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Integrating Prettier + ESLint + Airbnb Style Guide + EditorConfig no VSCode | In this guide, we will be explaining how to set up libraries and extensions, in which will be useful to systematize and organize the codes in your projects.
We will be using the Visual Studio as IDE, and Yarn to install dependencies.
Tools
ESLint
ESLint is a program that identifies possible errors. The extensions in ESLint are configurable. It allows you to customize between a variety of internal options, matching with your company’s style guide. It reports while you are typing in your editor, and opens up a window with a detailed list of the problematic patterns.
Prettier
Most of the time we don’t write the best codes, but with Prettier you no longer will have to worry about it. After a long development session, all you need to do is to save the file and, **puf**, code is formatted.
EditorConfig
EditorConfig helps maintain consistent coding styles for multiple developers working on the same project across various editors and IDEs. The EditorConfig project consists of a file format for defining coding styles and a collection of text editor plugins that enable editors to read the file format and adhere to defined styles. EditorConfig files are easily readable, and they work nicely with version control systems.
Configuration in VSCode
In VSCode, download the following extensions: ESLint, Prettier e EditorConfig. 2. Install the libraries **ESLint** and **Prettier** in your project. To do that, in your root directory, run:
yarn add eslint prettier -D
3. Install the configuration of Airbnb.
If you are using the **npm 5+**, you can run this shortcut to install the configuration and all its dependencies:
npx install-peerdeps — dev eslint-config-airbnb
4. Install eslint-config-prettier (deactivate the format to ESLint) and eslint-plugin-prettier (Allows ESLint to report on format errors while typing)
yarn add eslint-config-prettier eslint-plugin-prettier -D
5. Open a new file **.eslintrc.json** on your project’s root directory:
6. The next step is to make sure the Prettier formatting happens when you save a file. Insert **“editor.formatOnSave”: true** on User Settings on VScode.
To open the User Settings, use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P then search for: “_Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)_”
7. Open a new file **.editorconfig** In your project’s root directory:
**Congratulations, you made it!**
Following the steps above, your VScode is ready to early identify errors, and with the formatters, will help on maintaining consistency on all coding fonts. With all this extensions working together, it will be possible to create a clean and sustainable code. Your boss and coworkers will thank you.
References
Integrating Prettier + ESLint + Airbnb Style Guide in VSCode. (2018). Found on: <https://blog.echobind.com/integrating-prettier-eslint-airbnb-style-guide-in-vscode-47f07b5d7d6a>. | https://medium.com/matheus-barbosa/integrating-prettier-eslint-airbnb-style-guide-editorconfig-no-vscode-ff950263adbf | ['Matheus B Oliveira'] | 2020-04-28 16:29:29.842000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Prettier', 'Editorconfig', 'Eslint', 'Airbnb'] |
How do data grids look on a map? A 3D video | References
This video is based on the data used for this article: Climate warming in Europe, municipality by municipality
Municipality-level data for Italy can be accessed through this interactive interface: In marcia con il clima
For more details on the methodology, check out the following notes:
The dataset is an elaboration of Copernicus data. More details about the original dataset: UERRA regional reanalysis for Europe on single levels from 1961 to 2019. Data for administrative units are from ISTAT.
The scripts used to create this dataset from the original source is available on GitHub. The scripts used to generate the files used to make the video are also available on GitHub.
N.B. this video outlines some common issues related to data grids, but does not go into the specifics that are peculiar of the dataset used as an example. For more information, check out the methodological note at the bottom of this article and read the documentation that accompanies the original dataset. Some of the issues outlined in the video are mentioned also in the original documentation: “results in complex terrain, such as mountainous regions or coastal areas, are generally less reliable than results over a more homogeneous terrain. The models cannot represent the strong gradients that sometimes are caused by the variable terrain.” | https://medium.com/@edjnet/how-do-data-grids-look-on-a-map-a-3d-video-707a24b8c9a9 | ['European Data Journalism Network'] | 2020-10-08 14:09:00.760000+00:00 | ['3d', 'Maps', 'Data Journalism', 'Data', 'Explainer'] |
Advent: How To Give Good Gifts | On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2.11
Several years ago, I was in the store shopping for a gift to give to one of my best friends –a mentor to me, a father of five–he was my age, we liked similar things, and we had known each other for more than ten years at that point. I had my children with me and they were certain they had found the perfect gift for my friend.
“Over here,” they yelled with excitement. I turned the cart down the toy aisle knowing where this was headed. This was pre-Mandalorian, so get back on track. Lo and behold, my then 6-year old son thought the latest Nerf gun would be the absolute best gift for my buddy; not to be outdone, my girls in a different aisle were confident that a baby doll would make the very best gift. I couldn’t help but laugh.
And we can laugh at that because we’ve all been there: wanting to give someone a gift that we would want to receive –a gift that conveys love to us.
But, what really is the point of gift giving? And how do we give good gifts? And how does one become a gift wrapping wizard?
I love deconstruction and this is actually quite a wonderful thing to explore: there’s a process, or a spectrum, of moving from one end where you’re buying someone a gift that you yourself would want to receive, to buying a gift that you know they will enjoy, to ultimately bringing someone a gift they will enjoy while also drawing out the best within them: the gift that really does keep on giving.
One of the most fundamental, often missed, and transformative points of gift-giving is to express our appreciation of a person for who they are and who they are becoming; a celebration of what is and what could be.
And actually, reality can be a bit more surprising: often times, our first attempts at gift-giving are spot-on. Think of a 5-year old child who makes their parent a craft “project” all about how you are the “BEST IN THE WORLD!”
We’ll cherish the sentiment of a poorly drawn stick figure, hot glue, and glitter –but we also experience a very real sense of awe as we glimpse how they perceive the world: we are the best human being in the universe. And something magical happens as it makes us believe we can be as amazing, strong, and awesome as they think we are.
One of the most fundamental, often missed, and transformative points of gift-giving is to express our appreciation of a person for who they are and who they are becoming; a celebration of what is and what could be.
The gifts that the Magi in Matthew 2 bring to Jesus are perfect examples! In a very real, earthly sense, Jesus was not yet king; but the gifts –valuable in and of themselves– also spoke to who Jesus would become. Indeed, you can feel the nature of “advent” in that story!
As you shop or bake or gather items to craft a gift for your family and friends this season, you can rest in knowing it’s a beautiful thing to give good gifts!
The point is not about paying more money, but paying more attention to those around you, to know their heart. The best gifts are those that you are compelled to give because you have taken the time to know a person well; and because of that friendship–that relationship–you find, create, craft something they can enjoy and that draws out the very best within them.
Also, we learned nothing about gift wrapping. | https://medium.com/@justinpheap/advent-how-to-give-good-gifts-72a42ed14c9a | ['Justin Heap'] | 2020-12-19 16:45:05.468000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Christmas', 'Advent', 'Life Lessons', 'Wisdom'] |
Latest Observations On Numerous Unnecessary Changes Organizations Are Adhering | The current pandemic has created opportunities for organizations to improve their existing work structure, which can enhance the organizations for the long term; however, most of the organizations are not doing this justice.
I was speaking with a couple of friends and ex-colleagues, who are working under different organizations, and based on the talks we had, it is clearly evident that, unfortunately, many organizations are not taking appropriate measures. The changes are required, but if not handled properly, this will lead many organizations to the path of obsolete or decline their business potential in the coming time.
The issues that came out from our discussions are concerning on a large scale.
The changemakers in the organizations are blindly following other organizations in the same industry to include new practices, which might not be compatible ; or
other organizations in the same industry to include new practices, which might not be ; or they are adapting to changes, which are easier to change but not required or will ensure future sustainability
the leaders (so-called) do not have the idea on how to ensure smooth transformation ; or,
; or, many roles are irrelevant, which are not being changed or upgraded based on the changed scenario; or,
based on the changed scenario; or, discouragement on questioning the changes , whereas it should be considered as a practice to improve the parameters
, whereas it should be considered as a practice to improve the parameters not transforming business process and procedures smoothly, and adhering too many changes , which are creating work bubbles and unnecessary pressures; or,
, which are creating work bubbles and unnecessary pressures; or, neglecting talents considering abundance in the market, which is lowering their reputation for the long-term; or,
considering abundance in the market, which is lowering their reputation for the long-term; or, keeping the same process overflow, and overburdening with increased KPIs , which will backfire because of the outdated system and practices; or,
, which will backfire because of the outdated system and practices; or, not empowering people, but threatening on career due to business disruptions in the pandemic time.
Organizations will face other obstacles too after the pandemic is over, which are:
improving gender equality in the places
in the places keeping a suitable hybrid work environment
mental wellbeing because of the increased stress
because of the increased stress questionable HR practices in some organizations
in some organizations maintaining a balanced work culture in a distributed work scenario
in a distributed work scenario difficulties to redesign the job responsibilities
more unnecessary responsibilities will be added for the employees; as many strategy-makers are not properly evaluating the future scenario (putting irrelevant KPIs will overburden the employees and will lower the value proposition for the organization)
will be added for the employees; as many strategy-makers are (putting irrelevant KPIs will overburden the employees and will lower the value proposition for the organization) behavioral aspects to shape based on established work pattern after the pandemic
to shape based on established work pattern after the pandemic business travel will shrink
purpose of the office buildings will be changed because of new business practices
will be changed because of new business practices Standard 9–5 structure will vary; however, it might overburden with work-stress
will vary; however, it might overburden with work-stress middle management positions might take a big hit
positions might take a big hit incorporating more automation means more screening and monitoring
Promising an improved future with streamlined processes & practices requires current developments on related aspects, which were often ignored but needed to be developed, which many organizations are failing to do, thus might find themselves in a problematic scenario.
Different meta-skills, soft skills, and technical skills are required to sustain in the coming days, which are often being missed in today’s evolving scenario. And, I believe not adhering to the appropriate changes or not recognizing the current issues will create more obstacles for the organization in the long run.
Following is a webinar by Mckinsey & Company, which might be useful to consider ‘reimagining organizations for post-pandemic times.’ | https://medium.com/little-notebook-of-sales/latest-observations-on-numerous-unnecessary-changes-organizations-are-adhering-5b3b8ad89810 | ['Suntonu Bhadra'] | 2020-12-08 01:57:34.433000+00:00 | ['Post Pandemic Business', 'Change Management', 'Organization', 'Business', 'Transformation'] |
Universal Interoperability: Why Enterprise Blockchain Applications Should be Deployed to Shared Networks | Universal Interoperability: Why Enterprise Blockchain Applications Should be Deployed to Shared Networks
Business needs the universal interoperability of public networks but with the privacy of private networks. Only the Corda network can deliver this.
The tl;dr of this post is:
Most permissioned blockchains use isolated networks for each application, and these are unable to interoperate. This makes no sense.
We should instead aspire to deploy multiple business applications to an open, shared network. But this needs the right technology with the right privacy model.
Corda, the open source blockchain platform we and our community are building, was designed for just this from day one. But there was a piece missing until now: the global Corda network.
In this post I describe the global Corda network for the first time in public and how it will be opened up to the entire Corda community in the coming months.
If you’re building blockchain solutions for business, you need to read this post…
Think back to how excited you were (well, I was!) when you first heard about Ethereum. The idea of a platform for smart contract applications, all running across a common network, with interoperability between all these different applications written by different people for different purposes. It was mind-blowing.
And it’s not just a vision, of course. The public Ethereum community have actually delivered it! Indeed, emerging standards such as ERC20 are a demonstration of the power of a shared, interoperable network and the power of standardisation.
So the question we asked ourselves at R3 back in 2015 was: imagine if you could apply that idea to business… imagine if different groups of people, each deploying applications for their own commercial purposes, woke up one day and discovered that those apps could be reassembled and connected in ways unimaginable to their creators but in a way that respected privacy and which could be deployed in real-world businesses with all the complexity that entails.
It seemed obvious to us that this was the right vision. And that it would require a universal, shared, open network, the topic of this post.
But it dawned on me recently that this is not how everybody in the permissioned blockchain space sees it. The consequences for users could be serious.
To see what I mean, take a look at the first few seconds of this speech by IBM’s Jerry Cuomo, one of the inventors of Hyperledger Fabric.
“We [IBM] have ten active networks that we’re managing”. [Jerry Cuomo, IBM]
I believe this is the wrong approach.
The win comes when we break down silos; when we enable data and assets to move without friction; when we avoid duplication; when we eliminate reconciliations and unnecessary integrations.
And for this to work, we need all these different solutions to operate across massive, open, shared blockchain networks… not isolated private deployments.
Indeed, as R3’s CEO explained to CNBC, enterprise blockchain is all about optimising at the level of an industry rather at the level of individual firms. And because each of these firms participates in multiple business networks, with multiple webs of relationships, it means these deployments have to interoperate at a truly intimate and fundamental level.
There Are Competing Visions for Interoperability; Choose Wisely
Corda was designed from the ground up to bring the benefits of the blockchain “I see what you see” promise to business across a universally interoperable network.
The industry now finds itself at a critical juncture: do we pursue the IBM vision of “one blockchain per application” or do we pursue an open vision of “universally interoperable applications”?
Either side of the debate is legitimate. But until recently, of course, it was a debate that we couldn’t have: no meaningful business solutions were live and no technology delivered on the promise of universal interoperability with the privacy that is needed by real-world businesses.
But that has now changed: applications are going live and Corda 3.0 has shipped. And, with Corda 3.0, we delivered a long-term wire-stable platform, meaning applications deployed today won’t need to be redeployed as Corda continues to mature.
So now the industry has a real choice: those who build on the open source Corda platform have the ability to deploy their applications to be universally interoperable with all other Corda applications, with the privacy and ease-of use you have come to expect from Corda.
To be clear: no other blockchain can do anything remotely like this.
The Corda vision is one of universal interoperability
I presented at The R3 CordaCon conference in Tokyo recently. My subject was interoperability. A keynote about interoperability?! What was I thinking?!
Universal Interoperability: the vision lies within our grasp
But I chose the topic deliberately… because this thing I thought was obvious to everybody turns out not to be.
Here’s a thought experiment to make this real:
Imagine an airline deployed a CorDapp to link them to all their travel agents around the world so that everybody, at all times, is in complete consensus about which seats have been sold and who is allocated to them. Maybe a forward-thinking travel agent could assemble groups of seat records on the ledger in an innovative way to invent a new ‘virtual charter’ airline, safe in the knowledge that if the airline ever had to switch out an airframe or reallocate a seat, the information would flow all the way through to the traveller without any loss of integrity. A vivid example of a new opportunity that arises when you know for sure that the data you’re looking at is correct.
Then, maybe one day a group of hotels deploys an app to manage their room inventory. Suddenly a new way to construct package holidays emerges: by combining the airline app with the hotel app in a way that nobody expected beforehand. The new value to the consumer (complete transparency into what they’ve actually bought and total assurance that the information they’re looking at is correct and not clouded or filtered by intermediaries) is immense.
The possibilities that open up when these disparate applications, initially deployed by different groups for different purposes, can interoperate in the future are mind-boggling. There’s no genius on our part here, of course: THAT is the obvious implication of the Ethereum vision applied to business.
But hang on a moment… if that was the Ethereum vision, why not just use Ethereum to solve these problems? Why did we invent something new? An eagle-eyed viewer spotted the slide on this in my CordaCon deck, which summarises the answer:
In short, Ethereum works on the basis of sharing all data with all parties. So the public Ethereum network just can’t be used to deliver this vision. Right vision, wrong architecture for business, if you like.
Unfortunately, attempts to address these issues through initiatives like the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance have yet to deliver anything.
No activity on the Quorum project for over a month. Getting Ethereum to work for business scenarios is hard.
Bright hopes such as JPMorgan’s Quorum appear to have been moribund for months according to their GitHub repos. The departure of that project’s leader throws the Quorum project even further into doubt.
Enterprise-oriented clones of Ethereum such as Fabric are faring no better, shipping yet another redesign in an attempt to make the underlying architecture work in the presence of strict privacy requirements. Don’t expect this to be the last redesign.
We are seeing again and again that starting with an architecture designed to solve a different problem just doesn’t work.
At CordaCon, we outlined a better way by reminding everybody what we wrote in the Corda whitepaper almost two years ago. Here is a screenshot of the introductory paragraph:
Universal interoperability (“transact seamlessly for any contractual purpose without friction”) was one of the key design goals for Corda. Our community has been executing on this vision ever since.
But… (there’s always a but, right?)
It’s not enough to design a platform to work this way; people actually have to all join the same network, of course!
But nobody in their right mind would sign up if that universal shared network were centralised and controlled by a commercial entity like R3, right?
T he Corda network
So we’ve been working really hard with the early users of Corda to make sure this shared network is open, transparently governed and an attractive place to deploy their applications and build their business networks.
We’re putting the finishing touches to the Corda network and will soon be well underway in onboarding the first users. Our ambition is for this to be a truly global and openly governed network, whilst ensuring the strong identity assurances and privacy you’ve come to expect from Corda.
Why am I telling you about it now? Because if you buy in to our vision of a universally interoperable business blockchain network, you really need to be building on Corda. If you’re not, get started now!
And then make sure we know about you so you can help contribute to the work-in-progress governance model and participate in the opening of the Corda network to the world! | https://medium.com/corda/universal-interoperability-why-enterprise-blockchain-applications-should-be-deployed-to-shared-3d4daff97754 | ['Richard Brown'] | 2018-04-05 13:43:54.100000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Corda', 'Interoperability'] |
Mass Adoption of Blockchain will be Enterprise Lead | How Overledger removes barriers and simplifies the adoption of blockchain technologies for Enterprise.
Enterprises and Governments are the driving forces to technological adoption. Companies and organisations deliver digital and non-digital services to customers and citizens. The business need is to create value and deliver a service or product to their customers while maintaining an acceptable level of service.
Technology as an enabler for business allows for innovation and the creation of new solutions to deliver value. With innovation comes challenges faced by enterprise to install, integrate and implement technology. Demands on IT can be categorised as:
Demands on IT
Each enterprise environment is unique and different, made up with legacy technology and decisions which have been built upon a foundation of systems that are integrated to serve a purpose. Adding new technologies to an enterprise stack is complex. Each and every project must comply and align with the Enterprise Architecture. A common framework which allows for a way to integrate within a structured architecture.
For Enterprise to adopt a new technology like blockchain, the integrity of existing systems must be maintained without jeopardising systems and sustaining SLAs, service level agreements.
New technologies need to integrate easily without signification changes and disruption to the existing backend. Many early blockchain projects attempted to change the existing core of a banking system expecting a seamless integration. Where they failed was not realising the complex nature of enterprise systems and the intricacies of the backend integration.
Implementing blockchain technologies with the current approach requires the whole core backend system to be transformed.
This is something that many enterprises are not willing to risk due to the complex nature and cost of enterprise transformation.
The approach we have taken with Overledger, is to simplify the integration of any blockchain while maintaining the integrity of existing architectures.
The current challenges for enterprise using blockchain and DLT today are:
The barrier to get started is very high
• High cost — 8 months lead time and £3m sunk cost
• Technical and Interoperability limitations
• Vendor and technology lock-in
• Complex infrastructure
• Lack of technical resources and skills
• Security challenges with P2P networks
A typical enterprise takes a long time to stand up and run a project. To manage risk and compliance, budgets need approving, projects need to get the green light from investment and governance committees, the project needs to be in line with the organization’s enterprise architecture and support the strategy and vision. Plus, there’s procurement and sourcing who are part of finance and need all the vendor documentation and contracts in place to manage risk before approving the project. Even executives at the C-level (CEO, CIO, CTO, CISO) in organizations who own the budget, are accountable and make strategy decisions can’t bypass the controls and processes in place, everyone has to follow the approach.
Organisations operate by managing risk (first-line to third-line controls) to ensure compliance with contractual requirements and regulation.
From our background and experience, a typical enterprise takes about 8 months of average to start a project and it will cost about £3m in sunk cost before they see the potential return on investment.
Enterprise project lifecycle
OVERLEDGER
Overledger is the world’s first blockchain operating system (OS) that not only inter-connects blockchains but also existing networks to blockchain and facilitates the creation of internet scale multi-chain applications otherwise known as mApps. Start building game changing applications with no additional infrastructure, using existing resources, and have the choice of interoperability in as little as 8 minutes.
We’ve removed the barriers to adoption for enterprise, keeping existing systems and integrating simply with just 3 lines of code. An entire enterprise stack can be blockchain enabled by using Overledger.
We’ve abstracted a complex enterprise architecture into 3 lines of code. | https://medium.com/@gverdian/mass-adoption-of-blockchain-will-be-enterprise-lead-1a801a196afd | ['Gilbert Verdian'] | 2019-04-09 08:55:06.667000+00:00 | ['Transformation', 'Enterprise', 'Integration', 'Blockchain', 'Decentralization'] |
Faith in God: Life Lessons from Abraham and Sarah(+Declaration of Faith for 2021) | You wonder if God is listening to your prayers. You wonder if God’s promises in the bible are meant for you. You wonder if God cares for you.
You have doubts, and it’s perfectly normal as we live in an imperfect and sinful world that tries to drown us in doubts, worries, and concerns. Even the righteous Abraham and Sarah had doubts, despite God promising them directly that they would have a child.
Abraham or Sarah just could not believe that biologically they could be parents to a child at the age of 100 and 90 years old respectively. They want to believe God’s promise and Sarah second-guess God’s intentions by taking the matter into her own hands:- she followed the practice of her times by giving her maidservant, Hagar, to Abraham as a surrogate for a child.
By not trusting in God’s timing, Abraham and Sarah experienced a host of unnecessary problems:
Hagar despised her mistress, Sarah, when she was pregnant
Sarah blamed Abraham for her predicament
Abraham refused to address the problems and allowed Sarah to mistreat Hagar in revenge
Hagar ran away with her child, causing Abraham to ‘lose’ his child
Despite all the problems created through their lack of faith, God was faithful and intervened by resolving the problems for them. An angel advised Hagar to submit to Sarah and God blessed Hagar’s son, Ishmael, even though he was not God’s intended heir for Abraham.
God kept his covenant with Abraham and blessed him with his heir, Isaac, through his wife Sarah. Despite Abraham’s and Sarah’s mistakes, God’s love, mercy, and grace prevailed and we know from history that Abraham:
was blessed with many descendants
had many nations descended from him
had his covenant with God carried through to his descendants
was given the land of Canaan for him and his descendants
God chastised Sarah’s doubt by asking her “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). Indeed, we humans tend to forget that our God is all-powerful and that nothing is too hard for our Lord.
With a new year approaching, let’s strengthen our faith in God with a strong declaration of faith, blessing, and grace for 2021.
Declaration of Faith, Blessing, and Grace for 2021
I DECLARE that God has a masterplan for my life and He is working all things for my good. I may not understand everything right now but I trust that all will come together to make sense eventually. God’s amazing plans will materialize in perfect timing for me.
I DECLARE God’s vision for my life will re-align everything perfectly for me. Sickness, trouble, lack, mediocrity, are only temporary. I will not be moved by what I see but by what I know. I am a victor and never a victim. I will become all God has created me to be.
I DECLARE that God will equip me for every good work He has planned for me. God has anointed and empowered me to break every bondage and limitation. I will overcome every obstacle, and experience victory like never before. This is my time to shine.
I DECLARE that God will bring to pass those hidden dreams that He has placed deep in my heart. If certain promises don’t look like they will happen, I will not be intimidated and give up. I will pray with boldness, knowing that nothing is too difficult for Him.
I DECLARE that God will fill me with wisdom to make wise choices and have a clear direction. I will be blessed by God almighty with creativity, good ideas, courage, strength, and ability.
I DECLARE that I am blessed with good health, a good family, good friends, and a long life. I further declare I am blessed with promotion, with success, with an obedient heart, and a positive outlook. I will prosper and succeed in whatever I put my hands to. I will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. I will be blessed when I go in and when I go out. I will lend and not borrow, and I will be above and not beneath.
I DECLARE right now that every negative word, every curse that has ever been spoken over me, is broken in the name of Jesus. I declare the negative things that have been in my family even for generations will no longer have any effect on me. I declare that from this day forward I will experience a new sense of freedom, new happiness, a new fulfillment.
I DECLARE that I am blessed and curses against me have been broken! I believe in the spiritual realm victory has been secured for me.
I CLAIM God’s promises in Deuteronomy 31–1:-
When you align your thoughts with God’s thoughts and you start dwelling on the promises of His Word, when you constantly dwell on the thoughts of His victory, favor, faith, power, and strength, nothing can hold you back.
BONUS: Prayer to Help Strengthen Your Faith
The Word of God tells us in Jeremiah 17:7–8:-
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
We are living in uncertain times. 2020 has been a year of disaster globally, with the coronavirus pandemic sparking an economical meltdown worldwide. No one knows what tomorrow holds.
It is during such tough times that we need to have hope, trust, and faith in God’s care and provisions for us. Let’s pray together for God’s mercy, love, and grace for us and our loved ones:-
Our Dear Heavenly Father, all glory belongs to you, all the honor belongs to you. I am praying at this time because I need you. I need your love, and I need your grace. I look to You for directions; I seek You for counsel. I refuse to lean on my own understanding, because when I look at the way things are, and the way things are happening around me, nothing makes any sense. I believe there is a purpose greater than what my eyes can see. There is a reason why I am going through this trial, through this test. If I must go through this test, if it is Your will, I ask that You will be the strength and the faith to stand firm and endure. I pray that You stand by me, Lord Jesus. I don’t know what I will face tomorrow, but I do know that Your word tells me to submit to You, for You will make my path straight. I know that Your Word in the Book of Isaiah tells me that when I pass through the waters, You will be with me; when I pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over me; when I walk through the fire, I will not be burnt and the flames will not set me ablaze. In Your Word, I place my confidence for tomorrow; in Your word, I place my hope and faith for tomorrow. You are the God who knows the number of hair on my head. You say in Your Word that I am not to fear because I am more valuable to You than many sparrows. My dear Lord, I ask that there be a hedge of protection around me. I ask that You place a hedge of protection around my family, my wife, and my children. I ask that You place a hedge of protection around our health, and around my home so that the enemy will know not to come any further, and not to touch me or my family. I ask that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Risen King, will cover my steps. You are a God who watches over me. You are faithful not to let my foot slip. You are a God who never sleeps nor slumbers. Victory belongs to You. Healing can only be found in You. Restoration comes only through You and my protection is under the blood of Jesus, the blood that never loses its power. Thank you for hearing my prayer. I praise You in advance.
Continuation of supplication to God
Holy Spirit, help me to trust like Job, that if I were to lose everything, that my job was taken from me, that my house and car were taken from me, I pray that I will have a trust that is unshakable.
I pray that I have strong faith in God, to be able to say: though he slays me, yet will I trust Him. I pray for bold faith that will push back and say with God all things are possible.
Give me the measure of faith that truly believes that You are the God of I AM, and You will make a way when there seems to be no way.
Lord, I pray for a heart of worship like David. I too want to chase after Your heart, I too want to worship You in spirit and in Truth.
Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
May the peace of Jesus Christ, a peace that is divine and holy, rest on your heart and emotions.
May you find comfort in the Lord, when you find comfort in the Holy Spirit.
God, Your Love is unending; Your Love is awesome. I pray that whoever is listening, give them healing, father; give them peace.
May God mend your broken heart, whatever situation you may have faced. Whatever your circumstances are, do not be disheartened, do not be discouraged. God is with you.
It hurts right now, but God will give you the strength to endure. God is with you even in the pain. This too shall pass in your life.
Jesus said in His Word, in the Book of John 14:1 ”Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God”. And I pray that you will receive those words.
Your heart is not troubled because you belong to God almighty. May you have peace beyond all understanding in your emotions, in your soul, and in your spirit.
Your Word says that weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Our hope is within You, Lord, and we look to You as the anchor for our souls.
Lord, flood every corner of our emotions. May the blood of Jesus remove every negative through.
You are the Good Shepherd. You are the Healer of broken hearts. You are the Great Deliverer. So we ask in agreement with anyone listening, heal our afflictions, lift those who are low in spirits.
We call on Your great goodness and abundant grace. May it overflows in our lives.
Your Word says that You will give strength to the weary and hope to the distress. Your Word says “Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest”.
Father, I proclaim and declare all of your words over anyone listening, because You say to us that You honor Your Word to us even above Your Name.
Flood our hearts and our minds with Your Love. Refresh those who are weary and heavy-burdened. Strengthen those who are weak in their emotions, help those in turmoil. Comfort the sorrowing. Heal those who are hurting and draw close to those who are in need of emotional healing.
Your Word says You heal the broken-hearted, and that You are near to those who are downcast and depressed. Just as You are on the throne, we know that everything is going to be alright.
You promised to meet every need according to Your glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Please provide according to Your word, the emotional healing needed for anyone listening and willing to receive.
I DECLARE that depression must go; pain and sadness must go; anxiety and worry must go. I pray for Your comfort and for Your blessings. I pray for the ones who feel as if a storm is raging through their lives.
May Your presence calms the waters. No matter the circumstance, no matter the situation, You are the rock of all ages, our strong tower, and fortress.
When we grow tired and weary, when we stumble and fall, I pray that Your Strength renews us. May Your presence be felt continuously in our hearts.
We remain confident that You are a faithful God, and You will be our light in the darkest of hours.
Amen!
Claiming The Peace of God
We claim Philippians 4:7:-
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The Secret to Having Strong Faith
We need God for everything, including the strength of our faith, as we live by faith through grace.
The secret to having a strong faith has been given above. Strengthen your faith in God through heart-felt declarations suggested above, followed by sincere prayers to claim God’s promises to us.
We know from 2 Timothy 2:13 that even:
if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.
God Bless! | https://medium.com/god-help-me/faith-in-god-life-lessons-from-abraham-and-sarah-declaration-of-faith-for-2021-202450062d48 | ['Phillip Tan'] | 2020-12-06 05:06:55.229000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Prayer', 'Jesus', 'God', 'Bible Study'] |
League Analysis — The path from beginner to pro — Part 1 | 21 NOVEMBER 2020 — by League Analyst
This will be a beginner friendly guide for any new player looking to get into League of Legends. In this first part we’ll cover the basics required to play the game and in the future we will dive into more advanced strategies. You don’t need any prior experience for this guide. Now, let’s begin!
The basics
League is primarily played on the map “summoner’s rift” which is recognised by its three lane layout. The goal of the game is simply put to reach the enemy base and destroy the “nexus”. Both teams will have 5 players each, who at the start of the game spawn in their team’s respective “fountain” and 15 seconds into the game get released onto the rift. A minute later, minions spawn for both teams and move into the three lanes, and the game starts to move.
Summoner’s rift
In order to reach the enemy nexus you and your team will have to get past some other objectives along the way, namely: towers and inhibitors.
Towers (Turrets):
Towers are the main defensive structures in League and will attack enemy units if the get to close. They also provide vision for their team, giving valuable map control for the team.
Each lane has 3 towers each; the outer-, inner- and the inhibitor tower. In order to get into the enemy base these 3 towers has to be destroyed in order in at least one of the three lanes.
Turrets attack the first target that comes into their range, when that target is defeated it will switch to another target based on a certain priority list:
1. The closest targetable trap
2. The closest enemy pet
3. The closest enemy siege- or super minion
4. Yorick’s Maiden of the Mist
5. The closest enemy melee minion.
6. The closest enemy caster minion.
7. The closest enemy champion.
When teaching the game, my first recomendation is always to be very careful around enemy towers, they can be very dangerous and will kill you if you get to close. You will get more used to playing around them, but they can be really scary in the beginning.
Inhibitors:
Each team has 3 inhibitors on the rift, located behind the inhibitor towers. Once the inhibitors protecting tower is destroyed it can be attacked by players. Once an enemy’s inhibitor is destoyed, your team’s siege minions will be replaced by the much stronger super minions in the lane where the inhibitor was destroyed.
Minions:
Minions are AI-controlled units that fight for their respective teams. They spawn in waves every 30 seconds and advance along a lane towards the enemy nexus. There are currently 4 types of minions
Melee Minions
The melee minions unsurprisingly do melee attacks. Three of them spawn per lane in each wave. They deal less damage then ranged minions but have more health.
The melee minions unsurprisingly do melee attacks. Three of them spawn per lane in each wave. They deal less damage then ranged minions but have more health. Caster Minions (Ranged Minions)
Caster minions have ranged attacks. Three of them spawn per lane in each wave. They do more damage than melee minions but have less health.
Caster minions have ranged attacks. Three of them spawn per lane in each wave. They do more damage than melee minions but have less health. Siege Minions (Canon Minions)
Siege minions are the strongest of the 3 normal minions. They have ranged attacks but deal more damage and have more hit points than regular minions.
Siege minions are the strongest of the 3 normal minions. They have ranged attacks but deal more damage and have more hit points than regular minions. Super Minions
When an inhibitor is destroyed, siege minions in that lane will be replaced by super minions. The super minion is the strongest of all minion by far and has a melee attack. Super minions will stop spawning when the inhibitor respawns.
Champions:
In league, players play as a so called “champion”. As of writing there are 152 unique champions, all with different abilities and attributes.
Abilities:
Most champions have 5 abilities in total, one innate (passive), three basic and one ultimate. Abilities are unique actions performed by champions and make up their “kits”. At the start of the game most champions can unlock one of the basic abilities and the rest get unlocked and leveled up (upgraded) as the champion’s level rises during the game. To cast abilities most champions use a resorce called mana which is indicated by a bar under the hp bar. There are some exceptions with champs that use other resources like energy, hp, rage, courage or fury. All of these resorces works differently so we will do a quick summary:
Mana: Most common, regenerates over time and can be increased by items.
Energy: Regenerates quicker then mana but can’t be increased by items.
Health: You spend your own hp to cast the ability.
Fury, rage, and courage: These are dependent on their champions. Be sure to check them out in their respective champions description.
Summoner spells and runes:
Before entering the game each player can select two summoner spells. These are basically two extra abilities that your champion can use. They offer flexibility and allows you to play towards your preferred playstyle.
All the summoner spells (unlocks as you level up your account)
You also have to select a rune page, which enhances abilities and statistics. These can be a bit confusing as there are quite a lot to pick from, but there are pre made rune pages which can help in the beginning. Both runes and summoner spells are ways to customize your champion depending on your play style. In the beginning I would recommend testing your way forward. Read the runes and summoner spells carefully and pick something that suits your style.
The 5 rune paths
Attributes:
Champions are categorized into different classes representing a defined set of patterns in player’s behavior. In short, these classes are groups of champions with similar playstyles in-game. Not every champion directly fits into one of the classes, but they are a solid starting ground when trying to figure out how a certain champion is supposed to be played. The most basic classes are:
Tanks
Tanks are usually recognised by their impressive defensive capabilities. They are masters of distrupting enemies and shrugging of incoming damage.
Markmen
Marksmen are ranged carries who excel at dealing sustained damage through basic attacks whilst skirting the edge of danger. Although being able to pump out tons of damage, marksmen are very fragile and commonly rely on a controller to keep them safe.
Mages
Mages are capable casters who rely on their abilities to deal massive damage to opponents. Mages can be used either to singe out vu;nerable targets from range or to dive into the enemies, dealing huge aoe damage, depending on the champions abilities.
Controllers
Controllers are defensive casters who focus on defending and opening up opportunities for their allies. They specialice on amplifying the effect of their allies, either through healing and shielding, or by locking down enemies, allowing teammates to unleash their full power.
Assassins
Assassins are just that, quick and mobile killers who unleashes huge amounts of damage in quick burst. They specialice in infiltrating the enemy team and taking out enemy threats.
Fighters
Figthers are melee carries who can relent on any champion that gets to close. They are less durable than their tank counterparts but bring enough damage to be a real terror if left unchecked.
When looking at Summoner’s rift there are no rules for where you should bring these classes but some are more common in one lane then another. Usually we find some type of tank or fighter in the top lane, a mage or assassin in the mid lane and a marksman accompanied by a controller in the bot lane.
Jungle
The last and final player is free to roam the jungle, located in between the three lanes. The jungler relies on killing neutral monsters in order to gain resources. The main reason to having a jungler is to maximize recourse allocation, one of the most important aspects of League of Legends. Killing a monster gives gold and exp, Red Brambleback (red buff) also grants hp regen and causes your basic attacks to slow the enemy and whilst also dealing true damage over time. The Blue Sentinel (blue buff) grants increased mana (or energy)regeneration as well as cooldown reduction.
There are also 3 important neutral monsters located in the river in the middle of the map:
Rift Herald
The rift herald can be found in the same pit as Baron Nashor and is a powerful monster that spawn up to two times per game. Slaying the herald drops the “eye of the herald”, which can be picked up by one champion. The eye grants empowered recall and the ability to summon the herald to push a lane.
Baron Nashor
Baron is the strongest monster on the rift and replaces the rift herald 20 minutes into the game. Killing the baron grants all teammates bonus attack damage, bonus ability power, empowered recalls and an aura that greatly increaces the power of nearby minions.
Dragons
In the dragon pit, one of five dragons can spawn, the cloud, infernal, mountain, ocean or elder dragon. One of the elemental dragons (not elder) spawns 5 minutes into the game. If slain it gives your team a buff depending on its element and an elemental drake of another type spawns after 5 minutes.
Ocean Dragon: Restores percentage missing health every five seconds
Mountain Dragon: Grants armor and magic resistance
Infernal Dragon: Grants attack damage and ability power
Cloud Dragon: Grants ultimate cooldown reduction
Elder Dragon: Grants a true damage burn and executes champs under 20% hp
The five dragons
After the second dragon has been slain, one of the two remaining elements will alter the layout of the rift and the elemental drake of that type will be the only type to spawn after that point. Once a team has killed four elemental dragons they recive a dragon soul, a strong buff that differs depening on its element. The much more powerfull elder dragon spawns 6 minutes after that point.
More about the jungler
One thing to note is that the jungler generally uses the summoner spell ”smite”, which deals damage to monsters and upgrades the items Emberknife and Hailblade.
Jungle champions are usually recognized by their roaming nature, allowing them to move freely through the fog of war. The fog of war refers to areas on the map where a team doesn’t have vision. This allows for unexpected positioning and surprise attacks, commonly referred to as “ganks”, where the junglers assist their teammates by attacking the enemy laners.
All the monsters that can be found on the rift
So what should I play?
This is a very common question for new players! To be honest, it doesn’t really matter which role you play or what champion you pick when learning the basics. Personally, I picked the champ that looked the coolest and tried it in a random lane. If you play with a friend, I would recommend playing bot lane. There you can work together as it usually is the only lane with two players.
It will most likely be confusing and hard in the beginning, but it also is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game, as there is so much to learn and improve on. Improvement will become natural the more you play. Eventually you will learn the patterns of the game and recognise all the champions and their abilities. Now let’s continue!
Gold and experience
Gold and exp are the two main resources in League of Legends. XP allows champions to level up after reaching a certain amount, unlocking and ranking up their abilities. Leveling up also increases base stats and in some items and runes. XP can be gained in multiple ways but most commonly by killing monsters or by being within range of enemy minions or enemy champions dying.
Gold on the other hand can be used to by items that gives bonus stats and in some cases abilities. All players passively generate gold but the main income comes from “last hitting” (dealing the killing blow) to minions or monsters. Gold can also be gained by killing/assisting in a kill or by destroying objectives such as turrets and inhibitors.
Items
Every champion can carry six items and one trinket to improve their stats and abilities. Items can be bought in the shop located in each team’s fountain. Items are sorted into different classes: starter, basic, epic, legendary and mythic. The only rule for these items are that a champion only can carry one mythic item at one time. Besides these items you can buy wards, potions, consumables and boots in the shop.
Basic Wards:
Stealth ward: removes fog of war, granting vision for a certain amount of time Invisible but can be found e.g.,control wards or sweepers (trinket).
Control ward: removes fog of war, reveals and disables enemy wards, reveals camoflaged champions and has to be destroyed to dissapear.
Types of stats:
Defensive
Armor: reduces physical damage taken.
Magic resistance: reduces magic damage taken.
Health: increases your champions hit points.
Attack
Attack damage: Increases physical damage dealt by basic attacks and ad scaling abilities. Total attack damage is calculated as base ad + bonus ad.
Attack speed: increases the frequency of a unit’s basic attacks.
Critical strike chance: increases the chance of an auto attack or ability to critically strike, dealing extra damage.
Magic
Ability power: Increases damage dealt by ap scaling abilities. Every champion starts with 0 ap, and level-ups do not grant additional ap.
Mana: Increases mana, a resource required for most champs to cast abilities.
Ability haste: Reduces the cooldow of champion abilities.
Utility
Life steal: Restores health based of a portion of damage dealt by basic attacks.
Spell vamp: Restores health based of a portion of damage dealt by abilities.
Omni vamp: Life steal and spell vamp combined.
Movement speed: Increases a champion’s movement speed.
When starting of, items can be very confusing and there are a lot of items to choose from in the shop. As a beginner I would recommend to follow the recommended build which can be found in the shop. You can then start to experiment more as you grow familiar with how the items work and what suits your style.
Play, play and play!
That’s all the basic information required to understand the fundamentals of League of Legends! But to become good you need to practice, a lot! Start of with the tutorial and move on from there. In the next part of the guide we will talk about more advanced concepts that we can use to become even better. Until then, play, play and play! | https://medium.com/@league-analyst/league-analysis-the-path-from-beginner-to-pro-part-1-3563c389d061 | ['League Analyst'] | 2020-11-21 17:56:49.996000+00:00 | ['Beginners Guide', 'League of Legends', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Moba', 'Gaming'] |
How to design the perfect living room in affordable price? | Custom Hospitality Furniture
Parlors are the central get-together point in a home; where guests and friends and family come to be together and share discussion. The plan of this room can have a significant effect on the general view of a home and the manner in which individuals in it feel. Regardless of whether you are going for a smooth and contemporary energy, or one that is warm and comfortable, the specialists at Sara neighborliness have a custom hospitality furniture that you ought to think about when planning your front room.
Here are few tips and deceives for making your living room the dream destination.
Pick A Point of convergence
For one thing, it is fundamental to pick a point of convergence inside your living room which will fill in as a manual for orchestrating the remainder of the room. Picking a point of convergence ought to be moderately clear: where are your eyes quickly attracted to when you go into the room? Normal models incorporate the chimney, a window, or a piece of workmanship. We alert against utilizing the TV as the fundamental concentration in the front room since this will in general debilitate discussion and can stunt the normal progression of energy.
Furniture Arrangement
Since you’ve picked a point of convergence, you ought to consider how you need to mastermind your furnishings. This should be possible either to accentuate the point of convergence by confronting the furniture towards it, or to make one more mark of concentration by masterminding the furniture confronting somewhere else. This ordinarily relies upon the size and stream of the room, as its imperative to organize the furniture such that passes on the room as open as conceivable to permit simple development and perceivability. While picking your furnishings, consider the quantity of individuals you’ll need to oblige in the room at one time. It is suggested that there be sufficient seating choices to fit 5–7 individuals serenely. It is ideal to have furniture confronting each other to work with simple discussion and association.
Accessories
Here and there the seemingly insignificant details can have a significant effect, and this couldn’t be more genuine than while creating the ideal living room. A decent method to carry some glow to a smooth and current room is to add a best western furniture or enhancing toss on a more organized lounge chair. Fine art ought to be put with the goal that it is effortlessly delighted in from the sitting region, as opposed to behind it. Make sure to be deliberate with your frill notwithstanding, as an excessive number of or an absence of attachment can leave the room feeling jumbled.
Flooring
Perhaps the best factor that will decide the impression of your front (living) room is the decision of ground flooring. Hardwoods and overlays are rich decisions for a simple to-keep up with yet complex room, though cover brings a feeling of warmth and solace, yet is more defenseless against spills. There are many variables to think about when picking flooring: cost, life span, support and style. At last, the decision ought to mirror the stylish that you need your home to epitomize.
Get the Right Lighting
For your living room to look set up, you need three lighting types: task, ambient, and complement. To get this going, you should think about a blend of overhead crystal fixtures, table and floor lights close to the fundamental couch for highlight, and divider sconces for encompassing lighting. Lighting can be very precarious, so make a point to have a general thought of how your front room will be masterminded before you purchase lighting.
With regards to lighting, you can have some good times. We generally get questions like, “Should I utilize two coordinating with lights?” The appropriate response is: you don’t need to! Contingent upon your lounge room’s style, you can mess with the pieces you add.
For instance, you can utilize an assertion light on one side that goes with your side table, however on the opposite side, pick a story light that gives diverse lighting. Not exclusively are you picking the right light style for each part of your living room, but at the same time you’re adding more parts of make the space look seriously fascinating.
Here are some lighting thoughts for your home to give you some motivation.
Final Verdict
Need help in finding the best western furniture for your living room? The experts of Sara Hospitality can help! Schedule your free call today. We proudly serve Georgia and the surrounding areas. | https://medium.com/@SaraHospitality/how-to-design-the-perfect-living-room-in-affordable-price-958bf8791cb | [] | 2021-12-10 14:54:36.676000+00:00 | ['Hotel', 'Best Western Furniture', 'Custom Hospitality', 'Hospitality Industry', 'Furniture'] |
Team Communication Tips To Improve Collaboration | To work together, you need to communicate, and to work together really well, you need to communicate at the same wavelength.
But what makes for good communication?
Is team communication different than communicating otherwise in your daily life?
This guide to team communication tells you the what, why, when, and how to get your team communicating effectively.
So, let’s begin!
What is Team Communication?
Before you can know what team communication is, you need to properly understand what constitutes a team.
Although you may understand a team as a group of people, this is an incorrect assumption when you are speaking of teams regarding the workplace.
As Baden Eunson stated, “A team is a collection of people who must work independently to achieve a common goal or output.”
You need to understand what “communication” is, especially because it encompasses so many different elements. Not all of them are necessary, and we often end up focusing on unimportant stuff.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines communication as “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behaviors.”
Therefore, we can deduce that team communication is the transmission of meaning through the exchange of information that happens in a team.
Team communication stems from a team’s need to work independently while requiring independent cooperation to reach common goals.
Importance of Team Communication in the Workplace
Good communication is an integral part of any workforce.
The importance of effective communication in the workplace can be seen by the effects it has in the following:
It allows for work satisfaction
It enables a more productive and talented workforce
It enables your workplace to eliminate misunderstandings, questions, and ambiguities
Effective communication is important to allow a workplace that helps your employees think creatively
Good communication also increases employee engagement
So How do You Achieve Effective Communication?
Your ability to communicate in the most effective way possible is based on the 7 principles of communication.
In other words, you need to take care of the 7Cs of Effective Communication.
By ensuring you follow these 7 principles, you guarantee good communication in the workplace.
Here are the 7Cs of good communication.
1. Clear
You need to ensure that whenever you communicate with your team or another workforce you are clear about your goal or message.
You need to make sure that your audience understands your meaning. You must provide clear information so that if any data or action is required your audience is clear in the action they must take.
2. Concise
Make sure that your communication is concise. Sticking to the point makes sure that your audience is clear on the information or message you are putting across.
A brief and to the point message is easier to understand and remember.
3. Concrete
You need to make sure that the information or message you convey to your audience (this could be your team members or stakeholders etc.) is concrete.
You can only convey concrete information if you ensure that what you say is backed with data. This will allow your audience to have a clear idea of what you are trying to convey.
Make sure that your audience is not filling in blanks or left to imagine things. Provide your audience with factual material like data and figures.
4. Correct
It is important to make sure that your communication is error-free. This correctness is not only in terms of what you say, but whether the information you are relaying is correct for the audience you are addressing.
If you do not ensure the correctness of your communication, you only serve to confuse and misinform your audience which could create issues and problems for your workforce as a whole.
5. Coherent
The point behind your communication will be useless if you are not coherent.
Make sure that your communication is logical so it can be coherent.
Communication should be planned well and be sequential in a manner. All points should be connected to the main topic of your conversation, with the tone and flow being consistent.
6. Complete
In communication that is complete, your audience (team members, stakeholders, and such) should have all the information they need to have a full understanding and be able to take action if required.
7. Courteous
Be polite. Make sure that the communication you have, especially with your team, is honest, respectful, and open.
To make sure your communication is courteous, take proper care, thus you will provide effective information, which can also be deemed important.
Types of Communication
Now that you know what makes for effective communication, it is time to understand how you can communicate.
You need to understand that communication is more than just the words you speak.
While you communicate verbally, you also do so nonverbally. For example, with sounds and actions.
For effective communication, the different forms of communication should all be saying the same thing.
There are several different ways you may communicate. These ways can be categorized into 4 main types. These 4 types include verbal, written, nonverbal, and visual.
Let’s go over each type in turn so you can fully understand the impact your communication can have on your team.
1. Verbal
Verbal communication is the most common type of communication. It is the use of language to relay information through speech (or sign language).
This type of communication is efficient. Often used during presentations, phone calls, and video conferences. Verbal communication can be supported by both nonverbal and written forms of communication.
There are certain tips you can adopt that will develop your verbal communication skills:
Adopt a strong and confident speaking voice . Use a strong voice to make sure that everyone can hear you, especially in presentations. Also, be confident when you speak to allow others to understand what you say and your ideas to be clear.
. Use a strong voice to make sure that everyone can hear you, especially in presentations. Also, be confident when you speak to allow others to understand what you say and your ideas to be clear. Make a conscious effort to avoid filler words . These are words such as “um”, “uh”, and “like”. Such words can be distracting for your audience and take away from your main idea or message.
. These are words such as “um”, “uh”, and “like”. Such words can be distracting for your audience and take away from your main idea or message. Use active listening skills. Verbal communication is not only your speech but also encompasses listening to and hearing others. Listening to your audience is a key part of any communication, and doing so will allow you to grow as a communicator.
2. Written
The next type of communication is written communication.
Written communication is the process of writing, typing, or printing words, numbers, or symbols.
Written communication is often used in the form of emails and chats in the workplace.
This form of communication is beneficial if you wish to have a record of information.
There are certain tips you can adopt that will develop your written communication skills:
Be as simple and clear as possible. Written communication should be as clear as possible to ensure that your audience understands what you are saying.
as possible. Written communication should be as clear as possible to ensure that your audience understands what you are saying. Proofread your written communication. It is common to make mistakes when using written communication. Therefore, it is important to take the time to re-read what you write. As written errors can affect the impact of your communication.
your written communication. It is common to make mistakes when using written communication. Therefore, it is important to take the time to re-read what you write. As written errors can affect the impact of your communication. Be careful of tone. Written communication is different than verbal or nonverbal communication as you cannot see your audience. Thus, it is important to be wary of the tone you use, as it can be misread very easily. Keep your written communication as simple and plan as you can.
3. Nonverbal
Nonverbal communication is the information you relay through the use of your body language, facial expressions, and gestures.
This type of communication can occur both intentionally or unintentionally.
Not only does nonverbal communication aid the meaning behind your verbal communication, but it also lets you understand other’s thoughts and feelings.
4. Visual
Visual communication is when you use things like photographs, charts, drawings, art, and graphs to convey information.
This type of communication is often used to aid verbal communication during presentations.
Visual communication help individuals understand ideas and information.
How to Improve Communication within any Team?
Now having an idea about why good communication is imperative for the functioning of your team, and the different types and styles of communication you can adopt, it is important to know how you can improve communication within your team to get results.
Here are just some tips and tricks to be able to improve your team’s communication.
1. Build Trust with an Open-Door Policy
Keeping a channel open for communication is crucial.
When you allow management to be accessible, you show your team that they are valuable and an asset to the company.
An open-door policy indicates to employees that they can ask questions, pitch ideas, and voice concerns at any time.
Not only does this build trust between your employees and your management, but it also creates a safe work culture where workers want to contribute to the success of the organization.
Make sure that you do not only open figurative doors. Take an initiative to remove any physical obstacles between employees to increase productivity.
Any issues or problems which arise can be solved efficiently rather than being delayed and costing productivity while waiting for a meeting to bring up concerns.
2. Show Appreciation
Showing appreciation is a great way to deal with low employee morale. This again shows your employees that they are valued.
Receiving validation and appreciation lets employees have a good relationship with their colleagues but also feel comfortable at work. This in turn results in a more productive environment but also a decrease in absences.
3. Conduct Team Building Activities
Team building activities impact productivity as well as the overall collaboration of your team.
Such activities help teams communicate together by building trust and positive relationships.
With the current situation of COVID 19, and the increase in employees working from home, team building may not be as easy to conduct as before. That is why we have put together this list of virtual team building activities.
4. Practice Active Listening
We touched upon this point briefly before, but communication is not one way.
Active listening is an important aspect of making communication effective. This point is true for both yourself as a manager as well as your team members.
Team members need to listen to instructions and messages so that they better receive information.
At the same time, as a manager, you need to listen to your employees so that you work well as a team. By listening you not only pick up on issues when they arise thus avoiding delays, but you are also able to take advantage of ideas from different members of your workforce.
To make sure that you are actively listening, adopt these habits:
Make eye contact
Respond to the speaker appropriately
Examine your body language
Listen to the information provided without interrupting the speaker
5. Invest in a Project Management Software
To keep a conducive work environment, it is imperative to clearly define tasks and responsibilities and ensure everyone is aware of what they need to accomplish.
No work can be complete if your employees are unclear as to what tasks they are responsible for. Such confusion creates gaps in your workflow and affects outcomes.
Moreover, you need to make sure that if you are working on a project, your team knows not only their tasks but the scope of the project. This way they can ensure that they do not go beyond what would classify as the scope of the project.
One way to do this is to use a project management tool. A project management tool will help with task management and keep transparency.
By using project management tools such as nTask you can:
Create and assign tasks, and track those tasks through task management features
Identify and analyze risks your project could face, and create a mitigation strategy
Manage project schedules and track project progress
Define issues faced by severity, status, and priority
Organize and manage meetings, and be able to set meeting agendas and follow up actions
Communicate and collaborate with your team
Conclusion
Remember, effective communication starts with you!
Communication is the foundation of teamwork and therefore you should award it the importance it is due.
We hope this guide helps you understand the importance of good communication and how you can tailor it to get the most productive collaboration from your team. | https://medium.com/ntask/team-communication-tips-to-improve-collaboration-b71e24fdb60f | [] | 2020-12-11 12:02:13.577000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Team Communication App', 'Team Communication', 'Team Collaboration', 'Team'] |
How to foster a culture of customer obsession | It’s a common refrain nowadays that companies need to be customer-centric. This often manifests itself in routine activities such as user research, customer interviews, and surveys.
However, I believe product teams can go much deeper than this.
Being customer-centric isn’t just about talking to your users; that’s table stakes. To truly be customer obsessed is to fully immerse yourself in your customers’ world.
And there may be no company that better operationalizes this than Amazon, who is highly renowned for its list of Leadership Principles; a set of tenets that guides its overall strategy and decision-making process.
The most important one, any employee will tell you, is Customer Obsession. They define this as:
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leader s pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
Every Amazon employee is expected to lead with this value, and it is a central piece of their interview process — whether you’re an engineer, marketer, or part of any other department.
Many other companies have since followed suit in adapting this as one of their values, and I’d like to share a few actionable ways that you can implement this in your teams.
Build relationships with your customer-facing teams.
(Yes, I realize the irony here)
Your customer support (and others like enablement, onboarding, account management, etc.) teams are some of the most valuable, yet often under-utilized assets. Get to know them, and engage with them regularly by:
Inviting them to your customer interviews
Sharing out your roadmaps with them
Showing them prototypes to get feedback
These teams have the strongest pulse on what customers are saying; why they’re dissatisfied with your product, what problems they have in their day-to-day, what alternatives they’re using, and so on.
The same goes for your Sales team. These folks have an incredible amount of competitive intel, can speak to blockers that commonly come up, and always know what moves the needle in closing a deal.
Walk a mile in your customers’ shoes.
News flash: your customers (likely) aren’t all using $2000 MacBook Pros and $1000 iPhones with HD Retina displays or blazing WiFi speeds.
To truly understand the norm for some of your customers, especially those in developing markets, try some of the following:
Access your website via Internet Explorer
Download your app on a low-end PC laptop
Load a large volume of data while on airplane WiFi
Moreover, if your product is a common utility, try using it as your go-to for your own day-to-day.
Whether it’s a calendar app, note-taking software, or any other tool you’re building, implement the products you’re building into your day-to-day routine. Check that calendar throughout the day for all your events, take all your meeting notes on that app, and so on.
Then you’ll really know what it feels like to put up with the potential bugs, UX flaws, or workflow constraints your product has. This is referred to as dogfooding.
Consume every customer interaction you can find.
There are so many tidbits of customer interactions that may not be reflected in feature requests, NPS comments, or tweets.
I call these ‘breadcrumbs’; bite-sized in nature, they leave a telling path to a land of promise, ala Hansel and Gretel. Try implementing these as a weekly routine:
Read customer support tickets
Listen to Sales calls
Read interview transcripts
Get a Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce, etc. account and spend 30 minutes each week on there searching for keywords or terms that you’re interested in, find relevant chat transcripts or call recordings, and take notes on what you feel.
“Hi Company. Thank you for nothing. You made my daughter cry for 30 minutes yesterday, because we couldn’t login to stream Dora The Explorer. Switched browser, which seemed to solve half of the issues :-(”.
Unless you are a soulless robot, the above statement will probably trigger more emotions and requirements for actions than:
“Week 27 — Users experiencing issues on service: 57%”
We often put too much stock into quantitative data; users are people at the end of the day. Emotional sentiment is an incredibly strong signal, and that will never be reflected on any analytics dashboard. | https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-foster-a-culture-of-customer-obsession-3baaa5647474 | ['Samir Javer'] | 2019-05-28 23:47:06.217000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Product Design', 'UX', 'Customer Experience', 'Startup'] |
Generating Pixel Profile Pictures with Cellular Automata using Node.js and StdLib | Profile picture or Rorschach test?
A typical user profile page is hardly complete without a profile picture. Before a user uploads their profile picture, they are generally offered a default image. Though simple silhouettes are common as a default, we’ve all seen more interesting takes in the wild. An example is the GitHub identicon. They generate these profile pictures by hashing the username so that everyone gets a unique picture, then they walk the hash and toggle bits in the five by five grid depending if the value is even or odd. The bits are also mirrored along the vertical axis in order to preserve symmetry.
At StdLib, we took inspiration from GitHub and built something similar. Starting with a hash of a username, we turn it into a two-dimensional array where cells exist in one of two states: either ‘alive’ or ‘dead’. Next, we use this matrix as the starting configuration for a life-like cellular automaton. Life-like cellular automata are computational models that use simple rules to manipulate two-dimensional grids of binary state entities (0 or 1, ‘alive’ or ‘dead’) over time. These cellular automata generate interesting emergent shapes and entities, as you may be familiar with from playing Conway’s Game of Life.
We run the automaton for a fixed number of iterations, mirror the results along the vertical axis, and then save it as a PNG. We’ve called the resulting image an ‘automicon’. If you’d like to skip ahead to the end result, you can use the Automicon API directly on StdLib.
Automicon API page
Without further ado, let’s get to building our own!
Life-like Cellular Automata
The Gosper glider gun, the first known finite pattern with unbounded growth
Before jumping into some code, its worthwhile to talk a little bit about cellular automata. Cellular automata, popularized by Conway’s Game of Life, are computational models that use simple rules and starting states to create a changing environment of cells over time. A cellular automaton has the following properties:
A space for the cells to exist in.
A set of allowed states for each cell. An assignment of a state to every cell is called the configuration.
A neighborhood function that defines which cells are considered when passing information to a given cell.
A transition rule which specifies how given a cell and the states of its neighbors, a new state is produced.
A cellular automaton is said to be Life-like if it meets the following four criteria:
Its space of cells is two-dimensional.
It has two states (called alive and dead here)
The neighborhood of a cell consists of its eight immediate neighbors (Moore neighborhood)
The transition rule for a cell is expressed as a function of the number of cells in its neighborhood that are alive and the cell’s own state
The rules are often defined with a simple format called rulestrings. Rulestrings are typically given in B/S notation. A B/S rulestring like B3/S23 (also known as Conway’s Game of Life or simply Life) means that a dead cell needs three alive neighbors to be born, and an already alive cell needs two or three neighbors to survive to the next generation. An alive cell that has too many neighbors dies of overpopulation and one that has too few dies of loneliness. From the initial configuration, we just apply the rules for some number of iterations. The result is the final states of the cells.
While Conway’s rules are the most popular, for the purposes of an automicon, they are probably not the best to use. The results are often described as chaotic, and a bad starting state could cause most, or all, of the cells to die quickly from under or overpopulation. Luckily, there are 2^16 possible rulestrings, so one is certain to produce consistently good results. Specifically, Life without Death (rulestring B3/S012345678 ) is a great candidate. B3 means that automaton grows in a similar manner to Conway. But, with S012345678 there is also no possibility of patterns shrinking because cells cannot die. This (almost) guarantees that there will always be something in the picture at the end.
Now that we’ve briefly covered the theory behind the automaton, we can look at the actual implementation. The starting state for the automaton is generated from a hash of a username.
Hashes a string and splits the results into an array of hex characters
Next, we take each character of the hash. If it’s below a certain threshold we mark it as alive, otherwise, it is dead. This is similar to checking the parity of the value but it also allows us to vary the initial amount of alive cells by raising or lowering the threshold.
Assigns a state to each cell based on the value of a hex character
Finally, we return this array of cells as a two-dimensional array.
Now with the starting state set, the simulation can be run using the rulestring B3/S012345678 .
A simple cellular automaton implementation that takes an initial configuration, number of iterations, and rulestring (as a two-dimensional array)
After running the simulation, the results are a four by eight matrix of alive and dead cells. In order to guarantee some symmetry, we turn it into and eight by eight array by flipping it along the vertical axis. This grid is then walked through, and for each cell a square is written to a PNG, giving the final picture.
Naturally, we turned this function into a StdLib service. We expose a single endpoint, that takes one argument, seed . We use our usernames for the seed, but it can be any string. Both the hash and the automaton are deterministic, so the function will always return the same picture given the same string. It’s also important to note that, like all APIs on StdLib, this is a “serverless” function. This means that if you experience huge growth, the service will scale seamlessly.
If you’d like to check out the full source code, it’s on GitHub. You can clone the repo into a StdLib workspace and run $ lib up dev to start playing around with it. There are many interesting ways you could expand upon this concept. You could try one of the many different rulestrings, some of which have really interesting properties (for instance Life Without Death can simulate arbitrary boolean circuits!). You can also try having more, but smaller, squares make up the picture or you could let the automaton run for longer.
@keithwhor, @Hacubu , and my own automicons
Thanks for reading! A profile picture generation service is just one of the many ways you can leverage StdLib’s tools. If you would like to get started with StdLib you can create a free account from our website, or from our command line tools.
If you have a neat idea you’d like to share, reach out to me directly by e-mail: [email protected], or follow us on Twitter, @StdLibHQ.
We look forward to hearing from you, and happy building!
Resources
[1] http://www.conwaylife.com/w/index.php?title=Gosper_glider_gun
[2] http://stars.martinpelikan.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/david_final_paper.pdf
[3] http://conwaylife.com/wiki/Cellular_automaton | https://medium.com/statuscode/generating-pixel-profile-pictures-with-cellular-automata-using-node-js-and-stdlib-ea537b498474 | ['Steve Meyer'] | 2017-10-11 11:32:02.131000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Node', 'Serverless', 'Programming', 'Stdlib'] |
New Deep Narratives: we need new stories of what it means to be human | New Deep Narratives: we need new stories of what it means to be human
It’s time to accept that an increasingly complex world, we need to adapt to more nuanced stories and resist the urge to hone in on the one that is the most black-or-white. Phoebe Tickell Apr 28·7 min read
One of the things that make us unique among our Earth-dwelling family members is our inherent need for stories.
By ‘stories’ I don’t just mean those that are fictional — I mean the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, why we are here, what we are doing, and what is important to us. Whether it’s the story of Jesus, Mark Zuckerberg or your own grandparents, stories about how we got here and how the world came to be the way it is help to give our lives fundamental meaning, orientation and direction. Storytelling is a form of sense-making.
Humans need this. Salmon don’t have a cosmic story that they talk about. They are born into the world and they instinctively know the direction in which they need to swim. It’s built into their DNA, inherent in their being. People, on the other hand, need stories that are created and expressed through culture in order for us to find our way forward. It’s our ability to imagine, and communicate about things like memories, plans, things that don’t exist yet, and the future, that many have attributed to our “humanness”.
We Are All Made of Stars by Leena Kisonen as part of the Reimagining Human Rights project shared under the Creative Commons licence
I believe that we are in a period of story break-down, an era that one of my teachers Joanna Macy refers to as the “The Great Unravelling”
Our reliance on stories to make sense of our world becomes more apparent when things happen to us that render our story incoherent. For example, when someone suffers some sort of traumatic event they often continue to suffer long after the event or danger has passed. PTSD is literally defined as being “marked by an inability to construct a coherent story of our past.”
Trauma victims are often left asking “why did this happen to me?” or “could I have done something differently?” Many people end up feeling guilty or blaming themselves when bad things happen to them, not because this is a logical thing to believe, but because at the very least it’s a story that makes sense. The idea that bad things can randomly just happen, completely out of our control, seems to be worse than believing a made-up story.
As many stories that we held so dear in our near-recent human history are unravelling, the rates of mental health problems are rising.
In the past 20 years, medical practice has increasingly recognised the importance of storytelling for the patient’s healing. It even has a name: ‘Narrative Medicine’. Many medical schools such as Columbia University now have entire Narrative Medicine programmes. On the course description for the programme at Columbia, it says that narrative medicine “fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognise, absorb, metabolise, interpret and be moved by the stories of illness.”
I believe that we are in a period of story breakdown, an era that my teacher and mentor, Joanna Macy refers to as ‘The Great Unravelling’. As many stories that we held so dear in our near-recent human history are unravelling, the rates of mental health problems are rising. Things like “if I spend my life working hard everyday then I will be financially secure and happy,” or “if I go to a good University I will be successful” are no longer a given. Many young people feel they have no way of predicting what the future holds for them because many of the jobs that we do today didn’t even exist when we were at school.
Other stories which are starting to breakdown revolve around broader societal assumptions. “All technology is good, and the more technology we develop, the more our society advances” or “bottled water is better for you”. These widely accepted stories don’t make sense anymore when you take into account the mountains of electronic waste in Ghana, or the levels of plastic in our oceans. Despite this, the old (but not ancient) stories continue to live on and on in our collective imagination.
We’re in a chasm between stories that used to function and new stories which haven’t yet gathered enough coherence to function effectively. We can respect the stories of the past, but we also realise that they often aren’t actually helping us to navigate the reality we are living in anymore. Oftentimes we’ve surpassed the level of knowledge and understanding that we had at the time of their creation.
In a time of greater access to information and an explosion in the choices we have in every decision, it becomes harder to cling on to a simple story that used to be easier to keep making sense.
There’s also the fact that we’ve not quite made sense of the immense power we’ve unlocked with technology, or constructed a new story that incorporates how we’d like to interact and engage with it. If technology is good, then why do so many algorithms seem to leave us feeling depressed and isolated? Can a video call really replace the full-bodied magic of spending time with someone we love? What’s the difference between a childhood spent playing outside in the fresh air and amongst the trees, and another spent on an iPad levelling up FarmVille?
These may sound like simple questions with simple answers depending on your perspective, but the truth is no one fully knows the answers yet. What if computer games enhance cognitive ability? What if running on a treadmill is safer than going for a run in the city? The answers to these questions are multi-faceted and varied — they’re complex.
Another example of these competing stories can be found if you look at our food system. On one hand, permaculture and small-scale regenerative farming has the power to nourish soil, restore ecosystems, move us away from a dependence on fossil fuel derived agrochemicals and build up resilient farming communities. On the other, vertical farms and hydroponics have the potential to save hectares of land and cut down on transport costs and emissions by bringing fresh salad leaves into the heart of the city.
What about lab-grown meat? Its development could lead to millions of animal lives saved from the slaughterhouse and the awful treatment endured through their short lives. But what is the impact of eating meat grown in a Petri dish? Are there psychological or health impacts that are not yet known about? Why can’t we all just agree to stop eating meat altogether?
Perhaps it’s time to accept that an increasingly complex world we need to adapt to more nuanced stories.
Then comes the human layer: who owns these new technology companies? If lab-grown meat takes off, and the industry is dominated by three huge monolith companies, then what does that do to the distribution of wealth amongst humans? And what happens to the thousands of livestock farmers who are put out of business?
As an activist and scientist, I spent a lot of my time moving amongst groups of people who seemed to have a very clear grasp on what they believed, but in a time of greater access to information and an explosion in the number of choices we have it becomes harder to cling onto a simple story. Perhaps it’s time to accept that an increasingly complex world we need to adapt to more nuanced stories and resist the urge to hone in on the one that is the most black-or-white. This is vital for two reasons: to prevent and reverse ecological destruction and climate change and to re-establish the role of community, empathy and cooperation amongst humanity.
As with the Industrial Revolution we left behind, it’s clear that we’re done with a certain phase of our human existence. The time is ripe for a new story, one that allows us to integrate all parts of what it means to be human today. Fundamental to this new story should be the question of how do we create communities and individuals with a sense of meaning? Where do we find our belonging? What is our purpose? What makes a ‘whole’ human being — a sense of connection, meaning, purpose, self-worth, justice, community, belonging, and a sense of love for this planet, this one short life, and humanity at large?
We’re done with a certain phase of our existence, and we’re in that exciting moment of entering into a new way of being human, which requires a new story.
It’s also important to remember that our stories define us but they shouldn’t limit us. They only exists as much as we believe in them. The new story I (and many others) envision is one that is deeply human, with nature at the forefront, and technology by our side. It is up to us to work out how these three can interact and support each other in creating an integrated, diverse and holistic future. | https://medium.com/@phoebetickell/new-deep-narratives-we-need-new-stories-of-what-it-means-to-be-human-8ade0989b4cc | ['Phoebe Tickell'] | 2021-05-23 06:48:19.900000+00:00 | ['Social Change', 'Storytelling', 'Culture Change', 'Culture', 'Narrative'] |
Social Media Makes Me Anxious | “What you’re describing is grief.”
Those words were spoken by a middle-aged female psychologist who proceeded to recline back into her chair and cross her fingers. I recall this specific detail because the time before I was appointed to a male therapist (against my preference) with only three fingers on each hand. He had said the same thing. Grief; an apparent explanation for the nauseating pain in my lower stomach, the same pain that drove me to prematurely leave my Chinese lecture, walk three blocks down Bancroft Way and check myself into student mental health services. “There’s no point,” I would say to myself in class “being physically present but mentally unavailable.”
This was the prevailing mindset for my first semester at Berkeley. I began to operate in insecurity, triggered by the prospect of taking responsibility for my own choices. The negative beliefs I once held to be true started to materialize through unrighteous anger and were only exacerbated by a tendency to surround myself with people who were objectively important by virtue of inherited looks and money. Selfies were staged, alcohol was in abundance, and as a teenager I somehow fancied myself a socialite by the likes of Zelda Fitzgerald, determined to be seen with the “right people” at the “right parties.” In short, I was a severely unhappy and superficial person.
It is a way of functioning that does not presently strike me as foreign. As a great deal of curious children do, throughout childhood I held onto little snippets of my parents’ dialogue which unnerved me and tasked myself with rationalizing those words. Over time, I came to suspect a genetic component; that they too suffered from obsessive thoughts, despair, and possibly, that same immobilizing grief. I began to take note of such symptoms as they came to hamper even my most basic endeavors, such as getting out of bed or eating. In January of the next year I sought treatment from a psychiatrist in San Francisco and was formally diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, an affliction that annually affects roughly 3% of the US population.
I tell you this not as an aimless revelation but because visibility is important, particularly among an audience that suppresses each perceptible sign of weakness. Pathophysiological research suggests that “GAD” is linked to disrupted functional connectivity of the amygdala, a set of neurons in the brain’s medial temporal lobe integral for processing human emotion. To disregard this diagnosis with the common notion that teenagers nowadays are entirely too fragile would be to miss the point entirely. More than anything, the news indicated to me that more introspective work was necessary.
Although now, some time later, I’m scarcely able to pinpoint all of the non-biological stressors that contributed to my anxiety, in the moment I was certain about one thing: limiting social media use. Before even arriving on campus, I had already gained hundreds of mutual followers on Instagram via the class page on Facebook. Excited by the idea of meeting people unlike those from my rural hometown, these online connections did not appear unusual to me. Upon walking to class, however, I was taken aback by the multiple people I would run into who referred to me by my username. Friendships would develop through real life interactions, only to have it later revealed that those same people already had an idea of me through social media. “I didn’t want it to be weird,” one girl later conceded. All judgment suspended, it still felt weird.
These awkward situations are symptomatic of my generation, “Generation Z.” The age group which market research suggests has a preference for emojis over text, and entertains the impulse to consume information as quickly as possible. Patience and rumination are characteristics which, although approved in the abstract, lose ground to more instantly negotiable gratifications. To swiftly navigate the digital era is potentially to have everything: the world at your fingertips, validation at a whim.
“We capture a contextualizing, affective moment through trust in technology,” contends digital rhetoric professor, Aaron Hess. “The intersection of body and machine, of analog and digital, enables users to generate new perceptions of both the self and the device.” But what happens when the digital mindset is imposed onto the physical world? What happens when young adults become preoccupied with manipulating photographs to fit an unobtainable image? We begin to neglect the people we are in real life.
This was the case for me, and thus I adopted the philosophy that if I had only spoken to someone a handful of times or no longer saw them on a regular basis, then I was not obligated to follow them. Being informed about these people’s lives from social media posts as opposed to in-person interaction felt ingenuine, especially considering most of them lived within a five block vicinity. By the end of the school year, I had unfollowed over 200 students.
It was a relief to no longer be constantly confronted with visuals of white teeth and Gucci belts and vacations to remote Grecian islands. It was a relief to accept myself without Facetune or filters, to not conceal the cystic acne scars which remind me that I am indeed still a teenager. It was a relief to be exempt from the calculated portrayals which innately disagree with who I am as a writer. No longer did I have to sacrifice authenticity for digital approval, or even subdue my healthy sense of self-deprecation. Documenting each tragic mistake and act of charming naivety allows for reflection, a virtue which does not currently appear to be resonant with social media use. Take for example, Hopelab’s sponsored national survey of more than 1,300 U.S. teens and young adults which found that, “social media users are somewhat more likely to agree than disagree that they feel like they always have to show the best version of themselves on social media, with 53% agreeing. A majority (57%) reported feeling like other people are doing better than they are (15% often feel that way when using social media).”
The aim here is not to point out all of Generation Z’s shortcomings, nor to suggest that I’m by any means absolved from contemporary technological culture. It is simply to draw attention to the increasing importance of social media in young adults’ identity formation and the means by which different age groups utilize it differently. Is “social media” indeed being used for social purposes, or is this a term that masks the behavior of teenagers obsessed with self image? Should we reevaluate the perceived legitimacy behind modern online interactions? Are social media’s benefits fleeting or long-term? These are the types of questions we at Hopelab are asking. It is my hope that older generations, particularly those individuals who build technologies to be disseminated across young audiences, confront these uncertainties head on. | https://medium.com/hopelab/social-media-makes-me-anxious-8f80c9b0ca17 | ['Christopher Chang'] | 2019-08-20 19:06:26.340000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'Social Media'] |
You are defending and sentimentalising the armed wing of US corporations. | You are defending and sentimentalising the armed wing of US corporations. This military of yours has been involved in illegal wars in Iraq with hundreds of thousands of deaths and drone strikes against civilians long before Trump ever came down the escalator. This armed force is explicitly immune from prosecution from legitimate authorities in the countries it operates in. The USA has always opposed the International Criminal Court. All Trump has done is made this clearer to all. You seem to dislike that.
More than that, he has tried to withdraw from some of your foreign war schemes. Your military isn’t about defence. It is for offence, especially if oil is involved. You also seem to dislike that. | https://medium.com/@ebla/you-are-defending-and-sentimentalising-the-armed-wing-of-us-corporations-cbe1b734297 | ['Edwin Blake'] | 2020-12-25 15:17:25.023000+00:00 | ['Defundhate', 'Military', 'Budget', 'ICC'] |
[Mal Series #8] PE Fixing & Unpacking | In this blog, I will discussed some of the technique that can be used when we encountere with the corrupted PE or IAT obfuscated samples.
1. Obfuscated IAT
Sample: Mugatu.exe (FlareOn 2019 Chal 10, writeup pdf)
As state in the writeup given, the original import thunks has been reversed in the memory. In order to beat this kind of obfuscation, we can use Scylla to dump out the executable after the import address table has been fixed. Once the IAT has been fixed, the API will be resolved 😎 and appears again in the static decompiler tools.
You may refer to the screenshot below for the guidance. ✌
How to Scylla dump a PE
Before
After
It can see that the decompiled code after the deobfuscation function makes more sense than before. 😃
Afterwards, it will need to rebuilt the IAT to get the second payload (In this case PE-Sieve will comes in handy). Will leave this to the those are interested.
2. PE Unpacking
Sample: Refer to [Mal Series #7]
For the payload unpacking, I will mention on the common one that I used often, which is placing breakpoint on the common Windows API to let it unpack itself. Here comes the famous guys 🎉 VirtualAlloc , VirtualAllocEx , WriteProcessMemory , VirtualProtect 🎉
Other than that, there are a lot of unpacking method for different packers such as UPX (Finding the far jump to the entry point of the code) etc.
3. Corrupted/Misaligned PE
Sample: Refer to [Mal Series #7]
When Windows loads a PE file, it will try to map the address of the physical address to memory address.
Mapping (Translate from physical address from disk to virtual address, usually refer to memory address).
When we dump the payload out of the memory, it might require to unmap the dumped files so it can interpret by the static analysis tools correctly. Usually just to make the sections can be continuously read by the tools by merging those padded section into one. E.g:
Raw Data Size of a section 1 = VA Section 2 - VA Section 1
In order to do that, we will use PE-Bear to fix the alignment of the PE section headers. Make sure Raw Address align with Virtual Address in this case after aplied the calculation above for each section.
Repeat this for the rest of the sections and you will see something afterwards. | https://medium.com/@ghoulsec/mal-series-8-pe-fixing-unpacking-190dd43ae15e | [] | 2020-07-01 08:08:58.538000+00:00 | ['Malware', 'Cybersecurity', 'Debugging', 'Reverse Engineering', 'Malware Analysis'] |
Python — 完全程式新手的起步經驗、課程&書單(不專業)分享 | Free Python Tutorial - Python for Mathematics:For High School & Engineering Student
In this tutorial, We will learn the basics of Python and then we will learn to solve various mathematical problems in… | https://medium.com/@brianbookworm/python-%E7%B5%A6%E5%AE%8C%E5%85%A8%E7%A8%8B%E5%BC%8F%E6%96%B0%E6%89%8B%E7%9A%84%E8%B5%B7%E6%AD%A5%E5%BB%BA%E8%AD%B0-%E8%AA%B2%E7%A8%8B-%E6%9B%B8%E5%96%AE-%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E4%BA%AB-70bab76e6cff | [] | 2021-01-02 04:48:40.908000+00:00 | ['Python', '自學python', 'Python3', 'Python Programming', '自學'] |
Trekking | Trekking if undertaken on the great Himalayas or any mountainous area creates numerous benefits within the body, our mind as well as the soul. You would get time to reflect on your life by taking a trekking journey at the breathtakingly beautiful and serene nature.
You are bound to feel naturally majestic apart from gratifying, which later converts into an abundance of confidence once you take frequent trekking exploring mother nature.
We all know that a major benefit of trekking is under the sun. A natural source of attaining vitamin D. Have listed below the major contribution to the benefits. Presently many people suffer from vitamin D deficiency being indoors mostly.
1. Experience the rich flora and fauna
You are bound to find some unusual species of birds, diverse wildlife, wonderful plants, and trees that have various medicinal properties along with healing properties which is difficult to be spotted in crowded cities these days.
2.Revitalized heart and lungs
You can get clean, fresh air that helps in enhancing the respiratory system along with lung capacity. The more fresh air you breathe, the further capable your lungs become the more blood your heart pumps, the healthier it gets. Hiking for longer periods of time with a backpack makes a great cardiovascular workout, particularly when you push yourself to a point where talking becomes very difficult. Giving yourself good exercise not only strengthens your heart but also lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol.
3. Improved Fitness and Weight Loss
Several surveys show that prolonged daily hiking cycles with a backpack of about 6–8 hours turn the body into a professional fat burner and a testosterone-fueled engine. Trekking includes going up and downhill. The uphill walks will carry the heart close to the target heart rate thus allowing it time to recover from the downhill walks.
4. Mental benefits
Mountains provide us with a great amount of serenity level which is difficult to attain amidst the hustle and bustle of city life.
With help of trekking in a mountainous region, you experience a surge of endorphins, which are responsible for reducing stress and maintaining happiness. The mesmerizing views along with captivating water bodies or even the snow-clad mountains and splendid starry nights play a vital role in soothing the mind.
Trekking In Ooty
Try to take the challenging trekking trails through these colossal mountains and lush green pastures. An ideal way to explore mother nature to its core
The climate in Ooty being pleasant throughout the year makes it a wonderful spot and option for trekking. You can indulge in various activities at these majestic and soothing Ooty hills. Ooty has various offers for adventure seekers
One of the most popular activities preferred by tourists is trekking. Surrounded by mountains and covered in lush greenery, there are few places more ideal for a perfect trek than Ooty.
Best trekking routes in Ooty listed for helping you plan your next holiday here that is filled with adventures you wouldn't want to miss.
1. Sengottaraayar Malai:
Majestic Sengotta Malai
Sengottaraayar Malai is a must-visit for all adventure lovers cannot be missed. A picturesque view from the top hill is mesmerizing as well as soothing.
Sengottaraayar Malai is a place near Ooty that is ideal for nature photography apart from being great for trekking. This mountain is 1,800 meters above sea level, offering you a splendid view of the surrounding hills and tea estate. You would be taken through varied terrains including forest, tea & coffee plantations, as well as the hilly town areas while ascending this Sengottaraayar malai.
2. Doddabetta Peak:
The highest peak of the Nilgiri mountain range is Doddabetta Peak.. A trek to this stretch is a rare experience. A reserved forest cover covers the summit, providing a panoramic view as you hike up.
Doddabetta is available from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. You will enjoy the exceptional sunrise and spot unusual bird species if you launch your trek early in the morning. The crowd is thinner during the early hours. The sunset view from here is equally astonishing.
Doddabetta Peak is a short hiking distance of about 10 km from the main town of Ooty. However, you can take a jeep. It’s best to explore on foot to attain the thrill and enjoy mother nature more closely.
Telescope house at Doddabeta peak
The summit is flat and the visitors can sit and admire the calming atmosphere and the grandeur of nature. At the top, the Telescope House or the Observatory provides picturesque views of the surrounding hills, waterfalls, woods, and much more. Since it has two telescopes, the place is crowded and you’re going to have to wait for your turn, but it’s worth the wait.
A must-visit place as you get to enjoy breathtaking views of the highlands of Mysore and Coimbatore, Chamundi Peak, and the forests of Bandipur National Park all the way from this peak. It was opened in 1983 and maintained by TTDC
3. Mukurthi Peak:
This peak is located within the Mukurthi National Park. It has a rugged trail which allows you a beautiful view of the National Park and the nearby mountains. You would require two hours for trekking this peak. You can have an overnight stay at the top with camping along with loved ones and then leisurely descend down the next day.
4. Parsons Dam:
A ride to the Dam of Parsons is a must. First of all, you enter Parsons Valley, where you can enjoy the green surroundings. Then once at the Parsons Valley checkpoint, you’re going to have to seek permission to hike beyond. In a little bit, you can reach the Parsons Dam, where you will see a beautiful view of the dam and its surroundings.
5. Kotagiri-Elk Falls:
Home to the Kota tribes, Kotagiri is the favorite of the trekkers. The trek starts from Kotagiri and travels towards the Kodanad viewpoint. From here, head southwest to Catherine Falls and Elk Falls. Although you might feel the trek is tiresome at some point, but it's worth the effort you realize on seeing the breathtaking view of the waterfalls and the Moyar River.
Essentials during trekking
Make sure to backpack efficiently so that while trekking you wouldn’t have to dig deep in the bag for the most important things during your journey. Ensure to carry appropriate clothing, especially thick moisture-wicking clothes. You could add more layers of clothes if you feel you cannot withstand the climate. Also, don’t forget to have Hiking boots or shoes that are suitable to walk comfortably on the terrain.
It’s advisable to carry plenty of water, along with a few snacks during your journey. Pack your backpack in such a way that is easier to retrieve compass, maps, first aid kits easily. Try to maintain your backpack as light as possible.
Give your medical conditions some deep consideration while planning a hike. With exertion and severe weather you might feel amplified health conditions, take care if you have knee and back problems, heart conditions, diabetes, asthma, and other medical conditions.
Stay at Nature resort in Ooty, The643
Plan your trekking trip ahead before visiting Ooty for a vacation. Doddabetta peak is very close to our Resort. You could reach it in less than half an hour. Exploring these mentioned trekking spots would surely create loads of memories with friends or loved ones. Plan an itinerary with your preferences to make it a wonderful journey. Read our blog on things to do in Ooty for more ideas and information.
Come stay with us at The643, Luxury resort in Ooty and get yourself pampered with luxury at this splendid Nilgiris hill. Have a wonderful stay with a mesmerizing surrounding which helps in soothing your mind. | https://medium.com/@hotel643.seo/trekking-96f5a5c91117 | [] | 2020-11-26 12:25:36.278000+00:00 | ['Ooty', 'Travel Writing', 'Travel Tips', 'Life', 'Traveling'] |
How BitNautic is Revolutionizing Wholesale Ecommerce? | BitNautic is offering its users an amazing opportunity to advertise and trade their goods. Producers have the access to list their products on the platform mentioning the specific location. It will cut off middlemen and increases profitability. Moreover, BitNautic brings all the users together where they can negotiate their terms that makes processing easier.
You might be thinking that how BitNautic Ecommerce services are different from other shipping platforms. BitNautic is based on Blockchain, a disturbed ledger that increases its competency. Here are some ways through which BitNautic is revolutionizing wholesales e-commerce:
Smart Contracts
BitNautic facilitates its users with smart contracts that automate several processes following specified rules. It eradicates third-party involvements which enables e-commerce enterprises to grow by cutting down costs. The addition of smart contracts to the shipping environment also makes inventory management easier for wholesalers.
Easy to Access Receipts and Warranties
Integration of blockchain solutions authorizes wholesalers, retailers, and customers to store their receipts and product warranties without any hacking threats. You now never have to worry about lost invoices and receipts because BitNautic offers a secured storage that can be accessed anytime anywhere.
Supply Chain Monitoring
The supply chain has always been an issue for wholesalers to track their goods and to have on-time payments. Moreover, they need to know stocks in the pipeline and their estimated deliveries. BitNautic offers an e-commerce platform where users can enlist and track their products that makes the supply chain network transparent.
Final Words
As Merchandisers all around the globe are turning to wholesale e-commerce as the storefront for their business growth, BitNautic is acting as a backbone for online sales and payments. Besides the fast speed and cost-effectiveness, BitNautic is modifying the traditional wholesale and shipping markets to a Blockchain base Platform, removing the paperwork and human mistakes. The transparency that the BitNautic e-commerce platform provides is today’s necessity to maximize growth.
Want to know more about BitNautic, visit our website:
Check out the BitNautic Platform: https://merchant.bitnautic.com/ | https://medium.com/@bitnautic/how-bitnautic-is-revolutionizing-ecommerce-b4fd67faae0a | [] | 2021-06-08 13:25:59.715000+00:00 | ['Shipping', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Shipping Platform', 'Bitnautic', 'Bitnautic Platform'] |
‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’: David Lynch’s American Nightmare | Laura Palmer lives out her final days in David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’
“When this kind of fire starts, it is very hard to put out. The tender boughs of innocence burn first, and the wind rises, and then all goodness is in jeopardy.” ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’
David Lynch’s mind is a labyrinth I’d never want to enter, but when I watch his films, I wish they’d never end. At once foreign and familiar, his films take us to realms that are instantly recognizable, so long as we abandon all reason upon arrival.
Some auteurs start off in the mainstream and gradually become more avant-garde as their careers progress. Lynch is not one of them. His debut feature film Erasorhead (1977), about a couple that gives birth to a lizard-like creature, catapulted him to the center of the Midnight Movie scene. It’s not even his strangest concept.
Each film is more bonkers than the next, but they can’t be dismissed. The artistry on display demands our attention and admiration. Even The Straight Story (1999) is bizarre for where it sits within Lynch’s body of work. It’s undoubtedly Lynch’s sweetest and most straight-forward tale, and comes right after Lost Highway (1997), his darkest and most disorienting. Surely that counts for something.
The Lynch film that fascinates me the most is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Maligned when it premiered at Cannes in 1992 (Quentin Tarantino famously quipped: “David Lynch had disappeared so far up his own ass that I have no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something different”), the film was considered a critical and commercial disaster. In his harsh review for The New York Times, Vincent Camby captured the consensus at the time: “It’s not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be.”
The polarizing reception alone is very Lynch. For an uncompromising auteur who pushes cinematic boundaries as far as he can, it makes sense that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me would be perceived as a betrayal. At the time it challenged viewers too much and they simply weren’t ready for it.
Martyn Conterio explains:
“The show’s rabid fanbase were feverishly expecting another slice of quirky cherry pie on a bigger canvas, with all their favourite characters back and as adorably odd as ever. Instead, they were presented with an intense, sordid, phantasmagorical tragedy about sexual abuse and loneliness, filled with bizarre sequences and wacky details.”
In the years since Cannes, a new generation of critics like Ed Gonzales, Mark Kermode, and Calum Marsh evaluated Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me with fresh eyes. A new consensus had formed.
In 2013, Marsh made a bold proclamation: “In its own singular, deeply strange way, ‘Fire Walk with Me’ is David Lynch’s masterpiece.” To anger detractors even more, the film was given the Criterion Collection treatment in 2017, as if to reaffirm Marsh’s claim and reposition the film as a significant, if not the significant, entry in Lynch’s canon.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is the purest distillation of Lynch’s nightmarish vision, what writer David Foster Wallace once defined as Lynchian.
For Wallace, the term Lynchian refers to “a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter.” When pressed by Charlie Rose to explain why Lynch is so unique, Wallace said, “The number of film directors who get national distribution in [the United States] who are truly interesting as artists is very, very small, and Lynch is one of them.”
More than any other Lynch film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me balances that line between the macabre and the mundane. It infuses scenes of ordinary suburban life with off-kilter sounds and images. Nothing is ever as it appears to be. Beyond the surface of the serene American dream is a sinister American nightmare.
In Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the dream is the picture-perfect life Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) seems to lead in the small suburban town of Twin Peaks. The nightmare is what’s really happening behind the white picket fence, namely, years of sexual abuse at the hands of her psychotic father Leland (Ray Wise). Laura harbors this secret and the shame it causes her. To cope, she creates fantasies. She claims a spirit named BOB sneaks into her window every night to attack her. In one horrifying scene, we see it happen as she describes it, but then BOB becomes Leland and the horror of her plight is rendered all too real.
High school homecoming queen by day, promiscuous drug addict by night, Laura is the quintessential Lynchian heroine. As viewers, we’re never quite sure what’s really happening to her and what’s in her head. Are all the spirits just symbols meant to embody an internal trauma, or do they actually exist as external forces in the town itself? Can it be both?
The biggest mistake people make is trying to interpret Lynch’s films. The desire to uncover what it all means is understandable, but it’s a futile undertaking. The distorted sounds and disjointed images deliberately counter classical continuity logic. What we’re left with, instead, is a surreal logic. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me isn’t meant to be analyzed for some deeper meaning. It’s meant to be experienced, as a nightmare would, and leave us with a deeper feeling.
And what feelings! The two stand-out sequences that resonate are likely what caused such an uproar at Cannes. The first, an extended sequence at a bar, is familiar terrain for those who’ve seen a Lynch film. When the sun goes down, characters convene in seedy, neon-soaked spots on the edge of town where all the creatures of the night come out to play. In Blue Velvet (1986), it’s the Slow Room. In Mulholland Dr. (2001), it’s Club Silencio. In Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, it’s the Roadhouse, a local bar where Laura and her friend Donna (Moira Kelly) meet their drug connections.
The sequence casts a hypnotic spell. When Laura first walks into the Roadhouse and watches Julee Cruise sing “Questions in a World of Blue,” she breaks down and cries. This is similar to the sequence at Club Silencio in Mulholland Dr., when Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Elena Harring) break down and cry after watching Rebekah Del Rio perform “Llorando,” an a cappella rendition of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.”
Why does Lynch like to spend so much time at sad bars, and why do the sad songs always seem to move his characters to tears? The lure, I think, both for Lynch as an auteur and for us as the audience, is that these sequences are purely cinematic.
The mood at the Roadhouse is at first wistful and melancholy, but it quickly becomes wild and manic when Laura and Donna go with the men to the Pink Room. Lynch cranks up Angelo Badalamenti’s score and fills the screen with smoke and flashing neon lights. Laura and Donna let loose and start taking off their clothes and dancing with the men. At one point, the camera spins around the room, mirroring Donna’s confused state.
Throughout the sequence, we never forget that we’re observing old men prey upon vulnerable teenage girls. To be sickened is the point. When we watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, we don’t feel like we’re lost in a story about characters, waiting to get from point A to B. We feel like we’re lost in a hallucinatory nightmare, waiting to get from one harrowing moment to the next.
If the Roadhouse shows us Laura’s potential destroyed by drug use and promiscuity, the final sequence reminds us how she got to that place of hopelessness. Laura is ultimately killed by her father Leland, the same man who stripped away her innocence years ago when he started sexually assaulting her. In his finest moment, Lynch pulls no punches. This is a brutal sequence that conveys the terror of sexual assault and trauma and the evil that causes it through grueling sounds and grotesque images. As difficult as it is to witness, Lynch’s bravura filmmaking makes it worthwhile.
Laura is last seen laughing in the Red Room next to Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), her symbolic guardian angel, while a literal guardian angel is hovering above her. What’s real and what’s imagined? As with any Lynch film, the more you try to understand Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the less you know.
Lynch challenges us to confront the monsters that dwell in the dark. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a pitch black vision of evil that can only come from cinema, or in Lynch’s case, the cinema of our nightmares. Fortunately for us, this is one nightmare from which we don’t want to wake. | https://jonalexandernyc.medium.com/twin-peaks-fire-walk-with-me-in-dreams-c02324088743 | ['Jon Alexander'] | 2020-12-26 17:20:08.442000+00:00 | ['Television', 'Film', 'Surrealism', 'Art', 'Movies'] |
Coursera IBM Data Science Professional Certification Program Review | Coursera, an online learning platform for massive open online courses and IBM have partnered to create the Data Science Professional Certification program. This program consists of 9 courses designed to take someone from the very basics of data science to creating their own unique capstone project. At the end of the program, you will have a completion certificate as well as 9 badges, one for each course in the program. These badges can be added to your portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or taped to your fridge to remind yourself of your accomplishments!
I recently finished the program and would like to share my thoughts on what I have learned so far, my tips for students, and where I plan to go next in my self-taught data science journey.
TL/DR
The program is a great introduction to the basics of data science. I recommend it to anyone looking to get started in the field. It is very high-level, however, so further learning and portfolio building is required before entering the job search market. However, the freeform final project is a great primer to what it is like to rely entirely on yourself to write every line of code in a project.
Cost
This course uses a subscription-based payment model. There is a monthly fee of $39 (at the time of writing) that gives you access to all the course modules, assignments, discussion forums, and peer-graded assignments. No matter how long it takes you to complete the courses, you will be charged the monthly fee unless you finish the program or cancel your subscription.
Time Commitment
As the payment is monthly, the less time you take the less you pay for the course. I was able to complete the course in just under a month (28 days to be precise). However, I will note that I was on summer break from university at the time, had no main job except for some freelance writing projects, and generally had an astounding amount of time to devote to the program. Additionally, I had already completed the Codecademy Data Science stack, so I was able to complete all the assignments for the first few classes within the first week.
That being said, if you are an absolute beginner, Coursera estimates the program will take 2 months to complete. Some people, of course, may take longer. However, if you are looking to finish the program within 1 month, I highly recommend completing some prerequisite learning programs before starting.
Course 1: What is Data Science
IBM Watson © IBM
This was a very high-level introduction to the field of data science. It went over the basic applications of data science, like data mining, linear regressions, and real-world uses, like engineering. Most of the course was interviews with professionals or students, relaying their experiences in the field. However, there was also an introduction to IBM Watson, the first instance of the tools of data science in this class, as well as the first introduction to IBM itself.
Course 2: Open Source Tools for Data Science
This short course flew through some of the main open source tools used in data science. It focused mostly on tools like Jupyter Notebooks, Zepplin, RStudio, and, again, IBM Watson.
This stood out to me immediately during the course. Most of my learning previously had been using tools like Codecademy. While Codecademy is a great place to learn the basics, it has been criticized for its isolated learning platform and many students say there is a steep learning curve when applying their knowledge off the website. This is not a problem with the IBM program as right from the beginning you are using open source tools, mostly Jupyter Notebooks.
Course 3: Data Science Methodology
This course taught how to think like a programmer. The thinking model provided in the course was highly recursive and iterative. Each step encouraged thinking back to previous steps and looking for points of improvement. I greatly appreciated this course as learning to think like a programmer and data scientist is one of the most challenging aspects of becoming a strong analyst.
Course 4: Python for Data Science
This is where the program begins to dive into actual coding. In this course, you learn the basics of Python, Pandas, and NumPy. Because I had previously finished the Codecademy Data Analysis stack, I flew through this course. However, I did watch all the videos and, frankly, I don’t think this course would be a good resource for someone who has never coded in Python before. Learning to code, in my opinion, should be highly interactive and the videos and quizzes did not offer the level of student input that I think is key to really learning how to code, especially for the basics.
This course also involves the first real project of the certification program. In this course, students are required to analyze a set of economic data using Watson Studio. Coursera uses an interesting grading model. Except for multiple choice quizzes, all assignments are graded by your peers. Unfortunately, this means that you likely will not get comments or feedback on your work, which may be a drawback for some students.
Course 5: Databases and SQL for Data Science
Again, this course used IBM Cloud as the main teaching platform. This was also the first course where virtually everything I learned was new content. However, the course was designed well and I learned a lot about how to not only build databases, but how to collect and analyze data from them using Python.
This course also incorporated the first long, robust project of the program. The previous projects had been very straightforward and most of the code was provided. This slow progression to more challenging material is one of the great strengths of how this program was designed.
Course 6: Data Analysis with Python
This was my favorite course in the program. I had learned much of the material in my Codecademy studies, but nevertheless, I liked revisiting Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy. This course covered a range of data analysis techniques, from finding and wrangling data to statistical analysis and modeling.
Interestingly, there was no peer graded project in this course. The entire grade relied on a large number of quizzes. I think this course would have benefited from a peer-graded final project to help solidify the concepts covered, however as the skills are required for the future courses and project, I understand why this decision was made.
Course 7: Data Visualization with Python
Choropleth map © Wikimedia
This course was a rapid-fire introduction to a range of data visualization techniques, including line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and specialized visualizations like Waffle and Folium. I particularly enjoyed learning about Folium and Choropleth. I’ve always loved looking at map-based data visualization, but I never knew they could be generated with Python. I have a feeling these maps will find themselves embedded in many of my future projects.
Course 8: Machine Learning with Python
This was another high-level survey course and frankly, I found it to be the most challenging. I don’t think machine learning is inherently a difficult topic, but I had never had any experience with it before this course, so it was a bit of a demanding course.
The course quickly covered a lot of topics, including simple regression models, classification, clustering and recommendation systems. However, because of the tangible applications of what I was learning (we covered Netflix-style recommendation algorithms for example), this was one of the most interesting courses in the program.
The final project for this course involved applying four different types of machine learning protocols to a data set to determine which was the best. It was a fun challenge to complete.
A complex machine learning model. © Wikimedia
Course 9: Applied Data Science Capstone
Finally! The capstone project!
The capstone project for this program consisted of two parts. First, there was another learning module where we covered the Foursquare API to get location information. Again, as this was a tangible application of data science I had seen before, this was a very interesting module.
The first peer-graded project of the capstone was a simple use of the Foursquare API to understand the venues in a city.
Then came the real challenge. The final project of the capstone was entirely open-ended. We had to make up our own question to answer using the tools we had learned. The only requirements were to use the Foursquare API, use data analytics, and build a Folium map as part of the presentation. Additionally, to build job skills, we were required to write a full report and develop a slide deck to explain our results.
I am interested in using data analytics for health and science, so I chose to build a correlational model and Folium map to show all the hospitals in Toronto, Canada as well as population data in the city to pinpoint a neighborhood that would most benefit from the addition of a new hospital.
I will be the first to admit that my model was highly simplistic. I did not incorporate socioeconomic data, statistics on health and wellness in the community, or really any data that would be actually helpful to the recommendation system except population. However, I appreciated the freeform nature of the project. I literally started with a blank Jupyter Notebook and through the project, I was able to learn more than I ever had through Codecademy as I had to come up with every line of code on my own.
Tips for Learners
My biggest tip for this course, and for any online coursework, is to practice discipline and be engaged in the content. It can be easy to passively watch the videos, run the code in the given Jupyter Notebooks and pass the quizzes without really solidifying your knowledge. If data science is something you are genuinely interested in learning, take the time to really go through each module and assignment to make sure you understand the code. You may even choose to rewrite portions of what is provided to help in the learning process.
Additionally, even though you may be a beginner to data science, start immersing yourself in the field. Follow data science based subreddits, YouTube channels, Medium writers, etc. For me, I found that spending 20–30 minutes a day reading about data science, techniques, or breakthroughs in the field helped keep me motivated and showed me what is possible with the skills I was learning.
Finally, be sure to have fun with the course. Especially with the capstone project, the Coursera IBM Data Science certification program is designed to be highly personalized. You can really put your own personality and interests into the projects you do and the types of analysis you complete. No matter what field you are in or are hoping to join, data analytics is always present so be sure to mold the program to whatever type of work you are interested in, be it biological sciences, civil engineering, marketing, and beyond.
Key Takeaways
The course was an action-packed few weeks during which a lot of topics were covered, but here are the key takeaways from my experience:
Data science is a highly malleable, diverse field that attracts people from a wide range of disciplines. Learning data science is not only understanding how to use a set of tools, but more importantly, becoming comfortable with using those tools to answer a variety of questions and thinking like a data scientist.
Of course, since the program was created by IBM, it relies heavily on IBM products like Watson and Cloud Services. However, I think the videos do a good job of generalizing what you are learning to be able to apply it to other systems. Additionally, most of the work is done on Jupyter Notebooks (unlike the isolated platform of programs like Codecademy), so you can go straight into other projects after finishing the course.
This program definitely built confidence in my programming abilities as well. I learned data science in an iterative process, slowly building on my preexisting skills over time. The program was challening, but doable.
When working on real-world projects, you are not going to have your hand held. Often, if you are starting a project, you are starting with an empty document and you are responsible to come up with every line of code that is needed to get to the results you are looking for. The final project in this program was a great primer to what that feels like. For that alone, I highly recommend this certification program.
Final Review
I think this program is a wonderful option for those interested in getting a high-level overview of the basics of data analytics. The course is highly independent, however, and there is little to no opportunity to get valuable feedback from experienced programmers. All assignments are either multiple choice, and therefore automatically graded, or graded by your peers who must answer simple yes or no questions to reach a final score.
However, with future work and commitment, the skills learned in this program are applicable to real-world data science and the program as a whole is very valuable to get a broad understanding of everything you need to know to be a good data scientist.
If you want to get started with the program, click here!
My Next Steps
Now, while this certification program may seem comprehensive, and it certainly is, it cannot be the only training you do to enter the data science market. After all, you will only have a few projects in your portfolio, and only one truly unique project (the capstone).
Thus, for my next steps, I will work on expanding my portfolio to show my skills in all the topics covered in the certification program. To find projects, I am turning to the Rosalind project, DataCamp, DataQuest, and any other projects I can find that interest me.
Thanks to everyone who has read this far. If you have completed the certification program, I’d love to know what you thought. | https://medium.com/swlh/coursera-ibm-data-science-professional-certification-program-review-a776a00ba05b | ['Mehrnaz Siavoshi'] | 2020-01-17 22:27:08.493000+00:00 | ['Learning To Code', 'Data Analysis', 'IBM', 'Data Science', 'Coursera'] |
In space I trust | Just before this surreal but unfortunate reality of COVID quarantine had struck, I was writing my ‘breakthrough’ blog. I am talking about the 1st week of March 2020. Some thoughts I had collated over years, conversations with peers, some academic reading… some soul searching. It was about Space and Technology. How compatible and symbiotic they are…etc.
Here’s that article, however in retrospection parts of it doesn’t seem so accurate right now. You see this was Pre COVID. I had over-glorified the power that Space held over people in that article. Much of it was inspired by the ‘Behaviorism’ of the ’60s and ’70s and spoke about gaps between planners and residents. I had written how seamlessly technology will support the spaces to exert an underlying yet strong influence on how people will react to digital modules in physical space.
No, that doesn’t seem right now, does it?
Because now the question is, how do we trust a space again? Are we not plagued by the constant fear if space has been sanitized enough, have people occupying it got sick, have they been following safe distancing, has the air been circulated, and so on.
“It is more important to release the right response than to send the right message.”
— Edward T Hall
A language is a tool for communication. Messages via social media have a very personal flavor of reporting. I am not entirely confident that safety should rely on one’s interpretation of syntax. The other day I was watching the news about the Salon owner from Texas who decided to open her business because she felt it was the appropriate thing to do — personally and economically. Some thought this message to be bold, some arrogant. There was a lot of debate in News, social media, and communities and overall largely divided opinion. Of course, having different opinions on political matters is not new, but I wondered why the news was so much about a person. Shouldn’t it also talk about the salon? Is it safe to venture inside or not? Is the concerned space worth driving into, parking, and spending an hour or more?Light bulb moment — Could technology be sending the right responses here? Through those responses can we establish trust?
The sensors don’t choose, they are unbiased.
Before making purchase decisions online, I check out the rating and reviews. There is an unspoken comradery between buyers that let’s look out for each other by posting honest reviews. Similarly, can I make an informed choice about visiting and spending time in a space-based on an unbiased( earnestly) Trust metric? The inputs from sensors, transparency of real-time feedback combined with the user-generated input can provide critical information that can help bolster people’s trust in space.
This proposed trust quotient of space ( let’s call it TQ) can be a derivative of tangible and intangible inputs. Aspects like air quality, contact tracing, adherence (or not) to social distancing, and other health and safety reporting tools. This can be a dynamic system of inputs that is self informing. Data analytics of this quotient can help to identify drivers that enable trust in a space. So tomorrow when the time comes and the school starts, offices reopen, and pool parties are ok, I don’t have to be the negative Nancy who is constantly fretting about safety ( Ah, now we see the deep underlying psychological battle that troubles the author). This perception of safety will also reassure us to step out of our bubble and revive meaningful interactions in spaces. It will be interesting to see how this perception and/or TQ of a space redefines how people interact within themselves or with objects around them. Taking a little academic detour here, Hall described the interpersonal distances of people in four distinct zones — intimate space, personal space, social space, and public space. While the first two zones have a strong personal flavor to it, the social and public spaces will bear the brunt of the psychological and sociological impact of COVID quarantine.
Think of a movie hall for a moment. Just last year, I remember my enthusiasm while going into a dark, air-conditioned Imax experience to watch Avengers, End Game. The movie hall was clamoring with Marvel fans. My perception of the same space has changed from cozy and relaxing to something that gives me eerie chills. This may not be the case with everybody but again this is to do with intangible perceptions.
“Form follows function “ — Louis Sullivan
This famous maxim has been highly influential to generations of modern architects and some contemporary design thinkers. The circumstances when this was coined are vastly different than today’s situation primarily because ‘function’ of space might slowly acquire a new meaning post quarantine era. Perspectivism encourages me to believe that it is this trust that will play a pivotal role in how people accept the role space or venue will play. With aid of technology the functions in a space can be fluid As long as there is a trust of safety in an environment it can be a school by day and bar by night, or something less drastically poetic. If we think of space as fluid and flexible, technology can help us alter it based on our needs. This strategy where sensors, projections, big data, and cloud infrastructure can be employed to create adaptive spaces. In his amazing blog series Dark Matter and Trojan horses, Dan Hill addresses this eloquently about adaptive strategies in London’s high street. Extrapolating those strategies with emerging technology gives us a platform to define dynamic functionality to spaces.
“Swap on the River” by Carlos Zarco, Zuhal Kol, Sara Palomar, and Jose Luis Hidalgo. This illustrates concept of adaptive spaces
Projections and lighting controls have reached a reasonable maturity that they can be used for sensory experiences. Beacons can help maintain physical distances between entities, urban mobility can enable getting to point A to B and manage parking loads, HVAC controls can monitor air quality, micro-mobility options enable haven while on move, and our collective behavior and opinions can be fodder to data analytics associated with space. Technology can help transform the space organically based on need — to enable us to eat, work, play, read, and relax.
Projections or Kiosks that serve the closest contextual function
With advanced communication channels, online grocery, web schooling, remote healthcare assistance — we have fared well in this pandemic than we could have otherwise. Technology has become so intertwined in our homes that it hasn’t earned a special call-out for its contribution. Communities still hangout in social pages, kids can play on virtual playdates, teachers are having extended lessons through video conferences. But when the time has come to step into the ‘outside’ world, technology can still help us with the reassurance that we are not acting out of impulse or boredom. At the risk of romanticizing this article, the thought of creating a ‘trust’ quotient will redefine our perception of spaces and interpersonal proxemics. This metadata can help us build resilience that will be required to step out with confidence. | https://medium.com/@vaijayanthiiyengar/in-space-i-trust-43f1a723a9ba | ['Vaijayanthi Iyengar'] | 2020-05-22 01:05:21.405000+00:00 | ['Quarantine', 'Post Covid 19', 'Smart Cities', 'Urban Planning', 'Human Centered Design'] |
5 Lessons From ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ That You Should Know | 5 Lessons From ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ That You Should Know
Your definition of happiness is unique to you.
Will & Jaden Smith as Chris & Christopher Gardner. Source
Happiness is a weird feeling. You can’t really measure how happy you are, you can’t put a unit on it, but you can feel it. You can share your happiness with your loved ones, and in most cases, you make them happier as well!
Even then, how many people really achieve that awesome, blissful state? How many can honestly say they are happy in their life?
Maybe, it has something to do with a general definition of happiness. With increasing social media interference in our lives, we see people buying nice cars, huge homes & travelling to vacation destinations like Maldives. And we think, ‘This is what happiness looks like!’. Such thoughts plummet you into deeper sadness, wondering how and when you will lead a life like that.
The movie, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is based on Chris Gardner’s life. While this is based on a real life story of Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith), an American Businessman and founder of Gardner Rich & Co, the movie has a load of life lessons that are essential for everyone.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go, go right now. Watch it right now. You’ve missed out on a gem of a movie!
Throughout the movie, Chris is seen struggling with bills & rent, having to sell glorified X-Ray machines that give a denser bone image and cost twice as much, a wife who is working double shifts to make ends meet & his kid, Christopher who loves to play basketball and quite honestly, is a good kid who understands his family’s situation.
I’ve watched this move for so many times now, and it has always given me the courage to stand up to life and yell, “Bring it on!”. I watch it when I’m having a series of bad days at work, when I feel lost, and when I start focusing too much on if I’ll ever be as happy as the people on my Instagram.
I’ve gathered 8 lessons that I think everyone should know, that may light your road to finding your ‘happyness’.
Don’t listen to anyone but yourself
Not even your parents.
When Chris takes his son to play some basketball on a building rooftop, we see Christopher isn’t very good at it. Yet, he believes he can be a good player, to which Chris explains that he wasn’t very good at basketball growing up, and knowing how genes work, his son shouldn’t expect to be any more than an average player at max. Hearing this, his son throws the ball away and begins to pack up. Now, comes the best and my favourite quote from the movie.
Don’t ever listen to somebody telling you, you can’t do something, not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they tell you can’t do something. You want something, go get it. Period.
Chris is going through the worst part of his life, with having no money for bills and rent and a dwindling marriage. Getting discouraged is easy, but believing and fighting back is tough and the one who doesn’t quit is often the one who succeeds.
Perseverance is the key to success
To persevere is to make a constant effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. Life is going grab you and pull you down, but making every effort to get back up and not quitting is key. You want that job? You have to do anything and everything that’s possible to get the job, follow up with people, make new acquaintances, learn something new. (Just make sure you don’t go overdo it and drive other people crazy! 😆)
When Chris wanted to get that internship at Dean Witter, he made sure he knew who was going to help him get it, he made a point to make a personal connection with the person, and solve a Rubik’s cube to get some attention. You see, the same tactic won’t work for you, you cannot go around solving a Rubik’s cube to get attention (thank god, I can never solve one in my life!).
Another example is when he misses that meeting with a potential client who could bring in loads of money into the firm, he goes around to the client’s house at the right time to get an invite to a football game (again, not suggesting you set up camp outside your boss’ house in search of a raise.)
You need to make every effort and try every alternative to get what you want.
Setbacks are a part of life
I’ve started thinking that are no failures in life. They’re mere setbacks, a temporary delay in reaching your destination.
If you fail at nailing that job interview, chances are you will find another job, sometimes even a better one. This is a personal lesson that I hold very close to my heart.
I left my last job without having another one in hand, trying to switch technologies from an App developer to a Web developer after just 18 months of corporate experience. I gave a couple of interviews, and didn’t do very well, even though I was confident in my abilities. But that’s just how life is! You are going to do everything right, but if it doesn’t work out, it just doesn’t.
I later got an excellent job where I was able to grow and take on responsibilities and be happy in my work.
If you are facing setbacks from life right now, know that it’s normal and for the best. The harder you press a spring the larger it will jump when finally released.
Chris faces a number of setbacks, from his bone density scanner being stolen to being arrested for not paying parking tickets. But that doesn’t make him not go for that interview, which he nails despite of looking, well to put it nicely, underdressed.
Which brings me to the next lesson.
Always have a sense of humour, no matter the situation you’re in
Imagine how you’d feel, if you had just been arrested while you were painting your apartment, dressed in a white vest and jacket, with white paint all over your face and clothes, going into a job interview that will probably change your life?
I know I would probably call to reschedule, be too embarrassed to show up and pass on the opportunity.
But Chris went in, knowing he wasn’t looking very good and his chances were slim, but the moment you see him enter the room, he is extremely confident and tries to accept the situation as it is.
When the owner / senior guy asks him,
What would you say if a man walked in here with no shirt on, and I hired him?
To which Chris replies,
He must have had on some really nice pants.
Now that’s something. It shows Chris is comfortable with the situation and knows how to turn a tense situation around without pressing the panic button, which is an extremely important quality in most jobs today.
Most pursuits for happiness may never end
Let’s face it. Human Beings are greedy. Whenever we achieve something, we feel happy, but the next day, we wake up wanting more.
Our definitions of happiness are unique, but they tend to change every now and then. Very few people attain true and total happiness, and it’s okay to not be one of them.
As we attain our goals, we go on to update our definitions and we keep pursuing happiness, and we may never totally achieve it.
Often times, when you achieve a life goal that gives you happiness, that little feeling of happiness is very short lived. The journey to your goal is the beautiful part, the learnings, the ups and downs, the setbacks, all of it. That makes you grow as a person, reaching the destination is your reward. | https://medium.com/illumination/5-lessons-from-the-pursuit-of-happyness-that-everyone-should-know-e202c4837130 | ['Varun Joshi'] | 2020-12-14 14:14:55.522000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Growth', 'Wisdom', 'Life', 'Life Lessons'] |
Comparative Analysis of Fundamentals and Smart Contract Transactions on EOS and Ethereum Blockchain (Part 2/2) | Disclaimer: public Blockchain technology develops very fast. The information in this article about EOSIO and Ethereum only refers to their status when the article was written. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the differences between Ethereum and EOSIO. The author supports all public blockchain projects and thinks that the market can accommodate more than one public blockchain platform.
To read the first part of the article, please click here.
4 Smart Contract on Ethereum and EOS Blockchain
In order to assess the advantages and disadvantages when developing smart contracts on Ethereum and EOS, two smart contracts were built and deployed on the Ethereum Ropsten testnet and EOS Jungle testnet respectively. The first smart contract records location information on the blockchain. The second smart contract deploys a token on the blockchain. These two use cases were chosen for two reasons:
· Already existing experience of the author with adding location information on blockchains from previous projects.
· These are basic and easy to implement smart contracts, and they represent two of the most common uses cases of blockchains: recording data and public crowdfunding.
4.1 Ethereum
4.1.1 Contract development
To develop a simple smart contract that can be deployed on Ethereum, users can start by following a “hello world” example in Solidity to understand the basic principles. It is usually fairly easy to find solutions on the internet if one encounters problems while writing a smart contract. Questions posted on platforms such as Github and Stack Overflow often get answered quickly. Generally, contract development on Ethereum is a fairly easy process, even for people with no or little experience. Due to the large user base and free tutorials, use cases are usually kept up to date. However, this is mainly the case for simple projects such as record data on-chain or token deployment. For more advanced projects, up-to-date tutorials and other information are usually only available in the form of paid tutorials.
The code to track location information in a smart contract on Ethereum is as follows:
Location smart contract
We can see that the contract code is fairly easy to read as it follows the structure mentioned in section 3.1.1. The modifier created in this example is to allow only the owner to execute certain functions. It can also be incorporated into the file. However, in this case, it was put in a separate contract called Ownable.sol, so that it is easier to import the modifier again when writing other contracts.
To write a contract to create a token is very complex. In order to simplify the process, an existing library is downloaded and used. As a result, the token contract code looks a lot simpler than the location contract:
Token smart contract
However, we should always keep in mind that when we use open source code online, there is no guarantee that the code is 100% secure. Extensive tests and code audits should be undertaken to avoid vulnerabilities.
4.1.2 Contract compilation and deployment
There are two ways to compile an Ethereum smart contract: in the local code editor or using the online integrated development environment (IDE) Remix.
If a smart contract is developed in the local code editor, then the use of Command or Terminal is needed for compilation and deployment. This can be a bit of a
challenge for a beginner because knowledge of Truffle is needed. Truffle is a development environment and testing framework for Ethereum which allows local and testnet development and testing of smart contracts. There is a wide selection of tutorials available for the different functions of Truffle. However, for beginners with limited experience, it can be time-consuming to set everything up correctly.
By contrast, the online browser-based Ethereum IDE Remix is a very easy to use application that does not require users to manually enter commands. Compilation and deployment of a smart contract happen via the click of a button. Another advantage is due to its debug and unit test functions, users can find errors in their code much faster. However, there are also downsides. IDE Remix does not support front-end testing and development. If a developer wants to connect the smart contract to a front-end user interface, it can only be done using Truffle. This means that the deployment of more complex smart contracts requires users to have a deeper understanding of different development and testing environments.
In order to deploy an Ethereum smart contract, an ABI is needed. ABI stands for application binary interface. It connects the user programs and operating system. Machine code can be encoded and decoded through the ABI. The ABI is very important when it comes to contract deployment because contract calls are encoded using .abi files for the EVM. When we want to read data from transactions on the blockchain, the ABI is also essential. An ABI includes function descriptions and events and is in the form of a JSON array (Antonopoulos & Wood, 2016/2018).
When the contract is compiled, a JSON file is generated for each of the .sol files under the build/contracts folder, when the contract is developed locally in a code editor. The following figure shows part of the ABI for the location contract written for this article:
Figure 10: Part of ABI of Ethereum Location Contract
4.1.3 Cost
The cost of deploying smart contracts and sending transactions fluctuates in USD. According to the Ethereum Yellowpaper (Wood, 2020), it costs 32000 Gas to deploy a smart contract plus 200 Gas per byte of the source code. The following diagram shows a comparison between Gas price and Ether price. The upper chart shows the average daily Gas price in Gwei (1 gwei = 10^(-19) Ether). The lower chart shows the price of Ether in USD. We can see that the price of both Gas and Ether fluctuates a lot, resulting in unstable dollar costs of deploying and interacting with smart contracts.
Figure 11: Gas price vs Ether price (Ethereum Price, Marketcap, Chart, and Info, n.d.; etherscan.io, n.d.)
Figure 11 shows the details of the location recording contract that was deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. We can see the fee is not high. Even if calculated with the all-time-high Ether price at the beginning of 2018, which was approximately 1400 USD per Ether (see figure 10), the deployment cost would still be under 1 USD (0.00055928 * 1400 = 0.78).
Figure 12: Location contract deployment details
As part of the analysis, two locations were recorded on the testnet. Below is the information on the transactions. For an easy comparison, the details of the locations were added on the bottom right corner of each screenshot and the fees used in each transaction were highlighted.
Figure 13: Block showing location 1 is recorded
Figure 14: Block showing location 2 was recorded
We can see that the cost of recording the first location is significantly higher but converted to USD, the fee paid to record each location is still low. On average approximately 0.15 USD for each transaction. For a company that needs to track the location of 1000 machines and record the location five times a week, it would cost more than 700 USD assuming Ether price stays at a stable level of 1400 USD. If the price of Ether is 350 USD, then the total cost would only be a little more than 200 USD.
4.2 EOSIO
4.2.1 Contract development
Because EOSIO smart contracts use C++ which is familiar to many developers. This makes it easy to learn for many experienced users how to program a smart contract on EOSIO. A simple smart contract in C++ includes two files: .hpp and .cpp, where the .hpp file is where the contract is defined and includes all the function names and class. The .cpp file includes all the logic of the functions listed in the .hpp file. In EOSStudio example contracts such as eosio.token and eosio.system are provided for references.
EOS was launched only a few years ago and saw several updates since then. However, many of the free tutorials being available are out of date and are not compatible with earlier versions of the network. As with Ethereum, access to most of the more advanced tutorials or code examples is paywalled.
The location contract written for this article includes three files: location.hpp, location.cpp and info.hpp.
Below is the location.hpp file where the contract name is defined and functions are listed as actions.
Below is the location.cpp file where all functions are written.
The details of the table were put in another file called info.hpp, where “info” is the name of the table:
Compared with the Ethereum Solidity contract, we can see that the EOS smart contract has a more complicated structure because there are more files to maintain. Also, the C++ code is not as easily readable as Solidity code for someone who has not much knowledge in C++.
4.2.2 Contract compilation and deployment
EOSIO provides a graphic IDE called EOSStudio which can be downloaded for contract development, compilation, and testing. At the moment it only supports local node and cannot be connected to testnets yet.
During the contract compilation process, two files will be generated: an .abi file which is similar to the Ethereum JSON file, and a .wasm file which is a binary file.
There are two ways to deploy a smart contract on a testnet. The first is through a terminal, the second is through uploading files on a website. When deploying through the terminal, it has to be done in a Linux or macOS operating system. This can be an additional hurdle for beginners with only a Windows operating system because a virtual machine is needed or an additional Linux system needs to be installed.
Also, it is worth noting that each account in EOS can only be used to deploy one smart contract. If a second contract is deployed with the same account, then the previous deployed smart contract will be removed.
A useful aspect of EOS is that the data is organized in tables due to its smart contract structure. One can see the table from the block explorer directly. However, this can also be a downside, because when recording sensitive information, encryption is needed.
Figure 15: Location contract table on Jungle Testnet
4.2.3 Cost
As mentioned in the first section, there is no transaction fee on EOS. However, when deploying a smart contract, the contract owner not only needs to buy RAM on the EOS network, staking EOS for both CPU and NET is also necessary. It is difficult to estimate how much RAM to buy and how much to stake for inexperienced users. The screenshots below show how much resources are used for deploying a location contract and token contract respectively. The total amount of RAM was bought with 30 EOS. 1 EOS was staked for CPU and NET respectively.
Figure 16: Resources used for deploying location contract on EOSIO
Figure 17: Resources used for deploying token contract on EOS
RAM price also fluctuates. In the following diagram, the upper chart shows RAM price in EOS, the lower one shows EOS price in USD from the time frame March 2019 to September 2020. We can see that EOS RAM price correlates with EOS price.
Figure 18: EOS RAM price vs EOS price (EOS Authority, n.d.; EOS Price, Marketcap, Chart, and Info, n.d.)
4.3 Advantages and Disadvantages
A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of Ethereum and EOS is shown in the table below:
Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethereum and EOS
5 Conclusion and Outlook
In practice, efficient development and implementation of smart contracts for users with limited programming knowledge are based on two factors:
· the availability of full, up-to-date tutorials, sample codes, and other resources
· the availability of stable environments to implement and test smart contracts on different platforms with little effort
In both cases, Ethereum, with its larger ecosystem and more sophisticated solutions, leads the way.
All been said, blockchain and smart contract development are still at a very early stage. There are still a lot of problems to be solved before they can reach wide adoption. However, the technology is also experiencing fast developments every day. In Ethereum 2.0 and EOS 3.0, we can look forward to solutions in the following aspects:
· Sharding in Ethereum 2.0, which aims to achieve increased scalability without sacrificing much decentralization. Increased scalability also means higher transaction speed.
· Interoperability and cross-chain solution in EOS 3.0: one blockchain can validate what happened on another blockchain.
· Better user experience, such as easier to create accounts on EOS, lower transaction fees, better liquidity, which means users can buy EOS more easily.
· More resilient: when a considerable number of nodes go offline, the network still functions normally.
I hope this article provided a clear comparison for people who are undecided about whether to use Ethereum or EOS. We should keep in mind that there is no “best” blockchain. The market needs decentralized blockchain projects with different characteristics, such as consensus algorithms, fundamental architecture, programming languages, etc. Internet and smartphones have transformed our lives. Blockchain will do the same. As the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin once
said: “instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets taxi drivers work directly with the customers.”
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Voshmgir, S. (2019). Oracles. In Token Economy: How Blockchains and Smart Contracts Revolutionize the Economy. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3982103827/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sherminde01a-21&camp=1638&creative=6742&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=3982103827&linkId=4753362f5226a8282b281de67ec80077
What Is a Blockchain Consensus Algorithm? (n.d.). Binance Academy. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from https://academy.binance.com/blockchain/what-is-a-blockchain-consensus-algorithm
Wood, G. (2020). ETHEREUM: A SECURE DECENTRALISED GENERALISED TRANSACTION LEDGER. 39.
Zhang, E. (2019). Roadmap of NEO 3.0 Development. Medium. https://medium.com/neo-smart-economy/roadmap-of-neo-3-0-development-e2ae64edf226
Zhang, R., Rui Xue, & Liu, L. (2019). Security and Privacy on Blockchain. ArXiv:1903.07602 [Cs]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3316481 | https://medium.com/@ren-heinrich/comparative-analysis-of-fundamentals-and-smart-contract-transactions-on-eos-and-ethereum-4b070ead578 | ['Ren'] | 2020-10-26 20:42:26.661000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Eos', 'Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Ethereum'] |
Journey of a coach as a coaching client | Few days ago, I was in a coaching session where I was the coaching client. I was in a dilemma on a certain aspect of my life. I planned to take the help of a coach to find me a way forward. During our conversation, the coach asked me “Where do you see yourself doing 5 years hence? “. Few minutes into our conversation, I had this coaching aha moment — a moment of awakening. I would reckon that it was one of my best coaching conversations in a long time.
We have lot of articles, books on how a coach should hold a coaching conversation. I always used to wonder what happens when the tables are turned and a coach is a coaching client.
Based on my experience, I would like to share my take on this aspect.
Setting aside your coach hat -
When we are in the coaching client seat, we need to let go of our own coaching instinct. We can always coach ourselves. However, if we have come to a coach as a coaching client to find a way forward , lets just be that — coaching client.
Be your authentic self
If we want the best outcome from a coaching conversation, it is imperative that we are our authentic self , be open and candid in our conversation with the coach.
Trust the process
At times, we might be thinking in our conversation “What’s happening”? It has happened with me many a times. At that moment- letting go of our perceptions, judgement and cynicism is key. Just as we trust our doctor and the medical process and go with the flow, we need to trust the coach and the coaching process to get the best possible results.
Of course, all these happen when the coach hold the space and at the same time create a safe, trusting environment for us to reflect, think and find our way forward.
We all know that coaching is a partnership between coach and the client for the client to accomplish extraordinary results. That partnership can help produce the best of outcomes and help the client to move forward if there is a balance between the two. Mind you — if we want the coach to take us through a creative, thought provoking process, we need to give that person the space too.
I know it is not an easy process when a coach is a coaching client and I can tell you at times, my coaching instinct have come out. However the outcome has not been great.
We all need a coach in our life to move forward and this quote from Bill Gates sums it all.
What has been your experience as a coaching client ? | https://medium.com/@lopamudramisra/journey-of-a-coach-as-a-coaching-client-f7059eb65314 | ['Lopamudra Misra'] | 2020-11-16 15:35:04.067000+00:00 | ['Coaching', 'Process', 'Clients', 'Coach'] |
How to Make Better Decisions and Develop Your Self-control | Willpower
How to Make Better Decisions and Develop Your Self-control
Photo by Steven Erixon in Unsplash
Who wouldn’t want to control their actions and choices even a tiny bit better?
It’s so easy to sell ourselves short and yield to temptations even when you have already promised yourself to start the hard thing. We are all trying to manage our super busy and involved lifestyles and try to squeeze in something more and be a little better versions of ourselves.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but how we approach the issue is usually way too complicated or overpromising. In this story, I focus on the basic stuff but yet manage to make it way too long. Feel free to skip to the parts you feel interesting or go straight to the takeaways in the end.
Willpower — The Ability to resist impulses and make hard choices
Psychologist Kelly McGonigal has spent a lot of time researching aspects of willpower and have been doing a great job by popularizing the subject. She describes the concept in her book The Willpower Instinct as an ability to do something that you want to achieve while part of you resists doing it.
Our self-control struggles are mostly about our long-term goals and our skills to delay instant gratification for our bigger goals and dreams. McGonigal summarizes the point in three different categories of willpower choices:
I will — The ability to do something you must do
“I have to get this report ready for tomorrow. Another sleepless night coming up. Oh well.”
I won’t — The ability to resist temptations
“I won’t order that burger again even though I want it. I ate one yesterday, and now it’s a salad-day.”
I want — The ability to see the bigger picture and your goals
“My motivation is lost, and I keep losing all the competitions. I feel like quitting, but I choose to continue training hard. This probably is just a long bad streak”.
As humans, we use our prefrontal cortex to plan future scenarios. This is one of the unique skills distinguishing us from our mammalian cousins. Tigers won’t use their leisure time by honing better hunting tactics, and no one ever saw a chimp doing pull-ups to pump its climbing muscles to a new level.
In short, we have a few willpower tricks to give us an edge over the lesser beings. Some people are naturally more skilled in using their “rational” or “thinking” mind, but it’s ultimately a skill you can practice.
Some people insist that you have no control over your actions whatsoever, and everything is guided by emotions alone. In other words, there is no free will in making choices. I understand this argumentation, but I still firmly believe we have a lot to say regarding our free actions versus pure emotion-controlled choices.
You might envy some people around you as you see them getting a lot done and achieving things time and again. Maybe you even pity yourself a bit and hope that your sorry ass had even half of the willpower granted to your peers.
Worry not! You probably have much more willpower than you think. You just haven’t learned to use it optimally, and you might have created a story of yourself as a lot weaker than you are. It’s always easier to play the victim’s part, but whoever said life should be easy?
The ways to enhance your willpower listed here are relatively easy to digest and maybe even sound a tad obvious. However, most of the right choices in life are. McGonigal recommends these tactics in her book mentioned above. So do I, according to my own experiences.
Remember that just acknowledging new things won’t make you a decision robot that can always choose right. You still have to contemplate if they fit your unique life situation or agree with them at all. Never buy anything just because somebody is insisting it works.
Test it out yourself and challenge your previous thought patterns.
1. Understand what willpower is and what it’s not
Photo by Justin Ng in Unsplash
It has helped me understand that willpower is not some unique attribute or feature in your brain. It’s merely a description of a complex choice-process we face in every moment.
Many of our daily choices and activities are automatic or nearly automatic, but we still have some control over our actions. The amount of willpower we have equals the level of that control. Some of us manage to control our actions a lot better than the others.
In most of our automatic choices, our rational mind provides a commentary on the overall quality. It might feel that you are currently in control of your actions as the thinking mind is so active, but in reality, the choice has already been made automatically, and you are just justifying it to yourself.
“I can as well buy this chocolate bar. I truly have earned it as it was an awful day at work. I also did my jogging last week.”
Sound familiar? Your calorie-craving and sugar-loving impulses already chose for you, but you just managed to make it sound a tiny bit more deliberate act.
Strong willpower provides tools to catch yourself doing this kind of self-justification. You might avoid buying the sugar-covered sweet as you can explain that it doesn’t contribute to your overall happiness but instead provides a short boost ending up in a crash.
You might have heard of an analogy of willpower as a muscle that tires with use. Roy Baumeister first suggested this way of thinking with his colleagues as they studied people’s mental fatigue levels as the subjects resisted certain temptations and solved puzzles afterward.
This theory of ego depletion suggests that our self-control ability diminishes when we use our thinking mind to make hard decisions such as resisting temptations or doing something mentally tough. We can also train this “willpower-muscle” with exercises such as consciously maintaining a good posture and catching ourselves as we fail to do that.
The ego-depletion theory is easy to understand, and it speaks straight to our intuition:
“I do get tired along the day, and it’s always harder to make good decisions!”.
Common sense dictates that the more our brains fatigue, the harder it is to use them properly and make quality decisions. Also, I’m sure that everyone agrees that no good long term-decisions are made during nighttime.
However, it seems that the case is not that simple, as it usually isn’t. It is still unclear if we can truly speak of ego-depletion as a psychological fact or proven concept in the light of replication-studies and meta-analyses on the subject.
Also, there is no direct way to measure mental fatigue, and laboratory tests hardly resemble real-life situations. Simply put, there are still just too many alternate explanations that we could simplify as large a subject as human decision-making to a single model of thinking.
We don’t need to go deep into a scientific discussion here, and I wouldn’t even be qualified to contribute to the debate meaningfully.
However, for our purpose, I think the biggest issue of the ego-depletion theory is its effects on the larger-scale reader pool who stumble upon it in the more popularized forms of scientific thinking (such as this story).
The way of thinking affects the collective beliefs of our capabilities and the level of our mental strength. The imaginary bar of depletion may be much lower than where our true potential lays. In other words, it is okay to give in to temptation as there is now a story to back up the way we might feel.
We can always find new hard things that we have already done today and give ourselves a free pass as we just are too depleted to perform.
Do you believe that you always give everything you got and your potential to make quality decisions has vanished for a time? Or are you perhaps giving too much head start in the eternal battle of instant gratification vs. self-development?
When it comes to willpower, the legendary performers are equipped with pretty much the same brain that you. They just aren’t restricting themselves with beliefs about their capabilities but instead just get the job done.
I’m sure you have personal experiences of this. You might have read an inspiring autobiography or self-help book and been able to perform and live on a different level of performance just by the newfound motivation. It would be strange to think that you somehow acquired new levels of willpower that then slowly fade away. Instead, you were for a little while living closer to your true potential.
For me, this happens all the time. For example, when I discovered Medium and its logic, I was swallowed by this massive amount of energy to write content and growing my audience. The lazy nights turned to long sessions of focused writing.
Of course, the newfound energy faded after the initial excitement, but it indeed reminded me once more of the vast amounts of energy reserves that are left continuously untouched.
Ultrarunners also know that hidden reserves are waiting for you, even in the darkest of moments.
Remember: Don’t restrict yourself with the belief that your willpower has a limit. It probably has, but it’s much higher than you could ever think of.
2. Sleep enough with a regular schedule
Photo by Alexander Possingham in Unsplash
Sleeping is a strange paradox. It’s the one thing that everybody has to dedicate a significant part of their life, and still, most of us cannot sleep well or enough, even though our bodies and brain give us daily feedback on the quality of the rest.
Sleep itself shouldn’t be too complicated as you already knew how to do it properly before you were born. The problem seems to arise from the modern-day 24/7 -lifestyle and its implications for our ability to rest when we should.
The connection between willpower and adequate sleep is undeniable. When we are sleep-deprived, our prefrontal cortex’s ability to control impulses and emotions decreases significantly, which in its turn leads to us giving in to temptations.
Similarly, our sleep-deprived brains cannot function at full power, which naturally causes us to seek fast stimulants such as caffeine and sugar, which create spikes and cycles that exacerbate the situation.
You perhaps are familiar with the intense craving of that juicy donut combined with a hot-black coffee as you have barely managed to keep your eyes open during the first office hours. That is your brain desperately trying to fuel itself when it’s not functioning at its peak level.
You may think that you are part of the lucky 1% of the population that survives with less sleep because of their genes. The truth is, you probably have just forgotten what it feels like to be fully rested after several nights of quality sleep. It’s hard to realize how handicapped you are when sleep-deprived, but oh boys, the feeling of starting your day when you indeed have slept soundly.
I frequently fall into this trap myself, and each time I barely survive my daily existence after a sleepless night, I promise myself that I’m going to take this seriously from now on. Yet, I soon catch myself still doing something futile on the computer well after my allocated bedtime.
Sometimes it’s ironic to see people wrestling with their problems and trying to solve them with small life hacks, forgetting to put the significant cornerstones in order. Sleep is probably the biggest of these.
Imagine you are preparing for a marathon. You are well prepared: there are plenty of energy gels packed, the new extra cushioned sneakers feel good on your feet, the GPS-watch is fully-loaded, and you have already uploaded several motivational Instagram-feeds.
The only issue is that you have entirely forgotten to practice running!
You probably are going to have a bad experience. The same goes for sleeping. You can try to hack your way up with all kinds of habits and wonder-diets, but the real secret to performance lies in quality rest.
How much sleep is enough then? 7–8 hours of regular sleep with recurrent patterns and good sleep hygiene should be fine enough for most adults. If your schedule allows, a daytime nap is an excellent addition too. Try to go to bed every night at the same time and try to wake up at a specific time.
Improving sleep hygiene refers to measures that will improve your sleep quality and make it easier for you to fall asleep. These include:
No heavy meals before the bedtime
No hard exercise before the bedtime
No alcohol or other substances that harm the quality of sleep before the bedtime
Avoid blue-light screens such as mobile devices before the bedtime
Try to calm yourself and your thoughts before the bedtime
Sleep at a cool temperature
Be sure to invest in a quality mattress that fits your body
Remember: Sleep enough and regularly. The quality of your life will improve dramatically, and so will your ability to self-control.
3. Meditate and learn to breathe
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Whatever kind of self-help literature you are reading these days, you will come across one consensus that everyone agrees on: learn to meditate and make it a habit.
There are many different kinds of practices, but probably the most recommended one is about consciously observing and accepting thoughts and feelings as they come. For example, you direct your full attention to an external or internal object, such as breathing. Sound familiar?
It might also be that you have heard of mindfulness, which refers to the practice of fully immersing ourselves in reality around us by observing and feeling without judgment or contemplation.
The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices have been studied so much that recommending them is firmly based on solid facts.
Regular meditation specifically develops the functioning of the prefrontal cortex of the brain and the ability to detect impulses produced by the deeper layers of the brain and the reactions they cause in us.
So, by meditating, we learn how to catch ourselves when we are doing something automatic or unconscious, driven by our impulses. You can also learn to spot your automatic thought patterns, which were already manipulating you to order the fattiest and unhealthiest burger for lunch.
I have been meditating for over four years every day, and on this basis, I can recommend it basically for everyone. However, do not expect too much from meditation in the beginning. Suddenly, or even due to long training, you do not become a super-human who fully manages his emotions and lives a harmonious and full life moment by moment.
I have a couple of occasions questioned the benefits of the whole thing until I think of the bigger picture. Before I started the practice, my emotional scale and the reactions they caused were much more unpredictable, and I made a lot more decisions on the spur of the moment. I was also continually questioning my choices and lifestyle, even if I had done the “right” things.
Nowadays, I experience emotions as before, but I can identify and name them better and make better decisions. It is also much easier to see when feelings are worth listening to and when the inner voice speaks merely to get me to choose the path of least resistance.
That is why meditation is one of the best weapons when exercising our willpower. Similarly, deep breathing can even be an emergency aid when you’re falling into temptation or are about to skip the thing you really should do. Focusing on breathing, especially exhaling, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping you to calm down and gain control of your thoughts when stress reactions and rapid thought patterns threaten to take over.
Just a minute’s breathing and reflecting on your long-term goals can significantly help you find the willpower you need to make the right decision.
You can start meditation on your own, but your smartphone is packed with good instructions and applications that can get you on your way. I used Headspace for three years and was satisfied with the content. Nowadays, I feel more comfortable doing my routine on my own.
Here is a basic instruction that most gurus recommend for beginners if you feel like starting right now. Why not?
Sit down comfortably, either on the floor or on a chair. The lotus position is optional. Breathe deeply, but naturally. Keep your eyes open. After inhaling a few times and feeling relaxed, close your eyes. Alternatively, you can keep your eyes locked on an external object. Pay attention to your body. How do you feel overall at the moment? What about each body part separately? Just detection is enough. You don’t have to change anything. Shift your attention to your breathing. You can count your breaths if it helps you stay focused. If you find your thoughts have escaped, gently return to breathing. Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you find yourself thinking something else because this is precisely the point of the practice. After about 5–10 minutes, slowly return your attention to the current moment and open your eyes. Of course, you can meditate longer if you feel like it.
Remember: Learn to recognize and name your emotions and impulses. Listen to your inner voice, calmly, and approvingly.
4. Only feel stressed when it’s necessary and help your body relieve stress right
Photo by Keenan Constance in Unsplash
Your willpower is severely allergic to stress. The more stressed you are, the worse decisions you make. Why? External stressors activate your body’s sympathetic nervous system, which in turn activates the body’s response to these potential threats.
The body’s response is called the fight-or-flight response, and the name is quite descriptive. The body loses all unnecessary activity, and the blood is diverted to the large muscles and parts of the brain where quick decision-making and sensory perception are made. The precious energy is not wasted on slow and analytical thinking.
When in stress, rational thinking and the ability to contemplate one’s choices and goals fly out the window. Likewise, many secondary activities, such as digestion or immune defenses, remain in the background as the body optimizes defense responses.
The benefits of stress reactions are most evident when the jungle laws dominate, and all kinds of beasts are plotting to eat you.
However, they have their place also in the modern-day environment. Stress reactions get you to notice a suspicious group in the alley early enough to change the side of the road. Likewise, stress as the deadline approaches helps you focus your resources on the task at hand (though impaired thinking may eat the benefits of enhanced operational capacity).
So, a little stress and constant external stimuli are necessary for our performance, and every one of us sometimes feels stressed for more extended periods. However, it is an entirely different matter to fall into a rhythm of life where you are chronically more stressed than in a calm, balanced state.
The adverse side effects of stress begin to accumulate, and you need more and more artificial boosts, such as sugar or alcohol, to help you feel balanced. Similarly, staring at the television and immersing yourself in the eternal flow of social media feed make you feel better for a while and sometimes may even seem to help with the stress.
In reality, they are merely numbing you but not helping to balance your mental state. At the same time, your power to make meaningful and the right choices for you will be further weakened.
What can we do then? First, you should learn to be aware of the body’s different reactions to external stimuli and name them. Meditation practice helps a lot in this job. In time you will learn to observe, name, and control your body’s feelings through internal dialogue.
You can even go as far as say in your mind or even out loud:
“I feel stressed!”
Identifying the body’s reaction is enough at this point. You have already taken the most significant step and may already feel relaxed.
The point of learning to listen to your responses and inner dialogue is to find the inner voice that can guide you to the things that genuinely make you relax and reactivate your body’s parasympathetic nervous system, the restoring and relaxing state. These things are unique, but the universal thing about them is that they have no adverse side effects like the aforementioned TV- and beer-frenzies.
Typical restorative activities include:
Spending time with friends and family
Walking in nature
Exercising
Reading
Listening to music
Playing an instrument
Any activity you enjoy and want to immerse yourself in.
I know, sometimes getting started feels overwhelming, but the restorative power of active doing is marvelous over passive and numbing methods.
Remember: Stress is a necessary and beneficial part of life, but too much of it is dangerous and weakens our ability to control our impulses. Seek out genuine stress-relieving activities.
5. Exercise and then exercise some more
Photo by Anastese Maragos in Unsplash
At this point, you might already feel a little cheated. All instructions so far have been no-brainers: Sleep enough and avoid stress. More clichés are on the way as we now cover exercise, and you guessed right, the next one will be eating right.
It just happens that your self-control is built on these fundamental pillars of living, and by getting them right, you have already done most of the work. Another question, then, is how to get enough self-control to take over these chunks. Let’s not worry about that just yet.
We all know that we should exercise more, and most have already made the initial investments. I’m sure you manage to find some kind of running shoes in your wardrobe, and perhaps you already have a membership to a local gym.
The problem is, it’s hard to get yourself started, especially if you don’t have much experience in sports. It’s hard to be motivated about something you have no idea of, and the modern exercise-business isn’t helping that much. It’s either just selling you images or byproducts or then starts to resemble religion in some weird manner.
Natural and straightforward exercise forms have been forgotten, mainly because it is difficult to commercialize.
Why should you exercise at all?
The list of health benefits and the benefits of life quality is endless, and we will not go into it further in this story. Regarding self-control, exercise has stimulating effects. Although it is difficult to start a training session and the energy levels seem to be at their lowest, after completing the exercise-session, the feeling is often much more energetic or at least more positive than when starting.
Of course, our body has used energy for exercise, but at the same time, it has caused your blood to circulate, oxygen to flow more efficiently to your brain, and has triggered a flow of several useful neurotransmitters. The most notable of these is endorphin, which produces feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. Why would we experience such a peak if physical exercise would not bring significant benefits to the body?
In some studies, regular aerobic exercise has been considered to be an even more effective treatment for depression than medication. Similarly, regular exercise positively correlates with school achievement, learning, general intelligence, and many cognitive functions. In other words, it develops precisely the part of our brain that we also use for self-control.
It’s no coincidence that once you get your workout routine going on and the exercise becomes a regular and essential part of your life, it’s always more comfortable and easier to start and perform well.
An essential but underestimated willpower benefit in exercise is that it is perfectly okay to reward yourself for a good workout. A cold beer after a long jog is always more pleasurable than just settling for that frosty alone. The secret ingredient is that you have deserved the beer.
People who can’t indulge in these small rewards have forgotten that life is not about perfection at every decision you make. Besides, they have secret vices that are much more dissolute than the cold beverage.
How much exercise should you do then?
Research suggests that daily long-lasting and aerobic exercise is most beneficial for cognitive processes, but of course, we also want other benefits from training.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to look muscular and slim as long as you do this by natural and simple means. You should practice every day but vary the nature of the activities. Exercise should include at least endurance training, muscle training, and supportive exercises such as stretching and core training.
You can already get to excellent shape just by walking and running, doing push-ups, and basic ab-exercises. In the evenings, you stretch for 20 minutes and add some massaging now and then. Forget about expensive courses or personal trainers. You can get so far by just cheap and straightforward measures.
Remember: Exercise develops your cognitive abilities and provides extra energy for the day. Exercise every day, even a little.
6. Eat healthily
Photo by Jasmin Schreiber in Unsplash
In addition to sleeping, eating is one thing we do from the cradle to the grave, yet it seems challenging to many. If you’re into social media, you can’t avoid the impression that there are as many right ways to eat as there are self-made nutrition experts.
In a way, diets and beliefs about food have replaced religious life in this golden age of secularization and homespun gurus.
In the end, nutrition comes down to the fact that cells in your body need specific nutritional components to regenerate and fulfill their functions. Malnutrition causes particular symptoms, and your body begins to compensate for the deficiency with some substitute function.
It’s almost macabre to think that people who have potentially unlimited opportunities to eat whatever they choose to decide to cause themselves deficiencies by eating unilaterally or eating nutrition-poor food. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people lack constant satisfactory nutritional levels for not getting enough to eat.
It is no conspiracy invented by any expert, food industry lobbyist, health authority, or even Netflix document that a person needs the following components from their diet for a healthy and balanced living:
Carbohydrates
Fibers
Proteins
Essential fatty acids
Certain minerals
Vitamins
Water
Your cells need all of these, and the list is easy to find on Wikipedia or high-school biology materials. It is also reasonably easy to stumble into the knowledge that carbohydrates in sweets are more harmful to the body than those found in whole-grain bread or that bacon fat doesn’t have the same health benefits as the fat in nuts.
Most of us instinctively understand what is right for our body, but the amount of choice and the constant lobbying of the food industry have messed up our heads. Most of the time, we choose the path of the least resistance by choosing the most-processed and instantly gratifying delicacies.
Our biological tendency to gorge on calories when they are available does not help in the battle either. We also need justifications for our choices, and in this, the aggressively marketed super diets help a lot. There are so many diets out there today that everyone can choose the one that suits their bad habits and then proclaim a great feeling and newfound levels of overall energy. Simultaneously, the precise rules of the diet clarify the chaos of endless choices.
Unfortunately, the advice given in most wonder-diets these days result in some imbalance in your body’s nutritional intake leading to a wide variety of negative symptoms. These might not show up immediately as your body is excellent at adapting to almost anything you put into it, but there is a limit to it. Are you genuinely willing to let a single self-taught “expert” make all the essential dietary choices for you?
Who then to trust in the matter?
No, don’t listen to yourself or even me. We both are unqualified to judge these self-proclaimed gurus (Given that you don’t happen to be a nutrition researcher). Instead, rely on information produced and scientifically pruned by numerous demographic studies. This information is far from complete and evolves as our knowledge grows, as is the case in sound science.
The same way Wikipedia’s texts become ever more reliable and comprehensive, nutrition research will find ever more robust evidence of the big picture of optimal nutrition for long and healthy living. This information is easily accessible by consulting the official dietary recommendations of any developed nation. Sure, you can state them as manipulative fake-news, but strangely they have a lot in common regardless of the place. For example:
Eat lots of vegetables, fruits, and greens
Try to consume a lot of fibers and complex carbohydrates such as those in whole grain products
Eat fish regularly
Avoid sugar and saturated fats
Avoid highly processed foods
Watch your sodium intake
Eat at regular intervals
Avoid eating red meat
Remember: Eating should not resemble a religion with strict rules and beliefs, but still, you should take the matter seriously. Seek up-to-date information from the health-authorities’ recommendations or independent sources. It’s also okay to treat yourself to something unhealthy every now and then.
7. Ditch unnecessary attention-thieves
Photo by Eddy Billard in Unsplash
You may have kept your eyes open enough to realize that we are deeply addicted to technology and the fragmented reality it provides. We divide our attention and concentration among the countless sweeps and notifications.
It is not at all wrong to talk about an addiction that affects entire nations. For example, Americans check their phone 50 times a day and spend four hours a day on the device. And this is just the time spent on a cellphone. Let’s include TV and video games, and we get some disturbing numbers.
We would be terrified if someone offered illegal drugs to calm down our children, but no one seems to care that they become smartphone addicts from the early years. Stupid comparison?
Not at all.
In both, the mechanism, effects, and withdrawal symptoms are very similar, although chemistry is somewhat different. The side effects of excessive cell phone use are just beginning to dawn on us, but the list is long, ranging from sleep disorders to persistent concentration problems.
And yes, 4 hours a day is too much. Here we are particularly interested in the negative impact of cell phone addiction on our ability to make rational decisions and resist the endless temptations.
Continuously responding to your smartphone’s requirements is a sure way to consume your brain’s little resources for more involved decision-making. As we went through earlier, this rational and informed decision-making part of the brain can only control your automated actions to a certain point, and it really can’t handle very many similar things at once.
Every notification is fooling your brain into thinking that something important and worth the reaction is happening. A dopamine-rush in your brain drives you to action, and you get a momentary pleasure spike as you react to the stimuli.
As with other dopamine-based addictive substances, continued use of the smartphone increases the tolerance. You need more and more while the content itself feels emptier and emptier.
Of course, smartphones aren’t the only distractions in market-driven societies where marketers know exactly how to hook people to buy, use, or order their products and services. The tired and indifferent rational and thoughtful part of the brain is their best friend and at the same time, the worst enemy of your goals.
How to navigate in the midst of all this?
Simply by making your life more boring and using your time more just to be and observe the environment. You don’t need to react to everything or be part of everything. Leave the phone in your pocket in public transport and read an actual book instead. Go for a walk in the forest.
Just anything that makes you concentrate on a single thing without having to shift your attention to something new time and again. In the beginning, the FOMO-effect (fear of missing out) and the withdrawal symptoms get you running back to your phone in no time, but don’t give up!
Mindfulness and the ability to concentrate on simple stuff are the straightest paths to accomplish peace and harmony in all this reactivity.
If you are serious about owning your life more again by using your phone less, Catherine Price’s book How to Break Up With Your Phone is a great first step.
Remember: Live your life in actual reality instead of fragmenting it into smaller imaginary bits. Learn to enjoy the real beauty around you, such as living people and nature.
The takeaways (at last)
How does this story help you or make you a better version of yourself?
Probably not in any direct way. We tend to read something inspiring and immediately imagine that our lives have changed somehow or that we now have the tools to make lasting changes. However, we both know that just reading some obvious life statements does not mean that they are the new standard.
Also, a lot of the things listed here are already familiar to you. As a toddler, you already learned how essential it is to eat all the vegetables on the plate, and everyone knows that, on average, a person needs 7–8 hours of quality sleep.
However, I dare to hope that a story like this has two real reasons why it’s worth a small amount of your valuable time.
The first is the little spike in motivation you get when you read something you would like to be a part of your life, but you may have forgotten or just haven’t given it any real thought lately. This additional motivation can help you find direction if you are being led astray from the chosen path.
The other one is to remind you that meaningful life is not about hacking your life, forming all kinds of habits, manipulating or analyzing people, or any other superficial thing that is easy to sell. Merely concentrating on the basic stuff can do wonders.
Also, constantly trying to find meaning in everything and trying to solve your problems by always changing things will not lead far. The most significant part of personal development and willpower is about the core pillars of life. Get them right first, and see how easy it is to make better decisions after that. You will also notice that you don’t anymore have to second-guess every choice you make.
Remember not to buy any of this without chewing it a little. Maybe add some of it to your knowledge and challenge it as much as you can. You are fed stories continuously about how life and you should be, but in the end, it is your responsibility to form the complete picture that serves both you and your community.
Thank you for reading! | https://medium.com/@pauli-raivio/how-to-make-better-decisions-and-develop-your-self-control-afc14e70a36 | ['Pauli Raivio'] | 2020-12-27 14:42:52.032000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Motivation', 'Decision Making', 'Self Improvement', 'Willpower'] |
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 2021 — TRICKS ADVISORY | Reconsider reality with Photoshop. A large number of planners, photographic artists, and craftsmen around the globe use Photoshop to make the unthinkable conceivable. From banners to bundling, fundamental pennants to lovely sites, life-changing logos to eye-getting symbols, Photoshop keeps the imaginative world moving. With instinctive instruments and simple to-utilize formats, even fledglings can make something astonishing. The imaginative world sudden spikes in demand for Photoshop. A huge number of creators, picture takers, and specialists around the planet use Photoshop to make the incomprehensible conceivable.
- Designed for anybody to plan anything.
From banners to bundling, fundamental pennants to lovely sites, extraordinary logos to eye-getting symbols, Photoshop keeps the imaginative world moving. With instinctive apparatuses and simple to-utilize layouts, even novices can make something astonishing.
- Not simply photograph taking. Amazin g.
Regardless of whether you’re searching for ordinary alters or all out changes, our visual communication programming offers a total arrangement of expert photography apparatuses to transform your previews into show-stoppers. Change, crop, eliminate protests, repair, and fix old photographs. Play with shading, impacts, and more to transform the customary into something uncommon.
- Power to the paintbrush.
Draw and paint whatever you think up with instruments planned particularly for artists. Paint in completely balanced examples. Get cleaned looks with stroke smoothing. What’s more, make with pencils, pens, markers, and brushes that vibe genuine — including more than 1,000 from commended artist Kyle T. Webster.
Paint in ideal balance with another mode that allows you to characterize your tomahawks and look over preset examples like roundabout, outspread, twisting, and mandala.
- New Content-Aware Fill insight
A committed workspace allows you to choose the specific pixels to use for fills, and Adobe Sensei makes it simple to pivot, scale, and mirror them.
Make shape or text casings to use as placeholders on your material. Intuitive pictures to fill the casings and they’ll scale to fit.
Installation/Activation Instruction is Included in the envelope! | https://medium.com/@saadisheikh559/adobe-photoshop-2021-tricks-advisory-6951c9de0c72 | ['Md. Shakil Ahamed'] | 2021-03-04 09:14:14.362000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Software', 'Adobe Photoshop', 'Blogger Template', 'Blogger'] |
Connected Agriculture Market 2021: Explore Top Factors that Will Boost the Global Market by 2026 | Connected Agriculture Market 2021: Explore Top Factors that Will Boost the Global Market by 2026 shubham k Dec 22, 2021·4 min read
Connected Agriculture Market 2021–2026
Straits Research has recently added a new report to its vast depository titled Global Connected Agriculture Market. The report studies vital factors about the Global Connected Agriculture Market that are essential to be understood by existing as well as new market players. The report highlights the essential elements such as market share, profitability, production, sales, manufacturing, advertising, technological advancements, key market players, regional segmentation, and many more crucial aspects related to the Global Connected Agriculture Market.
Connected Agriculture Market
The Major Players Covered in this Report:
Some of the notable players in the connected agriculture market are IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, AT&T, Deere & Company, Oracle Corporation, Iteris, Trimble, Ag, SAP SE, Accenture, Cisco Systems Inc., Decisive Farming, Gamaya, and SatSure.
Get a Sample PDF Report: Connected Agriculture Market
Segmentation is as follows: -
By Component,
Solutions , Platforms , Services
By Application,
Pre-Production Planning and Management , In-Production Planning and Management , Post-Production Planning and Management
The report specifically highlights the Connected Agriculture market share, company profiles, regional outlook, product portfolio, a record of the recent developments, strategic analysis, key players in the market, sales, distribution chain, manufacturing, production, new market entrants as well as existing market players, advertising, brand value, popular products, demand and supply, and other important factors related to the Connected Agriculture market to help the new entrants understand the market scenario better.
Important factors like strategic developments, government regulations, Connected Agriculture market analysis, end-users, target audience, distribution network, branding, product portfolio, market share, threats and barriers, growth drivers, latest trends in the industry are also mentioned.
Regional Analysis For Connected Agriculture Market:
North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico)
Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, and Italy)
Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia)
South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.)
Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa)
In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of the Connected Agriculture are as follows:
• History Year: 2014–2019
• Base Year: 2019
• Estimated Year: 2020
• Forecast Year 2021 to 2026
The main steps in the investigation process are:
1) The first step in market research is to obtain raw market information from industry experts and direct research analysts using primary and secondary sources.
2) Extracts raw data from these sources to extract valuable insights and analyze them for research purposes.
3) Classify the knowledge gained by qualitative and quantitative data and place it accordingly to make final conclusions.
Key Questions Answered in the Report:
• What is the current scenario of the Global Connected Agriculture Market? How is the market going to prosper throughout the next 6 years?
• What is the impact of COVID-19 on the market? What are the major steps undertaken by the leading players to mitigate the damage caused by COVID-19?
• What are the emerging technologies that are going to profit the market?
• What are the historical and the current sizes of the Global Connected Agriculture Market?
• Which segments are the fastest growing and the largest in the market? What is their market potential?
• What are the driving factors contributing to the market growth during the short, medium, and long term? What are the major challenges and shortcomings that the market is likely to face? How can the market solve the challenges?
• What are the lucrative opportunities for the key players in the Connected Agriculture market?
• Which are the key geographies from the investment perspective?
• What are the major strategies adopted by the leading players to expand their market shares?
• Who are the distributors, traders, and dealers of the Global Connected Agriculture market?
• What are sales, revenue, and price analysis by types and applications of the market?
For More Details On this Report: Connected Agriculture Market
About Us:
Regardless of whether you’re looking at business sectors in the next town or crosswise over continents, we understand the significance of being acquainted with what customers purchase. We overcome the issues of our customers by recognizing and deciphering just the target group, while simultaneously generating leads with the highest precision. We seek to collaborate with our customers to deliver a broad spectrum of results through a blend of market and business research approaches. This approach of using various research and analysis strategies enables us to determine greater insights by eliminating the research costs. Moreover, we’re continually developing, not only with regards to where we measure, or who we measure but in how our visions can enable you to drive cost-effective growth.
Contact Us:
Company Name: Straits Research
Email: [email protected]
Phone:
+1 646 480 7505 (U.S.)
+91 8087085354 (India)
+44 208 068 9665 (U.K.) | https://medium.com/@shubhamk.straitsresearch/connected-agriculture-market-2021-explore-top-factors-that-will-boost-the-global-market-by-2026-cba6ed0a696f | ['Shubham K'] | 2021-12-22 05:28:28.741000+00:00 | ['Agriculture', 'Market Research Reports', 'Agritech', 'Agriculture Technology', 'Connected Agriculture'] |
A Beginner’s Geography Lesson | Image by Pascal Laurent from Pixabay
To further understand the world of power and narrative, we’re going to have to cover something that at first seems tangential: basic geography.
Geography seems obvious, like water to fish. It surrounds us always; it just is. We trace our lines of path and fate along its contours, and at times we don’t even notice how its contours shape us in turn. But the deep, slow-moving forms of the earth have dramatically molded the palm lines of history.
You’ve seen maps of the world before. There are hundreds, each charted from its own logic. No one map is “correct” or “incorrect”; rather, they are all different narratives of what the world looks like. Some focus on population; others on relative size of the continents; some highlight climate and ecology; others delineate the boundaries of empire. Each one tells its own story, and each story implicitly shapes the way we think about our universe.
Today, we’re going to look at one specific element of basic geography: the nation. How many nations are there, how are they scattered across this mess of continents we see on nearly every modern map, and what do the boundaries signify?
It might seem like a simple question to answer. There must be a concrete, and finite, number of nations. There is a finite allocation of land. But there’s a problem: not everyone agrees on how that land should be delineated, and into how many parts.
So, who gets to make the “official” list?
A Note on the United Nations
The most commonly used list of world states was defined by the United Nations. The United Nations recognizes 195 countries, 193 of which are members of the UN, and two of which are “observer states” — The Vatican and Palestine.
The UN is the world’s most complete organization for global governance. It was formed as the successor to the League of Nations in 1945, with the drafting of the UN Charter. The UN consists of six “principal organs”: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council. Underneath or related to these organs are a host of subsidiary offices, including the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and hundreds of others (2). Opinions differ as to the extent of the UN’s power and role as a true governance system; some argue that it holds little real authority because it lacks most of the functions of any actual government, and at any rate, it does not functionally override the sovereignty of its member states. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is the “One World Government” conspiracy theory that claims the UN was formed precisely to override national sovereignty, and to subject the world to a single inescapable authority. There is a whole host of opinions in between. Later, I will discuss these ideas more in their own article. But for now, suffice it to say that, whether or not it can truly be considered a government institution in possession of authentic coercive power, the UN undoubtedly [1] wields appreciable global influence, and, [2] its member states comprise most of the inhabited surface area of the globe. For these reasons, I’ve chosen to use their geopolitical list.
But it’s important to keep in mind that this division is only one possible way in which we can see the world, and it reflects only one possible distribution of power. For maps are more than simply mirrors of the world as it exists; on the contrary, as cartographer and designer Denis Wood points out, they are actually propositions of a desired narrative. In their hearts, maps are an attempt not to describe reality as it is, but to insist that a specific version of reality is true. Maps will always leave out pieces of the truth, emphasize others, and distort others still. And whoever gets to decide on which parts are left out, emphasized or distorted wins power over the narrative of what reality looks like. That can be sizable power, indeed.
Wood argues that, in fact, the explosion of mapmaking practices from the 1500s onward helped to build and consolidate the modern nationstate and its power. We’ve already discussed how the first empires exercised only weak, loose control over their territories; but according to scholars like Michael Mann, it was not until very recently in history that states gained the tight control over their empires that we recognize today (3). In Russia, Japan, the early United States, China, France, Thailand and elsewhere, maps played a pivotal role in the processes of state-building, uniting disparate groups of people under a sense of common identity and helping rulers visualize the vast areas that “belonged” to them (4). Wood writes:
“From their inception it had been essential that states appear as facts of nature, as real enduring things, things like mountains; and at all costs to obscure their recent origins in violence and their tenuous holds on tomorrow. And maps were able to grant this precisely because maps too had been constructed as facts of nature: ‘We no more than show what exists,’ said the maps […] But then, this is what maps do, affirm the existence of the things on them. ‘This is here,’ maps say, ‘and that is there,’ as they do so simultaneously affirming the precedent existence of whatever is in question (the this, the state) and its location (the there, its borders).”
He’s not alone in this sentiment. Even the British geographer J. B. Harley observed, “To catalog the world is to appropriate it”. (5) Most cartography throughout history was funded and monopolized by builders of empire. And it makes sense, according to Wood’s logic. The king’s desired narrative is that he owns an expanse of territory. So why not draw it that way on the map? If he commissions such a sketch, the narrative becomes real. Not only does he see the shape of the landscape — the better to plan its defense — but it is labeled under his domain. His subjects, his military, his merchants and adventurers, all see the world through his eyes. But the map is just a mirror of what is! It’s hard to argue with the fact that its contours seem real. After all, you can follow them somewhere, can’t you?
The map was an instrument of state power, and as such it needed to be protected. Some empires, like the Japanese and the Portuguese, prohibited the transfer of maps or cartographic instruments to other states. The Spanish kept their trade routes secret and demanded the return of loaned charts when a ship’s captain returned from a voyage. The Soviet Union distorted its own maps in the hopes of confusing its enemies, altering coastlines, omitting scales of distance, and providing incorrect longitudes and latitudes.
But just as serious cartography bloomed first in the service of empire, maps can also be (and have been) used to conjure up fantasies, to rebel against existing systems and narratives, or to chart counter-realities. This map, for example, attempts to visualize the world from the perspective of indigenous peoples. These peoples are almost always invisible on any map, even though they were usually there before the nations whose borders chop up the globe like steak cuts on a cow’s body. In many cases, these borders were drawn within the last century. As a result, many of the indigenous people, who have sometimes inhabited the land for thousands of years, sprawl irreverently across frontiers. This can become a problem, leading to immigration and migration issues, the loss of citizenship and social benefits as borders are drawn and redrawn, and other hardships such as loss of access to sacred sites and resources. A map such as this one changes the narrative: it describes a different world, one in which sovereignty over land belongs to first peoples, rather than modern governments. It also describes territory as more fluid, since most of these people don’t use hard boundaries to mark the limits of their habitat. It shows us a different perspective, a different story, a different reality.
It’s important to understand the world from the perspective of those who make the rules — such as nationstates, and international governance organizations like the UN. These are the groups that have the lion’s share of the influence, that forge policies, that control the dominant conversation. But equally important is the ability to imagine other alternatives. What happens when we try to look at the map from a different perspective? What untold stories lurk in between the arbitrary lines and borders? The map tiles I’ve gathered here show the world as the UN sees it. But as you look them over, I encourage you to also try to see something different. Remember that this is not reality, it’s a story. And there is more than one possible story.
About the Map Tiles
The following visual aid shows the division of the world into 195 nationstates based on the way the UN has chosen to carve up the map. I decided to arrange the map tiles in alphabetical order by country name (in English). They are subcategorized by world region, and each region is presented in the historical order in which humans populated it. The UN observer states are listed separately at the end.
Why did I arrange them this way?
I wanted to help facilitate learning through mnemonics. By listing regions in the order that humans populated them, I hope to facilitate a rough visualization of historical human migration. I hope this will help you imagine the stories of the first humans as they discovered new landscapes and adventures, forging a history that has long since been erased. There is a storytelling mnemonic here. By grouping countries by region, I placed the world’s nations in bite-sized boxes — which will hopefully allow you to study and remember them a few at a time. This is a chunking mnemonic. By listing them in alphabetical order instead of by geographical location, I presented them in a way that you are unaccustomed to seeing them, thereby encouraging a fresh perspective. This is an emphasizing mnemonic, designed to make each country stand out as unique in your memory.
Learning Exercises
I encourage you to come back to this article a few times, to study these map tiles, and while you’re looking at them: to really think about what those lines on the page mean. Why does a country have the shape it has? Which other countries border it? What history might it have? Who lives there? What are its current politics? What resources can be found there? What does it export to your country? Do you know anyone from there? Which empires have occupied it? What is unique about its culture?…And so on. Try to do this for as many countries as you can, to help you develop an understanding of some of the less-well-known(to you) places, until they become more than a vague name, or perhaps a word you occasionally hear in the news. Use this as an educational resource. Print it out if you want to. Save the images by themselves and pin them to your wall, a few at a time, until you’ve cycled through all of them. Just because we all have Google Maps at our fingertips these days doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still take it upon ourselves to get intimately acquainted with the world map. Our world has been globalized, and there are implications. We should really take some time to get to know the whole wheel that spins our lives around.
If I could recommend a companion book for these exercises, it might be Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics.
Enjoy. Next time, we’ll be talking about the empires that have filled (and overspilled) these global lines throughout history, as we look deeper into the concept of “empire”, and what it truly means. | https://medium.com/power-lines/a-beginners-geography-lesson-633b82ff3b85 | ['Haley Kynefin'] | 2019-10-17 11:34:16.711000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Education', 'History', 'Geography', 'Maps'] |
Six Principles for Designing Any Chart | In August 2017, a group of passionate designers, researchers, and engineers at Google came together to create a comprehensive set of data visualization guidelines — covering everything from color, shape, typography, iconography, interaction, and motion. The success of this collaboration sparked the formation of Google’s first fully dedicated Data Visualization team, which kicked off in May 2018.
Over the last year, we’ve continued to work on understanding the needs, requirements, and desires shaping how people visualize and interact with information. Now, we want to share our insights with creators everywhere. We’ve launched detailed public guidelines for creating your own data visualizations, and distilled our top principles and considerations. Below, six strategies for designing any chart. | https://medium.com/google-design/redefining-data-visualization-at-google-9bdcf2e447c6 | ['Manuel Lima'] | 2019-06-27 21:38:22.261000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Data Visualization', 'UX', 'Material Design'] |
Excluding Dart code from the release compiled executable | Every big project can have its flavors, its customizations, for different cases, clients, running environments, etc. Whenever we want to tweak some features, themes, graphics, we are pushed to evaluate conditions, no matter how elegant they can be. But what happens when we exclude those features in our Dart program? This question came to me when, due to security reasons for the Flutter app we are developing at work, the following question was asked to me: will development environments URLs be compiled anyway in the executable, even if they are not used?
If Dart had something like C/C++ preprocessor directives, I would have said a straight “yeah, sure”.
But no, Dart hasn’t stuff like that, nope. But it has something cool, which is the so called Tree Shaking, which can be described as the process of eliminating code that will never be executed, resulting in lighter executables.
Tree shaking in action. Source: https://blog.mgechev.com/images/ng2-build/tree-shaking.gif
So we know that Dart uses Tree Shaking to eliminate unused code. But we use it. Sometimes. Sometimes not. This means that if sometimes we are told to use it we will, some times we don’t. As far as the Dart analyzer is concerned, we always might use that code.
Enough talk, some practical example!
At first, we might think of something like this:
This will exclude the value feature2 from the list and will execute the statement at line 14, but the everything will be compiled anyway.
We can have evidence of this by compiling this code using dart2native and opening its output with some Hex editor, I’m using HexFiend on MacOS:
Or if we don’t feel like using an editor just for this, we can use the good old grep command:
This is because final has a meaning of single assignment, hence enable will be assigned only once, and will never changed again. But it all happens at runtime, and for this reason the compiler won’t exclude the code.
But we can do this instead:
We are now using the const keyword. This will make the Dart compiler sure that our dearly featureIsEnabled is false and always will be. This is not a one time assignment, this is something carved in the stone, that will go under the process of canonicalization.
Basically, when something is canonicalized the compiler says “well, this thing is this. It won’t be otherwise. No need to determine it at runtime” this is why using const for variables and especially constructors is a good optimization, they are “executed” at compile time and the value will be ready without undergoing to the whole construction process.
The behavior of the code above is granted at compile time, and this means that feature2 will never be added to the list and line 12 will never be executed. And if it’s not executed, the Tree Shaking will cause that statement to be excluded from compilation, resulting in an effective exclusion of code, which is what we were looking for in the first place.
Using grep again, we won’t get any matches this time:
Note how this behavior applies to many cases in which conditions are used, collection if and ternary operators as well!
Resources
You can check here if you want know more about how Tree Shaking behaves in a Flutter application. You can always do some tests decompiling the app (like I did since I was excluding values and not methods, and wanted to double check).
Regarding the final vs const concept you can, instead, read more here.
Last, but not least, here’s my original question on StackOverflow which helped me in the process of doing this and writing this article.
Hope you enjoyed this article and that it might have been of help for people who had similar needs.
Greetings!
Antonello | https://medium.com/flutter-community/excluding-dart-code-from-the-release-compiled-executable-7af8c18cd241 | ['Antonello Galipò'] | 2020-03-31 23:50:07.049000+00:00 | ['Dartlang', 'Dart', 'Flutter'] |
How not to visualize Coronavirus data | How not to visualize Coronavirus data
The following map was published today on the official Coronavirus site of the Hungarian government.
Map showing “Affected municipalities and age distribution of infected people”. Source.
The map shows all municipalities in Hungary. As the note on the bottom explains, municipalities that had at least one (known) Coronavirus infection since March are shown in red, the ones with no infection yet are shown in green.
Putting aside the fact that the map has no information whatsoever regarding the “age distribution of infected people”, this is still a terrible map.
Using red and green as colors to show information is bad for accessibility: people with red-green color blindness cannot distinguish these colors. There is no good reason to use dots for each municipality (that even overlap each other) instead of a choropleth map, where the geographical area of each municipality would be colored based on some metric. This binary metric does not really offer any insight: what do we learn from the fact that there was at least one infected person in a town? Instead, the metric we should use is the number of cases per 100000 inhabitants as this would tell us how bad the situation really is in a given location.
Choropleth map of Hungary showing population density on the district level. CC-BY-SA 4.0 by Klarigi. The Hungarian government does not release detailed Coronavirus data, therefore I can only add an illustrative map here instead of one showing real data.
In addition to these problems, in my opinion, posting a static image instead of an interactive map on a government website in such a situation is inexcusable. One can use Leaflet or D3.js to create whatever interactive map they want, or, if they do not have that expertise in the team, they can just create interactive maps with free online tools, such as DataWrapper.de.
The Atlo team, a group of data journalists maintains a much better dashboard than this simple map by keeping track of the government’s daily announcements. However, since this is still just a few data points, the highest granularity available there is still on the county level. A government does not need a group of volunteers to do its job though. For example, the Dutch government has a detailed, interactive (and user friendly) Coronavirus dashboard that is updated daily. | https://medium.com/@andrashann/how-not-to-visualize-coronavirus-data-b5e9c9fef7cd | ['András Hann'] | 2020-11-18 17:42:17.303000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Maps', 'Covid 19'] |
Creating a standing LED light with Home Assistant and NodeMCU — Part 3 | In the previous parts we created the entire light. Now all that’s left is group to all the lights together and use an Ikea remote control to turn them on/off.
This part assumes you have a basic understanding of Home Assistant, Node-RED and Zigbee. If you haven’t used Node-RED before, here is a good getting started guide.
For Zigbee, if you haven’t set it up yet, follow the steps on the HA website.
In terminal on your Hassio device (I’m using a Raspberry Pi 3B+), you can use the following command to detect your Zigbee stick (as you will need its path in the steps). Look at the list to find you radio type.
ls -l /dev/ttyU*
The stick I’m using is HUSBZB-1.
Grouping the lights
This step is very straightforward, grouping is already a part of Home Assistant. So go ahead to the file editor of your choice (I use this one).
If you don’t already have a lights.yaml file, create one in the same directory of your configuration.yaml file.
Open configuration.yaml and add the following line (if you haven’t already).
light: !include lights.yaml
In lights.yaml paste the following
- platform: group
name: Standing lights
entities:
- light.led_standing_light_1
- light.led_standing_light_2
- light.led_standing_light_3
- light.led_standing_light_4
Replace the entities your LEDs.
Go to Configuration > Server Controls. Press the Check configuration button to make sure everything is set up correctly. At the bottom of the page, restart Home Assistant to make sure everything is loaded properly after rebooting.
Pairing the Ikea remote
The remote I’m using is the round 5 button one.
© Ikea
If you have used the Ikea Tradfri Gateway before then you probably already know how to pair devices. First off, if you have used the remote before make sure to remove it from the gateway using the Ikea app. Open the back of the button to reveal the battery and a button inside.
In Home Assistant go to Configuration > Zigbee Home Automation > Add Devices. It will now start searching for new devices. Hold the button no further than 2cm away from the Zigbee stick. Now press the button inside the remote 4 times. Wait a bit and you should see logs coming through in Home Assistant. After a few seconds a popup will ask you to name the device, you’re done pairing!
Using the remote in Node-RED
Head over to Node-RED. The first thing we want is to be able to listen for Zigbee events. Create a new workflow and add an events: all node.
Set the event type to:
zha_event
Or import the following (remember to fix your Server)
[{"id":"7c05f341.3b617c","type":"server-events","z":"b16c9e0.0dfa16","name":"","server":"edecb673.6d66a8","event_type":"zha_event","exposeToHomeAssistant":false,"haConfig":[{"property":"name","value":""},{"property":"icon","value":""}],"x":130,"y":100,"wires":[["1e22dac1.7ed685"]]},{"id":"edecb673.6d66a8","type":"server","z":"","name":"Home Assistant"}]
Now link a debug node to the output of that node. Set the debug node’s Output to ‘msg.payload.event’. Publish the workflow.
Wait for the event node to say ‘connected’, then press Ikea button.
Look at the debug messages. You will find the device_ieee and then command there. The device_ieee is the unique identifier of your button. This way you can split the flow depending on what remote control was used, if you are using multiple remote controls. With command you can detect the button that was pressed.
Below you can find a screenshot of a simplified version of how I set it up (to make it more understandable).
I have created a gist here, so you can import this flow as well.
You will need to change the lights and properties of course. But this way you get an idea of how I did it. Take this as an example and apply it to your setup.
And with this, we are finished! I hope you enjoyed created this standing light, and maybe learned something new.
The end result should look something like this | https://medium.com/@vixez/creating-a-standing-led-light-with-home-assistant-and-nodemcu-part-3-2a866f2d4260 | ['Glenn Ruysschaert'] | 2020-05-15 06:35:03.649000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Home Automation', 'Home Assistant', 'Node Red', 'Led'] |
Review Spider-Man: No Way Home (Spoiler Alert!) | If you haven’t watched the movie, better to skip the whole article. Read it at your own risk if you still decide to read it.
Most of us would be disappointed with Tobey’s Spider-Man 3, dislike Andrew’s Peter Parker, and disappointed about Tom’s portrayal as both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. But No Way Home makes all of your negative opinions disappear.
No Way Home is surprisingly amazing! Despite the plot and the concept being ‘basic’, MCU (and Sony) did a great job for it. Some reviews said that it’s has a huge chance to fail, but thankfully it doesn’t happen. So far, it’s the best live-action movie of Spider-Man.
Almost everything on the trailer is present in the film. Lizard, Sandman, Electro, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and of course Tobey and Andrew finally showed up in No Way Home. So there is no need to introduce a new character that we can be more focused on the plot. Even all of the actors remain the same!
It could be better if the trailer were made like Endgame that makes the audience clueless before watching the film. NWH’s trailer reveals too much to be honest.
The film starts directly after the event of Far From Home where Spider-Man’s identity is revealed. Instantly, Peter’s life changed so dramatically after everyone believe what Mysterio said that Spider-Man is a criminal. After Peter asks for help from Doctor Strange to resolve everything, it just makes it worse that they need to fix it together.
It can be said that the ‘introduction’ of every villain runs smoothly. At the first, they were just confused because they realized that they’re in the wrong universe and timeline. Even though they knew Peter Parker and Spider-Man, but they realized it’s a different Peter and Spidey.
Sandman knew that Otto was drowned. Meanwhile, Otto thought Norman is a ghost because he’s stabbed to death before. They don’t know about Curt Connors and Max Dillon and vice versa.
Willem Dafoe reprising his role as Green Goblin is perfectly awesome! He can be terrifying both in Original Spider-Man and also in NWH. Don’t forget that how cool Alfred Molina comeback as Doc Ock. Both of his personality and appearance resemble in Spider-Man 2, thanks to the de-aging effect.
Obviously, it’s Tom’s movie but Andrew also stole the spotlight due to his performance. It’s heart-warming when we see Andrew save MJ from falling, his reaction was speechless since he couldn’t do the same with Gwen before. Also seeing Tobey back gave so much nostalgia that can make adults looks like excited kids.
Seeing back this scene won’t be the same after watching No Way Home. (Source: Gwen’s Fall Scene)
So far, MCU’s Spider-Man is the best one in terms of character development. Peter Parker was introduced as a naïve and “helpless” teenager and ended with a grown-up independent adult after he lost all of his privileges in a tough way. He’s started with Stark’s Hi-Tech, got mentored, has a family and friends that genuinely take care of him, now it’s all gone.
The largest node of Peter’s character development is when he asks Doctor Strange to make everyone forget about him. He’s sacrificing such a huge thing to fix his own mistakes.
No Way Home is flawless in every aspect. It’s perfectly closing for the “Home” trilogy, gave Andrew a redemption, reunion with Tobey, introduce the concept of the multiverse, and elegant fan-services. | https://medium.com/@mprabumutawakkil/review-spider-man-no-way-home-spoiler-alert-59fd56b05dab | ['Muhammad Prabu Mutawakkil'] | 2021-12-24 03:18:20.820000+00:00 | ['Spider Man No Way Home', 'Marvel', 'Spider Man'] |
Getting Started with Brownie: Part 1 | Getting Started with Brownie: Part 1
Are you interested in buidling on Ethereum using Python? Heard good things about Brownie and want to try it out, but you’re not sure where to start?
Whether you’re just getting into programming, or you’re a curious JavaScript dev who always found the whole Python 2/3 thing a little too off-putting, this series of tutorials is for you! We’ll walk through all the steps required for installation and explore all the main areas of functionality. In no time you’ll go from feeling like this…
Me when I attempt to code anything in the front-end.
to this:
Future you, hacking the gibson.
If at any time you’re feeling lost, feel free to join us on Gitter and ask for assistance.
Let’s dive in!
Installation
Before we can install Brownie we need to install some dependencies. Brownie relies on ganache-cli which is written in JavaScript. This means we’ll need to have both Python and Node.js installed. Lets start with the JavaScript parts.
Installing Node.js and npm
First, check to see if Node.js and npm are already installed. Open a terminal window and type the following commands:
node -v
npm -v
If either command returns an error message, we will need to install Node.js and npm. We need at least version 6.11.5 of Node.js in order to run Ganache.
Installing Ganache-CLI
Once Node.js is installed we are ready to install Ganache.
Ganache is a temporary blockchain that we can use for testing and development. It provides 10 unlocked accounts funded with 100 ether each, and mines transactions as they are broadcasted. It also lets us do magical things like reverting transactions and jumping forward in time, which is a huge help when unit testing.
Ganache comes in two flavours: a GUI version complete with a block explorer, and a more streamlined CLI version. For Brownie, we’ll be using the CLI version.
To install ganache-cli:
npm install -g ganache-cli
We can then verify that it installed correctly:
ganache-cli --version
Note that unlike Truffle, Brownie does not require you to launch Ganache yourself. Brownie will happily manage this process itself. Once installed, we can now go ahead and never think about Ganache again.
Installing Python and pipx
Okay, we’re half way there and we’re done with the not-Python bits. Depending on your background this could mean the hardest part is over or just getting started. But don’t worry, Python is a friendly snek 🐍
First, check to see if Python is already installed. If you’re using Linux or OSX there’s a very good chance that it is.
python --version
If you receive an error message, you will need to install Python. If the version number shown begins with 2 , replace python with python3 in the above command and try running it again. We need at least version 3.6.0 in order to run Brownie.
Once Python is installed, we’re ready to install pipx. Pipx is a tool to help you install and run Python applications in isolated environments. It makes running and upgrading Brownie significantly easier than if we use regular pip.
To install pipx:
python -m pip install --user pipx
python -m pipx ensurepath
You might need to restart your terminal window after installing pipx, in order for the updated paths to take effect.
Installing Brownie
We’re finally there! With all the necessary dependencies in place, it’s time to install Brownie 😎 Type the following command into your terminal:
pipx install eth-brownie
It may take a minute or two as pipx installs all the required python packages. Once installation finishes, confirm that everything worked:
brownie
You should see something like this:
We’re in business! Congratulate yourself on a job well done.
When you’re ready, you can continue with Part Two, where we’ll create a new project and familiarize ourselves with some of Brownie’s main functionality.
You can also follow the Brownie Twitter account, read our other Medium articles, and join us on Gitter. | https://medium.com/@iamdefinitelyahuman/getting-started-with-brownie-part-1-9b2181f4cb99 | ['Ben Hauser'] | 2020-06-02 08:18:03.701000+00:00 | ['Solidity', 'Smart Contracts', 'Defi', 'Python', 'Ethereum'] |
THE 1st MAIN SALE | Dear great kings, lords, and warriors of the continents!
We are very excited to announce that the first Land main sale milestone has finally been hit, and we are hereby, announcing the first main sale!!🎉🎉
More information about the Land main sale protocol can be found here!
LAND SALES SCHEDULE
The sale will be taking place in two folds: Land main sale and Land selection.
1. Land main sale: sale of ‘The scroll of Land’
⏳ Time: 28 DEC 2020 –8 JAN 2021
Venue @ League of Kingdoms Land Portal
👉 Visit (new Land portal UI will be unveiled in the week of 12/14)
2. Land selection: select your favorite parcels.
⏳ Time: 13 JAN 2021 –31 JAN 2021
Venue @ League of Kingdoms Land Portal
👉 Visit (Land selection UI ETA will be announced soon)
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp11.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp10.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp9.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp8.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp7.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp6.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp5.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp4.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp3.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp1.pdf
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/webform/202012/Videos-us-golf-jp.pdf
https://english.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/webform/Videos-us-golf-jp11.pdf
https://english.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/webform/Videos-us-golf-jp7.pdf
https://english.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/webform/Videos-us-golf-jp.pdf
First-come-first-served basis.
All unselected Lands after 31 JANUARY 2021 will be randomly assigned based on the level of the ‘Scroll of Lands’
All chosen Lands will be minted daily and transferred to the purchased wallet address.
LAND SALES DETAIL
Sale’s quantity: 3,776 scrolls of Land
Payment gateways: below currencies can be used to purchase the scrolls.
ETH /ERC20 (on Kyber)
→ Metamask / Torus will be available on PC
→ TokenPocket / ImToken / will be available on mobile
Fiat (via PayPal)
In summary, you only need to prepare the following to participate in the upcoming Land main sale:
An Ethereum address to store Land NFTs.
A fully functional Ethereum wallet app installed on your devices.
Research the League of Kingdoms continents to pick your favorite parcels to purchase.
Set aside a few bucks to finally make the Lands yours.
That easy! ❤️🔥
👉LOK Land Portal: https://land.leagueofkingdoms.com
JOIN LOK COMMUNITY CHANNELS! | https://medium.com/@gerardajksjj/the-1st-main-sale-c86c9cbc5233 | [] | 2020-12-14 17:22:09.620000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Eth', 'Dai', 'Dapps'] |
What does Brexit Mean for UK’s Digital Marketing Industry? | Let’s take a closer look at Brexit with its opportunities and challenges for the digital marketing industry.
As of December 31, 2020, the transition period will end. The government continues to work to ease the pain of the process. One of the areas that will be affected by this transition is the UK’s digital marketing industry, which we will examine in detail below.
Although leaving the European Union is a much-debated radical decision, we will not dwell on it here. Of course, this will have both positive and negative effects on the sectors. However, what matters is how much we can benefit from positive effects and how much we can turn negative effects on opportunities. Let’s examine the effects and opportunities of Brexit on the digital marketing industry under different headings.
Budgets
The IPA’s long-running Bellwether report shows that after 6 years of growth, marketing budgets have been further cut in recent years. Uncertainty has brought consumer confidence to a low level, which means they spend less. Marketers are also losing confidence in the British economy and withdrawing their spending. Do you think this is the right strategy?
Marketing is an easy budget to cut when businesses are concerned about the future. This is actually a mistake as spending money on marketing is the key to long-term growth. If you choose to remain inactive, you run the risk of losing customers you already have if the economy goes into a downturn. This creates a vicious circle where investment in growth becomes increasingly difficult.
The opportunity here is to see the competition that will weaken for the potential customers you are trying to attract while your competitors tighten their belts on marketing. Brexit marks a time to spend more, not less, on marketing. Otherwise, there will be no reason for your existing customers not to prefer your competitor who does not cut the budget. Finally, managing customer expectations and protecting them from exchange rate fluctuations by providing them with value-for-money products and services can have a long-lasting effect on building their trust in your brand. Another view as an opportunity is that if the pound continues to fall with the Brexit against the dollar and euro, more visitors will come to the UK. This will lead to an increase in advertising budgets with growing tourism and spending, and the digital marketing industry is expected to continue to grow despite the pessimistic approach to the issue.
The Falling Pound and Rising Cost
The Pound has been losing value against the Euro and Dollar since the moment Brexit started to be talked about. Increasing costs inevitably arise in the digital marketing industry as in many other areas. There are many US-based digital marketing tools such as Mailchimp, Hootsuite, Hubspot, and Adobe; based on the depreciation of the Pound against the Dollar and Euro, the monthly/annual subscription prices paid by companies for these services increased. Costs in the supply chain have also seen an increase, making marketing more expensive to offer in the UK.
The opportunity should be to support local initiatives against the increasing costs of US-based marketing tools. This approach, which will allow you to use your marketing budget more effectively, will also strengthen UK-based startups on the way to globalization.
Recruiting
Many sectors in the UK have benefited from the free movement of workers from EU countries. Following Brexit, it may not be that easy to hire from abroad, and this could affect companies managing an in-house marketing team more than those who don’t. Nowadays, most working people who are not British citizens have started to return to their countries. This situation creates an employment shortage in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the decrease in the number of qualified employees started to make companies difficult.
What can be done: To maintain an in-house team, you may need to spread out your network for the required expertise or invest heavily to scale up your team. Besides, you can outsource some works in order not to disrupt the workflow.
Investment
Despite the Brexit uncertainty, it has been buoyant for the UK economy since 2016. The decrease of the pound making the country an attractive market for inward investment. If the pound continues to depreciate relative to the dollar and euro after Brexit, this appeal will continue, especially when combined with inward investment incentives such as corporate tax reductions.
The opportunity: UK businesses may find it easier than before to acquire new customers in the EU, US, and elsewhere; Another reason to consider maintaining your marketing spending and exploring alternative markets.
GDPR and Data-Flows
The UK and the EU will continue to stay in a very close alignment for the foreseeable future, particularly in terms of regulation and recognition of goods. There will also be continuity in data transfer and marketing, as all the UK and EU countries will continue to be governed by the GDPR legislation that came into effect in 2018.
Relationship Management
Many businesses rely on a core customer group, so understanding how Brexit impacts your big customers and their customers is an important strategy. As part of your marketing, make sure you understand the impact of Brexit on your customers and reflect it on your marketing.
The UK government’s Yellowhammer report recently outlined several areas that could face disruption, including transportation, fuel, medicine, and food. So if one of your customers is working in a related industry, or if you anticipate problems with the supply chain, it’s important to think about how to alleviate these problems now.
Digital Marketing Presence
Brexit can lead to companies being denied opportunities to access international markets, and the same can be said of international competitors entering the UK market. Being optimized in local SEO will become crucial in capturing potential customers in your local area while focusing on jobs in the UK.
Future of Marketing
Aside from all the pains brought by Brexit, marketing will contribute to the growth of companies. Marketers are increasingly responsible for delivering a clear brand message, understanding the changing needs of the market, and keeping customer trust under control. When you start planning for 2021, there are many things you need to change, from consumer attitudes to brand psychology, and don’t ignore Brexit. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/what-does-brexit-mean-for-uks-digital-marketing-industry-1718feb13c1b | ['Yigit Erol'] | 2020-11-13 11:33:05.919000+00:00 | ['Brexit', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'UK', 'Social Media'] |
Costa Rica Becomes the First Nation to Ban Fossil Fuels | Sustainability has become the focus of the world over the last decade, and many countries have made great strides in their efforts to combat climate change. Japan has achieved nearly zero waste in select towns, and over 40% of Denmark’s citizens commute by bicycle to work.
Today, Costa Rica took steps to eclipsing even these amazing countries in terms of sustainability. President Carlos Alvarado announced they would be banning fossil based fuels altogether. This makes Costa Rica the first country in the world to completely decarbonize.
“Getting rid of fossil fuels is a big idea coming from a small country. This is an idea that’s starting to gain international support with the rise of new technologies,” Costa Rican economist Monica Araya said.
As unlikely as going carbon-free in today’s modern world might seem, Costa Rica already derives 99% of its energy from renewable sources. Their biggest hurdle will be in the transportation industry, where there is very little in the way of development in that sector and demand for cars is growing.
Luckily, plans are already under way to help address the issues at a cultural level. Many Costa Ricans already appreciate the benefits if renewable energy, and Hyundais (a favorite vehicle in Costa Rica) are available completely fossil fuel free. Costa Rica Limpia, an organization helping to push the decarbonization efforts, plans to have these cars available for citizens to test drive and take a look at.
President Carlos Alvarado has set a goal of decarbonizing by 2021, which will mark 200 years of independence for Costa Rica. The goal is aggressive and may not be entirely feasible, especially with Costa Rica’s current financial issues.
Costa Rica has been operating on a deficit since 2009. 22% of Costa Rica’s revenue comes from taxing the auto industry, and a large portion of that goes to protection of forests and other forms of conservation. This could result in a heavy financial loss for their already strained financial situation, but rethinking how they get their money could resolve their issues over time.
Photo by Anna Jiménez Calaf
With fewer carbon emissions, they may save money in the form of reduced health care costs. Another option, which they will no doubt have to adopt at some point, is changing what they tax instead. A tax on carbon itself might help them to their goal and resolve their current financial situation as well.
Whether Costa Rica achieves its decarbonization goals on time or not, their efforts make a statement to the rest of the world. If a small country can make a huge difference to the world despite their size and lack of development, bigger countries can follow their example.
Globally, fossil fuels are the biggest threat to climate change, and a path to getting rid of them is one that all countries should make an effort to follow, regardless of size. As Araya put it in another statement, “Tackling resistance to change is one of the most important tasks we have right now.”
Subscribe to our Newsletter | https://medium.com/in-kind/costa-rica-becomes-the-first-nation-to-ban-fossil-fuels-a180691daae4 | ['In Kind'] | 2019-06-08 19:59:10.454000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Sustainability', 'Renewable Energy', 'Environment', 'Costa Rica'] |
Common JavaScript Mistakes — Part 1 | Mismatching Quotes and Parentheses
JavaScript lets us use single quotes, double quotes, and backticks for strings. They are equivalent. However, we should open and close with the same character. So if we open a string with a single quote, then use a single quote to close a string. If we start with double quotes or backticks, then use those respectively to close the string. Also, special characters like quotation marks have to escape to be included in a string in some cases. If you open a string with single quotes and you also use single quotes in a string, then you have to escape that to include them in the string. This also applies to double quotes and backticks. If you use double quotes in a double-quoted string, then you have to escape it. And if you use a backtick in a template string, then you have to escape the backtick character.
In if statements, parentheses always have to wrap around the whole condition. For example, something like
if (x > y) && (y < 10) {...}
won’t work. The correct way to write that statement is to write is
if ((x > y) && (y < 10)) {...}
if we want to check that both conditions are true.
We can easily avoid this by using a JavaScript code-aware text editor, like Visual Studio code, which will highlight these syntax errors for us so that we can fix these mistakes and make the code run. | https://betterprogramming.pub/common-javascript-mistakes-part-1-73e1654a26c | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2019-11-08 22:13:53.057000+00:00 | ['Generator', 'Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Arrays', 'Object Oriented'] |
Avanti And The World We Leave Behind For Her | Photo by Raj Rana on Unsplash
Avanti was born on 25.11.2008 at a hospital in Bandra. I remember the doctor coming out with her — all covered in some kind of greenish liquid, all tiny, all pink and extremely beautiful. It is a moment that stays with every parent I guess, the first time they see their child.
The next day began on a normal Mumbai note, as cold as it can get in November, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of traffic. I remember spending the day in hospital meeting people who had dropped in to wish us well and say hello to Avanti. The day drew to a close and it was around 11:00 p.m that I decided to head back home.
We had absolutely no clue about what was unfolding in South Mumbai — no TV in the hospital. I remember wondering that something seemed off, there was hardly any traffic and for some strange reason, I knew something was amiss — it was just that kind of vibe which had settled onto my beloved city. Reaching home, put on the telly, and settled down to dinner; that was when the visuals started pouring in of the terrorist attack on parts of South Mumbai.
The news flew thick and fast, commandos flying in, the bravery of the Mumbai police force, the dogged determination of the staff at the TAJ, and finally the mention of the Mumbai spirit. I do remember writing to Mr. Ratan Tata and getting a reply in return — the old fashioned handwritten variety both ways.
It was a bewildering first few days of parenthood and a few thoughts sprung up then and have stayed with me.
Is this the world we will leave behind for Avanti, where terror strikes are as common as day and night, fueled by an incessant display of intolerance, polarisation, and machoism. Where a refusal to break with the past feeds on insecurities and turns into a weird unstoppable search for nirvana through the sword or any weapon. Bullets do not distinguish between religions and castes. Bombs once dropped will do the inevitable and be met with more from the other side, sometimes detonated by hand and at other times served by a remorseless drone somewhere high in the sky.
Things have only got uglier and a grim future seems up ahead. How does one prepare a child for this world? How do we equip her as parents to make her way through this maze?
Like in all adverse times one must go back to the basics. We can only teach her to reach out to everyone around her as any human would, that decency and trust should be her weapons of choice, that love will eventually triumph and that all swordsmen have always stepped aside to the righteous. That will have to do i guess. | https://medium.com/an-idea/avanti-and-the-world-we-leave-behind-for-her-bffc06f313f8 | ['Maruti Naik'] | 2020-11-27 04:04:20.956000+00:00 | ['Children', 'Hope', 'Terrorism', 'Parenting', 'Mumbai'] |
Do they all? | Do they all? It’s amazing, that with all the efforts to increase diversity in higher ed, programs still manage to recruit a more or less homogeneous student body where everyone shares (more or less) the exact same worldview and lived experiences.
Truly Amazing!! | https://medium.com/@aprilhamm/do-they-all-89b8a5137f08 | ['April M. Hamm', 'She They'] | 2020-12-02 15:10:07.936000+00:00 | ['Academia', 'Inclusion', 'Diversity', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Higher Education'] |
Artist managements ignore classical music's Black Lives Matter movement, now they're going bankrupt. Here's why. | Now, agencies can’t squeak by on white bourgeois dollars, scrambling quarterly to appease white shareholders.
Hazard Chase was the first to fold in April 2020. Opus 3 was bought out recently by diversity savvy San Francisco Conservatory of Music. US behemoth Columbia Artist Management Inc.(CAMI) closed, while others fired or furloughed managers, leaving artists to go it alone. Some formed smaller fiefdoms of white supremacy, such as Marcus Felsner, ex-EU director of Opus 3 Berlin, which has no Black artists, not even a token Black singer.
The entertainment industry is ultra-competitive. Artist management companies can’t rely on presenters to connect their artists to Black communities. A mission of racial inclusion and equity will increase market share, secure trust with intangible Black communities, and create a cash reserve during the next COVID.
Diversity Initiatives: The ROI
Diversity initiatives benefit companies by enhancing creativity and idea generation. Hiring Black artists managers will help agencies gain privileged cultural insight on marketing to Black communities, but including them specifically on boards increases company profits even more.
Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity on executive teams were “more likely to have financial returns 35% above their respective median national average” (Mckinsey 2018). They’re also more likely to “outperform others by 33% on their fourth-quarter earnings before income taxes (EBIT).”
In the US, “for every 10 percent increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of executive teams, the EBIT increases by .8 percent.” Most promising is that “the relationship between racial and ethnic diversity is linear with financial performance.” British companies fare better. Those with “a 10% higher gender and ethnic racial diversity on managements and in boardrooms have an EBIT 5.8% higher than others.”
In 2020, new potential Black customers are entirely online but few Black artists are featured in streamed concerts. Presenters and agencies are missing a critical opportunity to entice new loyal Black audiences. Whites believe Blacks aren’t interested in classical music so why bother. Therefore, they continue featuring white and Asian artists to mostly aged bourgeois whites.
Note that the potential impact of racial and ethnic diversity on profit is stronger than gender diversity, likely because white women affirmative has already yielded strong results. Clearly, racial equity is integral to profitability.
“Blacks just aren’t good enough”: The myth of meritocracy
Meritocracy is an excuse to exclude Black artists from rosters and the stage. The narrative is we’re not good enough. Presenting whites, Asians, and white immigrant artists exacerbates the implicit bias that Black classical musicians aren’t as competent.
Orchestras go decades never featuring Black conductors for masterworks programs. White women and Asians are offered as diversity stand-ins for Blacks, with the racist sigh of, “It’s just that Blacks aren’t good enough.”
Meritocracy is a fictional, morbid, and dangerous social disillusionment. Only whites decide who’s deserving of a career in classical music. Because the assessors of talent are always white, meritocracy maintains white supremacy in classical music. Meritocracy is racist. Whites are not the only ones capable of assessing talent and potential.
For meritocracy to be plausible, we must be fooled into believing that Blacks historically start from zero — like white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men — with equal unfettered access to equity and fulfilling our full potential. The truth is we start from at least negative 100, working twice as hard as whites (yes, including white women!) to achieve half as much.
Artist management agencies uphold the myth of meritocracy — distracting from their complete ignorance of US-American slavery’s legacy — , anti-Black racism, classism, their hoarding of cultural capital, and the virulent racism that plagues classical music.
“Let in one and no more”: Tokenism isn’t racial equity
Excluding Black conductors from artist managements teach whites we’re inferior. Opus 3 has no Black conductors, and London’s HarrisonParrot hasn’t had a Black baton since Henry Lewis. Not only has Germany’s KD Schmid never had a Black conductor, but they’ve excluded Black artists altogether. Others, like IMG, tokenize Blacks, which is in some ways worse — due to racial stigmatization — than having none at all. None have racial equity mission statements on their websites.
When Black conductors are tokenized, managements choose non-threatening, demure, universally acceptable artists, not necessarily the best.
The most easily tolerated black person in the white space is often one who is “in his place” — one who has been vouched for by white people in good standing. [They are] less likely to disturb the implicit racial order — white people as dominant and black people as subordinate.”— This is what it feels like to be Black in white spaces by Elijah Anderson in The Guardian
Mediocrity is detrimental to the Black cause. It reinforces the implicit bias that Blacks don’t belong on the podium, making it harder for others.
We tried a Black already. It didn’t work out. Never again.
Although whites enjoy the white privilege of individuality, Blacks are an anonymous collective. If one of us fails, the entire race is penalized.
Getting into “good trouble”
Black artists are expected to be mute race-less eunuchs. Whites like Black moderates, who don’t challenge them to grow, looking at their own racism. Advocates for re-envisioning classical music, through the lens of racial equity, are radical heretics and silenced. Whites expect Blacks to be satisfied with being allowed in the room. Insisting on more brings strong rebukes — from Blacks and whites — for being the difficult naughty Negro.
There comes a time when silence is betrayal. — Martin Luther King Jr.
If you really think all-white artist managements and orchestras have no implicit racial bias, and can financially afford to remain oblivious to the Black Lives Matter movement, you deny the legacy of 400 years of slavery, the Black lived experience of racism, the power of the Black dollar, and concede that the deaths of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery — or the Black lynching of the day — have nothing to do with race. | https://maestrobkb.medium.com/artistmanagementsmanageracism-a9869e7e5973 | ['Brandon Keith Brown'] | 2020-11-11 14:21:17.503000+00:00 | ['Classical Music Online', 'Culture', 'Race', 'Artist Management', 'Racism'] |
This is 2019–2020. | This year, I totally have no idea how to celebrate on the last day of 2019, I feel I am older and older, even though I am 25 years old only. I am tired of social, talking and party all the time.
For some reason, some grief spread from the outside to the inside deeply, I can’t control and stop thinking it. Imagine someone asks your life experiences in Europe, and I have to say, yes, it was happening in ”last year”. All the things I love already leave me alone, they all fly away to the edge of the world, which I never can approach.
This is the main reason why I am so sad, I am crying without tears, and then squeeze my face to make a smile.
I keep record all the details of my lifestyle with pictures, writing, and videos. It’s not to show up that I have so much in my ordinary life, I did these because I am not good at memories things. At least if I want to look back on my past experiences, I can check the diary that I made before.
However, I still have a strong feeling that I don’t want to 2020 coming now, I wish can stay in 2019 forever, like I am kind of food that frozen in the fridge, preserved in the perfect condition forever. But the fridge will break until the machines are not working, the organic is perishable, we will pass away one day.
I have to accept it, all the memories will drift away from me, like dust float to another world, you can’t see, touch, smell or feel them anymore, even though you know they exist in this universe.
This year, I spent time with my parents at home, they watched the Japanese TV show in the living room, and I watched the movie in my room. When my parents said it time to count down, I was involved in the movie too much, I even didn’t notice the time was 11:59 p.m. already.
When I open my phone, it shows 12:04 a.m. and some messages from my friends:
Happy new year!
….and you should love yourself more and more, 2020, “love you, love you”.
(2020 in mandarin pronunciation, it sounds like love you, love you)
This is 2019–2020. | https://medium.com/peission/i-should-say-something-about-the-new-year-f37af9ef791 | ['Pei-Shan Cheng'] | 2020-01-02 03:22:50.039000+00:00 | ['London', 'Storyofmylife', 'Taiwan', 'New Year', '2020'] |
Correcting the Record of WWI Hero and Medal of Honor Recipient Sgt. Henry Johnson | Sgt. Henry Johnson
A century ago, on the evening of May 14, 1918 while on post duty with one other soldier, Private Henry Johnson single-handedly repelled an attack of up to 24 German soldiers primarily through hand-to-hand combat. In doing so, he prevented the other soldier from being captured and protected countless others he served with. His efforts resulted in 21 wounds.
The French government almost immediately rewarded his bravery with the Croix de Guerre avec Palme, but due to prejudice, it took until 2015 — nearly a century after his service — for Sgt. Henry Johnson¹ to receive the Medal of Honor from his own country.
As the genealogist who had the privilege of researching Sgt. Johnson in preparation for his Medal of Honor, I had the opportunity to seek out and steep myself in hundreds of pages of his paper trail, and it took me months after the award in 2015 to get much of the false information about him online corrected (normally reliable sources ranging from Smithsonian Magazine to PBS’s History Detectives contained a number of errors). Even so, the current centennial of his feat has prompted a number of inquiries from officials and journalists seeking to sort fact from fiction, and made me aware that much misinformation lingers, so I’d like to share some details of his life to help tip the scales in favor of what is true.
· His full name was William Henry Johnson, but Sgt. Johnson preferred to go by his middle name of Henry and only occasionally used his full name for formal purposes, such as when he married. This is why, for instance, newspaper reports of his death can be found under both the names of and Henry Johnson and William Henry Johnson.
Pittsburgh Courier, FultonHistory
The New York Age, Newspapers
· As seen here in his death certificate, Sgt. Johnson died on July 1, 1929 in Washington, D.C. and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Assertions that he died elsewhere (such as New York or Illinois) or on other dates are probably due to confusion with records of other soldiers with similar names. This death certificate also reveals that Sgt. Johnson did not die from alcoholism as some claim. He suffered a number of conditions that worsened through the 1920s, but ultimately died from myocarditis. Nor is it true that he was neglected by the government. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed as early as 1920, and additional records show him receiving disability compensation and care at home and several medical facilities over the last decade of his life.
· Sgt. Johnson was born between 1887 and 1897. Such a range may sound strange to 21st century ears, but accuracy and consistency in dates is a relatively recent development, as is our emphasis on birthdays. In all likelihood, the soldier did not know his own date of birth, and his lack of certainty is reflected in his paper trail, though he mostly claimed March 15th or May 15th of various years.
· He was born in West Salem, a district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The notion that he was born in Alexandria, Virginia likely stems from his profile in the book Rank and File: True Stories of the Great War by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., but is mistaken. Documents such as his World War I draft registration card demonstrate that Sgt. Johnson himself consistently reported West(ern) Salem/Winston-Salem as his place of birth.
WWI Draft Registration, FamilySearch
New York Abstract of WWI Military Service, Ancestry
· Though he married twice, he has no known living relatives. A family with the Johnson name mistakenly believed that they were related and were involved with the campaign to honor him, but regrettably, there was no connection between them and Sgt. Johnson. Since they had effectively “adopted” him, however, members of this family were invited to the White House for his Medal of Honor ceremony, though they were not eligible to receive the award on his behalf. As modest consolation, I also researched their true family tree (remarkable in its own way) and presented them with the findings.
· Sgt. Johnson’s courageous service was not entirely forgotten until 2015. In addition to the many who campaigned vigorously on his behalf for the Medal of Honor since the 1990s, his admirers included Langston Hughes and fellow Medal of Honor recipient Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who aptly described him as “one of the five bravest American” to serve in the war.
More remains to be corrected, but clarifying his name, as well as shedding light on the dates and places of his birth and death, seems a fitting Memorial Day tribute. RIP, Sgt. Johnson.
¹ While it is customary in award situations to use the rank of the soldier at the time of the relevant incident, I have opted to refer to Henry Johnson by his highest attained rank. | https://smolenyak.medium.com/correcting-the-record-of-wwi-hero-and-medal-of-honor-recipient-sgt-henry-johnson-fb187153b451 | ['Megan Smolenyak'] | 2018-05-25 15:35:11.345000+00:00 | ['World War I', 'Military', 'Genealogy', 'African American', 'History'] |
Website uptime monitoring service description | This is a complete description of what is uptime and how to measure it. What is this article about:
What is uptime
How to measure uptime
How to use “UpTime.onl” service to measure your website uptime
What is website uptime?
Uptime is a metric that represents the percentage of time that website has been working. It is a measure of website reliability. The higher is the better.
Ideally, uptime would be 100%. But it is almost impossible to achieve in the real world. There are lots of reasons, which may affect a website uptime. It might be DNS issues, network failures, server hardware failures, software bugs, and others.
Even if you can’t manage some factors, it is crucial to measure and compare your website uptime. At least, the measurement will show if you should pay attention to the downtimes or not. Probably, you don’t know that your hosting provider has downtimes (i.e. not working) from time to time.
Let’s see an example. Let’s imagine, that your uptime is 99.5%. This 0.5% of downtime is approximately 44 hours a year, which means that your website is down for almost 2 days in the year. During these two days per year, you may lose sales. If these numbers are not acceptable for your business, you have to take steps to improve your website uptime.
Here is the screenshot with an example of uptime from our dashboard. You can see here a 99.97% uptime.
Now you know that measuring uptime is very important. Let’s see how you can measure it.
How to measure website uptime?
The next step is to start to measure the uptime. The measurement process is pretty simple. Manually or using a monitoring tool or a service, you check the URL for the correct response.
You can check it on the server-side or remotely, using an external service. You may measure uptime using different software or services. For example, you may measure your database independently. It is important to know if every part of your website or web app is working.
The simplest way is to you a service that does not require any installation, like ours. Let’s see how our service checks your website and calculates the uptime.
The service checks every 1 minute on the Pro plan or every 5 minutes on the Free plan. Then it calculates how many times and the percentage of time your website was available.
It is very easy to start using our service. Just add an URL in the dashboard and our service immediately starts checking it. The uptime checker tool requests provided URL and gets status and response. It doesn’t render HTML, load assets, or run Javascript. We have a Frontend checker for that on the Pro plan.
The uptime checker checks the HTTP response status at first. HTTP response status indicates whether a request has been successfully completed. For example, if your webserver returns 404 or 502 or any other error HTTP statuses, the website will be counted as not available or down.
The second check is a keyword or phrase. You can add any string in the parameters to check. If the response status is successful, the service will check the response content. If the content does not contain provided string, the website will be counted as down. For example, for this very article page, you can set the phrase “uptime check”. If the page is loaded and no such text exists in the response, the website is not working properly.
Now you know how our uptime checker tool works. The next step is to set up it to check.
How to measure uptime using “UpTime.onl” service
This section explains how to create and configure uptime checks using the “UpTime.onl” tool.
At first, you have to register, if you have not done it earlier.
To add a new URL, choose the “Websites” menu on the left navigation panel. Then click Add website button.
You can add here any URL or website. It might be static websites or any based on the frameworks or CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal. Just enter or paste copied URL to the URL field. That’s enough to start checking.
If you want to check the response for a keyword or a phrase, fill in the “Word/phrase to check on page” field. It is optional.
The next step is a notification. You may want just to measure an uptime or be notified of every downtime. Check the box near the email if you want to be notified. Change email if you want to receive notifications to a different email. The default email is your account email.
Then press the Save button.
That’s it. From this point, the service starts checking your URL every 5 minutes in the Free plan and every 1 minute in the Pro plan. Now you can proceed to the dashboard and see the measurements.
Start free monitoring | https://medium.com/@bogkonstantin/website-uptime-monitoring-service-description-d0aadeea9982 | ['Konstantin Bogomolov'] | 2021-04-25 06:36:33.353000+00:00 | ['Uptime', 'Monitoring', 'Availability', 'Servers', 'Downtime'] |
Exipure Review: Reliable and Long-Lasting Results from Real Customers? | While numerous supplements claim to help with weight loss, only a few actually do so without causing unwanted effects. Exipure is one of the few promising weight loss formulas.
It’s a natural weight-loss supplement that’s only accessible online at Exipure.com and not in stores. It features a blend of eight tropical plants and unique nutrients, and it was released to the public on Thursday, October 21, 2021. Clinical research has shown that these eight plant-based nutrients can help with weight loss by increasing brown fat levels, and new science is now claiming that low brown adipose tissue levels are the core cause of unexplained weight gain.
Can Exipure, on the other hand, assist you in losing weight? Continue reading to find out more about this supplement and how it works.
What exactly is Exipure?
Because of its nutritional makeup and capacity to raise brown fat levels, Exipure is a tropical weight reduction product that differs from other weight loss pills on the market today. These unusual chemicals are used in this supplement to address the underlying cause of belly obesity and begin decreasing fat cells. Low levels of Brown Adipose Tissue, according to Exipure’s creators, are the primary cause of weight growth and belly fat (BAT).
So far, new research suggests that people with low BAT ratios are more likely to be obese. If your BAT is high, though, you have a better chance of losing weight. According to research cited by product formulators Jack Barrett, Dr. James Wilkins, and Dr. Lam, BAT burns calories at least three hundred times quicker than typical white fat.
The difference between thin and obese persons is that skinny people burn fat more effectively because their regular body fat levels are higher, whereas obese people burn less fat over the same length of time because their brown fat levels are lower.
Brown adipose tissue burns calories more efficiently than ordinary fat cells, and does so continuously, reducing the number of calories that remain and convert to white fat, making it simpler to lose weight or maintain your target body weight. The Exipure weight loss solution is built on this foundation.
The producers of the Exipure diet pill say that it is the world’s only diet supplement to contain eight exotic herbs and nutrients that target BAT levels in the body, hence resolving the problem of uncontrollable weight gain. Is that, however, all there is to it? Is it really that simple to use Exipure, which comes in easy-to-swallow capsules for oral administration and can be taken once a day to naturally enhance BAT levels and accelerate brown fat activity for best fat-burning weight loss results?
What is brown adipose tissue, and why is it important?
Exipure’s main concept is that the body’s Brown Adipose Tissue levels can be enhanced or raised by mixing certain unique nutrients.
Simply explained, brown adipose tissue is a form of fat found in the human body that becomes active when it becomes cold. In chilly situations, BAT releases heat to maintain body temperature. Brown fat is another name for brown adipose tissue. It differs from ordinary fat in that it has a higher concentration of mitochondria.
Brown fat, also known as the engines within the fat cells, is responsible for burning calories by raising body temperature.
Brown fat also burns more calories than regular fat, according to researchers, which explains the increased investment and study into the effects of brown fat on diets and weight loss. That suggests that increasing brown fat in the body may make it easier to lose weight.
Exipure contains the following ingredients:
Exipure combines eight natural plants and nutrients to boost the amount of Brown Adipose tissue in your body. These compounds have been shown in studies to increase calorie-burning BAT. Some of these components increase brain function and rejuvenate aged cells, while others lower stress, in addition to increasing BAT levels in the body.
This excellent weight loss tablet contains not just well-known weight-loss components like quercetin and ginseng, but also less well-known substances like perilla and amur cork bark. These substances operate together to increase BAT levels in the body, and here’s how they function separately:
Perilla
Perilla frutescens is an important Asiatic crop plant that belongs to this genus. Exipure uses it to enhance BAT levels. Perilla is also used to improve brain function and maintain a healthy cholesterol level. It’s used to treat nausea as well as muscle spasms.
Basil the Great
Although holy basil is in the same genus as normal basil, it is the species Ocimum sanctum that is employed in Exipure to help with body mass, BAT levels, stress reduction, and brainpower. Holy basil also aids in the prevention of infection, the relief of joint pain, the reduction of blood sugar and cholesterol, and the protection of the stomach.
Propolis
Propolis, like holy basil, enhances BAT levels while also supporting healthy blood sugar and blood pressure. With its antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiulcer, anticancer, and immunomodulatory capabilities, this substance aids your body directly with its extracts and multiple health advantages for treating disease. Propolis is high in antioxidants, which can help scavenge free radicals from body cells, minimize oxidative stress, and promote healthy aging.
Ginseng white from Korea
White Korean Ginseng, also known as Panax ginseng, increases BAT levels in the body and promotes good health. It also has anti-inflammatory properties and lowers oxidative stress. Lastly, white Korean ginseng is known to improve the symptoms of erectile dysfunction, stress, anxiety, and diabetes.
Oleuropein
This is a polyphenolic compound rich in olive oil and used to boost BAT in the body. Oleuropein has been known to be one of the best, natural heart-friendly compounds with benefits like improving anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, and neuroprotective functions. Also, it supports healthy cholesterol levels and artery health.
Cork Bark from the Amur Peninsula
The Amur cork bark, also known as Phellodendron amurense, comes from the Amur cork tree, which isn’t as well-known as the others. It raises BAT levels in the body, just like holy basil.
It also promotes liver and heart health, improves digestion, and cures osteoarthritis, stress, obesity, acne, and bloating. It also works as a chemopreventive drug for lung cancer patients, protects cartilage against arthritis, and stops prostate cancers from growing.
Berberine
An potent anti-inflammatory that also functions as an antioxidant. This substance contains active chemicals that aid digestion while also speeding up metabolism. This vitamin improves the body’s detoxification abilities. When taken with quercetin, the effects are enhanced, making fat burning considerably easier.
Quercetin
Quercetin is a popular antioxidant included in a variety of dietary supplements. It raises brown adipose tissue levels, rejuvenates aging cells, and maintains appropriate blood pressure in Exipure. Although quercetin is most known for its anti-aging properties, several weight loss research have connected it to a speedier weight loss.
Exipure’s Advantages
The first advantage of Exipure is that it contains eight substances that have been scientifically shown to promote weight loss. Unlike other weight reduction pills that include low-quality components and synthetic chemicals, Exipure ingredients are all-natural and deliver the following benefits to the user:
Brown adipose tissue (bat) is the core cause of weight gain, according to Exipure’s creators. As a result, their recipe increases BAT, allowing them to burn calories and body fat more quickly. It also helps to support healthy weight loss by boosting metabolism and speeding up digestion.
Exipure contains many antioxidant-rich natural substances that help cleanse the body, eliminate free radicals, and prevent oxidative stress.
Unlike other weight reduction methods, Exipure has long-term health benefits, whilst supplements just provide short weight loss alleviation. It provides long-term weight loss outcomes while also keeping your entire health in check.
Increased levels of brown adipose tissue burn fat for energy, making your body feel more energized throughout the day as you go about your daily chores. You can begin working out and gradually increase your weight loss effects without becoming exhausted or depleted of energy.
Exipure components help to maintain a healthy blood pressure, cholesterol levels, oxygen levels, and immunity.
It suppresses your appetite and food cravings, allowing you to maintain a controlled caloric intake and burn existing body fat.
Exipure weight loss tablets ensure that your heart and liver are in good working order, so if you stick to a low-calorie diet, you’ll feel fine.
The combination promotes brain health and keeps you relaxed and stress-free.
The advantages of Exipure are essential. We took note of how buyers described the available benefits in their Exipure reviews, as well as the features that the ingredients themselves had to offer the user. However, there is no indication of how the entire custom combination works to increase low brown adipose tissue levels, although Exipure reviews and eight exotic nutrients hint at the benefits described above.
Exipure’s Mechanism of Action
Exipure works primarily by raising BAT levels in the body, which improves the body’s ability to burn calories and fat. BAT can increase the body’s overall energy levels in addition to helping it burn more fat.
“Exipure is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted or experienced in your life,” according to the official website. It’s the world’s first product with a patented blend of eight exotic nutrients and herbs that’s meant to target low brown adipose tissue (BAT) levels, the unknown underlying cause of your inexplicable weight gain.”
Scientific Investigations
In most cases, dietary nutritional formulae must undertake peer-reviewed research or clinical trials, as this is the gold standard for determining the efficacy of any supplement. Exipure, on the other hand, is a new weight reduction product on the market that has yet to finish clinical studies or peer-reviewed research.
The formula’s creators claim that their supplement is backed by scientific studies on weight loss, and they mention multiple studies that support its contents and function.
In a 2004 study, for example, researchers showed that brown adipose tissue can cause lipid and sugar combustion within the mitochondria. The researchers discovered this after studying BAT and its ability to generate energy by converting lipids to heat. This means that BAT aids in the fat and calorie burning process, as well as weight loss.
According to science, the only way to maintain or reduce weight is to burn more calories than you consume. A caloric deficit, or burning more calories than one consumes, is the only way to lose weight. Dieting and exercise are the most popular and successful ways to sustain a calorie deficit.
BAT, on the other hand, has been viewed as a “shortcut” to a calorie deficit.
Overall, the makers of Exipure tablets are persuaded that combining Korean Ginseng and holy basil has potent anti-obesity and anti-weight-loss properties; you can increase brown adipose tissue in the body and lose weight much more quickly. Dieting and exercise, on the other hand, are recommended by supplement producers as the greatest ways to increase BAT.
Exipure Reviews and Customer Testimonials?
According to the official website, consumers of the weight loss formula can lose a significant amount of weight, and to back up the supplement’s effectiveness, a number of former users have said the following about Exipure:
After taking the supplement, a client posted an Exipure review saying that she shed at least 35 pounds and felt in the greatest shape of her life. She is less stressed and anxious, and her energy level is at an all-time high.
Zach, who also took the supplement, maintains that he is in better shape now in his 40s than he was in his 30s. He continues to lose weight, dropping up to 26 pounds.
Cassie claims that she shed 40 pounds “in no time” while using Exipure and that she is still losing weight.
All of these Exipure reviews are positive, and Exipure is advertised as a “5-second unique hack that melts 59 pounds of fat” on the sales website. With these strong evaluations, it’s easy to see why the supplement has grown in popularity since its release.
Exipure is sold in a variety of ways.
Exipure is now only available for purchase through its own website, Exipure.com. A bottle of Exipure costs $59, according to the website. For multiple orders, the price will be reduced to $49 or $39 per bottle. The pricing breakdown according to the website is outlined below.
Exipure is available for $59 + $9.95 delivery.
Purchase three bottles of Exipure for $147 plus delivery ($9.95) and two extras.
Purchase six bottles of Exipure for $234 including delivery and two extras.
Each container contains 30 digestible capsules, which is adequate for 30 servings. Users of the supplement should take one capsule daily for best effects, according to the producers.
Exipure has a number of benefits.
Customers can receive the following incentives if they purchase three or six bottles of the Exipure supplement today, according to the official website where the supplement is exclusively sold:
1-Day Kickstart Detox is an eBook that will show you how to cleanse, detox, and flush the toxic materials from your body that are giving you health problems. It will aid in the enhancement of your general health and well-being. While taking the Exipure pills, the 20 persons described above can help you kickstart your weight reduction and provide you an extra boost. In a nutshell, it’s an eBook that shows you how to efficiently begin and complete your next detox.
More information… | https://medium.com/@rhome1980/exipure-review-reliable-and-long-lasting-results-from-real-customers-20f1244ad497 | ['Rhome Davidox'] | 2021-12-22 20:54:26.508000+00:00 | ['Diet', 'Weight Loss', 'Weightloss Foods'] |
Why should I vote? Does my vote even matter? | 2020 what a year! As I happily anticipated prom, senior portraits, finishing finals, and ushering in the Juniors to take our place as seniors, everything completely stopped. I found myself wishing I had said more and done more but there was no more time. I searched for answers and there were none to be found. There were no answers from the school board superintendent, mayor, parish president, or governor. I looked to national leadership and I was met with silence. Nothing more than just talks about this strange virus that seemed to have everyone frightened called COVID. Days passed and I looked to the people we entrusted to make decisions to run our country and they too did not have answers regarding our health. Instead of coming together, a political issue was made out of what was a health and safety crisis. The politics only added to the stress of the unknown. During this pandemic, I found that there were more than 160 million people who were stressed and wanted answers and to hold the leaders accountable for their response and actions regarding COVID, and other kitchen-table issues.
Like no other time in history, a record-breaking amount of people cast their vote either in-person, early voting, or by mail-in ballots. Nearly 160 million Americans spoke loud and clear. The reaction around the world showed we were heard and we wanted answers.
As I reflect on my first ever major election, I felt a sense of pride to be a part of the change. I realized that it does matter and will make a difference when you vote. I also learned that women of color and young adults (Gen Z) played a pivotal role in the election of President-Elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-Elect Madam Kamala Harris. Just knowing the Gen Z who were not interested in the 2016 elections or anything political was ready for the change in 2020 filled me with hope and joy. It was impressive to see my generation picking up and advocating for change.
Admittedly before the election outcome, I had a slight issue with many of my fellow Gen Z friends. In the days leading up to the election, I remember scrolling through various social media platforms and saw comments such as “my vote doesn’t matter,” “they won’t count my vote anyways,” or “they’re both bad candidates anyways” these comments angered me. I wanted to scream “No! Your vote DOES matter” as loud as I could in hopes they would hear me. These statements were upsetting because my forefathers fought, bled, and died for us to have the right to vote.
I could not possibly believe that after all we have been through as a country, someone who can vote would rather sit by and stay silent. I recall as a little girl my mom taking me to the polling station with her to vote and she would always let me press the button after she made the selection. When I turned 18 I remember my mom taking pictures of me registering to vote as proof that I was gaining a bigger responsibility as an American citizen. Based on my mother’s beliefs and the principles that she instilled in me, I fully believe all eligible Americans should be active in all elections both state, local, and national.
As a young black woman growing up in America, I realized that when I vote, it wasn’t just about or for me. When I pressed the button in 2020 to cast my ballot, I voted for my ancestors who wouldn’t even dream of having the right to vote. I voted for those who paved the way for women to vote, for my future children, my reproductive rights, my rights to affordable health care, and for basic women’s rights to be protected. I voted for marriage equality for everyone because I believe that no one should be told who they can and cannot love. Love is love and it will always win.
As I cast my ballot, I voted for my mother, my little sister, my aunts, my grandmothers, and my grandfathers. I voted for education quality. Lastly, my ballot was also cast in honor of the 220,000+ Americans who could not make it to see Election Day due to losing their lives to the COVID pandemic.
If the results of an election will not affect you in any way possible, then I strongly encourage you to look around at your peers, neighbors, family members, and friends. Cast your vote for them. It will always be part of my mission to exercise our fundamental rights, register and inform others to do the same, and be a part of the change. I will always vote and so should you. | https://medium.com/@amelie-rousseve/2020-what-a-year-3d7f7066af09 | ['Amelie L. Rousseve'] | 2020-12-17 10:50:54.338000+00:00 | ['Voting', 'Young People', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Politics'] |
Dr. Will Sassman Highlights How Advanced Degrees Can Boost Your Career | Dr. Will Sassman Highlights How Advanced Degrees Can Boost Your Career
With over 33% of American adults having a four year college degree, having something that helps you stand out is one of the best ways to launch your career. Dr. Will Sassman, the VP of Finance for Overdraft Control, and Adjunct Professor at International Christian College, is very adamant about the importance of graduate studies. Having both a master’s and a Ph.D himself, Dr. Sassman now helps students work towards their own degrees. Below, Dr. Sassman highlights ways that advanced degrees can boost your career prospects.
Advanced Degrees Improve Your Prospects of Being Hired
Having a master’s degree or a PhD from an accredited institution is one of the quickest ways to make your résumé stand out from the pack. With having an undergraduate degree now feeling like a rite of passage rather than a luxury, having an advanced degree appeals to employers. Having that accreditation on your résumé can open doors that you never previously even knew existed. Will Sassman explains that these degrees give you an advantage and the ability to negotiate better salaries and benefits during the hiring process. The experience that you gain during your time earning your degree helps you provide more value to the company that you are applying to and the degree is evidence of it.
Depending on the industry that you choose to work in, sometimes you are required to earn an advanced degree to even be considered. Lawyers and doctors both require many additional years of education beyond an undergraduate education to be able to practice full time and they are both highly sought after and needed professions.
Advanced Degrees Improve Your Job Security
One advantage of having a post-bachelor’s degree is that you often are able to be more comfortable with your job security. Not only does an advanced degree show that you have more knowledge in a field than others; it also helps to highlight the value you can bring to a company. Additionally, Dr. Sassman notes that even if you were to be let go for financial reasons, you still have greater hiring prospects and a leg up on others in your field.
If you are already working and are interested in going back to school for an advanced degree, some large corporations even provide some funding for employees that qualify and then you can be certain that you will have a job when you have earned your degree from the same company you have worked with.
Advanced Degrees Accelerate Your Career
While a bachelor’s degree can help you to earn a starting position at a company, an advanced degree can help you skip right over those positions and start higher up in the company. Advanced degrees show your value and allow you to either apply for a higher up position or help you to make a case for receiving a raise in your current position. In 2017, an American with a master’s degree earned an average annual salary that was $17,000 higher than those with a bachelor’s degree. When you factor in that you are going to be working for 30 or more years, that difference in salary very quickly surpasses the costs of advanced degrees.
Additionally, master’s degrees and Ph.D’s both require a level of networking that is not often found in undergraduate programs. This networking allows for an individual to make connections within their field of study and they can lean on those connections when their job hunt begins.
Will Sassman concludes that advanced degrees are a major advantage within the professional world and taking the time to achieve one will be beneficial to your success in the long run. | https://medium.com/@DrWilliamSassman/dr-will-sassman-highlights-how-advanced-degrees-can-boost-your-career-1db4862a6d76 | ['Dr. William Sassman Ii'] | 2020-01-14 20:18:08.891000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Self Worth', 'Future', 'Employment'] |
Home Deep Cleaning Services in Aundh, Pune | S3 Care Services — All types of Cleaning Solutions for your Home and Office
For being healthy, a hygienic environment is essential in your home. With the help of cleaning professionals, you can deep clean your house correctly and creates a completely sterile environment. If you are in Pune and looking for the best top-class home cleaning services, there are a lot of professional cleaning services available in Pune. S3 Care Services is a renowned company in cleaning services and registered as the top-rated cleaning services company in Pune for many years. Nowadays, many service providers put their best efforts with their prior experience to give the best cleaning service.
Components of house/home cleaning service
Cleaning of Bathroom including tub, mirrors, toilets, bathroom baseboard, hand wipe, shower tracks, and the exterior part of washrooms
Mop down the surface, vacuum all rooms, clean doors, windows, and sliding glass doors.
Kitchen cleaning includes cleaning the sink, stovetop, table, interior and exterior of microwave, cleaning kitchen walls and surfaces that become oily and dirty, and body of refrigerator and oven.
Cleaning of ceiling fans, walls, and floor surfaces of the whole house.
Services Covered by us in Home Cleaning.
Floor Cleaning: We use disinfecting chemicals and machinery equipment to remove the deep layer of dust from the floor surface.
We use disinfecting chemicals and machinery equipment to remove the deep layer of dust from the floor surface. Cleaning of Toilet and Bathroom: We do deep scrubbing of bathrooms, disinfect & sanitize it properly.
We do deep scrubbing of bathrooms, disinfect & sanitize it properly. Clean All Surfaces: Its surface, including steel, wooden, and glass of furniture and floor.
Its surface, including steel, wooden, and glass of furniture and floor. Walls & Ceiling: In the entire house, we remove dust from all the walls and ceiling.
In the entire house, we remove dust from all the walls and ceiling. Kitchen Cleaning: Clean all the parts of the kitchen, including all furniture and electrical textures.
Clean all the parts of the kitchen, including all furniture and electrical textures. Window Cleaning: All of all the glass doors and windows in the house with proper care.
All of all the glass doors and windows in the house with proper care. Other Cleaning:Cleaning of electrical appliances, ceiling fans, switchboards, etc.
https://www.s3deepcleaningpune.com/home-and-office-deep-cleaning-services-in-aundh.php | https://medium.com/@jayeshos00/home-deep-cleaning-services-in-aundh-pune-169fd6643657 | [] | 2021-12-22 09:21:43.515000+00:00 | ['Cleaning', 'Cleaning Services', 'Cleaning Company'] |
The Best Podcasts for Entrepreneurs | Anna Macko | Entrepreneurship | In this day and age, many of us are working on our own startups, which means we’re always learning something new. Every startup founder knows that to move forward, you have to learn — or re-learn — every day. That’s why podcasts are the best way to get your learn on. Entrepreneurs can listen while driving, working out, or just killing time around the house.
If you enjoy watching TED talks, you’re in for a treat. “The TED Radio Hour” is hosted by TED curator Chris Anderson and brings you enlightening ideas from today’s most fascinating thinkers, doers, and dreamers. They cover topics such as health, art, design, science, literature, and music. It is a great way to learn about things you didn’t know you were interested in and will challenge your thoughts.
No list of inspiring podcasts would be complete without the man, the myth, the legend: Tim Ferriss. If you’re looking to become more successful in your life and career, listen to this podcast where he interviews high-performing people from different industries about how they beat stress, maintain their cognitive function, and more. He also discusses tips, tactics, and tools on how you can do the same.
This show takes a look at the hidden side of everything. Host Stephen Dubner will surprise you with interesting ideas and information that you never knew about topics including economics, business, politics, etc. This podcast will give an entrepreneur an open mind and well-rounded perspective of the industries they work in.
Pay Flynn’s popular podcast is all about entrepreneurs who use the Internet to generate passive income. Specifically, he focuses on “online businesses that will function whether or not you’re involved at any given moment.” Flynn also gives his own experiences and knowledge in order to give you a hand-up by explaining some of the tactics you can use to make money from home.
These days, there is no shortage of high-quality podcasts for entrepreneurs. Use this list to get started on your own entrepreneurial journey. You’ll be surprised by how much you will learn in a year if you listen to one episode of a podcast each day — you’ll be a changed person! | https://medium.com/@anna_macko/the-best-podcasts-for-entrepreneurs-anna-macko-entrepreneurship-7153b5b166f2 | ['Anna Macko'] | 2021-08-10 17:32:38.712000+00:00 | ['Podcasting', 'Anna Macko', 'Business', 'Podcast', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
IGBT And Super Junction MOSFET Market Is Expected To Reach USD 10.74 Billion By 2020 | IGBT And Super Junction MOSFET Market Is Expected To Reach USD 10.74 Billion By 2020 Gaurav Shah Dec 2, 2020·2 min read
The global IGBT And Super Junction MOSFET Market is expected to reach USD 10.74 billion by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. The need for high energy efficiency coupled with green initiatives is expected to be the key market driver over the forecast period. Changing consumer preferences have led to high demand for electric vehicles, which is also expected to drive power electronics adoption, and thus the IGBT & super junction MOSFET market.
The data center market has witnessed growth, which has spurred data center UPS market growth across organizations. High renewable energy demand has led to increased installation of wind turbines, which is expected to favorably impact the global market. The availability of alternatives to these products may restrain market growth over the next six years. Growing smart grid infrastructure is expected to serve as a considerable growth opportunity for companies operating in the market.
Click the link below:
http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/igbt-and-super-junction-mosfet-market
Further key findings from the study suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/igbt-and-super-junction-mosfet-market-4e5d4984c72c | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-12-02 10:09:23.677000+00:00 | ['Consumer Electronics', 'Lighting', 'Industrial', 'Charger', 'Semiconductors'] |
Sikoba July 2020 — Update. July was a very busy month for Sikoba… | July was a very busy month for Sikoba: we announced two partnerships and released a new version of the SikobaPay mobile app. We also made significant progress on the web interface, published new online user documentation and worked on the blockchain layer.
In particular:
we announced a future listing on the ProBit exchange;
we announced a partnership with De Kär, operators of the Beki regional currency;
we announced a partnership with Libranzas Group SAS, to launch the Te Fía micro/nano-credit project in Bogotá, Colombia;
we released the v0.4.4-beta version of sikobaPay, which includes more efficient language handling. This version also added a Vietnamese version, bringing the list of supported languages to 15. Here they are:
Languages currently supported by sikobaPay
First version of sikobaPay user documentation
Kate, our Product Manager, has published the first version of the sikobaPay user documentation at https://sikoba-docs.netlify.app. It has been created using Docusaurus and looks very professional!
Sikoba web interface
We have known from the beginning that some business users will need to manage large numbers of connections, credit lines and IOUs. A web interface that takes advantage of the larger screen on laptops and computers is therefore necessary. So far we have been able to implement all the features of the mobile app in the web interface, and have started to add additional features such as bulk creation of credit lines.
Work on new designs
Roman has been busy working on new designs for the mobile app, here are some examples of the work-in-progress. Some of this will be implemented in future releases.
Work on blockchain layer: testing Babble
We have done some stress testing with Babble, and are preparing to integrate it with the main Sikoba back-end. Some of the code is on our public GitHub at:
https://github.com/sikoba/sko-public/tree/master/babble_demo
NB our code is currently not open source, we will gradually make it open source after production/mainnet launch. | https://medium.com/sikoba-network/sikoba-july-2020-update-b7872b826325 | ['Sikoba Network'] | 2020-11-19 14:13:38.240000+00:00 | ['Sikobapay', 'Sikoba'] |
Mr. Biden, These Women and Their Accusations Are No Laughing Matter | Mr. Biden, These Women and Their Accusations Are No Laughing Matter
He Could Have Learned From This, But Chose Not To.
I’ve been watching the controversy surrounding former Vice President Joe Biden and inappropriate touching from a distance, listening to the fascinating differences of opinion between the young and old that highlighted a clear, deep cultural divide. Mr. Biden is somewhat notorious for pushing the boundaries of personal space with both men and women alike, but with a looming presidential bid women are coming forward to tell their own unique and uncomfortable interactions with Mr. Biden.
After Lucy Flores bravely came out with her story of the Vice President smelling her hair and kissing the back of her head, her most ardent defenders were younger women who vehemently agreed that the actions were inappropriate. Yet, there was not a shortage of women within the democratic party that came to Mr. Biden’s defense, even after more women were coming forward with their own uncomfortable personal experiences with the former Vice President.
Among the most notable of his defenders was Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who urged Joe Biden to “join the straight arm club” but insisted that none of this disqualified him. An even more passionate defense came from the actress and activist Alyssa Milano, who said “I believe Joe Biden’s intent has never been to make anyone uncomfortable, and that his kind, empathetic leadership is what our country needs…”
While I am willing to acknowledge that I don’t think Joe Biden had any intention of making anyone feel uncomfortable, that absolutely should not mean he is free and clear of any responsibility for what he’s done. It is the responsibility of someone like him in a position of power and leadership to adapt to the changing times, listen to and validate the voices of those who expressed how he made them feel, learn from it, and make sure the behavior is not repeated again.
For a brief period of time, it looked like that was the approach that Mr. Biden would take. He released a video expressing his intention to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space”. He acknowledged the changing social norms, and insisted that he understood his responsibility to learn from what the women were saying.
That attitude did not seem to last long.
Just two days later, during a speech for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, Joe Biden embraced the union president and made a point of turning to the audience and saying “I want you to know, I had permission to hug Lonnie.” He didn’t leave it there. “By the way, he gave me permission to hug him,” Biden said after putting his arm around a child on the stage.
Mr. Biden’s attitude is not only blatantly disrespectful, but serves as a clear display of privilege coming from someone in a position of power who has never been made to feel the way he made these women feel. Instead of using this situation to engage with people, and amplify the voices of women who he could learn from, Biden has been emboldened by his defenders and has decided to make light of what he’s done and how these women feel. But should any of us really be surprised, considering the toxic culture of the good old boys that Biden and other men are so deeply entrenched in? He has proven himself to be yet another man pretending to be evolved and willing to listen, who doesn’t hesitate to drop the facade as soon as he gets some support.
Personally, I have had enough and I’m sure I’m not alone. Had he followed through with his promise to learn from the circumstances he found himself in, I’m sure many of us would have gotten past this. He chose not to do that. In the days leading up to his almost inevitable announcement of a presidential campaign, Biden is doing himself no favors and I welcome that. Please Mr. Biden, continue to show us your true colors. Let us see the kind of person you really are. It will make our 2020 decision that much easier.
There is nothing funny about women in a professional environment, or any environment for that matter, being put in the circumstances that they’ve had to deal with. Women should never be subjected to actions that demeaning and have the courage to come forward, only to be mocked by the person responsible who swore he’d understood how his actions were problematic. I stand by all women who have the courage to come forward. | https://xlauren-mx.medium.com/mr-biden-these-women-and-their-accusations-are-no-laughing-matter-18f508626366 | ['Lauren Elizabeth'] | 2019-04-07 20:58:36.435000+00:00 | ['2016 Election', 'Government', 'Feminism', 'Women', 'Politics'] |
Q&A: David Gurian-Peck, Vice President of Subscription Growth & Planning at The New York Times | Q&A: David Gurian-Peck, Vice President of Subscription Growth & Planning at The New York Times
This week, The Idea caught up with David Gurian-Peck about subscription strategy and what he looks to for inspiration.
Can you tell me about yourself and your role at The Times?
I oversee our subscription growth strategy. As the name suggests, it means I’m lucky enough to work on any number of projects affecting the growth of our subscription business, which is the most important area for the company going forward. Specifically, my team is focused on our pricing strategy, which is the different prices and discounts we have in the market, and the bundling strategy, which are the different packages we put together. We also help identify and size any other major opportunities that can help grow the number of subscribers we have and the amount of subscription revenue. It’s a deeply quantitative and strategic role that works very closely with the operational team, who is actually executing against our strategy.
As for my background, I’ve been at the Times now for a little over five years in a variety of roles. They have all revolved around that same theme, combining strategy and quantitative rigor with a focus on the subscription business.
You started this team — what was its genesis?
We really wanted some of that strategic and quantitative rigor fully dedicated to the subscription business. We’ve had a company strategy team for a while, but the head of Consumer Revenue at that time, who became my boss, wanted an opportunity to bring that detailed quantitative understanding of the different business drivers into the team and have it not as an outside, internal consulting type of team but really as part and parcel of the operation. We started with a focus on pricing strategy and have expanded its scope in size over the past few years to tackle more projects related to the growth of the subscription business. It started as just me, and now it’s a team of me plus three others.
Can you talk a little bit about how your team approaches pricing and discounting strategy?
First is understanding the business objective we’re trying to achieve, and so in our case, we’re very clear that our number one focus is continuing to scale our subscription business. We have our sights on getting to 10 million subscriptions by 2025, up from the 4.7 million we have today. At the same time, it can’t just be purely about the volume of subscriptions, but also making sure we have sustainable economics behind that. So a lot of the work is understanding the trade-off between volume and long-term revenue prospects.
The second piece is understanding what works well and what can drive volume and long-term revenue. That means we’re doing a whole host of experiments that broadly revolve around understanding consumer psychology. For example, what makes people more likely to click on one package versus another? Or, what makes an effective introductory offer? That’s the type of testing and analysis that my team and a lot of the teams here have been working on.
Could you give an example of some of the experiments you’ve done or the kinds of insights you’ve gotten from experimentation?
A few years ago, we had a lot of really rich short-term discounts, maybe 99 cents for one month or 99 cents for three months. At the time, they were pretty effective at getting people to subscribe, but as you might expect, the retention on those types of offers was poor. One of the first things I did in this role was switch the focus to offers that not only work well in getting people in the door, but also retaining for the long-term and maximizing long-term lifetime value.
Another thing we’ve been doing is trying to test and understand the full willingness to pay for The New York Times. We have had a lot of success at the lower end with an offer we’ve had in the market now for the past year, where it’s a dollar a week for the first year and then stepping up to full price [$143/year for a one-year, basic digital subscription].
What are the most important metrics that you look at to increase subscriber acquisition?
Honestly, everything we do here is built on the bedrock of our journalism and making sure that we’re providing journalism worth paying for. A lot of things we’re looking at are, first and foremost, audience and engagement metrics. How many readers do we have and how frequently are they coming back? How broadly are they reading? This gives us a sense of the health of our reader pool, and then from there we get into increasingly more granular metrics at different points in the user journey. We track how many relationships we’re building by getting people to register, how good we are at converting these different types of readers to paying subscribers, and how well we are retaining and monetizing them.
User journey and building direct relationships has been a major focus for us over the past year, so we’ve focused on getting people to register as opposed to having a large pool of anonymous readers we don’t know. We have teams here focused on understanding the right combination of incentives and friction to get people to register: How many articles do we offer for free? What types of articles? How is that messaged?
How you think about the bundling strategy for different subscription products?
We want to align the bundles with the value that consumers are going to receive. We also want to set them up to take advantage of the broader demand curve and different willingness to pay for different subscription products.
For example, back in 2011, our initial digital subscription bundling strategy was really based around devices, so there was one price if you wanted access to the Times on the web and the smartphone app, and it was a different price for web and the tablet app. Since then, we’ve realized that’s not really how modern media subscription businesses are set up.
A couple of years ago, we shifted focus to the different services that we have. That means we have our basic digital access package that includes pretty much all of the standard news content, and then additional packages based on incorporating other stand-alone subscription products (NYT Cooking, NYT Crossword). It also means adding the ability for additional people to log in and access the Times and things like that which are aligned with the value that we’re offering to readers.
How you decide what content is subscriber-only and what is accessible to non-subscribers as well?
We’re trying to build out a host of related subscription businesses. It all starts from user need and building a product worth paying for, which we’ve seen with Cooking and Crosswords. We’ve launched Parenting, so it’s the next vertical in that vein, and we have teams focused on trying to figure out what comes next. Ultimately, we’re building a lifestyle suite of products and figuring that if each of them are successful businesses on their own — things that people want to engage with, have a daily habit and subscribe to — then we can also find ways to bundle them together in different combinations.
Broadly, we play in areas where there is an opportunity for a degree of reader habit, where we see a need in the market, and where we feel that we have differentiation and brand permission where it makes sense to enter that space. So, cooking is one clear example where we had all of these recipes, a rich history and a rich brand in that space, but not the digital product and user experience to match it. So the team there built this incredible product, which I love and use all the time, with a great user experience around those recipes and that has now turned into a highly successful subscription business.
How do the Times’ new initiatives around TV and streaming with shows like The Weekly and Modern Love fit into the subscription strategy?
What’s great about a number of things that we’ve done along those lines over the past year or two is that they’re potential businesses in their own right. Advertising businesses, such as in the case of The Weekly or The Daily podcast, are also opportunities to tell the story of The New York Times and help people understand what we do, why it’s important, and why that’s worth paying for. So all of those are really helpful extensions of our brand and getting the Times in front of more people, which are things that we ultimately believe will help us reach more subscribers towards that 10 million subscription goal.
How does your team think about international audiences?
We know international is going to be a big part of that incremental subscription growth, as it is today. Today, international is about 16% of our subscriber base. We see a lot of untapped potential given the number of educated English-speaking people around the world interested in high-quality news and journalism. For us, it’s about making sure we have the product experience that’s going to highlight the content that’s most relevant for these types of readers. There are obviously differences there by market, as well as the right pricing based on the individual market dynamics as well as our place within that market.
Are there trends or new technologies that you’re excited about as they relate to subscription strategy?
One thing that’s great in the broader industry context is the growing focus on subscription businesses. Whether it’s large media platforms that have decided that advertising is not sustainable, or all the new subscription services, there is a general recognition that content should be worth paying for and of the value of aligning the business with the readers that you’re serving. Ultimately, that’s going to be helpful to build the broader market for paid news and paid journalism. We view those largely not as threats but as opportunities helping grow that market.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve seen in media from organization other than your own?
I look to two things for inspiration. One, knowing that we have the largest digital news subscription business today, we’re often looking at what other larger subscription businesses are doing. What can we learn from the Netflixes, Spotifys, Amazons, Apples of the world? Two, what some of the younger, digitally-native content companies are doing, where subscription is built into the business model and the products from the get go. I look at things like The Athletic, The Information, and Stratechery, which are really all built around those direct relationships and the subscription business. I think there’s a lot those companies can teach us as well. | https://medium.com/the-idea/q-a-david-gurian-peck-vice-president-of-subscription-growth-planning-at-the-new-york-times-ce5cd99ac0b3 | ['Saanya Jain'] | 2019-09-03 16:34:28.811000+00:00 | ['Subscriber Spotlight', 'Subscription', 'Journalism', 'New York Times'] |
GovTech Solutions Series: Building a Truly Smart Community | Principle Four: Provide Security and Transparency
Our newest GovTech Solutions Series paper, which discusses the fourth principle of creating a truly smart community is available today.
Smart communities build systems with robust security to prevent access by bad actors and are open and transparent about their rules for using the data.
Consumer awareness of, and concerns about, data privacy and security are higher than ever. In one recent consumer survey, 85 percent of respondents reported that cybersecurity and privacy risks are among the biggest risks facing society today. In another, 28 percent of Americans are not confident at all that the federal government can keep their personal information safe and secure from unauthorized users.
The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors — especially those used by governments in infrastructure — vastly increases the data about our everyday actions and movements to which governments have access. Combining individual data about movements and actions with data on each about online habits, consumer preferences, personally identifiable details, and more opens a Pandora’s box of potential issues that could further erode personal privacy. Without careful planning, citizens are unlikely to trust government use of personal data collected from smart community efforts.
There are several things that government CIOs and technology professionals can do to meet the fourth principle while building smart communities.
· First, systems designed to capture and collect data must have the highest level of end-to-end security possible.
· Second, government professionals managing these systems must receive robust data security training.
· Third, its essential to plan systems that rely on metadata and patterns to make decisions and changes (not individual movements and actions).
· Fourth, complete transparency with the citizens of the community is paramount.
You can read the full paper here. If there are topics you would like to hear about in future GovTech Solutions Series papers, let us know! You can contact us here.
If your government is ready to build a smart community, we would love to help. Contact us today to set up a demo of our Amanda Platform, or to take a preview before we talk, visit our short Amanda product overview video. | https://medium.com/calytera/govtech-solutions-series-building-a-truly-smart-community-506ddff08490 | [] | 2019-08-01 18:19:00.833000+00:00 | ['Data Security', 'Smart Cities', 'Govtech', 'Cybersecurity', 'Data Privacy'] |
You Have To Envision What You Want | Most individuals never consider what they wish in their lives. They live without this knowledge or premeditation and become victims of their own condition. Work is simply about a job — to make do financially. Life becomes a series of troubles like choosing to live someplace because the rent is inexpensive, never realizing how to be in relationships or becoming ineffective parents. The list carries on and on.
See It
Inside you there’s a hungering for more. Is it meaning, contact or a richer understanding of life? No one has ever acquainted such individuals with the concept of perpetual possibility. “As a man thinketh, so is he.” A major mode to manifesting the life you wish is to think over what you wish out of life. What is it that you wish to do with your life?
A great exercise is to take a sheet of paper and put down the answers to the accompanying questions:
What is my deepest want?
What would I like to achieve in my lifetime?
What would I like to achieve this year?
Where would I wish to be in five years?
Where would I wish to be twenty years?
What am I great at?
Check into all fields of your life:
Your line of work
Your Relationship
Your Wellness
Your Financial state of affairs
How you have fun ( how you spend your vacations)
After you’ve put down a list of what you wish to achieve in your life, you’ll need to set priorities for them. Simply take the list that you put down and provide every topic 1–5 points. 1 becoming the least crucial to five points becoming the most.
Now you’ve priorities in your life, which will help you determine where you wish your attention to be. It’s an easy equation: comprehend simply that you wish to spend most of your time with the number 1 matter on your list. Spend somewhat less time with the number 2 entry on your list — and so forth for numbers 3 through 5.
There’s no need to slice the day into time slots. Just by doing this exercise you’re programming your consciousness to spend time harmonizing with your list.
Let’s presume you’d like to discover your life partner in the next 2 years, and that this is your chief goal, at the very top of your list. When you check into your thought process at the end of the day and you discover that you’ve not spent most of your spare time addressing this goal, you’ve a misalignment, and you might never accomplish your goal.
When this occurs merely realize it and correct accordingly. Working all day only to sit down on your couch and watch television won’t get you where you wish to be.
You have to take action to manifest your goal(s), for instance:
Take action by signing on for class
Enroll in a weekend seminar on a matter that fascinates you
Go to a workshop that centers on your interest
Spend time at places where you are able to meet individuals
If your goal happens to be that you wish to be a millionaire inside 5 years, and you’re spending only 5 minutes of your time every day to achieve this goal, then don’t be surprised if your financial state of affairs never alters.
There’s another crucial aspect of manifestation here that calls for consistency. Let’s presume you’ve made your priority list and everything on your list feels great up to now.
It’s really crucial that you’re in emotional concord with your goals — they have to feel correct to you. If you merely make goals in your mind that are not useful to you then you’ll discover yourself having a difficult time working to accomplish them. What occurs with most individuals scenario is that they’ve a goal that feels correct for them, then they begin working at their goal.
Put differently, they place their attention into making their goal a fact. A couple of weeks go by and nothing occurs. Now dismay kicks in and the goal for some reason appears unreachable, the motivation is down to zilch. This is the point where you have to feel your dismay. Don’t simply place it away or discount it — face it as totally and consciously as you are able to.
This may be unpleasant for you however it will help you get nearer to your goal. How is this? When you wish to alter your reality you evidently have to do something differently than what you’ve done previously. So this is where the truth check comes in. You look around and can’t see any change. But changes might have already happened in your thinking and conduct.
You might have set matters in motion that you can’t yet see. Dismay sets in when you presume that matters ought to be happening sooner than you’re ready for them. Remember — there are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic time frames. So feel your dismay and let it resolve. View what you’ve done and realign your strategies. If one way doesn’t lead to success don’t quit at that point — merely attempt another.
If you stick with a goal you’ll accomplish it. Occasionally you might push too hard when you simply have to let go and take the pressure off. You question yourself at this point, trusting there’s nothing you are able to achieve. Go to the place in your brain where you know you can’t bomb. Reading a book or viewing a motivational movie might help to get you realigned with your mighty source. | https://medium.com/@fitlife907/you-have-to-envision-what-you-want-9322333cb5f9 | ['Lindsay Nelson'] | 2020-12-20 01:37:50.258000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Dreams', 'Wealth', 'Wellness', 'Growth'] |
Is Your Hotel Room Safe REALLY Safe to Use? | I was watching TV the other night and saw a teaser for a segment on the upcoming 11 o’clock news. The topic: whether or not your valuables are secure in your hotel room safe.
As an avid traveler and someone who uses room safes myself, I made sure I tuned in to watch it so I could find out what their investigation uncovered and share it with you.
Boy, am I glad I did! I was stunned, to say the least, at what I learned.
Are your valuables safe in a hotel room safe?
It turns out, no, not really.
The TV news team went to 6 hotels across the country and rented hotel rooms. At each hotel, the “guest” put some valuables in the room safe and a little later, called the front desk and told them that they couldn’t retrieve their valuables because their safe wouldn’t open. Could the hotel please send someone to open it for them?
At each place, a hotel employee showed up at the room and identified him/herself. After being let in, s/he went to work on the safe without asking the person who let them into the room for ID to make sure he/she was the registered guest.
How long did it take the hotel employee to open the safe?
In each case, the safe was opened in a matter of seconds.
How did they open the safe without using the 4-digit code or the credit card that you used?
It was surprisingly (and disturbingly) simple. Room safes can be opened 1 of 3 ways:
With a master CODE With a master KEY, or With a master MAGNETIC CARD
O.M.G. I was floored! I didn’t know any of this.
On my recent vacation to Costa Rica, I used the room safe to lock up my valuables which included some cash, my laptop, and my passport.
If someone decided to break into my room safe, s/he would have had more than just my physical valuables; s/he would have had my personal information (such as my full name and date of birth) that could potentially have been used to steal my identity. That would have been a mess, to say the very least.
I am very grateful that the staff at both hotels were honest!
If your valuables are stolen from your room safe, is the hotel liable?
No. Just like with any belongings you keep in your room, the hotel is not liable for the loss or theft of items stored in the room safe.
Any other advice?
If you do opt to use the room safe, do not use a credit card to activate the safe. Credit card scanners can be switched out in order capture the credit card information of unsuspecting people like you and me.
What options do you have for protecting your valuables?
There are a few options:
Use the room safe, with the full knowledge of the risk you are taking. Bring only what is necessary and keep it with you at all times — Bring your license, 1 or 2 credit cards, and your passport (if you are traveling to a foreign country) and keep them on you in your wallet, a travel person. Leave your valuables at home — Don’t bring expensive watches, your diamond engagement ring, or similar expensive items. You won’t need them and they could potentially make you a target for robbery or theft. Use a hotel safe deposit box, if available — Many hotels are removing room safes and are offering guests the option of using a safe deposit box located behind the front desk. If you use one of these safe deposit boxes and your valuable are stolen, the hotel would be liable for your loss.
Now that you know this information, maybe you’ll think twice before using the safe in your hotel room. After all, you have no way of knowing how many hotel employees have access to one (or more) of the tools that could open it.
Have YOU had any issues when using a safe in a hotel room? | https://medium.com/@ATravelingBroad/is-your-hotel-room-safe-really-safe-to-use-3450a626f7be | ['Amy Stark', 'Aka A Traveling Broad'] | 2017-02-22 04:36:21.217000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Hotels', 'Accommodations', 'Hotel Accomodation'] |
Adorable Nazis: product of their time or past their prime? | I adore Hogan’s Heroes.
They do say everything is a product of its time. That includes you and me and everything around us. Hogan’s Heroes is no exception. How the hell do you turn possibly the greatest furnace of pain and suffering the world has ever known into a happy-go-lucky screwball comedy?
I live in New Zealand. When I was a kid back in the ’90s, one of NZ’s national TV channels saw fit to fill its Mon-Fri 7–7:30pm slot with reruns of everyone’s favourite world-war screwball comedy. My family and I absorbed every episode. I adored it! But I’d always felt terrible for Werner Klemperer, the actor playing Colonel Klink. He was such a snivelling, toadying, spineless little creation, wasn’t he. The world formed orderly queues around the block to kick his ass and make him miserable. Child-me felt so sorry for him!
I realise that of the attributes of Hogan’s Heroes most likely to gnaw at the sensibilities of a modern viewer, the treatment of Luftwaffe officers as one-dimensional punching bags is perhaps not uppermost, but at that age, that shit honestly got to me.
Well. A few years ago, I randomly encountered an interview. Within, Klemperer set forth both the record and his feelings. A bit of googling tells me Werner Klemperer, Klink in ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 80 (Published 2000) is that interview, but it’s paywalled, bah. But! The page In Hogan’s Heroes should Col Hogan have protected Col Klink after Germany’s surrender since Klink wasn’t really a bad person? also quotes the bit I’m really after:
Klemperer said in an interview that he had one condition for playing the role of Klink: “If they ever wrote a segment where Klink would come out the hero, I would leave the show.”
Bwuuh? Well! Turns out both he and John Banner, the actor playing Sergeant Schultz, were German Jews. They and also quite a few other actors present (including Julian Clary (Louie LeBeau)) had been through hell in WWII. Klemperer hated the Nazis. He accepted the role of a top German officer only on the express condition that he lose every single time.
And that part of my psyche still ten years old felt a million times better.
Er … I seem to have drifted from the wider point just a tad. Right! Hogan’s Heroes contains plenty more to ruffle the feathers of the easily-er ruffle-able. I believe its biggest controversy, mentioned on Quora by a certain Jon Mixon, is the notion that such a wacky screwball comedy was disrespecting the horrific tragedies and traumas one typically encounters in a world war. I can totally see how it might come across that way. But everything is a product of its time. That includes you and me and everything we like and dislike. I say this not to imply “oh that makes the genuinely horrible shit okay, give it a rest why don’t ya,” although that’s a gnarly bonus, but to relay insight and understanding. The show’s IMDB page, Hogan’s Heroes (TV Series 1965–1971) — IMDb, contains a comment addressing this very point more eloquently than I ever could:
“The problem with Hogan’s heroes is that it has lost its context. People criticize it as a comedy set in a German prisoner of War camp, saying that trivializes the real human tragedies created by the Nazi regime. The thing is, Hogan’s Heroes is not a spoof of prison camps. It’s a spoof of World War II movies and TV shows. It came out in the wake of films like `The Longest Day’, `The Great Escape’, etc. which produced shows like `Combat’, `The Gallant Men’, 12 O’Clock High’, all of which were hyper serious because of the subject matter. Such a trend requires a leavening spoof. And `Hogan’s Heroes’ and `McHale’s Navy’ provided that comic relief. Nobody ever criticized McHale’s Navy for trivializing the Pacific War, any more than they criticized `F Troop’ for not being a documentary about the Old West or `Get Smart’ for not being written by John LaCarre. Why do we indict Hogan’s heroes for being insensitive to the deprivations of the Nazis?”
Enterprising directors were banging out war movies before the war itself had even concluded. By the mid ’60s, there was a vast glut of movies, each desperate to outdo its predecessor in being Gritty and Dark and Realistic. So the people championing Hogan’s Heroes figured, well, why not go in the other direction? Why not a silly wacky screwball comedy?
On a similar note, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie did something similar with spy dramas. The ’80s saw a similar glut of Gritty Gritty Dark Dark spy dramas clogging UK telly, so the comedic duo charged in the other direction, and created the lightest, silliest, fluffiest spy drama in the universe.
❤
Edit: Turns out one of the people put off by Hogan’s Heroes’s depiction of Nazi Germany was my very own grandfather. He was an aeronautical engineer in Scotland during the War, then moved to New Zealand in the early ’60s. He and my mum and their family at the time enjoyed Hogan’s Heroes when and as it originally aired, ’65–’71. He found it a bit distasteful, and felt it trivialised the horrors of war. If one examines the show’s history and the behaviour of its actors, turns out opinion is very much divided on this. The show’s pilot episode included a sixth Hero, a Soviet sergeant called Vladimir Minsk, played by Leonid Kinskey. After the pilot, he vanishes. Turns out Kinskey also did not like the notion of portraying Nazis or Germans as wacky screwball figures of fun. I’m not sure I agree, but I can see where both Kinskey and my grandad were coming from. Takes all sorts to make a world, right? | https://medium.com/@mikey-clarke/adorable-nazis-product-of-their-time-or-past-their-prime-5bfd9f5025ca | ['Mikey Clarke'] | 2020-12-30 00:56:38.095000+00:00 | ['TV Series', 'Nazis', 'Hugh Laurie', 'Comedy', 'Stephen Fry'] |
The Pages of August | Heartiest welcome to the new writers, Iva Hotko and Sneha Mankar who have joined Literary Impulse.
Few new announcements are lines up, do keep checking our social media feeds and join us there for other stories which we share there. Thanks a lot for the support and for sending colours of your life through poems and stories to us.
Literary Impulse sixth edition will be live on the website on the 31st of August.
You can read fifth edition stories here. | https://medium.com/literary-impulse/the-pages-of-august-ba4903793a0f | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-08-28 11:05:13.502000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Literature', 'Letters From Li', 'Literary Impulse', 'Writing'] |
A WebSocket ML Model Deployment | A WebSocket ML Model Deployment
Using a WebSocket service to deploy an ML model
This blog post builds on the ideas started in three previous blog posts.
In this blog post I’ll show how to deploy the same ML model that we deployed as a batch job in this blog post, as a task queue in this blog post, inside an AWS Lambda in this blog post, as a Kafka streaming application in this blog post, a gRPC service in this blog post, and as a MapReduce job in this blog post.
The code in this blog post can be found in this github repo.
Code
Introduction
In the world of web applications, the ability to create responsive and interactive experiences is limited when we do normal request-response requests against a REST API. In the request-response programming paradigm, requests are always initiated by the client system and fulfilled by the server and continuously sending and receiving data is not supported. To fix this problem, the Websocket standard was created. Websockets allow a client and service to exchange data in a bidirectional, full-duplex connection which stays open for a long period of time. This approach offers much higher efficiency in the communication between the server and client. Just like a normal HTTP connection, Websockets work in ports 80 and 443 and support proxies and load balancers. Websockets also allow the server to send data to the client without having first received a request from the client which helps us to build more interactive applications.
Just like other web technologies, Websockets are useful for creating applications that run in a web browser. Websockets are useful for deploying machine learning models when the predictions made by the model need to be available to a user interface running in a web browser. One benefit of the Websocket protocol is that we are not limited to making a prediction when the client requests it, since the server is able to send a prediction from the model to the client at any time without waiting for the client to make a prediction request. In this blog post we will show how to build a Websocket service that works with machine learning models.
Package Structure
To begin, we set up the project structure for the websocket service:
- model_websocket_service (python package for websocket service)
- static (Javascript files)
- templates (HTML templates for UI)
- __init__.py
- config.py (configuration for the service)
- endpoints.py (Websocket handler)
- ml_model_manager.py (class for managing models)
- schemas.py (schemas for the API data objects)
- views.py (web views for the UI)
- scripts (test script)
- tests (unit tests)
- Dockerfile
- Makefle
- README.md
- requirements.txt
- setup.py
- test_requirements.txt
This structure can be seen here in the github repository.
Websockets
Websockets are fundamentally different from normal HTTP connections. They are full-duplex, which means that the client and server can exchange data in both directions. Websocket connections are also long-lived, which means that the connection stays open even when no messages are being exchanged. Lastly, websocket connections are event-based, which means that messages from the server are handled by the client in an “event handler” function that is registered to an event type. The same happens in the server code, which handles events from the client by registering handlers. There are four default events that are built into the Websocket protocol: open, message, error, and close. Apart from these event types, we are free to add our own event types and exchange messages through them.
Installing the Model
To begin working on a Websocket service that can host any ML model, we’ll need a model to work with. For this, we’ll use the same model that we’ve used in the previous blog posts, the iris_model package. The package can be installed directly from the git repository where it is hosted with this command:
This command should install the model code and parameters, along with all of its dependencies. To make sure everything is working correctly, we can make a prediction with the model in an interactive Python session:
from iris_model.iris_predict import IrisModel
>>> model = IrisModel()
>>> model.predict({“sepal_length”:1.1, “sepal_width”: 1.2, “petal_width”: 1.3, “petal_length”: 1.4})
{‘species’: ‘setosa’}
Now that we have a working model in the Python environment, we’ll need to point the service to it. To do this, we’ll add the IrisModel class to the configuration in the config.py file:
class Config(dict):
models = [{
“module_name”: “iris_model.iris_predict”,
“class_name”: “IrisModel”
}]
The code above can be found here.
This configuration gives us flexibility when adding and removing models from the service. The service is able to host any number of models, as long as they are installed in the environment and added to the configuration. The module_name and class_name fields in the configuration point to a class that implements the MLModel interface, which allows the service to make predictions with the model.
As in previous blog posts, we’ll use a singleton object to manage the ML model objects that will be used to make predictions. The class that the singleton object is instantiated from is called ModelManager. The class is responsible for instantiating MLModel objects, managing the instances, returning information about the MLModel objects, and returning references to the objects when needed. The code for the ModelManager class can be found here. A complete explanation of the ModelManager class can be found in this blog post.
Defining the Service
The websocket service is built around the Flask framework, which can be extended to support Websockets with the flask_socketio extension. The Flask application is initialized in the __init__.py file of the package like this:
app = Flask(__name__)
The code above can be found here.
Now that we have an application object, we can load the configuration into it:
if os.environ.get(“APP_SETTINGS”) is not None:
app.config.from_object(“model_websocket_service.config
{}”.format(os.environ[‘APP_SETTINGS’]))
The code above can be found here.
The configuration is loaded according to the value in the APP_SETTINGS environment variable. This allows us to change the setting based on the environment we are running in. Now that we have the app configured we can initialize the Flask extensions we’ll be using:
bootstrap = Bootstrap(app)
socketio = SocketIO(app)
The code above can be found here.
The Bootstrap extensions will be used to build a user interface and the SocketIO extension will be used to handle the Websocket connections and events. With the extensions loaded, we can now import the code that handles the Websocket events, REST requests, and renders the views of the UI:
import model_websocket_service.endpoints
import model_websocket_service.views
The code above can be found here.
Lastly, we will instantiate the ModelManager singleton at application startup. This function is executed by the Flask framework before the application starts serving requests. The models that will be loaded are retrieved from the configuration object that we loaded above.
@app.before_first_request
def instantiate_model_manager():
model_manager = ModelManager()
model_manager.load_models(configuration=app.config[“MODELS”])
The code above can be found here.
With this code, we set up the basic Flask application that will handle the Websocket events.
Websocket Event Handler
With the application set up, we can now work on the code that handles the Websocket events. This code is in the endpoints.py module. To begin, we’ll import the Flask app object and the socketio extension object from the package:
from model_websocket_service import app, socketio
The code above can be found here.
A websocket handler is just a function that is decorated with the @socketio.on() decorator. The decorator registers the function as a Websocket event handler with the Flask framework, which will call the function whenever an event of the type described in the decorator is received by the application. We’ll use the decorator here to handle events of type “prediction_request”, which will handle the prediction requests that clients send to the server.
@socketio.on(‘prediction_request’)
def message(message):
try:
data = prediction_request_schema.load(message)
except ValidationError as e:
response_data = dict(
type=”DESERIALIZATION_ERROR”, message=str(e))
response = error_response_schema.load(response_data)
emit(‘prediction_error’, response)
return
The code above can be found here.
The first thing we do when receiving a message from the client is to try to deserialize it with the PredictionRequest schema. This schema contains the inputs to the model predict() method and also the model’s qualified name. If the deserialization fails, we’ll respond to the client by emitting a prediction error message back to the client using the ErrorResponse schema. The emit() function is provided by the socketio extension and is used to send events to the client from the server.
Now that we have a deserialized prediction request from a client, we’ll try to get a reference to the model from the model manager. The service will emit an ErrorResponse object back to the client system if it fails to find the model that is requested by the client.
model_manager = ModelManager()
model_object = model_manager.get_model(
qualified_name=data[“model_qualified_name”]) if model_object is None:
response_data = dict(
model_qualified_name=data[“model_qualified_name”],
type=”ERROR”, message=”Model not found.”)
response = error_response_schema.load(response_data)
emit(‘prediction_error’, response)
The code above can be found here.
If the model is found, then this code will be executed:
else:
try:
prediction = model_object.predict(data[“input_data”])
response_data = dict(
model_qualified_name=model_object.qualified_name,
prediction=prediction)
response = prediction_response_schema.load(response_data)
emit(‘prediction_response’, response)
except MLModelSchemaValidationException as e:
response_data = dict(
model_qualified_name=model_object.qualified_name,
type=”SCHEMA_ERROR”, message=str(e))
response = error_response_schema.load(response_data)
emit(‘prediction_error’, response)
except Exception as e:
response_data = dict(
model_qualified_name=model_object.qualified_name,
type=”ERROR”, message=”Could not make a prediction.”)
response = error_response_schema.load(response_data)
emit(‘prediction_error’, response)
The code above can be found here.
If the prediction is made successfully by the model, a PredictionResponse object is serialized and emitted back to the client through the ‘prediction_response’ event type. If the model raises an MLModelSchemaValidationException error, the error is serialized and sent back by emitting an ErrorResponse object back to the client. If any other type of exception is raised, a ErrorResponse object is created and sent back to the client.
The Websocket handler that we built in this section is the only one that we need to add to the service in order to expose any machine learning models to clients of the Websocket service. The handler is able to forward prediction requests to any model that is loaded in the ModelManager singleton. The handler is also able to handle any exceptions raised by the model and return the error back to the client.
REST Endpoints
In order to make the Websocket service easy to use, we will be adding two REST endpoints that expose data about the models that are being hosted by the service. Even though the models can be reached directly by connecting to the Websocket endpoint and sending prediction request events, knowing what models are available and data to send into each model is helpful for users of the service.
The first REST endpoint queries the ModelManager for information about all of the models in it and returns the information as a JSON data structure to the client.
@app.route(“/api/models”, methods=[‘GET’])
def get_models():
model_manager = ModelManager()
models = model_manager.get_models()
response_data = model_collection_schema.dumps(
dict(models=models))
return response_data, 200
The code above can be found here.
The second REST endpoint is used to return metadata about a specific model hosted by the service. The metadata returned includes the input and output schemas that the model uses for it’s prediction function.
@app.route(“/api/models/<qualified_name>/metadata”, methods=[‘GET’])
def get_metadata(qualified_name):
model_manager = ModelManager()
metadata = model_manager.get_model_metadata(
qualified_name=qualified_name)
if metadata is not None:
response_data = model_metadata_schema.dumps(metadata)
return Response(response_data,
status=200, mimetype=’application/json’)
else:
response = dict(type=”ERROR”, message=”Model not found.”)
response_data = error_response_schema.dumps(response)
return Response(response_data, status=400,
mimetype=’application/json’)
The code above can be found here.
Using the Service
In order to test the Websocket server we wrote a short python script that connects through a websocket, sends a prediction request, and receives and displays a prediction response. The script can be found in the scripts folder.
The script’s main function connects to localhost on port 80 and sends a single message to the prediction_request channel:
sio = socketio.Client()
def main():
sio.connect(‘http://0.0.0.0:80')
data = {‘model_qualified_name’: ‘iris_model’,
‘input_data’: {‘sepal_length’: 1.1,
‘sepal_width’: 1.1, ‘petal_length’: 1.1,
‘petal_width’: 1.1}}
sio.emit(‘prediction_request’, data)
The code above can be found here.
To receive a prediction response from the server, we register a function that will be called on every message in the “prediction_response” channel:
@sio.on(‘prediction_response’)
def on_message(data):
print(‘Prediction response: {}’.format(str(data)))
The code above can be found here.
To use the script, we first start the server with these commands:
export PYTHONPATH=./
export APP_SETTINGS=ProdConfig
gunicorn — worker-class eventlet -w 1 -b 0.0.0.0:80 model_websocket_service:app
Then we can run the script with this command:
python scripts/test_prediction.py
The script will send the prediction request and then print the response from the server to the screen:
Prediction response: {‘prediction’: {‘species’: ‘setosa’}, ‘model_qualified_name’: ‘iris_model’}
Building a User Interface
In order to show how to use the Websocket service in a real-world client application we built a simple website around the Websocket and REST endpoints that were described above. The user interface leverages the models and metadata REST endpoints to display information about the models being hosted by the service, and it uses the Websocket endpoint to make predictions with the models.
This user interface is similar to the one we built for this blog post, where we showed how to deploy models behind a Flask REST service. We are reusing a lot of the same code here.
Flask Views
The Flask framework supports rendering HTML web pages through the Jinja templating engine. We created an HTML template that displays the model available through the service. The view code uses the ModelManager object to get a list of the model being hosted, then renders the list to an HTML document that is returned to the client’s web browser:
Model List Page
In order to show a model’s metadata, we built a view that queries the model object directly and renders an HTML view with the information:
Model Metadata Page
Both of these views are rendered in the service and do not use the REST endpoints to retrieve the information about the models.
Dynamic Web Form
The last webpage we’ll build for the application is special because it renders a dynamically -generated form that is created from the model’s input schema. The webpage uses the model’s metadata REST endpoint to get the input schema of the model and uses the brutusin forms package to render the form in the browser.
The form accepts input from the user and sends it to the server as a Websocket event of type ‘prediction_request’. The webpage also has a Websocket event listener that is able to render all of the ‘prediction_response’ and ‘prediction_error’ Websocket events that the server emits back to the client. The code for this webpage can be found here.
Prediction Web Form Page
Closing
The Websocket protocol is a simple way to build more interactive web pages that has wide support in modern browsers. By deploying ML models in a Websocket service, we’re able to integrate predictions from the models into web applications quickly and easily. As in previous blog posts, the service is built so that it is able to host any ML model that implements the MLModel interface. Deploying a new ML model is as simple as installing the python package, and adding the model to the configuration of the service. Combining the Websocket protocol with machine learning models is quick and easy if the code is written in the right way. | https://brianschmidt-78145.medium.com/a-websocket-ml-model-deployment-22d73938541b | ['Brian Schmidt'] | 2020-04-05 01:01:48.143000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Software Engineering', 'Data Science'] |
Techs and Teens: The Effects of Social Media on Teenagers | Every generation is characterized by something iconic, whether it be the music of the time, a social movement, or some significant economic event. The generation belonging to the 21st century is characterized by something never seen before: the internet and social media.
Social media has revolutionized the way society communicates and has a number of notable advantages. By using social media, people can connect almost instantly with someone over long distances. It also allows people to stay up to date with current events and follow celebrities, political figures, and
Though social media has given great advantages for communication and information sharing, children that have grown up using social media can be observed to go through some serious repercussions in their development.
Most teens use social for at least nine hours a day, scrolling through pictures, posting videos, and personalizing their content. Sometimes they become dependent on getting their followers approval, so they become vulnerable to harsh comments and bullying. Teenagers susceptible to this can develop mental health issues like social anxiety and depression.
Because interactions on social media are all virtual, teenagers are spending less and less time being with their friends in person. These interactions are, therefore, less meaningful and can lead to a feeling of isolation.
Social media has helped us advance as a society that communicates more efficiently, but the dangers it presents to the upcoming generations should be monitored.
References:
Aacap. (2018, March). Social Media & Teens. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018, May 31). Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
Ehmke, R. (2020, June 16). How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/
Gordon, S. (2020, July 13). How Social Media Negatively Affects the Teen Brain. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.verywellfamily.com/ways-social-media-affects-teen-mental-health-4144769
Lenhart, A. (2015, April 9). Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/
Markey, C. (2019, February 14). Teens, Body Image, and Social Media. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smart-people-don-t-diet/201902/teens-body-image-and-social-media
Teens and social media use: What’s the impact? (2019, December 21). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teens-and-social-media-use/art-20474437 | https://medium.com/fiu-news-visualization/techs-and-teens-the-effects-of-social-media-on-teenagers-bab44f8dbc6f | ['Giuliana La Mendola'] | 2020-12-08 16:36:01.305000+00:00 | ['Teens And Social Media', 'Mental Health', 'Social Media', 'Internet', 'Teens'] |
Soot Semee: How Community-Centred Media Is Bridging Information Gap In Uganda Refugee Camp | Soro’s most favorite programme on Soot Semee is the news,.. health issues falls second.
Soot Semee’s programmes include news, covid-19 updates, health and environment, education, Life style, and Economy.
Soro loves listening to accurate and reliable news updates within refugee settings, Uganda and also about his country, South Sudan.
Soro is a refugee from war-torn South Sudan. He fled his country in 2018 and settled in Uganda’s Omugo refugee settlement.
It is in this camp that he regularly listens to Soot Semee, a community-centred media programme that provides weekly audio programmes to refugees.
32-year old Soro recalled that ‘a communication vacuum’ existed in the camp when he first came. There was very limited sustainable communication medium, he says.
He had been struggling to access trusted information or updates about what was transpiring within and outside the camp.
Though settled in a peaceful camp, Soro was information-wise unsettled. He lacked radio at the time while his phone had difficulty in internet connectivity.
“We could mostly depend on unverified rumours”, says Soro, a father of 4.
“We were moving blindly. Our leaders and others used to come and tell us what was going to happen. But that was very limited”, he says.
In his new home of Omugo refugee settlement, the struggle for effective communication medium has been one of the baffling challenges.
Mobile speakers, megaphones, posters, local leaders and community centers were some of the most common sources on which refugees depend for accurate information.
Soot Semee is a project of Community Development Centre — Uganda, with support from Health Communications Resources — HCR UK.
The name Soot Semee is in simple Arabic and literally translates into English as ‘good voice’ which is a voice of compassion. The pilot project is presently responding to access to accurate and reliable information challenges in the refugee settlement.
Soro is one of the 11,000 refugees in village four of Omugo listening to Soot Semee programme on weekly basis. The refugees are in listening groups of 10 members.
Over 110 speakers were distributed to listening groups from both the refugees and members of the host community. Soro’s group, Iyete, got one speaker box. Iyete is in Bari language and translates as ‘thanks’. Iyete is one of the 100 listening groups.
The weekly audio programme is made up of mixed episodes including news, covid-19 updates, music, drama, community service announcements, poems, talkshow and interviews.
The diverse community volunteer reporters gathered content and produced from various stakeholders not limited to the refugees, natives, local leaders and service providers.
The reporters are from both refugees and indigenous community. They work collectively to produce the episodes in simple Arabic and Lugbara languages so that both communities, including that of Soro, will listen to.
It’s been twelve months since the project first launched its episode in January, 2020. So far 49 episodes have been produced.
Soro highlights Soot Semee’s transformation in his community in the areas of health, education, peace building, human rights and so on.
“I can see changes”, agrees Ondoma Benard, a member of the host community, adding that a bond of social cohesion, peaceful coexistence and economic growth is flourishing.
“Some of our members (natives) have given land to refugees, now they (refugees) are digging it”.
Pandemic response
In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic spread to Uganda. Information about the virus was critical in the fight.
In refugee settlements, various stakeholders ignited massive combat campaigns.
Soot Semee has been engaging the stakeholders not limited to service providers to combat misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic and other socio-economic effects.
The service providers, through Soot Semee program, freely give out their messages to the refugees and host community.
Gaba lives with Soro in the same camp. “By then, we were staying anyhow and in complete darkness. We could hear a lot of rumours. Most of them were false“,
In May 2020, the World Food Programme rolled out a 30% food ratios reduction plan to 1.4 million refugees in Uganda.
“This disease (covid-19) has increased peoples stress”, says Fekira Joyce, a refugee trauma healing specialist, in one of the Soot Semee episodes.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Soro and his group could gather together and listen to the programme.
Soot Semee is “adapting to current developments of responding to covid-19”, says Barnabas Samuel, CDC’s Development Program Manager.
To maintain social distance, Barnabas says the beneficiaries increase open the speaker volume so that they ‘now listen to it from wherever they are being played’.
“It is very important that we take measures given by the government seriously, so that our people are safe, our communities are safe at this time”.
Each time, the audio programme is loaded in memory cards so that refugees and the indigenous community listen to it in the speakers.
However, Soro’s Iyete group is among those facing some challenges with the speakers — charging difficulties and breakdowns. Alternatively CDC responded by establishing a power charging point.
“We are very grateful. People have been facing this power problem”, said Joseph Edoru, vice chairperson of the Refugees Welfare Council — RWC during a handover of the equipment.
Edoru’s RWC cabinet with the Soot Semee volunteer reporters do regular supervision and monitoring of the speakers and their usage.
On the other hand, a local technician has been putting back speakers that broke down. CDC also provided some additional speakers to fill some gaps.
For Soro, Soot Semee needs to ‘grow and expand to a radio station’ so that people can widely listen to it at any time they wish. | https://medium.com/@lemeriallison/soot-semee-how-community-centred-media-is-bridging-information-gap-in-uganda-refugee-camp-84b15f35488 | ['Alison Lemeri'] | 2020-12-21 12:54:33.579000+00:00 | ['Uganda', 'Refugees', 'Writing', 'Community Media', 'Covid 19'] |
D/W; Children Need Friends Now More Than Ever | Students are lacking community right now. During the most development times in their lives, they are clicking between tabs in their browser, making their way into the next online class. In the day-to-day of their online learning, it has become very clear to parents that there is something wrong.
Students aren’t really making friends. The life-long tradition of whispering during class, and passing notes around doesn’t work anymore, and teachers have learned how to disable private chats in their Zoom calls. School has become a place for learning exclusively now, and interpersonal development has been secondary and minimized.
This is a key issue that we are thinking about at DailiesPods. Whenever you sign your child up for classes at DailiesPods, we are matching you with a teacher that works best for your student, in a community full of other students that will expand your child’s mind and maximize their learning. We encourage our students to work independently, in pairs, and as a group to ensure that they are making friends, having fun, and learning. Although traditional education may be struggling to keep up with the evolving needs of our students, we want to assure you all that at DailiesPods, the intellectual and emotional needs of your students are always at the top of our minds.
If this is something that interests you, check out this link here to our Holiday Promo. We promise you won’t be disappointed.
https://dailiespods.com/holiday-class-gift/?dp_ref=DAILIES&dp_source=post&dp_medium=share&dp_campaign=holiday_family_free_class | https://medium.com/@dailiesapp/d-w-children-need-friends-now-more-than-ever-213ef0a5e3c6 | ['Dailies Pods'] | 2020-12-18 17:52:53.077000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Online', 'Teachers', 'Learning', 'Parents'] |
Vertical Community Integration | I recently started volunteering in my community and saw how much of a need there was for people to help others and be involved. Some volunteering I did included tutoring adults preparing for ACT and GED exams at my local library and helping with food distribution at my local food pantry. I couldn’t help but think a lot of these people could use more help than some tutoring and food, although I believe some book knowledge and bread does go a long way. I realized a lot of the recipients of these charitable services could also use assistance with things like job placement, social skills, encouragement, and above all, someone they could talk to. Many of them could use a friend. A friend who is not necessarily like them because chances are they already know people like them. Someone who can teach them new things and someone whom they could teach things to.
I also felt a need for human connection, which is why I started volunteering. However, I found it difficult to network and connect with people receiving charitable services. When I tutor or distribute food I am in a more authoritative position than they are. Asking if they would like to discuss matters other than the tutoring material or food distribution didn’t seem very professional.
That was my eureka moment. All the friction that lies between us and other groups is a mere social construct. We are told that we should stay within our own social class and groups for some strange reason. We are shamed and even shunned when we befriend someone less fortunate than us. Social media, which is suppose to connect us, exacerbates the problem, bubbling us into our own like minded circles and as a consequence polarizes society.
When we connect with a broad range of people and ideas, we increase social capital for everyone. The exchange of benevolence enriches all of us. Which is why I am proposing a new social networking idea that improves our communities and doesn’t divide us. The following is a concept that I would like to implement, if only to connect with people in my own community and make it a better place.
Vertical Community Integration (VCI) is a pragmatic approach to increase social and economic mobility, and to enrich communities with lasting and fulfilling relationships by connecting people from different economic backgrounds, education levels, race, age, social status and class. As a result, VCI will reduce poverty and loneliness while increasing trust and cooperation between our communities thereby improving overall society.
Problem:
Modern society and social norms make it difficult to connect with people, especially from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In a stratified society with little communication, empathy, and knowledge sharing between different socioeconomic groups, barriers to socioeconomic mobility emerge due to mistrust and lack of understanding between the groups.
Objectives:
To connect people of different socioeconomic groups with the purpose of increasing the social and economic mobility of people within disadvantaged communities. To create meaningful friendships across social and economic boundaries within society for the mutual benefit of all people participating in VCI.
How It Works:
People participate in VCI to connect with others outside their socioeconomic group. The reasons people may want to join include:
People seeking mentorship and guidance. People wanting to help others with lower socioeconomic status. People wanting genuine friendships and connection. People wanting to learn from different groups and communities.
VCI will provide a website and facility where people can sign up to join. The following is the general information the application will ask for: | https://medium.com/@amgee4/vertical-community-integration-d5125d4fc759 | ['Adrian Gee'] | 2020-12-09 17:52:00.249000+00:00 | ['Networking', 'Social', 'Social Media', 'Social Change', 'Charity'] |
Carrington Beckford Is The Elite Trainer Keeping Collegiate Student Athletes Fit During COVID-19 | COVID-19 has drastically shaken the lives of people worldwide. One entity that has been silently suffering is that of collegiate student athletes. As Universities and colleges have shut down due to the pandemic leaving student athletes without an option to train professionally with their teams, coaches and state of the art facilities. Many freshmen have not had the opportunity
to even step on campus, let alone train in a team-like environment. Prior to Thanksgiving, a majority of student-athletes have had to leave campus and head back home for good in order to further prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Athletes that returned to school this past fall have faced the challenges that performing during a pandemic presents.
With many virus scares, and interruptions to training, no one has had a
consistent program running. Some athletes didn’t have the luxury to train with a team. Carrington Beckford the owner of Overdrive Elite training, started sending at home workouts for athletes to do in their dorms to combat the pandemic. Those that were close to home would come on the weekends to speed train with him. To continue to stay open during an ongoing pandemic is not something easily attained but it was something Beckford felt obligated to do to ensure his athletes were well equipped.
How does he ensure the safety of these college athletes during a global pandemic? Overdrive is proud to be within the rare set of performance centers that sustained a safe and successful season during the fall of 2020. There are many keys to his success, but first and foremost, the athlete’s safety was always a priority. Athletes are put in groups of 4–6 based on sport and by the Connecticut COVID-19 protocol, while practicing social distancing, and
limiting the chance of it being spread.
They are working closely with CDC guidelines and governmental health agencies to apply all possible measures to ensure their staff and members are safe. They continually encourage staff and members who feel they may have been exposed to the virus or have concerning symptoms to self-quarantine for 14 days and contact local health authorities. Some of the other measures
put in place include additional cleaning & operational procedures:
• Hospital-grade cleaning products, these procedures include sanitizing all high touch points
(including weights and turf)
• All Overdrive staff wear protective face coverings at all times
• Hand Sanitizer
• Training Distancing
• Deep cleaning after every class and personal facility usage
Beckford is happy to have many of his college athletes’ home and training in the new facility based out of New Canaan, CT. His main goal is to prepare these athletes for a potential spring season. With most not returning until late January or early February, it’s a long period of break for them to be home. It’s important that they maintain and build on what has been set from prior
training. Beckford explains his programming style, “The program is put together in a periodization format on when they’re potentially leaving to head back to school hopefully having a season or spring sport”.
Beckford coaches a wide variety of college athletes ranging from lacrosse, baseball, football, and soccer. His athletes attend schools such as UConn, Stanford, Cornell, Merrimack, USC, University of San Diego, Michigan, Trinity, Brown, Sacred Heart University, Duke, George Town, Yale, Wagner, LIU, and Colgate. In terms of the Spring, Beckford is hopeful that there will
be a season. Some conferences such as the NEC have already announced that a spring season will be taking place. The NEC has also announced that fall sports will be taking place in the spring as well. Beckford explains, “Well, I’m always on the student side so I definitely think they will have a spring season. I believe in our country and the NCAA and I think we will have a cure and a legit plan moving in the right direction by March”.
He continues to explain how huge of an impact this pandemic has on his athletes, “They are strong-minded individuals that are taking this time to better themselves as student athletes. Something we preach and discuss all the time. At the end of the day, they’re kids that need a direction in each category related to being a student athlete. They’re getting after it each and
every day and keeping that competitive edge.” Beckford’s main focus is to not only better an athletes’ strength and performance, but also increase mental strength. His athletes are prepared for anything whether it’s a global pandemic, or stepping out on the field. The atmosphere at Overdrive is what sets them apart from other programs around the Northeast.
He explains that, “If you don’t bring that upbeat energy, competitive edge, willing to learn and that will be better than you were yesterday! You’ll hear it from me and the other athletes! You don’t want to be the bad egg in the gym, trust me!” Overdrive Elite Performance Systems is a highly respected program that’s known to train some of the top athletes in the state of Connecticut. His main message is that he wants members of the Overdrive community to know that their safety is Overdrive’s top priority. He is thrilled to be training some of his best athletes at this time and is hopeful that this will continue into the future!
To learn more about the ways Carrington Beckford is impacting the lives of student collegiate athletes, visit his official website here. | https://medium.com/@brittanyburton129/carrington-beckford-is-the-elite-trainer-keeping-collegiate-student-athletes-fit-during-covid-19-c942ea575d6f | ['Brittany Burton'] | 2020-12-27 01:16:41.188000+00:00 | ['Carrington Beckfor', 'Football', 'Sports', 'Student Athlete', 'Covid 19'] |
Do you think things will ever go back to normal? | More from rstevens Follow
I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans. | https://rstevens.medium.com/do-you-think-things-will-ever-go-back-to-normal-e0595cac9deb | [] | 2020-06-22 03:53:47.802000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Masks', 'Covid 19', 'Comics', 'Quarantine'] |
RAINBOW WALLET：the Most Beautiful Ethereum Wallet to Showcase NFTs | Today’s Pick | Today, NFT4Metaverse recommends the most beautiful Ethereum wallet: RAINBOW WALLET ✨✨✨✨✨
By ABMTF_crypto
Wallet is the most important way to collect and display NFTs, but most wallets currently lack support for NFTs. Therefore, when NFT4Meataverse discovered RAINBOW WALLET, the most friendly Ethereum wallet with NFT support and the most beautiful UI by far, our excitement can be imagined!
Now, we will use Vitalik’s public wallet address to take you a complete journey of the beautiful 🌈👛 ✌️
Vitalik Buterin’s Public Ethereum Address: 0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c5b3259aec9b
For iPhone users, please search for “rainbow wallet” in the Apple App Store to download the application. For Android phone users, please go to the website rainbow.me to leave an email address and wait patiently for the beta test invitation.
Open the application homepage, you can create a new wallet or import an existing wallet (support mnemonic, public key address and ENS address)
After the wallet is created, you can see Balances, Savings, Pools and Colletibles on the homepage, click on any token in Balances, you can send or swap — — OMG, whose balance has a huge sum of US$1.6 trillion? !
Swipe right to enter the left page of the application: it turned out to be Vitalik’s wallet! Below is the transaction history, you can see this wallet is receiving tokens every day!
Swipe left to enter the right page of the application Discover: Top Movers, DefiPulse index, Uniswap and the liquidity pool with leading TVL will show up in a vivid style…
Okay, go back to the homepage and focus on how Rainbow Wallet supports the display of NFT. Click the right button of each item to expand the NFT of that item.
There are a lot of NFTs in Vitalik’s Wallet. After a rough count, there are a total of 41 kinds of 92 NFTs, some of which are collectibles of well-known projects such as CryptoKitties, Axie Infinity, and Enji.
We selected several NFTs and made a Showcase selection for Vitalik 😄
Rainbow Wallet’s display of NFT is very lively and beautiful, and it can also display multimedia NFT, which other wallets have not been able to do so far.
The team announced on Twitter yesterday that the web profile and search functions will be launched this week. The above picture is a bunch of NFTs displayed by searching the Vitalik’s address. We speculate that Rainbow Wallet will strengthen the social function based on NFT, which may be compete with SHOWTIME we recommended before.
About The Team
RAINBOW WALLET is a low-key start-up company located in New York, USA. The team has 4 to 5 people so far. In April 2019, it is converted from a personal financial application Balance, hoping to go all out to bring the decentralized Web to the general public on the Ethereum platform through the portal of wallet in future.
Co-founder and CEO Christian Baroni is a designer who can write a little code. He used to work for Microsoft and Stripe. Co-founder and CTO Jin Chung is a female programmer who used to work at eBay and UBS.
Investment Progress
RAINBOW WALLET has only completed the seed round of investment by Collab+Currency, Digital Currency Group and FinTech Collective.
Website: www.rainbow.me
Twitter: @rainbowdotme
This project above is presented by NFT4Metaverse and see you next time!
References | https://medium.com/@nft4metaverse/rainbow-wallet-the-most-beautiful-ethereum-wallet-to-showcase-nfts-todays-pick-cc50dd1460ae | ['Nft For Metaverse'] | 2021-05-27 03:11:15.595000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Rainbow Wallet', 'Metaverse', 'Nft', 'Wallet'] |
Genaro Network (GNX) Monthly Technical Report — January | January Monthly Report
2020 is going to be a great year, with some breakthroughs in technology and large-scale development after verification ahead. In research and development, we will focus on the research and development of distributed storage protocols for structured data, learn ETH practice to support more verification use of the chain, as well as test and optimize new versions of distributed networks.
This month's focus is public chain development daily maintenance, the team sincerely hopes more & more users will deploy and give us the feedback, meanwhile, we have been developing template contracts to ensure stable use of the storage function. In terms of the storage layer, the function has been expanded, so that the storage can go beyond and isn't limited to the storage functionality itself. It’s the Spring Festival and we wish our friends in China a year of peace and joy.
Public chain layer:
* Public chain routine daily maintenance
* Managing log content and regular reviewing
* Supervisory channels added functions to close and suspend circulation
* Raspberry Pi nodes measured the capacity of different storage SDs, and performed contract execution and control functions
* GSIOP fusion of heterogeneous cross-chain methods, which improves the previous design, mainly reflected in the option of caching through storage methods during atomic transfer
* Multi-hardware network access test for uniqueness of intranet IP and routing address generation id
* Compilation of template smart contracts
* Creation of corresponding user instructions manual
Storage layer:
* New version of bridge experimental test, ip test, ipv6 and ipv4 compatibility issues adjustment
* The protocol buffer is developed in the retrieval method of the original storage provider, and the request method is designed
* The development of image encryption metadata to meet the functions of encrypted photography
* Investigated the bottom layer of J3M and developed its java version
* Handled react and slate issues and debugging
Future Outlook
In 2020 Genaro’s technology exploration, code submission, R&D and practice will never stop in all the aspects including the public chain, storage and mining pool. We look forward to the excellent technology developers start the trial, join the community and exchange ideas with Genaro team and make valuable suggestions regarding our products. For further development updates, please stay tuned to the official media channels of the Genaro Network project.
Breaking News: The first edition of the GSIOP protocol is officially released
On February 20, 2019, Singapore time, Genaro Network, the world’s first smart data ecosystem with a Dual-Strata Architecture, integrating a public blockchain with decentralized storage officially released the first version of the GSIOP protocol. This is not only the product of nearly a year hard work of the Genaro entire team of engineers, but it also marks Genaro’s new milestone in the practical application of cross-chain technology.
Breaking News: G.A.O. (Genaro Alpha One) is officially launched
Genaro Network, the future of Smart Data Ecosystem for DApps, invites you to witness the new era of smart data, empowered by the revolutionary serverless interactive system!
Recommended reading: Genaro public network mainnet officially launched | Community Guide
Download Technical Yellow Paper
Genaro’s latest versions, Genaro Eden and Genaro Eden Sharer, will allow you to store your files in a more secure way and share your unused storage to earn GNX.
Get your Genaro Eden/Sharer for Linux, Windows and MAC OS right now from the official website:
Git source repository is on GitHub>>
Important:
Warm reminder to our community members, please download Genaro Eden ONLY from our official website/GitHub and DO NOT trust any referral links and reposts from anyone, otherwise, we won’t be able to guarantee privacy and security of your data and protect you from scammers.
Genaro Eden — The first decentralized application on the Genaro Network, providing everyone with a trustworthy Internet and a sharing community:
Related Publications:
Genaro’s Core Product Concept
Genaro Eden: Five Core Features
How Does Genaro’s Technology Stand Out?
Genaro Eden Application Scenarios and User Experience
The Genaro Ecosystem
Matthew Roszak Comments on Release of Genaro Eden
About Genaro Network
The Genaro Network is the first smart data ecosystem with a Dual-Strata Architecture, integrating a public blockchain with decentralized storage. Genaro pioneered the combination of SPoR (Sentinel Proof of Retrievability) with PoS (Proof of Stake) to form a new consensus mechanism, ensuring stronger performance, better security and a more sustainable blockchain infrastructure. Genaro provides developers with a one-stop platform to deploy smart contracts and store the data needed by DAPPs simultaneously. Genaro Network’s mission is to ensure the secure migration of the core Internet infrastructure to the blockchain.
Official Telegram Community: https://t.me/GenaroNetworkOfficial
Telegram Community (Russian): https://t.me/GenaroNetworkOfficial_Ru | https://medium.com/genaro-network/2020-01-genaro-network-gnx-monthly-technical-report-january-e4a01119fad0 | ['Genaro Network', 'Gnx'] | 2020-02-01 17:30:38.450000+00:00 | ['Storage', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Database', 'Development', 'Data'] |
Automate Flutter Testing With Github Actions | Overview
When working on a large team, or open-source project, code reviews can get really time-consuming, especially when you have to read through tons of poorly written code. One way to take some of this weight off your back is to set up automated code analysis, formatting, and UI tests.
This tutorial will go through how to setup Github Actions to check code quality, formatting, and run UI tests to validate pull requests.
All code in this repository will be available in template form here: https://github.com/theswerd/flutter-githubactions-testing-template
Prerequisites
Steps
Create a Flutter App in the root directory of the Github repository
flutter create --project-name myapp .
Create a file called analysis_options.yaml . This file will be used to customize the analyzer to make it ignore the flutter dependency installed in the actions.
This should look like this:
analyzer:
exclude:
- flutter/**
Create the Github Action
Github Actions are stored in the .github/workflows folder, so for the tests create a file called: .github/workflows/tests.yaml .
Parts:
Name
The Name is the first part of a Github Actions file, it defines the name of the actions in the file.
name: TEST FLUTTER APP
On
The On section defines when to run the action. This action needs to run whenever a pull request is made, in order to verify the code in it.
on:
push:
pull_request:
branches:
- main
Env
The Env defines the global environment variables for the actions. To make this easily updatable, the Flutter version should be put in an environment variable.
env:
FLUTTER_VERSION: "1.22.1"
Jobs
The Jobs section defines the jobs that will be completed. The Flutter Tests Job looks like this:
jobs:
tests:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout Repository
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Install Flutter
run: git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git --depth 1 -b $FLUTTER_VERSION flutter
- name: Add Flutter to Path
run: echo "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/flutter/bin" >> $GITHUB_PATH
- name: Install Dependencies
run: flutter pub get
- name: Flutter Analyze
run: flutter analyze --no-pub
- name: Check Flutter Formatting
run: flutter format lib/** --set-exit-if-changed
- name: Run Flutter Tests
run: flutter test --no-pub
Breakdown:
Checkout Repository checks out the Repository code to the Action Install Flutter gets the Flutter code from the Flutter Repository on Github Adds Flutter to the Path of the Github Action, so it can use the flutter cli Installs the dependencies of the app Runs flutter analyze to analyze the code and check for mistakes like unused imports Runs flutter format lib/** --set-exit-if-changed to check if the code is formatted properly. This will throw an error if the code is formatted badly Runs flutter test to run the tests defined in your app’s test directory
All Together
name: TEST FLUTTER APP on:
push:
pull_request:
branches:
- main env:
FLUTTER_VERSION: "1.22.1" jobs:
tests:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout Repository
uses: actions/checkout@v2
- name: Install Flutter
run: git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git --depth 1 -b $FLUTTER_VERSION _flutter
- name: Add Flutter to Path
run: echo "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/_flutter/bin" >> $GITHUB_PATH
- name: Install Flutter Dependencies
run: flutter pub get
- name: Flutter Analyze
run: flutter analyze --no-pub
- name: Check Flutter Formatting
run: flutter format lib/** --set-exit-if-changed
- name: Run Flutter Tests
run: flutter test --no-pub
Automated Testing In Action
When someone makes a bad Pull Request:
Poorly written code fails the tests
When someone makes a code request with good code quality:
Well written code passes the tests
Closing
These automated tests can help keep code quality high and lower your work. Hopefully, this helps you in your future flutter projects.
All code in this repository will be available in template form here: https://github.com/theswerd/flutter-githubactions-testing-template | https://medium.com/@swerdlowben/automating-flutter-testing-with-github-actions-f3a986596794 | ['Benjamin Swerdlow'] | 2020-12-22 16:56:52.421000+00:00 | ['Github', 'Flutter', 'Continuous Integration', 'Github Actions', 'Ci'] |
VIDSNATCHER. | VIDSNATCHER.
Help Entrepreneurs Create The Perfect
Online Courses, Training Videos,
E-learning Videos and More!
link: https://jvz1.com/c/1757255/342585
ATTENTION:
Tap into the fastest growing online video industry in the World…
Brand New Video Technology
Help Entrepreneurs Create The Perfect
Online Courses, Training Videos,
E-learning Videos and More!
Combine, Edit, and Recreate Any Video,
In Any Language, and Stand Out from The Crowd…
Complete Blank Canvas Editor for Full Flexibility
Jam-Packed with Must-Have Video Editing Features
Built-In Text-To-Speech Engine with
Language Translator
Cloud Based for Maximum Compatibility on All Operating Systems
Create and Sell Your Videos For 100% Profit (Commercial License Included)
Unlimited Projects at A Low One-Time Fee
According to Stratistics MRC,
The Global E-Learning Market Is Estimated
To be An Astounding $398 BILLION By 2026
(from $176 Billion in 2017)!
This type of growth is amazing, and it’s evident the E-Learning industry isn’t going anyhere. In fact, it is one of the fastest growing segments in online video PERIOD!
Everyone can tap into this ever-growing market and create a complete E-learning video training course on ANY subject imaginable.
The best part is each one of us has something we can teach another. Why not establish yourself as an authority in your market using video, and create new income possibilities at the same time?
Anyone can create an online video course on any subject. There’s no limit to what you can create!
All you need are the right tools to start creating your unique training style videos! | https://medium.com/@xavier-98413/vidsnatcher-82bc89b6180 | [] | 2020-12-26 06:13:19.988000+00:00 | ['Vidsnatcher', 'Video Marketing', 'Video Editing', 'Videos'] |
Cool new sleeve to chill down a warm summer party ! | So I was going out camping with a couple of my closest friends, down in Lac Monroe , where there is a site for campers and a lake that people can cross to access to different beaches, which is quite the most famous spot out there. There is a wide range of activities you can choose from : kayaking, hiking in the mountains on numerous level of difficulty for each parkour, spend the day at the beach, nights around a fire,etc.
I highly recommend this place for anyone looking for a breath of nature and that enjoys the mystical looks that our forest have because after all, it is part of a natural preservation habitat group (SEPAQ). You will be able to climb high mountain were nice little checkpoints were built in, to allow the visitors to rest and enjoy the view. Once, we stumbled on a waterfall and couldn’t resist the urge to dive in. The water was super clear, deprived of any pollution that your friendly cities/surroundings water you would normally find yourself in. Warning to the casual adventurer : do not think of a trip there without bringing mosquitoes repellent, as you will without a doubt find yourself in quite a dire situation if you don’t !
Across that vast array of activities and not unlike any early-twenties behavior, spending the day at the beach was our most favorite activity. As mentioned previously, there is a good number of small beaches, close enough to each other that you can actually swim across the lake between them to another beach, where you would lay down in exhaustion. This brings me not to recommend trying to swim across and you aren’t in the fittest of shapes. My group and I, for one, are well adept in the arts of drinking and for two, are quite knowledgeable in the making of drinking games.
As a result, we spend most of our days on the beaches drinking beer and playing games involving alcohol. Quite understandably , our mornings refreshers needs to be well, fresh. One of the big issue when you are out camping is you can’t access any kind of refrigeration aside from using ice in a cooler. Then the next problem is that the ice melts anyway after a while and the drink doesn’t stay cold for long after it’s been out of the cooler! This is when a friend of mine brought a really cool sleeve that I've never seen in use before. He actually got a few samples to try from a new company call the Sleeve Company and he brought them along on the trip.
They work really quite simply, you wrap them around your drink, either the longer or the shorter sleeve and the material is cooled with nitrogen, which chills the temperature of your drink if it’s warm, and keep it cold for a long time if it was already cold ! Yes , I went full-out infomercial for the last part, but you know me , I really like new gadgets and talking about them. If you are interested in them, follow the link at the end of the article.
In short, if you are looking for a place to go this summer, look no further, this is the place ! | https://medium.com/@group9mark452/cool-new-sleeve-to-chill-down-a-warm-summer-party-69ece23340ed | ['Simon Robillard'] | 2019-03-18 02:37:34.464000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Summer', 'Cold', 'Sleeve', 'Drinks'] |
May the next Etsy learn its lessons | Can I interest you in a necklace with a lesson for eternity?
Venture capital taught Etsy that making money wasn’t a skill it needed to learn early on. Go on, it said, spend the millions. And when you’ve spent those, come back and get some more. So Etsy did. They came back for a B round, then a C round, then D, E, and F rounds. Just shy of $100 million in total.
That experience deluded Etsy into thinking that they, uniquely, could ferry the scorpion across the river without getting stung. That a cool hundred million wouldn’t ever need to be paid back or corrupt its noble mission.
But the party only lasts until the music stops. And after Etsy’s VCs foisted the “growth stock” onto the public markets, those markets eventually grew tired of waiting for said growth and profits. So they demanded change, and change they got by booting the old CEO and installing a new growth-at-all-costs replacement.
When Etsy looks back at the arc of its story, it’s easy to flatter themselves into thinking that everything was hunky-dory until The Evil Capitalists came for their pound of flesh. But give me a break. This story is as old as time, and the outcome perfectly predictable.
Etsy corrupted itself when it sold its destiny in endless rounds of venture capital funding. This wasn’t inevitable, it was a choice. One made by founders and executives who found it easier to ask investors for money than to develop the habits and skills to ask customers.
“If you really want to build a company that works for people and the planet, capitalism isn’t the solution”, muses one of the former Etsy employees in a NYT piece. Bollocks. Feel-good nonsense bollocks.
Etsy wasted the chance to provide a human alternative to Ebay and Amazon all by itself. Now it’s largely the same kind of strip mall hawking the same mass-produced goods. There was a laudable mission at its core, but one that was quickly spoiled by a gluttony for growth and negligent naiveté about scorpions.
In the burnt ashes of what Etsy has become, I hope a new attempt will grow. One that learns its lessons and guards its own destiny with as much zeal as the high-minded ideals. | https://medium.com/signal-v-noise/may-the-next-etsy-learn-its-lessons-af9928218114 | [] | 2017-11-27 15:46:01.409000+00:00 | ['Bollocks', 'Destiny', 'Venture Capital', 'Startup', 'Etsy'] |
The One Thing That Makes Us Happy, According to Science | The One Thing That Makes Us Happy, According to Science
What is happiness? And what is the one thing science says makes us happy?
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
I can’t think of anything I would like to do less than skydiving, kayaking, or rock climbing. Yet countless people find great joy and satisfaction in those things. Not me. I spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon reading scientific articles and taking notes.
What we find enjoyable, what makes us happy can be very subjective. So how to define it? According to researchers, happiness comes in two varieties. First is hedonic happiness or subjective well-being. Psychologist Tim Lomas put it this way in Psychology Today: “Basically, pleasure and enjoyment.” What I find pleasurable is deciphering scientific articles. What you find pleasurable is risking your life by skydiving.
The second variety is eudaimonic happiness or psychological well-being. Eudaimonia is a Greek word meaning good or benevolent spirit. “It’s the notion that happiness is experienced through social connections, or the meaningful pursuit of goals or activities,” says Erin Carson on CNET, paraphrasing Brock Bastain of the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences.
These two types of happiness are not opposites, though. They are the flip-side of the same coin. Ying and yang. And what is pleasurable and what is meaningful have one thing in common. The need to connect to something or someone. Most of our goals and activities and interactions have connection at the heart of them. More specifically, social connection. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct.” It’s a result of those contacts.
Most people go kayaking with friends, or if they go alone it’s because kayaking connects them to nature and to feeling good. They are part of something bigger. A community. People follow religions and gods and sports teams for the same reason. They find personal relationships and a community. I read scientific articles because it plugs me into a vast network of human knowledge. A mental community. For other people it’s a skydiving community. A rock climbing community. At the center of it all is connection.
Psychologist Ed Diener is one of the pioneers in happiness research. He is known as Dr. Happiness. In a 2005 article in Time Magazine, he talked about what he found from his studies. “The most salient characteristics shared by the 10% of students with the highest levels of happiness and the fewest signs of depression were their strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them.”
In fact, many studies have found the same thing. One of the biggest is the Harvard Study of Adult Development. For over 80 years, they have followed the lives of hundreds of people, including their children. What did they find? Close relationships are the single greatest factor keeping people happy over a lifetime. Those connections extend to husbands, wives, family, friends, and your community. And it’s quality relationships that matter most. “Those are better predictors of a happy life than social class, IQ or genetics,” says Alison DeNisco Rayome in summarizing the findings on CNET.
Some aspects of our life are out of our control. You may have chronic health issues. Your spouse may have divorced you. You may have unexpected financial problems. That’s not happy stuff. But there are plenty of areas where you can make a difference in your happiness and others. And finding and nourishing meaningful connections and relationships is one of them. | https://medium.com/carre4/the-one-thing-that-makes-us-happy-8aca1bec3c21 | ['Thomas Christopher'] | 2020-12-07 06:48:18.191000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Life Lessons', 'Science', 'Social', 'Relationships'] |
4 ways to increase the online delivery sales of your cloud kitchen setup | Cloud kitchen has now already become a new buzzword in the Food tech industry in India. The cloud kitchen business model has many advantages of its own like low initial investment, lesser employees to work with, easy to manage as its a delivery-only business model & easy to diversify from one specific menu to multiple cuisines.
While it is a lucrative food start-up idea, taking guided steps in the initial journey of your business is essential, as what may look profit-making business can fail in no time if proper steps are not taken in time.
The types of food kitchen models that one can set up according to the space availability and affordability are as given below:
Single Brand (minimum space required — 300 -600 sqft, 1–2 cuisines, minimum 15 menus, ideal for startups ) Virtual Restaurants Multi Brand Cloud Kitchens (Fasoos & Box 8 in India) Shared Kitchen Spaces (Multiple brands works under the same roof) Aggregated Managed Cloud Kitchen (Swiggy Acess) Operator Managed cloud KItchen (For e.g Biryani Blue taking help from an already established cloud kitchen operator like kitopi in Dubai)
Proven Tips To increase the sales and generate leads for your cloud kitchen setup:
1. Market Your Brand Well
As cloud kitchen is an online-only medium wherein you only serve your customers via an online delivery medium having a strong online presence is of utmost importance for your brand. Hence it is essential to have a strong digital presence from the start itself.
Here are ways that you can establish your cloud kitchen brand on the digital medium:
Advertise on an Online Aggregator : Zomato & Swiggy are like search engines for local restaurants, associating with the aggregator is a basic step one can take to get your brand good visibility. However, one should take note that to rank well on the aggregator’s app one needs to pay a hefty price for the sponsored ads, the platform is highly competitive and is not a budget-friendly way for a startups
: Zomato & Swiggy are like search engines for local restaurants, associating with the aggregator is a basic step one can take to get your brand good visibility. However, one should take note that to rank well on the aggregator’s app one needs to pay a hefty price for the sponsored ads, the platform is highly competitive and is not a budget-friendly way for a startups Run Local Facebook / Google Ads : Running paid campaigns on online channels is a great way to boost your cloud kitchen sales. You can run an advertisement on Google and social media platforms to reach out to your potential customers. Remember to include a Call-to-Action in the advertisement banners which leads your customers to your cloud kitchen’s online ordering landing page Why Do One need Customised Creative solutions for Cloud Kitchens
: Running paid campaigns on online channels is a great way to boost your cloud kitchen sales. You can run an advertisement on Google and social media platforms to reach out to your potential customers. Remember to include a Call-to-Action in the advertisement banners which leads your customers to your cloud kitchen’s online ordering landing page Why Do One need Customised Creative solutions for Cloud Kitchens Develop organic sources of online orders: While you can rely on paid campaigns to create brand awareness and generate your first few orders, you must also develop organic channels of online orders. Having an online-ordering enabled website is critical for a cloud kitchen business. SEO Optimization for the website is important so that it appears organically whenever someone searches for the type of food you serve. Learn the importance of SEO for making organic traffic for your brand. https://digitaldeepak.com/seo/
While you can rely on paid campaigns to create brand awareness and generate your first few orders, you must also develop organic channels of online orders. Having an online-ordering enabled website is critical for a cloud kitchen business. SEO Optimization for the website is important so that it appears organically whenever someone searches for the type of food you serve. Learn the importance of SEO for making organic traffic for your brand. https://digitaldeepak.com/seo/ Take Part in Local events : Word of Mouth is still the strongest form of marketing technique. Participate in local food festival and let the world know about your unique food. Conduct a food tasting session for the local food blogger by inviting them to taste your food, getting the mentions for local food bloggers is the best way to spread the word about your cloud kitchen.
: Word of Mouth is still the strongest form of marketing technique. Participate in local food festival and let the world know about your unique food. Conduct a food tasting session for the local food blogger by inviting them to taste your food, getting the mentions for local food bloggers is the best way to spread the word about your cloud kitchen. Catering in events can help you catch the attention of many: Catering at local organizations’ events will help you to come into the limelight. Be these events be anything, from Independence day celebration in your locality, a local sports event, to school carnival, if you can provide some tantalizing food to the enthusiasts in these events, they will surely come back to you. Plus, the profit margin generated through this medium is on the higher side (Low investment higher return)
Catering at local organizations’ events will help you to come into the limelight. Be these events be anything, from Independence day celebration in your locality, a local sports event, to school carnival, if you can provide some tantalizing food to the enthusiasts in these events, they will surely come back to you. Plus, the profit margin generated through this medium is on the higher side (Low investment higher return) Social Media Presence is a must: In today’s time, if you want to get in touch with all the potential customers out there, you must have a strong social media presence. Create your social media pages, and post mouth-watering images and videos of your food items to attract customers. Facebook ads are the best way to reach out to your local audience (Cloud Kitchen is a hyper-local business model, so one has to think global but act local)
2. OFFER SOMETHING UNIQUE
Since restaurants are cropping up like swarms of locusts everywhere, you must provide your customers with something that others in your area are not. Select a cuisine that is new to the locals of your vicinity https://tipsytongues.com/best-middle-eastern-cuisine-in-mumbai/. For example, if there isn’t any place to satiate the taste buds of your customers with some mouth-watering Nagpur Saoji cuisine, then you can try and introduce this cuisine to the people. Unless you can offer people something out of the box, why do you think people will choose your cloud kitchen over other restaurants?
3. DO NOT COMPROMISE ON QUALITY
While quality remains one of the main things that helps you retain your customers, it is needless to say, that its importance is even more in a cloud kitchen. This is because, since it is a cloud kitchen, people generally expect home-cooked food, whose quality is exceptionally high. Unless you can make your customers feel that they are eating from their own kitchen, you can hardly expect them to come back to you.
4. INTEGRATE WITH ONLINE DELIVERY PLATFORMS
Delivery is the main thing in a cloud kitchen; hence it is very important for you to have the right personnel in place. Instead of just relying on your in-house delivery boys, integrate your cloud kitchen with various online delivery apps http://www.dunzo.com. You can also post the menus and food specialization on the local Facebook community or respective city’s foodie communities. You can avail of the digital marketing services of kitchensthan.com to automate your food delivery orders from your own website once you have established your cloud kitchen brand.
We hope that you have gained comprehensive knowledge about how you can increase the sales of your cloud kitchen with these stellar cloud kitchen marketing ideas. While all you need to do and focus on isn’t much, but there are a few intricacies which if you give heed to can help you to pave a very prosperous future for your cloud kitchen.
Let me know in the comments your insights on the article. Thank You! | https://medium.com/@shambharkar-nikhil/4-ways-to-increase-the-online-delivery-sales-of-your-cloud-kitchen-setup-ac3d57813481 | ['Nikhil Shambharkar'] | 2020-12-12 09:19:09.040000+00:00 | ['Cloud Kitchen', 'Ghost Kitchen', 'Women In Business', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Service'] |
Hmmm Doordash and Air BNB stocks tank after their IPO week. | Hmmm Doordash and Air BNB stocks tank after their IPO week.
Who called it?
I did. Never believe the hype around a company. Always investigate for yourself before making an investment into anything. However, if you made a nice put option, you were in good shape. | https://medium.com/@TheJessicaBugg/hmmm-doordash-and-air-bnb-stocks-tank-after-their-ipo-week-91f6a7ccd581 | ['Jessica Bugg'] | 2020-12-19 12:15:05.571000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Stocks', 'Investing', 'Economics', 'Short Form'] |
¿Qué es Bitcoin? | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/bivo/qu%C3%A9-es-bitcoin-215417503d00 | [] | 2018-08-31 04:02:47.498000+00:00 | ['Inversion', 'Bitcoin', 'Criptomonedas', 'Peru', 'Blockchain'] |
What is Medium? -My Understanding. | MEDIUM.COM
Medium is the American online Article publishing Platform developed by Evan William (co-founder of Twitter). Medium is now 8 yrs. old and has grown from a 60 million reader base to 170 million till today.
A medium is a place on the internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters. It also helps to find the right audience for whatever we want to say and designing little stories.
Medium has raised about 132 million dollars in venture funding and it’s still not profitable. It doesn’t even use banner Ads as it’s revenue model.
GOAL
The main goal of the medium is to reduce the time spent on reading articles.
How to use Medium:
The medium can be used as a free platform that allows everyone to sign up and publish their stories and blogs. It also allows saving the stories for the future or offline reading.
Creating a Medium Account:
> Visit www.Medium.com
> Click on the “GET STARTED” button on the top right side.
> It shows a pop up with the signup options to join Medium.
> Use any of the options to sign up.
>It will create your account and redirects you to the homepage of Medium.
10 Reasons to use Medium:
1. We can import our whole blog directly into Medium by just giving the link from anywhere on the internet.
2. Audience already exists here. (There is no need of sending friend requests, building connections we can directly reach them)
3. Gives you the real Engagement (people who are really excited about your content).
4. Medium offers new reach and a fresh audience daily.
5. The Publishers who are already available can “Hire” and publish our articles.
6. There is no option of scheduling a post to avoid spamming
7. You can redirect your audience wherever you want.
8. Requires Minimum effort.
9. Your articles are Monetised.
10.Medium supports all content types of articles for publishing. | https://medium.com/@9gridmm/what-is-medium-my-understanding-ba780fcd6c87 | ['Johnson Sigamala'] | 2020-12-17 11:38:32.132000+00:00 | ['How To Start Blogging', 'How To Write', 'Médium', 'How To Make Money', 'Ｍedium'] |
How a Foodie Finance Guy Unlocked His Creativity to Launch The Next Great Cookie | I grew up baking. Back then, on my small family farm in Indiana, I had no idea that I would go on to work for the biggest food company in the world — not as a baker, but as a pricing analyst on the finance team. Although my career at Nestlé is all about numbers, I still love getting creative in the kitchen; when you’re surrounded by innovative, hard-working foodies all day, it’s hard to resist trying out a few ideas of your own.
When I heard about Open Channel, an internal crowd-sourcing initiative that empowers Nestlé USA employees to submit ideas we believe will be the next crowd-pleaser, I immediately knew I wanted to get involved. That’s how I came to be the founder of the Nestlé Toll House Brookie, a mashup between a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie that builds upon an emerging brookie trend, and developed a plan to make it available to consumers through Nestlé Toll House’s Virtual Bakery — a pilot cookie delivery service available in Washington, DC.
Without job hunting, I’d gone from pricing analyst to product founder overnight, all thanks to a culture of innovation, courage and collaboration that allowed me to stand in front of the Nestlé Executive Leadership Team, just a few years removed from college, and present my idea.
Here’s what I learned. | https://medium.com/nestle-usa/how-a-foodie-finance-guy-unlocked-his-creativity-to-launch-the-next-great-cookie-4b554b7d43a6 | ['Peter Heil'] | 2021-08-16 14:20:00.174000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Cookies', 'Innovation', 'Baking', 'Careers'] |
Baseball HOFer Chick Hafey’s Fear of Hospitals Almost Ended Career | Image via Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball HOFer Chick Hafey’s Fear of Hospitals Almost Ended Career
The dangerous MLB slugger had to be convinced to have a surgery that saved his career temporarily
Despite playing in just 1,283 games in a 13-year (1924–1935 & 1937) career, outfielder Chick Hafey was still inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame after his playing days ended. He battled a litany of injuries but was so talented that he still received the game’s ultimate honor. However, if he hadn’t overcome a strong fear of hospitals, his time in the big leagues would have been even more abbreviated.
The right-handed Hafey hit a combined .317 with 164 home runs and 833 RBIs, spending the best years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals before finishing up with his final five years with the Cincinnati Reds. He won the National League batting title in 1931 with a .349 average, received MVP votes in four different seasons and was on four World Series teams (winning two championships).
The first major success from Branch Rickey’s revolutionary farm system method of developing young players, his career nearly came to an end before it barely got started. In 1926, when he was still just 23, he was beaned on multiple occasions with St. Louis. As a result, he suffered significant sinus and vision issues that plagued him for the remainder of his time in baseball.
In the midst of playing through his physical ailments, he had some remarkable seasons, including 1928–1930, where his production each year was almost exactly the same. He hit .337 with 27 home runs and 111 RBIs in 1928; .338 with 29 home runs and 125 RBIs in 1929; and .336 with 26 home runs and 107 RBIs in 1930.
Because of his eye trouble, Hafey famously had to wear glasses. His vision was so unpredictable that he rotated between three pairs depending on the day and the acuity of his eye strain. They were the only thing that allowed him to continue playing baseball, as he told The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1929, explaining “When my glasses go, I go.”
Back in 1926, when he had the beanings, his eye trouble first reared its head. Once a strong defensive player, he started struggling picking up balls, especially on sunny days. His manager, Rogers Hornsby, asked him what was wrong, but all he could answer was “I can see just as well as I ever could, Rogers but I suffer a lot with pains over the eyes. It must be neuralgia or something.”
The Cardinals had Hafey see a number of doctors and specialists. It was finally determined that his sinuses were impacting his eyes and causing a great deal of pain. However, their recommendation to have surgery sent the outfielder running for the hills, even though Rickey urged him to have the procedure. He explained:
“I couldn’t see myself going under the knife to oblige anyone. I always had a horror of surgeons and hospitals and I keep as far away from the doctors as I can. The atmosphere of a hospital always gets my goat, and if my best friends were to be confined to one, I don’t think a team of horses could drag me in to see them.”
When he was informed that not having the surgery likely meant the end of his baseball career, it still didn’t persuade the young man to come down from his stance. He became further emboldened upon learning that star first baseman George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns had also refused an operation to relieve himself of his own sinus troubles.
Sometimes there’s nothing like good old reality to help change a perspective. That happened with Hafey after he struggled mightily during spring training in 1927. He recalled:
“I thought I was all through but it was awfully tough to feel that just in my prime, and with a good future ahead of me, such a small thing as a few pains in the forehead, just over the eyes, was going to drive me out of a profession that I loved. I was strong and able-bodied, equipped for almost any kind of work in other lines, but I dreaded the idea of becoming a spectator or getting the reports over the radio.”
What turned the tide was Hafey hearing that Sisler was finally recovering from his sinus troubles. Mistakenly believing that this was because he had relented to surgery, he changed his own mind and went ahead with his recommended procedure, which went as well as could be hoped:
“It’s like being rescued from prison. Just as I thought I was down and out in baseball and I am back, better than ever, and I can thank Branch Rickey especially for the good advice and encouragement he gave in inducing me not to retire. He prevailed upon me at last to have that operation performed and here I am today, ready to face any kind of ball and keep my end up to the boss’ satisfaction.”
While his surgery certainly prolonged his career and allowed him some time to show off his incredible talent, the clock was ticking. The vision issues returned, along with dizzy spells that made life difficult, let alone playing baseball. He retired following the 1935 season when he was just 32 and was able to appear in just 15 games. Although he returned to play in 89 games with the Reds in 1937, he hit just .261 with nine home runs; finally calling it quits for good at the end of the season.
Hafey didn’t get the type of long and fulfilling career deserving of a player of his talents. However, changing his mind on surgery he feared so much saved his baseball career temporarily and allowed the world to see what they would have missed out on if he remained stubborn. | https://medium.com/sportsraid/baseball-hofer-chick-hafeys-fear-of-hospitals-almost-ended-career-a8fb231b976e | ['Andrew Martin'] | 2020-12-17 16:10:54.809000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Baseball', 'Medicine', 'History', 'MLB'] |
Advanced JSON parsing techniques using Moshi and Kotlin | 1. Fully manual parsing
The most basic way of parsing JSON using Moshi is to use the streaming API, which is similar to the streaming API of GSON and the one provided by the Android Framework. This gives you the most control over the parsing process, which is especially useful when the JSON source is dirty.
Typical code would look like this:
class ManualParser {
fun parse(reader: JsonReader): List<Person> {
val result = mutableListOf<Person>()
reader.beginArray()
while (reader.hasNext()) {
var id: Long = -1L
var name: String = ""
var age: Int = -1
reader.beginObject()
while (reader.hasNext()) {
when (reader.nextName()) {
"id" -> id = reader.nextLong()
"name" -> name = reader.nextString()
"age" -> age = reader.nextInt()
else -> reader.skipValue()
}
}
reader.endObject()
if (id == -1L || name == "") {
throw JsonDataException("Missing required field")
}
val person = Person(id, name, age)
result.add(person)
}
reader.endArray()
return result
}
}
Introducing selectName() for performance
We can further optimize the parser by leveraging a feature introduced in Moshi 1.5: the ability to compare the next bytes of the stream to expected JSON object key names or values. This is done using the JsonReader.selectName() and JsonReader.selectString() methods, respectively.
How does that improve performance? By looking at the JSON file, you can see that some string values are being repeated multiple times: the key names for the JSON objects are known in advance and match the property names of the Person class ( "id" , "name" , "age" ). So instead of letting Moshi decode the UTF-8 string and allocate memory for it every time a key name is encountered in the stream, we can skip that step and simply compare the next bytes of the stream with a preloaded collection of known key names, already encoded in UTF-8. If the byte sequence is found in the collection, its index will be returned by selectName() . This is made possible using some neat features of the lower-level Okio library.
Note: Moshi is optimized for, and only works with, JSON files encoded in UTF-8. If you still use a different character encoding in 2018, shame on you.
After replacing nextName() with selectName() in the parser, the code now looks like this:
class ManualParser {
companion object {
val NAMES = JsonReader.Options.of("id", "name", "age")
}
fun parse(reader: JsonReader): List<Person> {
val result = mutableListOf<Person>()
reader.beginArray()
while (reader.hasNext()) {
var id: Long = -1L
var name: String = ""
var age: Int = -1
reader.beginObject()
while (reader.hasNext()) {
when (reader.selectName(NAMES)) {
0 -> id = reader.nextLong()
1 -> name = reader.nextString()
2 -> age = reader.nextInt()
else -> {
reader.skipName()
reader.skipValue()
}
}
}
reader.endObject()
if (id == -1L || name == "") {
throw JsonDataException("Missing required field")
}
val person = Person(id, name, age)
result.add(person)
}
reader.endArray()
return result
}
}
It’s a bit less readable than before since the when expression now mentions array indices instead of the string values directly. That can be improved by declaring extra constants for these indices in the companion object, at the expense of adding more lines of code.
Reducing boilerplate code using extension functions
The code for reading a JSON array and a JSON object using a streaming API always follows the same patterns. These patterns can be extracted to extension functions to avoid the repetition. This especially improves readability and reduces the risk of errors for JSON files with multiple levels of nested arrays and objects.
fun JsonReader.skipNameAndValue() {
skipName()
skipValue()
} inline fun JsonReader.readObject(body: () -> Unit) {
beginObject()
while (hasNext()) {
body()
}
endObject()
}
inline fun JsonReader.readArray(body: () -> Unit) {
beginArray()
while (hasNext()) {
body()
}
endArray()
}
It’s recommended to declare the higher-order functions as inline so that calling them introduces no additional cost compared to the original code (no extra objects allocations) and the bytecode will be identical.
We can also create another version of readArray() which goes one step further and builds and returns the list as well.
inline fun <T : Any> JsonReader.readArrayToList(body: () -> T?): List<T> {
val result = mutableListOf<T>()
beginArray()
while (hasNext()) {
body()?.let { result.add(it) }
}
endArray()
return result
}
When using that function, the body of the lambda must return the item to be added to the list, or null to skip it.
With these new functions the parser code becomes much shorter:
class ManualParser {
companion object {
val NAMES = JsonReader.Options.of("id", "name", "age")
}
fun parse(reader: JsonReader): List<Person> {
return reader.readArrayToList {
var id: Long = -1L
var name: String = ""
var age: Int = -1
reader.readObject {
when (reader.selectName(NAMES)) {
0 -> id = reader.nextLong()
1 -> name = reader.nextString()
2 -> age = reader.nextInt()
else -> reader.skipNameAndValue()
}
}
if (id == -1L || name == "") {
throw JsonDataException("Missing required field")
}
Person(id, name, age)
}
}
}
Immutability, default values and mandatory fields
To be able to enforce the immutability of the Person object (all its fields are val s), we need to pass all the field values at once in its constructor, which means that we need to declare one extra variable for each field.
var id: Long = -1L
var name: String = ""
var age: Int = -1
Variables for optional fields ( age ) need to be assigned a default value matching the default value of the field.
( ) need to be assigned a default value matching the default value of the field. Variables for mandatory fields ( id , name ) are assigned an arbitrary default value outside of the range of valid values. null can also be used as default value for non-null mandatory fields. Then before instantiating the model object, we need to check that these variables have been reassigned valid values, otherwise throw an Exception or skip the item:
if (id == -1L || name == "") {
throw JsonDataException("Missing required field")
}
Manual fields validation makes the parser code both more verbose and error-prone because we need to remember updating the parser every time we change the mandatory fields or update the default values in the model.
Note: We can avoid declaring these variables entirely in the parser by making the model fully mutable (declaring all fields as var s) with an empty constructor.
class Person {
var id: Long = 0L
var name: String = ""
var age: Int = -1
}
Benefits:
Less lines of code in the parser;
We can rely on the model default values instead of duplicating them in the parser code.
Downsides:
We lose all the benefits of immutability: coherent states, no side effects, thread safety;
All fields are now declared as optional. We need to document which ones are in practice mandatory and the parser still needs to manually check if they have been assigned a valid value.
Because the downsides outweigh the benefits, I recommend to always favor immutability in your model objects when you can, especially since Kotlin makes this easier than Java.
2. Moshi’s Kotlin Code Gen
A better way to validate mandatory Kotlin fields and respect default values while keeping the objects immutable is to let Moshi do this work for us by using the automatic JSON to Kotlin converters it provides.
Moshi has two ways to generate these converters which are called JsonAdapter s:
Using reflection, via the moshi-kotlin artifact. Adapters will be generated at runtime when needed, then reused. The main downside of this solution is that in order to understand metadata like nullability and default values of Kotlin properties, this artifact depends on the kotlin-reflect library, a 2.5 MiB jar file which will make your application code size grow significantly.
artifact. Adapters will be generated at runtime when needed, then reused. The main downside of this solution is that in order to understand metadata like nullability and default values of Kotlin properties, this artifact depends on the library, a 2.5 MiB jar file which will make your application code size grow significantly. Since Moshi 1.6, adapters can also be generated at compile time using the moshi-kotlin-codegen annotation processor. This is a much better solution because it provides better performance while adding no extra dependency to your application. The only limitation of that solution compared to kotlin-reflect is that it is unable to initialize private or protected fields, but the same limitations apply when writing your parsers manually.
Setup moshi-kotlin-codegen
Make sure you enable the kapt plugin in your application’s build.gradle file.
apply plugin: 'kotlin-kapt'
Then add the annotation processor to your dependencies.
dependencies {
kapt 'com.squareup.moshi:moshi-kotlin-codegen:1.6.0'
}
Now for every Kotlin class for which you want to generate a JsonAdapter implementation at compile time, add the @JsonClass annotation on top of it with the generateAdapter element set to true . In this example, we’ll add it to the Person class.
@JsonClass(generateAdapter = true)
class Person(val id: Long, val name: String, val age: Int = -1)
By default, the generated parser will match the property names with the JSON object key names. To override that, add the @Json annotation on the property to specify its JSON key name.
Moshi also allows to fully customize the way each property is converted from or to JSON, by using custom annotations associated with your own custom type adapters. For more information, check out the official documentation.
A look at the generated code
When building the project, the annotation processor will create a new Kotlin class called PersonJsonAdapter . Let’s evaluate its code quality.
class PersonJsonAdapter(moshi: Moshi) : JsonAdapter<Person>() {
private val options: JsonReader.Options = JsonReader.Options.of("id", "name", "age")
private val longAdapter: JsonAdapter<Long> = moshi.adapter(Long::class.java).nonNull()
private val stringAdapter: JsonAdapter<String> = moshi.adapter(String::class.java).nonNull()
private val intAdapter: JsonAdapter<Int> = moshi.adapter(Int::class.java).nonNull()
override fun toString(): String = "GeneratedJsonAdapter(Person)"
override fun fromJson(reader: JsonReader): Person {
var id: Long? = null
var name: String? = null
var age: Int? = null
reader.beginObject()
while (reader.hasNext()) {
when (reader.selectName(options)) {
0 -> id = longAdapter.fromJson(reader) ?: throw JsonDataException("Non-null value 'id' was null at ${reader.path}")
1 -> name = stringAdapter.fromJson(reader) ?: throw JsonDataException("Non-null value 'name' was null at ${reader.path}")
2 -> age = intAdapter.fromJson(reader) ?: throw JsonDataException("Non-null value 'age' was null at ${reader.path}")
-1 -> {
// Unknown name, skip it.
reader.skipName()
reader.skipValue()
}
}
}
reader.endObject()
var result = Person(
id = id
?: throw JsonDataException("Required property 'id' missing at ${reader.path}"),
name = name
?: throw JsonDataException("Required property 'name' missing at ${reader.path}"))
result = Person(
id = id ?: result.id,
name = name ?: result.name,
age = age ?: result.age)
return result
}
override fun toJson(writer: JsonWriter, value: Person?) {
// Removed for brevity
}
}
We can notice that this code is quite similar to what we wrote in the manual parser.
It uses selectName() for better performance, which is good. The options are not stored inside a companion object but it doesn’t matter because a JsonAdapter is only instantiated once then reused, making it effectively a singleton. Non-null properties are enforced. Mandatory fields are properly checked and an exception is thrown when they are missing.
Only two things aren’t perfect compared to a smart manually-written parser:
Nullable variables are used to store values of non-null primitive types ( Long , Int ) and generic adapters are used to read them ( longAdapter , intAdapter ), which means unnecessary boxing will occur when reading these values.
, ) and generic adapters are used to read them ( , ), which means unnecessary will occur when reading these values. For each item, two instances of Person are created instead of one. The reason behind this is to allow reading back all the default values of optional fields from the first instance when creating the second, final instance.
This should not cause any performance issue, unless your model class includes heavy initialization code that you want to avoid doing twice.
This also means that when all fields are mandatory, only one instance will be created by the adapter.
These are minor performance issues, so I recommend that you use the automatically generated Kotlin JsonAdapter s when both your code and the JSON data source allow it.
Using the generated adapters
It’s preferred to use the Moshi API to retrieve adapter instances, because it will automatically locate the class, create a single instance of it and put it in a cache so it can be shared between parsers.
val adapter: JsonAdapter<Person> = moshi.adapter(Person::class.java)
The generated adapter converts JSON to a single Person object. But the JSON file contains an array of persons so we want to retrieve a List<Person> instead. There are two ways to achieve this.
First, we can ask Moshi to build a generic list adapter which will use the generated PersonJsonAdapter under the hood. This is done by using Moshi’s Types utility class to build a type representing List<Person> :
val listType = Types.newParameterizedType(List::class.java, Person::class.java)
val adapter: JsonAdapter<List<Person>> = moshi.adapter(listType) val result = adapter.fromJson(reader)
But more interestingly, we can also use the generated adapters inside our own parsers, effectively mixing and matching manual and automatic parsing. This is especially useful when the JSON source is not very well structured or contains a lot of unnecessary layers that we want to skip, but at the same time we still want to leverage the automatic parsing in some parts of the file.
For our example, we can write a hybrid parser which builds a list of Person objects while filtering out children and people of unknown age:
class HybridParser(moshi: Moshi) {
private val personAdapter: JsonAdapter<Person> = moshi.adapter(Person::class.java)
fun parse(reader: JsonReader): List<Person> {
return reader.readArrayToList {
personAdapter.fromJson(reader)?.takeIf { it.age >= 18 }
}
}
}
We start by manually parsing the JSON array using the readArrayToList() extension function defined earlier. It was designed to not add the item to the list when the lambda returns null , so we can use takeIf() to filter out items.
Generated JsonAdapter s are a great way to remove boilerplate code from manual JSON parsers.
Of course, you can also write your own custom JsonAdapter s and reuse them in your code.
If you want to learn more about Moshi’s Kotlin Code Gen, you can read this excellent article from its main contributor, Zac Sweers.
3. Coroutines magic for big data sources
In the previous example we saw how to filter out items inside the parser. Now, what if we wanted to filter out items from outside the parser, or wanted to process parsed items one by one, without storing them all at once into memory?
We can achieve this by creating a lazy streaming parser which returns a Kotlin Sequence instead of a List . Sequences allow to keep memory usage under control when dealing with potentially huge JSON lists, as they only deal with one item at a time and all processing is delayed until their final collection. A Sequence can also be converted to an Iterable for Java compatibility.
While it is possible to manually write a custom Sequence with a custom Iterator which will resume parsing every time next() is called, it is not an easy task. It requires some mental gymnastics because the parsing code, instead of being structured hierarchically like the JSON file in one single block, has to be split into separate parts sharing the same state.
Fortunately, there is an easier way thanks to Kotlin’s coroutines which allow to build a lazy sequence using only a single block of synchronous code and the yield() suspending function.
class LazyParser(moshi: Moshi) {
private val personAdapter: JsonAdapter<Person> = moshi.adapter(Person::class.java)
fun parse(reader: JsonReader): Sequence<Person> {
return sequence {
reader.readArray {
yield(personAdapter.fromJson(reader)!!)
}
}
}
}
The code is very simple. It’s similar to building a list in one go, except that the calls to add an item to the list are replaced with yield(item) . The parser will effectively stop at that point, preserving its state, then resume later when the next item of the Sequence is requested by the caller. That’s all the code needed to create a fully lazy JSON parser in Kotlin.
It’s then possible filter out items, iterate over them or do anything else lazily outside of the parser: | https://bladecoder.medium.com/advanced-json-parsing-techniques-using-moshi-and-kotlin-daf56a7b963d | ['Christophe Beyls'] | 2018-11-04 22:22:11.822000+00:00 | ['Json', 'AndroidDev', 'Android App Development', 'Kotlin', 'Moshi'] |
Courts should refrain from policy matters | The role of the judiciary is not to decide on policy or make laws for governance. Our Constitution has wisely decided to separate the judiciary from the legislature, while the job of legislature is to make the laws, the role of the judiciary is to render justice, adjudicate whether these laws are being followed in execution, and prevent governments or individuals from trampling upon fundamental rights. In interfering with the farmers’ laws that the government passed in the Parliament, the apex court is doing exactly what is beyond its mandate, and in choosing to take these types of cases, it is also delaying the important cases in which it is supposed to deliver justice.
“It is a weak society that appeals to judicial paternalism to solve its problems,” said Justice Venkatachaliah. | https://medium.com/100-word-opinion/courts-should-refrain-from-policy-matters-ea5ed04cbf80 | ['Vidyuth Chikoti'] | 2020-12-30 07:52:47.194000+00:00 | ['India', 'Supreme Court', 'Farmers', 'Farmers Protest', 'Modi'] |
A Marxist Analysis of Animal Exploitation | I am here republishing an essay that I originally wrote 2 years ago. What follows is a Marxist analysis of the material origins of animal exploitation and the ideology which reinforces it, as well as the specific character animal exploitation assumes in modern capitalist society. The article concludes with a critique of mainstream consumerist veganism and a call for vegans to embrace an anti-capitalist perspective.
Around 10,000 BC our species began to shift from nomadic hunting-and-gathering to a sedentary lifestyle supported by agriculture which made it possible to produce a surplus of food beyond that necessary for immediate consumption. This development enabled social stratification and the struggle for control and ownership of that surplus became the basis of all class oppression between human beings.
At the same time, animal domestication began to flourish, and humans — predominantly the ruling classes parasitically subsisting on the labour of other humans — sought to exploit animals for the purpose of utility and later for their value as exchangeable commodities. Like land, natural resources and human slaves during this period, non-human animals were converted into the property of others: the property of the ruling classes.
But “property” is meaningless without legal and political recognition. A public power claiming to stand above all classes and antagonistic interests whilst in reality defending the interests of propertied classes became a necessity. The sanctity of the right of some to rule over and enslave other humans and other species had to be given a juridical basis and be propped up by means of violence. Thus we see the rise and role of the state in human history.
Further, such imbalanced social relations among humans and between humans and non-human animals produced by necessity an ideological superstructure which purported to explain and justify the status quo. That man had converted animals into tools of human utility was either an inevitable consequence of the “laws of nature” or the will of God himself.
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
The specific forms of class oppression amidst human society have evolved over several millennia but such oppression — today in the form of the exploitation of wage labourers by the capitalist class for surplus value — no doubt remains. Our domination of animals has likewise changed its specific forms but still permeates society nonetheless. Despite the fact that sufficient evidence indicates human beings in the modern era do not need to consume animal products to be healthy, whole industries devoted to raising, raping, and slaughtering animals have been constructed.
In modern capitalist society animals are predominantly exploited for the purpose of acquiring profit. Sentient beings are reduced to mere units of production, comparable to machinery and natural resources. Animals are valued not for the degree of their consciousness and individuality but by their usefulness in satisfying human needs — their use-value, to use an expression from Marx — and for the ratio at which animals, animal flesh and animal secretions can be exchanged for other commodities and money; their “exchange-value” and their price. It is for the purpose of exchange with the intent of realising a profit that animals are utilised within the capitalist production process. Investment in animals is an investment in capital and nothing more; the industries founded on animal exploitation have no regard for animal wellbeing to any extent more than that to which it effects their revenue. This, as tragic as it is, is the political economy of animal exploitation.
The chief defect of liberal vegan critiques of speciesism [1] is self-confinement to the realm of ideology. The exploitation of animals has material causes of the kind I have discussed; speciesist and carnist ideology merely arises to rationalise, normalise, and perpetuate the status quo; it is not the cause of the status quo.
Nevertheless, an anthropocentric ideological narrative deeply embedded within our culture reinforces animal exploitation at every step. Just as psuedo-scientific theories and “common sense” ideas arose to rationalise the oppression of people of colour and non-men, the myth of human supremacy over nature and non-human animals in particular is to be found everywhere. Humankind is perceived to be superior to all other species on account of our intelligence, our natural physiology and what it enables, our capacity to reason, or even — in a circular fashion — on account of the fact that we able to dominate, control and enslave other species; as though “might means right” has ever been a valid argument.
Another defence mechanism utilised by many meat apologists is denial that there’s even a problem. Oxymoronic appeals to the supposed “humaneness” of slaughter are commonplace, largely due to widespread lack of knowledge about the reality of seemingly invisible animal exploitation which the industries predicated on it would be foolish and suicidal to dispel.
To quote Angela Davis:
“The food we eat masks so much cruelty. The fact that we can sit down and eat a piece of chicken without thinking about the horrendous conditions under which chickens are industrially bred in this country is a sign of the dangers of capitalism, how capitalism has colonized our minds. The fact that we look no further than the commodity itself, the fact that we refuse to understand the relationships that underly the commodities that we use on a daily basis.” [2]
This phenomenon is but one manifestation of what Marx described as commodity fetishism; the way in which commodities under capitalism appear to be autonomous things-in-themselves, and the social relations that lay behind their production are quietly ignored. In the case of animal exploitation a whole mirage of smoke and mirrors is constructed to conceal these social relations from the eyes of the consumer and the soothing fantasy picturesque family farm masks the bitter truth of industrial factory farming and the suffering it inflicts.
Problematically it is common in liberal vegan communities to pin the blame on the consumer for animal suffering through a reductive and naive conception of the laws of market exchange. Yet it is the animal exploitation industries and their state backers which artificially create and inflate demand through psychologically manipulative advertising campaigns and the dissemination of false information about nutrition. The notion that capitalists are simply “satisfying consumer demand” is an absurd lie that serves only to absolve the corporations actually subjecting animals to brutal conditions in the pursuit of profit from responsibility for their actions.
Moreover. we live in a monopoly capitalist society where a handful of tycoon corporations control vast swathes of national and international markets. Many of the most popular vegan alternatives to animal products are owned and sold by the same companies that offer popular non-vegan brands; thus whatever you buy your money ends up in the hands of the same capitalists.
Source: ethicalconsumer.org
Capitalism and capitalist ideology and degrades social movements which pose a challenge to the status quo and redirects them into reformist and consumerist channels which do not threaten the structural foundations of oppression innate to capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist and cis/hetero normative society. Veganism is presented and perceived as an ethical consumerist lifestyle choice; a shopping list for predominantly white and wealthy middle class yuppies. Vegan restaurants with exorbitant prices are amongst the first arrivals to newly gentrified area, and privileged liberal vegans often treat anti-speciesism as a single-issue cause; demonising precarious immigrant slaughterhouse workers and ignoring and even perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism and sexism in the process. [3] Our perspective of veganism must be altered. Veganism must be conceived as an anti-capitalist and intersectional political stance which rejects the status of animals as commodities and property.
Veganism will be practiced by different people with different privileges or the lack thereof in different ways — those that castigate others who lack the disposable income to convert to a plant-based diet in capitalist society must be ferociously criticised. While vegans should no doubt encourage everyone that has the financial means to embrace a plant-based diet this is not a litmus test of an individual’s commitment to the cause of animal liberation.
And while the elimination of capitalist society is conceivable without the overthrow of animal exploitation, the elimination of animal exploitation is not conceivable without the overthrow of capitalism. A radical socialist vegan perspective is thus a necessity.
“The struggle against the rule of capital and its expropriation are necessary preconditions in order to enable people to collectively cast the decision: we will liberate the animals!” [4] | https://dismalrevolt.medium.com/a-marxist-analysis-of-animal-exploitation-11d24698d89b | ['Dismal Revolt'] | 2020-12-04 05:29:05.121000+00:00 | ['Socialism', 'Vegetarian', 'Veganism', 'Anarchism', 'Marxism'] |
The Worst Thing Airlines Can Do During COVID-19, As Illustrated By An Austrian Airline | People fly less today. It’s not the only thing people are doing less often — but contrary to working in the office or wearing pants during meetings, it is a thing many people are aching to do again. If someone was an avid traveler before COVID-19, they still are an avid traveler now, with an ever-growing urge to see the world again.
In other words: People willing to spend good money on airlines before are just as willing to spend good money on airlines now. They just can’t do it right now due to external circumstances. But as soon as the situation gets better, they will happily fly again with the airlines they hold in the highest esteem.
On the other hand, airlines find themselves in a less cheerful situation. While consumers just have to play the waiting game, most airlines are struggling to stay afloat.
In this situation, the logical choice would be a strict regimen of customer retention: Do everything you can to maintain good relations with existing customers, so they will fly again with you in the future.
This article tells the story of an airline that does the exact opposite: Austrian Airlines.
These dudes here. (Source: Wikipedia / Creative Commons)
At this point, it’s appropriate to stress the fact that this is my personal customer experience with Austrian Airlines. However, truly abysmal customer ratings on several websites make it clear that this is no exceptional case, but rather the rule. By sharing my experience in dealing with Austrian, I’d like to provide some in-depth examples on how not to do customer retention.
Trying to make this more than your standard disappointed customer rant, I’ve done by best to put my experience into different chapters, just like in some type of journal.
Here we go.
Early March 2020 — “A mistake of serious consequence”
Speaking honestly, no story is ever truly one-sided. I too have made a mistake in this whole ordeal. I’ve made the mistake of booking a flight with Austrian Airlines. It happened in early March, when the ultimate force of COVID-19 was still not completely visible to everyone (at least, to me).
Back then, I had some hope left that all this would blow over soon, so I booked flights for a one-week vacation in early May. Due to the availability of a non-stopover flight, I chose Austrian as my carrier-to-be.
Things were so simple back then.
Mid of April 2020 — “A false glimpse of hope”
During April, virtually all of Europe found itself knee-deep in a lockdown. By then, even I had come to realize that my vacation plans for May might not turn out as expected. While this was slightly disappointing, I took relief in knowing that thanks to EU air passenger rights (seriously, they’re great), I would definitely get my money back.
I was even happier when I received an e-mail from Austrian Airlines, informing me that they canceled my flight proactively. “I don’t even have to do it myself”, I thought. “This is convenient!”.
So, I went and informed Austrian Airlines straight away that I’d like my money back, instead of a voucher for later use. In that very moment, I expected that actually getting my money back would turn out to be just as easy and straightforward.
Silly me.
May 2020 — “Confirmations”
There’s not much to say about May. After asking Austrian Airlines for my money back in April, I had received a confirmation e-mail that they were processing my request. Knowing that I wasn’t the only one with a canceled flight, I assumed that getting the money back might take some time, maybe even up to several weeks.
By now, you’d probably expect that the first half of the previous sentence is true, while the latter is false. You’d be right.
Also, Austrian Airlines sent me another e-mail in May, informing me that my flight was indeed still cancelled. They sent the mail five days after my flight would have taken place. I appreciated the gesture.
June 2020 — “Breaking the silence”
By June, the world was slowly getting used to life in a pandemic. The initial uncertainties eased, toilet paper was back on the shelves. A certain degree of social life became possible again, just as sommer came around the corner.
Meanwhile, I was laying in wait. By the end of June, I hadn’t heard anything from Austrian Airlines ever since they sent the second cancellation e-mail back in May.
So, I decided to contact Austrian again. This time, by phone. After patiently listening to the Music on Hold for twenty minutes (in case you wondered, it’s the Danube Waltz), I actually got someone on the phone.
They told me they’d look into my case. The result followed soon after:
A bit later that day, I received the third cancellation e-mail for my flight.
August 2020, Pt. I — “A fateful choice”
July passed without much notice. I wasn’t thinking too much about the money I was still owed and let Austrian Airlines do its thing, whatever that might be.
However, without realizing it back then, I had made a fateful choice — a choice with a significant impact on the story you are reading here: I decided to switch bank accounts.
“No big deal”, you might say. “People switch back accounts all the time.”
“You’re right”, I might answer. “But Austrian isn’t prepared to deal with that.”
Anyway, I don’t want to spoil the later parts of the story. For now, let’s focus on what I did after opening the new bank account: I sent Austrian Airlines a message, informing them that my bank details have changed and asking them to wire the refund to my new bank account. “All set”, I thought.
But I thought wrong.
August 2020, Pt. II — “A message, lost in time”
I was elated when I found another e-mail from Austrian Airlines in my inbox. “You have received a refund for your booking”, it said. Great! Finally, the waiting was over — and it just took four months!
My euphoria quickly vanished when I checked my bank account. The new one. I checked it again the next day. And the day after. No refund. Still no refund. “But I sent Austrian Airlines a message with my new bank details!”
I was puzzled. How could it be that they wired the money to the wrong bank account? They had received my message two weeks ago! Could it be that they are not checking the messages from their contact form on the website?
“No way”, I thought. After all, it is the official way of getting in touch with them! I had tried to get my issue solved over the phone a few times by then — but whenever I got through to somebody, I was told to use the conatct form. This must mean that it is checked regularly, right?
Right?
September 2020— “Fake news”
The summer slowly faded. The last heat of August subsided and made way for the mild warmth of September. At the same time, my last hope for Austrian Airlines subsided and made way for a slightly-less-than-mild annoyance.
For a while after the refund-gone-wrong, I was hoping that Austrian would notice the mistake by themselves. It would be so easy to notice: When wiring money to a non-existent bank account — such as my old one — the bank wires it back to the sender, along with a notice that the target account doesn’t exist.
But like the message with my new bank details, the mistake went unnoticed. Thus, I decided to send Austrian Airlines another message, pointing out the incorrect bank details and asking them to send the refund to my new bank account. With slight uneasiness, I used the increasingly dubious contact form once more.
Then, I came across an article online. The headline read: “Austrian Airlines announces: refunds from lockdown period completely paid out”.
“Wait a minute”, I thought to myself. “But my cancelled flight was during the lockdown period. And it isn’t paid out!”
Being forgotten by a standardized process is no pleasant feeling. It’s being presented with a fait accompli and knowing that getting the mistake corrected will be much more difficult now. After all, standardized processes offer no room for mistake.
I’d to the “Right? Right?” spiel again here, but I already did it at the end of August Pt. II. Sorry.
October 2020 — “A futile attempt”
After the turbulent events of September, my mission had changed. It wasn’t just about asking Austrian Airlines for my refund anymore. Now, it was about asking for my refund, telling them to send it to the right bank account — and passionately hoping they would not mess it up again.
A very difficult task for both sides, based on my impressions from the previous months. But I wanted to make it as easy as possible. So, I set up a comprehensive summary of my dealings with Austrian Airlines in their contact form once more, explaining everything and attaching previous e-mails and bank account cancellation notices as proof again, like some overly dedicated lawyer.
When I hit “Send”, all content vanished.
I didn’t make a backup.
I was angry.
November 2020 — “A new hope”
The darker side of fall was coming around, and with it another lockdown. In times like these, it’s good to have something entertaining to do at home as a distraction from the pandemic going on outside.
My entertainment of choice was contacting Austrian Airlines once more, asking about my refund. This time, my choice of words was more scarce than in the last message. After having lost to much to the contact form already, I wanted to make sure not to get hurt again. At least, not more than necessary.
And something actually happened! After a few days, I received a standardized-looking e-mail reply — but this time, it was signed with “Manuel”.
A real name! It had to be a good sign, right? Not just a made-up name to make automated messages seem more personal?
Whatever the case, I decided to answer Manuel, this time explaining my issue with more detail.
And then, I waited.
December 2020, Pt. I — “Logical solutions to everyday problems”
A week ago, Manuel answered. Taking his time, I was hoping his message would help escalate my issue to a new level, one extra step towards a solution.
He told me to call customer service on the phone.
Since I hadn’t done that in a few months and was starting to miss the Danube Waltz, I gave it another shot. And indeed, I received a new piece of information on the phone.
Just not the one I was expecting.
“We can’t change your bank data just based on a contact form request”, I was informed. “We also can’t change it based on a phone call. Could be anyone calling us, people could try to wrongfully obtain others’ refunds.”
Fair enough, I thought to myself. But if I can’t give Austrian Airlines my bank data over the phone nor via the conatct form, how can I give it to them?
The answer was so easy, I was surprised that I didn’t get to it myself. “You need to go to the airport and give your bank data to Austrian Airlines staff there”, I was told.
The airport.
They didn’t even tell me which one. Probably one in Austria.
December 2020, Pt. II — “Right now”
Let’s recapitulate:
I can’t get my bank details changed on the phone. Data privacy, fair enough.
I can’t get my bank details changed via the contact form. Even though there is a field for entering bank details in the contact form.
Instead, I have to go to an unspecified airport and hope to find Austrian Airlines staff, give them my bank details and hope that they know what to do with them.
Suddenly, a mile-long rant on medium.com doesn’t seem like such a bad choice anymore.
Final remarks
Jolly narrative aside, this is a serious matter. Airlines virtually do not get any customers right now. The best — and only — thing they can do is try and keep everyone happy that they’ve done business with before.
Sounds easy on paper, but it’s spectacular how Austrian Airlines fails this very straightforward task. By letting customers run around in loops for their refunds and not offering personal support for complicated cases, they do not only cause annoyance and anger, but also damage their brand in a lasting manner.
Some day — not too far in the future, hopefully — the world will return to rather normal and many people will start to travel again. Air travel will be more of a buyer’s market than before.
Airlines will desperately scramble to be the first ones to reconnect with the tourism cashflow. There will be special offers all around. Customers will have many equally good choices in price — and they will be aware of it.
What’s the deciding factor when price isn’t?
It’s customer experience.
People will remember their previous dealings with airlines.
The ones that provided great customer service before and during the pandemic will be the main profiteers in the comback of global tourism.
The ones that didn’t will feel like they’re still stuck in lockdown, wondering if they ever really leave ground again.
Austrian Airlines is definitely one of the latter. | https://medium.com/@fred-scratcher/the-worst-thing-airlines-can-do-during-covid-19-as-illustrated-by-an-austrian-airline-9a81b5e85bc5 | ['Fred Scratcher'] | 2020-12-18 00:44:52.419000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Airlines', 'Customer Experience', 'Customer Service', 'Personal Growth'] |
How Performance Management System Transform With Technology | “Management with Technology is a powerful combination to revolutionize the performance of your organization.”
In today’s story, I highlighted the modern way of recruitment and how technology transforms the Performance Management System of organizations. Also, what are the latest Technological trends adopting by the managers to ease the process of recruitment?
The uprising of the Digital era revolutionized the organization’s performance. To improve the performance or create effective Human Resource Management in organizations almost all companies and industries are adopting the latest trends of Technology. Last few years of the technological era, Machine Learning and AI were the effectual mechanisms for the operations of the sales and organization’s performance sectors only. However, the latest research shows how HR has integrated with the latest technology with operation management, data analytics, talent acquisition, and development of the overall results of HR in organizations.
The latest Technological trends are smooth the way for Human Resource Management towards their goals and milestones of organizations. For example, learning and communication through Social Networks, employment engagement through virtual methods, or mobile learning management systems, the gamification process for recruiting and analysis of prospective employees skills and development are the on-going trends in today’s trends.
Technology is vast same as the Performance management vision for an organization. Technology not only modernizes the structure of organizations but can provide a wide in-depth, and more insightful mission, up-to-date trends adopted by managers, and every individual of organizations have now become a more tactful well-acknowledged, and quick decision-maker.
The virtual world of today facilitates the Human Resource Managers to optimize manpower performance. When a broader and diverse background of prospective candidates becomes the part of organizations Technology helps to make the process evaluation of recruitment transparent. The whole process initiates when recruitment takes place with unique designed job recruitment portals that ease the recruiters to track and evaluate the resumes of the potentially interested candidates and develop ease the tedious manual tasks. Technology involvement in Human Resource Industry is a blessing for all employees and prospective employees. Gamification is now a day’s prevail at the performance management and facilitates the recruiter to choose the right candidate for the right job.
After the whole process of recruitment, Technology plays a very vital role in the internal world of organization operation. For example updating and tracking the payroll, attendance system, and salary management through various flexible software have become trending and accessible in the market. Overall, Technology persuasiveness in Performance Management System in Human Resource creates the ease to work effectively and time-managing for better policy development. Moreover, Technology restructured and transforms the organization’s conventional method in an innovative way that can leads to a better human resource team for the Performance Management System.
Cloud Software for Human Resource Management (HRM)
It is a well-versed and user-friendly way to improve performance management with accurate and error-less work. Using software provides the best benefit that less paperwork required. As paperwork sometimes becomes iterative and tedious. Now HR manager can assess data of the organization accurately and in real-time. Security and Privacy of employees are crucial, and that ease the overall process of the organization’s data.
Employee self-service & Manager Self-Service
Adopting this system that improves the overall service, reduction of labor cost, secure the overall activities, and handling routine transactions among employees, managers, and prospective candidates.
Blockchain in HRM
This innovative technology reshaped the whole Human Resource Management in Organization. It is quoted by many researchers that “By 2023, blockchain will support the global movement and tracking of $2 trillion of goods and services annually”. Blockchain has full capability to record, store, and secure data of employees and the organization’s mass information, which is the core need of Human Resource Management.
“Blockchain technology will be integrated directly into the HR function through a multitude of use cases — lending transparency and trust”. — Mercer Editorial Staff
People analytics in HR
People Analytics is also referred to as the HR analytics and workforce analytics that helps to collect, amalgamate, and transforming of Organizational and HR concerning data into pragmatic insights that efficiently improve the overall performance.
Real-time performance management System
In Human Resource Management, this latest trend that followed by almost every organization that creates the most engaging employees through virtual means, and produces effective real-time feedback. This helps to save money and time for the overall organization’s process. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/how-performance-management-system-transform-with-technology-4a17242f0a6b | ['U.F.M Techie'] | 2020-11-07 16:42:29.651000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Productivity', 'Business', 'Tech'] |
Philly Gift Guide: A Few of Our Favorite Black-Owned Shops | The countdown is on!
If you’re still looking for some last-minute gifts for friends, colleagues or family members — and you’re looking to support Black businesses in Philly — we’ve got your back!
Here are some of our favorite local shops and services to help you put the finishing touches on your holiday shopping.
For the Sci-Fi/Comic Book Enthusiast: Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse
2578 Frankford Ave.
Ariell Johnson, Owner of Amalgam Comics and Coffeehouse
The first black-woman-owned comic bookstore on the East Coast, Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Kensington was opened in 2015 by owner Ariell Johnson. The store, described as a “celebration of geek culture,” is a good stop for anyone looking for the perfect gift for the comic book fan in their life and has a variety of comics, figurines, games and apparel to fit the bill.
Learn more: https://amalgamphilly.com/shop/
For the Hostess with the Mostest: Snapdragon Flowers
If you’re in charge of picking up flowers for your family’s holiday dinner, are looking for a fresh wreath or looking to send flowers to a friend, aunt, cousin or other family member that you can’t be with this Christmas, check out Snapdragon Flowers. Owner/Designer Tolani Lawrence-Lightfoot earned a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design and works with her husband David to create and deliver custom floral arrangements within Philly.
Learn more: https://www.snapdragonphilly.com/purchase-flowers
The One-Stop-Shop for Everyone: Trunc
929 N. 2nd Street
With an array of environmentally responsible accessories, clothing, art, jewelry and home goods and décor available, Trunc is a one-stop shop for gift-giving ideas. The boutique supports local artists and the community by showcasing their work and making their goods available for sale, and is a woman-owned, African-American-owned and veteran-owned business.
Learn more: https://www.trunc.net/
For the Book Worm and History Buff: Hakim’s Philadelphia Bookstore
210 S. 52nd Street
Founded in the late 1950’s by Dawud Hakim, Hakim’s Bookstore in West Philly was the first in the city to stock books exclusively about African American history. Today, the tradition continues with his daughters and granddaughter keeping up the store.
Learn more: https://hakimsbookstore.com/
For the Feminist and Book Worm: Harriett’s Bookshop
258 E. Girard Avenue
From children’s books to literature to nonfiction and empowering merchandise that speaks to the power of women, Harriet’s Bookshop, so named for Harriett Tubman, is the perfect place to pick up a gift that will inspire, educate and move.
Learn more: https://www.harriettsbookshop.com/
For the Person Who Appreciates Handmade Authentic Accessories: De’Village at Reading Terminal Market
For handcrafted African jewelry, accessories and gifts, visit De’Village at Reading Terminal Market. Owned by husband-and-wife team of Watson and Joycelyn Parks, De’Village opened in 2001 and imports much of its inventory from Kenya.
Learn more: https://readingterminalmarket.org/merchant/devillage/
For the Tired and Hungry Gift-Giver (aka You!): French Toast Bites
If you find yourself at Love Park between now and Christmas Eve and you’ve worked up an appetite doing your holiday shopping, one of the vendors to consider visiting at Christmas Village is the French Toast Bites food stand. Owner Charisse McGill, a Temple grad, was the first Black woman vendor at Spruce Street Harbor Park, and, with the recent launch of French Toast Bites Ale, is the first Black woman to create a signature beer in Pennsylvania.
Learn more: https://www.lokalartisanfoods.com/
For Natural Hair Care and a Bit of Pampering: Marsh + Mane
529 S. 4th Street
Marsh+Mane Owner, Jenea Robinson
Founded just over a year ago by Jenea Robinson, Marsh + Mane is a natural hair care retailer that provides luxury hair, skin and body products for women and men. The boutique carries local and international natural brands, stocking stuffer gift ideas, essential oils and an assortment of feel-good products ideal for a pampering night in.
Learn more: https://marshandmane.com | https://medium.com/lions-story/philly-gift-guide-a-few-of-our-favorite-black-owned-shops-6bee50720f1e | ['Lion S Story'] | 2020-12-22 02:31:24.824000+00:00 | ['Shopping', 'Philadelphia', 'Gifts', 'Holidays', 'Business'] |
Top Youtube Channels for Power BI | Times have changed where we have been struck with reading pages of training materials. This pandemic has paved way for online teaching by means of videos.
Here are the list of Top Youtube Channels you can refer for your Power BI learning.
Disclaimer: These are strictly based on my personal insights. You can check out these and I’ll be more happy if you find it useful as well.
Image created using Powerpoint
1.Curbal
●https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ7UhloHSA4wAqPzyi6TOkw
2.Intellipaat
●https://www.youtube.com/user/intellipaaat
3.BI Elite
●https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-h-wArcxJC8zBOD-UxfCOg
4.Guy in a Cube
●https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFp1vaKzpfvoGai0vE5VJ0w
5.Pavan Lalwani — POWER BI
●https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5fs7PookxGfDPTo-RU0ReQ
6.Avi Singh
If you found this post interesting, please consider also taking a look at my Youtube channel LR Virtual Classroom where I started post my demo videos from my learnings.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGJoLsHlwD8bQCDxiJp3Z1A
Thank you for reading! | https://medium.com/@lashmiravindrapandian/top-youtube-channels-for-power-bi-b13f320bca1d | ['Lashmi Bai Ravindrapandian'] | 2020-12-11 14:09:46.753000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Top 10', 'Business Intelligence', 'Power Bi Training', 'Power Bi Tutorials'] |
THE POSSESSOR OF ALL THINGS | TNDL: “EL-ELYON IS THE POSSESSOR OF ALL THINGS, ACCORDING TO MELCHIZEDEK, HIGH PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD!”
Genesis 14New International Version
Abram Rescues Lot
14 At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar,[a] Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim, 2 these kings went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea Valley). 4 For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim 6 and the Horites in the hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran near the desert. 7 Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazezon Tamar.
8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboyim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim 9 against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar — four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. 11 The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
13 A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother[b] of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.
17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ 24 I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me — to Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Let them have their share.”
Footnotes
Genesis 14:1 That is, Babylonia; also in verse 9
Genesis 14:13 Or a relative; or an ally
Posted by K. A. Woodstock at 3:46 AM | https://medium.com/@jkwoods/the-possessor-of-all-things-9a13436b3744 | ['J. K. Woods'] | 2020-12-23 03:36:38.881000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Religion', 'Christianity', 'Love', 'God'] |
The Legacy of Sir Elton John and the Art of Paying Tribute to a Living Legend | Lesson #2: Highlight the impact of the artist(s) on numerous generations of musicians with a tribute album, but don’t overemphasize hot young artists at the expense of seasoned contemporaries.
The most ambitious part of the recent Elton tributes are definitely the two tribute albums that were released on April 6th. Each album utilizes an impressive line-up of well-known musicians to cover 13 songs that Sir Elton John composed alongside his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin (who has written the vast majority of Elton’s songs over his nearly half-century career). But aside from the concept, the two albums differ markedly.
Revamp, the pop oriented collection, boasts a great deal more star power and features better-known songs from Elton’s catalogue. The album gets off to a rocky start with a cover of “Bennie and the Jets” that makes great use of P!nk’s incredible vocals, but becomes a hot mess when Logic’s rap is introduced. Unfortunately, the lead off song isn’t the only disappointment. Q-Tip and Demi Lovato’s bizarre cover of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is equally jarring, although it is arguably the classic hit of Elton’s that is most in need of updating. The most egregious sin on the album occurs in the form of Ed Sheeran’s cover of “Candle in the Wind.” His voice sounds nice, but the rearrangement is wildly inappropriate for the subject matter. (The song is about the tragic life and untimely death of Marilyn Monroe but he plays it like he’s at a bouncy jam session trying to flirt with a bunch of girls.) Then there’s Coldplay’s utterly listless cover of “We All Fall in Love Sometimes” and the utterly bizarre choice of Miley Cyrus to cover one of his most powerful songs, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (most famously recorded as a live duet with the late, great George Michael).
But thankfully the other 8 songs work quite well. Relative newcomer Alessia Cara adds grit to “I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues.” Mumford and Sons does an affecting rearrangement of “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” Mary J. Blige wrings every last painful drop out of “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word.” Sam Smith soulfully evokes the deep sadness inherent in “Daniel.” The Killers do an excellent rendition of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” one of Elton’s best-loved album cuts. Queens of the Stone Age cap the album with a powerful take on “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” And then there’s the two best tracks on the album, Florence + the Machine’s cover of “Tiny Dancer” and Lady Gaga’s cover of “Your Song.” It is no easy feat making a cover of two of the most beloved songs in Elton’s catalogue work, but Florence and Gaga knock it out of the park, further establishing themselves as two of the greatest artists of their generation.
Restoration, the country oriented collection, uses somewhat lesser known stars and covers more obscure songs from Elton’s catalogue, but ultimately works better as a whole. In fact maybe it’s because the artists and the songs are less recognizable that it works better. But it’s not without it’s missteps. As good as Maren Morris sounds, we didn’t need a second cover of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” (interestingly the only song duplicated on both albums). And we most definitely didn’t need a second appearance of Miley Cyrus, this time covering “The Bitch is Back.” But most of the rest of the album works exceedingly well. Little Big Town’s “Rocket Man,” Don Henley & Vince Gill’s “Sacrifice,” and Dierk Bentley’s “Sad Songs (Say So Much)” are stellar covers of some of his most well-loved songs. Miranda Lambert’s “My Father’s Gun,” Brothers Osborne’s “Take Me to the Pilot,” Kacey Musgrave’s “Roy Rogers,” and Rhonda Vincent & Dolly Parton’s “Please” give deserved second lives to lesser known album cuts. Although they aren’t the musical highlights of the album, Lee Ann Womack’s “Honky Cat” and Willie Nelson’s “Border Song” emphasize the songs’ impressive lyrical arrangements. And, Chris Stapleton’s “I Want Love” and Rosanne Cash & Emmylou Harris’s “This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore” are superb covers of two of the most under-appreciated songs of the later stage of Elton’s career.
The albums include an impressive slate of famous musicians and classic songs from his catalogue, but they are not without notable omissions and missed opportunities. I, for one, would have loved to have heard covers of three of my favorite songs — the heavy and haunting “Believe,” the exceedingly romantic “Something About the Way You Look Tonight,” and the utterly masterful “The One.” And although it is moving to see how much the younger generation has been influenced by Elton, I would have loved to see more of his contemporaries make an appearance. Throughout his career he has had so many storied collaborations and personal relationships with music legends that it seems an utter shame so few true legends are featured on the album. Where’s Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, and Dionne Warwick? Not to mention Madonna, who his love-hate relationship is a tabloid dream. And for better or worse (probably better), there’s no cuts from The Lion King soundtrack (Elton’s best selling album) to be found (although this is clearly explained by the fact that Elton created those songs with lyricist Tim Rice and not Taupin).
Lesson #3: Celebrate the legacy of the artist(s) with an all-star TV special, but don’t just make the tribute concert a promotion of the tribute albums.
On April 10th, CBS aired a two hour special called Elton John: I’m Still Stranding — A GRAMMY Salute. Even moreso than the tribute albums the special was somewhat shamelessly promoting the show was quite uneven. There were some strong performances, no doubt. Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, and Alessia Cara did superb live renditions of their cuts from the tribute album. In a wonderful twist, John Legend took over “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” from Miley Cyrus and gave the brilliant song its just due; Kesha provided a typically raw and powerful take on “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” that matched Queen of the Stone Age’s take of it on the album; and Shawn Mendes and SZA did a cover of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” that blew the album version by Q-Tip and Demi Lovato out of the water. And then Sir Elton himself capped the show with a three song performance. He was in fine form, although I can think of several better songs than “Philadelphia Freedom,” “I’m Still Standing,” and “Bennie and the Jets” to highlight his incredible knack for performing live.
Interspersed with these rousing moments were a bunch of head-scratching and eye-rolling moments. Miley Cyrus’s tacky rendition of “The Bitch is Back” was a tone-deaf way to star the show. Coldplay and Ed Sheeran’s live renditions of their tribute album cuts worked no better this time around. Two attempts at turning Bernie Taupin’s lyrics into spoken word performance art were cringe-inducing. The tacky set design was cheap and uninspired (the worst being Maren Morris being forced to perform “Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters” alongside a replica of the table from Alice in Wonderland — get it?!?). And, most notably, other than a touching shout out to his AIDS activism the show said almost absolutely nothing about Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin as people. I would have gladly excised a few of those performances for some words by people who actually know them or one of the countless classic clips that the Grammys surely has in its archive.
Elton John’s latest greatest hits collection (Copyright Virgin EMI)
Lesson #4: Release/rerelease classic music in a new, remastered package, but don’t ignore the die hard fans when crafting it.
Diamonds, the 51-track collection of Sir Elton’s greatest hits that was released last November in preparation for the farewell tour announcement, is great for the more casual fan looking to get a lot of his best known hits in one great-sounding collection. However, as the slew of negative reviews on the internet will tell you, it fell far short for his diehard fans. Many of them asked why a seventeenth (!) greatest hits collection was needed, when so many B-sides, live performances, soundtrack and compilation cuts, and other rarities remain so difficult to find. And they aren’t wrong.
But then again, collections that dive deeper into Sir Elton’s catalogue may still be forthcoming. After all, Sir Elton has made it quite clear that while he is done touring in 2021, he is not done with his love affair with music. And the world is better off for that.
Click here to read another article about a legendary music legacy: https://medium.com/rants-and-raves/counting-down-mariahs-48-best-songs-to-celebrate-her-anniversary-128535300326
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardReflects | https://medium.com/rants-and-raves/the-art-of-paying-tribute-to-a-living-legend-ceebe74b5816 | ['Richard Lebeau'] | 2020-09-29 20:51:44.559000+00:00 | ['Music', 'LGBTQ', 'Grammys', 'Pop Culture', 'Media'] |
How To Fix The Disaster That Is Your Remote Collection | Ever try to turn down the volume and find that the remote that controls the volume is probably somewhere under the couch that you sold ten years ago in a house you sold five years ago?
We all know the struggle of trying to turn on the TV and five of your six remotes do absolutely nothing. Are the batteries dead? Are they even for this TV? The headache never ends. Fortunately, when it comes to remotes, there’s a beautiful selection of universal remote solutions that help with the massive struggle that is remote controls.
Who knows where the remote went today…*sigh*
Ever try to turn down the volume and find that the remote that controls the volume is probably somewhere under the couch that you sold ten years ago in a house you sold five years ago? We can all relate. Universal remotes are a beautiful solution for this. Companies such as URC and Logitech create models that work with all forms of home automation, and can decrease your remote control clutter by more than half. Companies such as Savant which focus on whole home integration also have beautiful remote controls for when walking to the wall panel is too far of a trek. Long gone are the days of needing to buy a remote basket (remember those little things with the mini battery powered poker games at Grandma’s house?) and figure out any little tricks to get all those remotes to work at all.
The URC-890 is a pretty standard option, not too expensive either
Let’s start with URC. They’re a more affordable option for universal remotes, but they feature a few models with different size LCD displays on them. This is a wonderful addition when it comes to attempting to use your remote and not knowing where any of the buttons are. The standard model when it comes to recommendations from places such as Regent5 is the URC-MX-890 model. It’s quite affordable only costing you $299 on Newegg. This remote comes with a 2 inch LCD and can work through walls, making it very versatile and efficient with multiple rooms in your home. However, it doesn’t work through WiFi like the other models, and if you have more than one remote type in your home, the signals can clash with the WiFi enabled remotes. The MX-890 can control multiple TV’s, music systems, and has many other features which make it a wonderful addition to your home. The base station is capable of rapid charging as well, and doesn’t take up much space on your table top. Unfortunately, the MX-890 can be a bit cumbersome when it comes to adding and removing features, which can get costly having a technician come to your home often. The remote also has a LOT of buttons. It can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing. In my opinion, it’s also not the most attractive model on our comparison. If this one isn’t for you, or you’re not quite the most tech savvy person, there’s thankfully plenty of other options.
Pretty, ain’t it? The Logitech Harmony Elite is the cutest one out there
The Logitech Harmony Elite is by far the most beautiful universal solution. But is it the best for your buck? This remote comes in at a much higher price than the URC model, costing around $300-$350 depending on which retailer and model you want. Fortunately it’s much more intuitive than those URC models. This remote can link to your phone or tablet and give you complete access over whole home control. It’s possible to control your entire home theater system linked through this remote, without even using the remote itself. The battery life isn’t nearly as good as the URC model, so get ready to put it on the base station every day or so. There’s also a few other Logitech products that do basically the same thing as this remote, such as the Harmony Home Control for only $104. Depends on how much you want a smart remote versus the other options that Logitech has available. Despite the price of this Logitech remote being quite high, there’s still another option that more than doubles that price. But is it worth the price tag?
The Savant system can be incredibly expensive, with just the remote itself costing around $800 for the multi-room version.
Moving down the line of do-it-all remotes, the Savant Pro Remote is a bit different than the first two. Working with the Savant smart home integration suite, you’d need more than just the remote to get your home working with this one. Fortunately, the Savant system is beautiful and works flawlessly with every place you have it installed. The companion Lutron wall plates are beautiful, the remotes are beautiful, everything is just beautiful. There’s a catch with Savant (of course) and this comes in the price you pay for it. The Savant system can be incredibly expensive, with just the remote itself costing around $800 for the multi-room version. This price tag can definitely make people think twice before considering taking the Savant route with their remote consolidation. Pretty in this case, comes with a high price. Most Savant customers generally already have a system which integrates with their remotes and home automation, using Lutron keypads to supplement their equipment. It’s up to you to decide if a simple and elegant system is worth integrating a higher price. We’d like to consider Savant to be the luxury item in this article.
It’s time to put an end to this nightmare
Now that there’s a few options on your plate, hopefully the easy part is done and now the difficult task will be choosing which brand to go with. Each brand has its pluses and minuses so it’s up to you to decide which one sounds best for your home. The difficult part now lies in which solution to come up with to de-clutter your home. Fortunately, beyond even these remotes I’ve mentioned here, there’s plenty of other universal options from many brands, with more appearing every day. Ask your local retailers about which options they’d recommend when choosing your new do-it-all remote. | https://medium.com/@cody_75148/how-to-fix-the-disaster-that-is-your-remote-collection-b12dc91d1ebd | [] | 2019-05-09 17:32:51.469000+00:00 | ['Smart Home'] |
Love Is Caring | 2020 is a hard year for many of us.
Share your time, talent, and a smile.
Accept yourself and others.
Admire yourself and nature
Listen to understand
Write a note to yourself and others.
2020 is a hard year for many of us.
Pay attention — be an otherish giver this holiday.
“Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof .”— Alice Walker.
Keep hope alive. You can grow in this difficult time. | https://medium.com/the-yessba/love-is-caring-8f2a06e1ee02 | ['Bassey Elimian'] | 2020-12-20 23:33:28.812000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Life', 'Love'] |
A Designer’s Guide to Working with Product Managers | Difference in thought process
To be honest, at first, I had a hard time syncing with the thought process of a PM. As designers we tend to think about the experience, the flow, how consistent the components are, how to make it better work in different resolutions, etc.
Aspects that we do not pay much attention to — current business needs, engineering efforts being worked on, product strategy for the next few quarters to come, what’s on the roadmap, resource allocation etc.
Obviously, this does not come to us instinctively which is why collaboration with a PM is a primal necessity in the product world — it helps paint a broader picture.
After working closely with PMs for a significant amount of time, I decided to reflect and jot down methodologies that help me design with more intent.
Some of the steps I take, in no particular order —
1. Prioritizing tasks
2. Maintaining a UX debt sheet
3. Creating a UX test plan
4. Tracking actions on the product
1. Prioritizing tasks
I have noticed that bringing up topics about inconsistencies or pattern enhancement often times irked PMs. I realized this happened not because they don’t want to fix it or it is unimportant to them, but because it was not just the right time. There is always a right time to bring up your biggest pet-peeves.
And how do we know when is it a right time?
Well, answering this one was a little harder than I thought. What helped me was understanding the product status from a broader perspective.
I started making a note of current business needs and engineering efforts.
Business needs — what needs to be done to deliver value at the earliest. Because if you don’t sell, you don’t have a successful business, and in effect, there is no real scope to design something that might not exist.
Engineering needs — what needs to be done to stabilize the system so that the existing functionalities don’t break. Things that need to be optimized to deliver a better experience.
Understanding engineering constraints help a lot with making design decisions. Something that works better interaction-wise might be a huge load on the system, and a trade-off has to be made to make it stable.
What’s the point of a sexy interaction when the functionality is broken?
With these two major considerations, in addition to the huge list of design changes that I wanted to work on, I started prioritizing.
Aspects of the product that required a major change usually went down in priority, and items that sent out maximum value went up the list. It helped me make peace with what I was working on.
When the time was right (believe me, this time will arrive.), I plugged the redesign ideas I had thought about. This makes the interaction with PMs productive with much lesser friction.
2. UX Debt Sheet
Almost all designers would have heard this from their PMs —
“Let’s get this out for MVP and we can get back to it later.”
This had me hugely frustrated at a point because I realized the changes being made to the product were very minimal. It was not the ideal experience the designer in me wanted.
I feared that if we took an always MVP approach, we would eventually be left with more work over time just trying to fix all the workarounds. More like an MVP Paradox.
Coincidentally, I noticed that the engineers had an account of technical backlog and they called it Tech Debts. This was an inventory of technical tasks that were pending. They dedicated a sprint to finish these tasks specifically. I thought this was a great idea and wondered if there could be an equivalent UX Debt sheet for the project I work on as well.
I had a conversation with my PM and decided to list out all the UX backlog. I chalked out a way of prioritizing tasks that can be finished by mapping it in a graph with Impact and Ease of implementation as parameters. | https://uxdesign.cc/a-designers-guide-to-working-with-product-managers-bcb164a473df | [] | 2017-02-24 01:26:56.831000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Product Management', 'UX', 'User Experience', 'Careers'] |
Texas Chemical Plant Explodes One Week After EPA Rolls Back Protections | Aerial photo of the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion site taken several days after blast: April 22, 2013. (Photo: Shane.torgerson)
“This should not be anyone’s reality and unfortunately, it is for communities sitting at the fence-line of the petrochemical corridor along the Gulf Coast — an ever-growing corridor because of the billions of dollars being invested in petrochemical infrastructure related to plastic.”
Local officials ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents after a pair of explosions at a chemical facility in Port Neches, Texas, injured three workers and shattered windows and doors of nearby homes. The explosion, which local ABC affiliate KTRK reports is burning carcinogenic chemical butadiene, comes a week after the Trump administration rolled back safety protections aimed at preventing disasters caused by dangerous chemicals.
Beyond saying that the incident involved a “processing unit,” the petrochemical company has not yet stated the exact cause of the explosion.
Chemical Disaster Rule Rollback
As Citizen Truth wrote last week, the Trump EPA recently rolled back a safety rule aimed at preventing similar incidents at chemical plants:
“The Chemical Disaster Rule was imposed by the Obama administration after a 2013 explosion in West, Texas killed 15 people, including 12 first responders, and injured over 160 others. The rule mandated that chemical companies take new measures to prevent similar accidents, including the use of safer technology and procedures, third-party audits in the event of a problem, determining the “root-problem” of any spill, and public access to information about the types of chemicals stored on their sites.”
Nearly 40 House Democrats urged the EPA to retain the Obama-era rule in a letter, citing 73 accidents and leaks that have taken place since it was suspended.
The Chemical Disaster Rule rollback came a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration illegally “ excluded millions of tons of some of the most dangerous materials in public use from a safety review,” as reported by the Associated Press.
TPC Group And Other Petrochemical Manufacturers
The TPC Group, the owner of the Port Neches plant, describes itself as “a leading producer of value-added products derived from petrochemical raw materials.” The formerly publicly traded company has a 75 year history in Houston and Port Neches. Its environmental record has worsened since it was purchased in 2012 by the New York private equity firms First Reserve and SK Capital Partners, which still own TPC today.
“This facility has a track record of violating the Clean Air Act, with five other illegal emissions events just in 2019, emitting carcinogenic 1,3 butadiene and other chemicals, and a history of community complaints,” said Catherine Fraser, Environment Texas’s clean air associate, in a statement. Fraser notes that butadiene, the carcinogenic chemical burning in Wednesday’s explosions, has been the main source of concern among regulators at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The TPC facility has failed to abide by the Federal Clean Air Act for the past 12 consecutive quarters. “According to the EPA, the TPC Plant has been in non-compliance 12 separate quarters over the last 3 years, and has received 7 formal enforcement actions over the last 5 years,” said Fraser.
During a news conference Wednesday morning, TPC Group’s manager of safety, health and security Troy Monk said he was unaware of past fines and investigations regarding emissions standards. “Monk said he could not comment on the plant’s compliance,” reports Beaumont Enterprise, a newspaper headquartered in Beaumont, Texas.
The Port Neches explosion is the latest in a series of industrial incidents that have afflicted the region. NPR reports that Houston saw three fires at chemical plants from March to April this year, and more than 30 people sustained injuries after a fire erupted in an Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown.
“Within the last year, I have witnessed an unacceptable trend of significant incidents impacting the Gulf Coast region,” Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Executive Director Toby Baker said in a statement. “While not all emergency events may be prevented, it is imperative that industry be accountable and held to the highest standard of compliance to ensure the safety of the state’s citizens and the protection of the environment.”
Environmentalists spoke out against the negligence of the TPC Group and other petrochemical manufacturers, and condemned the ongoing production of similar facilities.
“This should not be anyone’s reality and unfortunately, it is for communities sitting at the fence-line of the petrochemical corridor along the Gulf Coast — an ever-growing corridor because of the billions of dollars being invested in petrochemical infrastructure related to plastic,” Yvette Arellano from the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service said in a statement.
Over a dozen similar plastic-producing petrochemical plants are being built or have been proposed around the world. As Citizen Truth previously wrote: “Large U.S.-based oil firms such as ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell Chemical will help fuel a 40% rise in plastics over the next decade, according to experts. These companies have invested more than $180 billion in plastic production since 2010, boosted by the boom in shale gas.” | https://medium.com/citizen-truth/texas-chemical-plant-explodes-one-week-after-epa-rolls-back-protections-ed7794a7a750 | ['Citizen Truth Staff'] | 2019-11-28 22:50:01.307000+00:00 | ['Chemical Safety Rules', 'Port Neches', 'Environment'] |
Giving up on love | Imagine wasting your time for so long with people that are only used for sex or broke your heart feeling hopeless and lonely. feeling not good enough anymore slowly giving up day by day. Then you met this wonderful person at least you think it starts okay at first its the perfect love story picture they love you then you love me they be all about you right? at least I guessed. They say when you first kiss someone you can feel like they the right one for you that did happen but now I question things after a year into the relationship things changed we got engaged quick and then a year later a baby came but behind every smile, there's pain and sadness. you see not every relationship is what you think it is. the people in it change too. The sadness and depression hit you see the one man you loved once changed, cheating on you behind your back, mentally abusing you and even physically abusing you which drives sad and depressed but when you get pregnant you think hey maybe he will love me but no he has changed. To him, it means nothing that you feel this way, to him cheating ain't cheating at all, to him it's okay to just not care about the relationship. While build-up the courage to pick up and leave with your kid to have a better life but somehow the sadness takes over completely. You then start to feel less of a person even feeling not enough for someone. But deep down you know you are and that someone will appreciate you one day. But the question will be when? What's sad about all this is nobody notices many women are going thru this but they so good at hiding it, that they just build this little happy life to hide the pain and what goes on around them from the outside world cause they feel as if people will judge them. Make sure to check up on your friends, sister, and family in relationships, watch out for signs cause even when they say they happy, in reality, they have given up on happiness and love for all due to guys or girls that hurt them deeply and mentally. But it's okay to reach out to someone if this is happening to you never let someone make you think you not good enough cause your beautiful. | https://medium.com/@beautifulqueen/giving-up-on-love-8c19b78227f8 | [] | 2020-12-19 23:18:14.312000+00:00 | ['Hurting', 'Relationships', 'Broken Heart', 'Abuse'] |
8 Reasons why you should cut back on your sugar intake. | 8 Reasons why you should cut back on your sugar intake.
To much sugar in your diet can be harmful. Here’s a list of some of the reasons why.
Can increase your risk of cancer, such as esophageal cancer, pleural cancer (lungs) and small intestinal cancer. May increase risk of heart disease. High amounts of sugar in your diet has been associated with an increased risk of many diseases such as heart disease, weight gain, inflammation, high triglyceride, blood pressure issues, these are all risk factors for heart disease. Risk for type 2 diabetes. Pro longed high sugar intake drives resistance to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance cause blood sugar levels to rise, this can increase your risk of diabetes. Increased risk of Gout. High sugar levels raise uric acid levels in the blood which can cause Gout (inflammation and pain of the joints) Risk of cognitive decline. Continuous high levels of sugar can lead to memory problems and can even risk the chance of developing dementia. Acne and skin aging. Sugary foods spike blood sugar and insulin levels which cause a increase in androgen secretion, oil production and inflammation, these all play a roll in acne. A diet high in sugar can lead to the production of AGE’s, which may cause your skin to age faster. (AGE’s-Advanced Glycation End product) Risk for kidney disease. Intaking high levels of sugar on a regular basis can cause damage to delicate blood vessels within your kidneys, which can lead to disease May cause depression. Up’s and downs of high blood sugar levels can alter neurotransmitter levels, which leads to depression.
Also look for these added sugars on food labels/ingredients:
-Dextrose
-Sucrose
-Agave nectar
-Malasses
-Tapioca syrup
-High fructose corn syrup
-Corn sweetener
-Crystalline fructose
-Evaporated cane juice
Healthy daily sugar intake:
-Males: No more than 36 grams per day.
-Females: No more than 25 grams per day.
The best form of healthy sugar is fruits. | https://medium.com/@melissasmick/8-reasons-why-you-should-cut-back-on-your-sugar-intake-14de73311573 | ['Melissa Smick'] | 2021-12-28 20:56:35.781000+00:00 | ['Health Foods', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Health'] |
Foresting Signed MOU with Master Node Intermediation Platform — APIS | Foresting CEO, Daniel Eom and APIS CEO, Ronny Yoo Sign MOU
Foresting CEO Daniel Eom signed a strategic business agreement (MOU) with APIS, a master node brokerage platform, on 22nd of June 2018.
Through the agreement, the two companies will share technology and know-how and will further enhance the value of the technology related to the blockchain, thereby strengthening the ongoing cooperation for future growth.
Foresting is a blockchain-based SNS platform that has not been introduced in Korea until now. It is a fair value that contributes to platform growth by breaking away the unfair social media platform value distribution system. Distribution system.
Apis has made access to the master node to enter the public by simple membership. By allowing all types of users, including ordinary individual investors, to participate as master nodes such as DASH (DASH) and PIVEX (PIVX), they have lowered the barriers of the cryptographic market.
“This agreement is similar, but it is a good opportunity to create synergy between the two companies that have been active in other areas,” said the CEO of Foresting. “More collaborators will continue to enter the content market with more economical difficulties. I will try to do it. “ | https://medium.com/foresting/foresting-signed-mou-with-master-node-intermediation-platform-apis-1a121604dcc4 | [] | 2018-07-11 08:39:48.231000+00:00 | ['Partnerships', 'Startup Marketing', 'Cryptography', 'Blockchain', 'Brokerage'] |
Weekly Machine Learning Research Paper Reading List — #4 | Author: Fabian Keller, Emmanuel Muller, and Klemens Bohm
Venue: 2012 IEEE 28th International Conference on Data Engineering, (ICDE 2012)
Paper: URL
Abstract:
Outlier mining is a major task in data analysis. Outliers are objects that highly deviate from regular objects in their local neighborhood. Density-based outlier ranking methods score each object based on its degree of deviation. In many applications, these ranking methods degenerate to random listings due to low contrast between outliers and regular objects. Outliers do not show up in the scattered full space, they are hidden in multiple high contrast subspace projections of the data. Measuring the contrast of such subspaces for outlier rankings is an open research challenge. In this work, we propose a novel subspace search method that selects high contrast subspaces for density-based outlier ranking. It is designed as pre-processing step to outlier ranking algorithms. It searches for high contrast subspaces with a significant amount of conditional dependence among the subspace dimensions. With our approach, we propose a first measure for the contrast of subspaces. Thus, we enhance the quality of traditional outlier rankings by computing outlier scores in high contrast projections only. The evaluation on real and synthetic data shows that our approach outperforms traditional dimensionality reduction techniques, naive random projections as well as state-of-the-art subspace search techniques and provides enhanced quality for outlier ranking. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/weekly-machine-learning-research-paper-reading-list-4-64442005324d | ['Durgesh Samariya'] | 2020-08-25 21:10:23.448000+00:00 | ['Research', 'Machine Learning', 'Science', 'University', 'Academia'] |
Shirley Chisholm, Catalyst of Change, Progressive Bad Ass | “Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there.”
Photo by Museumofuncutfunk
Before there was Hillary or Liz or Kamala, there was Congresswoman, civil rights activist, social reformer, and educator Shirley Chisholm. She broke through the formidable racial and gender barriers of the 1960s and 1970s and made it look easy.
Shirley made history not only as the first black Congresswoman but also as the first female to seek a major party’s presidential nomination. Determined and dedicated, Chisholm never wavered in her duty to represent the disenfranchised and the downtrodden.
Born on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the child of Barbadian immigrants. Growing up as one of eight kids during the Depression, Shirley understood the meaning of hard work and going without.
Shirley was very bright and saw education both as a means to secure her future and to help others. After receiving a Master’s Degree in early childhood education in 1951 she began her distinguished career as an educator.
Shirley also became involved in the Democratic Party(before it was GOP Lite), becoming active in both the League of Women Voters and the Seventeenth Assembly District Democratic Club.
In 1964, Chisholm was elected to New York’s State Assembly where she served until 1968 when she decided to run for Congress. Shirley’s campaign slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed,” which summed up her approach to her job quite succinctly.
When she first went to Washington Chisholm was relegated to Agriculture Committee, which she pointed out was irrelevant to her urban district. She was asked to “be a good soldier” and just accept the assignment, but Chisholm instead sought out the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who made those decisions and delivered a parliamentary salvo.
Before long, Shirley was reassigned to the Veterans Affairs Committee, and later the Education and Labor Committees.
What have we learned? The squeaky wheel gets the best committee appointments.
In 1972, Chisholm decided to take a stab at winning the Democratic nomination for president. She was frustrated that so many viewed her candidacy as merely symbolic. Shirley was not running so she could be “first,” she was seeking office as a serious candidate.
Photo by Amazon
The nomination went to George McGovern, but Chisholm had a lot of support among college students, women, and minorities. Her campaign, “The Chisholm Trail,” may have been doomed from the start due to lack of funding and proper organization, but looking back in 2002, Shirley believed her run for president was a needed “catalyst for change.”
Chisholm was voted one of the ten most admired women in the world after her bid for the Democratic nomination. She went back to work as a US Representative for another decade, and watched with pleasure as the number of black Congress members began to grow.
After serving 14 years in Congress, Chisholm retired in 1982. She went on to teach politics and women’s studies at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women.
She also worked tirelessly for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. President Bill Clinton nominated Shirley to be US Ambassador to Jamaica, but she had to decline due to her failing health.
Shirley Chisholm died on New Year’s Day 2005. When asked how she wanted to be remembered, Chisholm said, “When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be a catalyst of change. I don’t want to be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress. And I don’t even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make the bid for the presidency. I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the 20th century. That’s what I want.”
It’s the least we can do to honor the accomplishments and memory of this remarkable and trailblazing Progressive bad-ass. | https://kathycopelandpadden.medium.com/shirley-chisholm-catalyst-of-change-progressive-bad-ass-f32362b96953 | ['Kathy Copeland Padden'] | 2018-12-18 14:40:49.006000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Women', 'Black Women', 'Women In Politics', 'History'] |
How I get the copy righted cartoon videos like twinkle twinkle little star, johny johny yes papa and abc songs? | Hi hope you are doing well . I will tell you how i get cartoon videos like johny johny yes papa, twinkle twinkle little star and abc songs for my kids and you can use these videos in any online platform you want because you will own them and you will have the copyright of them. No youtube channel on your site , viemo , OR any other online platform no one can claim a copy right . The site i am going to tell you is the best site on internet you can get here video like you want they are totally customized .
Like you want your character to animate in a video or your kid Favourite cartoon character , OR if you have your custom sound ,song you can get animation on that song . the delivered work is just crazy professional and unique. Give it a chance at least .yo can find the site here.
Cartoon videos are the best for your kids to learn .Because when the kids look at there favourite characters they will learn fast . The site you i showed you is best you can get here most engaging videos for your kids. | https://medium.com/@aroojishaq25557/how-i-get-the-copy-righted-cartoon-videos-like-twinkle-twinkle-little-star-johny-johny-yes-papa-706cfa0a8ade | ['Arooj Ishaq'] | 2020-12-21 22:00:03.061000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Cartoons For Kids', 'Abc Song', 'Twinkle', 'Johnyjohnyyespapa'] |
Use C# and a CNTK Neural Network To Predict House Prices In California | The file contains information on 17k housing blocks all over the state of California:
Column 1: The longitude of the housing block
Column 2: The latitude of the housing block
Column 3: The median age of all the houses in the block
Column 4: The total number of rooms in all houses in the block
Column 5: The total number of bedrooms in all houses in the block
Column 6: The total number of people living in all houses in the block
Column 7: The total number of households in all houses in the block
Column 8: The median income of all people living in all houses in the block
Column 9: The median house value for all houses in the block
We can use this data to train a deep neural network to predict the value of any house in and outside the state of California.
Here’s what the data looks like. This is a plot of all the housing blocks in the dataset color-coded by value:
You can sort of see the shape of California, with the highest house values found in the Los Angeles and San Francisco area.
Okay, let’s get started writing code.
Please open a console or Powershell window. You are going to create a new subfolder for this assignment and set up a blank console application:
$ dotnet new console -o HousePricePrediction
$ cd HousePricePrediction
Also make sure to copy the dataset file(s) into this folder because the code you’re going to type next will expect them here.
Now install the following packages
$ dotnet add package Microsoft.ML
$ dotnet add package CNTK.GPU
$ dotnet add package XPlot.Plotly
$ dotnet add package Fsharp.Core
Microsoft.ML is the Microsoft machine learning package. We will use to load and process the data from the dataset.
The CNTK.GPU library is Microsoft’s Cognitive Toolkit that can train and run deep neural networks.
And Xplot.Plotly is an awesome plotting library based on Plotly. The library is designed for F# so we also need to pull in the Fsharp.Core library.
The CNTK.GPU package will train and run deep neural networks using your GPU. You’ll need an NVidia GPU and Cuda graphics drivers for this to work.
If you don’t have an NVidia GPU or suitable drivers, you can also opt to train and run the neural networks on your CPU. In that case please install the CNTK.CPUOnly package instead.
CNTK is a low-level tensor library for building, training, and running deep neural networks. The code to build deep neural network can get a bit verbose, so I’ve developed a wrapper called CNTKUtil that will help you write code faster.
Please download the CNTKUtil files and save them in a new CNTKUtil folder at the same level as your project folder.
Then make sure you’re in the console project folder and create a project reference like this:
$ dotnet add reference ..\CNTKUtil\CNTKUtil.csproj
Now you are ready to add classes. You’ll need a new class to hold all the information for a single housing block.
Edit the Program.cs file with Visual Studio Code and add the following code:
The HouseBlockData class holds all the data for one single housing block. Note how each field is tagged with a LoadColumn attribute that will tell the CSV data loading code which column to import data from.
We also have a GetFeatures method that returns the longitude, latitude, median age, total number of rooms, total number of bedrooms, total population, number of households, and median income level of a housing block.
And there’s a GetLabel method that return the median house value in thousands of dollars.
The features are the house attributes that we will use to train the neural network on, and the label is the output variable that we’re trying to predict. So here we’re training on every column in the dataset to predict the median house value.
Now we need to set up a custom TrainingEngine which is a helper class from the CNTKUtil library that will help us train and run a deep neural network:
Note the CreateFeatureVariable override which tells CNTK that our neural network will use a 1-dimensional tensor of 8 float values as input. This shape matches the 8 values returned by the HouseBlockData.GetFeatures method.
And the CreateLabelVariable override tells CNTK that we want our neural network to output a single float value. This shape matches the single value returned by the HouseBlockData.GetLabel method.
We’re almost done with the training engine. Our final step is to design the neural network.
We will use the following neural network to predict house prices:
This is a deep neural network with an 8-node input layer, an 8-node hidden layer, and a single-node output layer. We’ll use the ReLU activation function everywhere.
Here’s how to build this neural network:
The CreateModel override builds the neural network. Note how each call to Dense adds a dense layer with the ReLU activation function to the network. The final output layer consists of only a single node without activation.
With the training engine fully set up, we can now load the dataset in memory. We’re going to use an ML.NET data pipeline for the heavy lifting:
This code calls the LoadFromTextFile method to load the CSV data in memory. Note the HouseBlockData type argument that tells the method which class to use to load the data.
We then use TrainTestSplit to split the data in a training partition containing 80% of the data and a testing partition containing 20% of the data.
Finally we call CreateEnumerable to convert the two partitions to an enumeration of HouseBlockData instances.
Now we’re ready to set up the training engine. Add the following code:
We’re instantiating a new training engine and configuring it to use the MSE metric (= Mean Square Error) to measure the training and testing loss. We’re going to train for 50 epochs with a batch size of 16 and a learning rate of 0001.
Now let’s load the data from the ML.NET pipeline into the neural network:
The SetData method loads data into the neural network and expects training features, training labels, testing features, and testing labels, in that order. Note how we’re using the GetFeatures and GetLabel methods we set up earlier.
And that’s it. The following code will start the training engine and train the neural network:
After training completes, the complete training and testing curves will be stored in the training engine.
Let’s use XPlot to create a nice plot of the two curves so we can check for overfitting:
This code creates a Plot with two Scatter graphs. The first one plots the TrainingCurve and the second one plots the TestingCurve.
Both curves are defined as the loss values per training epoch. And note the Sqrt method to convert the MSE loss to RMSE ( = Root Mean Square Error).
Finally we use File.WriteAllText to write the plot to disk as a HTML file.
We’re now ready to build the app, so this is a good moment to save your work ;)
Go to the CNTKUtil folder and type the following:
$ dotnet build -o bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.0 -p:Platform=x64
This will build the CNKTUtil project. Note how we’re specifying the x64 platform because the CNTK library requires a 64-bit build.
Now go to the HousePricePrediction folder and type:
$ dotnet build -o bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.0 -p:Platform=x64
This will build your app. Note how we’re again specifying the x64 platform.
Now run the app:
$ dotnet run
The app will create the neural network, load the dataset, train the network on the data, and create a plot of the training and testing loss for each epoch. The plot is written to disk in a new file called chart.html.
Here’s what it looks like:
The training and testing curves stay close together with the loss slowly dropping with each successive epoch. There is no hint of overfitting.
The final RMSE is 80.64 on training and 81.59 on testing. It means my app predictions are roughly $80k off. That’s not a bad start.
(disclaimer: note that RMSE is not expressed in dollars so this is only a rough approximation of the average prediction error)
Now I’ll expand the number of nodes in each neural network layer to 64. I will change the CreateModel method in the TrainingEngine class as follows:
The neural network now has 4,801 trainable parameters.
And here’s the result:
The training process is more unstable now, with some epochs reporting a large testing loss. But the network always corrects itself in subsequent epochs and there’s still no sign of overfitting.
The final RMSE is now 66.63 for training and 67.64 for testing. A nice improvement!
Now let’s add another layer. With the extra layer the neural network now has 8,961 trainable parameters:
And here is the result:
The training curves look about the same, with a final RMSE of 65.01 for training and 65.55 for testing. Even though I doubled the number of trainable parameters in the network, the results hardly improved.
Let’s do one more experiment. I’ll remove the extra layer and increase the number of nodes in each layer to 128. The neural network now has 17,793 trainable parameters:
And here are the results:
Again the curves look unchanged, with a final RMSE of 64.73 for training and 64.84 for testing.
You can see that adding more hidden layers or increasing the number of nodes per layer is not improving the final results. We’re not getting the loss below 64.
In machine learning we’re always looking for the most simple model that provides the most accurate predictions, because if we make the model too complex it will tend to overfit.
So it looks like for this dataset the optimal neural network that delivers the best tradeoff on accuracy and complexity is the second one we tried, with two 64-node layers.
So what do you think?
Are you ready to start writing C# machine learning apps with CNTK? | https://medium.com/machinelearningadvantage/use-c-and-a-cntk-neural-network-to-predict-house-prices-in-california-f776220916ba | ['Mark Farragher'] | 2019-11-19 14:58:49.623000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Csharp', 'Deep Learning'] |
Best Glastonbury Performances: 30 History-Making Festival Highlights | Tim Peacock
Chronologically, Monterey, Woodstock and the Isle Of Wight got there first, but when it comes to music festivals, Glastonbury still casts the longest shadow. As such, the best Glastonbury performances aren’t just highlights in the festival’s own story, but landmark moments in the history of music — career-defining events that have turned bands into household names overnight.
These days, this remarkable (mostly) annual jamboree is well established among the music industry’s major calendar entries, yet it sprang from the humblest of beginnings. Inspired by having seen Led Zeppelin play an al fresco performance at the Bath Festival Of Blues And Progressive Music, Somerset-based farmer-turned-promoter Michael Eavis launched what was initially called the Pilton Pop, Folk & Blues Festival at his own Worthy Farm on 19 September 1970, with just 1,500 festival-goers stumping up the £1 admission fee.
The event was renamed the Glastonbury Free Festival in 1971 — the same year the first of its three famous Pyramid Stages was constructed — and after a sporadic first decade, it’s gradually morphed into the singular experience which has since attracted millions of fans. Now usually referred to simply as “Glasto”, the event has retained its idealistic counterculture approach and now offers everything from a fairground to the nature-based Green Fields and family-friendly events.
Predominantly, though, it’s the stellar headlining acts which have enshrined the festival’s legend. uDiscover Music head down the front to savour the 30 best Glastonbury performances of all time.
Best Glastonbury Performances: 30 History-Making Festival Highlights
30: T.Rex (1970)
A pattern that’s emerged throughout Glastonbury history is for headline acts to drop out, only for their hastily-arranged substitutes to seize the day and turn in stellar performances. After famously arriving in a Cadillac so wide it could barely squeeze down the lane leading to the festival site, soon-to-be superstar Marc Bolan and his team established this tradition in Glastonbury’s inaugural year, stepping in to replace at the 11th hour and turning in what Michael Eavis later dubbed “one of the most memorable slots ever at the festival”.
29: Elvis Costello (1987)
Elvis Costello initially performed a tetchy solo Saturday headline set at the 1987 festival. However, when it concluded after ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’, the curtain behind the influential singer-songwriter rose to reveal his band, The Attractions, who then performed a visceral, hour-long set in their last show with Costello until the mid-90s. With his current outfit, The Imposters, Costello made a triumphant return to Glastonbury in 2013.
28: Portishead (1995, 1998, 2013)
The otherworldly trip-hop sounds of Portishead’s singular debut album, Dummy, might not seem ideal for a celebratory affair such as Glastonbury, but the Bristolian outfit led by Beth Gibbons held the festival’s acoustic tent spellbound during their inaugural appearance, in 1995. Their widely-praised return performances from 1998 and 2013 have further enhanced Portishead’s Glastonbury reputation.
27: The Verve (1993)
In an NME interview, Richard Ashcroft recalled that hadn’t arranged a camping pitch inside the Glastonbury grounds, so they ended up erecting their tent outside the festival, even though they were playing. However, the fast-rising Lancashire outfit soon adapted and turned in a legendary set, which included highlights from their debut album, , and an extended version of their classic early single ‘Gravity Grave’. As Ashcroft said, “All I remember is just the rush, the adrenaline, it was definitely the biggest crowd that I’d ever looked out on.”
26: Dolly Parton (2014)
Country queen Dolly Parton sported a white, rhinestone-studded trouser suit and gave a suitably regal performance at Glastonbury. Strutting across every inch of the stage, she led the enraptured audience of more than a few impersonations through a solid hour of clapalongs and singalongs during a set laced with classics such as ‘Coat Of Many Colors’, ‘Islands In The Stream’, ‘Baby I’m Burning’, ‘9 To 5’ and the inevitable ‘Jolene’.
25: Adele (2016)
Adele made her low-key Glastonbury debut on the Park Stage in 2007. Four years later, flush from the world-beating success of her second album, 21, she played down her chances of making a main-stage return to the festival, telling fans the thought of arena-sized crowds was enough to give her an “anxiety attack”. She proved herself — and her detractors — wrong in no uncertain terms in 2016, however, storming through a hit-stuffed set and turning her sombre signature ballad ‘Someone Like You’ into a communal singalong as a parting shot.
24: Snoop Dogg (2010)
After Jay Z proved Glastonbury was just as ideally suited to hip-hop as it was to rock in 2008, again created a sensation two years later, when all roads leading to the Pyramid stage were reputedly blocked a good half hour before the superstar rapper was due onstage. In celebration, Snoop regaled the crowd with a combination of medley after medley — interspersed with requests as to where the ladies were at — and even performed a reworked version of Tinie Tempah’s ‘Pass Out’, featuring the UK grime star who also played Glastonbury under his own steam the following night.
23: Pulp (1995)
Pulp’s signature hit ‘Common People’ was already scaling the UK charts when the group played Glastonbury, subbing for The Stone Roses, who cancelled after guitarist John Squire broke his collarbone. However, while the Sheffield indie-pop stalwarts were already on the rise, they rapidly ascended right to the top after their heroic Glastonbury performance, which included ‘Common People’ and the controversial ‘Sorted For E’s And Wizz’. Shortly after, the band’s career-defining third album, Different Class, topped the UK charts and won the Mercury Music Prize.
22: Beyoncé (2011)
Another triumph for pop in the rock arena, Beyoncé’s superbly-paced 2011 set was stuffed with hits including ‘Crazy In Love’, ‘Single Ladies’, ‘Independent Women’, ‘Halo’ and ‘If I Was A Boy’, along with surprise covers of Kings Of Leon’s ‘Sex On Fire’ and Alanis Morrisette’s ‘You Oughta Know’. The star later confessed she’d asked Coldplay’s Chris Martin for a little help with her setlist, but her 90-minute performance was rapturously received and, as she told the BBC’s Jo Whiley afterwards, “I am just so honoured — this is a highlight of my career.”
21: Underworld (1999)
Aside from Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage, the festival’s Other Stage (originally the NME Stage) has played host to countless up-and-coming stars since the 90s. This stage is primarily responsible for bringing dance music to the festival, with Orbital’s 1994 performance often cited as a turning point. Prior to that, UK electronic pioneers Underworld first came to Glastonbury as part of an unofficial rave sound system in 1990, but in ’99 they were fully endorsed by Michael Eavis and company, and they celebrated in style, sending fans into rapture with phenomenal versions of their signature hits ‘Born Slippy’ and ‘King Of Snake’.
20: Neil Young (2009)
pulled out of Glastonbury 1997 due to having allegedly sliced his finger while preparing a ham sandwich, but he more than made up for it in 2009. Akin to his peer , The legendary Canadian has never been the kind of artist to appease the general festival-goer, but at Glastonbury, he pulled out all the stops, with an extensive setlist of classics like ‘Hey Hey, My My’, ‘Heart Of Gold’, ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ and a cover of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’ that prompted the transfixed crowd to continually chant his name on departure. Job done, and then some.
19: Paul Simon (2011)
made his first ever Glastonbury Festival appearance in the regular Sunday afternoon “legends” slot on the Pyramid Stage, following in the footsteps of the likes of Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Brian Wilson. The iconic singer-songwriter was up against swelteringly hot conditions, but he had the perfect antidote to soothe the Glastonbury crowd with evergreen hits ‘The Boy In The Bubble’, ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ and ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’. He also played three songs from his then new album, So Beautiful Or So What, including the title track, and kept his signature hit, ‘You Can Call Me Al’, in reserve for the joyous finale.
18: Katy Perry (2017)
Making a magnificent entrance in a diamanté-clad jumpsuit, sparkly purple hat and purple strap-on wings, Katy Perry slayed the Saturday-night crowd in 2017, despite being up against Liam Gallagher on the festival’s Other Stage. Playing most of her must-hear hits, including a medley of ‘Teenage Dream’, ‘Firework’ and ‘Dark Horse’, she performed a set simply bursting with energy, danced with a security guard and brought out backing dancers who changed into increasingly preposterous headdresses with each passing song. That’s the spirit.
17: Arcade Fire (2014)
Canadian alternative stars Arcade Fire pulled out all the stops for their 2014 festival set which included exuberant visuals, numerous costume changes and a beautifully-paced, hit-stuffed setlist. Having turned the Pyramid Stage into a full-tilt discotheque with ‘Sprawl II’ and ‘Reflektor’, the band played their trump card, sparking a massive singalong with a jubilant ‘Wake Up’ and cementing their reputation as one of contemporary music’s most singular live acts in the process.
16: Travis (1999)
Travis’ second album, The Man Who, had only been in the shops for a month when they played the Other Stage at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival. The weather had been glorious earlier in the day, but as the Scottish quartet played their soon-to-be-released single ‘Why Does It Always Rain on Me?’, the heavens opened. The crowd went wild, however, and the performance went down as one of the all-time great shows in the festival’s 50-year history (it is now being released as Live At Glastonbury ‘99). By the time ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ was released as a single five weeks later, Travis were on the verge of international stardom, and would go on to headline Glastonbury a year later.
15: The Chemical Brothers (2000, 2011)
Glastonbury put on a spectacular show to mark the festival’s arrival in the 21st Century. With a reputed 100,000 fans succumbing to the diverse charms of a bill including David Bowie, Travis, Basement Jaxx, Coldplay and Moby, 2000 saw the return of the festival’s newly-refurbished Pyramid Stage, which was now 100 feet high and clad in dazzling silver. It also proved the ideal setting for The Chemical Brothers to seize the day and turn the festival site into the world’s greatest ever open-air club. The electronic pioneers later made a triumphant Glastonbury return in 2011 and they’re likely to hit new heights again in 2019.
14: Radiohead (1997, 2003, 2017)
Radiohead also turned in sterling Glastonbury performances in 2003 and 2017, but as yet they’ve been unable to beat their 1997 show — a watershed moment in their career, which Michael Eavis himself has described as “the best Glastonbury performance ever”. In 1997, Thom Yorke and company appeared just a fortnight after the release of their landmark third album, , and sent the festival audience into raptures with stunning performances of its standout tracks, including ‘Karma Police’, ‘No Surprises’ and a mind-bogglingly intense ‘Paranoid Android’.
13: The Who (2007, 2015)
had previously played a blinder at the 2007 Glastonbury Festival, triumphing despite being lashed by driving rain. In 2015, however, they joined the pantheon of Glasto greats in no uncertain terms, with Pete Townshend on vicious lead guitar form and Roger Daltrey at his pugnacious best as the band delivered two hours of vintage classics ranging from ‘Pinball Wizard’ to ‘Who Are You’ and ‘My Generation’.
12: Johnny Cash (1994)
Johnny Cash’s 1994 slot ushered in the final, glorious phase of his career. The first of his -produced albums, American Recordings was released just two months previously, but it was his widely-admired Glastonbury show that brought The Man In Black a whole new contemporary audience. Addressing the masses with a suitably curt, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” the then 62-year-old star duly performed a commanding, career-spanning set that went down an absolute storm.
11: Florence + The Machine (2015)
In yet another example of Glastonbury snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Florence + The Machine stepped in at the last minute when Foo Fighters were forced to cancel after broke his leg. Clearly relishing every second, Florence Welch and her team played an absolute blinder, with Welch pirouetting around the stage, feeding her vocal through a vocoder on an otherworldly reimagining of ‘What Kind Of Man’ and dedicating a moving, stripped-back version of ‘Times Like These’ to Grohl.
10: Iggy & The Stooges (2007)
‘s experienced things most of us couldn’t even begin to envisage, but one thing he hadn’t done was perform at Glastonbury until he finally brought his legendary Detroit charges, The Stooges, to the festival in 2007. Revisiting the footage, it now feels strangely poignant as the band then (circa their comeback album, The Weirdness) still featured Ron and Scott Asheton, both of whom have since passed away. On the night, however, The Stooges were simply blazing as they powered through proto-punk classics ‘1969’, ‘Funhouse’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, before Iggy provoked a mass stage invasion during ‘No Fun’. Truly electrifying.
9: Stevie Wonder (2010)
One of Glastonbury’s most anticipated headliners ever, Stevie Wonder didn’t disappoint. Indeed, when he closed the 2010 event on the Sunday night, his generous setlist dripped with classic songs. ‘Uptight (Everything’s Alright)’, ‘Superstition’, ‘Sir Duke’, ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ and ‘For Once In My Life’ were all performed with gusto, while wonderful surprises included a harmonica-led cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Human Nature’ and a closing ‘Happy Birthday’ featuring festival organiser Michael Eavis. The Guardian said, “A Glastonbury headline set featuring so many classics could never go wrong in the hands of this legendary musician,” and we can only concur.
8: Jay Z (2008)
Glastonbury has always embraced changing fads and fashions, but it has broadly been seen as a “rock” festival down the years. Signs that hip-hop was breathing down the neck of guitar-based music were, however, never more visible than in 2008, when Jay Z headlined the Pyramid Stage. Of course, there were plenty of naysayers, with Noel Gallagher famously saying, “I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury, it’s wrong.” Jay Z had the last laugh. He belted out a sarcastic cover of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ for his opening gambit and then simply brought the house down.
7: Bruce Springsteen (2009)
Few can even get close to Bruce Springsteen when it comes to pulling off widescreen rock’n’roll suitable for the biggest fields and stadiums on the planet. However, in typical fashion, The Boss took nothing for granted and gave Glastonbury his all during a truly epic headliner on the festival’s Saturday night in 2009. Featuring his trusty lieutenants, Little Steven and Nils Lofgren, The E Street Band were in superb form and their set featured all the classics (‘Born To Run’, ‘Glory Days’, ‘Dancing In The Dark’) plus wonderful surprises such as covers of Patti Smith’s ‘Because The Night’ and Joe Strummer’s ‘Coma Girl’. The size of the audience? “More than half the state of Nebraska, judging from the immense, rippling sea of arms and the forest of flags,” according to The Guardian.
6: The Killers (2017)
Las Vegas alt.rock superstars The Killers made their Glastonbury debut in 2007, but they really delighted fans when they returned ten years later as unannounced special guests to play a ten-song set full of fan favourites in front of a capacity crowd on the John Peel Stage. With Brandon Flowers and company on especially transcendent form, their ecstatically-received set included signature hits ‘Mr Brightside’, ‘Somebody Told Me’ and ‘Human’, while they also previewed their then-imminent Wonderful Wonderful album with a rousing version of trailer single ‘The Man’. The band are set to add to their Glasto legend in 2019 as they headline the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday night.
5: Metallica (2014)
Though arguably the world’s biggest metal band of them all, had never played Glastonbury until 2014 and there were plenty of sceptics who felt they were anything but acceptable Glasto fare. James Hetfield and co had other ideas, however, and they won over the doubters with a titanic set which culminated with storming versions of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘Enter Sandman’. The band then returned for an encore consisting of ‘s ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ and their own ‘Seek And Destroy’, and finally launched dozens of black Metallica-branded weather balloons into the crowd, triggering a giant game of dodgeball between the audience and security guards. Epic.
4: Paul McCartney (2004)
Rumours persisted that Michael Eavis had been trying to secure Paul McCartney for Glastonbury for decades, so it was a major coup when the legendary ex-Beatle finally walked out on the Pyramid Stage in front of 120,000 fans. His arrival couldn’t have been timelier, as bad weather had blighted that year’s festival and Portugal had just knocked England out of the Euro 2004 football tournament. However, the rain stopped and spirits lifted in unison as McCartney and his band performed a historic set, simply crammed with classics ranging from ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Get Back’ and ‘Back In The USSR’ through to ‘Live And Let Die’ (embellished with a firework display) and a life-affirming ‘Hey Jude’. As NME put it: “This is a member of the greatest band in the world ever playing some of the greatest songs in the world ever. And it doesn’t get better than that.”
3: The Rolling Stones (2013)
Remarkably, 50 years after they first trod the boards together, The Rolling Stones finally headlined Glastonbury for the first time. Was it worth the wait? You bet. The legendary outfit were in imperious form, kicking off with sure-fire hits (‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, ‘Gimme Shelter’), revisiting cult favourites (Keef’s ‘You Got The Silver’, the rarely-performed psych-pop classic ‘2000 Light Years From Home’) and completing their home run with a choir-assisted ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and a phenomenal ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, complete with a scrap-metal phoenix atop the stage which raised its wings and spurted jets of fire. Simply unmissable.
2: The Cure (1986, 1990, 1995)
are set to close 2019’s Glastonbury in what will be their fourth appearance at the festival, and the stage is set for an epic as the alt.rock icons’ profile is currently at its highest in years. Of course, Robert Smith and co already have a significant history with the festival, having already headlined in 1986, 1990 and 1995. Arguably the cream of these, The Cure performed their triumphant 1986 Glasto set to the unplanned backdrop of a spectacular thunderstorm and ended up delivering three encores, including an emotional ‘Faith’ and the angst-ridden title track from their nihilistic classic, Pornography.
1: David Bowie (2000)
David Bowie first featured on a Glastonbury bill in 1971, in the festival’s second year. It was then known as the Glastonbury Free Festival and the event was still cultivating its identity. If that low-key appearance has largely been overlooked, the same won’t ever be said for Bowie’s return in 2000: a truly tumultuous event and arguably one of the greatest rock and pop headlining shows ever, wherein the chameleonic star played just about everything of significance from his catalogue, from ‘Wild Is The Wind’ to ‘Ashes To Ashes’, ‘Changes’, ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘“Heroes”’, ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ and so many more. In a nutshell: showmanship, superb pacing and timeless music. His Glastonbury triumph shows exactly why we won’t ever see the likes of him again.
Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter: @uDiscoverMusic | https://medium.com/udiscover-music/best-glastonbury-performances-30-history-making-festival-highlights-4a8398234b4 | ['Udiscover Music'] | 2019-06-24 09:14:13.574000+00:00 | ['Lists', 'Festivals', 'Music', 'Pop Culture', 'Culture'] |
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