importantly, a Dave or Steve or Miriam or Erika might identify as non-binary or otherwise gender nonconforming. A name does not automatically dictate pronouns, gender, or sex. The authors of these disparity studies don’t interview their sources directly. They take a list of names, assign genders based on a binary model, and then tack another publication on their list.
Paper after paper, article after article, Science’s problem with gender focuses on the disparity between men and women. Non-binary people are ignored, and even misgendered, because so much of this discussion is based upon the nonsense notion that there are only two genders, and those genders are dictated by the equally-complicated notion of biological sex. Nor do these studies address issues involving scientists and communicators who may transition or change their pronouns during their career. I wrote under Brian Switek for more than a decade. In a hypothetical, typical gender-in-science study that used my old publications for data, I’d be categorized as a man and not a non-binary person who prefers she/her pronouns. | https://medium.com/swlh/equality-in-science-isnt-just-about-men-and-women-c20fc8a59c1 | ['Riley Black'] | 2020-04-14 16:37:21.786000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'LGBTQ', 'Nonbinary', 'Queer', 'Science'] |
Analyzing Gender Proportions Using Python and Web Scraping | Analyzing Gender Proportions Using Python and Web Scraping
Support your argument with data!
The subject of gender, particularly gender inequality, has generated a lot of debate recently. This post aims to provide helpful insights for anyone who’d like to study gender proportions in specific fields. I will provide some tips for data collection using web scraping as well as an automated way of finding probable gender of a person based on first names.
Data collection
If you are lucky, you may have your data in a handy format, like excel or .csv from some source. Nevertheless, this is rarely the case. In most analyses, you have to collect your data — generally from a website. This methodology is called web scraping.
It’s important to note that not all accessible data is collectable. Just because you can see something in your browser does not necessarily mean that you are allowed to legally scrape it. Some websites protect themselves against web scrapers. Always make sure that what you do is legal! For instance, scraping Wikipedia is perfectly fine, while scraping social media websites is illegal in most cases if not done through public APIs of these websites.
It may sound intimidating, but basically scraping is just mimicking what your favorite browser does:
Sends an http request to a site. Parses the response it gets.
In some cases, websites protect their data from scrapers, but a quite common source of information is Wikipedia, where no such protection is present, and information there is free to use. Therefore, you can scrape anything you want from Wikipedia. Python even has a package for that. For didactic reasons let’s not use the package, but scrape the information the old fashioned way!
Let’s say we want to assess the gender of composers and lyricists of anthems from around the world. We go to this site and press Ctrl+Shift+I (in Google Chrome) or right click on virtually any place of the website and click inspect. This is what you will see (you may have to switch to Elements in the upper panel on the right):
On the right-hand side, you can inspect the structure of the website, which will be important for how you parse your response. The purple text refers to the tag of this element, through which you will be able to find it when you parse the response of the page.
In this code snippet, you can see what I did in this case: send a request and parse the response into a searchable a BeautifulSoup object. In this object, one can easily find the specific part of information you are looking for. In this case, a row corresponding to an anthem is stored in <tr> tag, in which <td> tags contain the specific information I need. Do not hesitate to check my github for the full code!
To further clarify, here is what you need to do to collect the data you want:
Navigate to the page where the information is to be found. Inspect the structure of the website, find the tags where the information is stored. Using python, send a http request to the site. Using the BeautifoulSoup object created from the response, and the learned structure from point 2, create the algorithm, to extract and store the information you need.
Gender guessing
In order to make Python guess genders for us, the only thing we need is to supply it with a first name. gender-guesser is a Python package written for this purpose. It can return 6 different values: unknown (name not found), Andy (androgynous), female, male, mostly_male, or mostly_female. The difference between Andy and unknown is that the former is found to have the same probability to be male than to be female, while the latter means that the name wasn’t found in the database.
In this snippet, you can see what I did. After instantiating the detector, I created a function which takes a pandas DataFrame column, extracts the first name then performs gender guessing on it. Finally, it creates a column with the “_gender” (or any arbitrary) suffix and fills it with the guessed genders.
Concluding remarks
Do not forget to check the results manually at the end! In some cases, you must do a google search to clarify unknown or Andy cases, and it is always good to double check your work. These are great tools to speed up collecting gender proportion data. | https://medium.com/starschema-blog/analysing-gender-proportions-using-python-df99d3d41b43 | ['Mor Kapronczay'] | 2020-01-07 15:03:43.436000+00:00 | ['Data Collection', 'Python', 'Research', 'Web Scraping', 'Gender Equality'] |
Graphing The SIR Model With Python | Graphing The SIR Model With Python
Graphing and solving simultaneous differential equations to model COVID-19 spread
If one good thing has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the vast amount of data we have acquired. In light of technological advancements, we have access to more information and computing power, which we can use to predict and curb the spread of the virus. One of the simplest ways to do this is through the SIR model.
The SIR is a compartmental model that categorizes a constant population into three groups, namely the susceptible, infected, and recovered. These can all be expressed as functions that take time as an argument.
S(t) — The number of people who are susceptible to the disease
I(t) — The number of people infected with the disease
R(t) — Those incapable of infecting others; either recovered or diseased (hence a better name for this group may be “removed”)
Of note, S(t) + I(t) + R(t) = N at any time t, where N is the total population.
Importing the needed Python libraries
from scipy.integrate import odeint import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
There are several libraries that we can use to smoothen out the calculations and graphing process. The SciPy library contains calculation methods that are “user-friendly and efficient.” We will be using their numerical integration function for this program. We will also be using Numpy for float step values and Matplotlib for graphing.
Finding the rate of change of each function
We can’t directly find an equation for each function. But we can derive the rate of change of each function at time t. In other words, it's a derivative. The amount of susceptible people generally starts off close to the total population. This number then decreases with time as susceptible people become infected. The number of newly infected people is a percentage of the possible interactions between susceptible and infected individuals. We can call this infection rate as ‘a’, while the possible interactions being the product of S(t) and I(t). The change in susceptible people is therefore
S’(t) = -a*S(t)*I(t)
The decrease in the number of susceptible people is the same as the increase in the number of infected people. To find the entire derivative of I(t), we must also consider those who have recovered or died after being infected. That is simply the recovery rate multiplied by the current number of infected individuals. With the recovery rate as ‘b’, we then have
I’(t) = a*S(t)*I(t) — b*I(t)
Calculating the derivative of R(t) is then a simple matter, as it is just the second term of I’(t). In the SIR model, recovery (or more aptly removal) only increases with time. The increase in R(t) is the product of the recovery rate and the infected population:
R’(t) = b*I(t)
We can now use these derivatives to solve the system of ordinary differential equations through the SciPy library.
Defining the necessary constants
From our equations above, we see that there are two constants that need to be defined: the transmission rate and the recovery rate. For now, we’ll set the transmission rate to be 100% and the recovery rate to be 10%.
a = 1 # infection rate
b = 0.1 # recovery rate
Creating function f(y, t) to calculate derivatives
# FUNCTION TO RETURN DERIVATIVES AT T def f(y,t):
S, I, R = y d0 = -a*S*I # derivative of S(t) d1 = a*S*I — b*I # derivative of I(t) d2 = b*I # derivative of R(t) return [d0, d1, d2]
Next, we have to define a function to return the derivatives of S(t), I(t), and R(t) for a given time t. Remember that we actually solved for these already and are just encoding the equations in a function. In the following lines of code, d0, d1, and d2 are the derivatives of S, I, and R, respectively.
d0 = -a*S*I # derivative of S(t) d1 = a*S*I — b*I # derivative of I(t) d2 = b*I # derivative of R(t)
Note that the values of S, I, and R are not yet defined here (although we don’t need R(t) to find its derivative). Since these functions are dependent on each other, we will first get the previous values of S(t), I(t), and R(t) to calculate their derivatives.
S, I, R = y # or S = y[0]
I = y[1]
R = y[2]
Replacing the variable R with an underscore _ is also acceptable, but it’s best to be explicit and descriptive.
Defining the necessary initial values
Before we can calculate the values of the functions at time t, we must first find the initial values. The Philippines will be used as a sample population, t=0 on March 1, 2020. The initial number of susceptible people is the total population, which is around 109,581,078. Based on the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker, the initial cases on March 1, 2020, is 50 people. And of course, we can set the total recovered from being 0. It would make things cleaner to keep the values between 0 and 1. Such can be accomplished by dividing all the values by the population.
S_0 = 1
I_0 = 50/109_581_078
R_0 = 0
It would be helpful to store these values in a list, and we’ll see why this is important later.
y_0 = [S_0,I_0,R_0]
Let’s also not forget to define the domain or the time range. We’ll do this with Numpy’s linspace so as to incorporate decimal values for steps if desired.
t = np.linspace(start=1,stop=100,num=100)
Solving the differential equations with ODEInt
Now that we have defined all the needed variables, constants, and functions, we can now solve the system of ordinary differential equations. We will be solving each differential equation for a range of 100 days as specified in the time range. Doing so is actually simple with all the parameters set; the code is just one line:
y = odeint(f,y_0,t)
f is the function f(y, t), which we defined earlier, y_0 is the list of our initial values, and t is the list of equally spaced time values.
The variable y is actually a Numpy ndarray, or an N-dimensional array.
>>> print(type(y))
<class ‘numpy.ndarray’>
In this case the odeint() function returns a 2 dimensional array. A row is a list of values for a given time t, while a column represents the values for S, I, or R. The values for S(t) would be found in the first column, I(t) in the second, and R(t) in the third. We can, therefore, access them as follows:
An element of such an array located in the nth row, mth column can be indexed as
element = y[n,m]
And we can use list splicing to view all the values in a column.
S = y[:,0]
I = y[:,1]
R = y[:,2]
Graphing the values for each function
plt.plot(t,S,’r’,label='S(t)') plt.plot(t,I,’b’,label='I(t)') plt.plot(t,R,’g’,label='R(t)') plt.legend() plt.show()
The first 2 arguments in the plot() function indicate the x and y values. We can then specify the color and label of each line. The legend() function places a legend on the graph, referencing the “label” keyword argument for each line.
Finally, we use the show() function to actually generate the graph.
Further exploration
It is worth pointing out that we can increase the precision of the graph by decreasing the specified step values. (In this case, by increasing the “num” keyword argument).
t = np.linspace(start=1,stop=100,num=200)
t = np.linspace(start=1,stop=100,num=500)
t = np.linspace(start=1,stop=100,num=1000)
Moreover, making the parameters such as the transmission and recovery rate closer to the actual data would make the model more accurate.
All that said and done, the SIR model demonstrates the invaluable role technology and mathematics plays in dealing with real-world issues.
You can find the code for this article here:
https://github.com/JoaquindeCastro/SIR-Model/blob/main/SIR-ODE-Integrate.py
References and resources | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/graphing-the-sir-model-with-python-e3cd6edb20de | ['Joaquin De Castro'] | 2020-11-05 14:45:21.389000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Data Visualization', 'Python', 'Education', 'Mathematics'] |
Japan After The Earthquakes | It was also the final blow Kuramoto’s cherished family home. “It is totally destroyed,” Kuramoto said, sitting on a mattress on top of a bed frame made of cardboard boxes. “That house lived through four emperors.”
One month after the two earthquakes rocked Kumamoto prefecture in central Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s main islands, more than 10,000 people are still living in evacuation centers, unable or too afraid to return home. Many of them are elderly and now uncertain of where they will live after losing what they so carefully built over decades in seconds.
At Kinokura Elementary School, where Kuramoto and her husband have sought refuge, 10 of the remaining 12 residents are over the age of 70. “I had seen footage from all over the world of earthquakes,” said Kuramoto. “It looked terrible. I never thought it would happen to us.”
International Medical Corps deployed an emergency response team to Kumamoto the day the second earthquake hit. “We quickly found that there was a high number of elderly living in evacuation centers,” said Samuel Grindley, International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team Leader in Kumamoto. “Our work over the past month has focused on trying to bring what dignity and comfort we could for older people after they were thrust out of their homes because of the earthquakes.” | https://medium.com/international-medical-corps/japan-after-the-earthquakes-c2bed3c0608e | ['International Med. Corps'] | 2017-06-28 22:11:04.639000+00:00 | ['Humanitarian', 'Nepal', 'Earthquake', 'Speed Saves Lives', 'Japan'] |
Introduction to Remotion — Create Videos and Animations with React | Basics of Remotion
Since you have initiated your Remotion project, You can start creating your video. But I think it would be better if you have some understanding of Remotion basics before that.
Video Properties
Width , height , durationInFrames , and fps are the video properties provided by Remotion.
You can use those properties within components to configure the component’s size in terms of pixels, how many frames that component should play, and the number of frames per second.
import { useVideoConfig } from “remotion”; export const ExampleVideo = () => {
const { fps, durationInFrames, width, height } = useVideoConfig(); return (
<div style={{ flex: 1, justifyContent: “center”, alignItems: “center” }}>
This video is {durationInFrames / fps} seconds long.
</div>
);
};
It is advised to derive those properties using useVideoConfig like the above example to make your components reusable.
Compositions
Compositions are also a type of component in Remotion where you can use the above properties as metadata.
import {Composition} from 'remotion';
import {HelloReaders} from './HelloReaders'; export const RemotionVideo: React.FC = () => {
return (
<>
<Composition
id=”HelloReaders”
component={HelloReaders}
durationInFrames={150}
fps={30}
width={1024}
height={720}
defaultProps={{
titleText: ‘Welcome to My Blog’,
titleColor: ‘black’,
}}
/>
<Composition
...
/>
<Composition
...
/>
</>
);
}
If you observe the Video.tsx file in your project, you will see 3 Composition components with metadata passed into each of them, including video properties.
Also, those Compositions are shown in the top left corner of the Remotion Player as well.
Compositions List
Animation Properties
Animations are the most important thing when it comes to videos, and Remotion gives you the freedom of configuring some amazing animations.
For example, If you need a simple face in effect, you can adjust the frame’s opacity frame by frame.
const frame = useCurrentFrame();
const opacity = frame >= 20 ? 1 : (frame / 20);
return (
<div style={{
opacity: opacity
}}>
Hello Readers!
</div>
)
In addition to that, Remotion has 2 inbuild functions named interpolate and spring, which you can use to build more advanced animations.
Interpolate function accepts 4 input parameters, including input value (mostly the frame), range values that the input can assume, The range of values you want to map the input to, and an optional parameter.
Spring animations allow you to be more creative with your presentation by making animation more natural. For example, the below spring animation configuration will add a small scaling effect to your text.
const {fps} = useVideoConfig();
const scale = spring({
fps,
from: 0,
to: 1,
frame
}); return (
<span
style={{
color: titleColor,
marginLeft: 10,
marginRight: 10,
transform: `scale(${scale})`,
display: ‘inline-block’,
}}
>
Welcome to My Blog
</span>
)
Spring animation
Sequence Component
Sequence components in Remotion fulfill 2 major tasks. Mainly it is used to assign different time frames to elements in videos. While maintaining the connection between elements, it also allows you to reuse the same component repeatedly.
The sequence component is a higher-order component, and it has the ability to hold child components. In addition to that, it accepts 3 props, including 2 required props and 1 optional prop.
name: This is an optional prop, and the name you specify will appear in the Remotion player timeline. You will be able to understand how each component is linked if you use a proper naming pattern.
Timeline View of Remotion Player
from: This defines the frame, which component should appear in the video.
durationInFrames: Length of the sequence component in terms of frames.
For example, the below Sequence component will appear in the video after 20 frames, and it will last till the end since durationOnFrames is Infinity.
<Sequence from={20} durationInFrames={Infinity}>
<Title titleText={titleText} titleColor={titleColor} /></Sequence>
Since you now have a basic understanding of several essential properties and components in Remotion, we can start creating the first video using Remotion. | https://blog.bitsrc.io/introduction-to-remotion-create-videos-and-animations-with-react-a57083771607 | ['Chameera Dulanga'] | 2021-08-29 16:29:12.686000+00:00 | ['Videos', 'Web Development', 'React', 'Remotion', 'Animation'] |
How I Conduct Interviews: Technical Level Setting | Technical interviews are often ambiguous and poorly structured without having explicit goals. The following outlines a methodology that I’ve used successfully over 30 interviews and 3 hires. Even though this isn’t a huge sample set I’m really happy with the signals that this methodology provides and I would like to share it. The methodology is called Invariants and Gradients, and this specific stage is focused on Level Setting (establishing that the candidate is at a certain technical level or proficiency). This is accomplished through asking open ended questions which encourage the candidates level, and current abilities, to emerge.
What’s Even the Point of a Technical Interview?
Technical interviews often act as a check and balance system to verify that candidates are making factual claims about their experience.
Consider a candidate that applies with nothing known about them compared to a candidate that is super well known within the industry:
Most candidates fall somewhere in between not knowing anything at all about the candidate and having perfect information of their technical abilities. Normally, candidates present some sort of information about their backgrounds, projects they have worked on, and general technical indicators like open source examples. We don’t fully believe the candidate, because if we did we’d evaluate them technically based on the experience that they present.
Often the purpose of the technical interview is to:
Establish that the candidate has the requisite experience to perform the functions of the job
I have found there to be two major components to accomplish this:
Materializing an understanding of the candidates holistic technical abilities. I call this Level Setting and its purpose is to ensure that the candidates level (their general technical capabilities) is understood, ie entry, junior, mid, engineer II, senior, etc.
and its purpose is to ensure that the candidates level (their general technical capabilities) is understood, ie entry, junior, mid, engineer II, senior, etc. Demonstrate understanding of specific technical proficiencies. This establishes that the candidate has specific technical abilities required of the position. If the code base they are working in is a distributed system and their is significant risk from incorrectness the candidate needs to demonstrate proficiency in distributed system. If a candidate is expected to understand a specific technology or language, they need to demonstrate proficiency in the language. There are many ways to do this, which are out of scope of this article.
Methodology Goal
The goal is to create an exercise that provides high signal on a candidates level and minimizes the noise. There are many time constraints for interviews both on the candidate side and the company side. Candidates are most likely interviewing at many places, creating constraints of companies having to compete with other companies for offers. On the hiring side, interviews are extremely expensive and time consuming. The solution should minimize interview latency, while maximizing accuracy and signal fidelity by understanding a candidate’s level through exploring how they approach technical problems and create solutions.
Implementation
The solution creates an open ended scenario that encourages a candidates technical ability to emerge, meaning it allows the candidates competencies to emerge from the assignment. It’s necessarily something that the candidate can’t study for.
This uses a technical discussion (phone interview) or hands on task (coding exercise) as a foundation to determine, with high accuracy, where the candidate’s skills rank, right now. This is not for trying to guess what the candidate may be capable of in the future (that can be estimated from their past trajectory). This is also not for getting very specific technical information from them (which need to be demonstrated directly, either by asking or by demonstration).
All are open ended because all encourage emergent based on:
The candidate will mention what they have the most experience doing. This indicates the way the candidate thinks and how they would actually approach the problem, because they aren’t something that can be prepared for.
The candidate will mention what they think is the most important based on second hand experience (read, observed, heard of, etc).
The candidate mentions what they think the interviewer wants to hear (I haven’t observed this yet in practice).
Invariants
The foundation of the approach are Invariants. These are things that the candidate must display in order to qualify. These are a hard line in the sand.
Some of the general Invariants that I have used are:
Asks clarifying questions
Verifies solution runs / works (for a coding exercise)
It’s important that these are objective and can either be hit or missed. Consider some technical interviews that ask questions about specific technologies like:
What are some common HTTP verbs and how are they typically used in REST API’s?
How would you request that a server return an API call results in JSON format?
Which request header is used to transmit credentials to a server?
What would a candidate answering “I don’t know” to any of these questions indicate about the candidate? What if they were only able to list 2 of the request verbs? 5? Because of how expensive interviewing is, there’s a huge opportunity cost to asking questions like this during technical interviews. Invariants are used to prune candidates in an objective fair and high fidelity way.
Gradients
Gradients define the signals that are important for the target role. The goal of gradients is to try and formalize the signals. For example Software Engineering, these are open ended and aim to have the candidates ability naturally emerge and place itself, the whole idea is for these to be things that people really can’t study for..
Gradients are questions that can’t be studied for which encourage immediate reflexive answers. There are no wrong answers here because the purpose is to place a candidate. I’ve found these discussions to be really fun and the candidate to be really engaged.
Examples are:
How do you ensure that a solution functions correctly?
How do you tell if a deployment is successful?
Suppose that you’re creating an HTTP service and recently made a successfully deploy but some time later customers start to report a degradation of service, how do you go about figuring out the source of the issue?
Explain the steps of a request and response from curl to a web service like google.
Each of the gradients may have one or more specific invariants. An invariant for How do you ensure that a solution functions correctly? may be:
Must mention automated testing
Because the question are so open ended the candidate usually has to choose a level of abstraction that they are most familiar with, which provides a strong signal in itself.
Gradient scoped invariants are where specific role requirements can be expressed. Consider the example of the HTTP Request/Response. If this question is asked to a backend we candidate and they fail to mention load balancing tiers. The goal of this methodology is to make these requirements explicit and increase objectivity of evaluation.
To illustrate how gradients may be evaluated, consider the question:
How do you ensure that a solution functions correctly?
Common answers may be:
Unit Tests
TDD
Service Tests
CI/CD
Reliance on QA
Manual Verification
Monitoring
Strong Level Setting indicators may be:
Not Mentioning Tests — Entry
Mentioning: Run it and Watch with Logs — Entry
Tests & No Monitoring — Mid
Conclusion
I have found technical level setting to be a crucial step in materializing an understanding of candidates technical abilities. Technical Level setting is not a replacement for demonstrating specific technical requisites but can be a powerful fun interview step that provides low false positives and negatives for qualifying candidates for specific roles. Technical Leveling is based on ensuring candidates comply with invariants combined with questions that allow candidates abilities to emerge. A large number of the interviews that I gave ~5 / 30 (16%) I received direct feedback from the candidate describing these as fun!!! This stage is often a fun free feeling discussion. Happy Interviewing! | https://medium.com/dm03514-tech-blog/how-i-interview-technical-level-setting-7bf2b99f4edd | [] | 2019-12-30 14:30:47.539000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Software', 'Interview', 'Software Engineering', 'Engineering Mangement'] |
Becoming a Unicorn: The funding route of BOTS by RevenYOU explained | BOTS by RevenYOU did not arise overnight. As with other startups, a number of phases preceded this. In fact: BOTS by RevenYOU is still in the middle of the process of becoming a Unicorn. In this article we will share how the funding route of BOTS by RevenYOU evolved.
Phases
Every startup that is going to acquire capital, goes through a number of phases with corresponding milestones. This is no different for BOTS by RevenYOU. We distinguish the following phases within our organization:
The idea
The pre-seed phase
The seed phase
The pre-series A phase
The series A phase (the Unicorn)
The IPO phase (initial public offering)
During our last shareholders’ meeting in the Philharmonie in Haarlem, we shared our funding route with everyone present. Today we share this route with everybody.
The idea
In 2017, Colin Groos (CCO of BOTS by RevenYOU) shared his idea with Michiel Stokman (CEO of BOTS by RevenYOU). Colin wanted to program a trade strategy. An algorithm to achieve more returns from his investments. In Excel, Colin and Michiel designed their first algorithm together. Their first automated trading strategy. This strategy would yield a huge return. At least in Excel. The first bot was born.
Both gentlemen were convinced of their idea to start trading automatically. Through their network they came in contact with Stefan Bijen (CTO of BOTS by RevenYOU). He programmed the algorithm that Colin and Michiel had worked out. They could start trading.
In the real world, the algorithm designed by Colin and Michiel, did not do as good as their expectations. Therefore they concluded: Investing with algorithms definitely has the future, but there are people who probably write better algorithms than they could do themselves.
Via Cryptotrader the men came into contact with a trader who could double his return on a monthly basis through an automated strategy. After convincing evidence from this trader, his trading strategy was purchased. A bot that worked the way they had planned.
Initially Colin, Michiel and Stefan wanted to share this strategy with friends and family. And that is where they faced a problem. To trade with such a bot, requires a lot of technical knowledge. Knowledge that not everybody has. Why not make this easier for everybody? And so the solution to this problem became their new idea
The idea: a platform on which expert developers offer their bots that the user can use (without technical knowledge) for automated trading. Spotify for investing. BOTS by RevenYOU was born.
The pre-seed phase
The idea was quickly turned into a business plan, and because the business model looked so good, it seemed to make sense to involve an investor. BOTS by RevenYOU came to an agreement with an investor for € 650,000 against 25% of the shares.
The energy to start working on this idea was enormous with everybody involved. With this platform the world of trading could be turned upside down. The best trading strategies would now become available not only for the richest 1% of the world, but for eveybody. Everybody could have the opportunity to set up a second passive income.
The payment that the investor had promised never came. For whatever reason. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because this strengthened the founders of BOTS by RevenYOU in their believe that they had to keep going forward.
Financing was provided with the help of family, friends and other interested parties. € 650,000 against 18% of the shares. The invested amount was spent on building a prototype and building the app.
Just like with all start-ups, not everything came naturally. Being an entrepreneur, coming up with ideas and making something, never goes smoothly and without any struggles. There are always obstacles on the path of an entrepreneur that must be cleared.
To overcome those obstacles, it was decided to organize another investment round. This time it would be accessible to a larger audience: a crowfund.
The seed-phase
The crowdfunding was a huge success. Within a very short amount of time, € 1.6 million was raised against a valuation of € 32 million. The presentation of BOTS by RevenYOU at Business Class by Harry Mens certainly made a very positive contribution to this.
All developments within BOTS by RevenYOU accelerated. But with an acceleration of developments, there is also an acceleration in challenges that come with building a business.
For us, one of the biggest challenges in this phase was the KYC — Know Your Customer — module. A module that had to be built to comply with laws and regulations of the Dutch government.
Eventually, the app could go live on December 1 with a test version of the app. BOTS by RevenYOU was live. The effect of this go-live was enormous. The media took a huge interest in BOTS by RevenYOU and there were also large investment parties with a lot of intertest: Venture Capital, Private Equity and Family Offices, among others. All looking to invest in BOTS by RevenYOU.
The proof was there: BOTS by RevenYOU will be successful. In order to advance tot he next phase, new investments were needed. To do so, Harry Mens was visited once again.
The pre-series A phase
On December 8th 2020, RevenYOU visited Business Class fort he second time. All expectations that the founders had for this new round of crowdfunding were exceeded. Within two weeks, € 2.2 million was raised through crowdfunding. When this second investment round finally closed on January 31st 2020, a total of € 2.65 million was raised against a valuation of € 48 million.
BOTS by RevenYOU added 424 new shareholders in that round. The total number of shareholders is therefore 747.
The lesson from Michiel, Colin and Stefan: Dare to think big!
By focusing on € 650,000, they actually made it happen. By focusing on a valuation of € 50 million, they can now state that this is the current value of BOTS by RevenYOU.
The next focus is the next phase. BOTS by RevenYOU will become a unicorn within 3 years.
The serie A phase (The Unicorn)
BOTS by RevenYOU is not yet a Unicorn, but will certainly be one within three years. A Unicorn is a designation for a tech startup that, through investments and funding, has reached a market value of at least € 1 billion.
In almost all cases, these companies are all about disruptive technology. For example: Airbnb, Uber and Dropbox. BOTS by RevenYOU will complete this list in 3 years’ time.
The IPO phase
The holy grail for all startups is to become an IPO. An Initial Public Offering. If an organization has a market value of Є6 billion euros or more, we call it an IPO. This phase is still out of sight for now. But the lessons learned also apply here: Dare to think big.
For now, the focus of BOTS by RevenYOU is on becoming a Unicorn.
Trading is for everyone
Everyone must have acces to trading and to a second income. BOTS will make it happen. Together we will make the world of trading fair and transparent. Are you interested, but your question has not yet been answered? Take a look at the FAQs on our site. Or contact us, we are happy to explain it to you personally.
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Risk-free investing does not exist. You can lose (part of) your stake.
| https://medium.com/@botsbyrevenyou/becoming-a-unicorn-the-funding-route-of-bots-by-revenyou-explained-ff87e639842c | ['Bots Revenyou'] | 2020-04-30 11:11:08.982000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Trading Bot', 'Startup', 'Crowdfunding', 'Trading'] |
How the Venture Capital Ecosystem is Shifting and What Founders Should Consider | “Tough times never last but tough people always do” — Robert H. Schuller
We thought we’d start on a positive note since everything in recent news has been extremely tough to swallow. A number of industry participants will face extreme difficulties re-entering the market, as companies look to mitigate risk and adapt to the widespread reorganisation of the status-quo. But change isn’t always bad. Whilst we hope working people and governments can navigate a downturn as smoothly as possible, the VC industry has and always will look for disruptors through the tough times. We only need to look back to 2008/09 to see what companies were founded during the Financial Crisis.
AirBnB Uber Slack WhatsApp Square Venmo Pinterest TransferWise Urban Spotify
With billions of dollars in combined market cap, the aforementioned companies and their respective founders were not deterred by the macro environment — and we anticipate this trend occurring this time around.
VC’s ultimately look to invest in disruptors. As layoffs continue to mount, the societal and economic order of the last decade evaporates, leaving creative approaches and unique business models to flow into the empty spaces. We can only speculate as to what themes will begin to capture mainstream dollars, in a post-COVID world. Remote society (work, leisure, socialising, manufacturing, governing) seems an obvious place to start.
What lies ahead is undeniable uncertainty. Speculation will continue until testing becomes more widespread and concrete data can inform governments globally on the best route to recovery. Until then, measures will continue to be taken to slow the spread of COVID-19, ultimately slowing economic activity, which will lead to the reprioritisation of stakeholder values, and reconsideration of budgets in every organisation globally.
The Funding Side
Since we began with the silver-lining, we should now look to the cloud itself. The US Tech 100 index has fallen over 30% since the coronavirus outbreak and we can, of course, expect this to have an impact on early-stage deal valuation. The pain being experienced in public markets will have an inevitable knock-on effect on private markets also, albeit with a few weeks delay. Decreased liquidity on the public side will lead to a slow-down in M&A activity. Providing transactions are still going though, lower exit valuations (and returns for VC’s and their LP’s) can be expected, and in most cases, routes to exit are quickly slamming shut.
Changes towards the rear-end of a VC funds cycle will also change their approach toward the front, new deals. First and foremost, we might expect to see an increased appetite for deal sharing and co-investment, in order to mitigate risk and reduce ownership exposure. With increased downward pressure on early-stage companies, failure-rates may be expected to rise, and this may call for additional diversification. The impending recession will mean firms may need to share more information and internal knowledge, in order to ensure the ecosystem continues to thrive. The absurdly competitive nature which has been witnessed over the last period of growth may begin to wane, as investors look to one another for reassurance amongst times of uncertainty.
Eric Hippeau, managing partner at New York-based VC firm Lerer Hippeau, experienced what it was like to be involved in fundraising in the aftermath of a recession. Historically, startups might find it difficult to raise capital if recession warning signs are flashing red. But according to Hippeau, “capital will continue to be deployed the same way it was after the Great Recession — cautiously.” Cautious investing will likely mean that the “maybe’s” will be crowded out and only the marquee deals will see daylight.
However, according to Pitchbook data as of June 2019, VC Funds are collectively sitting on $189 billion of “dry powder” which could mean that despite the imminent recession, funds continue to have a lot of capital to deploy. | https://medium.com/rlc-ventures/how-the-venture-capital-ecosystem-is-shifting-and-what-founders-should-consider-591ae896805b | ['Oliver Kicks'] | 2020-04-06 12:59:03.714000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Covid 19', 'Venture Capital', 'Startup'] |
An Unusual Process To Recruit New Talents | An Unusual Process To Recruit New Talents
We believe that the world abounds with talent. And in this regard, we aim to solve the most difficult challenge of our time: to bring it out, enhance it and connect it with concrete growth opportunities.
In order to become Aurora Fellows all candidates follow a path — the Aurora Experience.
No matter if they are selected as Fellows at the end of the Experience. This training process is a moment of radical change for each of them, Aurora wants to leave them an indelible memory, a tangible experience of growth.
We want each candidate’s heart and mind to expand.
We want to give them the opportunity to get into the game. We want them to go further, to learn something new everyday. And then we believe in practice, which allows people to express their vocation, interest after interest.
At the end of the Experience, 100 aspirant Fellows a year become ambassadors of their adventures and changes. They become role models for their peers. Generous and exemplary in sharing the cultural richness acquired and the opportunities encountered.
The experience includes three steps. Each one is made of transformative moments, precious fruits to be collected and of which to preserve the seeds.
After the applicants register, we give them a tool: KnackApp, to discover their strengths and soft skills. Some candidates may already be aware of those, others can get new insights. Applicants can start thinking about their strenghts and work on them in order to develop their potential.
This shows how fertile the soil is.
Starting from what they learned in the first step, candidates explain in a letter or in an application video what are the levers that push them to explore, to improve. Why do they want to be part of Aurora? This exercise teaches them to frame their dreams and passions.
That’s the way to design a greenhouse.
The application is published on Aurora channels and candidates need to receive 10 positive comments to it. Every candidate at this stage needs to work hard to convince his community to support him. We want them to become confident on their ability to engage others. We encourage their relational creativity, their flexibility in problem solving. Furthermore, from this step they gain further awareness. They can check the skills revealed by KnackApp and maybe discover new ones among those recognized by others.
To build a greenhouse other arms need to be involved.
The maximum effort we ask for is the conquest of two endorsements by two international professionals. A multiple and difficult test, which leaves candidates a huge treasure:
— The courage to abandon their area of comfort and explore two worlds that are far from their current interests;
— To question themselves, dealing with extraordinary professionals;
— The audacity to present themselves and the ability to manage communication with seasoned professionals;
— The patience and care that building a healthy and lasting relationship requires.
Indeed, it is never easy to convince agronomists that the greenhouse project can actually be implemented.
The last step of the journey is an unusual team challenge (based on Google Maps and Wikipedia), evaluated by our team of experts. Candidates take part in a battle, working in a team composed of strangers. All applicants develop acuity in observing, in making themselves useful. They learn how to become active parts of a group, how to share what they know and what they do, how to be empathetic. They learn to build a role of value for themselves, for the group and for the entire ecosystem around them.
A single person cannot make a beautiful garden alone. Roles and knowledge need to change and transform to make the garden flourish.
Growth, awareness, courage and sharing. This is what we want to leave to each candidate at the end of the experience.
We want to make sure that they are able to prepare the ground for a new world, that they have fertile seeds, that they know how to take care of them, in order to grow blooming plants and healthy fruits.
— — —
You will find all the information here: https://aurorafellows.com/be-a-fellow/
And for any questions contact our Fellowship manager at: [email protected] | https://medium.com/aurorafellows/an-unusual-recruiting-for-talents-53173ea0cff9 | ['Chiara Castelli'] | 2020-12-18 11:23:01.246000+00:00 | ['Recruiting', 'Talent', 'Life Lessons', 'Education', 'Growth'] |
End-to-End Multi-label Classification | Deployment
AWS based deployments are pretty simple sequential procedures. From previous steps will be already having a minimal prediction script (i.e. Recognize_Item class), which we’ll import to a flask app. Later we’ll dockerize the module with all the dependencies for better distribution, then host the docker image to EC2 instance. We’ll follow 3 step procedure for deployment:
STEP 1 : Flask Setup
Recognize_Item (from part 3) will load model and necessary functions to handle multi-label classification. Note that we need to catch the images as bytes array, so the load_image function reads the image as BytesIO.
import recognize_item_class as cf
import flask app = flask.Flask(__name__)
def home():
return "<h1> Image Recognition Module [ON]</h1>" @app .route("/")def home():return " Image Recognition Module [ON] "
def predict():
'''
Note: Ensure image through flask properly hit here
'''
if flask.request.method == "POST":
if flask.request.files.get("image"):
#
image = flask.request.files["image"].read()
#
image = reco.process_img(image)
#
result = reco.predict_all(model, image)
#
return result
return "<h1>No Result</h1>" @app .route("/predict", methods=["POST"])def predict():'''Note: Ensure image through flask properly hit here'''if flask.request.method == "POST":if flask.request.files.get("image"):image = flask.request.files["image"].read()image = reco.process_img(image)result = reco.predict_all(model, image)return resultreturn " No Result " if __name__ == "__main__":
print('* flask starting server...
* Loading model file..')
#
# Declare the Recognition object
reco = cf.Recognize_Item()
#
# Load Model (avoid-reloading)
global model
model = reco.load_model()
model._make_predict_function()
#
app.run('0.0.0.0', 5000, debug=True)
Whenever we receive a post (to 5000:/predict ) request to the Flask app it will pre-process the image, predict all labels and finally return the prediction in a structured json response.
STEP 2 : Docker Setup
(with patience!) Create Docker Image
You need to have Docker installed and setup. You can get instructions for setup from here. First, you will need to create a directory with only the required files and scripts for deployment. Create a requirements.txt file using pip freeze or manually writing the required packages. Robert has given a detailed article for the same. Now we need to make a file with the name Dockerfie (and no extension) in the folder where the flask app and script are located. The file should contain:
FROM python:3.6
WORKDIR /app
COPY . /app
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
EXPOSE 8500
CMD [“python app.py”]
Few things to know: FROM instruction initializes a new build stage and sets the Base Image for subsequent instructions. RUN instruction will execute any commands in a new layer on top of the current image and commit the results. In our case, we want to install all the dependencies for our flask application to the docker image. EXPOSE instruction informs Docker that the container listens on the specified network ports at runtime. Here, the purpose of CMD is to provide defaults for an executing container. In our case, run the flask application. For more info on the docker commands, check the official docker documentation here. It is beautifully written and easy to understand.
5. After the Dockerfile is made, we need to create the docker image using the command: docker build -t item_recognition:latest . which means that we are building a docker image with the name item_recognition with tag latest and . represents that the Dockerfile is contained in this folder.
Now it might take some time to download the base image and install all the requirements. After Step 5 is done, you can view your docker image with the command docker images .
Saving the image to use it on EC2 instance
Now that we have the image in our system, we can run the image using the commands specified in the next step, but if we need to save the image and then use it on another system, follow these steps:
docker save item_recognition:latest > item_recognition.tar . This will create a .tar file containing the image. Now you can transfer it to any system or instance which has docker installed and load this image using the command: docker load < item_recognition.tar
Now once you list docker images on the new system or instance, you will find the item_recognition image there. This section would have not been possible without Arjun Muraleedharan
….
STEP 3 : AWS Setup
(This steps assumes that reader is familiar with EC2 instances)
Start an EC2 instance, recommended will be a t3.medium or t3.small machine. Once you have an instance ready, upload the Docker image from step 2 to the machine to the instance. Create a new screen and using following command run the docker image to an external port (say 8500):
$ screen -S item_recognition $ docker run -it -p 8500:5000 item_recognition
Remember the port number for posting the requests & that’s all folks.
Let’s check if everything is fine [POSTMAN]
API’s results in visualization Postman
….
The journey of this article started with Data explorations using pandas, then we built a customized ResNet type multi-label model using Keras (same procedure applicable with tf.keras as well). We efficiently packaged our model with necessary functions, this package could easily be called in our Flask app. We dockerized the environment and finally hosted it with AWS.
Thanks for your time, dear reader! | https://medium.com/swlh/end-to-end-multi-label-classification-971dd09daf65 | [] | 2020-05-12 08:54:58.094000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Docker'] |
Deploying a React App to AWS S3 | Task 5. Add Actions
Next you should add a new action to the pipeline. Buddy facilitates several different approaches for deploying your project and lets you pick from hundreds of prespecified actions. I will add two actions in this scenario that will execute the following tasks:
Build the React app: download dependencies (npm, Yarn), compile assets.
Deploy the React App to AWS S3
It is possible to manage React builds using the Node.js action. You can select the environment information and specify the commands to be executed.
You can either use a single Node action to run all npm commands or use dedicated actions for each command. In this example, I will be using dedicated actions for each command.
First, add an npm install command to make sure all your dependencies and libraries are in place for the build process.
Screenshot by Author
If you have any tests to run before deploying the project, Buddy provides options to run test automation using its pipeline easily. You can use another Node action to execute tests in your project using the relevant command. In my case, it's npm run test .
Then add another Node action to execute the npm run build command to build the project.
If you need to test those commands, you can simply run the pipeline manually before moving on to the next steps. If there are any errors, you can find them in action logs.
Screenshot by Author
Scroll down and click on S3 on the actions list.
Screenshot by Author
Configure AWS integration and enter the name of your integration. Paste the Access Key Id and Secret Access Key from the AWS console that you copied. Click on the “Add integration” button.
Screenshot by Author
Then configure action information, choose the Bucket ID you want to upload your files to. Set the “Source path” to “/build” since your project build directory id is “source/build.” Also, make sure that you have selected Pipeline Filesystem as the source since you build the project using the pipeline in the previous action. Finally, click on the “Add this action” button.
Screenshot by Author
Now your pipeline is all set to deploy your React application to AWS S3.
What if you want to get notifications about the deployment? Buddy has an answer for that too.
Scroll down and move to Notifications. From the right-hand side of the page, select the service of your choice. I’ll choose Slack, a popular notification service among Buddy users. As you’re adding a third-party service to your pipeline, you will need to configure integration details. Here you can decide the scope of the integration.
Finally, you have to accept the OAuth permissions of the chosen application:
Then you can specify the notification message as your wish.
Once someone pushes changes to your Git repository and executes the pipeline, you will be notified.
Now you are all set, and the completed pipeline will look like this: | https://medium.com/better-programming/deploying-a-react-app-to-aws-s3-e0f31be17734 | ['Chameera Dulanga'] | 2020-12-16 21:24:52.394000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'React', 'S3', 'DevOps', 'JavaScript'] |
How Microsoft Teams May be Slowing Down Your Productivity | One of the major talking points in the industry was when Microsoft launched its unified communications channel — Microsoft Teams. As part of the Office 365 suite, Microsoft Teams pulls together several functional tools from Office 365 to produce a distinct and capacitive collaboration hub for teams.
Microsoft Teams is simply the collaboration app that brings together all the diverse functionalities and tools in one place for a simple communication, fast collaboration and widespread integration with external apps and bots.
Deciding which communication platform to adopt for your organization is a major business decision as this could make or mar your productivity.
For those that have adopted Microsoft Teams, its capabilities are no doubt amazing but for users who love a hundred percent effectiveness, they might not find full joy.
Several users are considering the adoption of Teams, whether it’s a good investment or not.
When Microsoft discontinued their investment in Skype, it was a strategic decision to provide a better utility to users but there are several drawbacks in Teams.
These following are notable aspects to consider when opting for Teams
Unification of product Search
Although Microsoft recommends Teams for unique team-related conversations as well and Yammer for general company circulars, both are still being used by people interchangeably.
The absence of a unified search tool for all office 365 conversations constitutes a considerable level of difficulty especially when you are trying to locate a particular chat.
Absence of such chat tools is also a crucial shortcoming that is evident in the office 365 suite.
Insufficient Notification
One of the major drawbacks of Microsoft Teams is that sometimes, it fails to provide sufficient notification.
For instance, if you try to create a new group with an already existing label, the Teams app wouldn’t call your attention to it. The result is that you end up with two groups with identical names which could lead to time and resource wastage when searching.
The solution to this particular issue is that before creating a new group of team, you can check for the availability of the character or label to see if it doesn’t pre-exist. Entering the name in the search bar provides a drop-down list of all the existing teams.
File structure confuses users
Modern day PC users do not necessarily bother about the physical location of files, they just pull up a search for what they need.
Lots of users still like to know where a file is located and prefer going through a folder to access it. In teams, this is a bit difficult as the file structure lot complicated.
Everything uploaded to conversations is heaped in a channel root folder. Any attempt by a user to organize the files and move them accordingly into labelled folders leads to the file links in the conversation breaking.
Non optimal online meeting experience
This to a large extent makes it somewhat difficult to integrate some other apps.
Microsoft has invested a lot of resources into including Skype for Business Meeting functionality into teams and the result has been good. New capabilities that were previously absent have been included.
However, the meeting experience still lags, lacks intuition and fails to promote some great features available in Teams for meetings i.e., note taking in OneNote.
This is considered as an Achilles heel because for users to adopt something as valuable as online meetings, they need to be overly comfortable with the tool.
Similar and redundant tools
One of the most notable and rather surprising concerns about Microsoft Teams is its efficiency with other Microsoft Tools.
There are so many of them yet users are still very much confused as to which one they have to use in different circumstances.
Microsoft needs to provide a proper organization for these tools and also find a platform to educate users about them.
Limited Storage
Shortage is a key shortcoming in any organization. Since Teams equips every organization with the ability to create a team, this can lead to the creation of too much teams and the result of this is that a large storage will be needed.
On the bright side, there is an avenue to control team creation by restricting the permission only to a set of users but this requires putting in extra work. This creates unnecessary time wasting and also comes at the expense of valuable resources.
The solution is to create unique security groups with people who want to create teams and then run some powershell commands.
Limited Number of Channels
The number of allowed channels has been restricted to just 100 per team. This particular feature shouldn’t constitute any problem for smaller teams but larger teams might encounter a little hassle. As soon as the set limit is surpassed some channels need to be deleted.
PS: Shared files are backed up on the SharePoint site for security.
Limited flexibility
From the word go in teams, users do not have the structure from the start. In most cases you don’t know the channels you need neither do you know which channels you should create.
Users become more accustomed and better in what they do over time. At the moment, the building of Team blocks aren’t all that flexible as you can’t move channels or replicate teams. This often leads to time wasting because manual replications become the alternative.
Transitional Challenge
The best way to move to Teams is for every member to fully quit Outlook and adopt Teams at once.
Since there is still a strong reliance by Teams on Outlook in Office 365, this constitutes a major problem.
After all these talking points, adopting Microsoft Teams for your organization would be very understandable. Skype for business or Cisco may also be considered as an effective unified collaboration alternative.
The limitations of Teams are mostly associated with the app itself, most of which are currently being looked into. Users require a proper guide and consultation to ensure that their organization doesn’t get crippled by their communication solution. | https://nextplane.medium.com/how-microsoft-teams-may-be-slowing-down-your-productivity-5a643db51f3 | ['Nextplane Inc.'] | 2019-09-18 18:31:36.821000+00:00 | ['Team Collaboration', 'Workplace Productivity', 'Microsoft Team', 'Unified Communications'] |
Fight Modern Slavery This Holiday Season | by Phoebe Ewen
As the holiday season approaches, and many of us take time off work to reflect on the year, and reconnect (as much as social distancing allows in 2020) with friends and family. This season for many, is a time for gift-giving, celebration, and charity. During this time, there are many opportunities to take action against modern slavery, the seemingly smallest action can make a big difference that lasts far beyond the holiday season. The following are some examples of how you can fight modern slavery during this time.
Make a Resolution
New Year’s Resolutions, from going to the gym more to watching less TV are frequently made and easily broken. By making a meaningful New Year’s resolution for 2021, you can challenge yourself with practical actions that not only enrich your life but contribute to making the world a better place. You could resolve to dedicate 8 hours a month to volunteering, fundraise a certain amount for your favourite NGO, or educate 100 people in your life about modern slavery. You could even pledge to set up a club at your school or a working group at the office to get your peers involved. These kinds of resolutions will one day allow you to reflect on 2021 knowing you have helped to fight modern slavery and save lives, an incredibly motivating outcome!
Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash
Volunteer
Local NGOs are always seeking support, and you may be surprised at how in-demand your skills are. This support is needed during the holiday season and beyond with thousands of anti-slavery NGOs that need help. Support varies from practical work on the ground to help vulnerable people during the holiday season through to jobs that can even be done remotely during Covid-19, like fundraising, writing, website maintenance, accounting, and legal support. Taking some time to research and speak to modern slavery NGOs and charities will show you how useful your skills and time can be, and may lead to a newfound passion project in 2021.
Photo by Roman Synkevych on Unsplash
Shop Thoughtfully
As you are buying gifts for friends and family, make a conscious effort to choose companies and brands that are actively engaged in fighting modern slavery. Positive reinforcement demonstrates to companies that consumers care about modern slavery, and encourages positive action. Apps like Good On You allow you to research how your favourite brands are working on modern slavery issues and understand how they are fighting this crime, with recommendations for ethical retailers. Most organisations (particularly those that operate in the UK and/or Australia) are legally required to publish a publicly available modern slavery statement on their website that you can access. Take a look at your favourite brands’ statements, and read about the work that they are doing. Reward those brands that are taking action by choosing them for your gift-giving this holiday season.
Gift a Donation
Consider making a donation to an organisation fighting modern slavery, either for yourself or as a gift to a friend or family member. A gift of a donation not only brings joy to the gift giver and receiver, but also to great joy the organisation and beneficiaries that it supports. In a year where NGOs fight to survive the impacts of Covid-19, and modern slavery is affecting even more vulnerable people, a donation gift has more meaning than ever.
All of the above actions are simple but significant steps that can be taken to fight modern slavery this holiday season. Share this article to encourage your friends and family to do the same, and help end modern slavery!
Mekong Club
Mekong Club works across industries to end modern slavery through positive and collaborative actions. Learn more about our work on our website. To make a donation to Mekong Club, click here. To contact us to learn about volunteer opportunities, click here. | https://medium.com/@mekongclub/fight-modern-slavery-this-holiday-season-502ce75d2b90 | ['Mekong Club'] | 2020-12-16 06:42:42.109000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Modern Slavery', 'Charity', 'Holidays', 'Gifts'] |
Corona, soccer and missing fans in the stadium | Thesis
The results will change in a way that more teams would lose matches at home, because the away team does not have to fight against both: 11 players in the home team and the cheering fans.
Setup
For better comparison, we decided to display data from two seasons before Corona changed our way of living until now.
Remember that everything changed midway through season 2019/2020.
Less loses, more wins at home
When comparing season 2019/2020 it’s obvious that something had happened. There are about 20% more wins at home (for the home team) than in both seasons before. Also, around 11% less loses at home.
Comparing season 2020/2021 with season 2019/2020 the results seem to “normalize” again. The 20% more wins at home are nearly gone and the 11% less loses at home reduced to about 7% less loses at home. Hence, there were more draws at home than in season 2019/2020 and even 2018/2019.
But when looking at season 2018/2019 and 2020/2021, the difference is minimal. The wins at home are about the same, a few more draws at home and a few less loses at home but nothing really noticeable.
Fans do not have an impact on the results?!
Seeing this analysis, it seems that fans at home do not really make an impact on the home teams result.
For me, as I had experienced thrilling matches at the end of the season, seeing my team fighting against going down to league 2, cheering 90 minutes for my team and finally seeing them win at home, makes me feel weird about these results. Does that mean that me, as a season card holder, am nearly unimportant for my team to win or lose at home?
Another view
With this in mind, I started reflecting these results and trying to get deeper into analysis. There are studies which quote that there is a home advantage in sports (e.g. this one) — for example the crowd influencing the referees and also pushing the teams.
Other papers also quote that there are a lot of reasons for the home advantage. From less travel time to higher comfort zone, the whole surrounding is the basis for a better physical and mental well-being of the players.
But this does not explain the difference between season 2019/2020 and the previous and next season. My personal assumption is: Because the lockdown occurred right in the middle of the season, the teams had no time to get used to empty stadiums. Hence, one factor of all the home advantage factors changed. To prove this thesis, another analysis of data would be needed. The distribution of the home wins, draws and loses over time in regard of the Corona pandemic should be analyzed. When did the wins increased — during the complete seasons or after Corona lockdown?
Coming back to my thesis for the changes only happening in 2019/2020: After the season 2019/2020 was finished and all the players and staff were to some extend “used” to empty stadiums, the new season 2020/2021 felt a bit more “normal” or at least empty stadiums weren’t a new phenomenon. This would explain the quite “normalized” results in the past season.
Final words
I am a bit disappointed about the results of this data analysis as I hoped to see our thesis being proved — and as a soccer fan I would’ve liked to see the importance of the fans in the stadium. But obviously that didn’t turned out. Anyway, fans belong into the stadium and the results just state that the teams are good at adapting when it’s about to get used to new circumstances.
Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure that all sports fans around the globe can’t wait to return to the stadiums, cheering for their teams and getting back to normal. | https://medium.com/data-smart-services/corona-soccer-and-missing-fans-in-the-stadium-679d4afb5b85 | ['Babette Landmesser'] | 2021-06-02 13:01:11.642000+00:00 | ['Soccer', 'Data Visualization', 'JavaScript', 'Corona', 'D3js'] |
Platinum Software Development Company — Review | WHY THERE TEAM CHOOSE PLATINUM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY?
DARIA VOLKOVA
A sustainable business model includes not only environmental aspects, but it should also be responsible for the products, services and even the stuff of the company itself. Any member of Platinum is always willing to help its colleague. Such a sympathetic vibration can not but positively affect the outcome of the services we offer and the products we develop.
Alexandra Krylova
Work in Platinum is the case when you dive into the information flow in the morning and emerge from it in the evening which is really cool! All-day this is the solution to problems and puzzles, and most importantly — communication with colleagues. Even when the panic covers me with my head, and three deep breaths did not help, these guys come to the rescue and charge you up with positivity until the end of the working day. Well, how not to be productive in such an enthusiastic atmosphere?
MASHA DANILOVA
I always dreamed of a great challenge, but to achieve heights on my own is always difficult. Therefore, I came to Platinum and I understood that this company was created to conquer the heights! I sincerely believe in the bright and prosperous future of blockchain technology, furthermore, here I can become a part of its development. But for this to happen, the implementation of a decentralized ledger system must be popularized. The company’s goals are truly revolutionary, but to bring them to life with such a team is just a pleasure!
VLADIMIR GRINEVSKY
Ask me what I don’t like at work and I will always be telling you one thing “singularity and routine”. But these are unexcisting things in a Platinum reality. None of the tasks will make you bored and colleagues are always there to help. Every week has something new in it!
DARIA PETKOVA
Like all other people, I want to see the positive results of my work, and Platinum provides such an opportunity! I see how people use our services and products which helps them achieve any of their goals.
SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: https://www.platinum.fund/en
Discord: https://discord.gg/e5QUFJpvR8
Twitter: https://twitter.com/platinumqdao
Telegram: https://t.me/PlatinumQeng
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FundPlatinum
MY LINKS:
Bitcointalk username: EdepkO
Bitcointalk Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2841698
Telegram Username: @maxkrutoi
TRC20 Wallet Address: TCVFoATrWuLW7oS4HTRy5iX47xa2cGZvXW | https://medium.com/@maxkrutoi88/platinum-software-development-company-review-cb323ce22616 | [] | 2020-12-27 09:07:09.485000+00:00 | ['Platinum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Defi'] |
Willow Chapter 4: Maggie Arrives | A serial novel by Claudia Stack
Photo by Hayden Scott on Unsplash
Maggie walked up the circular drive, pushing her way into the wind and the awareness that she did not belong here. The wind off the Hudson was bitter, whipping her skirt painfully against her legs. The huge marble blocks at the corners of the house, the elegant front stairs, and the banks of windows all passed through the edge of her vision. Finally, she saw a side entrance.
Maggie’s fingertips were turning white when she rapped on the door. She heard the scraping of the lock turning, and a large woman with a full-length white apron regarded her skeptically. The cook must have been passing by the door at the very moment she knocked, and this coincidence shone briefly in Maggie’s mind as the first piece of good fortune in her thirteen years.
“Well now, what do you want? Are you looking to peddle or steal?”
As harsh as the words were, there was kindness in the fact that they were spoken at all. A little heat escaped the kitchen hall and reached Maggie, and the sensation was so strange, her exhaustion and the cold so great, that when she moved her lips no sound emerged.
“Well, come in, don’t stand there dumb. We’ll all be frozen, waiting for you to speak.” Cook opened the door slightly, just enough for Maggie to slip over the threshold before collapsing.
Cook contemplated the girl at her feet uncertainly. Just then, Rose looked into the kitchen to order the tea tray for Miss Sarah. She saw Cook standing over what appeared to be a heap of rags. Then the rags stirred, startling her into action.
“Cook! Is that a child? For heaven’s sake, bring it here to the fire.” She strode over, all compassionate authority with her long gray dress and her reading spectacles on a chain around her neck. Children were her province, and not even a street urchin would be allowed to freeze on her watch.
“Help me lift her.” Maggie was lifted under each arm, one side briskly, the other side reluctantly, and deposited on a stool in front of the fire. She stared into the orange flames and felt she would never have another piece of luck in her life, ever, for she had used it all in the last two minutes.
“Cook, make up the tea tray, and give this child a hot drink.” Rose said firmly. Cook grumbled and took her time getting the tray arranged. She took even longer to heat some milk that was already turned slightly and had been meant for the dogs.
“What am I now, a servant to every match-girl and rag-picker in the city? In a proper house this would not happen, I tell ye. Here girl, take it, I haven’t got all day.”
Maggie took the rough mug, eyes wide with astonishment at this additional boon. It didn’t occur to her to resent Cook’s shuffling delay, or grumbling, or the fact that the milk was sour. She expected nothing. She would not have felt surprised, and hardly any less fortunate, to have been thrown into the fire like so much debris. At least for once in her life she would have been at the heart of warmth.
When Rose returned from delivering the tea tray Maggie was still sitting, silent as one of the gray hearthstones, in front of the fire. Cook was peeling potatoes and appeared to have forgotten her.
“Now child, what is your name?” Rose asked, bending down.
“Maggie, ma’am.” Maggie whispered. She had never been in such a wealthy home, and assumed that Rose must be the lady of the house.
“Why did you come here?” Rose asked.
At a loss to explain, Maggie pulled out the rag in which her precious matches were wrapped. Rose finally understood, the girl meant to sell matches, but it left her at a loss. She straightened up and her eyes came to rest on Cook, who studied the potato she was peeling.
“Cook, could you not use this girl to help you? She could fetch the coal and help you with the cooking.”
Cook eyed Maggie skeptically. “It’s true I’ve been wanting some help, but not from the likes of her.”
Rose set her jaw. In the absence of Sarah’s mother, and with Sarah’s father out of town, she as the governess was in charge of the household. It was an uphill battle. Cook, who was Irish, resisted the Englishwoman’s instructions on principle. Still, order must prevail, and they both knew order comes from the top.
It did not occur to either woman to consult Maggie about her fate. She was a wisp, something the wind blew in, and they both thought she should consider herself fortunate at that.
“Well then,” Rose said firmly, “that settles it. I’ll put a pallet in the corner, and she can start helping you tomorrow.” It was a fateful decision.
For Willow Chapter 3: The Reckoning, see below
For Willow Chapter 5: Sonia Drifts, see link below
https://medium.com/illumination/willow-chapter-5-sonia-drifts-67883b592d88
A note to readers: Thank you for giving this book chapter a chance, I hope you enjoyed it. I plan to share one chapter per week of Willow. In case you are wondering, publishing this book chapter is part of my new mission to share some writing that, thanks to the dynamics of traditional publishing, has never seen the light of day. On the other hand, my work on historic African American schools and on sharecropping has been published in various venues and featured at dozens of film festivals. To link to those articles and to view my documentary films, please see my website: | https://medium.com/illumination-book-chapters/willow-chapter-4-maggie-arrives-e0719503014c | ['Claudia Stack'] | 2021-03-25 00:18:59.758000+00:00 | ['Illumination', 'Life', 'Fiction', 'Parenting', 'Writing'] |
JavaScript ES6 Basics | What is ES6?
ES6 stands for ECMA Script 6 which was introduce in 2015. It also known as ECMAScript 2015. It is a significant update to the JS(Java Script) which gives new syntaxes and new features to make your code more readable and understandable. ES6 brings many new features like arrow functions, class destruction, modules, spread operator and more.
Let’s take a look about basics of ES6.
01. CONST and LET
The main difference between CONST and LET is, CONST is immutable. It means once a variable is declared using CONST, the value cannot be changed. But LET value can be changed any time. In other words LET is mutable.
Once an object is created using the CONST key word, property values of the objects can be changed even the object has been created using CONST.
And an array can be updated even the array has been declared using CONST keyword.
02. Arrow functions
Arrow functions make our code more readable, structured and understandable. It provide us to write function expression in shorter way compared to the ES5.
Line 22–24 : It indicates a normal function
Line 26 : In this line shows an arrow function. Since it has only one parameter, no need to have () around the name parameter. Since it has only one line, no need to have {}.
Line 28–31 : In this line also shows an arrow function which accepts two parameters.
Line 33 : Call the arrow function which is defined in line 26
Line 34 : Call the arrow function which is defined from line 28–31
03. Foreach
Foreach loop is used to iterate through an array.
04. Filter
Filter is used to return an array and filter things out. If we want to delete something using redux we use this method.
‘people’ is an array which stores 3 objects. The people array is immutable. So that we cannot change the state directly.
Assume that you want to delete Saman which has id is equal to 1. In order to do that, we have to create another array without Saman. In order to remove Saman we use filter method.
Line 62 : In this line we create an array named as people2. Then we call the filter() method on the people array and return objects to the new array without the object which id equals to 1.(person1 => person.id !== 1 is an arrow function which has only one parameter and one line)
05. Spread
The spread operator is used to copy elements or objects to other place from one place. This reduces the repetition of objects and elements in the code.
Line 70 : create an array with 3 elements
Line 71 : define an array named as arr2 and copy the elements in the arr1 into arr2 array and add one extra element. Now arr2 array has 4 elements(1,2,3,4). (…arr1 is the spread operator).
Line 74 : filter the element 2 and save other elements in arr3
Line 77 : define an object called p1
Line 82 : define an object called p2
Line 83 : copy the attributes of the p1 object into p2 object
Line 84 : add another attribute called email to the p2 object. Now p2 object has all 3 attributes: name, age and email
06.Destructuring
Destructuring is used to assign the properties of an array or object to variables by using a syntax.
Line 93 : create an object called profile which stores myName , adddress , and array of hobbies
Line 102 : fetch the property called myName in profile object
Line 105 : fetch the property called myName, address and hobbies in profile object
Line 108 : fetch the property called street which is inside of address object in profile object
07. Classes & Sub classes
In ES6 we can use class keyword to create classes. | https://medium.com/@lochanavishwajith302/javascript-es6-basics-2db4bf5ec1dd | ['Lochana Vishwajith'] | 2021-09-16 22:09:40.042000+00:00 | ['Spread', 'Maps', 'JavaScript', 'ES6'] |
How to deploy Zero Trust with SDP? | How to deploy Zero Trust with SDP?
Zero Trust Networks with SDP: innovax Technologies, LLC
In traditional network, perimeter defense innately assumes that attacks are often originated from outside and hence, network perimeter worthy of stringent scrutiny. An analogy of perimeter defense is to compare it with medieval era castle with invincible walls, a well-defined entry point across the draw bridge (router), portcullis (firewall) and guards (IDS). Such a design may only protect outside attacks but how about attacks that may occur inside the wall.
Today, many network attacks may origin from inside or in fact in can come from anywhere. The dynamics of attacks today are more sophisticated, no way of knowing where it can originate from and today’s network may blur the line of perimeter making it difficult isolate traffic. Proliferation of new technology such smartphones, mobile-connected wireless devices, social networks, and IOTs are creating increasingly more security vulnerabilities blurring the line between internal and external networks allowing hackers to circumvent detection. For example, increase use of SaaS and virtualization makes fixed perimeter defense inadequate. According to McAfee, 52% of the respondents surveyed for indicated that they tracked a malware infection to a Software-as-a-service (SaaS). Moreover, 6.1 millions DDOS attacks and data breaches are reported in 2017 that occurred due to inadequate access control.
Software defined perimeters (SDP) address these issues by giving application owners the ability to deploy perimeters dynamically while retaining the traditional notion of impregnability and inaccessibility to “outsiders,” with ability to deploy anywhere — internet, cloud, hosting center, private network or across all these locations.
Read this article to learn more at https://innovaxtech.com/index.php/en/blog-list/zero-trust-networks/software-defined-perimeter-sdp | https://medium.com/@dhiman.chowdhury/how-to-deploy-zero-trust-with-sdp-eda891cfc6d4 | ['Dhiman Chowdhury'] | 2019-11-14 19:36:28.910000+00:00 | ['Zero Trust Security', 'Infosec', 'Cybersecurity'] |
To Tag Or Not To Tag Other Writers In Your Story? | Last year, I was tagged in a story by a new writer. Half of Medium was also tagged in it. ‘Clever strategy!’ I thought. He had managed to get more eyes on his story. His story was good and it deserved the extra traffic his tactic got.
A few weeks later we were all tagged again and again in other stories of his. This time the vultures came out with venom dripping from their fangs. People rudely called him out for tagging and wasting their precious time.
I felt bad for the poor guy. First of all, he was new and just figuring out the ropes. Besides, he had just tagged writers and had not asked for their first born’s soul.
Medium has after all made tagging a feature so that writers can use it. Apart from a Private Note, this is the only way to contact someone. However Medium does discourage overt tagging as it can be viewed as a form of blatant marketing.
Like everything, there are pros and cons when it comes to tagging.
Pros
It’s the easiest way to get a reader’s attention. That algorithm isn’t helping anyway!
Plus, you can’t deny that feel-good feeling when someone tags you in their story. Wow, they actually thought of me? Personally, I am touched. I won’t lie, it’s a boost to my floundering self-confidence.
Isn’t that what we all chase as writers, to be recognized for our work and to build connections with other writers?
Sometimes our stories are inspired by another story of a writer. We want to acknowledge how they stimulated our creative juices and thought process. We want to give due credit. What better way than tagging and letting them know?
Cons
Tagging though useful, can easily turn from a kind gesture to an annoyance. A lady on Twitter once shared a parenting story of mine. I at once jumped the gun. Believing she would therefore love all my stories by default, I started tagging her in all my tweets.
My tagging came to an abrupt end when I got this message from her — “Who the hell are you and why do you keep tagging me? Leave me alone!”
Ouch, that hurt, but I learned my lesson.
So maybe tagging is not the optimal way to go about getting someone to read my story. It’s like summoning my kid and force-feeding her the vegetables I cooked. Readers should click on my story because they want to and not because I have tagged them.
Tagging can sometimes make writers feel left out. We all have our favorite writers or friends on Medium, whom we regularly follow. Sometimes a bunch of writers will be tagged for a writing prompt or they will be applauded in a story.
We love it when we are the ones being tagged but, it can make other writers feel left out and dejected.
Plus it can give rise to the ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine.’ mentality where people feel obligated to clap because they were tagged or praised.
I want readers to clap for my story only if it really appealed to them and not because they feel like they have to reciprocate the favor. If I clap for your story, you don’t have to clap for mine unless you actually liked it.
In the end, the key is to strike a balance. Use Tagging as a helpful tool to notify someone or reference their story but not as a free marketing tool. Let your writing speak for itself. It will market itself, if its good stuff. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/to-tag-or-not-to-tag-other-writers-in-your-story-33e3b8607e9a | ['Tina Viju'] | 2020-12-04 17:12:37.942000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Writers On Medium', 'Ｍedium', 'Tagging'] |
Killing the Neighbours with Kindness | Killing the Neighbours with Kindness
Why would a group of apparently sane people set up camp chairs in the middle of the street on Christmas Eve? With a temperature of 3° and a windchill factor taking it below zero, what possible reason could there be for sitting clutching cups of hot glue vine whilst swathed in blankets for nearly 2 hours.
The answer lies in my elder daughter’s propensity for big schemes, kindhearted gestures and lack of attention to the detail.
On finding out that some people, in the little cul de sac in which she lives, would be alone at Xmas as our latest set of lockdown restrictions come into force, she decided to buy a 20’x16’ blow up screen, and associated technology, to put on an outdoor movie for the neighbours.
The idea was the restrictions wouldn’t be breached because people could stay within the boundaries of their own homes while she delivered plastic cups of hot glue vine from a gloved hand.
About half the people on the street put in an appearance. Some of the elderly neighbours enjoyed a brief chat before sensibly disappearing inside to the warmth of their central heating but it wasn’t long before only a small hard-core huddled on the pavement grimly “enjoying” the entertainment.
As all feeling gradually slipped out of toes and fingers, teeth chattered and glue vine chilled into Gazpacho, the Syrian family opposite, who had graciously declined. the invitation, appeared with a tray of sweets for the children. They are part of the Syrian diaspora. Who knows what horrors lie in their recent history and what they make of the strange blue skinned denizens of their new world.
There are a really odd couple who live in the house on the corner. They never speak to anybody and usher their children inside if anybody appears in a neighbouring garden. Theories abound as to what’s going on there.
Although they had been invited, there was no expectation they would attend. Halfway through the movie, the man of the house returned from work on a bicycle. He visibly checked as he turned into the Close but set his jaw and ran the gauntlet riding his bike between the audience and the screen. Resolutely ignoring the smiles, waves and calls of happy Xmas he grimly steered his bike into his drive and disappearing into the house like a rabbit down a hole.
Eventually there were only two families left, holding out to the end, shivering and laughing through chattering teeth. The other the family are good friends of my daughters and have children of a similar age. The lady of the house survived breast cancer three years ago only to have it return in November. In early December she had a double mastectomy but it seems it hasn’t caught it. A new year of radiotherapy and chemotherapy looms. To cap it all, that morning, on Christmas Eve, she had a PET scan and had to keep a distance from everybody for most of that day because she was slightly radioactive.
As the evening passed, through the shivering, the banter and the glue vine, it was clear this brief interlude of some sort of communal normality had been a very welcome distraction for her from the grimness of her prospects.
Finally the film ended. I have never been so glad to see the end credits. With remarkable alacrity we dropped the screen, put away the chairs and dived for the warmth of the house.
Once inside, tucking into Papa John’s takeaway pizza, and bathing in an overwhelming sense of gratitude for our immense good fortune, we watched the children excitedly re-enacting the movie.
And the name of this gem of filmography, for which a neighbourhood went in search of pneumonia?
Frozen 2
Happy Christmas | https://medium.com/@original_alabaster_giraffe_477/killing-the-neighbours-with-kindness-9c20c29a7964 | [] | 2020-12-25 20:45:04.227000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Kindness', 'Neighbors', 'Culture'] |
Less Thinking, More Doing: How to Combat Analysis Paralysis | Photo by Burst on Unsplash
According to Columbia University decision researcher Sheena Iyengar, the average American reports making 70 decisions per day. However, the decisions we make vary in investments, risks, and consequences. For brunch I might have to decide if I want to enjoy eggs benedict or huevos rancheros, and later that day pick which major I’m going to immerse myself in for the next four years.
Funnily enough, I have found myself agonizing about both of the above decisions before, and have watched many friends do the same. The biggest thing that I fear is that I’ll regret my choice, and that I’ll miss out on something better.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” — Voltaire
We think that cycling through our options over and over again will diminish those worries and help us land at the “right” decision. But most of the time, we just need to act. I’ve heard this called “analysis paralysis” in the past, which is an accurate way to describe the feeling.
Analysis paralysis prevents us from making progress and coming to a solution. It also can cause increased feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, and overwhelm. As a leader, it can make you seem as though you lack confidence and can’t be trusted in volatile situations.
Although this continues to be a struggle for me, I have found some key reminders that make decisions a little bit easier. Of course, some are more applicable than others based on the situation. Here are some things to remember when you’re struggling with making a decision.
Most Likely, None of Your Options Will Doom You To Failure
Let’s say you’re deciding between colleges, job opportunities, or majors. It’s a decision that you’ve gone back and forth on a lot, and there are a lot of pros to all of your options. You just can’t decide, and there is no clear answer in sight. It begins to consume you and keep you up at night.
Nervousness and anxiety can make you feel like a decision is graver than it really is. It’s a part of that fight or flight response that has stayed with us through evolution.
It’s not a trivial decision. But regardless of what you choose, you will probably be okay. Of course, there are tradeoffs in every decision, and it’s best to acknowledge them to avoid second-guessing yourself later. However, you have to remember that the universe will run its course and you will be just fine in the long run.
You Really Don’t Know Until You Try
Especially for smaller decisions, like how to attempt to solve a puzzle or test question, there is no way to know the correct answer until you try. Real experiences fill in where your brain can’t with the beauty of trial and error.
So many times you may find yourself dizzy in brainstorming, especially in team problem solving. Trying to analyze all of the possibilities can be exhausting, and can sometimes turn into a competition of who can speak the loudest or have the most creative idea. You might lose sight of what your goal really is.
Just pick something and go. It will give you data, which is better than thinking in circles. Sure, it might lead you to the wrong answer. But this will get you to the right answer faster.
Your Gut Is Normally Right
Listening to your gut doesn’t always come naturally, and it’s a muscle that you can develop over time. However, you often do have a direction that you are leaning toward and you may not even know it.
Sometimes, your gut instinct is not immediately apparent because you are so lost in analysis paralysis. Your intuition gets trapped in your busy mind. It’s also possible that you don’t want to admit to yourself that you know what you really want, for a variety of reasons.
The best way to uncover your gut feeling is to take some time to journal. Refrain from listing the pros and cons for each choice, since you’ve probably already done that. Instead, just free write for ten or so minutes. By putting your train of thought on paper, it becomes very clear what you really want to do.
Another way to discover what your gut thinks is to notice how you feel and act when you talk about your options. Does your face light up when you talk about one over the other? Do you become more animated and sit up straight? Do you find yourself frowning and speaking monotonously when describing another option?
If it’s hard to pick up on your own cues, try asking a trusted friend or family member what they think you want to choose. Be careful not to ask what they think you should do. Instead, ask them “What does it seem like I’m leaning toward?” When you hear the answer, it probably won’t surprise you.
It Feels Good To Be Decisive
Making a decision can be incredibly empowering. You will feel like you have control over the trajectory of your life. You get to choose where you direct your energy.
Being decisive is also crucial to great leadership. Your team will feel the strength of your decisiveness. The most confident leaders may still have a lot of doubt and insecurity below the surface. However, it’s better to have direction instead of wavering in uncertainty.
The consequences of inaction are worse than the consequences of making a decision. It’s no easy feat. Being on the other side does wonders for your confidence.
The Bottom Line
There are a few things that you can remind yourself when you find yourself stuck in analysis paralysis. You’re going to be okay. You don’t know until you try. Listen to your gut. It will feel amazing to just make a decision and run with it.
Making a decision should be empowering, not excruciating. Being stuck in a decision holds us in a sort of purgatory that makes us feel weak, trapped, and stagnant.
And eventually, it’ll be less thinking, more doing. | https://medium.com/wholistique/less-thinking-more-doing-how-to-combat-analysis-paralysis-25e6f4d75f16 | ['Sophie A'] | 2020-08-25 12:40:28.857000+00:00 | ['Decision Making', 'Self Improvement', 'Personal Development', 'Productivity', 'Life'] |
How to Implement Linear Regression in Scikit-learn | Standard
If your data instead follows standard deviation, you can use the StandardScaler instead. This scaler fits a passed data set to be a standard scale along with the standard deviation:
import sklearn.preprocessing as preprocessing
std = preprocessing.StandardScaler()
# X is a matrix
std.fit(X)
X_std = std.transform(X)
As above, we first create the scaler on line three, fit the current matrix on line five, and finally transform the original matrix on line six.
Let’s see how this scales our same example from above:
import sklearn.preprocessing as preprocessing import numpy as np X = np.random.randint(2, 10, size=(4, 2)) X2 = np.random.randint(100, 10000, size=(4, 2)) X = np.concatenate((X, X2), axis=1) print("The original matrix") print(X)
std = preprocessing.StandardScaler() std.fit(X) X_std = std.transform(X) print("The transform data using Standard scaler") print(X_std)
Scaling method comparison
Scikit-learn Linear Regression: Implement an Algorithm
Now we’ll implement the linear regression machine learning algorithm using the Boston housing price sample data. As with all ML algorithms, we’ll start with importing our dataset and then train our algorithm using historical data.
Linear regression is a predictive model often used by real businesses. Linear regression seeks to predict the relationship between a scalar response and related explanatory variables to output value with realistic meaning like product sales or housing prices. This model is best used when you have a log of previous, consistent data and want to predict what will happen next if the pattern continues.
From a mathematical point of view, linear regression is about fitting data to minimize the sum of residuals between each data point and the predicted value. In other words, we are minimizing the discrepancy between the data and the estimation model.
As shown in the figure below, the red line is the model we solved, the blue point is the original data, and the distance between the point and the red line is the residual. Our goal is to minimize the sum of residuals.
Sum of residuals, data vs prediction
How to implement linear regression
import sklearn.datasets as datasets from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression import sklearn.metrics as metrics house = datasets.load_boston() print("The data shape of house is {}".format(house.data.shape)) print("The number of feature in this data set is {}".format( house.data.shape[1])) train_x, test_x, train_y, test_y = train_test_split(house.data, house.target, test_size=0.2, random_state=42) print("The first five samples {}".format(train_x[:5])) print("The first five targets {}".format(train_y[:5])) print("The number of samples in train set is {}".format(train_x.shape[0])) print("The number of samples in test set is {}".format(test_x.shape[0])) lr = LinearRegression() lr.fit(train_x, train_y)
pred_y = lr.predict(test_x) print("The first five prediction {}".format(pred_y[:5])) print("The real first five labels {}".format(test_y[:5]))
mse = metrics.mean_squared_error(test_y, pred_y) print("Mean Squared Error {}".format(mse)) | https://betterprogramming.pub/how-to-implement-linear-regression-in-scikit-learn-e459f6f6a3eb | ['The Educative Team'] | 2020-10-20 15:56:17.732000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Scikit Learn', 'Programming'] |
Advertio: for Startups | Our platform has been live for a while now, which means that we have had enough time to assess how our clients’ campaigns perform and see where we can improve to achieve the best possible results for them. This time has also provided us with the opportunity to look into which types of businesses choose Advertio more often and the results they usually attain.
After analysing our data, startups represent one of the categories that most use Advertio and which have seen in our services the opportunity to grow their business risk-free. With little time to spend and big milestones to accomplish, founders and their teams usually need solutions that make their everyday life easier and allow them to save time (and money) wherever they can.
At the same time, and generally speaking, startup founders are usually pretty knowledgeable in basic marketing terms and processes, meaning that once they see our website, they’re left pretty curious about how they can start using the app.
What are startups usually looking for when contacting Advertio?
While this is true for many business categories, startups usually need to grow fast and make quick progress in a short amount of time. This is because they’re often looking for investment opportunities or are trying to consolidate their market position, meaning they need tools that will help them accomplish those goals.
That said, our experience tells us that startups usually use Advertio either to spread the word about their products or services, to get more sign-ups on their websites, or to achieve more app downloads. No matter which of these goals they choose, they usually see in Advertio the opportunity to make their Digital Marketing efficient, mainly because they have many other business aspects to focus on.
With Advertio, they’re able to save time and money and be autonomous in their entire digital marketing process. Working with Advertio makes it easy to manage all their efforts on a single platform, while also providing them with detailed information about how to improve their performance.
How does Advertio work?
As mentioned before, Advertio is very simple to use. Once a user creates an account, they simply have to select how many goals they want to achieve, such as clicks, downloads or sign-ups. We only charge a fixed price per achieved goal — not fees or subscriptions.
After setup, the user can select Automatic Creation and have our Smart Assistant Anna help in every step of campaign creation. She’ll suggest the right message, audience and keywords specifically for that startup’s product.
While Anna provides suggestions for all the steps, the user can also add more ads, audiences and keywords manually as well as edit all her suggestions according to their preferences.
After these steps, the user just has to select the budget to complete the campaign. We offer three different budget recommendations, each with its amount and number of possible goals. Just like with every other step, the user can choose a different amount if they prefer.
How much does Advertio cost?
Zero. We don’t charge monthly subscriptions or additional fees. Our clients only pay for the results they get. For example, if your startup is looking for more downloads, you’ll only get charged once someone downloads your app, nothing more.
Here’s a breakdown of potential scenarios:
Advertio estimates that Business A will pay 3,58€ per download.
Let’s say they get 50 downloads in a month:
3,58€ x 50 downloads: 179€
In this case, this business will spend 179€ on that campaign in a month.
Now, let’s say they only get 10 downloads:
3,58€ x 10 downloads: 35,80€
This means they would only spend 35,80€ that month.
As you can see, our users are only charged per results, making this a 100% risk-free solution.
How can startups improve their performance?
Our experience tells us that campaigns should run for at least two weeks before making changes and assessing what worked or not. This happens because networks need some time to spread the campaign to the chosen target audience, which can sometimes take a few days. Once that part is resolved, we still need a few days to see who’s interacting with the messages to understand if we need to make some changes or not.
To help startups see how their campaign is going, Advertio has created detailed reports that allow users to see how each aspect is performing to make the needed adjustments.
On the dashboard, users have access to all the details and information they need to start making decisions and improving their next campaigns.
This information includes data about the audience, such as which age group is getting the best results; keywords — where users can see the keywords that got more clicks and how much they cost; and budget information, where they can see how they’re money is being spent across the different networks.
How to make sure Advertio is suited for your startup
Over the last two years, Advertio has helped dozens of startups boost their business, so we’d be happy to talk to you and answer all the questions you may have. Seeing as it’s free, we always encourage our potential clients to create an account and explore the app beforehand.
If you’ve done so, have a few questions and would like to book a demo or talk to someone from the team, please send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact us on our website’s chat to arrange a time that works for everyone. | https://content.advertio.com/advertio-for-startups-862c90b32dec | ['Mariana Machado'] | 2020-11-11 11:41:27.795000+00:00 | ['Digital Strategy', 'Digital Marketing', 'Startup', 'User Experience', 'PPC Marketing'] |
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The Mirror | While sometimes it may seem we’re
living in a trance, forgetting
the delicate and fragile beauty
of the stars.
They’re always shining there
above us, even when the
sun’s up in the sky, hiding
them from view.
And we may forget the inspiration
that can help us through the days,
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reminding us we’re
woven into a conscious Universe.
Like the stars above us that always shine,
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guidance is always present.
And moments of our experience of life
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conscious space
inside us all.
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by consciousness in all space
everywhere.
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And in lifes’ ending moments as we take
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all separation dissolving, into
the one conscious ocean
that knows all of us
within itself. | https://medium.com/loose-words/the-mirror-b6698c9a650a | ['Paul Mulliner'] | 2020-08-21 08:08:39.790000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Mindfulness', 'Life', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Self'] |
Celebrating 35 Years of “The Golden Girls” | A Very Brief History of The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls premiered on September 14, 1985. As most people know, the sitcom centered on four “mature” women living in Miami, Florida. Blanche Devereaux was a former Southern belle whose appetite for the opposite sex had become voracious following the death of her husband. (She was played by Rue McClanahan, who was most famous at the time of the show’s premiere for her co-starring role on the revolutionary 1970s sitcom Maude). Looking for roommates to share in her living expenses, Blanche invited two women to move into her bungalow’s spare bedrooms. One was a fellow widow, the naive, sweet-natured, perpetually optimistic Minnesotan Rose Nylund (Betty White, who had already had decades of success in television, most notably her Emmy-winning role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show). The other was recently divorced, short-tempered, tough-as-nails Brooklyn native Dorothy Zbornak (Beatrice Arthur, a Tony winner for Mame and an Emmy-winner for playing Maude on the eponymous sitcom that co-starred McClanahan.) Dorothy’s elderly mother Sophia moved in with them following a fire at her nursing home on the pilot episode. Sophia was a Sicilian spitfire who had reportedly experienced “a stroke that destroyed the tact cells in her brain.” She was brought to life by the diminutive but ferocious theater star Estelle Getty (who was by far the least well-known of the quartet when the show premiered).
Over the course of 180 episodes, the quartet went through countless paramours, bickered and teased each other ruthlessly, and confronted a stunning array of controversial social issues (including gay marriage, euthanasia, drug addiction, elder abuse, HIV stigma, sexual harassment, homelessness, polygamy, prostitution, artificial insemination, and teen pregnancy). As impressive as the show’s willingness to tackle these issues on primetime network television in the 1980s and 1990s was, it somewhat obscures the fact that the very premise conceived by creator Susan Harris was revolutionary in and of itself. Name another show — of any genre or time period — that featured multiple female characters who were senior citizens, sexually active, and financially independent. The list is short. And it was empty before The Golden Girls premiered.
The show was a runaway hit when it first premiered and remained so for its seven-season run. It was one of the top 10 most watched shows on television for its first six seasons. It won 11 Primetime Emmy Awards from 58 nominations, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series and one for each of its four stars. (Only two other comedy series in history have managed to win an Emmy for each member of its ensemble — All in the Family and Will & Grace.) It also won four Golden Globes (including three for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy), two Directors Guild of America Awards, one Writers Guild of America Award, two Viewers for Quality Television Awards, four American Comedy Awards, and a People’s Choice Award. It also prompted two direct spin-offs — the long-running Empty Nest and the short-lived follow-up series The Golden Palace (after Arthur decided to end her run as Dorothy, the other three women opened a hotel in Miami).
Promotional image of “The Golden Girls” ensemble (Copyright: Buena Vista Television)
The Golden Girls featured a flawless ensemble comprised of four comic geniuses at the height of their powers. To me, the heart and soul of the show always belonged to Bea Arthur’s Dorothy. She was by far the show’s most relatable and nuanced character, with her intimidating stature, confident swagger, and sharp wit serving as a front for her deep well of insecurities. She had the lion’s share of the show’s most memorable comic and dramatic moments, as well as the most notable character development.
But every now and then, I revisit one of the countless episodes where Rue McClanahan’s Blanche got a chance to shine, with her voracious appetite for men, over-the-top southern drawl, epic vanity, and righteous indignation and become convinced that she was the real MVP. Then Betty White launches into a maddeningly hilarious story about her hometown of St. Olaf, Minnesota, or shows her unlikely competitive side and I wonder why she didn’t win the Emmy every year. And then there’s Estelle Getty jumping into the conversation with a takedown so vicious and inspired that it makes me wonder how Getty and the writers scored so few Emmys.
Inevitably, but tragically, the show legacy grew each time one of its beloved stars passes away. Estelle Getty passed away from Lewy Body Dementia at the age of 84 on July 22, 2008. Beatrice Arthur succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 86 on April 25, 2009. Rue McClanhan died at the age of 76 from a brain hemorrhage on June 3, 2010. Miraculously, the remarkable Betty White continues to thrive. She is a few months shy of her 99th birthday and is still booking acting gigs.
The show also featured some very memorable recurring characters (most notably Herb Edelman as Dorothy’s ex Stan Zbornak and Harold Gould as Rose’s paramour Miles) and an impressive roster of guest stars that included contemporary legends (e.g., Bob Hope, Dick Van Dyke, Burt Reynolds) and relative unknowns that would go on to become big stars (e.g., George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino).
Betty White, Bea Arthur, and Rue McClanahan at the TV Land Awards in 2008 (Copyright: TV Land)
Since the end of its run (and the runs of all its spin-offs) The Golden Girls has lived on in syndication, most notably on the cable networks Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel, where it has served as a centerpiece of the networks’ programming. The show is currently available in its entirety to stream on Hulu. Thanks to the combination of its timeless brilliance and the widespread availability of its reruns, the show has been embraced by a whole new generation. Currently, you can buy countless Golden Girls-themed goodies, including clothing items, crafts, books, figurines, and even board games (my favorite being The Golden Girls themed edition of Clue where you have to determine who ate the last slice of cheesecake instead of who committed a murder). Numerous tributes to the show continue to be staged, including a recent reimagining of the series with legendary black actresses and numerous stage shows (usually starring drag queens). But as fun as these off-shoots are, the main attraction for fans is still the 180 (mostly) priceless half hours that the show produced during its legendary run.
Below, I count down the 35 best episodes in honor of the show’s 35th anniversary.
The 35 Best Episodes of The Golden Girls
I have watched the complete series of The Golden Girls in chronological order twice and scrupulously rated and catalogued the episodes. I have also seen each episode several times in a far less systematic way. What I have done below is picked my vote for the 35 best episodes. My list is based not on which episodes had the most iconic scene, biggest laugh, or touching moment, but rather which episodes had that perfect combination of brilliant acting, razor-sharp dialogue, clever plotting, and crisp pacing that defined the show’s greatness. I considered ranking them, but that proved far too hard. So here they are in chronological order, catalogued for your next binge.
“The Triangle” (Season One). Unlike most of the show’s early episodes, this one doesn’t tackle any big issues or reveal much about the ladies. What it does is provide a showcase for all four to share their fabulous chemistry. When Dorothy starts dating Sophia’s doctor, she becomes blinded to the fact that he made a pass at Blanche and lashes out at Blanche viciously when she tries to warn Dorothy. What results is a very realistic fight that is well-developed and features an absolute classic turn by Betty White when Rose tries to resolve it. Further adding to this episode’s greatness is the fact that it is the first official “Picture it, Sicily” story and the first real Saint Olaf story.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “Blanche and I were just going to have some coffee. Would you care to join us?” Dorothy: “Frankly, Rose, I would rather use Willie Nelson’s hairbrush.” Blanche: “Why must you attack everything Southern?”
“A Little Romance” (Season One). The series’ first masterpiece, this hilarious, farcical outing centers on the simplest sitcom setup: Rose dates a little person and, when confronted with this news, everyone’s attempts to not act awkwardly fails miserably. Being The Golden Girls, the situation is milked for hilarious misunderstandings and perfectly delivered puns and one-liners, while also being used for poignancy. Further solidifying this episode’s genius is the dream sequence, which on another show may have just been fanciful filler, but here acted out the fantasies of Rose’s head with hilarious heightened reality and farcical chaos. This won a well-deserved Emmy for its script and is a real highlight of the first season.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “[He analyzed] that recurring dream I had where I am running naked through a train, tunnel after tunnel being chased by a sweaty body builder. He thinks it’s sexual.” Dorothy: “Thinks? Blanche, you smoke a cigarette after that dream!”
“In a Bed of Rose’s” (Season One). Another wonderful gem in Season One, this episode gives Betty White her best showcase yet as her new boyfriend dies right after having sex with her, just like her husband did. The fallout is alternately hilarious and poignant in the scenes when the body is discovered and Rose goes to tell his wife. The fact that death is treated so cavalierly is jarring if you don’t think about their age, but the script and performances here will make you buy just about anything. Also, The Golden Girls perfects another stock formula here: starting off with a hilarious conceit, veering into weighty territory with light drama, and then swinging back in for a hilarious finale. The final scene between Rose and the girls is flat out hilarious and one of the most memorable of Season One. This episode won White her first and only Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and it’s a win that’s virtually impossible to argue with.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “What exactly do you do in bed, Rose?” Rose: “Nothing, I do nothing!” Blanche: “Maybe that’s it. They have to do all the work!”
“Adult Education” (Season One). One of the most one-liner and belly laugh-heavy episodes of Season One, this exquisitely written outing features the entire cast at the top of their game. In a very strong plot line dealing with sexual harassment, Blanche has to contend with whether to sleep with a professor to get an “A” and in a much lighter subplot the other girls try to get Frank Sinatra tickets. It is all just pitch perfect with nearly a laugh a second and the perfect chemistry between the four stars really shining.
Favorite Lines: College Dean, reviewing the sexual harassment form: “Life isn’t fair. I should know. I am 40 years old and until today I have never heard of 7B!” Blanche: “Well I’ve known about it for some time and as far as I’m concerned, you can do it to yourself.”
“The End of the Curse” (Season Two). Everything works perfectly in this masterful second season opener that ranks among the finest episodes the series ever produced. Rue McClanahan earned her first (and, sadly, only) Emmy for the role of Blanche Devereaux with a performance of enormous range and impact as she sinks into major depression after discovering that she is not in fact pregnant but going through menopause. Even the seemingly disposable subplot about mink breeding (yes, you read that correctly) garners huge laughs and ends up tying in perfectly to the theme of Blanche’s plot line. In 24 surprisingly non-preachy and hilarious minutes, the show touches on a host of issues rarely depicted on television at the time and never for a minute sacrifices the character-based comedy.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “Spanish fly is not a fly?” Dorothy: “No it’s a beetle” Rose: “It’s a fly, but they call it a beetle? How do they know it’s Spanish?” Dorothy: “Because it wears a little sombrero!”
Image from “Ladies of the Evening” (Copyright: Buena Vista Television)
“Ladies of the Evening” (Season Two). One of the most iconic and funniest episodes of the show’s run, this episode centers on the girls winning tickets to meet Burt Reynolds. Classic farce ensues involving termites, a hotel-cum-brothel, and the police mistaking the three golden girls for madams. Every joke works hilariously, with Betty White especially on the top of her game panicking about her future life as a criminal and then lamenting her tragic loss of the Butter Queen title as a child. Things flow along hilariously right up to the shocking climax, which involves a betrayal by Sophia and a guest appearance by Reynolds himself. This is light as a feather but it’s Golden Girls comedy at its very, very best.
Favorite Line: Sophia: “Jealousy is a very ugly thing, Dorothy. And so are you in anything backless.”
“It’s a Miserable Life” (Season Two). Another brilliant outing that cements the beginning of The Golden Girls’ second season as one of the greatest runs of episodes of any sitcom in history, this episode features a single and very memorable plot line: the death of neighbor Freda Claxton. After trying to suck up to her, a fed up Rose tells her to “drop dead” — and she promptly does. The girls then hold a funeral for her that veers dangerously close to sentimentality, but the writers pull a bait-and-switch by delivering a wickedly clever climax. This is an excellent ensemble effort featuring a very witty script and fantastic work by all of the women.
Favorite Line: Sophia: “Mrs. Claxton is a miserable scum-sucking crank who gives nice old ladies like me a bad name.”
“Isn’t It Romantic?” (Season Two). This very memorable outing is their first to really tackle homosexuality (still quite taboo in the mid-1980s) and does so in a very clever way. When Dorothy’s gay friend from college comes to visit, she falls for a clueless Rose. The result features one of the most hilarious scenes in the show’s run (Blanche confusing Lebanese people with lesbians) and one of the most poignant (the final scenes with Rose and Jean). It is a testament to the writing of this show that hot button issues like thisy could be introduced with grace, elegance, humor, and poignancy. This is a real gem of an episode and does what The Golden Girls did best.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “I’ve never known any [lesbians] personally, but isn’t Danny Thomas one?” Dorothy: “Not Lebanese, Blanche. A lesbian!”
“Big Daddy’s Little Lady” (Season Two). This episode contains one of the silliest but most memorable plot lines of the show’s run: Dorothy and Rose trying to write a song together about Miami. A seemingly disposable story is made into classic Golden Girls with the women’s amazing chemistry, some great dialogue, and even a musical number. The other subplot isn’t quite as memorable but works smashingly well with Blanche’s dad (aka “Big Daddy”) coming to Miami to show off his fiancé, who is even younger than Blanche. The whole episode is pretty predictable, but it sure is a lot of fun getting to the predictable end.
Favorite Lines: Dorothy: “Who the hell says ‘thrice’?” Rose: “It’s a word” Dorothy: “So is intrauterine, but it does not belong in a song” Rose (singing): “Miami, you’re cuter than/ an intrauterine”
“The Actor” (Season Two). There is nothing emotionally resonant, novel, or particularly clever in this straightforward farce, but it is one of the most memorable plot lines and funniest episodes of the show’s run. When a suave actor comes to town to perform in the community theatre, he romances each of the three girls separately — with hilarious results. It’s all slick and predictable, but it’s absolutely hilarious and an inspired use of the ensemble.
Favorite Line: Rose: “I feel so common…so cheap…so used. Blanche, how do you usually deal with that?”
“A Piece of Cake” (Season Two). This wonderful flashback episode is a nice change of pace that gives each of the ladies moments to shine. Each of the four flashbacks work beautifully, with Arthur at her slow burning best when Rose arranges her a birthday party at Mr. Ha Ha’s Hot Dog Hacienda, McClanahan at her most ridiculous when she laments getting older but learns to enjoy her surprise party, Getty gets a chance to stretch her acting muscles in a surprisingly effective flashback that heads back thirty years, and White is positively heartbreaking with her beautiful monologue that takes place on the birthday before she moved to Miami. Although it may be less gut-busting than many of their best, it is experimental and poignant and a beautiful cap to the wonderful second season.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “Back where I come from, most people won’t eat store bought cakes.” Dorothy: “Rose, where you come from, most people live in windmills and make love to polka music.” Rose: “Stop it, Dorothy! You’re making me homesick.”
A classic “Golden Girls” kitchen table scene (Copyright: Buena Vista Television)
“Old Friends” (Season Three). This alternately hilarious and heartbreaking season premiere is a great start to the season. The two main plot lines are very different in tone but balance each other well. In the first, Blanche accidentally gives away Rose’s beloved teddy bear to a little girl who then holds him for ransom. The storyline is hilarious from start to finish and features a great ending. The other plot line is light on the laughs but very heavy on the heart with Sophia developing a close attachment to a man she meets on the boardwalk who she and Dorothy slowly discover has Alzheimer’s. It’s remarkably poignant and Getty does some of her most nuanced work here.
Favorite Lines: Dorothy: “Ma, where are you going?” Sophia: “Down to the boardwalk. I like to watch the old men rearrange themselves when they come out of the water.”
“Bringing Up Baby” (Season Three). This light-as-a-feather screwball farce of an episode is one of their greatest instances of pure comedy. The ridiculous setup features Rose inheriting her late uncle’s prized pig and the other ladies letting it stay in the house because they get a $100,000 check when it dies. What results is a series of hilarious puns, desperate breakdowns, manic performances, and flat-out brilliant writing. Every minute works perfectly.
Favorite Lines: Dorothy: “Why didn’t you call me?” Sophia: “I tried, but every time I put in a dime and dialed a condom came out. I have five in my pocket. Here, Dorothy, it’s a lifetime supply.”
“Three on a Couch” (Season Three). One of the most genius episodes of the show’s run, this hilarious outing features the four women going to therapy to figure out how to improve their living situation because they are all at each other’s throats. Four classic flashbacks occur, in which Dorothy kicks her scared roommates out of the room, Sophia tells a ridiculous Sicily story about pepperoni, Blanche tries to make an ailing Dorothy perk up for a double date, and — in one of the show’s best sequences — Rose accidentally puts Dorothy’s employment ad in the personals section. Solidifying the episode’s brilliance is the ending, which finds the therapist telling them that the solution is to part ways, but the girls refusing to. It’s hilarious, poignant, and perfectly structured.
Favorite Line: Dorothy, after discovering that Rose accidentally submitted her employment ad in the personals section of the newspaper: “My ad is right beneath one that says ‘History Professor seeking Oriental woman who is into Wesson Oil and bears a resemblance to Florence Henderson’!”
“My Brother, My Father” (Season Three). This classic outing may have won Bea Arthur her sole Emmy for The Golden Girls, but it is actually more of an ensemble gem than it is a showcase for Arthur. Sophia’s brother, a Sicilian priest, arrives in Miami to pay a visit to Stan and Dorothy on their 40th wedding anniversary, prompting Stan and Dorothy to pretend that they are married. Meanwhile, a deadly hurricane is coming in and Blanche and Rose are cast as nuns in a local production of The Sound of Music. It’s hilarious farce and an important milestone in Dorothy and Stan’s complicated relationship, which is a through-line from the pilot to the series finale.
Favorite Lines: Stan: “Hello Mama Bear. Papa Bear is back in the cave.” Dorothy: “I could vomit just looking at you.”
“Yes, We Have No Havanas” (Season Four). The hilarious Season Four premiere has two equally brilliant plot lines. The first features Rose trying to get her high school diploma by enrolling in Dorothy’s GED class with hilarious results (not since The Producers has the Third Reich been put to such strong comic effect). The second features Blanche and Sophia dating the same man and engaging in all out war. Both women are brilliant and it unleashes the best (and funniest) sides of both characters. But the real star here is the wickedly clever script that packs more belly-laughs and sharp one-liners into one episode than most shows produce in a season nowadays.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take a long bubble bath in just enough water to cover my perky bosoms.” Sophia: “You’re only going to bathe in an inch of water?”
“Scared Straight” (Season Four). This episode is technically one of the “very special” episodes that tackled important issues that were especially common during the show’s first two seasons. But what is so wonderfully refreshing here is that the “issue” is not played for melodrama, but instead for mature character development and clever wit. When Blanche’s brother comes to town and announces that he is gay, Blanche spirals and McClanahan does some truly wonderful work.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “They are just two little words, but they are the hardest words for me to say.” Rose: “Not tonight?”
“The Auction” (Season Four). This hilarious outing has two of the most classic scenes in the show’s run — the cabana beach towel fight between Dorothy and Blanche and the auction that the girls screw up — and is held together by a very witty, fast-paced plot line that has all of the girls in top form. The episode is pure joy and big laughs from Rose’s bitchy opening lines to Sophia’s clever wrangling at the end.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “Wait a minute, Rose. Is that my Cabana Club beach towel you have there?” Rose: “Is it this one with the naked man and woman being swept up in the waves?” Blanche: “Yes, that’s it. You can’t use this towel.” Dorothy: “Blanche, Blanche, it’s an emergency. We’ll replace it next week.” Blanche: “Oh, no, you cannot replace this towel. There are too many fond memories attached to this towel.” Dorothy: “Blanche, please. I am in no mood to hear about the parade of endless sexual encounters that you have experienced up and down the Florida coastline, with only this towel between your hot flesh and the cold, wet sand!” Blanche: “I brought my son, Skippy, home from the hospital in this towel, Dorothy.” Dorothy: “You’re lying, Blanche.” Blanche: “Damn, you’re good!”
“The Impotence of Being Earnest” (Season Four). This brilliant episode discusses a touchy subject — Rose being dismayed that her boyfriend won’t “put out” only for her to realize he is struggling with impotency — with audacious comedy. Betty White gives an absolutely wonderful performance as she tries to seduce Ernie, awkwardly reacts to his news, and then helps him get his groove back. It all leads to a surprising and very amusing twist at the end. The other women do fine supporting work but this is White’s show and she runs with it.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “You gave him back his manhood!” Rose: “If he can find it, he can have it. That man is probably the worst lover I have ever had.” Blanche: “I’ll get the ice cream!” Dorothy: “I’ll get the cheesecake!” Sophia: “I’ll get the Etch-a-Sketch. At my age you need a visual aid.”
“Love Me Tender” (Season Four). We see Bea Arthur as we have never seen her before in this episode in which Dorothy enters a sex-filled and substance-less relationship with a diminutive man named Eddie. John Fielder is hilarious as the depressed, mousy Eddie who is apparently a sex machine and Bea Arthur has a field day playing the horny, loose cannon version of Dorothy. The whole plot line leads to a classic sitcom finale. The episode’s subplot, about Blanche and Rose being “pals” to motherless girls is appropriately amusing and given short shrift.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “I’ll never forget when they performed at our talent show right after the herring juggling act.” Blanche: “You mean to tell me that somebody actually juggled herring?” Rose: “No! It was the herring that did the juggling. Little Ginsu knives. Really dangerous, I mean one false move and they could have filleted themselves.” Sophia: “I hate you.”
“Sophia’s Choice.” (Season Four). This strikingly complex and moving episode shows The Golden Girls at its most poignant, sophisticated, and groundbreaking without ever sacrificing the laughs. When Sophia’s friend from Shady Pines gets sent to the even worse nursing home in town, the girls go on a crusade to make things better, which results in a greater understanding of what’s wrong with society and the facing of their own mortality. If that sounds dire and depressing, it partially is, but Estelle Getty’s hilarious turn and Blanche’s subplot about getting breast implants (which is tied in nicely) raise the comedy to typically Golden levels.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “He was happier than a Kentucky yearling frolicking in bluegrass as high as a hoot owl’s perch in — ” Dorothy: “In English, Jethro! In English!”
“Sick and Tired (Part Two)” (Season Five). Everything that The Golden Girls does brilliantly is done in this episode. First there is Dorothy’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome storyline, which tackles an important issue with wit and grace and allows for the fantastic Dorothy tell-off at the end of the episode. Second there is Blanche acting particularly loopy in the priceless sleep deprivation plot line, showing McClanahan’s true gift for comedy that is nearly unmatchable. Third there is Rose rising above her ditzy dim-wittedness and becoming a force to be reckoned with. And, finally, there is Sophia with her rapid switching between senility and sharp wit. This is a truly master class episode from beginning to end and is as good as The Golden Girls gets.
Favorite Lines: Dorothy: “Dr. Budd, I came to you sick. Sick and scared. You dismissed me… You made me feel crazy, like I had made it all up. You made me feel like a child, a fool, a neurotic who was wasting your precious time. … I suspect if I was a man, I might have been taken more seriously and not told to go to a hairdresser. … I don’t know where you doctors lose your humanity, but you lose it. If all of you at the beginning of your careers could get very sick and very scared for a little while, you would probably learn more from that than anything else. You better start listening to your patients. They need to be heard. They need caring, they need compassion, they need attending to. You know, someday Dr. Budd, you’re going to be on the other side of the table. And as angry as I am and as angry as I always will be, I still wish you a better doctor than you were to me.”
“Love Under the Big Top” (Season Five). If only the producers of so many of the last decade’s sitcoms could sit down with a tape of this episode and get a lesson in how you use a superstar guest, the state of television comedy would be all the better. TV legend Dick Van Dyke gives a hilarious performance as a top attorney dating Dorothy who really wants to be a clown and join the circus. The episode’s subplot, about Blanche and Rose getting involved in an animal rights demonstration, also has great moments and is woven in perfectly with the main plot line.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “Twenty envelopes and you’re ready to quit? Blanche, we joined the Friends of Sea Mammals for a reason. You are so unmotivated.” Blanche: “When I joined this mammals with blowholes thing, I didn’t expect to be carrying picket signs on some grungy dock. I was expecting a fundraiser/cocktail party with Chinese lanterns and Portuguese, no Hispanic, waiters in tight black pants and we hire a band to play Phish songs in pirate suits with muscles bulging.” Rose: “Your mouth is watering now, Blanche. Keep licking.”
“Triple Play” (Season Five). This farcical, ensemble gem is their best episode in ages and returns much of the spark that has been missing with a wacky, frenzied setup that puts all four women together in one setting during a compressed time period. Blanche hatches a scheme to get men that goes wildly awry, Dorothy catches her mother stealing from the U.S. government, and Rose meets Miles’s daughter. The script is wonderful and the women’s chemistry is stellar.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “Mama Devereaux was dead-set against me and George marrying. She wanted him to marry a virgin.” Rose: “How did she know you weren’t?” Sophia: “Maybe it was all those ‘Honk if you’ve had Blanche’ bumper stickers.”
“Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom Tom” (Season Six). The fifth season was a terrific showcase for the character of Blanche Devereaux and Rue McClanahan gives another fantastic performance in this episode as Blanche has to have a pacemaker put in and out of fear swears off sex. Most of the episode is really just a set-up for Sophia to make a series of hilarious jokes about Blanche being a slut, but it is more than that. Blanche’s anxieties are very real and seeing her struggle with losing something so central to her identity is very interesting. Then there is the hilarious, but barely-there subplot about Rose trying out new diet techniques, which ups the laughs even more.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “I’ve made a decision. Blanche Devereaux is giving up sex.” Sophia: “And what does that do to the morale of the boys overseas?”
“An Illegitimate Concern” (Season Five). Blanche believes a stalker to be madly in love with her but soon finds out it is her late husband George’s illegitimate son. The plot line is played for laughs and poignancy, but never sappiness. Perfectly complementing the weight of that plot line is Dorothy and Sophia’s participation in the Shady Pines Mother/Daughter beauty contest elicits some of the best one-liners and sight gags in the show’s history. The real star of this episode is the script — which is pitch-perfect from beginning to end and features some of the show’s biggest laughs.
Favorite Line: Sophia, responding to Rose’s latest St. Olaf story: “What an injustice. Hemingway ran out of stories to tell and he shot himself. She just keeps on going.”
“72 Hours” (Season Five). A brilliant issue episode that is arguably the most important episode the show ever produced, “72 Hours” chronicles what happens when Rose finds out she may have contracted AIDS. (Keep in mind that this aired at a time when discussions and depictions of AIDS were few and far between.) The myths of AIDS are dispelled in powerful and realistic ways and many issues surrounding the disease are discussed in a manner that fits in cleverly with the show’s narrative and character dynamics. Also, the writers liven things up with a couple brilliant moments (most notably Rose’s finest St. Olaf story) so that the proceedings never become too maudlin.
Favorite Lines: Rose: “I haven’t been this nervous since 1952 when St. Olaf’s most active volcano threatened to erupt. Luckily there were some Druid priests in town for the opening of Stonehenge Land and they said they could stop it if they could sacrifice the town’s dumbest virgin. I don’t know why I raised my hand. It must have just been the excitement of the moment. But they said the only way for me to stop the volcano from erupting was to crawl under their legs up the volcano while they gave me their birthday whacks. Well — and you’re not going to believe this — they weren’t Druid priests at all, just a bunch of Shriners looking for a good time!”
“Zborn Again” (Season Six). The classic Golden Girls formula rarely works as well as it does here. The main plot line here is about one of the girls going through a hilarious and complicated relationship dynamic (Dorothy falls in love with Stan again), while the subplot is about the other characters dealing with a petty but amusing problem, and all is bridged by a long extended sequence in the middle act in which the girls sit around talking hilariously and bawdily around a cheesecake. The script is a gem and the entire ensemble (especially Arthur) does fantastic work.
Favorite Line: Blanche, after mistakenly thinking Dorothy is coming on to her: “It’s a curse. My beauty has always been a curse. I’m sorry Dorothy, but like the fatal blossom of the graceful Jimson weed, I entice with my fragrance but can provide no succor.”
“Girls Just Want to Have Fun…Before They Die” (Season Six). This wonderful ensemble outing finds Blanche trying to give sex advice to Rose and Sophia with hilarious and disastrous results. Rose needs to stay celibate to help the drought in St. Olaf and Blanche suggests that she uses it as an opportunity to play with her boyfriend’s affections. The subplot is even better as Blanche advises Sophia to have a one-night stand with her new lover but Sophia finds herself getting emotionally involved. The whole ensemble does great work and the script is classic.
Favorite Line: Blanche, prepping Sophia for her first date in a long time: “You have to listen to everything I say. When I say ‘Jump’ you say ‘On who?’”
“Sisters of the Bride” (Season Six). This classic outing features two extremely memorable plot lines. The main story involves the return of Blanche’s gay brother Clayton who introduces Blanche to the man he intends to marry. The plot line is played well, especially by McClanahan, and while her close-mindedness is infuriating it is realistic and serves as a reminder of how far the world has come in 20 years. While the main plot line is topical and emotional, the subplot is where the majority of the hilarity comes in. Rose’s most devious side (and White’s most savage comic skills) burst forth when Rose is finally the frontrunner for the Volunteer of the Year Award because her chief competitor has died.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “What will the neighbors think if they see two men in my room?” Sophia: “They will think it’s Tuesday!”
“From Here to the Pharmacy” (Season Seven). Whenever someone tells me the show ran out of steam by the end of its run, I direct them to this masterpiece of the show’s final season. Both plot lines are absolutely brilliant. The first has Blanche going on a date with a man who she promised to be faithful to before he deployed to Iraq and now cannot recall who he is. The second has Sophia writing a will (with Rose’s help!) that reveals that she has been hoarding a substantial amount of money while mooching off of Dorothy for all of these years. The writing is brilliant, featuring several classic one-liners, almost all of which go to Bea Arthur, who is on fire here.
Favorite Lines: Blanche: “You can’t blame Sophia for your sex life.” Dorothy: “In fact, I can. If I had the money I could have been living in a swinging condo instead of with — I better not say this until I have my coffee.” [Dorothy drinks coffee.] “A slut and a moron! Sorry, it must be decaf.”
“Old Boyfriends” (Season Seven). In this episode, Rose is reunited with an old boyfriend from St. Olaf that she can’t remember, which is a predictable and typical enough storyline until it is revealed what a floozy Rose was in high school and one of the great kitchen scenes of the show’s run commences. Then there is Sophia’s subplot where she answers a want ad that turns out to be a couple with a devastating ulterior motive, which somehow manages to avoid melodrama and be genuinely moving. This is a truly wonderful episode with a brilliant script and pitch perfect acting by the ensemble.
Favorite Lines: Dorothy: “I have intelligence. I have class. And you know what else I have?” Sophia: “It’s definitely not self awareness.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Gordon” (Season Seven). This absolutely genius outing has one of the single most memorable sequences in the entire history of the show’s run — the Wake Up Miami TV show taping that finds Dorothy and Blanche as panelists on a show about lesbian lovers of Miami. Although it’s all too brief, it is comedy at its finest. Luckily the rest of the episode nearly matches it, with the fallout on Blanche’s dating life from the show being hilarious and the plot line about Dorothy’s old teacher swooping back into town allowing Arthur to do her most inspired comic work in a long time.
Favorite Line: Sophia to Dorothy: “I don’t like you being taken advantage of by some guy from out of town. At least when Blanche does it, it’s good for tourism.”
An image from “The Golden Girls” series finale (Copyright: Buena Vista Television)
“One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest (Parts One and Two)” (Season Seven). One of the very best episodes of the series entire run, this masterpiece brings the entire show full circle while also leaving it open for the spinoff. The first half is classic Golden Girls farce with Dorothy and Blanche’s uncle playing an evil trick on Blanche by pretending to be in love that gets out of control when they actually fall in love. The uncle is played with charm and restraint by Leslie Nielsen and Bea Arthur has never been better. The second half takes place on the wedding day and is decidedly more dramatic and poignant. There’s a perfect final appearance by Stan and then several tearful goodbyes where the women remind each other and the viewers how monumental and profound the last seven years were. There is not much else to say about a finale that captured the tone, wit, comedy, and drama of one of the best sitcoms of all time other than to say it’s perfect. | https://medium.com/rants-and-raves/celebrating-35-years-of-the-golden-girls-eea585ed12e8 | ['Richard Lebeau'] | 2020-12-23 08:48:19.080000+00:00 | ['Comedy', 'Television', 'Culture', 'Feminism', 'Streaming'] |
How I Designed + Built A Poker Site | The “JackNine” NLH Table
Check Out The Code Here
Inspiration
It’s roughly 10pm in April of 2020. A novel coronavirus had recently incentivized staying indoors. I was on discord with roughly a dozen of my close friends, wrapping up a fairly heated game of CS:GO.
“Let’s play poker!”, someone offered.
I googled for some poker sites that would allow us to play a non-cash game of NLH, with controlled buy-ins, lightly-customizable rules (i.e straddles), and for free. I found astonishingly little. This was stunning — I expected a sea of terrible web-apps offering poker implementations.
I thought about writing a discord bot to host a poker game. The bot might send private messages with your cards, and update a publicly viewable comment containing the state of the board. Players could take actions by commenting in a thread, after which the bot would process the action and progress the game. While this would work, it didn’t seem fun to build. And I was very bored.
After a frantic 30 minutes, I decided to build a poker site. I wanted to see what modern web apps looked like — and this was a good testbed to experiment with that. I scribbled out a napkin-diagram of an architecture for the game, and set out coding.
If you just want to see code, check out the Github.
“napkin” diagrams + straw-man architecture
The architecture behind many major web applications can be roughly approximated with what I call a “straw-man architecture”. I’ll produce a list of constraints and features, and after some meditation write down a sample solution. It doesn’t need to be perfect — it can have glaring issues with scalability, performance, or extensibility. Writing out this architecture will cause you to ask: “why can I recognize that this is glaringly wrong?”.
I call these napkin diagrams, since they should roughly fit on a small piece of paper, and you’re very likely to throw them out after creating them.
features = getFeaturesAndRequirements(); strawman = brainstormArchitecture(features); while (confusedBy(strawman)) { strawman = brainstormArchitecture(features); }
Worrying about scalability, extensibility, or any other maturity level of your codebase might keep you from adding serious value with your software early on. These are all good problems to have.
A Poker Straw-man
>> diagram 1- a very simple poker architecture
The architecture is designed to be as simple as possible. Each server host is a node.js deployed webserver. Clients establish a Websocket connection with the server, which they then issue commands to when playing the game. The server can routinely broadcast information including game state, server state (“going down for maintenance”), and other goodies over this channel.
Data is stored in redis (a fast in-memory cache) for convenience- the active game state for card games is pretty small, and we can host 1000’s of concurrent games per host with this. We then sync game-state to a mongodb cloud instance running remotely, which can be used to seed new host machines with a game. Redis, Mongo, and Heroku all offer “free” tiers of service for developers, so you shouldn’t need to pay until your service scales to users.
A note on Architecture
I chose Typescript + React for my client, so that I could share code with my Node server. In the websocket setup I talk about earlier- the client and server are constantly exchanging messages. The schema of those messages matters a lot, and sharing types (and code) directly between the two implementations helps to facilitate fast development. I’ll be writing another article on this setup soon.
Roughly, the code breakdown looks like this;
/* source tree */
build/*
src/client/*
src/common/*
src/server/*
What about the game?
Implementing a turn-based game is pretty simple. I like to follow this formula:
Model the public game state. (each user’s hand, stack size, status, whose turn it is, etc.) Implement availableActions(gameState) i.e “given the current state, describe the set of legal transitions to the next game state” Implement applyAction(gameState, action) => gameState which applies some action to the gameState and generates a new one. If availableActions(gameState) is the empty set, the game is over.
Now, unit test till exhaustion. Ideally, don’t even implement the core game logic yourself- pull in a third party NLH library. For something like hand-ranking (“straight” vs. “flush”), this is vastly preferred. Look at code coverage tools to make sure you’re 100% covered before moving on from this step.
The Usual WebApp Stuff
Now that you have a fully tested implementation of NLH available, you’ll need to start interacting with clients. Establishing some baseline schema for user tracking (login with Google | Facebook | Discord, display name, balance, authToken). Spin up a web UI in React to wrap this together, and connect your client to the server via WebSockets. Heroku supports WebSockets, but you’ll need to check with your cloud provider to make sure that the server can accept (and maintain) these connections. Heroku, for instance, demands that you send some Keep Alive packet to prevent termination of the connection.
You can test a lot of this locally, if you’re crafty. I only moved onto my cloud provider when I was ready to meaningfully test multiplayer gameplay.
A Note On Local Testing
For every piece of the napkin diagram we drew, we made the deployment and testing of the app just a bit more complicated. To locally test my poker app, I needed to spin up mongodb and redis . I frequently ran into issues with mongo not closing correctly, which slowed down my overall developer speed.
Here are some tips that made local testing better:
You’ll want to establish a pipeline to seed data into your databases, so that you don’t need to make an account every time.
If you bring more developers onboard, you’ll need to think about Mac+Windows. When I tried to share my project with others, many of the scripts I had written were unix only. Think about Windows contributors too! (in particular- mongodb doesn’t play nicely with WSL)
Linting is important. Lint early, lint often. Restarting your app can be expensive, but linting isn’t. I set up tslint to keep my project in good shape. Make Linting a part of your testing infrastructure!
The Long Road / Maintenance
After finding some bored friends who also wanted to work on this project, I setup a few more things that I think are valuable to consider.
Integration tests that spin up your app, access an endpoint and verify state in the database. Check out jest for this. Branch Standards for your Github. Offer a master branch for general development, and a release branch to deploy your web app from. Run your tests consistently on master (via Jenkins CI), and only merge master into release if tests are passing. Plugins are available for Github that will automatically file tasks for TODO comments in your code. This is a great way to help bring on new contributors by pointing them toward these areas that need love.
Building The Site
While my build process is fully described within the Makefile of the repository I’ve linked to, I can offer a few thoughts on how things are setup.
I build the server and client in parallel, using Make’s -j flag for threading. Each project has its own TypeScript config, and produces a series of .js files in the output. The client’s React setup is responsible for bundling all of the needed Typescript into a series of assets to be hosted by the server.
Once all of this is compiled, I arrange everything in an output resources folder, which the server is started from. Note that resources is checked in to the repository for simplicity, requiring only a git clone and make setup && make local to run the server. Since tests are run against the contents of resources , we can be confident that starting the server will achieve the same behavior.
Sharing Code (TS Node + React)
In order to get my client and server to share Typescript definitions, I used a bit of a hack. My shared folder is symbolically linked between the client and server. Were I to continue working on this project this would definitely not be OK, but at the time this unblocked me. TypeScript’s config should allow for the paths to be ‘searched’ implicitly.
Putting It All Together
After a late night, I finally deployed the app to Heroku. That night we ran a few hands, saw chips exchanged, and had a good time. After signing off, jacknine (the poker site) sat in my private Github library for over a year — until now! The UI could use some work, and there are bugs, but it mostly works.
Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions. | https://medium.com/@jbrower95/how-i-designed-built-a-poker-site-b15a103dbabb | ['Jay Brower'] | 2021-11-30 23:57:09.605000+00:00 | ['Poker', 'Backend', 'Software', 'Architecture'] |
The 2 Leg Exercises You Should Be Focusing on More for Hidden Raw Strength | The 2 Leg Exercises You Should Be Focusing on More for Hidden Raw Strength Anton Scott Apr 23, 2020·4 min read
Leg training is something that can be fun and have an aesthetic result for you with consistency. Take into consideration that training the legs with serious intentions can be more valuable than just the definition and perfect legs for the summer weather for the beach.
It can be the foundation for building strong, and conditioned legs for years to come. Too many people focus on legs for the pleasure and not deeper than just the beauty of quad definition, huge calves, and larger glute size.
I will discuss two leg exercises that can unlock hidden raw strength in which you will feel satisfied that you’ve put more time into it.
Lunges (Sagittal, Frontal and Transverse)
Lunges are the base for unilateral strength which can be applied to real-world movements such as basic gait (walking), running, change of directions (agility), even for a variety of sports in which most of the time you’re doing unilateral movements.
To cover and master the lunge in all three planes is perfect for building strength and developing coordination for better movement patterns. You also work on proper foot placement and knee stability that ideally will be between the second and third toes.
It can help to clean up muscle imbalances that present itself. It is suggested that you start off with a forward lunge and once mastered then do a reverse lunge with 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Once you covered the sagittal plane of lunging, then you can then do side lunges which help to develop side control for strength development. After mastering the frontal plane, then you can do a transverse lunge which helps to rotate your moving leg from position to the next.
This is also great for challenging your core stability, which is the foundation for all movement working against external forces. Once the lunge is mastered by your own bodyweight, then you can add load by using dumbbells, and kettlebells to simulate a change to the muscles and help to develop more unilateral strength. For the lunges it’s best to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. If doing a basic forward/reverse lunge is giving you trouble. It is best to hold a chair, or even regress to split squats.
Forward Lunge
Lateral Lunge
Bulgarian Split Squats
This is one of those exercises that can make your legs cry for mercy, but with proper programming and recovery, your unilateral strength will shoot up into the galaxies. To start off, the load from mainly a dumbbell will allow the front leg to execute to descend into a 90-degree bend and then to ascend back into starting position with good core control to finish a rep.
The back leg will be on a bench or Plyobox for support. It places a lot of stress on the quadriceps but also targets the glutes since you get squeeze to lockout at the top of the split squat. Doing 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions with a reasonable weight with a dumbbell or two will help to build strength.
Bonus to doing this is that your core will be developed, to which you will engage your core stabilizers to support the movement of the squat. If you need more challenge, you can place it on a stability ball and use a light kettlebell in which now you can do “time under tension” Bulgarian split squats to develop tendon and ligament strengthening and hit the quadriceps and glutes a lot more.
Unilateral Strength is a priority
Both the lunge (in all three planes) and Bulgarian split squats can be a gamechanger to unlocking hidden raw strength that you can apply to your daily activities and for a specific sport. It can teach your body to have the support to move with control and decrease injuries as you get older. I would even add that with various forms of unilateral training you can put in, a single leg bodyweight squat with a full range of motion will surprise your gym family, friends, and even your love ones with their eyeballs in shock of your unilateral mastery!
Stay Strong, Stay Game! | https://medium.com/@amufits/the-2-leg-exercises-you-should-be-focusing-on-more-for-hidden-raw-strength-287e8ce08020 | ['Anton Scott'] | 2020-05-17 00:46:09.775000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Fitness', 'Training', 'Workout', 'Gym'] |
Sexism in my culture! | Life of being a Pakistani girl has very impacted my life and what my career might be. Constantly hearing that a woman should cook and clean is very irritating. This cultural idea runs in countries like India, Denmark, and in the middle east. My dream of becoming an amazing journalist might just start here. I have an amazing aunt who constantly tells me to follow my dream. Being scared of what people might think is something that always comes to mind. In the culture, I grew up in it's always like be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer that's it. Mostly for a woman, if a woman chooses anything else it's not very impressive. Culture and religion are two different things. I have learned that from a very wise man. He once said if your happy, life will be easy. I believe that I'm strong and I was brought into this world as a girl for a reason. I have found a purpose in life and that's to help women and men who are trapped in this sexist culture. I have a voice and I will use it. | https://medium.com/@980081254/sexism-in-my-culture-ba42eab16d10 | ['Falaq Waris'] | 2020-12-08 07:54:00.960000+00:00 | ['Pakistan', 'Culture', 'Sexism'] |
K-Nearest Neighbours | K-nearest neighbour is a Machine learning algorithm which falls under supervised learning which can be used for both classification and regression predictive problems. So in this article, we will be unpacking one of the algorithms from supervised learning.
Let’s understand all this step-wise and at the end, we will be able to connect all the dots. Before understanding K-NN first, let’s get an idea about what is supervised learning.
Supervised Learning is where you have input variables (X) as well as output variables(Y) {i.e. we have labelled dataset} and you use an algorithm to learn the mapping function from input to output. F(X) = Y
Supervised learning is further divided into two subcategories:-
1. Classification: — In these types of problems we have the discrete value as an output to our problem.
E.g. — Assuming given a dataset of positive and negative reviews a new review arises and we have to predict whether it’s a positive review (1) or a negative review (0) .In this problem our output will be either 1 or 0 ( this is 2 class classification) this kind of problems falls under classification.
2. Regression: — In these types of problems we have the real value as an output to our problem.
E.g. — Assuming given a dataset of heights (X) and weights (Y) of students now if a new student comes with given height so we can predict its weight which can be a real value like 53.4kgs, this kind of problem falls under regression. Here we have 2 kinds of variables dependent and independent. In this example, we can say height is an independent variable and weight is the dependent variable.
Now, back to K-NN again:
K-NN assumes that similar kinds of things exist in close proximity (similar data points are close to each other). K-NN algorithm hinges upon this assumption to be true to make the algorithm works well.
Let’s see with an example, how it actually works.
Assuming we are given a dataset which contains two types of points negative (red one’s) and positive (blue one’s)
Task: Given a query point (the green one) conclude whether if it belongs to the positive class or negative class.
The main steps to perform the algorithm are-
· Step 1: Calculate Distance.
· Step 2: Get Nearest Neighbours.
· Step 3: Make Predictions on basis of majority.
What K-NN does is, it takes the k nearest neighbours of the query point according to the distance (we will talk about how to measure distance later) and then it takes the majority votes of the neighbours and whichever has the highest majority our new query point belongs to that class only.
Considering k=3 (3 nearest neighbours) for the above example and let say x1,x2 and x3 are the 3-NN of our query point and we find out the class labels of our points are:-
x1= -ve, x2 = -ve and x3 = +ve
majority = -ve class so our xq (green point) will belong to –ve review class.
Now let’s suppose, x1 = +ve, x2 = -ve and x3 = +ve
Majority = +ve class so in this case, our xq will belong to +ve review class.
NOTE:
We can’t take even value of k because we can come across any case where there are an equal number of +ve and –ve class neighbours so in that case, our classifier will not be able to decide to which class it should assign the query point. That’s why to avoid this confusion we always take our k as an odd value.
Algorithm for KNN
KNN be like I love my neighbours only if they are near to me.
FAILURE CASES OF K-NN
In the above images, we can see the failure cases of K-NN.
Image a: Here we can see our dataset is jumbled (query point is a yellow cross) so if we apply K-NN we are not sure will it give a right prediction or not.
Image b: the query point is very far away from the dataset in this case too we are not sure if the prediction will be right or not because it’s an outlier so it can belong to either of the class that’s why we can’t say will our distance-based method work well in this case.
FunFact: K-NN is also known as a lazy learner. | https://himani-mogra.medium.com/k-nearest-neighbours-c51aa06d36bd | ['Himani Mogra'] | 2020-10-28 04:43:05.783000+00:00 | ['NLP', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Knn Algorithm', 'Data Science'] |
LiveTrade settled the $5 million deal to obtain Vemanti Group’s stocks | Today, Dec. 14th, 2020 LiveTrade announced an equity purchase agreement with Vemanti Group — a top-growing US-based multi-asset technology corporation.
LiveTrade committed to procuring up to $5 million USD of Vemanti’s common stocks over a span of two years, and Vemanti will guarantee and authorize all purchases up to the said amount during the aforementioned period. This will be the foundation for future strategic cooperation between the two firms.
Vemanti Group is one of the fastest growing firms of the U.S. this year, with its phenomenal stock performance of 800% increase within the last half of 2020. This is thanks to the brilliant strategy of investing in Asian fintech projects and firms. Accounting for most of the company’s revenue are two exceptional projects in Vietnam: eLoan and Fvndit. As one of the board’s long-term strategies, Vemanti is set to continue expanding its operation network in Vietnam in order to go beyond the current growth rate.
During the course of operation, LiveTrade has been diving into the world digital finance market, offering features and services that were once limited by country borders to global investors, businesses and traders of all kinds. As a result, LiveTrade is now holding a network of financial and technological institutions from the U.S., Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and over 1 million active users. The most successful strategic cooperation LiveTrade has established is VNDC — the first audited stablecoin platform for Vietnamese community. This stablecoin is one of the cores supporting LiveTrade and Vemanti in broadening their scopes of services — both in terms of trading volume and customer base.
This cooperation is expected to facilitate the investment and trading flow between Vietnam and the U.S., which has been limited due to the complicated procedures and high costs of conventional finance. LiveTrade’s individual and institutional clients can now obtain capital from international investors more easily and grasp the opportunities to join the high-yield worldwide markets — a task that was once hindered by geographical borders.
About Vemanti Group, Inc.
Vemanti Group, Inc. is an investment and development company mainly focuses on Fintech applications combined with other emerging technologies including Blockchain and machine learning/AI. They drive growth through acquisition and investment in disruptive and foundational technologies by targeting early stage companies that have market viable products or by starting a new subsidiary of their own.
Before that, Vemanti has acquired Two Group, a multi-asset technology conglomerate encompasses several internet-based industries, including e-commerce, local search, social media and streaming media. This acquisition marked a strategic investment of Vemanti in Vietnam market.
Vemanti is proactively seeking opportunities in high — growth and emerging markets when entering into a definitive agreement to buy 20 percent equity stocks of eLoan JSC, a Fintech company having its headquarters in HCM city. | https://medium.com/livetrade-exchange-brokerage/livetrade-settled-the-5-million-deal-to-obtain-vemanti-groups-stocks-5fb297699f70 | [] | 2020-12-15 01:48:24.056000+00:00 | ['Vemanti', 'Livetrade', 'Stocks', 'Vndc'] |
Data Processing Stack Overflow Data Using Apache Spark on AWS EMR | Data Processing Stack Overflow Data Using Apache Spark on AWS EMR
An overview on how to process data in spark using DataBricks, add the script as a step in AWS EMR and output the data to Amazon Redshift
image from https://www.siasat.com/
This article is part of the series and continuation of the previous post.
In the previous post, we saw how we can stream the data using Kinesis Firehose either using stackapi or using Kinesis Data Generator.
In this post, let’s see how we can decide on the key processing steps that need to be performed before we send the data to any analytics tool.
The key steps, I followed in this phase are as below :
Step 1 : Prototype in DataBricks
I always use DataBricks for prototyping as they are free and can be directly connected to AWS S3. Since EMR is charged by the hour, if you want to use spark for your projects DataBricks is the best way to go.
Key Steps in DataBricks
Create a cluster
This is fairly straightforward, just create a cluster and attach to it any notebook.
2. Create a notebook and attach it to the cluster
3. Mount the S3 bucket to databricks
The good thing about databricks is that you can directly connect it to S3, but you need to mount the S3 bucket.
Below code mounts the s3 bucket so that you can access the contents of the S3 bucket
This command will show you the contents of the S3 bucket %fs ls /mnt/stack-overflow-bucket/
After this we do some Exploratory data analysis in spark
Key Processing techniques done here are :
Check and Delete duplicate entries ,if any. Convert the date into Salesforce compatible format (YYYY/MM/DD).
Step 2 : Create a Test EMR cluster
pyspark script that you developed in the DataBricks environment gives you the skeleton of the code .
However, you are not done yet!
You need to ensure that this code won’t fail when you run the script in aws. So for this purpose, I create a dummy EMR cluster and test my code in the iPython notebook.This step is covered in detail in this post.
Step 3:Test the Prototype code in pyspark
In the Jupyter notebook that you created, make sure to test out the code.
Key points to note here:
Kinesis Streams output the data into multiple files within a day. The format of the file depends on the prefix of the S3 file location set while creating the delivery stream. Spark job runs on the next day and is expected to pick all the files of Yesterday’s date from the s3 bucket. Function get_latest_filename creates a text string which matches the file name spark is supposed to pick up. So in the Jupyter notebook, i am testing if spark is able to process the file without any errors
Step 4 & 5 :Convert the ipython notebook into python notebook and upload it in s3.
You can use the below commands to convert the ipython notebook to pyscript
pip install ipython
pip install nbconvert
ipython nbconvert — to script stack_processing.ipynb
After this is done ,upload this script to the S3 folder
Step 5 : Add the script as a step in EMR job using boto3
Before we do this, we need to configure the redshift cluster details and test if the functionality is working.
This will be covered in the Redshift post. | https://medium.com/swlh/data-processing-stack-overflow-data-using-apache-spark-on-aws-emr-3e889784ba70 | ['Sneha Mehrin'] | 2020-08-27 23:10:46.876000+00:00 | ['Emr', 'Apache Spark', 'Aws Data Pipeline', 'AWS'] |
Introductions to App Clips on iOS 14 | With the release of iOS14, we view App Clips as an innovative step by Apple.
Image credits: Apple
App Clips are a great way for users to quickly access and experience what an app has to offer. An App Clip is a small part of your app that’s discoverable at the moment it’s needed, even when the app is not installed on the phone.
The App Clip Invocation flow
Image credits: Appsflyer
App Clips start when a user interacts with an Invocation.
The Invocations
An App Clip is generated from an Invocation. An Invocation is not just a click, as you probably know from Universal Links. An Invocation is an object created by Apple, which currently only Apple tools or infrastructure can create for you.
Once the Invocation URL is verified, the iOS presents an App Clip Card to the user.
Image credits: Appsflyer
The Invocation methods
Safari Smart App Banner: Metadata can be added to the header of a website in order to create a Smart App Banner that will be presented in Safari.
Here is a sample code snippet that you are required to add:
<meta name=”apple-itunes-app” content=”app-clip-bundle-id=com.coffeeshop.retailapp.Clip, app-id=12345ABCD”>
Image credits: Appsflyer
iMessages: When you enable sharing within your App Clip, users can send it via iMessage, and the person who receives it can open it right from Messages.
Image credits: Appsflyer
NFC tag: Users can tap their iPhone on NFC tags that you place at specific locations to launch an App Clip, even from the lock screen.
Users can tap their iPhone on NFC tags that you place at specific locations to launch an App Clip, even from the lock screen. QR Codes: Place QR codes at specific locations to let users launch an App Clip by scanning the code with the Barcode reader or the Camera app.
Place QR codes at specific locations to let users launch an App Clip by scanning the code with the Barcode reader or the Camera app. Place Cards in Maps: When your App Clip is associated with a specific location, you can register your App Clip to appear on a place card in Maps so users can open it from there.
When your App Clip is associated with a specific location, you can register your App Clip to appear on a place card in Maps so users can open it from there. Recently Used App Clips: App Clips don’t clutter the Home Screen, but recently used App Clips can be found and launched from the Recents category of the new App Library.
Every App Clip Invocation is associated with an Invocation URL. iOS must verify the Invocation URL to ensure that the publisher of the App Clip indeed owns the domain. iOS verifies the domain by accessing an Apple-App-Site-Association (AASA) file. This file is usually known for verifying Universal Links for a given domain.
In order to verify iOS14 App Clips you must add the following section to the AASA file:
{
"appclips": {
"apps": ["ABCED12345.com.fruitstore.feedmeapp.Clip"]
}
...
}
Important note about AASA files:
Apple announced at WWDC2020 that they intend to improve the access mechanisms of the AASA files from devices. Instead of the devices fetching the AASA directly from the domain associated with a given app, Apple fetches the AASA files and caches them in a CDN. The devices will access Apple’s CDN, and aggregate the AASA files fetching into more optimal reads and operations.
Image credits: Appsflyer
Image credits: Giphy
App Clip Experiences:
An App Clip Experience is an action offered to the user, for example, buying, renting, checking into a hotel, and the list goes on. Each Experience displays a different App Clip Card. If you’d like to display a specific App Clip Card, you must define a specific Experience.
However, if a business has multiple operations, it is recommended that you configure App Clip Experience for one or more operations, and use a different App Clip Card and Invocation URL for each operation.
Image credits: Apple
A default App Clip Experience is used to fire an App Clip from Smart App Banners and links that users share in the Messages app when Advanced App Clip Experiences are not configured.
No Invocation URL is required to register a default App Clip Experience.
Advanced App Clip Experience:
Advanced App Clip Experiences allow you to do the following:
Support all possible Invocations, including Invocations from NFC tags, and visual codes.
Associate your App Clip with a physical location.
Associate an Invocation URL with your App Clip.
Image credits: Apple
Image credits: Apple
Image credits: Apple
App Clip limitations:
Apple has imposed several limitations on App Clips to allow users to enjoy the instantaneous functionality with most privacy and transparency. These limitations serve to give the user with greater control over their privacy and become more confident with the privacy standards of the app.
App Clips are limited to 10MB in size.
in size. The following frameworks are not available to App Clips: CallKit, CareKit, CloudKit, HealthKit, HomeKit, ResearchKit, SensorKit, and Speech. Using any of these frameworks in an App Clip does not result in compile-time errors, but their APIs return values that indicate unavailability, empty data, or error codes at runtime.
App clips cannot perform a background activity, such as background networking with URLSession or maintain Bluetooth connections when the App Clip is not in use.
To protect user data, Apple App Clips cannot access: Motion and fitness data, Apple Music and Media, Data from apps like Contacts, Files, Messages, Reminders, and Photos.
An App Clip cannot share data with any other app, except its corresponding full app.
its corresponding full app. An Important limitation is location access. App Clips cannot request continuous location access.
Conclusion:
App Clips represent a new stage in how applications will be consumed and developed while providing iOS users with greater instantaneous functionality.
The App Clips user experience can be categorized into two phases:
‘Here-and-Now’ — An App Clip for interactions between the user and their immediate environment, carried out in a simple but highly secure way.
‘On-Going-Universal’ — A full app that allows the user to constantly engage with the app’s functionality and receive notifications and services globally.
I hope you like what you read 🙂. Let me know your thoughts in the comment box below!, that’s it for now.
References: | https://medium.com/mindful-engineering/apples-ios14-app-clips-befc89791306 | ['Ruturajsinh Jadeja'] | 2020-09-16 07:57:48.325000+00:00 | ['Ios 14', 'App Clips', 'iOS', 'Demo', 'Swift'] |
Add this to your morning routine to be at your best every day | How often does it happen with you that you wake up and have no enthusiasm to do anything that day? Or, how many times does it happen with you that you spend your whole day in the most unproductive manner? There is a reason why a lot of times it happens with us that on a particular day we just don’t wanna leave our beds or even if we do we do not perform well on everything we try to do that day. If you are a young professional or a student then you might be looking for appropriate answers to this problem. This problem of having a lack of enthusiasm has existed for a long time and it is our ignorance that has made this a significant part of our daily lives. But, not anymore. By the end of this article, you’ll have the right perspective to deal with this problem and you’ll learn how to be at your best every day.
No matter if you are a professional who generates sales for your organization, or you are an entrepreneur trying to raise your company to new levels. Even if you are a student looking forward to scoring great marks in your exams, this morning routine will help you to be at your best every day.
Why are you struggling to be at your best?
A large part of our generation is struggling with bad sleeping habits and most of us wake up every day probably when it is almost noon. Especially since the Covid-19 Pandemic has hit the world. It is due to most of us are so involved in chatting with friends all night or either finishing a web series overnight. Spending the whole night in gaming or just simply lying on bed overthinking about something. The key to having a great day in which you can be at your best at whatever you do is to have the right start of the day. Starting your day the right way is essential because either the day runs you or you run the day. So it is ideal that we give our best to wake up anytime before 7 AM so that we can have a proper share of time by ourselves in the morning which we can spend on thinking or planning our day in a way that we can bring the best out of it. Most of us wake up near an hour before we have to jump to our work and that leaves us only with the time which we can use only for getting ready for work.
That is the reason why we have no enthusiasm to do something or to achieve something on that day. Every day is full of possibilities and opportunities but it is our duty to handle the day that way. But as we have no time for ourselves in the morning we suffer by having a lack of interest in our work and we waste the day being mediocre. But, if you adopt a habit to wake up at least this early in the morning that you can have at least an hour for ourselves to pamper and prepare ourselves to master the day. If you get just an hour for ourselves to think about yourself, plan a little, think about something that you would love to do every day then stay rest assured that there is going to be a lot of positive energy in you throughout the day. Also, as a byproduct, you’ll have 30 extra hours for yourself every month.
The best possibilities:
The main point behind waking up early is that you can utilize that time to inspire yourself. You can use a self-motivating speech, a simple motivational quote from Instagram or Twitter or just a simple thought that can help you to stay inspired for the day. Decide your goals clearly in the morning and then lookout for things that tell you that you can achieve them. Set goals related to your professional as well as personal development and spend sometime in the morning to get proper inspiration related to the achievement of those goals.
We often misunderstand inspiration as something that we need to have in our life in the face of a legendary person or someone who has made it big in their life. But, it is not enough. Inspiration is something that you need to refuel every day. Just the way you use your smartphone throughout the day for various needs, you need to recharge it’s before you could actually use it else it will stop working. Similarly, you need to recharge your brain every morning with positive thoughts which nourishes your way of thinking and right inspiration which gives you the correct perspective to handle challenges every day. The more you feed your brain with good things at the beginning of your day, the better your brain will serve you the whole day.
Key Takeaway
There is nothing wrong in pampering yourself. Your mind and body are your biggest weapons to excel at all the challenges of life, you need to take proper care of them every day to get the best out of them every day. Focus on getting inspired every morning and give a peaceful hour to yourself every day, because when you do take the right care of the blessings you have, they help you to win even at the toughest times of your life. | https://medium.com/@rahulharipriya/add-this-to-your-morning-routine-to-be-at-your-best-every-day-1fbeb0051d40 | ['Rahul Haripriya'] | 2020-11-25 10:46:36.253000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Habit Building', 'Morning Routines', 'Personal Growth', 'Habits For Success'] |
The National Discussion Contributor Guidelines | Starting today, we’re opening up The National Discussion to contributors. If you’re interested in politics and want to write about it, we’ll be happy to take anything you have and put it out there.
Below are some of the details regarding submissions to our publication and what you can write about (it’s pretty open), as well as our contact info.
Topics
With The National Discussion, you can write about virtually anything, as long as it pertains to American politics or America’s involvement in international politics. The only limit is that you shouldn’t write about something we already have an article on, but just check with us before you write an article to make sure it isn’t a repeat and you should be good to go.
We’re also looking for more opinionated articles. Factual articles have their place, but we want to be a collection of opinions so that we can serve as a portfolio of people’s perspectives and spur discussion in the community.
We welcome all kinds of opinions — liberal, conservative or otherwise. We want to have as many different perspectives as possible, and we won’t block articles just because we disagree with them.
Images
We don’t really have a hard or fast rule when it comes to images for articles. We appreciate it if you can find an image for your own article — just make sure you have the rights to use it — but if you don’t, it’s not a problem. We can always add our own image to it once it’s published.
Rules
We’ll mostly give you autonomy with the articles you write for us. To submit an article for the first time, leave a private note on this article and we can add you as a writer, then you’ll simply add your article to the publication under your Medium account.
After your first time, you can submit your article directly to us through Medium, and we’ll process it.
When it comes to submissions, we will likely take around a day to review your article and decide whether or not to publish it. If we decide to publish it, we will simply put it up on our publication, and if we do reject it we’ll leave a private note on your article explaining why, and we may let you resubmit if you fix the errors with it.
For the articles themselves, we won’t change the content within them. You can write in any way you want, just don’t do anything super inappropriate. We might make minor changes for grammar and structure, but aside from that, it will go up in the form you send it to us, so make sure you’re happy with what you wrote when you submit it.
We’ll also allow links to your own social media or other things at the bottom of your article, just don’t be excessive. | https://medium.com/the-national-discussion/the-national-discussion-contributor-guidelines-b8118fde3bf3 | ['Jonah Woolley'] | 2020-01-31 20:40:53.065000+00:00 | ['Contributor Guidelines', 'Contributor', 'The National Discussion'] |
Flutter: Custom Widgets Using Existing Classes | New in Flutter and want to start making custom widgets? This article will give a simple example of making custom widgets while using the classes available from Flutter.
Before we start talking about the Flutter stuff, let’s talk about refactoring.
NOTE: For those who want to just look into the Flutter part, feel free to skip ahead.
What is Refactoring?
“Refactoring is a controlled technique for improving the design of an existing code base.” — Martin Fowler
Refactoring is done by applying small changes to the code design while preserving their behaviour. It is an iterative practice with the goal of reducing bug potentials, reduce code smells, reduce code duplications, improving reusability and maintainability.
Keep in mind that refactoring is NOT changing nor adding functionality
Most of the time, refactoring is closely related to design patterns. This is because you can refactor the code design into already well-known design patterns, which of course is a good especially when working in a larger team. However, let us talk about some of the many basic methods of refactoring your code:
Extract Method
This is when a method or function looks just too long and is most likely doing something that belongs to another method, or can be split into more than 1 method. Always keep in mind that methods should be responsible in only doing 1 thing. Extract the lines of code that don’t belong in a method’s responsibility into a new method.
// Before
method(int a, int b) {
processedA = doSomething(a);
processedB = doSomething(b);
print('result of a: ' + processedA);
print('result of b: ' + processedB);
} // After
method(a, b) {
processedA = doSomething(a);
processedB = doSomething(b);
printResults();
} printResults(a, b) {
print('result of a: ' + a);
print('result of b: ' + b);
}
Extract Variable
This is when a method is too hard to understand. This method takes logic that seem too complicated into a variable, and operates on those variable instead. Keep in mind that the variables should have meaningful names
// Before
method() {
if ((a.toUpperCase().indexOf(indexA) > -1) &&
(b.toUpperCase().indexOf(indexB) > -1) &&
c > 0 ) {
// do something
}
} // After
method() {
isSomething = a.toUpperCase().indexOf(indexA) > -1;
isSomethingElse = b.toUpperCase().indexOf(indexB) > -1;
isCValid = c > 0;
if (isSomething && isSomethingElse && isCValid) {
// do something
}
}
Extract class
This is when a class has unnecessary fields that don’t really make sense for it to be there. This method extracts those fields and creates a new class as a field of the first class.
// Before
class Person {
String name
int areaCode
int phoneNumber getFullPhoneNumber() {
return '$this.areaCode' + '$this.phoneNumber'
}
} // After
class Person {
String name
PhoneNumber phoneNumber getPhoneNumber() {
return this.phoneNumber
}
} class PhoneNumber {
int areaCode
int phoneNumber getFullPhoneNumber() {
return '$this.areaCode' + '$this.phoneNumber'
}
}
There are many more methods of refactoring, here is a pretty complete link to help you learn more refactoring methods:
Implementation in my project
Since I am working mostly in the front-end, most of the refactoring I do is reducing code duplication. In flutter, many widgets can be similar and have many duplicate codes especially when the same widget classes are used, or the same combination of widgets are used. I found a lot of these cases in my team’s code base. Another example is when functions are simply too long when processing data from user input and/or API retrieval.
An example refactoring I did was mostly extract method for refactoring those functions that are too long:
The function above looks so long and clearly has lines of code that do not belong to its responsibility. After refactoring, the code becomes:
Now the function looks much more concise after extracting and creating new functions.
Another example refactoring I did was creating custom widgets. This allows the same structuring of widgets to create, for example, a custom button design, or a custom container (with specific margin, padding, border radius, etc.) to be reused with significantly less code clutter.
Below is an example process of my implementation in creating a custom widget. | https://medium.com/swlh/flutter-custom-widgets-using-existing-classes-4f4df07970e | ['Wilson Hadi'] | 2020-12-03 18:50:24.561000+00:00 | ['Testing', 'Flutter', 'Alertdialog', 'Dart', 'Custom Widget'] |
OkLetsPlay - Changing The (Video) Game! | Every so often a company comes along with technology that challenges the status quo, stirs things up and causes disruption. “Disruption” describes a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses. OkLetsPlay IS that disruption in the video gaming and eSports wagering arena. There are many competitors in the esports and video game wagering space, but perhaps the best way to describe OkLetsPlay’s advantage is to compare them against the 800lb gorilla on the street, Skillz. Skillz essentially owns the patents for in-game peer-to-peer wagering, and sits at a market cap of approximately $6B at the time of this publication. OkLetsPlay is essentially the Yang to Skillz Yin. OkLetsPlay owns the patents for out-of-game peer-to-peer wagering, but what is the difference?
Using an out-of-game peer-to-peer wagering module has a number of valuable benefits.
Perhaps the main differentiators are the ease of integration and lower costs involved when onboarding new games, but more specifically:
Connecting to new games is easier, it involves less development work and therefore costs less Connecting to new games is faster, so the OkLetsPlay game ecosystem can grow more quickly Connection via an out-of-game module means that the original game itself remains unchanged Games can live in the app store, on the game developers servers and/or with OkLetsPlay. The options are far more flexible. OkLetsPlay doesn’t need to own the game
So why would a game developer partner with OkLetsPlay and utilize an out-of-game peer wagering module? Firstly, there is little to no cost to the game developer and they don’t have to hand over any rights or ownership of their game. In other words - there is little to no risk. There are however many rewards. Being on the OkLetsPlay platform offers the following benefits:
Discovery: New players find the game and the user base grows Revenue: OkLetsPlay offers a revenue share of all wagering activity on the game Community engagement: The OkLetsPlay player community is an engaged audience, with many social media channels, and groups. Engagement with games grows Free PR, press and marketing: OkLetsPlay actively markets the games on its platform at no cost to the game developers and fosters positive PR around titles
What does all this mean for the future of gaming and eSports? It means that players will have access to a growing ecosystem of games, matches and tournaments where they can more cost effectively play and win real money on games of skill. At the same time, developers and publishers have an easy way to monetize their game, without relying on in-game purchases or ad revenue.
Learn more about the OkLetsPlay platform & OkLetsPlay $OKLP token launch here: https://bit.ly/3kN7tTf
Watch a video to learn more: https://youtu.be/rBZjOaYJMe0 | https://medium.com/@okletsplay/okletsplay-changing-the-video-game-5eaaf8ea06f1 | [] | 2021-11-17 17:57:03.514000+00:00 | ['Polygon', 'ICO', 'Esport', 'Cryptocurrency', 'İdo'] |
Dapp Review on LocalEthereum.. A couple of days ago, I was conversing… | A couple of days ago, I was conversing with my twin brother about cryptocurrency. He is not a crypto-enthusiast, but he believes these currencies can make the world a better place. He has always yearned to have a share in Ethereum but was unversed in how to buy it securely. We all know crypto-security is horrid. So I went ahead and assisted him to buy Ether using LocalEthereum and oh my God, he was completely surprised by how super-fast and efficiently the platform works. He could not believe he had obtained the Ether tokens in a few minutes, yet he had desired for them for over a year. It was lickety-split!
What is LocalEthereum?
It is a private platform that matches up peers who want to buy and sell Ether locally and internationally. On this platform, you can find people trading Ether with your local currency and you can choose from over 30 payment methods, depending on what works best for you, as long as the other trader is happy with it. This platform is very secure because it uses an Ethereum-powered escrow service to safely hold funds until transactions are completed. Besides, it uses end-to-end encryption, which means buyers and sellers can communicate in complete privacy. LocalEthereum is one of the Ethereum Dapps listed on the state of the dapp platforms under the Exchanges category where it ranks #62. It is also among the top-used Ethereum Dapps of 2019.
How to trade on LocalEthereum?
Trading on LocalEthereum is as easy as falling off a barn. First, you need an account. This can be a normal account, or you can connect your Ethereum-compatible wallet to the platform. The most selected account by its users is the normal account which requires you to fill in your username, a strong password, and an email address. It is recommended you use an email address you will always remember since your email address is used for two-factor authentication. However, once your account is set up you can also switch it over to OTP (e.g. Google Authenticator). It is worth noting that you cannot change your user name after the account has been created.
After creating an account you are then directed to the home page which can be viewed in English, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish. Above the fold, you can sort traders by buy or sell, payment method (Paypal, bank transfer, cash-in-person, cash deposit, international wire, Alipay, WeChat Pay, and others), popularity, price, and finally, by location. From the listed traders, you can select any buyer or seller that piques your interest, taking into account the limits the traders set, plus their reputations. If you want to sell on the platform you are obligated to deposit funds into your account. You can also go ahead and create an offer based on your best interests at heart.
As soon as you find your preferred trader, click on their price and you will be brought to the trade page. Input the amount of Ether that you would like to trade. Then you will be directed to the chatroom where you can discuss the payment details with the seller or buyer. It must be noted that for the payment to be completed the Ethereum needs to be in an escrow smart contract for the safety of the buyer.
When LocalEthereum detects that the ether has been escrowed, it will update the right-hand side of the interface to let the buyer know. Immediately, a countdown timer and a “Mark as paid” button will appear. The confirmation time for the payment takes about 3–15 minutes. If you are the buyer, hit “Mark as paid” after making the payment and wait for the seller to release the escrow. If you want, you can leave a review of the trade. Make sure to leave a good rating if the traders’ service is excellent.
What is good about this Dapp?
LocalEthereum sticks out among other decentralized platforms as it is extremely portable, so it works in all modern browsers without extra software. On top of that, it is intuitive to use for new Ethereum users, no matter their background.
The platform is immune to surveillance as it utilizes an end‐to‐end encryption scheme to protect messages in transit from nosy hackers and oppressive regimes. However, in the event of a dispute, a moderator can decipher the encrypted messages in a particular conversation and take action against dirty tricks.
LocalEthereum supports an impressive selection of payment methods in fiat currencies, depending on the country and the personal preferences of their users. If you reside in a country where cryptocurrency is not yet widespread, the platform uses PayPal as one of their payment methods to make things easier and faster for newbies.
Contrary to other traditional escrow arrangements, LocalEthereum has invented an escrow system that never takes custody of the ether in escrow, meaning it does not give full control of the escrowed ether to a moderator unless a dispute arises. So it is self-custodial.
How can LocalEthereum be a leading marketplace?
I think it will be nice to have LocalEthereum marketing itself more in Africa. The number of users of this platform from Africa is minute because most people know nothing about it yet Ethereum users are steadily growing in this region.
Conclusion.
Comparing LocalEthereum to other dapps that are under the Exchange category on the state of the dapps it has a positive volume change in the last seven days because of its safety, security and privacy, global reach and seamless user experience.
Volume change in 7 days is 13.75% as indicated on the state of the dapps
I give this dApp a 4.0/5 Rating
Links:
https://localethereum.com/
https://whitepaper.localethereum.com/
https://blog.localethereum.com/
Disclaimer.
This is not financial advice, nor a guarantee or promise in regards to any result that may be obtained from using the above content. The information provided here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered as financial or investment advice. No person should make any kind of financial decision without first consulting their financial adviser or conducting their research.
Happy trading! | https://medium.com/@ireneblessing/dapp-review-on-localethereum-steemit-f58f4420c6a3 | ['Irene Blessing'] | 2019-10-30 09:31:29.956000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Featured', 'Stateofthedapp', 'Dappreview', 'Localethereum'] |
Build the same app twice | Build the same app twice
In our series on Clean MVVM, we have shared real-life lessons shipping a major mobile client on multiple platforms for more than a decade. Clean MVVM is an architectural approach for building consistent apps in Swift and Kotlin, to maximize architectural and code design re-use. At its best, Clean MVVM enables you to copy-and-paste Swift into Kotlin, or Kotlin into Swift, and just twiddle the syntax.
Yes, this will be on the test
Below are the key points across all articles in this series, helpfully summarized:
Architecture
The control flow is: View ➡ ViewModel ➡ Logic ➡ Repository ➡ API/Store
Use Reactive streams when communicating state changes between layers
Logic classes are stateless and can be composed
Repository classes have state and should be global singletons injected via a DI system
Models should be structs or sealed classes that use primitive types only
BehaviorSubject / LiveData / Property / @Published are your go-to primitives for data that needs to be available for the duration of a screen and changes at unpredictable intervals
/ / / are your go-to primitives for data that needs to be available for the duration of a screen and changes at unpredictable intervals PublishSubject / Observable / SignalProducer / Publisher are for events, typically as a result of user input
/ / / are for events, typically as a result of user input Single / Completable / SignalProducer<Void> / AnyPublisher are for APIs and calls to local storage
Testing
Use dependency injection for object construction in tests
Only mock outer-layer classes — primarily network APIs
Structure your tests narratively using BDD, and minimize the number of assertions per test (ideally only one)
Use TestObserver classes (or their equivalent) to evaluate asynchronous streams
One more thing…
If you’re a mobile developer who enjoys app architecture, are interested in working for a values-first app company serving the queer community, talk to us! Visit https://www.scruff.com/en/careers for info about jobs at Perry Street Software.
More in the series
About the author
Eric Silverberg is the CEO and founder of Perry Street Software, publisher of two of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating apps on iOS and Android. He has been shipping mobile apps since 2010 and writing code since that english class book report in Hypertalk in 1995. | https://medium.com/perry-street-software-engineering/summary-clean-mvvm-in-swift-kotlin-7057230600aa | ['Eric Silverberg'] | 2020-12-23 19:49:53.602000+00:00 | ['Kotlin', 'Swift', 'Mvvm'] |
Brittny Wilson of The Nonprofit Reframe Podcast: Engage Your Podcast Audience through Co-Host Chemistry and Genuine Conversations | Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
Sure. I have spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector, working at several amazing organizations doing important work here is the US and abroad. I more or less fell into nonprofits but have continued to work — primarily in fundraising roles — because it’s truly meaningful.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
I was at a fundraising gala and was “fan-girled” by someone attending the event who listened to our show and wanted to meet me. It took me completely by surprise!
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?
I knew nothing about podcasting before I started so it took a while to get the sound levels right. For the first couple of episodes I could not get our mics at the same level so one of us always sounded louder than the other, so for one episode I shared a microphone. I was incredibly close to my co-host while trying to talk to her and couldn’t help laughing throughout the entire podcast taping.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
I’ve officially been podcasting for one year! I release full-length episodes every week, and so far, I’ve released 49 episodes and six mini ones.
What are the main takeaways, lessons, or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?
The reason I started the show was to provide an outlet for those working tirelessly in the nonprofit sector. The main takeaway is that I want them to know they are not alone, that I see them, and hopefully can provide a little levity to their day while shining a light on all of the challenging issues they face each day. At the same time, I want to confront the structures and barriers that the sector faces in trying to bring change to our communities.
In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?
My co-host, Nia Wassink, and I have been told that we have great chemistry together. The idea of the podcast was that the listener would be just another guest to our normal conversations we were already having. I want it to be as genuine as possible which is why our podcast has an “explicit” rating (the only nonprofit podcast rated as such). I didn’t want to have to censor our opinions, our personalities, or our language for that matter. If you met us on the street, I would act and sound the same as what you hear on the show.
Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every workday, or even every week, can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?
I feel extremely fortunate because I have such an amazing partner in crime with my co-host, Nia. I look forward to recording every single week. It doesn’t feel like a chore or a burden at all. That’s not to say it isn’t hard work because it is, especially on top of our day jobs. But at the end of the day, we’re just having the same conversations we do normally except taping it. Consistency is key so my advice is don’t start a podcast unless you’re extremely passionate about the topic and genuinely love talking about it!
What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?
There are several other bloggers and podcasters that I admire and follow for inspiration. But most of my inspiration comes from my everyday experiences in my work in the nonprofit sector. If something happens that fires me up, I know I need to talk about it on the show.
Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast?
I modeled our show after a famous podcast that has absolutely nothing to do with our content. I ‘m a big fan of the show “My Favorite Murder”, and wanted to create something similar where I could have weekly discussions on a topic I’m passionate about.
What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?
I think successful podcasts first and foremost are entertaining. Whether it’s with a comedic component or with riveting information, it must be able to hold the listener’s attention. I spend time planning out topics, ensuring a good mixture of content that meets the needs of our varied listeners and their backgrounds. From there, it truly is the consistency. I have people tell us that our podcast is what gets them through their Mondays.
Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast?
Content that you love: My co-host and I are constantly emailing stories, texting ideas, or calling each other with a concept for a future episode because I genuinely love the content. Content you’re comfortable with: Especially when starting out, have episodes with content that is something you’re comfortable talking about. Once you get into a groove you can start pushing the content into areas that are new for you. A great team: Whether you have a co-host or just a sideline cheerleader, having somebody to push you and encourage along the way is critical. There are times when I was having serious imposter syndrome and would reach out to my co-host for a pep talk. You’ll figure out the tech: I was overwhelmed by the idea of how to produce and distribute a podcast when I was first starting. With some training, reaching out to folks who have podcasts, and even just getting into forums, you can figure that stuff out. Now almost a year later, that stuff is the easiest part of it all! Know your Audience: I have accrued an audience beyond what I’d originally expected, and that’s caused me to change some of the podcast content in great ways. I make sure I provide additional context or explanation of concepts I’m discussing whenever possible so that all listeners can fully appreciate the episode.
Brittny Wilson of The Nonprofit Reframe Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. My podcast is not an interview model podcast, so I don’t book a lot of guests, but I’ve had one in particular that was a great catch. A month before I launched the podcast, I met one of my nonprofit icons at a conference and told him I was starting a podcast, and that maybe he could be my guest one day. I never imagined it would come to fruition so quickly, but seven months after I launched my podcast, I booked him on the show. I know it sounds simplistic, but you just have to ask. I’m a professional fundraiser — if there is anything I know, it’s how to make the ask. 2) Increase Listeners. I’ve been guests on a number of other podcasts and reached their audiences. I’ve also done live tapings at various conferences which are a lot of fun and expose me to a lot of people in the sector at one time. I also can’t underestimate the impact of social media and traditional marketing strategies. 3) Produce in a Professional Way. I must give full production credit to my co-host, Nia Wassink. She is our producer extraordinaire and has learned a lot this past year by joining Facebook podcasting groups, asking lots of questions, and reading blogs that give useful information. 4) Encourage Engagement. Every single show I ask our listeners a question and tell them to contact us with their stories. I love hearing from them! I also find lots of fun ways to engage episodes on social media. For instance, I held a fun Halloween costume contest between me and my co-host in October, and my podcast listeners voted via social media each week. 5) Monetize. I’ve been lucky to get paid sponsorships to help offset our costs. I’m also planning to do more on the speaker circuit and eventually write a book.
For someone looking to start their own podcast, which equipment would you recommend that they start with?
It really doesn’t take much. You can get a great microphone for less than $100 online and buy a computer with recording software. The key is really where and how you record. Find ways to incorporate sound-dampening and make sure your “studio” is quiet (keep dogs, kids, and spouses outside, for instance).
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Since our work is centered in the nonprofit sector, our hope is to help inspire and propagate a movement to shift philanthropy and the nonprofit sector out of the systems of oppression upon which they are both founded.
How can our readers follow you online?
Facebook: @nonprofitreframe
Instagram: @nonprofitreframe
Email: [email protected] | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/brittny-wilson-of-the-nonprofit-reframe-podcast-engage-your-podcast-audience-through-co-host-5695393dbd99 | ['Tracy Hazzard'] | 2020-12-02 00:14:32.624000+00:00 | ['Podcasting Tips', 'Podcasting', 'Podcast', 'Business', 'Influencers'] |
In Another Dimension with Michael | Relationships | Love | LGBT+ | Autobiography
In Another Dimension with Michael
Reminiscences of 1970s San Francisco
It was early evening of what had been an absolutely first-class, San-Francisco-summer day in the first week of August 1979. It was the end of my second day in the city after having been absent in Fairbanks since summer 1978.
I was at the door to his second-story flat in a fine old Victorian on Delores Street, the southern boundary of Mission Delores Park. Looking out over the street, I saw the park’s vast, sloping, green expanse dotted with a copse on the uphill side to my left. There was a row of well maintained Victorian homes across the park.The downtown skyline punctuated the background.
Fog blanketed the Avenues and the Bridge, where I had been cycling two hours earlier. But here, over the park, the sky was clear. The sun shone a dusky orange as it marched onward to the western horizon. It was 7:00, but there was still more than an hour to sunset. There was a slight chill to the evening.
I was floating on air with anticipation. I was confident of what was going to happen — two hours of dining on the authentic Spanish dinner he would prepare, with coffee and Orujo to finish, followed by God only knew how many hours of slow, tender, languid lovemaking, twice, perhaps three times over. I had extra lube just in case. I had no condoms. Neither did he, I knew. We had never used them.
He had a brilliant, inquiring mind and a quick wit. He was exceedingly well educated, nearly as widely read in the humanities, biography, history, and literature as was I — less so only because he was four years younger and I had had the extra time. He was in his first year of a pediatric residency at UCSF Med.
He was full-blooded Navajo and uncommonly handsome. He had shiny, thick and straight, steel-blue hair that came down almost to his shoulders. He brushed it 100 times every morning with a stiff horsehair brush, just as his mother had taught him. His dark brown eyes turned to pools of midnight when he looked at you with desire. They could melt a soul of iron, and leave it in a muddled heap wondering what had happened.
He was a definitive endomorph. His five-foot, eleven-and-a-half-inch, beautiful, brown-skinned body was well muscled. He had classic six-pack abs below rock-hard pecs. He had a perfect bubble butt and thighs that grew rigid when he flexed them. A sizeable package showed whenever he wore his button-fly, Levi 501s. He oozed sex pheromones.
He was my ultimate dream. Whenever I was near him, a siren song played about him in silent, golden tones. Like Odysseus, I would have had to be roped to the mast to resist him.
His name was Michael. We met in the summer of 1975 at the gym, the Golden Gate Y. I was hanging upside down from the parallel bars doing vertical situps and obliques. Across the room, he was on the mat, stretching out.
We connected the instant we locked eyes. It wasn’t merely chemistry and heat; it was fireworks and magic.
I was in my first year of law school. He was in his second year of med school. We dated for two years. Except, it wasn’t dating as if we were courting or engaged, though I wanted it to be.
From that first upside-down sighting of him sitting with his legs out to his sides, his torso and arms extended forward and flat against the mat, with those pools of midnight looking straight at me, I was entirely stricken.
I would have seen him every day and slept with him every night just to awaken with him against me in half-sleep, an erection rousing to full extension. I would have moved my razor and toothbrush into his bathroom and clothes into a drawer. I wouldn’t have asked for more than one.
I missed him when we weren’t together. I would see an art exhibition or a gymnastics meet and reflexively think, “Michael would love this.” I wanted to share them with him, to see the delight on his face or hear the timbre of his voice speaking of how they affected him.
I’m here to testify that love, at first sight, is real. From the beginning, I wanted to live life with him.
But, he set the pace, and I never brought up the prospect. I knew instinctively that the subject was unwelcome. Then, for some reason that eluded me, he quit our relationship after two years. I had finally built up the nerve to ask him why, when serendipity delivered me to Tyler, whom I came to love, and with whom I spent that third year.
The next year I spent as a law clerk in Fairbanks. It ended in June 1979. I had a job at a law firm in Philadelphia waiting. I was to start the last week in September. I was spending August in San Francisco, having spent July in Seattle. Serendipity was about to do a little spell-work in my life yet again.
On my first day back in the city, after two years apart, I came upon him in the steam room at the Y, appropriately enough. He was sitting naked on the tiled bench, a white gym towel with the Y’s logo casually draped over his right knee. The steam enveloped him in a translucent cloud. Condensed steam and sweat ran in rivulets through the cleft between his pecs and down his belly to where it pooled in his jet-black bush of pubic hair.
Ah, there were those pheromones again. He was as alluring as ever I remembered him.
He struck up the conversation before I had a chance to recover my tongue. He was friendly and welcoming, which surprised me a little. Whatever I had done those two years earlier seemed to have been forgiven or forgotten. He invited me to dinner the next evening.
“Arrive at 7:00 for 9:00,” he had said, which was how I came to be standing on the stoop to the Victorian ringing the bell. I was aquiver with expectation and a little trepidatious about the Orujo I knew he would serve. It was a cultivated taste. I hoped I hadn’t lost mine in the two years since I had last sampled it on his tongue.
After a leisurely, relaxed dinner, coffee, and Orujo, for which I still had a taste, he took my hand and led me to the front bedroom. He switched off the light as we passed the sill. Indirect moonlight entered through the bay window for which there were no curtains. The city lights twinkled like fireflies in the night. It was a bit after 11:00. All the gay boys were headed for the bars on Castro and Folsom streets.
We had something else to do. | https://medium.com/prismnpen/in-another-dimension-with-michael-17deeafd582 | ['Alex'] | 2020-10-20 04:36:44.473000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Creative Non Fiction', 'LGBTQ', 'Relationships', 'Drugs'] |
Better Framing S-Curves | Either I am reading the wrong things — or I have never really heard it discussed — but dollar revenue growth analysis is a relatively elegant way to understand s-curves and earnestly frame revenue growth. I don’t see it discussed often if ever, and I have been starting to use it a lot personally when modeling out companies.
First off — I want to say that this post is definitely inspired, as all things are online, by the stuff I’ve read before — and 2 pieces in particular come to mind. First this piece on s-curves at lesswrong.com by mr-hire and second this piece by Eugene Wei.
Also while I’m at it, disclaimer time: nothing is investment advice, nor do I have any idea what I’m doing, this is an anon blog and you should take everything accordingly for someone who won’t put the skin in the game of my real name. I truly hope you’re beyond taking advice from strangers on the internet.
So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, but S-Curves are notoriously hard to predict. Maybe its non-linear thinking, or the human’s inability to understand exponential growth, or hyperbolic discounting, or whatever. All I know is that it’s clear that S-curves are hard to predict.
I was raised on Valuation by Damodaran, and if I recall correctly you’re supposed to decelerate growth to the industry growth rate in the end terminal period as a kind of best practice in a typical model. You see it all the time in models of others, consensus revenue estimates, etc. A kind of double discounting on the growth rate beyond your discount rate itself. And for the most part this makes sense in linear growth companies, but S-curves… are well s-curves! Looking at the base rate book and you’ll see that the previous revenue deceleration assumption is right on average, but obviously s-curves have this weird power that when they inflect over a certain adoption percentage they accelerate — or stay flat as a percentage of revenue. Imagine with a straight face suggesting that a company will accelerate to your boss, when all you’ve ever been taught is mean reversion to the dust. Pretty hard if you ask me!
This is from the Less Wrong piece
This is where dollar revenue growth really shines from an analysis perspective. Now be forewarned, there are no silver bullets, just another framing tool and constant pruning of the bookends of your expectations. And from a high-level dollar revenue is pretty much stolen from this chart, except graphing the dollar revenue to match what you see here.
Also from the less wrong piece
So let’s see it in action with one of the most famous S-Curves ever, Apple.
Apple — Over the S-Curve Hill
The second “hill” was the larger format size, an expansion of their TAM.
Not quite as clean as the graphic huh? And not to mention we had some significant decelerations or even dollar shrinkage for Apple multiple times. If you think about the historic stock prices for Apple and stock narrative scares, this really helps put the multiple contract and deceleration fears in context (below).
The multiples are just contractions due to fear of deceleration. Well I can hear you say “duh mule — you can just tell that by a lowering of sales growth percentage — this is the dumbest analysis ever and pretty much showcases your lack of understanding for calculus.” — but just wait! I think this helps give nuance to what’s so different about the 2016 bear case on Apple than the 2013 bear case on Apple.
In 2013 the company was still growing and decelerating, meaning its over the hill but I would feel much more comfortable with that chart than the 2016 deceleration, just because it was still positive. Meanwhile in 2016 I can feel very confident we are over the S-curve hill for iPhones, and there is no way else to cut it. We may see dollar revenue go positive or negative in the future, but that really is a function of the replacement cycle.
And I think that’s okay! The current bull case is now predicated on Apple services, another huge growth story in it’s own right.
(There’s a 1 time charge of 640 in 4Q17 — but the dollar revenue deceleration is something to be a bit wary of.)
And while this is all very transparent in the ever-high-profile Apple, you can make inferences similar to this but on much less covered companies using Dollar revenue curves. Also feel free to do calculus on something as noisy as quarterly results — this is just how I do things and think its much easier to understand.
But likely the problem on this analysis here is that iPhone now have hardware cycles, as they have become durable products. So where this really seems to be the best framework is for companies with consistent annual revenue and no replacement cycles growing through secular s-curve adoption… which reluctantly brings me to an analysis on everyone’s favorite topic as of late, Software as a Service.
I think where this tool is best used is probably in consumable viral products, and recurring revenue subscriptions. The product has to be bought each year with a short life span, so maybe Spin Master(TOY:CN) is probably a good example for viral product adoption cycles — and the dollar revenue chart sure tells a story. Reminder Spin Master made the viral hit Hatchimals.
Talk about a vicious deceleration — Forward numbers are IEBS consensus
Salesforce.com and S-Curves
So, let’s change the subject to the grand-daddiest of all SaaS companies — Salesforce.com. I think the dollar based revenue assumption really shines best here. First let’s look at overall dollar revenue. Disclosure again: the model isn’t mine I am shamelessly stealing from a sell-side model here — and I don’t really know CRM past the cursory glance. The point of this post will be to look at a company I know almost nothing about, and see if the dollar revenue growth tells a story.
Let’s first take a look at total revenue dollar growth
Up and to the right eh? What does this say if we refer to that S-Curve chart?
Oh wow — they aren’t even over the hill!? Now I don’t know if this is really true — but I think that by segment level tells another more interesting story. Let’s look at dollar revenue by segment.
So now things really change in perspective. We can make some broad generalizations that may or may not be right, just based on the numbers without much context.
Some helpful context is that Salesforce acquired Mulesoft in 2018 and consolidated it with Sales force platform (App cloud), and they acquired Datorama in late 2018 and consolidated it with marketing, and they also acquired Demandware in early 2017 and I presume consolidated it in marketing cloud.
1) the core sales cloud is past it’s prime, there is no doubt. Revenue will still grow, but your estimates should complete that dollar revenue hump to some reasonable extent, unless you believe they can reaccelerate with something new. I find in reality the late laggards are much slower than the early adopters, and the right side of the curve is right skew.
2) Meanwhile Service cloud’s dollar revenue growth shows a business that seems either past its core s-curve adoption, a series of acquisitions, or had hit some invisible asymptote and moved past it as of late. There’s a lot to unpack there — this warrants a further look.
3) App cloud looks like an acquisition (significant jump) — if you can unpack the revenue from acquisition you can confirm / disconfirm their revenue growth expansion ability.
4) Marketing cloud looks like 2 acquisitions — and a period in between the acquisition with lower dollar growth — I would truly doubt the ability to grow in a positive dollar way into the future, expecting deceleration seems warranted.
I don’t know if any of those opinions are right, but I do think that the dollar revenue framework does give a lot more nuance than the chart below.
Anyways — I hope that helps prove out how to think about dollar revenue growth, and its use to help better frame the revenue perspective going forward. And let’s kind of flush it out for forward quarterly revenue expectations
Yeah I have no idea what to tell you about that chart — other than 2020 numbers are really freaking weird and seem wrong. I would guess because it’s a hard-coded step down to ~20% revenue growth, but in the context of dollar revenue this doesn’t jive with reality. The unfortunate reality is that consensus estimates past the quarters for the rest of the year are kind of numbers they throw at the wall, and the most accurate and thought about numbers in consensus is the rest of the year based on guidance. Oh well.
Another Benefit of Dollar Revenue Analyses — Dollar Market Share
Like the rest of the investment community, I too have been shocked by the absolute staggering growth of Amazon Web Services & public cloud in general. I often hear arguments like “well Azure is growing much faster, they will catch-up” and logically a company growing 80%+ YoY makes it seem like the lead isn’t that far away, but this is where Dollar Revenue Share comes into play as well as a better framing tool.
Disclaimer: Most of the data is from Goldman estimates, I know they are precisely wrong, but probably generally correct.
First their Dollar Revenue Growth Charts — GCP sadly is not even close to broken out enough, and Azure’s revenue estimate is dubious to say the least, but I’m piggybacking on the analysts at Goldman’s work, which I think is a fair estimate. | https://medium.com/@FoolAllTheTime/better-framing-s-curves-4d846d47a7b8 | ['The Mule'] | 2019-05-16 16:11:19.252000+00:00 | ['S Curve Of Business', 'SaaS', 'Excel', 'Finance'] |
A Step By Step Guide To Using Handlebars With Your Node js App | Since our “main.handlebars” file is empty if you try to run the app and look at the result nothing will show up since neither our “main.handlebars” nor “index.handlebars”’s body contain anything, so let’s open the “main.handlebars” file and fill it with some content:
<h2>Liste of my most loved League champions</h2>
<ul>
<li class="midlaner">Leblanc</li>
<li class="midlaner">Lux</li>
<li class="toplaner">Teemo</li>
<li class="midlaner">Kassadin</li>
<li class="toplaner">Jarvan IV</li>
</ul>
Let’s add some CSS:
li {
font-size: 2rem;
width: 300px;
margin: 4px;
padding: 4px;
list-style: none
} .midlaner {background-color: #eeeeee} .toplaner {background-color: #ffea00}
By now if you refresh the page, you will see some content (probably not interesting enough to catch your eyes).
Handlebars Configuration
extname: string
The first thing it came to my mind and I’m pretty sure it was the same for you when you were about to create handlebars file is “Uhm that’s a heck of a big file extension” and that’s where our first configuration property comes in handy.
Let’s change the code so our file extension will take fewer characters, “.hbs” for instance looks good to me:
//instead of app.set('view engine', 'handlebars');
app.set('view engine', 'hbs'); //instead of app.engine('handlebars', handlebars({
app.engine('hbs', handlebars({
layoutsDir: __dirname + '/views/layouts',
//new configuration parameter
extname: 'hbs'
}));
Don’t forget to change the extension of the files we already created (“main.handlebars” to “main.hbs” and “index.handlebars” to “index.hbs”).
defaultLayout: string
By default, if you don’t tell handlebars which layout file to render, it will throw an error telling you there’s no layout file. Using this property will give you the control to what name of the file it has to look for in case you didn’t explicitly mention it in the render function.
Let’s create a file and name it “planB.hbs” and let’s fill it with something different:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
<title>My Awesome App</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, viewport-fit=cover" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is the plan B page</h1>
{{!-- We could use the same body as the index.hbs page --}}
{{!-- using the {{{body}}}, you remember it right ?--}}
</body>
</html>
Let’s add the new property to our “index.js” file:
app.engine('hbs', handlebars({
layoutsDir: __dirname + '/views/layouts',
extname: 'hbs',
//new configuration parameter
defaultLayout: 'planB',
})); app.get('/', (req, res) => {
//instead of res.render('main', {layout: 'index'});
res.render('main');
});
I guess you predicted correctly what we will be getting after running the code, didn’t you?
Keep in mind that adding the property with a name of a file let’s say “file1.hbs” as value will be overwritten if you mention explicitly another file “file2.hbs” in the render function, in other words, the file mentioned in the render function has the priority to be rendered over the one mentioned in the defaultLayout property.
partialsDir: string
This property helps to make the project more organized, it takes a string path to a folder as a value, this folder will contain small chunks of code that we can use in the body of our “main.hbs”, “index.hbs” or any other partial file (a partial nested inside another one). It’s the same idea of the component-based frameworks such as React.
Let’s create two files in the subfolder named “partials” that we created earlier and call them “lovedChamps.hbs” and “hatedChamps.hbs”.
Cut the code inside the “main.hbs” file and paste it inside the “lovedChamps.hbs” and let’s create another list inside the “hatedChamps.hbs”.
“main.hbs”:
{{> lovedChamps}}
{{> hatedChamps}}
As you can see we’re referring to the files containing the code we want to include to our core code by this notation {{> partial_name}}.
“lovedChamps.hbs”:
<h2>Liste of my most loved League champions</h2>
<ul>
<li class="midlaner">Leblanc</li>
<li class="midlaner">Lux</li>
<li class="toplaner">Teemo</li>
<li class="midlaner">Kassadin</li>
<li class="toplaner">Jarvan IV</li>
</ul>
“hatedChamps.hbs”:
<h2>Liste of my most hated League champions</h2>
<ul>
<li class="midlaner">Yasuo</li>
<li class="midlaner">Zoe</li>
<li class="toplaner">Mundo</li>
<li class="toplaner">Darius</li>
<li class="midlaner">Fizz</li>
</ul>
“index.js”:
app.engine('hbs', handlebars({
layoutsDir: __dirname + '/views/layouts',
extname: 'hbs',
defaultLayout: 'planB',
//new configuration parameter
partialsDir: __dirname + '/views/partials/'
})); app.get('/', (req, res) => {
//Using the index.hbs file instead of planB
res.render('main', {layout: 'index'});});
Run this and see magic happens. | https://medium.com/@waelyasmina/a-guide-into-using-handlebars-with-your-express-js-application-22b944443b65 | ['Wael Yasmina'] | 2020-11-30 17:57:38.380000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Backend Development', 'Expressjs', 'Backend', 'Handlebars'] |
Getting them to open up to you | by: E.B. Johnson
When it comes to our relationships, clear lines of communication are key in order to keep both parties happy, equal and in-sync. Whether it’s our friendships or our relationships, bonds formed without honest communication are bonds that are doomed. It’s not always easy to keep the lines open when the hard realities of life are bearing down on you, but it’s critical in order to keep ourselves (and our mental wellbeing) at peace.
When we’re battling depression, loss or just a major life-change it can be hard to open up and share our feelings — even with the people we love most. If you’re living or working with someone who struggling, getting them to open up can be critical — but getting someone to open up is an art that takes time, compassion and understanding to master.
Why our loved ones shut down.
People shut down for a number of reasons, and none of them pleasant. Stonewalling is a coping mechanism that can cause us to emotionally or physically withdraw due to feeling psychologically or physiologically overwhelmed. Refusing to react or engage has a number of damaging consequences, but you have to understanding the reasoning of the injured party before you can help them open up.
Avoidant coping mechanisms
The things we learn in childhood follow us throughout our lives in both productive and destructive ways. When we grow up in a “you’re on your own” environment, we can develop avoidant attachment methods that can cause us to respond to trauma or stress by shutting down, rather than addressing the underlying issues and getting to the root of our problems.
Avoidant coping mechanisms are toxic and can vary from person to person. It’s an easy default to fall into, however, especially when you’ve come to believe that your needs don’t matter, or they’ll never be met.
When we’re lost in the woods, we go back to what we know — and for those of us with traumatic childhoods, that’s often that shutting down is the safest thing to do. If you’re dealing with someone who’s shut down, beware; there might be more lurking under the surface than you realize.
Fear of rejection
Rejection is a very real fear faced by each and every one of us. Getting turned down or rejected by someone that matters is a painful experience that can leave us feeling vulnerable and off-kilter with our sense of self. Fear of rejection is a complex emotion, which can be triggered by a number of life events like death, divorce or event estrangement. Whether the events or related or not doesn’t matter. It’s more about the loss and the processing of the complex emotions that come along with it.
Feelings of guilt or judgement
Those who struggle with avoidant or ambivalent attachment adaptations often have a hard time admitting their feelings — even to themselves. Rather than dealing with these issues head on, they internalize them, which then causes them to manifest as feelings of fear of judgement and even guilt.
Unresolved guilt is a bit like an alarm going off in your head, non-stop, chipping away at your mental stability and wellbeing. Guilt can make it hard to think straight and feeling fearful of the judgement of others can leave you paralyzed, leading to missed opportunities and the erosion of relationships that would be otherwise helpful.
A 12-step process for getting them to open up.
It’s important to note here that getting someone to open up is a delicate process and not one that should not be taken on lightly.
Though talking about our issues can be cathartic or even healing, talking before we’re ready (or before we’ve had a chance to process) can be more damaging than not speaking up at all. You should think of this process more as a reaching out, rather than a reaching in. Use these 12 steps and get the person you love to open up the right way — when they’re ready.
1. Agree to discuss things.
The first step in reaching out to anyone is simply agreeing to have a discussion at all. Wait for a safe and secure moment in which you are both fully comfortable, and set down a good time for you both to talk about things. Choose a moment in the near-future that works for you both, and commit to it — no matter what.
2. State your intentions.
Once the day has come to talk things out, open it up by stating your intentions from the outset and being honest, open and frank about what your thoughts or concerns are. Let the other person know what it is you seek, and let them know what you hope to do for them by the end.
Phrases like, “I hope that we will both just feel more comfortable talking about the hard stuff by the end of this,” or “I just want us to both feel like we’re living in an open, judgement-free environment, where we can express ourselves however we need to.” You can also try compassionate approaches like, “I hope to be able to listen more openly to your feelings and needs and not be so defensive when it comes to things that are hard for me to hear.”
As important as it is to state your intentions at the outset, it’s just as important to take the time to clarify those intentions before your conversation. Square away your feelings and be honest about why you’re reaching out. Make sure your intentions are coming, not from a place of selfish interest, but a place of honest compassion. Being helpful is one thing, being nosy is another. Be sure of your intentions before you ask someone to open up about the hard stuff to you.
3. Stay centered, grounded and open.
When dealing with any difficult conversation, it’s critical to stay centered, grounded and open at all times — even if that seems like the most difficult challenge in the world. Show a willingness to listen and look for the underlying feelings that are indicated through the thoughts, feelings and words of the other party.
Often, all we want is to be heard. But that requires the other party to stay present in the moment by remaining centered and grounded to conversation and the words that the other person is speaking. Be present by being proactive and getting involved in where the other person is coming from. You’ll be surprised at the difference that it makes.
4. Fess up to your missteps.
If your friend, partner or loved one admits to having issue with something that you’ve said or done, it’s important to stick your hands up and take responsibility for the part you played. Remember that, in any relationships, it’s a give and take and everyone plays a part when things go wrong.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to decide whether or not we’ve hurt someone. If one friend or partner expresses a problem, we have to accept that we’ve done hasn’t had the effect we intended.
Accepting responsibility allows you to interrupt the cycle of blame and get to the resolution stage quicker, but you have to be strong enough to fess up for the part you’ve played — whether you want to or not.
5. Remind yourselves that change is possible.
The great thing about life is that it is full of change, blooming abundantly all around us in a garden of variety that makes us better for its adversity. No matter what our history or track-record of previous failures might be, it is always possible to change — but it takes acceptance and it takes a willingness to embrace the unknown with a happy abandon than can make us feel more off-balance than we did before (at first).
It is possible to interrupt even the most deeply-embedded patterns, but you must remind yourself that change is possible and you must do it often.
When encouraging someone to open up to you, let them know that change is always waiting around the corner and that you embrace it openly, as they should too. Hold onto your vision of a successful outcome and remember that it’s not possible to change other people, but they can want to change themselves.
6. Promote trust and respect.
People don’t open up to those they don’t respect and they don’t open up to those they don’t trust. Speak in ways that encourage these values and promote an environment of honesty, safety and openness.
Be patient and don’t take things personally. Show, through your actions and your words, that you’re someone who does what they’ll say; that you’re someone who can be trusted. Ask what you can do to help them open up and let them know that — no matter what they say — you are a judgement free zone, incapable of seeing them any differently for what they have to say.
7. Drop the self-righteous justifications.
Once the other party has had an opportunity to open up about what’s wrong, avoid the temptation to drop into the self-righteous justifications (if their issues happens to involve you).
Instead, focus on understanding, rather than being understood. Too often, we think we can make it right by making the other person see it from our side.
Drop that compulsive need and seek to see things from their side instead. It doesn’t matter why you did it — it just matters that you address what happened and focus on a resolution both parties can be happy with.
8. Remember it’s always roughest before the resolution.
After you’ve gotten someone to open up, things often get rockiest just before we reach a resolution. As feelings and memories are dredged up, our emotions can surge right along with them, resulting in some turbulent feelings for both sides that will reside naturally as you slide toward a resolution.
9. Patience. Patience. More Patience.
Getting someone to share their innermost feelings or ideas with you isn’t an easy thing, and it’s not always a one-and-done process. Be patient with the other party, both in the time it takes them to open up, as well as the time it takes them to get all those bad feelings and emotions out.
Someone who has shut down is a person who is plagued by a sea of complex emotions and past experiences. They need time to process how they feel, and they need time to share things in a manner that’s in line with their authentic needs.
Be patient and understand that these situations don’t resolve themselves overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was our personal baggage. It took years to accrue so give it some time to simmer.
10. Acknowledge the instant improvements.
Once we’ve been given a chance to share our feelings honestly and openly, we can often experience instantaneous improvement. If someone you love has opened up to you, acknowledge those improvements as you see them, and look for the little shifts that might occur almost imperceptably. Even the smallest shift in dialogue is worth acknowledging. Harder conversations are better held between the buns of a compliment sandwich.
11. Don’t worry about their intentions.
Damaged people damage other people, that’s just a fact of life. It’s important, when reaching out to someone who is shutting down, to remember that their intentions don’t matter — yours do.
While they might be expressing their feelings in order to manipulate or change your behavior, the only thing that matters is that you listen and make it clear that they can express themselves when they feel the need to. This doesn’t mean you need to give in, or even worry about where they’re coming from. The only thing you can control is your intentions, so those are the intentions you should be focusing on.
12. Thank them — even when the sharing is small.
Once you’ve ended your dialogue — no matter where you’ve ended it — it’s important to thank your partner or loved one for sharing (no matter how meagre the tidbit).
It takes a lot of courage to share any part of ourselves with someone else. Even opening up on the most superficial of levels can feel like a gargantuan quest these days, so it’s important to express gratitude for the effort it takes to take on that task.
No matter what the outcome is, thank your friend, partner or loved one and make it clear that you understand what it took. Express a desire the continue the conversation at a later date and let them know you’re there for them, not matter what feelings come next.
Important tips for getting them to open up to you.
Before you address your friend or loved one, it’s important to keep a few key things in mind about opening up to others, or getting them to open up to us. Trust is a funny thing and to lose it or gain it is no small feat.
Be an ally, not an adversary.
Though it can be frustrating to think that someone is shutting down when they should be opening up, it’s important to come from a place of ally-ship rather than adversary-ship.
Becoming dismayed with someone who can’t or won’t open up isn’t fair. We all have things in our pasts that leave us damaged, but it’s up to us when we’re ready to address those things and share them with other people.
If someone you love is stonewalling you, it’s important to approach only when you can do so from the place of an ally. Be a shoulder, not a battering ram, and remember that healing is a process that happens in ages and in phases. We all have our own journey and it takes time to get to the point where we feel safe enough to share.
Don’t be a crowbar.
Opening up is scary and it’s a process that’s got different timeframes for different people. Don’t bully the other party into opening up and don’t try to force information from them before they’re ready to offer it up. Don’t be a crowbar when what you need to be is a “Welcome” sign. Let them know they’re safe, but don’t force the meal before it’s cooked.
Put the nagging away for another time.
Nagging never got anyone anywhere, and it’s just as forceful a method as trying to bully information out of someone.
If your partner or loved one is struggling to open up, don’t nag them and don’t try to guilt them into giving into your demands for open and compassionate sharing. Nagging and nudging will only make the other party clam up. Put it away for another time and pick the battles that actually matter.
Focus on the empathy.
Once you get the other party to open up, it’s important to keep the focus on empathy and make sure they know that they’re being heard.
This can be done by letting them know that you “get” what they’re saying, or by letting them know that you identify with their feelings.
When someone is struggling it’s important to emphasize empathy, but that can only be done when your intentions are squared away and you’re coming from the right place yourself.
Understand that some hidden wounds are too deep for you to address.
Sometimes, the wounds that are causing our partners, spouses or loved ones to shut down are too deep for us to address. In those cases, it’s important to have the courage to say, “I’m out of my depth,” and reach out to a mental health professional that can be of assistance in untangling the complex web of emotions that sometimes lead to a stonewalling of someone we love.
Though we might feel as though we could (and would) do anything in the world to help someone we love, the hard-to-swallow truth is that we can’t always be the hero that the other party needs.
Being an adult means knowing when it’s time to take a step back, or when it’s time to step in. We’re all responsible for our own healing, but some wounds are just too big to lick from the privacy of our own homes.
Putting it all together…
Overcoming the impasses that block up our most meaningful relationships is never easy, but it’s necessary in order to maintain stability and happiness in our lives. Most of it comes down to willingness, as well as an understanding of what it takes for someone to open up or share the way they’re feeling. If you want to get someone to open up to you, it’s important to go about it the right way and know that everyone’s healing is different and everyone shares at different stages in the process.
Agree to discuss things at a time that works for you both, and make your intentions clear at the outset when you do. Stay centered and present in the moment, and fess up if the conflict involves you. Change is possible, but we have to foster that change in an environment of trust and respect in order to make it clear that we can drop our egos. So, take a step back, take a deep breath and let the other person know that you’re there for them no matter what. Be a helping hand, not a window-bashing crowbar, and encourage deeper connection by opening up to change and acceptance. | https://medium.com/lady-vivra/getting-them-to-open-up-d45b4b9bd265 | ['E.B. Johnson'] | 2019-05-27 11:57:40.782000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Relationships', 'Partnerships', 'Self', 'Self Improvement'] |
Kalao December 2021 | Big crush on Feelings collection with 250 pieces of pure Art.
Other important news was our auctioned event for Arnaud Journou and his unique artwork NFTs linked to a physical painting.
Other ways we have shared our growth is our double reward farming with the Trader Joe team providing more than 200% APR, our continued relationship with AvaxHomes, our partnership with IZEV, as well as a great upcoming collaboration with AvaxPenguinFamily who will bring a great platform to the Avalanche ecosystem.
The Kalao Marketplace and Community
The highlight feature has been the ongoing success of the Kalao Marketplace, the popularity of its use, and the multitudes of collections it has brought in such a short time. We are very excited to see the growth continue and show NFTs communities that both Kalao and AVAX are a hotspot for high quality NFTs.
Including the rapid user growth, we have shared our newest release for the updates for the Kalao Marketplace, including advanced filters and sorting capabilities, rarity insights, and support for both Ledger and Trezor wallets. Important efforts have been put on stabilizing and improving the performance to cope with accelerated user growth.
We also took the opportunity to improve our launchpad KalaoGo that we leveraged to successfully launch several collections.
We’ll obviously continue to improve the UI/UX with additional features and enhanced user journeys to make the Kalao experience even smoother.
Get ready for a very exciting 2022
December has also been very important for the team to get the platform ready for the upcoming Citadel and token utilities. On the horizon for 2022, we have already began sharing what’s in store for Kalao, featuring support for Unreal Engine graphics, multiplayer modes, customizable shops and galleries, access to AVAX dApps directly from Citadel, play-to-earn games with leaderboards, and much more.
Adding utility to the token has always been a priority and in our plans and we will start this journey by enabling staking on our platform as of Jan 5 as disclosed in this dedicated medium.
A series of articles will be shared with the community to provide more details on how all these new features will work and how to use them.
Thank You
As we look forward to 2022, we want to highlight the most important part of Kalao — the community and its users. Kalao is only as strong as the community members who support it. We want to thank you for all the support this year and for the journey ahead.
We wish you all a fantastic 2022 sparkled with joy and prosperity! | https://medium.com/@Kalao/kalao-december-2021-9f812574413a | [] | 2021-12-31 16:28:58.144000+00:00 | ['Nft Marketplace', 'Nft', 'Metaverse', 'Kalao', 'Avalanche'] |
Why Were the Allies Not Marched Upon at Dunkirk? | December 26, 2020 · Military
The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940.
Rebellion sits down with General David Petraeus to find out the answer to why the Germans did not advance at Dunkirk and more!
What is the Future of the US Military?
Read More | https://medium.com/@rebellionresearch/why-were-the-allies-not-marched-upon-at-dunkirk-13ae4d8b8f6d | ['Alexander Fleiss'] | 2020-12-26 12:33:27.655000+00:00 | ['World War II', 'Military', 'France'] |
My First Tattoo | My first tattoo — oh, what shall it be?
A squiggly beast from under the sea?
Or maybe a clown or my precious dog’s mug
Certainly, nothing resembling a bug
When I retire, I’ve committed to …
An object immortalized in a tattoo
The problem is that I can’t decide
What object to ink just under my hide
And where would I put it, I shudder to think
A calf or a shoulder all covered in ink
I don’t want to display it every day of the week
So it can’t be immortalized high on my cheek
My friends would say “That doesn’t suit you”
But I’d tell them “Shut up!” I will do as I do
Too much of my life has been tempered and tame
Now I’m breakin’ it loose with no regret or shame
I worked hard all my in modest employ
Like my loyal dog Rusty, I was a good boy
But retirement, damn, I’ll be raising hell
You’ll hear all about it when I jump from my shell
It will represent something much bigger than me
A beacon that broadcasts irrevocably
A transformative mark shouting “I am the man!”
And “Don’t mess with me brother, or Alakazam!”
So, I’ll pick something sinister, evil, and best,
I will wear it emblazoned all over my chest
On my last day at work, I’ll unveil my tat
They’ll all wish they could be as badass as that
Now the artist commands me to make up my mind
She’s has customers waiting and isn’t too kind
Under pressure my life flashes by in a buzz
And I see that I’m happier just as I was
So, I think I will go with the squiggly beast
My rebellious desires abruptly released
He’ll be modest and green as a sea beast should be
Frolicking happily over my knee
Will it hurt? | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/my-first-tattoo-a229cacbae68 | ['Brian Feutz'] | 2020-12-16 14:54:54.131000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Retirement', 'Life', 'Self', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
8 Things To Know If You’re In A Relationship With An Empath | 1. Our alone time is non-negotiable
Relationships are important to us. We thrive when we’re surrounded by people who truly respect us and love us for who we are.
However, we are lone wolves. We need our downtime as no one else does. We tend to absorb our partner’s energy, and become overwhelmed, anxious, or exhausted when we don’t have time to decompress in our own space.
It’s not a luxury; it’s about self-preservation. I feel suffocated and disrespected when I’m not given my space to breathe and recharge, and I’m at my best when I have that time for myself.
2. Be sensitive about how you express yourself
Empaths usually think twice before saying or doing anything. We’re extremely careful when expressing our feelings and opinions because we don’t want to hurt anyone with our words — and we expect the same in return.
Keep in mind that we get easily hurt by criticism and judgement. We can’t just “shrug things off”. So, if you say something that causes damage, there’s no going back. We’ll feel sad and overwhelmed by our emotions for hours.
3. We can’t stand shallowness
Understanding an empath requires an incredible amount of empathy, and connecting with us is something most people we date are unable to do.
Everything we feel is deep, and that includes our love for you — it’s as real, raw and pure as it can be.
“The sort of love that awakens all the cells in your body is the norm for us. It has such intensity that it slows down time, makes you feel like a million bucks, and reminds you what’s important in life. I’m talking about THAT kind of love. I’m not saying it lasts forever, especially in long-term relationships, but you’re almost sure to experience it if we fall in love with you.” Ginelle Testa, in Love Is Intense For Everyone, But For Empaths, It’s Out Of This World
4. Believe in us, and verbalize it
Empaths are creative souls. We have a million dreams, visions, and aspirations, and we love to fantasize about them.
Although it can be beneficial for us to be with someone who’s more down-to-earth, it’s important to find a compromise. We’re at our best when our partner believes in our abilities and helps us make our dreams come true. When this doesn’t happen, we feel devalued and invalidated.
5. Allow us to express our emotions freely
We wear our hearts on our sleeves. We feel a lot, and we feel intensely. It can be tempting to tell us to ‘let it go’ and focus on something else, but this is not something we can easily do.
Don’t try to change us. Don’t tell us we’re too sensitive — we’re perfectly aware of that and we work really hard to accept ourselves. We’re our own worst critics and we don’t need any more judgement.
The best thing you can do is to comfort us and support us through these difficult moments and phases, and we’ll forever be grateful.
6. Don’t force us to socialize when we don’t want to
Now, I’m at a point in my life where I know my boundaries and I respect my emotional needs. But usually, empaths do their best to please everyone and it can take a long time for us to learn how to put ourselves first.
We love to socialize and to spend time with those who are important to us. However, as I’ve mentioned, we also need our downtime to unwind.
If sometimes we don’t feel like going out, then please respect that. It’s nothing personal. We’re probably just trying to recharge and process our emotions.
7. Be always honest — we know when you’re lying
Our intuition is usually spot on. We know when you’re speaking the truth — we may choose to look the other way because we love you and we have the habit of seeing the good in others, but believe me, we know.
If you want to avoid conflict, just tell us the raw truth in a kind, considerate way. Heck, there’s no one more understanding and compassionate than us (which can be one of our flaws sometimes!), so there’s no point in lying to us.
8. Our hearts are constantly broken
“An empath’s heart is constantly broken by injustice, by inequalities, by the amount of toxicity in others and by being hurt by people. So, the least of your worries will be that you’ll ever get hurt by an empath. They are very aware of the pain in this world and that’s why they’ll do anything they can to protect your heart. You won’t have to worry that you’ll be cheated on, that they’ll ghost on you or anything like that because, when it comes to empaths, they always put your needs before theirs.”
Maria Parker, in 8 Ways Empaths Love Differently | https://medium.com/be-unique/8-things-to-know-if-youre-in-a-relationship-with-an-empath-28d9faeb3d55 | ['Patrícia S. Williams'] | 2020-11-06 17:08:33.970000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Self', 'Advice', 'Spirituality', 'Love'] |
『週額５０に仮想通貨で』０１０ーFCoin取引所は非営利団体？取引手数料の１００％還元！取引所収益の１００％配当！ | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/%E4%BB%AE%E6%83%B3%E9%80%9A%E8%B2%A8%E3%81%A7%E9%80%B1%E9%A1%8D%EF%BC%95%EF%BC%90%E3%81%AE%E7%A9%8D%E7%AB%8B%E3%82%92%E8%B2%B7%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%BF%E3%81%9F/%E4%BB%AE%E6%83%B3%E9%80%9A%E8%B2%A8%E3%81%A7%E9%80%B1%E9%A1%8D%EF%BC%95%EF%BC%90%E3%81%AE%E7%A9%8D%E7%AB%8B%E3%82%92%E8%B2%B7%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%BF%E3%81%9F-%EF%BC%90%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%91%E3%83%BCfcoin%E5%8F%96%E5%BC%95%E6%89%80%E3%81%AF%E9%9D%9E%E5%96%B6%E5%88%A9%E5%9B%A3%E4%BD%93-%E5%8F%96%E5%BC%95%E6%89%8B%E6%95%B0%E6%96%99%E3%81%AE%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%90%EF%BC%90-%E9%82%84%E5%85%83-%E5%8F%96%E5%BC%95%E6%89%80%E5%8F%8E%E7%9B%8A%E3%81%AE%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%90%EF%BC%90-%E9%85%8D%E5%BD%93-46eefb75f40 | [] | 2018-07-24 03:40:51.891000+00:00 | ['Eos', 'Fcoin', '日本語', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
How to Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum | 16/01/2019 by Morne Olivier
Like I have mentioned before in my article My Cryptocurrency, this space can be risky. This article will take you through the cautious and secure way of buying your own Crypto from anywhere in the world and South Africa. I include a small list of what to have close by and a breakdown of the procedure at the bottom.
Where do we start? Time & place:
If this is going to be your first or 2nd or even 3d time, try to have at least an hour or two to yourself. This will give you the opportunity to take everything in properly.
Have paper and pen handy. Excel sheet open which you can save to USB when done. You will need to record your passwords and passphrases or seeds and this is best done on both paper and USB in case your Tech crashes. You should also print out your information and file it.
Matters to consider when you are more advanced and your Crypto becomes valuable:
No one wants to think about the day we pass away but it is still a reality. Explain to a next of kin what all your paperwork means so it can be accessed by them. From a safety perspective on larger portfolios, saving your Crypto to a Ledger NANO wallet, which is like a digital USB wallet is a must.
Yes, this is serious, it’s your money! This might all sound over the top but is completely necessary because if you lose your #Crypto Address and or Passphrase you won’t be able to access your funds again; EVER!. Take Responsibility for your money you are going to invest in and get rid of the idea that this is a get rich quick gamble!
#Disclaimer:
This article contains Referral Links to the Trusted Sites and is not financial advice. Full Disclaimer here.
Let’s Go!
Start by installing Google authenticator and Authy for your 2-way verification. You can get them on Google Play store. This will form part of your security when you are signing into your account.
I start by going to Coinmarketcap our trusted resource and overview on what our Cryptocurrencies are doing. From here I join the company’s websites and social media platforms until I have them Bookmarked for secured future use. Remember to check the URL https:/, the locked sign, and spelling.
From South Africa, Luno has always worked best for me. It’s like a Crypto / Fiat Bank Account.
Follow the Link above to Register your Account. Remember to keep all your passwords different and try to take words out of a book and spell it backward adding numbers and symbols.
On Luno you will be doing a:
KYC,
SET UP 2WAY VERIFICATION TO YOUR ACCOUNT,
BACK UP YOUR WALLET & GET A SEED PRASE OR KEY
This might take up to two days depending on KYC.
You need two things to get into your crypto wallet or account if you lose or get a new phone or computer: Account address, and passphrase or seed (12–24) words.
From a South African perspective, you first set up and Account on the Luno platform which entails your banking details. You then send your Rands to Luno. Link your bank account to Luno. It becomes an internal account within the platform. You then transfer funds which are immediate these days to Bitcoin or Ethereum. Each country is different and you will have to source your go-between or try direct as there are exchanges that allow for Credit Card transactions, but I’ve never liked that option.
Once you are in, You are in and Crypto is your oyster. Follow these simple steps and don’t rush. Luno is not an Exchange where you can trade, it’s a safe gateway for South Africans amongst others.
Let's go find an exchange! Close Luno down, for now, Log Out.
Binance Exchange is the biggest in volume trade and everyone goes to it 1st. For this example, however, I am going to go to a smaller exchange called Kucoin.
Three reasons:
I want to buy some Crypto that is not listed on Binance, I have seen Kucoin announce some special offers & Kucoin also pays out a dividend when holding its native token KCS, #PassiveCryptoIncome
(KCS holders with at least 6 KCSs will obtain this trading fee bonus. We will use 50% of all trading fees earned by KuCoin to buy KCS from the market and then redistribute the KCS back to users as the new KuCoin Bonus Program, replacing the old one), so it will always be beneficial to have some Crypto on there.
Sometimes the risks are less on smaller markets because they are not as volatile as the bigger volume markets, Yes you can make more on those but be well prepared for what you are doing as you can lose it all too. At this stage the market is looking like it wants to come out of a year-long Bear Market, I am still very cautious and am happy to enter an easy market without any Twitter sideline commentary and FOMO stress.
Search for Kucoin on Coinmarketcap or follow the link and go register on the exchange. Follow the Procedure below.
Once you have your account up and running you would be able to get your Ethereum or Bitcoin address. You will need this to transfer your funds too when signing back into Luno. I will be transferring ETH to Kucoin, so I open up my Ethereum Address on Kucoin and press on “Deposit” to get my ETH address, Copy & Paste it into my Sending Ethereum address space on Luno and confirm. (Remember it must always be the same token to the same token, ETH to ETH or BTC to BTC). At the time of this Transaction on 15/01/2019 ETH cost $118. The transfer took 2 minutes. Emails from both verified that the transaction was taking place.
My thoughts on the screenshot below:
I think ETH is making a Higher Low in relation to December same date, which means in the bigger picture, it’s going up. It is still risky because of those two big falling red wicks you see at the end and some bad news of a Hard Fork being postponed because of a security risk on the Ether Network.
Exit Plan: Buy into my Alt Coins at a good price and Lease, Stake or Hodle. Either way, the market is offering amazing bargains at LOW, LOW Prices, I am using the Opportunity and even if it falls more, I still feel overall I have gotten a bargain.
You could also later confirm and or search any information on Blockchain Transactions on EnjinX or EtherScan. On these two platforms, we delve into the business of the Crypto’s.
List of what to have close by
Time, Cell, Book, Pen, USB, (Ledger NANO)
List of procedure to follow:
2 Way Verification App, Exchange, Register (Email, Password, KYC), Backup Wallet (Seed), Receiving Address & Print everything.
KYC will take up to 2 Days, just so you are not disappointed when you want to get onto the exchange for that chance in a lifetime trade.
#Tip: There will be many opportunities to enter the market or a trade, the market by law has to retrace and settle before adhering to price and demand. So wait for good entries rather than FOMO the Bottoms or Tops!
My go-to for learning how to trade has always been BabyPips. Start from the beginning and work your way through many courses within a great community.
Thank you for being part of my Blog, I hope you are learning and please contact me on any of my platforms for help.
I use Referral Links for Cost Saving & Safety purposes to you. Any Passive Income earned from Links has 0% effect on your earnings thereafter.
Important Links to know about me:
About Morne Olivier
#Disclaimer
#PassiveCryptoIncome
Medium
Twitter
Telegram for Passive Income
LinkedIn
Telegram
ONO
MurMur
STEEMit
#decentralized #blockchain #blockchaintechnology #technology #cryptocurrency #crypto #digitalassets #takechargeofyourfuture #tcoyf #morneolivier #content #contentstrategy #marketing #digitalmarketing #advertisingandmarketing #contentmarketing #startup #passivecryptoincome #pci #blockchainpci #personalfinance #stockmarket #retail #supplychain #business #businessintelligence #businessmodels #privacy #future #immutable #ledger #dapp #ethereum #eth #bitcoin #btc #mobilepayment #bigdata #bankingindustry #ai #creativity #investing #webdevelopment #finance #creativewriting #money #sustainability #innovation #commerce #ecommerce #onlineshopping #economy #markets #economics #management #entrepreneurship #branding #westerncape #southafrica | https://medium.com/@morneolivierblog/how-to-buy-bitcoin-ethereum-and-cryptocurrencies-in-2019-20e4397eca43 | ['Morne Olivier'] | 2019-04-15 19:44:37.844000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Passive Income', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum'] |
Extreme E: What It Is and Why You Should Watch It | I have always had a fascination with remote places. They are a great reminder of how big and awe-inspiring our planet is. It’s why my travel bucket list is filled with destinations that aren’t very easy to get to. The Seychelles. The Azores. Patagonia. The Yukon. You get the picture.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new racing series called Extreme E that would hold its events in remote parts of the world, I was sold immediately. We’re pretty used to seeing cars race on asphalt or dirt, but what about on a glacier? Let’s just say Extreme E didn’t hold back when creating the schedule for their inaugural season in 2021.
March: Saudi Arabia (Desert)
May: Senegal (Ocean)
August: Greenland (Arctic)
October: Brazil (Amazon)
December: Argentina (Glacier)
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see some racing in non-traditional racing environments.
With the series going to some of the most unique and delicate parts of our planet, you may be wondering what kind of effect racing cars will have on these environments. If you are asking those questions, then Extreme E is already succeeding in its goal to raise awareness of climate change. These locations have already been damaged by climate change and each race will serve as an opportunity to educate viewers on the problems and risks that these areas face.
Auto racing, however, isn’t particularly known for being an eco-friendly sport. It typically brings up memories of gas-guzzling, tire-consuming, exhaust-blowing vehicles zooming around speedways. So how will Extreme E minimize its impact on the planet?
Drivers will race fully electric SUVs using hydrogen fuel technology so they can be charged using hydro and solar energy. It comes as no surprise that Extreme E will be using electric vehicles with its ties to Formula E, an all-electric single-seater motorsport series. All equipment will be transported by the RMS St. Helena cargo ship to each race location, which will use significantly less carbon emissions compared to airplanes. The goal is to have a net-zero carbon footprint when the season concludes.
An intriguing schedule of locations, a climate change awareness campaign and eco-friendly initiatives are all reason enough to pay attention to Extreme E. But wait, there’s more…
The series will promote gender equality by requiring each car to be driven by a team of one male and one female. Each teammate must partake in both driving and co-driving responsibilities.
At each race weekend, the qualifying rounds will be held on Saturday with the semi-finals and final races on Sunday. Points will be given based on finishing position. Each race will have 4 cars and consist of 2 laps. Each driver will complete one lap and driver order will be kept secret from other teams until the race for added strategy.
There’s a lot of cool and progressive ideas that Extreme E is bringing to the table in 2021, giving us a look at how motorsports will continue to develop in the future. It has always attracted big names such as Sébastien Loeb, a 9-time champion in the World Rally Championship. Loeb is driving for Team X44, which was formed by none other than the dominant 7-time Formula 1 champion, Lewis Hamilton.
Extreme E has been working on getting TV broadcast deals all over the world. So be sure to tune in on March 20–21 as we head to the deserts of Saudi Arabia for the first race of the next big thing in the world of motorsports.
For more racing updates, follow me on Twitter at @dleeracing.
Information courtesy of Extreme-E.com and Racer.com. | https://medium.com/@dleeracing/extreme-e-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-watch-it-a1b1e1f369fe | ['David Lee'] | 2020-12-17 20:50:26.531000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Racing', 'Climate Change', 'Motorsport', 'Sports'] |
Holiday Networking How-To | By Serena Saunders
Amid closing out my work responsibilities for the year, studying for final exams and baking holiday cookies with my mom, I always try to use December to reflect on the months before it. This year’s no different: I’m thinking about ways I’ve grown professionally, made new connections and tried to expand my horizons.
In particular, I’m looking at ways to reconnect with old mentors, such as professors who have written me recommendation letters and internship coordinators who connected me to other opportunities. But I don’t need anything from them now, which brought me to (what I think is) the most awkward part of networking: how do you really connect with someone when there’s no specific “ask” for them? And why should you do it?
I think the best reason is that it never hurts to reconnect. Reaching out puts you back on people’s radar, helps build up good will, and helps you develop meaningful relationships that go beyond typical networking.
This can seem pretty daunting, especially now. The pandemic has upended traditional forms of networking, like cocktail hours and coffee dates. I’m an introvert, and those kinds of situations — lots of strangers and lots of small talk — can be difficult for me to get through. But sending an email showing my gratitude for people I already know and wishing them happy holidays and a happy new year? I can do that, and you can, too.
Here’s a quick guide for all your holiday reconnecting!
For someone who helped you this year
Thank them for their help, with a specific reminder of what they did and why it mattered to you. Include the outcome of their help — did you get the job or internship they recommended you for?
For someone you haven’t talked to in a while
Remind them of how you know them, if necessary (ie if you met at a career fair, had an informational interview, etc.). Share any updates on your life since you last talked.
For someone who inspired or motivated you
Say why they’re inspiring or motivating! Be authentic and specific. Share how their story has impacted you or how you plan to apply it to something in the future.
For a friend or someone you’re grateful for | https://medium.com/@runningstart/holiday-networking-how-to-8763fee0b7e3 | ['Running Start'] | 2020-12-11 15:56:30.092000+00:00 | ['Email', 'Networking', 'Holidays', 'Connection'] |
10 Ways I Use Linkedin to Generate Leads for My Business | 6. Tips to Get the Most From the Algorithm
You cannot just put random content out there and assume people are going to see it and engage in it. There are a few different tactics you can use to maximise the chance of people seeing your content.
As just discussed, there is a mutual benefit of engaging in the content of other people. The LinkedIn algorithm favours those who engage. You often see it when people start posting content for the first time.
If they have been regularly engaging in other peoples’ content over some time before posting themselves, then their content often they get a huge push from the algorithm. They have already earned a lot of LinkedIn algorithm brownie points.
Use relevant hashtags in your content, but not too many. LinkedIn recommends using three. If a post does well, it might start trending in a certain hashtag and go out to more people.
As well as this, people can find your content if they are looking through posts with that hashtag. Aim for one broad hashtag such as #Marketing, use one more niche hashtag such as #Contentmarketing and you can also use a unique personalised hashtag to help people find other posts from you. I have one called #50weeksofmarketing.
Trending posts on LinkedIn (Source: author)
In a post, the maximum number of characters is 1200. Try and use as many of them as possible.
The algorithm gives more of a push to content that uses up more characters, as its easier to identify as quality content. Try to add an image to your written content, as more people are likely to notice your post and stop and read it.
The LinkedIn algorithm push posts out to a bigger audience if the initial engagement is high. A post might initially only go out to 1–5% of your connections and if nobody likes it or comments, it dies.
However, if five or ten people for example like it within the first 30 minutes, the algorithm identifies it as a good piece of content that people want to engage in and sends it out to a higher proportion of your connections.
The time of the day you post can also influence how well a post does. If you post between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., or 4 p.m. at 5 p.m. during the week, this is usually when the highest number of people are browsing the platform.
Therefore, you have more chance of people seeing the content when you first post it.
In saying this, I posted some of my popular content between 8 and 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and sometimes, 8–9 p.m. can work well.
People often have more time to browse after work hours as LinkedIn has become more like Facebook. It is not just a work thing anymore.
Many “influencers” use engagement pods to make sure that their content gets this initial push. They try and cheat the algorithm by posting a link to their latest content in a private group and there is an obligation to like and comment on one another’s posts.
Most of these pods you have to pay for, and does not guarantee the right people are going to see your content anyway; as most of the people in these groups are on the other side of the globe, and their network is the people most likely to see your post. Not your local network.
It takes a lot of time and effort to engage in all this random content (I imagine) and it also means you do not learn what kind of content works best for you. What your sweet spot is. There is no quality control, they like everything. But hey, if you want an ego boost and pretend you are famous, go for it. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/10-tips-on-how-i-use-linkedin-to-generate-leads-for-my-business-5c42727a6eae | ['Daniel Hopper'] | 2020-11-07 06:27:04.442000+00:00 | ['Content Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Social Media', 'LinkedIn', 'Digital Marketing'] |
Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener review: A budget price makes this system worth the setup hassles | Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener review: A budget price makes this system worth the setup hassles Yoganand Dec 23, 2020·4 min read
Bringing your garage door into your smart home isn’t the simplest process, nor is it the cheapest: Many smart garage door systems—our top pick, the Chamberlain myQ, notwithstanding—will run you $100 or more. And then there’s the hassle of climbing around on a ladder in your garage and dealing with some often janky wiring.
Meross doesn’t do much about the installation headaches—in fact, it’s one of the more labor-intensive openers on the market, for reasons I’ll explain shortly—but it does help out greatly when it comes to price. At a mere $40, it’s the second cheapest smart opener on the market, after the $30 myQ.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart garage door controllers, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. Christopher Null / IDG Less-than-articulate installation instructions like this might challenge novices.
Like all of Meross’ products, the initial presentation of the device is decidedly understated. A plain white box contains all the individually packaged components, with nothing but a QR code to direct you to setup instructions and the Meross app. You will need those instructions.
All smart garage door openers have compatibility limitations, and Meross’ is no exception. Like all the other wired openers I’ve tested, Meross’ does not work out of the box with newer, more secure openers and requires a special accessory in order to do so.
Meross doesn’t actually sell this accessory; you are directed to email the company to obtain one directly (for free) if the app’s compatibility checker determines your opener isn’t compatible.
As such, it’s probably worth downloading the app and plugging in your garage door model information before you even purchase the product in order to save yourself an extra trip up the ladder in your garage. I ended up installing the device on a slightly older Liftmaster that did not need the accessory. The other two openers in my garage, however, would have required one.
[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]While Meross’ installation instructions are far from perfect, hardware setup is similar in most ways to other smart garage door openers. The opener plugs directly into wall power, and two bare wire leads connect the Meross opener to terminals on the back of the garage door motor, either through screw posts or spring-loaded connectors. Meross throws you for a twist, however, in its choice of door sensor technology, which is used to tell the app whether the garage door is open or shut. While most smart openers use a wireless sensor that mounts to the door and can sense whether it is upright (door shut) or horizontal (door open), Meross instead relies on a two-part magnetic sensor similar to the type used in a home security system.
Christopher Null / IDG A simple in-app animation tells you when your door is in motion.
That’s an interesting idea—except the sensor must connect to the Meross opener via a long wire. You snake this wire along the track, much like you do with the infrared sensors used to determine whether the door opening is blocked, and carefully position the magnets somewhere on the door.
Getting this all situated isn’t the simplest process, because if the sensor wire hits the chain, it can easily rip the whole thing apart. Meross doesn’t provide any accessories to make this easy, so bring some binder clips to make the process a bit cleaner. (Gloves are also a good idea, since the track can be quite oily.)
The good news is that the lack of a wireless door sensor takes one potential trouble spot out of the equation, and the MSG100 need only communicate with your router via Wi-Fi (2.4GHz only) in order to maintain its connection. Setup through the Meross app was quick and error-free in my testing, after which I was able to use the app to freely open and close the door.
Alexa and Google Assistant are both supported, letting you use your voice to operate the controls, and the MSG100 also supports both Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT. A different version of this product (model MSG100HK) supports Apple HomeKit, but it was not available at press time.
I particularly enjoyed the thoughtful additional features in the app, including an “overtime reminder,” which pushes a warning if the door is left open for a user-configured length of time, and the “overnight reminder,” which alerts you if the door is open after hours (at a time you set). You can also set the door to close automatically after it’s been open for a set time, or close at a certain time of day. My only complaint with the app is that it can be slow to respond—opening the door can take 5 to 10 seconds of “thinking” in some cases—but that’s a minor issue. All activity is logged in the app, and push notifications are also sent to your phone for just about everything.
Meross’s installation is more onerous than most smart garage products, but for just $40, one might feel able to tolerate a bit of a headache. If MyQ’s opener doesn’t work for you, this is our second-best recommendation.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@yoganan86881514/meross-smart-wi-fi-garage-door-opener-review-a-budget-price-makes-this-system-worth-the-setup-1594009abdfc | [] | 2020-12-23 21:49:59.696000+00:00 | ['Consumer Electronics', 'Chargers', 'Consumer', 'Connected Home'] |
Let’s have a chit chat | Few things I learned this past few weeks:
When you feel sad, frustrated, alone, stressed because of deadlines. The cure is not to ask people to fix you. Because when you are so dependent on others, once they are gone, you will starve to look for new people to fix you again. Is it healthy? no right? You will never be healed from your situation. Instead, you create a never-ending circle of dependency. So, what’s the best solution for this? For me, it is better to be sad and let the pain flow through your body and soul so that you will get used to it and accept your flaws. Because the key to healing is accepting that you are not perfect and you will get lost in life sometimes. Try to embrace the pain and believe that everything is temporary and happiness is absolute. Maybe it feels like hell today but it’s worth the pain. Do not ever use someone else to cure you, they are not responsible to be your emotional healer. Heal yourself first. Make yourself happy first. Till then, you may let other people come into your life. Because the key to unlimited happiness relies on you, not other people. Focus on what you want. Initially, when you are in pain. You start to notice what you want in life. Be it a dream job, a house, a place to live in, a skill to have, and many more. Go get them. Run as fast as you can to get them. But make sure you have enough armor to take you to the battlefield. Make sure you have enough alternative plans and ready for all the consequences. Write down your dream and how long you need to accomplish them. I have done that and my view starts to get clearer. Love it. | https://medium.com/@oluaa/lets-have-a-chit-chat-2522195799ce | [] | 2021-06-21 11:33:38.916000+00:00 | ['Journaling'] |
BitPay Enters Agreement with Bitmain to Develop Open Source Blockchain Security Software | BitPay Enters Agreement with Bitmain to Develop Open Source Blockchain Security Software BitPay Follow May 2, 2017 · 3 min read
ATLANTA — MAY 2, 2017 — Today bitcoin payments leader BitPay announced that it has entered into a multi-million dollar development agreement with Bitmain Technologies, the foremost provider of the “mining” hardware used to secure blockchains. Over the course of its multi-year agreement with new customer Bitmain, BitPay will create advanced open source software for the miners, mining pools and full node operators which maintain and secure blockchain transactions.
BitPay will draw on its more than six years of experience in building payment technology and secure open source platforms for payments on the Bitcoin blockchain. BitPay has a long tradition of servicing the most significant companies in blockchain mining hardware and is now pleased to count Bitmain among its customers. BitPay also processes hundreds of millions of dollars in payments yearly for businesses worldwide, including industry leaders like Microsoft, Valve, and PaySafe.
“At BitPay, we recognize that there is an untapped market of mining companies that require more advanced platforms for their businesses than are available today,” said BitPay CEO Stephen Pair. “We value having Bitmain as a customer, and we believe that miners and mining technology providers like Bitmain play a vital role in the security and ongoing success of the Bitcoin blockchain.”
Bitmain is one of the most successful providers of the hardware used to secure blockchain transactions. In recent years, the company has played a major role in hardware innovation to support the exponential growth of Bitcoin — the world’s first and most successful blockchain.
“BitPay has established itself as a leader in open source development for the Bitcoin blockchain,” said Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu. “We believe that together we can make real improvements in how we secure blockchain transactions and grow the impact of blockchain technology in digital payments.” | https://medium.com/bitpay-on-bitcoin/bitpay-enters-agreement-with-bitmain-to-develop-open-source-blockchain-security-software-9de2b48b452c | [] | 2017-05-02 16:13:14.886000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Bitpay', 'Blockchain', 'Bitmain'] |
What’s Your Personality Type When It Comes to Money? | You may or may not know if you’re a ISFJ or a ESTP, but those are not the personality types we’re looking at here.
According to Ken Honda, author of Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace With Your Money, your money personality type can help you understand your relationship with money and see where you’re going wrong. It’s easy to assume that being a compulsive saver is good, and a compulsive money maker even better, right? But every money personality has it’s pros and cons. Which one are you, and what can you do about it?
The Compulsive Saver
You may be a compulsive saver if you love saving money, always shop around for the best deals, and hate spending on luxuries or inessentials. What could be wrong with that? The clue is that compulsive savers can also be known as ‘stockpilers.’ They stockpile money rather than putting it to good use. They can be so scared of spending that they deprive themselves and their families. They may be too frugal to spend money on travel, hobbies, or fun, even though they could afford to. Stockpiling can stem from previous experiences. Compulsive savers have often been poor in the past and don’t want to go back there.
If this is you, you may need to find a way to enjoy your money more and give your loved ones a better life while still being sensible so you feel financially secure. Saving is great, but there’s little point in money that doesn’t make any difference to your life or anyone else’s.
The Compulsive Spender
As you’d expect, compulsive spenders spend a lot, often on things they don’t need and sometimes using money they don’t yet have. They’ll justify their spending any way they can. A recession isn’t a time to tighten your belt if you’re a compulsive spender. In fact, you’ll claim that a bad economy is a result of people not spending enough. Compulsive spenders may suffer low self-esteem and get a sense of self-worth or a feeling of power and control when they spend money. Compulsive spenders were often raised by compulsive savers and are making up for a sense of deprivation during their childhood.
If this is you, you probably already know you need to get your impulse spending under control and probably pay down your debt. A financial coach or counselor might be useful to help you address the issues behind your spending.
The Compulsive Money Maker
What could be wrong with making money? Nothing, of course, under normal circumstances. But when taken to extremes, there are drawbacks. Compulsive money makers focus on making money to the detriment of everything else and believe making money is the only source of happiness. They also put far too much stock in the approval and recognition they get from others when they make money.
If this is you, there’s no need to stop making money, but there is probably a need to put effort into other important areas of your life too. Don’t let relationships suffer because you’re only focused on money, and don’t allow your self-worth to rely 100% on how much you earned this year. Being a great spouse, parent or friend, or contributing to your community can be a worthwhile endeavor as well.
The Indifferent-To-Money Personality
It’s hard to be indifferent to money in this day and age, but not impossible. Some people rarely think about money, don’t attach too much importance to it, and make most of their decisions based on non-financial factors. They probably don’t spend much but also don’t focus on saving. They may have no idea how much money they have or where it is. Some may leave managing finances up to their partner or spouse; others may simply have very disorganized finances. These people were often comfortably off during childhood and generally still are, as they’re usually gainfully employed and don’t spend much.
If this is you, you’ll be happy to know this is actually a fairly healthy attitude to have, but there are things to be wary of. It’s easy to be indifferent to money while you’re financially comfortable, but things can change. Planning for the future is important if you want to be comfortable in retirement as well. And having your partner or spouse look after your money? Often not a good idea. A sudden break-up may leave you realizing your money was not being looked after at all.
The Saver-Splurger
This personality type saves and saves, then spends and spends, often irresponsibly. Money in the bank is simply a temptation to give in to the impulse to spend. They don’t enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the numbers in their account go up but rather feel the need to go out and reward themselves, often with things they don’t need, once they have a lot of money.
If this is you, you may need to address impulsive spending and set better (or more meaningful) financial goals that will help you focus on continuing to save for the future when the spending impulse hits.
The Gambler
The gambler may literally enjoy gambling or might simply enjoy taking risks such as starting new businesses or making risky investments. Gamblers love the thrill of the game, don’t employ good risk management strategies, and don’t have much self-discipline when it comes to money and investing. Needless to say, gamblers often make big losses, although they sometimes make big profits too.
If this is you, it’s time to take a look at how your decisions are affecting you and those you love. Taking risks is not, in itself, always a bad thing, but wise investors manage those risks carefully and don’t gamble (in any form) with more money than they can afford to lose.
The Worrier
Worriers might have a high income or a low one, lots of savings, or none at all. No matter what their financial situation, they will worry about it, often obsessing over worst-case scenarios when it comes to finances. They lack confidence in their own financial literacy and assume they will lose any money they have or make bad decisions around it. Worriers do not, of course, only worry about money. This is a more deep-seated trait, and they will often worry about everything else as well.
If this is you, it may help to seek help address the general problem and try and deal with the overthinking and obsessive thoughts that tend to encroach on every area of life. But it can also help to educate yourself on personal finance (and other issues you obsess over) as more knowledge can give you a bigger feeling of control and a more logical, less emotional view of what you worry about.
By now, you probably have a good idea of what your money personality is. It’s hard to change your personality type, but understanding it can be the key to better financial decisions and less money stress. | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/whats-your-personality-type-when-it-comes-to-money-1d356c52ef1a | ['Karen Banes'] | 2021-09-08 16:03:59.767000+00:00 | ['Personal Finance', 'Life Lessons', 'Money Mindset', 'Money Management', 'Money'] |
Emerging Trends in Giving for Charity in 2019 | iConnectX | Giving Trends for Nonprofit in USA 2019 | iConnectX
Collaboration
Seeing the growth in Online fundraising in previous years; individuals, industrialists, and charities are going to collaborate for a cross-nation cause. Charities are now looking towards government and industrialists for large issues like climate change, sanitation or food for all.
Transparency
The donor has the right to see where his funds are being utilized. A nonprofit charity must display all expenses on their websites. So, a user can see where the charity is spending their donated funds.
Growing concern over cybersecurity
Nonprofit business stores the millions of data and also accept the online funds for their causes. With a rise in cybercrime, a charity has to protect their data from hackers to avoid any kind of theft. Nonprofit business is now tying with technology giants to protect their data from hackers.
Mobile fundraising
Mobile has become a part of everyone’s life and millions of people are using it one daily basis and it has become center stage in all our areas and fundraising is not left out of this. The number of fundraising transactions in 2018 has seen 50% growth compare to last year and is expected to grow in coming years.
Personalized giving
Donors are now connecting to nonprofit through social media channels and sharing the heartfelt messages to charities along with making the donations.
Read More @ iConnectX | https://medium.com/@iconnectx/emerging-trends-in-giving-for-charity-in-2019-iconnectx-9de874080f48 | [] | 2019-06-10 14:18:02.006000+00:00 | ['Giving Back', 'Givingtuesday', 'Giving', 'Charity', 'Nonprofit'] |
5 Ways Sugar Actually Damages Your Muscles | It tastes good, we always want it, but how damaging is it?
For anyone in the world of keeping fit, whether for muscle gains or cardiovascular endurance, sugar is a double edged sword. Athletes use it as a fuel source, but sugar can be harmful to health.
So it is best to get one thing straight right now. It is not sugar itself but the type and amount of sugar consumed that is an issue.
Sugar essentially is found and use from two sources:
Naturally occurring sugars: Found in fruits and vegetables
Found in fruits and vegetables Refined added sugar: Found in most processed foods
Although abnormal levels of sugar from naturally occurring sources can be detrimental, it is the added sugar that is the subject of problems.
But why? Amongst the many reasons I will go into in this story, the main reason is:
The increase in sugar-induced oxidative stress and damage to the body.
But how does this happen?
Sugar has the ability to bind to fats or proteins in a process known as glycation. When this happens harmful molecules are formed known Advanced Glycated End Products (AGEs), these are a group of molecules that can increase the amount of free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) circulating the body. This increase in ROS is what causes the oxidative damage.
So having briefly understood a mechanism by which sugar can cause inflammation, how does this apply to actual muscle damage?
Well we know muscles consist of three main parts:
Muscle fibres (excitability and contractility element of our muscles)
(excitability and contractility element of our muscles) Connective tissue (skeleton framework keeping all cells intact)
(skeleton framework keeping all cells intact) Adipose tissue (long term energy reserves)
But they also contain two further components that are subject to damage by sugar-induced oxidative stress, they are:
Neurons (communication and relay cells)
(communication and relay cells) Blood vessels (our supply network)
Unfortunately sugar has a serious impact on each of these muscle components. Even though many are only seen in diabetic individuals, being aware of them now may prevent us ever experiencing them later!
So lets dive into them: | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/4-ways-sugar-actually-damages-your-muscles-4fb0c345b02a | ['Aamir Hussain'] | 2020-12-08 01:31:32.282000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Nutrition', 'Training', 'Diabetes', 'Fitness'] |
All Aboard the Rails Nested Routes Express | ActiveRecord::Query Methods
Before entering the Rails mod for Flatiron I had gotten used to writing methods with traditional Ruby syntax. It was not until this project that I discovered the fascinating world of ActiveRecord Query Methods.
One of my favorite things about programming has been discovering new ways to do things that I have previously already learned how to do. So when I found these new query methods to write code similar to what I was doing with the plain old ruby syntax I was astonished. ActiveRecord Query Methods fire up commands and do them through the database essentially speeding up your commands by doing it in the database.
Here are some of my favorite query methods that I learned while working on this project.
build
The build method is the equivalent of calling .new on an object. Just like new, build does not automatically save it to the database so you will need to call a save method on the variable.
@review = @coffee.reviews.build
find_or_create_by
The find_or_create_by the method checks whether a record with the specified attributes exists. If it doesn't, then create is called. Essentially, this is telling our database to find something if that something exists then proceed, however, if there is no record in the database then create a new entry in the database for it. Really nifty method here!
@user = User.find_or_create_by(email: user_email)
Here’s an example of where I used this query method in my project to create a controller action for omniauth.
With these new query methods, I feel like I have added a new tool to my developer belt! I definitely recommend you take a look at the Rails Guides here for way more query method goodness! | https://medium.com/dev-genius/all-aboard-the-rails-nested-routes-express-aa311387563e | ['Ted Garcia'] | 2020-12-08 21:22:27.848000+00:00 | ['Rails', 'Flatiron School', 'Ruby on Rails', 'Ruby', 'Code Newbie'] |
Top Signs That You May Need To Hire Expert Domestic Cleaning Services Now | Top Signs That You May Need To Hire Expert Domestic Cleaning Services Now Snapcleaningauck Dec 24, 2021·3 min read
House Cleaning
Do you always clean your house on your own? Once in a while, it is always better to get the household cleaned up by a professional team. If you are busy with your everyday routine, then you can still hire a professional cleaning service.
These services will always help you out with in-depth cleaning tasks. You can look around for the best “House cleaners in Auckland” online or offline. There are professional domestic cleaning services that are known for quality cleaning jobs.
But how do you know when it’s the right time to hire these services? There are some common signs that you can observe. These signs are mentioned below.
1. You feel the house is never clean
You are used to cleaning the house every day. But even after you clean, it does not look appealing. This is one common sign that it’s time to hire the best team. Professionals will always perform in-depth cleaning.
When performing the DIY task, you may only broom and mop the floor. But professionals will dust and vacuum. This is why even after a perfect DIY task, you feel the floor is not clean yet.
2. You just don’t find time to clean
You may be facing this issue if you are already working. It certainly is not easy to find time to dedicate to domestic cleaning works. So you are unable to perform this task consistently. If you have off on weekends then you dedicate to domestic cleaning.
Once a week cleaning will never prove helpful. If you feel that you are unable to dedicate time for household cleaning on a daily basis then do hire a domestic cleaning service. They have a fixed schedule for household cleaning.
3. The dirt is more stubborn
This is one common issue you may face if you have a lot of visitors on a daily basis. Even if you have pets and kids at home, then cleaning can be a hectic task. It is never easy to clean stains left by pets on the floor.
You can always hire professional cleaners. They are trained to carry out this task effectively. Professional domestic cleaners are aware of the techniques they should use to treat all types of stains on the floor.
4. You are getting sick
If the house is not well maintained then you fall sick very often. When cleaning the room on your own, there are many things that you might overlook. The DIY task may not include a mattress dusting task. You might also skip window panes very often.
These are the types of tasks people often want to undertake once a year. But if your immunity is weak then you may fall sick very often. Dust and pollen can trigger an allergic reaction. If you are sensitive to pollen then you may only fall sick.
You can hire professional domestic cleaners at any time. You just have to take the initiative of hiring them. | https://medium.com/@snapcleaning0/top-signs-that-you-may-need-to-hire-expert-domestic-cleaning-services-now-2fe15e1af821 | [] | 2021-12-24 10:24:26.634000+00:00 | ['Cleaning', 'House Cleaning', 'House Cleaners Auckland', 'Cleaning Services', 'House Cleaners'] |
PEACE: The Second Friday of Advent | One of the familiar melodies we hear during this season is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” The song, based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is fascinating. In 1860, Longfellow was at the peak of his success as a poet. Abraham Lincoln had just been elected President, giving hope to many in the nation. But things soon turned dark for America and Longfellow, personally. The Civil War began the following year, and Longfellow’s wife died of severe burns after her dress caught fire. Longfellow sustained severe burns on his hands and face from trying to save his wife. He was so severely burned that he could not even attend her funeral. In his diary for Christmas Day 1861, he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.”
In 1862, the Civil War escalated, and the death toll from the war began to mount. In his diary for that year, Longfellow wrote of Christmas, “‘A merry Christmas,’ say the children, but that is no more for me.” In 1863, Longfellow’s son, who had run away to join the Union Army, was severely wounded and returned home in December. There is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for that Christmas. Longfellow wanted to pull out of his despair, so he decided to try to capture the joy of Christmas. He began: “I heard the bells on Christmas Day their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men.”
As Longfellow came to the sixth stanza, he was stopped by the thought of his beloved country’s condition. The Battle of Gettysburg was not long past. Days looked dark, and he probably asked himself the question, “How can I write about peace on earth, goodwill to men in this war-torn country, where brother fights against brother and father against son?” But he kept writing, and what did he write? And in despair I bowed my head; “There is no peace on earth,” I said; “For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men!”
That could be said of our day as well. But eternal perspective shifts all stories into beautiful stanzas of hope.
“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep; “God is not dead; nor doth he sleep! The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, goodwill to men!”
Let Us Pray:
Father, you are the author of peace. Let this peace settle into our bones, and allow our souls the freedom to sing, dance. Respite is available for us, and let peace be also known through us. Amen! | https://medium.com/advent-journey/peace-the-second-friday-of-advent-a7bbb000cd6c | ['Jeremi Richardson'] | 2020-12-12 01:41:44.476000+00:00 | ['Advent', 'Friday'] |
What Do Mild Pains During Pregnancy Mean? · Dr Dad | Most pregnant women experience mild pains from time to time throughout their pregnancy because their baby is growing every single day. Your body is adapting to these changes every single day among others. Cramping is as normal as they come, although you must be aware of the reason behind the mild pains. Here are the different reasons for mild pains during pregnancy.
Implantation causes mild pains during the first trimester.
They mostly occur around the time your period is due.
Due to the increased level of progesterone secreted in the body, the bowel muscles tend to stay at a relaxed stage.
This makes gas and bloating quite common, as the digestion process slows down.
Long-term bloating and gas could result in constipation, which is one of the first reasons why you could be experiencing mild pains in your abdomen.
You can control the bloating by increasing the intake of fiber-rich food, controlling your food portion by increasing the number of times you eat, and consumption of a lot of water.
Your uterus requires more blood around you that could build up some pressure around the uterus.
Resting or lying down can help you in relieving the pressure as well as the corresponding mild pain.
UTIs are mostly asymptomatic but they cause mild pain around the pelvic region.
You can identify it by the foul smell in your urine.
UTIs require proper treatment and medicine.
Conclusion
Mild pains during pregnancies are frequent and normal. The trick is to understand the cause behind the pain and consult the doctor accordingly.
Related Tags:
Stomach pain during pregnancy, 2nd trimester stomach pain during pregnancy, 3rd trimester period cramps during pregnancy, Third trimester how to ease abdominal pain during pregnancy, Left side pain during pregnancy, Second trimester lower abdominal pain in early pregnancy Low belly pain when pregnant first trimester, leg pain during pregnancy | https://medium.com/@parenthood7/what-do-mild-pains-during-pregnancy-mean-dr-dad-ab8ff22e4768 | [] | 2021-09-09 09:59:29.124000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Baby', 'Children', 'Kids', 'Pregnancy'] |
Shutdown to Restart- Reframing the business | Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash
About 60+ days into the lockdown- depending on where you live and work business and governments are opening or getting ready to open. Seems like the shutdown came out of nowhere and lot of time has been spent for organizations on prepping infrastructure & operations to support work from home, setting up policies, procedures to be effective and efficient and trying to adjust . So as result here we are (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/most-workers-say-wfh-can-succeed-4842284/)
The restart and road back to the new normal, hybrid work mode will not suddenly appear but rather needs to be planned and executed while acknowledging that there needs to be adjustment along the way. So the question is what could the playbook look like and how will it unfold. The reopening will require a reframing of the business. There are many factors that will feed into this new framework such as risk, health, safety, regulations, resilience , work type, digital, criticality, prioritization, economic impact and more. The framework will broadly need to apply to how work is conducted and specifically how processes across all functions from sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, research, information technology, finance & HR etc will need to change.
The framework will need to examine the nature and method of work, new regulations that may apply, the organization of work space, how it should be used, who comes work combined with health and safety checks from temperature checks to testing. This leads into work type — physical, knowledge based, high touch, low touch etc. leading into what work can and should be performed remotely, work that can be automated/digitized and scaled securely while maintaining for collaboration and effectiveness. Within each function, there is an opportunity and need to rethink all business processes of the organization across the board.
Some examples that come to mind, sales and marketing processes have become more online & remote than ever. In an environment where travel will be drastically reduced or localized, the process can be redesigned with more of customer pull while integrating digital influence, relationship building and engagement into it. Another example that comes to fore front is supply chain processes will need to redesigned from more of risk and resilency perspective, which means manufacturing and distribution lines will need to be realigned for health and safety along with production schedules. The other addition is ensuring supply chains can be brought on and off line to accomodate for health and political considerations. If work from home is a new reality that talent evaluation, acquisition and management probably will need to reorganized around talent and less around proximity to work location as a pre-requsite for employment.
As this new framework comes into play, it is important to consider changes required for reopening day one, to changes that will evolve and become a permanent fixture in the new organization. | https://medium.com/@navin.maganti/shutdown-to-restart-reframing-the-business-51cd86bcc997 | ['Navin Maganti'] | 2020-05-15 15:46:00.738000+00:00 | ['Enterprise', 'Business Process', 'Future Of Work', 'Framework', 'Organization'] |
CoCo Body Butter for Dry Skin, with Coffee & Cocoa for Deep Moisturization- 200g | CoCo Body Butter for Dry Skin, with Coffee & Cocoa for Deep Moisturization- 200g PIXOTI Apr 9·1 min read
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It’s time to fall in love with your skin all over again with Mamaearth CoCo Body Butter. Loaded with the goodness of Coffee, Cocoa, Sunflower Seed Oil and Shea Butter, this body butter is all you need for keeping dryness away and moisture intact. Thanks to its high content of fatty acids and antioxidants, our CoCo Body Butter combats free radicals, which cause dullness, darkening, and wrinkles. The rejuvenating fragrance of coffee & chocolate helps de-stress & lets you have a pleasant beginning of the day. Suitable for all skin types, our CoCo Body Butter is free of toxins & harmful chemicals such as Silicones, Sulfates, Phthalates, Parabens, Artificial Colors, etc.
Buying link | https://medium.com/@pixoti/coco-body-butter-for-dry-skin-with-coffee-cocoa-for-deep-moisturization-200g-49ae23caf4d5 | [] | 2021-04-09 05:34:35.053000+00:00 | ['Skincare', 'Skin Glow'] |
What Lies Below, Day Twelve | What Lies Below, Day Twelve
Hello, my friends. Welcome back! We’re still chipping away at the iceberg with an interesting mix today. A couple bits of lost media, a couple things that are just real events that happened, a couple “this is just a term for a thing” items. Not the most exciting set, but they can’t all be flashy!
GERMANWINGS 4U CRASH — A German flight that went down fairly recently due to the apparently suicidal copilot, killing around 150 people. There’s a lot of theories about why he did it, ranging the usual conspiracy gamut from ‘fake’ to ‘mind control’, but I haven’t ever really seen a single cohesive belief.
CHRISTINE CHUBBUCK — A news anchor who committed suicide live on the air in the mid-70s. Like any other violent act caught on tape, there are people online who make a hobby out of trying to find the footage. While this is part of the overall-interesting Lost Media world, it’s just a snuff film and not particularly interesting.
HARMONICS — There’s this sort of thread in conspiracy and woo subcultures that certain hz levels can do different things to our brain and so everyone from McDonalds to the government to the aliens are utilizing this. There’s a lot of music/videos out there set to specific hz that can allegedly do anything from mellow you out to change your biology.
OPERATION NORTHWOODS — This is a real thing that the US government really tried to memory-hole, but everyone rediscovered after 9/11. Operation Northwoods was a proposal by US alphabet agencies in the 60s to carry out false-flag attacks on our own citizens, blame them on Cuba, and use them as justification for invasion. This is how hysterically terrified of Communism the US is and has always been. Kennedy was president at the time and shot this down, which of course fuels a lot of JFK assassination conspiracy theories.
SOVIET ESP — There’s a lot of stories and declassified documents suggesting that the Soviets(and the US) tried a lot of weird experimentation about quantifying and utilizing ESP and similar psychic abilities. It’s actually a really big topic and fairly complicated but nothing much really came out of it. It happened though!
A Rai Stone, one of the larger variety.
RAI STONES — A type of round stone with a hole in the center used by indigenous people of Micronesia as currency, but not in a purely financial sense. They had/have a lot of cultural importance too. Not sure why it’s on the ‘weird stuff’ iceberg! Maybe because they may have been used for a very long time?
KUNG FU GUY, 1984 — This references a video made in 1984 in which an unknown man(‘Kung Fu Guy’) walks into the dojo of a man named Bobby Joe Blythe, acts a bit strange, and is then beaten up and maybe or maybe not killed by Blythe. Blythe himself uploaded it to YouTube at some point, though it was pulled down and like any other potential snuff film has become a bit of a collector’s item for certain corners of the net. There’s been a lot of online effort put forth in trying to identify the victim, figure out what happened, and even get legal remedy.
A frame of the Kung Fu Guy tape
BEEBE’S ABYSSAL FISH — Confession: I’m a sucker for aquatic cryptids. Love ’em. Hopelessly partial to them. Especially weird super-deep-water ones. In the 1930s, a scientist named Beebe took a ‘bathypshere’(weird round submarine thing) real deep around Bermuda and describes a variety of strange fish. Most seemed to be similar to things we’re familiar with like anglerfish or gar, but different in coloration or size. Given how no one else has found anything like these and how similar they are to known fish, they were unfortunately probably just colorfully described things we already know about.
ROSWELL HUMAN EXPERIMENTS — Kind of a broad term I guess for the Roswell theories that say whatever crashed there wasn’t aliens, but some kind of terrestrial test-flight piloted by human test/experiment cases of some sort. There’s some books and plenty of online conjecture about it but it isn’t really any more meaty a theory than any other.
REBIRTH IS ETERNAL SUFFERING/REINCARNATION IS HELL — Yikes. I bet you can guess what this is! I don’t know of any specific cohesive tradition following this, but see variations of it on the usual spooky imageboards and forums where people get high and say ‘what if like, ghost ufos’. It’s kinnnda the Buddhist saṃsāra but made a bit more literal and often infused with Christian flavoring. But sometimes it’s given a gnostic ‘the matrix’ bend.
Some of Zosimos’ equipment.
VISIONS OF ZOSIMOS — Zosimos was an alchemist thousands of years ago who wrote about alchemy, including a bit where he described dreams about it as something more mystical than a science. Zosimos deals with a being named Ion that cuts up Zosimos and sort of rebuilds him, and it goes on from there. It may or may not be the source of the ‘homonculus’ idea. There’s also a video game based on this, believe it or not! Zosimos’ texts were only really discovered and somewhat translated fairly recently, so there’s discussion in occult circles of how to interpret this. There’s also a video game based on this, believe it or not!
FERMI PARADOX — Depressing as heck! Possibly true! Given how big the galaxy is and how statistically likely many believe it is that other sentient space-faring races are out there somewhere, why are there no real traces? There’s a few reasons given: 1. Maybe intelligent life is just wayyyy rarer than we think and so if there is any, it’s nowhere near us and may never be. 2. They’re out there but have already died out, or haven’t evolved as far as even we have, or are so alien we wouldn’t be able to detect/communicate with them. 3. They may just not want to deal with us for a variety of reasons! 4. It may just not be possible in terms of raw material, technology, etc to do so — or at least not easy enough for any nearby races to devote that kind of resource to it. 5. We’re doing it wrong!
MORGOLLENS — I imagine this means ‘Morgellons’, a disease in which thin wire-like fibers allegedly grow in and emerge from the body. There’s still debate on just what it is, or if it’s even a genuine thing or a misinterpretation of some other existing condition. It is studied, but no one knows much. This was very big in the conspiracy theory crowd for a long time, promoted as evidence of chemtrails or vaccines or other things doing harm. It bounces around mostly in the spaces where hippie new-age types blend with anti-vaxxers.
We’re almost two weeks in. Feels like not that much, but it is. But we literally have only started scratching the surface of this damn thing. The more “common” conspiracies and topics that we bump off, the weirder the other stuff gets — and we have a good thousand or so pieces to go!
DAY ELEVEN ← → DAY THIRTEEN | https://medium.com/@robgrimwrites/what-lies-below-day-twelve-64e0b51318c4 | ['Rob Grim'] | 2021-03-10 14:34:32.576000+00:00 | ['Kung Fu Guy', 'Morgellons', 'Conspiracy Theories', 'Operation Northwoods', 'Lost Media'] |
Reservation Confirmation for Your Holiday Stay 2020 at the Hotel California | Dear Guest,
Thank you for booking your stay with us at the Hotel California for December 24, 2020 through indefinite! We are very much looking forward to welcoming you to our property and would like to assure you that late check-ins are accommodated at every hour. We consider ourselves “programmed to receive” and have staff on call to greet you at whatever time is most convenient. If you arrive after the hour of 1 a.m., you will find the night man at the concierge desk and he’ll be happy to help you with all of your check-in needs, make you feel relaxed, and to close the door behind you.
We have received some questions regarding our policies around COVID-19 protocols and would like to assure you that masks are optional here at the Hotel California, as you will notice that we follow more of a “permanent pod” situation. Despite the reluctance of some of our newer guests, we have also decided to proceed with our longstanding and unending traditions: nighttime dancing in the hotel courtyard, wine hours, and year-round nocturnal incantations up and down our corridors. We have decided not to cancel these activities despite medical advisement to the contrary, because they are a trademark and make us who we are (diseased). Should you wish to participate, a woman, along with an entourage of traditionally beautiful young men will be sent to your room to guide you, via candlelight to the festivities, which we like to call Kill the Beast and involve a litany of boar-on-the-floor style rules and, like that weird-ass game are also impossible to understand or predict, take place at a hotel, and are executed by people with little regard for the lives/dignity of other human beings. Please note that, although your escort has some very inflexible ideas surrounding addiction and blame, she, too, will not be wearing a mask, as she believes you can will your way out of contracting or spreading the novel Coronavirus, as well.
DIRECTIONS AND CHECK IN
The Hotel California is located off I-5 — look for the shimmering light, or just follow someone actively flouting public health measures in your area and eventually you’ll get here.
When you arrive, please use the abandoned parking lot by the beach, as our patrons have been barred from the town’s shared spaces. You can get your ticket validated at the front desk, or you can devise your own validation, or you can validate other people around you and they will, in turn, validate you, in a back-and-forth kind of way, such that all that is required for validation is a mutual agreement to refrain from holding yourself or one another responsible for your actions. At check-in, please have available your photo ID, and your alibis.
Room type: You have been booked in our California King Deluxe room, which does not include a California King size bed, but does have mirrors on its ceilings. We think you’ll find it a lovely place, but if there’s anything else we can do to improve your stay, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Feel free to address us as Captain, or honestly, whatever you want.
Check out: We used to request check-out by 1 p.m., but have found that our guests do not respond well to being given instructions they feel limit their sense of freedom, or even modest requests for considering the good of mankind, so honestly, just check out any time you like. | https://medium.com/the-haven/reservation-confirmation-for-your-holiday-stay-2020-at-the-hotel-california-37cf232853dd | ['Alicia Oltuski'] | 2020-12-24 00:17:30.212000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Humor', 'Hotel', 'California', 'Comedy'] |
Meet The “Sinclair Broadcast Group” of Local Newspapers | Meet The “Sinclair Broadcast Group” of Local Newspapers
Lee Enterprises is one of the largest owners of local newspapers in America. Their apparent indifference to the truth, ethics, and transparency, is terrifying.
Artwork by Author
Before I introduce you to Lee Enterprises: The Sinclair Broadcast Group of Local Newspapers, a little background on Sinclair…
Until July 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group operated its media empire in relative obscurity.
Then, John Oliver used his platform as host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight to shine a bright light on the Sinclair media machine; the thesis of Oliver’s 19-minute segment on Sinclair (which has now been viewed over 19-million times on YouTube) was that behind the mask of being an innocent and impartial broadcaster of local news, the media giant — operating in the shadows and taking advantage of the public’s overwhelming trust in “local news”— is really a giant corporation operating a thinly veiled right-wing sleaze machine with little — if any — interest in and commitment to ethical, honest, fact-first reporting.
Put simply: local people thought they were getting local news they could trust, but they were getting the opposite.
What made Oliver’s comedic-expose of Sinclair so gripping, beyond the content Sinclair produced and pushed to local communities, was the immense scale of what Oliver was describing:
“We did some math, and we found out that when you combine the most-watched nightly newscasts on Sinclair and Tribune stations in some of their largest markets, you get an average total viewership of 2.2 million households. And that is a lot! It’s more than any current primetime show on Fox News!”
Indeed, an average nightly viewership of 2.2 million households is a lot!
However, “Local News” is delivered in many forms — not just television. Perhaps more influential in the local news ecosystem are “local” print publications —particularly, newspapers, which are often trusted by the average Joe and Jane even more than their local TV news stations.
Which brings us to the subject of this article, The Sinclair Broadcast Group of Local Newspapers… Lee Enterprises. | https://medium.com/discourse/meet-the-sinclair-broadcast-group-of-local-newspapers-lee-enterprises-899ffae87ea5 | ['Andrew Londre'] | 2020-11-18 21:52:01.892000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Politics', 'News', 'Ethics', 'Leadership'] |
The Secret of the Huxleys | RESURRECTING HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM IN THE GUISE OF SCIENCE
Aldous and Julian Huxley, grandsons of Thomas Henry Huxley
An essay written by Professor Steve Fuller, published exclusively here
That which we were looking for, and could not find, was a hypothesis respecting the origin of known organic forms which assumed the operation of no causes but such as could be proved to be actually at work… The ‘Origin’ provided us with the working hypothesis we sought. Moreover, it did the immense service of freeing us forever from the dilemma — refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, and what have you to propose that can be accepted by any cautious reasoner?
T.H. Huxley, ‘On the Reception of the Origin of Species’
This is the famous passage in which Thomas Henry Huxley, ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, explains how he became a convert to evolution. And he became a ‘convert’ in the strong sense worthy of St Paul or St Augustine. He reoriented his life in his mid-30s from scientific research to publicizing and defending evolution. But interestingly, Huxley was never fully satisfied by Darwin’s claim that natural selection was the final court of appeal on matters of life and death — at least of humans. Indeed, he seemed to think that humanity’s species distinctiveness lay in resisting and at least temporarily overcoming natural selection. Huxley’s lingering misgiving about Darwin’s diminished view of humanity — rendering us literally equal to the other animals under the eyes of natural selection — would be a theme that runs through his successor generations, especially Thomas Henry’s grandchildren.
So what exactly bothered Huxley about creationism that drew him to evolution in the first place? The above quote, taken from a memoir of Darwin’s life, provides the answer — but it should be read without the spin subsequently put on it by evolutionists. Evolutionists normally regard Huxley’s conversion to their cause as predicated on a wholesale scepticism of creationism’s claims. Yet this fails to account for why Huxley scrupulously distinguished his own self-branded ‘agnosticism’ from ‘atheism’ even after his conversion to Darwin’s cause. Indeed, he declared himself a ‘seeker’, very much in the manner of his younger contemporary, the American philosopher William James. Both continued to try to find empirical access to the transcendent, be it in sacred scriptures (Huxley) or psychology experiments (James). To be sure, both went to their deaths without ever finding answers that fully satisfied them. The phrase ‘truth-seeking’ continues to pay homage to their sensibility.
In the case of Huxley’s problems with creationism, they were quite specific — and Darwin’s theory only partially addressed them. The key phrase in our opening quote is ‘proved to be actually at work’. Huxley’s biggest objection to creationism as presented in his day was its mystery-mongering about how nature could be as well designed as creationists claimed without explaining how God managed to pull it off. More to the point, whenever creationists came close to approaching this question, they recoiled from scientific investigation and reverted to a reading of the Bible that shielded it from scientific scrutiny. Huxley was so bothered by this move because creationists had been among the foremost contributors to our understanding of natural history, all along being guided by a design-based perspective. Georges Cuvier, Louis Agassiz and Richard Owen were all eminent scientists in Huxley’s youth and even today are regarded as distinguished contributors to natural history, notwithstanding their creationism. Yet, the creationists pulled their punches when it came to specifying the divine agent’s modus operandi.
For today’s evolution-leaning audience, this would be a convenient way to end the story. However, Huxley thought that creationists might be on to something — but it would require science to vindicate it. Here it is worth recalling that Darwin and other pioneering nineteenth century British scientific thinkers, ranging from Michael Faraday, Charles Babbage and George Boole to John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer, were formally recognized as ‘dissenters’ vis-à-vis Christianity. In other words, they refused the authority of the Church of England on spiritual matters, preferring to go their own way, without embracing any other church or — or, for that matter, atheism. The popular uptake of Huxley’s coinage of ‘agnosticism’ should be seen as normalizing this pre-existing dissenting culture, which kept open the prospect of an alternative path to the divine mind, should one be found.
What all these agnostics retained from the Bible was something of its ‘prophetic’ character, namely, that it speaks not only to its original audience but potentially to times and places. But that message cannot be redeemed simply by staying faithful to the sacred book, which after all is a patchwork of texts that were compiled to shore up emergent clerical authorities. This basic point about the obliqueness and even unreliability of the Biblical message in its normal presentation had been central to the so-called ‘critical-historical theology’ prevalent in the nineteenth century, which influenced a host of secular thinkers from Karl Marx to Ernst Mach, and was the general stance taken by the dissenting culture of which Huxley was a part (Gregory 1992). Their overarching point was that taking the Bible ‘seriously’ today requires doing something other than what its original writers and readers did.
Here St Augustine provided a guide, as he had done in early modern Europe, when a revival of his works fuelled both the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, very often by the same people operating in the same spirit (Harrison 2007). The most influential doctrines of Augustine’s reading of the first book of the Bible — Genesis — were the counterpoint of imago dei and peccatum originis: Humanity is born in the image of God yet we remain tainted by Adam’s ‘Original Sin’, notwithstanding the mission of Jesus — let alone the ministrations of any self-appointed ‘church’. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the ‘church’ in question was based in Rome. However, starting in the second half of the eighteenth century — the period of the European Enlightenment — the anti-establishment sensibility spawned by the Reformation was turned on Protestantism itself. At this point, ‘dissent’, ‘criticism’, ‘non-conformism’ and ‘free thinking’ took root within Christendom. Scientific inquiry was increasingly invoked as expressing the requisite openness to the Bible’s prophetic voice. Science boldly questioned established authority’s poor reflection on our divine heritage, while acknowledging the task ahead to overcome the comprehensive liabilities of our animal natures; hence, the demonization of priests and valorization of scientists.
This helps to explain Huxley’s disdain for Bishop Samuel Wilberforce’s emollience in their iconic 1860 Oxford debate. Whereas Wilberforce saw himself as a ‘modern’ Anglican cleric whose manner was more that of a one-nation Tory politician than a sectarian Catholic priest, Huxley still saw him as trading on that earlier priestly image on matters about which Wilberforce, himself a Fellow of the Royal Society, should have known better. If we imagine Huxley as a counter-theologian, Wilberforce’s sin was that of hypocrisy. But his hypocrisy did not lie in his failure to admit that Darwin’s account of the ‘descent of man’ was accurate and exhaustive. After all, Huxley had his own doubts. Rather, Wilberforce’s hypocrisy lay in his attempt to pre-empt any further inquiry into the matter by appealing to the ‘common sense’ of his audience, as if that could settle the question of whether humans could have emerged from apes. Huxley’s point — a largely moral one — was that humanity is unlikely to rise above its fallen state if thought-leaders such as Wilberforce simply reinforced popular prejudice on matters of such existential import as the nature of humanity.
It is easy to see how this experience lay the foundation for Huxley’s lifelong promotion of science education as a replacement for religious education. His sense of righteous indignation is still present in Richard Dawkins and his self-styled ‘New Atheists’. However, they go much further than Huxley by suggesting that early religious training should be terminated as a form of child abuse! On the contrary, at the end of his life, Huxley wondered how the grand ambitions of science and technology, which resulted in the dawn of a new globalized age, would be sustained in the twentieth century, as people integrated Darwin’s account of the human condition into their self-understanding. In his 1893 Romanes Lecture, ‘Evolution and Ethics’, Huxley keenly recognized that Darwin’s vision of all species appearing equal in the eyes of natural selection was diametrically opposed to the divine privilege accorded to humanity in the Abrahamic religions, even after the fall, which had driven much of this glorious science and technology down to his own late Victorian times.
Here Huxley broke decisively with his fellow evolutionist Herbert Spencer, who agreed with Darwin that nature places absolute limits on human progress and that all large-scale attempts to reverse the workings of natural selection in the name of ameliorating the human condition were bound to fail and perhaps even add to our species misery. For this reason, and contrary to popular perception, Spencer’s brand of ‘Social Darwinism’ was against all forms of state intervention, including eugenics and imperialism, both of which Huxley supported. For Spencer, ‘survival of the fittest’ was not a policy to be promoted but a brute fact to be recognized. Huxley could not disagree more with that assessment. For him, humanity’s distinctiveness lies in our species ability to ‘overcome’ natural selection by increasing our capacity to prescribe our own selection conditions. Practically speaking, Huxley was celebrating the modern liberal professions. He cites law, medicine and engineering as responsible for, in Dawkins’ terms, ‘extending the phenotype’, enabling humanity to decide on our own terms — not nature’s — who lives and how they shall live.
Were he in our midst today, Huxley could easily accept the popular geological concept of the ‘Anthropocene’, which assigns to humans primary responsibility for changes in the Earth’s climate since the Industrial Revolution. However, he would not necessarily regard it as a threat to our species survival. Rather, he would see it as more evidence for humanity’s ‘counter-selectionist’ modus operandi as a species. Without being so naïve as to presume humanity’s indefinite longevity, he would probably take it as just one more challenge to our ingenuity — a test of our species exceptionalism. And by continuing to stand up to nature’s trials, we gradually rise above our fallen animal condition to take increasing control of both our own fate and that of the planet, if not beyond. In this way, science and technology slowly but surely redeem the salvation promises of the Abrahamic religions.
Huxley’s horizon was most clearly pursued by his eldest grandson, Julian, who is nowadays normally seen as a ‘statesman of science’, perhaps most notably as UNESCO’s first scientific director. Nevertheless, Julian’s research contribution was hardly negligible. He provided the first British version of the modern evolutionary synthesis, whereby Darwin’s account of natural history was wedded to Mendelian lab-based genetics. Interestingly, this achievement had been adumbrated in a series of popular books on the ‘science of life’ in 1920s and ’30s that Julian co-authored with one of his grandfather’s students, H.G. Wells (Olby 1992). In the style of that great futurist, the series focused on a variety of emerging sciences — including both Pavlov and Jung — designed to give readers the courage to carry forward ‘hominizing’ the planet, to recall a phrase of the Jesuit palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose papally proscribed works Julian championed after Teilhard’s death in the 1950s (Teilhard 1959).
The timing of the original Wells-Huxley venture was telling. It was in the wake of the First World War — or the ‘Great War’, as it was then known — which had dampened many people’s faith in human progress. Two decades later, after the Second World War, as UNESCO scientific director, Julian more subtly carried the torch for this faith by facilitating the transit of biologists out of Nazi Germany to allow them to continue their research without any ideological taint. Perhaps he — and the Huxley family — speaks to us most directly today in his coinage of ‘transhumanism’ in the 1950s for the open recognition that our knowledge of modern evolutionary synthesis finally grants humanity the species privilege that it has long sought, first through religion and now through science. But with great power comes great responsibility, and Julian ended his days as a vocal champion of in vitro fertilization. Julian’s brother Aldous famously doubted humanity’s ability to rise to this challenge — and began to do so shortly after the Wells-Huxley literary venture with the publication of Brave New World in 1932. The future of humanity is defined by this sibling rivalry. Indeed, were I advising an alien who quickly needs to become acquainted with the historic struggles over what it means to be ‘human’, I would immediately turn their attention to the Huxley family.
References
Gregory, F. (1992). “Theologians, Science, and Theories of Truth in 19th Century.” In M.J. Nye et al. (eds.), The Invention of Physical Science. (Pp. 81–96). Dordrecht NL: Kluwer.
Harrison, P. (2007). The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Olby, R. (1992). ‘Huxley’s place in twentieth-century biology’, In K. Waters and A. Van Helden (eds), Julian Huxley: Biologist and Statesman of Science. Houston: Rice University Press.
Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1959). The Phenomenon of Man. (Introduction by Julian Huxley). London: Collins.
Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick. He is the author of a trilogy with Palgrave Macmillan on ‘Humanity 2.0’ and the recent book, Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era. | https://medium.com/@julesevans/the-secret-of-the-huxleys-9913f95097d9 | ['Jules Evans'] | 2020-12-22 21:05:26.213000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Transhumanism', 'Sociology', 'Evolution'] |
Digital Nomad Life During the Pandemic | Digital Nomad Life During the Pandemic
Greetings from Spain and la nueva normalidad of the second wave of the Coronavirus. It’s an upgrade that is less welcome than my next iPhone update, but I am thankful to be alive and well. Some people have fallen off the face of the map while in quarantine. My reaction to Coronavirus 2.0 was to cliff dive into oblivion.
I’ve been pondering how to comment on this experience. I count myself extremely fortunate I was able to continue my misadventures and leave the United States in the middle of the pandemic. I’m certainly not the only one who wanted to pack up and leave for a while. COVID-19 has inspired a new wave of “digital nomads” taking advantage of their new work from home arrangements. Browse a few articles of The Wall Street Journal, and you get the impression half the millennial workforce is sitting on a beach with their laptop, sipping a mojito, and praying their boss doesn’t require video on their next Zoom meeting.
I give massive props for those who managed to find such paradise in this environment, but I feel like someone needs to set the record straight for those of you sitting at home, riddled with FOMO, and wondering why you didn’t hop on a plane and leave when you had the chance. While I would love to be sitting on the beach with a mojito and my laptop every afternoon, COVID is still here and the rules don’t exactly favor those of us with insatiable wanderlust.
It has been 6 months since I arrived in Southern Spain. For those of you who are unfamiliar to the area, it is the home of flamenco, sherry, and British tourists who are dopplegangers for retirees in Fort Lauderdale. For five of those six months, we have been physically confined to a 5–10 mile radius, are never allowed outside our home without a mask, and continue to undergo a wave of shutdowns, lockdowns and everything else in between.
Do I feel safe here? Absolutely. Is it a complete pain in the a#@ and is the economy getting decimated? No question. I took seven naps last Saturday. Why? It filled in the gaps between daily walks past shuttered retail shops and beach bars. The feeling of grief is inescapable, despite having no frame of reference to what “normal life” looks like here. On a mental health scale of 1 to Deepak Chopra, I’m at a solid Margot Kidder.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from this experience, it is that countries can only work within their own legal and cultural frameworks. Yes, I am grateful that even though I am a stranger in a strange land, I worry less about contracting the Coronavirus, but I cannot judge my experience here as any better or worse than what I experienced back home. The rules are different. My emotional response is different. It is simply different.
What I do find remarkable is that it is rare to meet anyone in my Spanish town who has lost a family member or loved one to COVID-19. For all the restrictions and hardships they are facing (and believe me, it’s a lot), their sacrifice is something I will always remember. Everyone here complains about the rules, as to be expected, but they tolerate inconvenience for the sake of saving grandma. Having lost two grandparents myself, that is a hard position to argue with.
It is also hard to argue with families in the U.S.A who are drowning in unpaid bills, desperate to work enough hours to feed their kids. I have struggled to explain this predicament to Western Europeans, most of whom grow up in a system with state-supported health care and generous social welfare benefits. I consider the values of self-reliance, freedom, and individual liberty of my home country a point of pride, but this pandemic challenges Americans in a very unique way. It is about saving each other, and it cares little about where we fall in the political spectrum.
Much more interesting pictures and stories, with actual real live people, are to come. I would tell my friends back home to stay safe, but hell, do it your way. I’m pondering an 8th nap and I just polished off a third bag of gummy bears. I’m in no position to judge. | https://medium.com/@blythe-hooker/digital-nomad-life-during-the-pandemic-f0ca4f04a2c0 | ['Blythe Hooker'] | 2021-03-14 12:37:45.089000+00:00 | ['Digital Nomads', 'Covid 19', 'Remote Working', 'Spain'] |
Top 3 Palestinian Incubators | 1) GAZA SKY GEEKS
Gaza, objectively speaking, is an open air prison with very little opportunities. The unemployment rate sits at 45%. The poverty rate surpasses 50%.
This is why Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG) is so important and so successful. In 2009, Mercy Corps (an NGO) flew out senior executives from Google to Gaza. It became clear to leaders in both organizations that consistent access to high-speed fiber Internet would allow Gaza’s disenfranchised (yet highly educated) youth to side-step and even take advantage of all the restrictions on the movement of people and goods that are so detrimental to Gaza’s economy.
It is out of these realizations that Gaza Sky Geeks was born: a startup accelerator for young Palestinian entrepreneurs in Gaza. GSG is not only restricted to incubating startups; The GSG SkyLancer Academy trains young freelancers and helps them maximize their skills in the freelance world, and the GSG Code Academy provides intensive tech-education training, professional skills and job-readiness support for those looking to become professional coders and developers.
Today, GSG supports startups, gig economy workers, aspiring software developers, and champions diversity and inclusion. Female participation in Gaza Sky Geeks programs is at 50%, which surpasses most incubators worldwide. The proportion of freelancers they train who get at least one gig online is at a staggering 99%. Since their launch, the cumulative earnings reported by coding & freelancing alumni 12 months post-graduation is around 5M dollars.
Gaza Sky Geeks is undoubtedly a success story. They are a beacon of hope in a place that is in dire need of it.
If you are a coder, a freelancer, an entrepreneur or a mentor looking to help out, apply on their site. | https://medium.com/@info-growhome/top-3-palestinian-incubators-726d7b77865d | [] | 2020-10-15 17:37:23.276000+00:00 | ['Ramallah', 'Middle East', 'Entrepreneur', 'Palestine', 'Incubator'] |
What Do You Love/Hate About Summer? The Epilogue. | What Do You Love/Hate About Summer? The Epilogue.
I dared to ask and got more than 20 brilliant responses!
Photo by Dan Dumitriu on Unsplash
Summertime is the time for sharing stories!
Technically I am a child of winter. Born in July, I come from a Land Down Under. Nowadays, I live north of the equator where the seasons are reversed. Instead of shivering in woolies on my birthday, I am blessed by warmth and sunshine.
Of course summer means different things to different people. That’s why I asked a few of my favorite Medium writers to share what they love (or hate) about Summer.
Thank you to Alan Asnen, Jesse Wilson, Dennett, Ann Litts, Mark Starlin, Elle Beau, Vivian Ennis, Louise Foerster, Noma Dek, Bebe Nicholson, Jon Scott, Bridget Webber, Bonnie Barton, Selma, P.G. Barnett, Elle Rogers, Hawkeye Pete Egan B., ⭐ Ryan Justin, Brianna Bennett ✨, Imperfectly Edie, Craig Weldon, Carol Lennox and Agnes Louis for creating such wonderful and diverse stories.
I’d also like to thank kurt gasbarra, Shaan Sood, Siva Raj, Ian James Grant, Jagrit Singh, Ida Adams, Celine Lai and Gregory Alan for generously sharing their thoughts on Summer in the comments of the prompt article.
Without further ado, enjoy the stories!
Lucy
(If your response to the prompt is not listed, please tag me in the comments.)
What Do You Love/Hate About Summer?
The original prompt by Lucy King
Responses to the prompt:
Thank you for reading! | https://medium.com/mindset-matters/what-do-you-love-hate-about-summer-the-epilogue-1a68c81fc319 | ['Lucy King'] | 2019-08-29 12:18:18.925000+00:00 | ['Summer', 'Writing', 'Creativity', 'Storytelling', 'Writing Prompts'] |
To fix it or to leave it as it is… | A few years back; when I was a kid — when I didn’t know what it is to hurt someone or what it feels like getting hurt; I was playing with a glass showpiece in my house and my tiny hands couldn’t hold it properly and it fell down and shattered into a few pieces. It didn’t take me time to get two tear drops in my eyes, because that was the first time I had broken something valuable. I was too young to decide what to do next — tell mom or to just ask dad to get a new one or to cry and gain some sympathy. But I was just old enough to know that I have broken something which will not come back to its original state if I don’t quickly try to fix it.
So without wasting any time, I sat down and started collecting the broken pieces of the glass. I didn’t want to make any noise; I didn’t want to tell anyone about it; I wanted to keep it low and wanted to get it back like it was before. It was a beautiful showpiece, everyone who would visit our home would praise about it. It just made me so happy to know that something that is so precious belongs to me. My mom had placed it on the shelf which was opposite to my bed. So every night before I would go to sleep, the showpiece would be the last thing I would see and obviously it was the first thing that I would see, when I would wake up in the morning, every day.
I wasn’t realizing but I was getting used to it. It is so rightly said that a kid’s mind is as malleable as soft clay. The more you expose it to something it will get used to it quickly and will develop an attachment to it. So yes, I had developed an undue affection towards the showpiece. Little did I know that soon it is going to be shattered into pieces because of one stupid mistake!
So I sat down and started collecting the broken pieces. The larger pieces which were easily visible to naked eye were picked up first and were placed carefully on the table. That at least gave me a hope that it is going to be fixed. :) Although short-lived, that feeling was so good. The feeling that everything is going to get fine, everything is going be as it was and everything is going to be fixed! It’s a beautiful feeling I tell you.
BUT! Picking up the largest pieces was not the end of the misery. What was going to be the most painful part was finding, picking up & fixing the tiniest pieces. I was about to start doing that, and my mom entered the room! Moms you know, their cooking and timing aren’t the best things in the world? I was going to try picking up the small pieces but she screamed at me and asked me to stay where I was. I didn’t understand why she was getting so mad at me; when I had already picked up the larger pieces what harm will the tiny pieces possibly do to me?
She warned me about how it might cut my fingers and I should stay away for some time. She warned me and went to get the broom to clean it. I didn’t listen to her, because we love doing that right — Inviting problems, because what is the fun in leading a risk-less life?
The moment I tried picking up the first tiny piece of the broken showpiece I got a long cut on my palm. Ouch! I never saw that coming! This was not something I had ever imagined. How could a thing that I adored for all those years simply hurt me so much! Was our equation so weak? My eyes started flooding. And I started crying on top of my voice! My mom rushed to my room and held me close. She took me to the wash basin and held my hand under the running water. It wasn’t helping thou. Eyes with tears, hand with blood and heart with pain. Too much for a toddler to handle.
Mom put some ointment on my palm and took me in her arms and we sat on the couch. She made a call to dad’s office and asked the receptionist to drop a message to my dad about my injury, so that dad could get some of my favorite sweet while coming home. :)
She hugged me and kept telling me how the pain will go away in just a few minutes. The palm was already healing. But I kept looking at the empty shelf. And I asked her, “Can papa fix the showpiece?”
I didn’t know what I had asked, but that question brought tears to my mom’s eyes. She hugged me tighter. And said “Sweetheart, we will get a new showpiece; don’t you worry. We will get a better one, a prettier one.”
“No! But that was my showpiece”, I revolted. “And we have all the pieces collected in the trash. We just have to get some glue and fix it.”
“Do you want a chocolate?”
I didn’t say anything. I just hugged her even tightly and started sobbing. She realized that it wasn’t the injury but the broken showpiece that was making me so sad. In her comforting and calm voice she said, “It is okay. It is totally fine to let that go. There is still a chance that we can pick the broken pieces and try to fix it and try to make it look like how it was. But we know that it will not shine like it used to shine before. It will not hold water that we will pour in it. There will be so many holes that it will have. And when people will come home they will not appreciate it like they used to do it.”
I didn’t buy a single word that she said. I didn’t want the shine; I just wanted to see that showpiece every night and every morning. I didn’t care if it would hold water or any other thing. And about what others think? Is that even something that I should have been bothered about? Was it so difficult for her to understand that it was something that belonged to me and all I asked was to try and fix what was ours!
It took me a few days to forget about the broken showpiece. On a lighter note, I would say that the ‘denial- depression — anger — acceptance’ cycle I had experienced at an early age itself.
I had to make peace with the fact that sometimes some things are meant to happen and we cannot hold onto things which will give nothing but pain if we try to fix them. Time heals most of the things. In such situations it is difficult to understand who suffers the more — the showpiece that broke or the person to whom the showpiece belonged. For some we become the showpiece, some become the showpiece for us.
We shall not be so hollow that one mistake should break everything. And also if we really love our showpieces then we should know how to handle them. We can’t expect a fragile thing to surpass something that it was never made to do. We should just not buy something that we know we won’t be able to take care of.
Life doesn’t stop at this point; the empty shelf got something to fill in the showpiece’s place even without me noticing about it. The broken glass must have got recycled and must be moulded in a brand new design and must be shining somewhere. I grew up, and have so many other responsibilities to look after. With time, we forget things and we move on; and that is the best (and most painful) solution most of the times.
We forget about good things easily as compared to the bad things. But unfortunately that’s how it is. I don’t have the beautiful showpiece with me but I still have scars on my palm. But we learn to live with it, and that’s the most beautiful thing about it. We feel hurt for some time, but with the next day’s sunrise we wake up and face the world with worthy experience and with a mature frame of mind.
We all should go through breaking a showpiece at least once. :) | https://kapilgadhire.medium.com/to-fix-it-or-to-leave-it-as-it-is-c48873fb763d | ['Kapil Gadhire'] | 2019-06-07 06:43:48.782000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Relationships', 'Fiction', 'Love'] |
Steps To Help Your Child Transition From Their Crib To Their Own bed | Steps To Help Your Child Transition From Their Crib To Their Own bed Naomi Harrison Apr 1·3 min read
Your toddler may spend the first few years in the crib, or it may just be time for him to say goodbye. It is likely that he will talk or behave in a way that expresses his unhappiness with the crib, or he may simply climb out.
Then what should we do?
Most experts suggest removing them at around 3 years old when your child’s body is able to accommodate bigger spaces and to feel safer.
By doing this, your child can go through giant developmental leaps during the day but revert to the comfort of sleeping in his old bed at night.
Additionally, children younger than 3 years of age are very impulsive, and this makes it difficult to understand and follow directions or rules (containment for example). you can expect to be waking up to a little visitor next to your bed pretty much every night if you transition to a bed before the age of 3.
It is essential, however, that you support your child along the way in making a smooth transition from sleeping on the floor to a bed. Here is a guide to help you do so:
1.Provide a safe environment:
Make sure the child’s bedroom is secure and that no other rooms where your child might be tripped over can be open. Secure windows, the top of stairs, and all stepstools to prevent injuries. Your child’s door may need a safety gate, and in his room, you may install some small night lights to increase his sense of security.
2. Choose the mattress:
Take your child to the mattress store or any other seller of mattresses and have him or her help you choose the mattresses and beds. With safety being the prime consideration, you’ll only need a twin-size mattress, a box spring, and side rails. Get some fun new sheets and special pillowcases, and you’re all set. Just remember to adjust the height of this new bed accordingly until your child gets used to it.
3. We recommend taking the crib apart (together):
Take your child’s crib down after the new bed arrives home so that he or she feels part of the transition process to the new bed and can also say goodbye to the crib.
4. The bed — Setting it up:
You can add a safety rail to the exposed side of your child’s bed so they feel safe. Put the bed in one corner of their bedroom so that the head and side of the bed flush against the wall and side panels. Their cribs provided them with this same level of protection.
5. How do bedtimes work?
It is imperative for your child to know that sleeping in the bed as a baby will soon cause him to be unable to wake up until the sunlight is bright enough to see.
6. Don’t forget to go to bed early:
In the first few nights in his new bed, if you read to him for an additional 10 minutes while he sleeps, he will feel more comfortable in his surroundings. You can make a child feel safe by making him or her feel secure in his or her environment. If your child appears enthusiastic, then you may have successfully maneuvered through this transition.\
If you’re having problems getting your baby to sleep, CLICK HERE and try this quick quiz and watch the video to learn a simple and effective way of putting your baby to sleep very easy | https://medium.com/@naomiharrison/steps-to-help-your-child-transition-from-their-crib-to-their-own-bed-59418969e138 | ['Naomi Harrison'] | 2021-04-01 01:40:21.846000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Routine', 'Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby Sleep', 'Babys', 'Baby Sleeping'] |
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