title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
829
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
| tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Symphony | Symphony
The synesthesia of imagination
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
I can hear colors.
I swear sometimes
I can hear
With my eyes, perceiving
Everything living
By the color
Of its soul.
I can see sound.
Even stone is alive.
To hear the landscape
Is like listening to a symphony
Playing in perfect harmony
With notes upon notes
Layered infinitely
Into an eternal matrix of song:
Each one a bloom, blade
Of grass or tree leaf, wading
And waiting in rays of day’s
Setting sun waving at itself
In a mirror of sea – all of them
Serenading our humanity.
This is our universe:
Sound penetrating matter, creating
Light, giving birth to love –
Love to the world, because there is
A song, sung into being, that is literally
Our DNA…and no one’s out of tune;
Though, we don’t always harmonize, and
We definitely have our own
Idiosyncrasies. no one is out of time.
Maybe offbeat, but not out of tune.
2019/2020 MDSHall | https://medium.com/sky-collection/symphony-b312a040cf16 | [] | 2020-12-09 11:57:02.919000+00:00 | ['Seeing Sound', 'Synesthesia', 'Sky Collection', 'Imagination', 'Poetry'] |
Growing Up Queer: Part II | Anabel sat in front of me in my after-lunch English class. She was kicking her little legs under her seat at the desk, singing a song I’d never heard quietly under her breath. She flipped her hair out of her face, but it kept falling back into her eyes. I was mesmerized.
I would be seeing her for the last time. I had just told the school counselor about what happened at lunch, and watching her at that moment, finally happy, felt cruel. In a few minutes Anabel would be called in. She’d feel sold out, lash out, and maybe not talk to me ever again.
Unless I didn’t tell her… I couldn’t tell her. She was so beautiful, kind, and sweet. I wanted to keep being around her. If she found out about me, I wouldn’t get to be around her anymore. All of this would be gone.
The classroom door opened. My stomach lurched. I couldn’t look at her as the office assistant called her name. Anabel trailed out after her. I’d just have to keep this to myself.
I was getting better at that.
Anabel never came back to class.
Class flickered past like a blurred film tape until I was back outside. I sat on a table, listening to a classmate yawn on about all the homework she had that night. I knew what class Anabel had at the end of the day. I wanted to see if she was okay, even if I was too scared to talk to her. I knew that she had two friends — juniors in high school — who would meet her there. She looked up to them and they looked out for her. They were good to her.
Anabel screamed at them, pushing them away, and stomped down the school quad. I don’t think she noticed that everyone was staring. Once she was out of sight I stood up and forced myself to walk to my P.E. locker in the middle of the conversation.
I needed space to think. | https://medium.com/th-ink/growing-up-queer-part-ii-65b561202bde | ['Gloria Bates'] | 2018-06-16 13:59:56.268000+00:00 | ['Growing Up', 'LGBTQ', 'Relationships', 'Memoir', 'Life'] |
Holding an offshore company and bank account is legal | Since the Panama Papers leak, the world went into a frenzy regarding offshore banking and the world of the rich. Additionally, the media has been calling out politicians and businessmen operating offshore accounts as tax evaders, which begs the question, is offshore banking illegal?
Are offshore accounts illegal? NO, as a matter of fact, it is very legal. Many ex-pats and international executive professionals will consider opening and operating offshore accounts when relocating from their countries due to the benefits offered by such accounts, i.e., the ability to access one’s fund anywhere across the world.
How offshore banking works
Offshore banking refers to opening and operating a bank account in a foreign country. People will often opt for offshore banking due to the financial conditions they offer, such as accessibility and lower tax rates. Offshore bank accounts are opened by a non-resident of the country offering offshore baking (such countries are also known as offshore financial centers).
The mention of offshore banking is often followed by sentiments of illegal practices such as tax evasion and money laundering. However, offshore banking is not illegal. Actually, opening an offshore account in a foreign country is very simple.
Similar to the traditional accounts, the individual has to show proof of residency and that the money being deposited into the accounts was acquired legally. However, there are cases whereby some offshore financial institutions will decline doing business with some foreign due to the involved compliance.
Offshore accounts vs. Swiss bank accounts
Swiss Bank accounts, also known as James Bond-like accounts, are used to keep an individual’s money out of the government’s reach. Recent years have seen the U.S. come up with stringent Swiss privacy laws. These accounts are operated with the highest level of privacy, and even in the past, Swiss account holders did not even have to attach their names to the accounts.
However, recent times have seen countries such as Switzerland agree to turn over clients’ banking information to foreign governments in a bid to effectively end cases of tax evasion, which is brought about by having hidden or unreported bank accounts.
Benefits of opening an offshore account
Sound banks and banking systems
Most banking systems from most western countries are unsound and only backed by the promises of an insolvent government. Additionally, these banks will often keep only a small fraction of their cash to handle customer withdrawal requests. However, there still exists the challenge associated with trying to access your money during financial shocks.
Offshore banks are often created in stable jurisdictions, keep a huge fraction of their cash in hand, are better capitalized, and are run conservatively run compared to their U.S. counterparts. Offshore banks are very responsible with their client’s money.
Currency diversification
One way to diversify one’s portfolio is by holding foreign currencies, internationalizing savings, and protecting purchasing power. However, these are not offered through domestic bank offers. Offshore banking systems, on the other hand, offer convenience when it comes to currency diversification.
Asset Protection
According to the Legal Resource Network, 15 million are filed in the U.S. on an annual basis, translating to about a lawsuit is filed against one in every 12 adults. It is a no-brainer that 80% of the world’s lawyers are in the U.S., meaning that that is where the money is. Your money is the prize.
While your money and property are not 100% safe, a foreign account makes you a less attractive target for lawsuits.
Diluting political risk
The biggest threat to banking systems is not market risks but the government. Governments play a great role in determining the safety and risks associated with your savings. With governments sinking into greater insolvency, they are turning to the same measures they have relied on throughout history. In such cases, governments will turn into more capital controls, retirement savings nationalization, bank tax deposits, and bail-ins in addition to other destructive actions.
One way to reduce the political risks is by placing some of the savings in foreign accounts, where they will be out of reach to the government. Opening an offshore bank account is one way to do that.
Higher interest rates for deposits
Over the years, the Fed and the European central bank have manipulated interest rates, moving them to all-time lows. Low-interest rates transfer wealth from savers, who should be enjoying higher returns for all the money they deposit.
However, offshore banks offer significantly higher rates than what you are likely to find in your home country.
Verdict
Opening and operating an offshore bank is completely LEGAL, unless you are doing it for purposes of tax evasion. Under The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), banks around the world have to report the activities and balances of bank accounts belonging to American citizens to the IRS.
It is important that you do your due diligence to get the best offshore bank as some U.S. firms will hold money in foreign accounts and will claim to use lawyers that ensure that their foreign activity is reported to the respective U.S. institutions. However, there are some that will be people that will put your investments at risk by using the system to profit illegally. | https://medium.com/@sibinsebastian/holding-an-offshore-company-and-bank-account-is-legal-5071c740f005 | ['Sibin Sebastian'] | 2020-12-20 13:42:32.508000+00:00 | ['Tax Planning', 'Taxes', 'Offshore Banking', 'Offshore Investments', 'Offshore Company'] |
La verdad sobre los algoritmos, según Cathy O’Neil | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/customized-communication/la-verdad-sobre-los-algoritmos-seg%C3%BAn-cathy-oneil-753ba2f14b28 | ['Anselmo Lucio'] | 2018-12-16 17:40:52.950000+00:00 | ['Español', 'Animation', 'Algoritmos', 'Algorithms', 'English'] |
What Kind Of Example Did Your Parents Provide You For Your Relationships? | Growing up, I had both working parents. They met in college and worked in the same field. They could relate on an educational and professional level. My mom battled breast cancer when I was a toddler. She seemed anxious and stressed out emotionally. My dad worked nearly all of the time. The balance between work and life seemed to be nonexistent.
I wanted a less chaotic environment to grow up in, but I didn’t make the money or the choices. I would go over to other people’s houses and they had it more put together and looking nicer. It didn’t ever really feel like a home in my house. It was like a purgatory. I felt embarrassed over the state of our home. We never really had anybody over anyways.
I wasn’t able to connect with others well because I was growing up in a wealthier area where I had gone to private schools. I did not feel comfortable or on the same level as these other students. There was not much that I could relate with. Making friends was not something that came easy. I didn’t like talking to other people. I mainly just focused on school and did not form many connections. I always felt uncomfortable with who I was and battled a lot of anxiety and depression.
It was not my job to be a parent, but I ended up trying to fit myself into that role. The house was usually a mess. My parents complained a lot. I was entrenched in the cycle of going home and then going to school for several years. I would set myself up in front of a TV when I was at home and do the homework that I needed to do for school. At one point, I wished that I could just be the dog for one day and told her, “I wish I was you” before going to school. I struggled with wanting to be a part of life because life wasn’t worth living at this point.
It was Junior year of high school. I couldn’t deal with the toxicity of school anymore. I ripped myself away from the nonsense and put my stuff into bags out of my locker. I called my mom and said that I needed to go home. I couldn’t manage anymore. I was too overwhelmed and I needed to reestablish what it was that I needed to do. I was going nowhere.
I had no worthwhile goals or anything to be excited about. No one cared. I felt that I was just too disconnected from everything to even make a stable decision. I didn’t want to make a silly decision to go to college just to accumulate student debt when I had no money to begin with.
I learned to establish better habits for myself. I learned to get my nutrition in a better place. I cut ties from toxic people that didn’t have my best interests at heart and just saw me as competition in my high school. I felt that I stopped drowning in misery because I put an end to a lot of the issues and maintained focus.
Balance was not something that existed within my household. Things were done to extremes. There was a lot of emotional tension at times. It was a volatile place. My father did teach me that focus and hard work were of value in the right circumstances. He taught me how to reach goals in that way. My mother taught me positivity, kindness and endurance. In observing my parents as a couple, I did not learn much about how to have a healthy, functional relationship. They at least did not have a pretentious way about themselves trying to impress others and their honesty was very apparent. I did know that what I wanted in a relationship was stability, respect and honesty as well as similar life goals. The example given to me by my parents in how to deal with relationships was not ideal, but I learned lessons. Happiness is determined by somebody using his or her own internal compass. It is best to deal with smaller issues before they become bigger ones. | https://medium.com/@saraknick/what-kind-of-example-did-your-parents-provide-you-for-your-relationships-cb367d8f2176 | ['Sara Knick'] | 2020-12-14 13:28:46.637000+00:00 | ['Growing Up', 'Relationships', 'Parenting', 'Love', 'Parents'] |
Fairytale Land | Imagine broadcasting this.
Imagine watching this.
Jeremy Vine show, part one.
“I mean, for goodness sake, Scotland, how is it going to survive, what does it have?”
“Oil. And a monster in a lake. And?… “ pic.twitter.com/WLVZ6LW9ab - Robert (@RobDunsmore) June 25, 2019
Apart from the dripping contempt, the weird editorialising, the inert audience, the complete lack of self-consciousness, one of the funniest aspects is the framing as Britain being all about The Queen. Paul Burrell, a daytime TV remnant of the Diana Cult is called upon for his constitutional wisdom and regales us with the news that:
“Nicola Sturgeon would love to read this, that Scotland would have devolution” (eh?!).
Jeremy Vine intones that Scottish independence: “That would hurt the Queen”.
Burrell blurts:
“… It would hurt the Queen, her Commonwealth and the United Kingdom is her life”
… as everyone nods sagely.
We seem to have slipped into an alternate dimension of English fantasy where Britain is reborn as a Ladybird Book, the Queen is a goodly woman fighting the evil witch in the north.
Then, piling stupidity on stupidity, Carole Malone proclaims that: “Ever time they do a poll, figures now are higher for staying within the union than they were at the time of the referendum … “
[Narrator: “No, you moron the entire premise of the piece that you are discussing is that they are not”].
Then Jeremy pipes up: “Nicola would Boris tell Scotland to ‘Hop it”?
Nicola isn’t too sure.
Jeremy continues: “I’ve got no evidence of any interest that Boris Johnson has in Scotland whatsoever.”
“I’ve never even heard him mention it.”
“I think Brown might be right about that” says Jeremy “Boris doesn’t have an affinity with Scotland, he’s not a Scottish sort of person” he explains.
You can watch the whole shitshow here.
One one level this is just the dregs of moron culture and it’s as meaningless dross as the crap churned out from every orifice of shit media on many platforms.
But it remains an insight into mainstream English culture at some level that somewhere some producer booked these people and scripted this dire broadcast and that somewhere people were sitting taking it all in.
The Skintland notion of Scotland as a sort of blasted heath is a well-established trope in English visions — and here again it gets a run-out.
The problem is the sort of nakedly hostile, puerile contempt that is on display here has no parallels, and would rightly be condemned by everyone if it was to be parroted from the studios of Pacific Quay. It is still stunning to watch it unfold and worrying for the future if these attitudes are wider than then panel of Channel 5’s daytime output. | https://medium.com/@mike-79284/fairytale-land-e460e007f38b | ['Mike Small'] | 2019-07-28 15:36:07.410000+00:00 | ['TV', 'Brexit'] |
The Replacements Matter…Still | The Replacements Matter…Still
If you don’t know them, you should.
Photo courtesy of Consequence of Sound
A few years ago I saw a glimmer of hope for future generations. I was perusing the stationary/book store, in the bowels of Rockefeller Plaza, on the prowl for unneeded reading material. I found nothing . . . came close, but decided against the Peter Criss autobiography. I settled on purchasing a few unneeded Moleskin booklets, a package of three for 8.95.
As I went up to pay I heard an all too familiar tune. A song that caused my heart to almost stop. Could it be really playing here? Was I in some way to hip independent film? Did I break the time space continuum? As I walked up, playing just loud enough for those who knew to know was “I’m In Trouble” by The Replacements, from their first album Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash.
Trying to deconstruct why The Replacements are one of the most important bands in rock and roll is an exercise in futility. If you don’t understand them by now, you never will. That’s not an indictment against you or your taste (OK, maybe against your taste). It’s not that their music or lyrics are in the same esoteric zip code of Frank Zappa or The Grateful Dead. They’re not like that at all. In fact, the ‘mats are as welcoming a band as you could hope for . . . as long as you can stomach alienation, sarcasm, snark, love and rebellion.
I chuckled and said to the clerk “It’s not every day I get to hear the ‘mats in a store.” Truth is, even when they were a full time working band you seldom heard them . . . anywhere. I used to get in trouble for playing the piss out of Don’t Tell A Soul when I worked in a record store during my Rob Gordon days. Since their break up almost 22 years ago, you hear them even less than seldom . . . if that’s possible.
Nonetheless, hear they were playing a live version of “I’m In Trouble” . . . in some tiny paper product store in Rockefeller Plaza. The kid, barely 25 if I had to guess, and I looked at each other and smiled. He said “Yea, this is from this weekends show in Toronto.”
“Oh, yea, that’s right they are doing those three festival dates this year.”
To a Replacements fan, a reunion seemed always likely to happen, but we just never knew when. They had reunited for a couple new tracks for a Best Of album a few years ago. And the new songs were pretty disposable. They weren’t bad, they just didn’t seem into it.
But then they reunited last year to record some material for their former guitar player Slim Dunlap, called Songs for Slim, who suffered a serious stroke awhile back. Songs for Slim is an ongoing project where artists cover some of Slims songs and release special packages to help pay for his care. The first in that series was a reunited Replacements. And on this EP they sounded reinvigorated.
I said to my new found kindred spirit “I wanted to go to the show in Chicago, but it didn’t work out. I guess I will have to hope for a full fledged tour.” He handed me my change smiling and without gloating said “Yea, I’m going to the Chicago show.” I about fell to my shoes. The lineup for the upcoming Riot Fest in Chicago is a Gen X’ers wet dream: Bob Mould, Public Enemy, The Pixies, Mission of Burma, et. al. “You bastard” I replied jokingly. I took my changed, shook my head and smiled, “Enjoy the show.”
The Replacements are more than just the folklore of drunken debauchery. They’re more than Tommy Stinson playing bass for the current incarnation of Guns-n-Roses.
They’re more than Paul Westerberg’s self imposed exile in the basement of his home in the suburbs of the Twin Cities.
They’re more than Chris Mars paintings and art work.
They’re more than Bob Stinson’s death.
They’re more than Slim Dunlap’s stroke.
They’re more than their history, real or embellished.
They’re more than their music.
They’re hard to explain, you either get them or you don’t.
Purists might argue that it’s not the Replacements without Chris Mars and there is some legitimacy to that. Purists might also argue that they were never the same after they kicked Bob Stinson out. To that I would say, with all due respect to the memory of Bob Stinson, that’s probably a good thing. The soul of the band has always been Tommy and Paul. So as long as it’s them, it is really the ‘mats. Is it perfect? No, absolutely not, but The Replacements were never about being perfect.
Obviously what makes The Replacements significant is the music. The names of bands they have influenced is ridiculously long and ever growing, thankfully. Listening to Paul Westerberg grow from wise ass punk to pure pop powerhouse is one of the greatest rewards in music. Seriously.
From the start, their songs straddle the fence between brilliant and tragic. Their songs, their music and their career are probably best summed up by Westerberg’s own song “I Don’t Know”, off Pleased to Meet Me. The line from that song “One foot in the door, the other on in the gutter” about sums them up personally and professionally.
What makes The Replacements matter is their connection with the fans. I mean, the fans. When you find someone listening to The Replacements you know, you just know, it’s a kindred spirit. Whatever walls you may have up immediately come crumbling down. There is a calmness that comes over you when you run across someone listening to them, it’s like an auditory Xanax. For some reason, and it’s hard to explain, when you meet a fan you just know your connection will transcend the music.
I’m not entirely convinced this is something any band can set out to do, but it’s something The Replacements were able to do. They accomplished what every band dies to do. They really connected with their audience. And they still do. Sure, they embraced the beer swilling jock and the angry punks, albeit begrudgingly, but longed to talk to the kid in the back shouting out to hear “Skyway”. Those where the people they played to.
No, they never got the huge record sales they deserved, but somehow, that seems fitting. It’s not like they didn’t try, they did. Kind of. Once. In their own way.
A video of just a speaker as your first video, for your first single, off your major label debut . . . at the height of MTV . . . and at the dawn of the college rock movement in the mid 80’s was probably not the smartest career move.
But it was uniquely, and brilliantly, The Replacements.
Watching that video you can almost hear the record company snarling, pissing and moaning because they knew what they had. They had a band, the band, that could have defined a generation . . . and they were watching it piss it away, in addition to their money.
You can almost hear the band sitting off to the side drinking their Mickey’s saying “Fuck you fellas, we’re doing it our way.” The Replacements were the epitome of rebellion when we needed rebels the most.
And maybe they didn’t come to define a generation. They did something better. They influenced generations.
Why do The Replacements matter? They’re not good looking, they have a reputation for being prickly, they’re not a perfect live act (Westerberg always forgets lyrics), they’re not super stars, they’ve never shied away from their foibles and missteps and often times, embraced them.
So, what makes them matter?
They’re real.
They’re honest.
They’re not Gods.
They’re human.
They’re me.
And they’re you.
They’re also just The Replacements. | https://medium.com/etc-magazine/the-replacements-matter-still-d7b05b5450c4 | ['Keith R. Higgons'] | 2020-02-14 11:49:59.925000+00:00 | ['Rock', 'Alternative', 'Music', 'Classic Rock', 'Rock And Roll'] |
Automate your commit messages | [Disclaimer: This product is still under heavy development so please do not evaluate the code quality. The MVP was built in a hurry to support the writing of this blogpost]
Your commit messages will never deviate from the contribution guidelines!
Different codebases have different rules to follow when we talk about the formatting of commit messages. As a developer, I don’t want to remember what the conventions are for each project that I am a contributor of. The task of adhering to a specific format while authoring commit messages is something that can easily be automated. This tool aims to enable the developer to focus on problem solving and removes the distraction of crafting commit messages according to some arbitrarily defined format.
promptui to the rescue
promptui is an open source interactive prompt for command-line applications written in go.
Supported features
There is a validation on the length of the title of the commit message — The prompt turns red if your title exceeds 50 characters
The story number can be provided as a CLI arg when invoking the tool.
The message body automatically wraps to 72 chars per line.
Co-authors list is sourced from a user defined JSON file. promptui supports vim-style navigation and search. Sample JSON shown below:
[
{
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Doe",
"email": "[email protected]"
},
{
"firstName": "Jane",
"lastName": "Doe",
"email": "[email protected]",
"details": {
"WFH": true
}
}
]
Future Scope
Allow user to define custom templates
Integrate directly with git as a pre commit hook
Source can be accessed by Gojek devs: https://source.golabs.io/siddharth.srivatsa/generate-commit-message | https://medium.com/@sidsrivatsa/automate-your-commit-messages-64df51c2e550 | ['Siddharth Srivatsa'] | 2020-10-25 16:49:29.723000+00:00 | ['Bootcamp'] |
The Time I Came In Last | Pexel Image
JD, who is fifty, is our special needs volunteer. He arrives faithfully at the charity thrift store every day, dropped off by a van that ushers people like him from group homes to volunteer jobs or day care facilities. It’s his responsibility to greet donors and sign donation receipts.
He’s one of the most gregarious people I’ve ever met. He knows so many people that I tell him he should run for mayor. Names and faces don’t slip through the cracks of his memory like they do mine. He recognizes everyone who has ever crossed his path.
“I know this man,” JD says, introducing me to a fellow church member or volunteer with his softball league. “He’s my friend.”
“Is there anyone you don’t know?” I always reply, which never fails to elicit a broad grin.
JD participates in every activity available to him, so it wasn’t surprising that he signed up for our 5K Rise and Run, a fundraiser put on by the charity. Since his van doesn’t transport people on Saturday mornings at 6 AM, he asked me if I would give him a ride to the race.
I was certain somebody at the event would be ready and willing to escort him around the course once we got there. Knowing JD, he probably had a posse of friends scheduled to meet him at the gate. What I discovered instead was a field of lean, fit runners in spandex stretching, jogging in place and looking very serious. These people meant business.
No one came over and said, “JD, you’re running with us.”
JD and I went from group to group, hoping to spot a familiar face. I had looked forward to running my first 5K and had practiced to increase my endurance. Slim and fit, I thought I had a good chance of doing well in my age group.
Driving halfway across town to pick up JD at 6 AM had not been in the plan, but I felt good about myself for making the sacrifice. I hadn’t planned on throwing away the whole race to babysit him around the course, though.
But nobody volunteered to walk with him. Casting one last futile look at the crowd of runners, I made my way to the registration table, JD shuffling beside me.
“We get a free pancake breakfast when we finish the race,” JD said. He had already mentioned this aspect of the race several times and we both viewed it as a nice way to wrap up the morning. The restaurant providing free pancakes was setting up shop under an awning that covered several large, steel griddles and a delicious aroma had already begun to waft over the field.
We pinned our numbers to our shirts and barely made it in time to join the throng of runners poised and ready for takeoff. When the whistle blew, several hundred people surged forward. The sun had risen, streaking the cool September sky with red, and a high, bright moon was still visible, sailing serenely above a distant line of trees.
As the crowd of runners pounded around the first bend, it became apparent that no one was going to come forward to walk with JD. Energized and ready to run, I sped up a little, but slowed down when I realized he wasn’t keeping up. The other runners thundered further along the trail, kicking up a small swirl of dust. JD strutted proudly, arms swinging at his sides, puffing a little as we lurched up a small incline.
I wondered if I might be able to persuade him to stop at the one-mile mark where a few families with kids called it quits and headed for a nearby park. Maybe I could park him with the families and manage to catch up with some of the others, but JD, determined to continue, shambled along with his awkward, jerky gait.
The front runners had long since disappeared. We finally fell way behind everyone except two women who plodded indifferently along, absorbed in a conversation about yard sales. Soon even keeping up with them was difficult.
I tried urging JD to go a little faster, but when we stopped for a water break the two yard sale women trudged beyond us out of sight. Luckily, volunteers were posted along the route to keep us from getting lost. The path stretched emptily ahead except for the occasional volunteer.
Pixabay image
“I can’t wait to get my pancakes,” JD said.
We stopped for three more water breaks, two rest stops, and twice because JD’s shoelaces had come untied and I needed to tie them. Even the volunteers were beginning to drift from their stations.
One hour and 47 minutes later JD and I finally crossed the finish line. Somebody called out, “Bebe, what did you do, go to sleep along the way? We started to send out a search party.”
“We made it!” JD cried excitedly. “Let’s get pancakes!”
But they had run out of pancakes. “Sorry,” the caterer said as he folded his tent and packed up his truck. “You should have gotten here earlier.”
JD took it well, especially when the Executive Director of our charity hung a medallion around his neck and took his picture.
“I won!” He exclaimed proudly, fingering the medallion.
When I got home and told my husband about the race, he insisted on making me pancakes. | https://bknicholson.medium.com/the-time-i-came-in-last-54338c5b857e | ['Bebe Nicholson'] | 2018-12-03 13:13:13.731000+00:00 | ['Volunteering', 'Life Lessons', 'Personal Development', 'Running', 'Storytelling'] |
Travel to Kalamata | History
The history of Kalamata begins with Homer, who mentions Pharai, an ancient town built more or less where Kalamata Castle stands today. It was believed that during ancient times the area currently occupied by the city was covered by the sea, but the proto-Greek and archaic period remains (Poseidon temple), which were discovered in the Akovitika region, prove the opposite.
Top Destinations
Old Town
Like many other Greek cities, Kalamata boasts an amazing historic quarter, where you’ll love wandering along narrow alleys and neoclassical mansions and cute abandoned corners. Located in the northern part of the city, just below the castle, the old town of Kalamata is home to several must-see churches, including the Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles and the Ypapantis Cathedral, a few museums, and a plethora of shops selling local products and original souvenirs.
Church of Ypapantis
The Ypapantis Cathedral, built in 1839, is a stunning Byzantine-style church that houses the Virgin Mary’s holy icon of the same name, dating back to 672 AD. It was found in the stables of the Ottoman governor after he dreamed of a woman telling him to dig in a particular place. After the discovery, he even converted to Christianity because of the many miracles he was supposed to have performed. The church, which sits on a square with the same name, was severely damaged by the earthquakes of 1886 and 1986, both times restored.
Archaeological Museum of Messenia
The Archeological Museum of Messenia is located in the historical heart of Kalamata, where the old market once stood, and houses an extensive collection of archeological finds from prehistoric times to the Byzantine era. It is divided into four geographical areas, including Kalamata, Messene, Pylia and Trifylia, representing the four provinces of Messenia. Exhibits include the splendid Koroni mosaic depicting different scenes of the god Bacchus’ worship.
Kastro
The Kalamata Castle dominates the city on a lush pine-covered hill. The structure was built in 1208 by Geoffroi de Villehardouin, a Frank knight who conquered Achaea. It boasts an impressive gate, and although it dates back to the 13th century, it miraculously survived the earthquake in 1986, which destroyed a large part of the city. The Castle is a little haven of peace and serenity, the best place to enjoy the sunset from a beautiful point of view.
Messenia
As the Messenia region’s capital, Kalamata is an ideal base for exploring the area. Messenia certainly deserves a visit with spectacular beaches, four-and five-star resorts, historical treasures such as old castles and ancient cities (the old city of Messene is nearby) and archeological sites. Whether you’re there for three days, a week or even ten days, you’ll quickly realize that Kalamata has so much more than just a small provincial city.
Top beaches
Kalamata beach
Kalamata beach, awarded with a blue flag, extends over 2.5 km and is easily accessible from the city centre. If you want to adopt the local habits, you can also get there on foot or by bike. The beach, which has a fine rocky shore and warm, calm waters, beach bars, umbrellas and sun lounges, is an ideal choice for a quick rest during the day. Kalamata Beach has a wide variety of beach bars, cafes and tavernas.
Voidokilia
You will find Voidokilia, the spectacular, famous and mostly photographed beach in Messinia, at a distance of 10 km from Pylos, next to the Gialova lagoon in the western part of Messinia. The main feature of this natural bay with its perfectly round crescent, fine, white powder-like sand and crystal clear turquoise waters is its natural beauty that attracts all visitors to the region.
Almyros
It’s one of Kalamata’s most popular and busy beaches. The beach is 6 km east of the city, just before the road to Mani. It has white pebbles, sun loungers and umbrellas and many cafes and beach bars, of course. It’s perfect for water sports like water skiing and windsurfing.
Velika
The large and sandy coast is located two and a half kilometers from the village of Velika, after crossing the reeds growing in the area. The fine golden sand and trees make it a meeting place for many locals and tourists who want to relax in the Messinian Gulf waters. There is a large cafeteria on the edge of the beach, which stands near the sea.
Petalidi beach
Petalidi beach is just before the seaside town harbour. The coast is 300 meters long and is covered by large rocks, while the seabed is sandy. On Petalidi beach, 15 km from Messini, you’ll find shade under the surrounding trees and a traditional coffee shop on the sea front, where you can enjoy the beautiful view.
Important Links
Kalamata port
Kalamata Airport
Car Hire Kalamata | https://medium.com/@rizos085/travel-to-kalamata-d8e371b2d766 | ['Maria Brown'] | 2019-10-18 11:01:39.191000+00:00 | ['Kalamata', 'Greece', 'Car Rental', 'Travel'] |
Building a Marketplace — Block by Block | Building a Marketplace — Block by Block
A Technical History of LockTrip
Since the inception of LockTrip, our marketplace has undergone multiple phases and countless iterations. We’ve tried to reflect the pace of progress through articles, recaps, our daily communication on Telegram and milestone announcements.
However, we have always found it difficult to convey the bigger picture while at the same time communicating all the nuances that come with the development itself. Each and every component has its own difficulties and advantages, which are neglected under the uniform term of “milestone”. Today we want to add some colour to the history of LockTrip.com.
Colouring the History of LockTrip.com
To make things easier to grasp, we have prepared this very detailed infographic for our community. To view it in full size and quality, please follow the link below:
Timelines of Major Milestones
The graphic consists of two major sections, both sharing the same timeline at the horizontal axis. As time passes, you will see more and more milestones being added in the form of progress bars. Below is a small zoomed-in snippet.
Zooming in
There are 6 types of progress bars, each displayed with a different colour.
This stage marks the technical initialization of the milestone and starts after the strategical development has been concluded. It consists of tasks such as choosing a suitable technology, contacting relevant partners and analyzing the methods and standards they work with.
At the same time we ensure the technical compatibility and identify possible bottlenecks as well as challenges.
In this step we design all the details and functionality such as buttons, features, design elements, user interface and the integration into the marketplace. We also validate whether the service provided by third parties matches our expectations and work around the bottlenecks and challenges identified in the previous stage.
By this stage we have completed all preparations and can now discuss a technical roadmap with all developers involved. This is to ensure that the back-end developers can work according to the front-end requirements and to get an understanding for each developer’s tasks and responsibilities.
Third party integrations need to be considered at this stage and the relevant steps need to be communicated with all relevant parties.
Now we can finally start coding, which involves both backend and frontend. Different teams work on different branches of the code, which are then merged into a single body.
Each step also includes a series of testing in its own micro-environment. Does the API send data as expected? Does the code do what it is meant to do? Do the filters work as designed? Once each branch of the code is ready and has been tested on a micro-level, we proceed by integrating it into the marketplace and deploy on our staging server.
Once on staging, the actual testing begins on a macro-level. Here we go through countless test cycles, both scripted and manually. Since we cannot anticipate the results of these tests, it marks the most uncertain stage of all when it comes to predicting timelines.
A single issue can delay the whole milestone by 1 or 2 weeks, especially if it needs to be fixed by a third party, which we have little influence over. Once all tests have been passed, the actual deployment follows and we announce the milestone to our community.
As a final step, we gather feedback from our users and repeat the tests on the deployment server. Sometimes a bug can emerge on the deployment server, which didn’t present itself on the staging server.
Active Tasks & Average Duration
For a more detailed analysis you can refer to the second part of the graphic. There you will see the number of milestones we have actively been working on at a given time.
The growing size from left to right represents a quickening development speed as the team becomes more efficient over time. Not only do we continuously learn from previous mistakes, but we were also able to form our internal communication more efficiently. At the same time we standardized certain tasks and processes that turned out to be effective.
Working on many tasks in parallel is one thing, but does it really tell the whole story? After all, it could be that we are just taking longer for every milestone and therefore the graph is distorted.
This is why we also plotted the average coding + testing time for each of the milestones required. You can observe that metric by the black line going through the chart.
The line has fallen by roughly 20% over the past year, which means that milestones are now completed 20% quicker on average, despite working on more milestones in parallel.
We hope that you will enjoy the graphic as much as we do, and that you take the time of viewing it in full size. You will have the best experience using a big screen.
— Your LockTrip Team
Join our Telegram Community 👇🏼
LockTrip is a blockchain-based travel marketplace that allows users to save on average 20% on their bookings by cutting out middlemen. Every booking burns LOC proportionally to its booking value, continuously reducing its total supply. | https://medium.com/locktrip/building-a-marketplace-block-by-block-c6cf90107445 | ['Locktrip.Com', 'Loc Token', 'Official Blog'] | 2020-05-20 16:36:00.514000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Locktrip', 'Ethereum', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
On having a “flexible faith” | I once had a high school English teacher who told the class we could argue in our term papers that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is about a cheese sandwich, and get full credit…if we could make a credible case for it, using textual and historical evidence.
As far as I’m aware, no one wrote a paper about Shakespeare and cheese sandwiches that semester. But that method of creative interpretation, albeit with some practical limits, has stuck with me over the years. I remember that scene from high school when I think about different ways Christians have interpreted the Bible, and continue to interpret it still.
I found a similar kind of spirit in the book A Flexible Faith by Bonnie Kristian, which tackles multiple issues that Christians have never universally agreed upon (Should people be baptized as babies or as adults? Is the Eucharist real, or symbolic?) and presents different cases for each view. It was endorsed by Gregory Boyd, whose book Across the Spectrum is quite similar. I eat up everything Boyd writes, so seeing his name on the cover of Kristian’s book made it an easy purchase.
In a nutshell, the book can be summarized as follows: Believers are anchored by the doctrines of the orthodox creeds (Apostles and Nicene, respectively), but there is allowance for diversity within the faith…so long as one can build a solid case using appropriate Scriptural and historical references.
In other words, no one can honestly claim that salvation is found in a cheese sandwich.
I marked up several sections of this book (storing up quotes for Instagram!), but this paragraph really stood out to me:
As a millennial who sees too many people my age leaving the church and becoming “nones” because they’re disillusioned with the only version of Christianity they know, I’d suggest there’s a lot more room for growth. Navigating these differences becomes easier, I’m convinced, when we appreciate the diversity within orthodoxy, and when we learn to thoughtfully and fairly distinguish between theological debates of varying importance and implication. We can and must reach a point of being able to say, “I think you’re wrong and here’s why. Oh, and we’re still on for lifeguarding together Saturday, right?”
This is how I imagine the ancient rabbis acting as they compiled the biblical commentaries known as the Talmud: Okay, fine, so you think the world was created in six literal 24-hour days instead of several thousand years. I think that’s mashugana, but are you still coming over for Shabbos dinner this weekend?
That level of maturity and nuance is, sadly, a lost art today. Just this week, I had someone message me on Instagram to tell me that I had no right to call myself a Christian because of a picture I posted from the women’s march, in which I was standing next to another handmaid who happened to be holding a sign saying that abortion is a “valid medical procedure.” I honestly didn’t think about her sign when I posted the photo — I only thought it was cool that we were wearing matching costumes that day. But the more I tried to explain myself, the more this person seemed certain that I was a heretic. Oh well.
Instances like that, which are sadly common, guarantee that I’ll be returning to Kristian’s book for reassurance. Ultimately, however, true assurance that I’m doing this Christianity thing “right” (whatever that looks like) comes from studying the Bible as carefully as I can, praying that I can set my biases aside, and be willing to feel uncomfortable by the truths it contains. | https://medium.com/@sbethcaplin/on-having-a-flexible-faith-374860b76326 | ['Sarahbeth Caplin'] | 2019-02-06 20:13:17.764000+00:00 | ['Bible Study', 'Bible', 'Book Review', 'Christianity', 'Christian Living'] |
Our FAQs | Writers
What happens when I submit my article to TDS?
Thank you so much for taking the time to submit your article to our team! We will review it as soon as we can.
If we believe that your article is excellent and ready to go, this is how you will be able to add your post to our publication. If “Towards Data Science” shows up after you click on “Add to publication” in the dropdown menu at the top of the page, that means we have added you as an author and are waiting for you to submit your article. Once you have submitted your article, it will be reviewed by an editor before a final decision is made.
If we think that your article is interesting but needs to be improved, someone from our team will provide you with feedback directly on your submitted Medium article.
Please note that we only respond to articles that were properly submitted using either our form or via an email that exactly follows the instructions listed here. We don’t respond to pitches or questions already answered in our FAQs or on our Contribute page. We also ignore articles that don’t comply with our rules.
If you haven’t heard from us within the next five working days, please carefully check the article you submitted to our team. See if you can now submit it directly to TDS and look for any private notes from us that you may have missed. You should also make sure to check your spam folder.
If you just can’t reach us, the best thing for you to do is submit your article to another publication. Although we’d love to, we can’t provide customized feedback to everyone because we simply receive too many submissions. You can learn more about our decision here and submit another post in a month. | https://medium.com/p/462571b65b35#a082 | ['Tds Editors'] | 2020-11-19 01:16:58.476000+00:00 | ['Writers’ Guide', 'Tds Team', 'Writers Guide'] |
How to use a dynamic library written in Rust within Node.js | Let’s take a look at a hypothetical problem: we have an existing project written in Node.js and we want to optimize the performance of a function that performs complex calculations. The decision was made to do this by using Rust, a low-level programming language that handles the same task much faster.
Different approaches can be used for implementation (dynamic libraries, C++ Node.js add-ons, etc.). In this article, I intend to use FFI (Foreign Function Interface) and a C-compatible library written in Rust. This method is not the most efficient in terms of performance but nevertheless, it can give a good gain of optimization.
The example is given here, however, serves only to demonstrate how you can organize the interaction of Node.js and Rust, it has nothing to do with the task described above. Nevertheless, the techniques used here are the key to its implementation!
Task 1: Swapping Strings
Share strings between the Rust library and Node.js to illustrate the interaction.
Task 2: Structures
Use structures to share data between the library and Node.js
Node.js
Let’s write a Node.js script that accesses the dynamic library and calls its functions with passing data back and forth.
To do it we have to install the following dependencies:
ffi — an extension for loading and calling dynamic libraries
— an extension for loading and calling dynamic libraries ref — an additional dependency to help us work with C-like types in JavaScript
— an additional dependency to help us work with C-like types in JavaScript ref-struct — the struct type implementation for Node.js
Let’s take a look at the index.js:
Despite the fact, the code is quite easy to read some lines still require explanation.
* 7 In order to share data with a dynamic library, we must arm ourselves with special types this library can work with. We cannot use the JS-array type within the library so instead, we will work with pointers (Pointer). To do this, we need the ref (C ++ addon) module (which, among other things, allows us to create our own types) as well as modules that implement the structure type and the array type. In this line, we create a C-like array type of 2 elements that will contain values of type int64.
* 10 Since the library’s multiply function will return a struct, which is not represented in JavaScript, we need the ref-struct module that allows us to work with this data type and, in particular, convert it to a JavaScript object. At this point in the script, we create the OutputType structure (like Rust or C) with three type fields: int64, OutputArrayType, CString. The last type represents the so-called null-terminated string (NULL-terminated C-style strings).
* 24 To initialize access to the library’s functions we use the ffi.Library call which has the following signature:
ffi.Library ( path_to_library , { function_name : [ return_type , [ arg_type_1 , arg_type_2 , ...], ...]);
The return type for the multiply function is the OutputType structure we created earlier. The function argument is another structure.
You may have noticed that the return type and the argument type of the hello function is a simple string. This is the same as ref.types.CString so there is no problem here - I did it on purpose, for demonstration. The ref module allows you to use “string” and “number”. See the module reference for details.
* 35 We call the library’s hello function like a normal JavaScript object method.
* 41 We create a structure with data. Note that I intentionally omit the result property.
* 46 Accessing the property of the structure, just like we do with regular JS objects.
* 47 Converting to a regular array.
* 51 Since we cannot work with the structures in Node.js using its native capabilities we will convert it to an object. (Note that we can always access the structure fields directly using the JavaScript object property access notation).
Rust
Now let’s look at the complete listing of the library code:
Let’s start with the `hello` function.
* 1, * 3–5 We need some dependencies to work with the C-types.
* 7, * 56 The annotation tells the Rust compiler not to mangle the name of this function.
During the creation of the Rust library, the function name is changed in the compiled file (a technique called mangling). In order for the function to be called from other languages, we should disable this behavior.
* 8 I added this annotation to prevent the clippy linter from throwing the unsafe function error.
* 10 The function is declared as public (can be called outside of this module), and the extern keyword indicates that we are going to work with FFI, call it from another language. The “C” indicates which Application Binary Interface (ABI) to use. The ABI defines how to call a function at the linking level. In this case, it is C.
The function takes and returns values of type * const c_char
* const T — is the “pointer” type (raw pointer).
c_char — is an equivalent of the char type in the C language.
* 14 Since we receive a pointer to the function input, and we want to work with a string, we need to execute an unsafe (for a number of reasons, for example, due to the lack of a validity guarantee) from_ptr method, which takes a pointer and returns a representation of the borrowed C-string
(& ‘a CStr). This structure allows us to use some useful methods. Since the function is unsafe, we wrap it in the unsafe * 11 block
* 17 Using the to_str() method to get a slice of the string
* 22 Return a new string as a pointer of type c_char
The `multiply` function and related structures
* 25, * 43 The annotation #[repr(C)] before the description of the structure Output tells the compiler that this type must be C-compatible (c- representation)
* 29, * 38 We return text data as a pointer
`Cargo.toml` for the library
To compile the library we will need to add the following lines to the Cargo.toml file:
[dependencies]
libc = “*” [lib]
name = “_node_rust”
path = “src / lib.rs”
crate-type = [“dylib”]
These directives tell the compiler that we want to compile a dynamic library; we specify the path to the source file and the name.
Now you can compile (cargo build — release) library and run node index.js | https://ewen-blotskyi.medium.com/how-to-use-a-dynamic-library-written-in-rust-within-node-js-649c666493cf | ['Ewen Blotskyi'] | 2020-11-04 20:26:19.956000+00:00 | ['Rust', 'Nodejs', 'Dynamic Library'] |
KOTLIN vs JAVA — Which One Is Better For Android App Development? | Kotlin vs Java war; this will help businesses choose the best between Kotlin and Java technology for Android app development.
KOTLIN vs JAVA — Which One Is Better For Android App Development?
Here, Kotlin vs Java parameters are mentioned, those will help your business choose the best programming language for Android app development.
Developing Android applications is a fabulous option to attain success in your business, but along with that picking up the best programming language is the real challenge. In the market “n” numbers of technologies are there and choosing the best among them is like searching for the needle in the grass.
Here I will talk about only two trending technologies that are Kotlin and Java. Well, these two technologies are very famous for Android app development, but the difficulty arises when businesses need to choose anyone between Kotlin and Java. Just because of this startup, SMEs and even large enterprises met with several queries remain in their mind until its development such as:
Which is better: Kotlin vs Java for Android Development
Is Java technology faster than Kotlin?
Java or Kotlin for building leading business applications in 2021?
Can we use Kotlin and Java at the same time?
Which technology is easier: Kotlin or Java?
Never Ending List…
Picking the best for Android app development is a difficult task; however, it can be simplified by making a comparison between both Java and Kotlin. Let’s view who will win the Kotlin vs Java war.
Kotlin vs Java War Begins
In order to begin the war, it is crucial to know the vital factors of Kotlin and Java; that’s why firstly I will give technologies overview. Well, knowing about the technologies and choosing the best is just not enough, as to handle the Android app development process efficiently, it is really important to hire Android app developers from the top software outsourcing company.
Kotlin Overview
Kotlin is a more advanced programming language inspired by Java; it is an enhanced version of it with so many supplementary features. Kotlin is clean, comparatively easy, and includes fewer formalities and rules related to Java and other technologies.
Why Choose Kotlin?
827 organizations are using Kotlin in their tech stacks. (Stackshare) Kotlin is an open-source tool with 34.1K GitHub stars. Pinterest, Evernote, Twitter are the most popular apps using Kotlin.
Pros
Code penned in Kotlin is much smaller than the code written in Java. Less code means fewer bugs.
Kotlin Application Deployment is quicker to assemble and prevent applications from expanding size.
Kotlin script can be utilized to align projects in Android Studio for auto-completion.
Kotlin assembles the code to a bytecode that can be executed in the JVM.
Cons
It has a small support community compared with Java. Additionally, it has fewer libraries.
Kotlin resembles weak patterns, and code readability becomes quite hard to read and understand.
Kotlin has a steep learning curve.
Fewer Kotlin programmers are available in the market. So, finding an experienced one is difficult.
Java Overview
Java is the object-oriented programming language built by Sun Microsystems. It is the native language allowed to build any program and supports Android, Windows, and Linux.
Why Choose Java?
9465 organizations are utilizing Java in their tech stacks. Java is an open-source tool with 32.5K GitHub stars. Spotify, Twitter, Google and more are very famous apps using Java.
Pros
Java can work on any device, server or operating system
This programming language can easily create modular applications and reuse the parts.
While examining Kotlin vs Java performance, Java is simple to use, compiling, and making debugging.
Java several libraries are managed by trusted organizations like Google, Apache, and others.
Cons
The syntax that Java uses is complicated compared with other languages like C + or Python.
With Java, it is difficult to access some content that may be inappropriate with the devices being used.
In Java test-driven development, more code writing is required and carries a higher risk of programming errors and bugs.
Java is slower compared with other programming languages.
Java vs Kotlin: Which One Is Best Kotlin or Java?
Advantages of using Kotlin over Java and Java over Kotlin will help in analyzing the result of Kotlin vs Java war.
Advantage of using Kotlin over Java
Source: Google
Kotlin is a one-stop language for all application development. It supports lots of IDEs, Android Studio, in comparison with Java.
Nullability is the major issue faced by Java programmers. But if I talk about Kotlin, then it can address nullability issues by placing null right in its type system.
In Kotlin shorter codes are written; this decreases the chances of creating bugs. Whereas in Java, long codes are used, that’s why the bug causing rate gets higher.
Benefits of using Java over Kotlin
Source: Google
In Kotlin, there is a steep learning curve. It's extremely compact syntax and that’s why it requires some learning upfront.
Kotlin presents a slower compilation speed than Java in several cases.
The Kotlin community is still growing and learning, so it is hard to find problems to answer.
Android Studio few features like auto-complete and compilation run slower in Kotlin in comparison to Java.
Kotlin vs Java: Comparison Between Kotlin and Java
The comparison between Java and Kotlin (Java vs Kotlin) will help businesses in choosing the best technology for Android app development. Both whether it is Java or Kotlin includes multiple features and sometimes it is quite difficult for normal users to make correct use of it and to resolve such things you can hire Kotlin app developers or hire Java app developers from the top Android app development company.
What Java has that Kotlin does not?
Checked Exceptions
Examination of short programs leads to the conclusion that wanting exception specifications could improve developer productivity and code quality. But experience with extensive software projects suggests a mixed result; this decreases productivity and code quality.
Kotlin does not include checked exceptions. There are reasons for this, but here I discussed a simple example.
The following example is of JDK implemented by StringBuilder class: What does this signature say? It says that all time I add a string to something (a StringBuilder is sort of a log, a console, etc.) and have to catch those IOExceptions. Why? Because it might be performing IO and it results in this sort of code all across the place:
Coding Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/exceptions.html
This is no good but can be corrected using Java.
Primitive type arrays
Kotlin has specialized classes to express arrays of primitive types (means Kotlin does not have direct functionality of primitive types arrays) without boxing overhead: ByteArray, IntArray, ShortArray, and more. These classes have no inheritance connection to the Array class. Each of them also has a similar factory function:
Coding Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/basic-types.html
Wildcard Types
This is the most complex part of the Java type system. The wildcard type in Java controls the type safety of the use of generic types. It can be employed in variable declarations and instantiations as well as in method definitions.
Kotlin does not include any of the Wildcard Types. Apart from this Kotlin does not include Static members, Ternary-operator a ? b:c.
What Kotlin has that Java does not?
Extensions
Kotlin allows you to extend a class with new functionality without using design patterns like Decorator. This is achieved via special codes called extensions; this mechanism is called extension function. For example, Kotlin developers can write new functions for a class from a third-party library that developers can’t change.
2. Null Safety
The most common mesh in many programming languages, including Java, is that obtaining a member of a null reference result in a null reference exception.
Whereas, Kotlin’s type system is intended to exclude Null Pointer Exceptions from our code. Android chiefly relies on Null to describe the absence of a value, but it can simply destroy an application. Kotlin efficiently resolves this obstacle by adding inbuilt null safety.
3. Range expressions
Kotlin allows you to produce ranges of values utilizing the rangeTo() function from the kotlin.ranges package and its operator form … Ordinarily, rangeTo() is complemented by in or !in functions.
Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/ranges.html
Data Classes
We often create classes whose chief purpose is to hold data. In such a class, some usual functionality and utility functions are mechanically obtainable from the data. In Kotlin, this is known as data class and is labeled as data:
Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/data-classes.html
Kotlin also includes Lambda expressions + Inline functions, Smart casts, String templates, Properties, Primary constructors, First-class delegation, Singletons, Declaration-site variance & Type projections, and more features.
Kotlin vs Java Comparison Table
Ending Words: Who Took The Crown?
By observing different parameters of Java and Kotlin, I found Kotlin leading the Kotlin vs Java race. This is so because Kotlin interworks with Java and presents incremental modification of code and excellent type systems to Java.
In order to make the right use of Kotlin in Android app development hire Kotlin developers from a reputed Android app development company. This will help the startups, SMEs and large enterprises get reliable app development solutions and meet the business goal in less time frame. | https://medium.com/quick-code/kotlin-vs-java-which-one-is-better-for-android-app-development-3b4322cdb407 | ['Amyra Sheldon'] | 2020-12-21 23:54:58.113000+00:00 | ['Kotlin Vs Java', 'Hire Java Programmers', 'Hire Java Developer', 'Hire Kotlin Developer', 'Kotlin And Java'] |
Funnel analytics with SQL: MATCH_RECOGNIZE() on Snowflake | Funnel analytics with SQL: MATCH_RECOGNIZE() on Snowflake
SQL is a great tool, but it can’t do everything. For example, figuring out a way to analyze funnels and sessions with SQL is truly difficult — until now. Let’s discover the power of MATCH_RECOGNIZE(), by analyzing a Google Analytics e-commerce funnel with Snowflake. Felipe Hoffa Mar 26·5 min read
Check TJ Murphy’s reaction when he discovered that Snowflake now has support for MATCH_RECOGNIZE :
Sample use case: Google Analytics e-commerce funnel with Snowflake
How would you answer this funnel question with SQL:
“We have an e-commerce shop. We need to identify sessions that land into the website from an arbitrary referrer (Instagram, Facebook, etc), and that end up buying something. How many steps did it take for these users to buy something, and how many times they tried to pay before success?”
That’s not an easy question to answer with plain SQL. But MATCH_RECOGNIZE finally gives us an elegant way to find answers to question like this one.
With MATCH_RECOGNIZE we can simply define the steps we want to find within a series of events, and then we can define any pattern for these steps — and then MATCH_RECOGNIZE does the rest.
For this example we’re going to use a Google Analytics 360 dataset from an e-commerce shop. Nothing better than real data to prove the power of our tools.
Step 1: Load Google Analytics data into Snowflake
Taking data out of BigQuery and into Snowflake is easy. You might need tools to build a reliable pipeline, but the basic steps are easy:
Export from BigQuery to GCS: You can use your own GA data, or a sample dataset with data from the Google Merchandise store.
Load GA data into Snowflake: This is straightforward. Snowflake will happily ingest files from GCS, even if your Snowflake account lives in AWS. Loading JSON works like magic too. You might want to set-up authentication and permissions for maximum security, while for sample data I just used a public bucket.
create or replace table ga_demo2(src variant); copy into ga_demo2
from 'gcs://fhoffa/ga360/ga_sessions000000000000'
file_format=(type='JSON');
Query in Snowflake: Notice above that we loaded the JSON rows into a variant type. Snowflake makes working with semi-structured data a joy; you can easily navigate the Google Analytics schema. We can also create a view out of the basic query, to make all the following steps easier to follow:
create or replace view ga360_parsed
as
select src:visitStartTime::timestamp ts
, hit.value:hitNumber::int hit
, src:visitId::string visit
, hit.value:eCommerceAction.action_type::int action_t
, hit.value:eCommerceAction.step::int action_s
, hit.value:eCommerceAction.option::string action_o
, hit.value:page.pagePath::string path
, hit.value:referer::string referer
, src:fullVisitorId::string visitor
, src:totals.transactions::int total_transactions
from ga_demo2, lateral flatten(input => src:hits) hit
Step 2: Querying the funnel is fun
This “straightforward” query answers the question we were looking to answer:
, avg(steps) avg_steps
, avg(payment_attempts) avg_pay_attempts
, max(payment_attempts) max_pay_attempts
from ga360_parsed
match_recognize(
partition by visit
order by hit
measures count(*) steps, count(payment.*) payment_attempts
one row per match
pattern(from_plex (payment | anything)* completed)
define
from_plex as referer = '
, completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html'
, payment as action_o = 'Payment'
); select count(*) visits, avg(steps) avg_steps, avg(payment_attempts) avg_pay_attempts, max(payment_attempts) max_pay_attemptsfrom ga360_parsedmatch_recognize(partition by visitorder by hitmeasures count(*) steps, count(payment.*) payment_attemptsone row per matchpattern(from_plex (payment | anything)* completed)definefrom_plex as referer = ' https://mall.googleplex.com/' , completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html', payment as action_o = 'Payment');
Turns out 21 visits landed from that specific referrer into our site, and ended up purchasing something. On average it took them 35.6 steps to do so, and 1.7 attempts to pay — with at least one session having nine pay attempts before success.
Results for our funnel question
Understanding MATCH_RECOGNIZE
You can follow the official docs to discover all the powers of MATCH_RECOGNIZE — here we’ll look at the basics of the query above.
define
Let’s start with the define section, that is used to define steps in the user’s funnel:
from_plex as referer = '
, completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html'
, payment as action_o = 'Payment definefrom_plex as referer = ' https://mall.googleplex.com/' , completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html', payment as action_o = 'Payment
You can see that we gave an arbitrary name to each step, and that the conditions can be whatever you need them to be. One step for us looks at the referer , another one looks at the users landing on a specific path , and the payment steps are identified by the action variable that Google Analytics stores.
pattern
The pattern section is basically regular expressions for funnel steps:
pattern(from_plex (payment | anything)* completed)
This says “look for sessions that start with the from_plex step, that are then followed by any number of payment or anything steps, and that end up in the completed state.”
match_recognize
With define and pattern established, we can do a basic match_recognize query:
from ga360_parsed
match_recognize(
partition by visit
order by hit
measures classifier() as classified_as
all rows per match
pattern(from_plex (payment | anything)* completed)
define
from_plex as referer = '
, completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html'
, payment as action_o = 'Payment'
); select classified_as, hit, visit, action_o, referer ref, pathfrom ga360_parsedmatch_recognize(partition by visitorder by hitmeasures classifier() as classified_asall rows per matchpattern(from_plex (payment | anything)* completed)definefrom_plex as referer = ' https://mall.googleplex.com/' , completed as path like '/ordercompleted.html', payment as action_o = 'Payment');
We added 3 constructs to that query. First, how to split and order our sessions: partition by visit order by hit . Then an added column that will show how each row is classified in our funnel: measures classifier() . And then our desire to see all rows of each funnel, instead of just a one-row summary: all rows per match . That’s what allows us to see the following results, with the steps classified as “payment” highlighted:
Showing all rows per match
Answering funnel questions
With each funnel step identified, we can answer the opening question. Instead of selecting all rows, we can ask for one per funnel with a summary: one row per match . We add the measures we are interested in: measures count(*) steps, count(payment.*) payment_attempts . MATCH_RECOGNIZE does the rest of the job, and we can go back to our usual SQL ways to get counts, averages, and other metrics.
Next steps
Funnel analytics is just one example. Think of all the possibilities with MATCH_RECOGNIZE in your toolbox: Threat detection, finding trends within weather and stock prices trend lines, and much more.
Let’s explore these topics in future posts, and share your best ideas and results.
Read more
Official Snowflake MATCH_RECOGNIZE() docs.
Want more?
I’m Felipe Hoffa, Data Cloud Advocate for Snowflake. Thanks for joining me on this adventure. You can follow me on Twitter, and check reddit.com/r/snowflake for the most interesting Snowflake news. | https://towardsdatascience.com/funnel-analytics-with-sql-match-recognize-on-snowflake-8bd576d9b7b1 | ['Felipe Hoffa'] | 2021-03-29 19:56:38.337000+00:00 | ['Sql', 'Data Science', 'Snowflake', 'Google Analytics', 'Analytics'] |
Innovations in Continuous Glucose Monitoring for diabetics | Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device. For a long time to diabetics, fingerprick tests were a regular affair when it came to monitoring their blood sugar levels. However, a recent generation of devices called Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) have risen to give accurate blood sugar readings in almost real time.
Some of these gadgets can be connected to a smartphone or smartwatch and display readings remotely. Most CGM devices are equipped with audible alarms that set off when the blood sugar level spikes or drops too suddenly.
For use with smart devices — Dexcom G6
The Dexcom G6 is one CGM more popular with those who love smart technology. By sending automatic updates (every 5 minutes) to a connected smartphone (both iPhones and Android), tablet or computer, it excels at smooth close monitoring. Particularly for those times when glucose levels may drop dangerously low, causing one to lose consciousness.
Known to be highly accurate, the gadget monitors interstitial fluid to gauge the level of blood sugar level. The sensor is wearable on the belly or arm.
Great value — Abbott FreeStyle Libre
A really simple device, the Abbott FreeStyle Libre serves its CGM functions well, making for easy reading and great value. One drawback is that it needs the phone to be scanned over the device itself to get a reading. The good thing is that there is no limit to the number of scans allowed.
Additionally, it is designed to be placed on the back of the arm only. If constantly scanning the device is not a problem for you then this gadget will likely prove to be a worthy choice.
Long term use — Senseonics Eversense
The Senseonics Eversense requires a physician to insert the device underneath your skin and activate it. You cannot replace or activate it on your own. Do take note of this important peculiarity.
However, it only needs to be replaced every 90 days, making it ideal for long term use. Combined with its low-maintenance, the Eversense model is good for those who just need a basic CGM and do not mind it being inserted under the skin.
This article was produced solely for the purpose of healthcare and medical knowledge. Not all innovations are available or approved for clinical use. AsiaMD may receive financial or non-financial sponsorship from the companies or institutions involved in these innovations. However, AsiaMD does not endorse any specific product or service in the article, in addition to the Terms and Conditions for the use of our AsiaMD.com website. | https://medium.com/@asiamdadm/innovations-in-continuous-glucose-monitoring-for-diabetics-29c56c6e639a | ['Asia Md Pte Ltd'] | 2022-01-13 14:33:43.412000+00:00 | ['Diabetes'] |
Isabella Freedom: The ‘Coolest Mf’ is Coming this Christmas | On December 24th, Christmas Eve, people everywhere can expect more from the long-awaited holiday as Los Angeles artist Isabella Freedom is set to release her single and music video titled the Coolest Mf for everyone to witness.
But what, or who, exactly is that Coolest Mf? Isabella shares her story on how she worked to release her single and what was her inspiration behind it.
A Song of Praise
Isabella is an L.A. artist who’s originally from Finland and is working her way to release her newest single: The Coolest Mf.
“Last year I had a revelation and got saved by Jesus and can not be quiet about it. I’m so grateful for the realization that we are children of God and powerful beyond words,” she said.
Her new single is actually a testimony of her praise for the life-changing revelation that she had.
“I’m the coolest Mf I know since Jesus will back it up and He is the coolest of them all,” Isabella said.
She started working on this track last Christmas and has worked with producer and studio musician Noah Hernandez, as well as others who have made her journey to releasing her single possible.
“Rolake Ashiru, Elizabeth Pye is singing harmonies, and Mykaela Cole, Dominique Maxey is the Angel Warriors in the music video filmed by Howard Reyes and edited by me. The Coolest Mf is the last song I’ll be releasing from my first EP, Rock’n’Soul, and is a true milestone for me,” the L.A.-based artist said.
Looking Forward to Next Year
Even though she’s looking forward to releasing her newest single this Christmas Eve, Isabella still has a lot in store for the coming year.
“I’m working on a visual art project that’s parallel with the music’s storytelling and I’ve also dived into producing. Key goals is an EP produced in my own studio and more collaborations,” the artist said.
Up until now, she has mostly shared songs about empowerment. In the next year, she’s ready to reveal a little more about her quite secretive love life.
How to the Coolest Mf There is
Already considering herself the coolest mf because of the spiritual revelation and faith that she has, Isabella shares some tips on how others can become their own version of being the coolest mf there is.
“Be authentic, follow your gut, and say what you came here to say. To be the coolest mf in the room you need to own who you are without anyone’s confirmation,” she said.
Isabella added to ask the right questions and to only take advice from people you would be okay trading places with. But most importantly, she advises following the golden rule: treat as how you want to be treated.
Get to know more about Isabella at www.isabellafreedom.com. Or by visiting her social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Listen to her music on Youtube, Spotify, and iTunes. | https://medium.com/@luisjorgerios7/isabella-freedom-the-coolest-mf-is-coming-this-christmas-d8e1eb7c6f9c | [] | 2020-12-22 21:45:20.225000+00:00 | ['Los Angeles', 'Christmas', 'Music'] |
How I Memorized the Quran In Three Stages | Bismillah.
I went through three stages in my memorization.
I could not have memorized the Qur’an by heart without the help of Allah the Almighty.
To begin, my first steps in this journey started when my parents taught me the short chapters of the Qur’an when I was about four. I completed the last seven parts in my childhood years. My parents were my motivation and inspiration to learn and study the Qur’an. Along with my siblings, I used to memorize because of the gift that I’ll get after finishing the required chapters. Over time, I was inclined to study by my own, so I could learn more about its miraculous nature. Going three times every week to the Masjid to recite the part I memorized before my teacher was a commitment to myself. My parents were full of inspiration trying every way to teach us the Qur’an and the science of Tajweed from a young age. I was only 13 when I learned the advanced Tajweed course, being the youngest with my sister, among all students (women in their forties and teachers in our neighborhood Masajid) back then. It was an outstanding experience for me, where I had the chance to recite the Qur’an in front of them all. Then, I was chosen to teach the Science of Tajweed to children and old women in our local Moasjid when I was 15. Truthfully, I am so full of gratitude and thankfulness for my mom and dad who have paved the way for me in this journey.
The second stage was when I joined the Qur’an camp (where students have to memorize the whole Qur’an in only 2 months) in my teenage years. I finished another seven parts in two weeks, where I had to memorize ten pages each day. I didn’t continue as I felt that I memorized too many verses without having time to look up unclear verses or words that I came across. We had to revise the pages we memorized at home. i.e full day memorizing and revising. Here, I preferred to return back to my normal way of memorizing.
The final stage was the most challenging and the most beautiful, as I decided to complete the remaining parts of the Qur’an at home, by my own. I was busy going to work 6 days a week, having some freelance work, studying my university courses with lots of research to do. Endless social visits and events that I had to take part in, as well as many other personal activities and projects. Despite having everything I want, living a beautiful life, I realized that’s not what’s most important to me. That’s not my priority in life. Though I mostly never stopped reading my everyday Qur’an portion (I used to memorize / revise verses / chapters from time to time too), but I had to make a quantum leap in my life, that is to spend more time to study and learn the Qur’an. So I made a pledge to myself to memorize it all, by sticking to a plan I wrote down. And that was all I needed. A decision! I was done with the remaining 16 parts in about 9 months, Alhamdulillah, and by this I became a Hafiz… And look, you too can be!!
Before I share the tips with you, let’s agree that there is NO ‘one size fits all’ steps/tips for memorizing. So what you can do is pick what fits you and add anything that will help you if you are planning to memorize the Qur’an, In Sha Allah.
I’ll explain in sequence…
Before memorization tips:
Be sincere and renew your intention. Seek Allah’s help: when you plan, memorize, revise, lose motivation, lack understanding. Turn to him, they are His words and He alone can teach you them. Never underestimate the power of du’aa in sujood. Write down a list of your friends/ family members/ people who will be part of your project. Be it by encouraging or memorizing with you. Say NO often: Cancel unnecessary meetings/ activities. Cut back on things you are used to, to find more time to get into the mood and start memorizing. Keep away from sins: Always repent if you once feel messed up! Remember that Allah is by your side and seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan and keep going. We are not perfect at the end and a sin will prevent you from continuing only if you insist, remember this! Find a recitation/ Tajweed teacher: S/he will teach and help you recite the verses properly and follow up with you. Your teacher could be your mom, dad or siblings at home (if they can recite Qur’an with Tajweed). Use one Mus’haf — (Quran): So you can use a pencil to mark words and underline verses. Try to get a standard size Qur’an, not too big, that you can’t hold and take it everywhere you go, and not too small, that will be hard to memorize from, and you won’t be able to write on it. Know your memorization style: Whether using sign-language, copying in a notebook, raising your voice while reciting, writing the beginning of every verse, walking around while memorizing, listening to a reciter and repeating after him. You choose the best technique, and of course you can use more than one, according to your mood, time, place, etc. Set a flexible plan: It may seem the hardest part to some people. But if you do all the above points, I am sure everything else will be easy. A flexible plan means to have plan A and plan B. It means that you get to know your abilities and write down an action plan that suits you. It will be as easy to say: “I will memorize one page every day after Fajr and another before I sleep/ after ‘Ishaa.” Print out a schedule to follow up on your progress and that’s it!
While-memorizing tips:
Be that early-bird person: Wake up before Fajr time and memorize your required pages. It’s an advise given by most if not all Huffadh of the Qur’an. Turn off your devices: To avoid distractions and to deeply focus on what you intend to memorize. Recite, Read, and Repeat, (3R’s, rule): Make sure that you recite the page properly with Tajweed rules, listening to a reciter is really helpful. You can also recite the page you intend to memorize several times before you sleep and memorize it in the morning. Read the vague verses and words meanings from a Tafeer, so you understand what you are reciting. Mind-maps for chapters of the Qur’an are also helpful, (please do google them). Knowing the stories of the verses make memorization easy. Repeat the page/ verse over and over again until you are done with it. Dividing the page into parts according to their subject, and then gluing it together is also helpful. Take a break: A ten-minute break is a really good refresher. Do it often. Set time goals: Have a max goal of an hour/half an hour per page according to your ability, and by time, the more you memorize the easier it becomes.
Revising Tips:
Try not to only memorize, always remember that the Qur’an is so easily forgotten, so give yourself time to revise the pages you already memorized. The best way to make sure that your memorization is perfect is to recite the page while you are praying. You can do this in Tahajjud. Be productive in the time you spend in transportation. Revise a certain page or listen to reciter reading it over and over again. Write your own revision strategy when you finish it all, you can start with a group of friends (I really recommend this).
When-lazy tips:
Change your place and take a break! Go back to your friends-list: Call or meet one of them. They will be there for you and your mood will absolutely change. Watch a video about the Qur’an and the reward of reciting, memorizing and studying it. Learn about peoples experiences memorizing the Qur’an. “Guided Through the Qur’an” program is a really good one. (Available on YouTube) Remind yourself with the many reasons why you started in the first place and why you should continue in this unique journey with the Qur’an.
More Tips?
For those who do not speak Arabic or know Tajweed it would be best if you spend some time learning those first, so you can memorize it correctly the first time. Hear as you learn, never stop listening to reciters as this will make it easier for you to read the Qur’an properly. And remember that Allah the Almighty says: “And We have certainly made the Qur’an easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?” I personally recommend learning Arabic with teachers like Nouman Ali Khan. His “Arabic with Husna” free lessons on Bayyinah TV are really amazing. Islamic Online University also offers the “Intensive Arabic Program”. Or you simply can join your local Masjid/ Islamic center to learn Arabic and the science of Tajweed. Regardless of your age or profession, you still can do it. There are hundreds of stories that will inspire you to take your first steps in this journey, just search YouTube and see how many stories will move you to tears. Do not delay: Start as soon as you finish reading this article.
To me, Qur’an is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was a child, that to memorize and be among the people of the Qur’an is worth any cost and sacrifice. When you become a Hafiz, you’ll change in so many ways. Living with the Qur’an is a life-time journey that will always give meaning to your life and makes everything else in life so wonderful.
I humbly ask Allah the Almighty to allow me four things:
To finish revising the Qur’an in the way He pleases To have the “Sanad” — Ijaazah, linked to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, (ﷺ — peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). In fact, knowing that the Qur’an in our possession today is identical to that which was originally revealed by Allah the Almighty over 1400 years ago is a testament to its miraculous preservation, and having the Sanad linked to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, (ﷺ) is an honor to be part of those who helped in preserving the Qur’an as well. Allah says, “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.” [15: 9] Apply it in my life as the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) did. And teach it to others, for I believe that it will make a change in people’s lives if they take it as their guide. And honestly, it is the best gift I would give to anyone I really love, why? Because I do want them to feel the fabulous tranquility of the heart and the meaningful life I am living by the means of the Qur’an.
May Allah bless you with this great bounty and may the light of the Qur’an illuminate your path always.
Ameen.
Wassalamu ‘alaykum. | https://medium.com/how-to-memorise-the-quran/how-i-memorized-the-quran-377c55d2a334 | ['Qāri Mubashir Anwar'] | 2016-08-13 09:51:40.126000+00:00 | ['Tips', 'Islam', 'Quran'] |
NodeJS — Using ES Modules Instead of CommonJS | Interested? Here’s the easy approach to use that kind of code. I assume you already install NodeJS LTS version 14.
1. Init package.json
Make your own project folder to start using ES Modules in your code, name whatever you want, go inside that folder, and start type this command in your terminal or CMD.
npm init -y
The code above is for generating your entry point for your application. Here’s the example of the code when you first generate the first package.json.
Fresh Package JSON
So, to start using the ES Module to your app it’s quite simple, you just add this code to your package.json.
That’s it? yaa, you just add that "type": "module” and you ready to roll.
There are a couple of things to watch in here, read the next step.
2. Import Schema
The common way to import in ES Module is pretty simple, right? just like this example.
Common ES module import syntax
There’s nothing wrong with that code. But, when you use it in the NodeJS app, you must do this.
Node Es module import syntax
Yep, that’s right, you already notice the difference, in NodeJS you must type the file format to import in NodeJS. It’s kinda weird, but it’s the way to use it. Except, if you importing third-party modules, you don't need that file format.
NOTE: If you didn’t use import with the file format, you will get an error!
3. Exporting
The last thing I want to show you when you start using this ES Module in NodeJS is when using export, imagine if you have a folder called utils, in utils folder, there’s a lot of files you must to export to start using in another file, in this case, you want to make an index.js to start point to all file that you want to export. Make sense? If you don’t understand 😁, here’s the simple example code.
I have a utils folder, that contains one file.
exported functions in util folder
To make import simple, you want to make a file called index.js inside the utils folder, so when you want to get those functions, you just point to the folder and get whatever you want.
Here’s a very simple code.
export all things from the file
Okay, make sense right here? the point is, you want to get all exported function inside a file that you already make, to make import easier, you just point to the utils folder and start everything. But, you can’t write your code like this. It makes me confuse when start to work with ES Module in NodeJS 😂.
Not Work — Export all.
That code will not work if you use that. What’s the problem with it? is a quick guess… Yep, that’s right, you must still import the index.js file to work with! I mean, what?!😶
So for the code to work, just like this.
Export all that work
It’s made my back hurt when to start to search for this problem 😁, but there you go. And you can start working with that kind of export. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/nodejs-using-es-modules-instead-of-commonjs-9c6e801e7508 | ['Huda Prasetyo'] | 2020-11-07 08:20:22.135000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'JavaScript', 'Backend', 'Expressjs', 'API'] |
Old, slow and expensive: that’s how Pharma feels. | By PIRO4D from Pixabay
Can big, fast and cheap data help discovery new drugs?
“Discover new ways to improve and extend people’s lives” (Novartis) “ to improve people’s lives whenever and wherever, needed” (Pfizer). “to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better, live longer (GSK)
Reading these mission statements, the largest pharma organizations all agree they want to improve our lives, although odds are low that they will do it by discovering new drugs…unless something “big” around data will change the equation.
Making drugs was a great business in the ’50s. Back then, for every 1 billion USD spent on R&D, Pharma organizations could bring to the market 30 drugs. Huge returns, great political support and an expanding need of care have created pharma giants we all know.
After 60 years, nothing remains the same: today, it would cost 3 billion USD to bring 1 single drug to the market while politicians’ support is fading away as the healthcare increasing costs are one of the hottest potatoes in every developed country elections.
So, no matter how much progress we have made in all fields, drug discovery has become very slow and expensive. This observation is so fascinating to deserve a name: Eroom’s law, which is Moore’s law spelled backward.
Regulatory and organizational barriers, bottom-up science approach, generics competition drying out investments, are some of the reasons identified during the years, although countermeasures have not yet inverted this trend.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Can Big Data help?
Big Data in Healthcare is expected to grow exponentially in the next years reaching USD 34.27 billion by 2022. Considered a promising land for drugs discovery and development, Pharma organizations, who own most of the data in the sectors, are investing into it accumulating large reserves of data.
Sharing the same view large cloud service Companies (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) are putting their stake into it by developing services in full compliance.
So far, no much has happened thought.
There is today the potential to center Clinical Trial Architecture on fast and cheap electronic manipulation of large volume of data provided that we consider and include three key considerations:
By PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Higher model complexity: to give an example the “genome human program” targeted for 13 years the sequencing of human genes under the assumption that sequencing would be key for understanding human biology and for applications to other fields. In reality, the program demonstrated that sequencing all variants in a human genome is not enough for that and the problem statement shifted to investigate their relationship to other layer of information, like transcript levels, protein levels, metabolites or functional traits.
By Pixapopz from Pixabay
2. Stronger biases: The way we statistically use data will need to change: despite the advantages of big studies, large sample size will magnify the bias associated with error resulting from sampling or study design. Based on the genome example, scaling up the sample size requires to consider the structure not only in terms of molecular data, but also including and managing all type of available data (clinical, bio-samples, etc) .
By Pixabay from Pexels
3. Scarcity of new skills: clinical data (demographics, death/survival data, questionnaires, etc.), imaging data (MR, Ultra-Sound, PET, CT), bio-sample data (values from blood, urine, etc.), molecular data (genomics, proteomics, etc.), data from wearables (blood pressure, heart rate, insulin level, etc.), are data type currently available in more or less standard formats. Integrating and managing all of them will require a mix of information technology, statistical and medical field knowledge. In this area, AI and ML will augment but will not replace human intelligence.
Conclusions
Big Data will be a great opportunity for organizations that take very seriously new challenges that this innovation will bring. Researching new models to overcome the increasing complexity, defining new tools and processes to scale up with sense, developing new skills to identify new patterns are the active principles to improve discovery and development of new drugs.
___________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Views or opinions represented in this article are personal and belong solely to the article writer and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the writer may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.
___________________________________________________________________ | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/old-small-slow-and-expensive-thats-how-pharma-feels-d0a17901b55 | ['Flavio Aliberti'] | 2020-03-16 11:42:02.650000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Big Data', 'Digital', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Science'] |
Remote Work Means Anyone Can Take Your Job | Remote Work Means Anyone Can Take Your Job
Now thousands of people could be competing for your role from around the world.
Image: Mike Kemp/Getty Images
When everyone’s face is milliseconds away on a Zoom call, who cares where their butts are sitting? Remote workers could be anywhere in the world. They are, by default, outsourced.
It really doesn’t matter where you hire from anymore. When you don’t need people within a one-hour commute, you can hire from the next city over, or from around the world. Right now you’ve got the same workers spread out across different locations, but over the next few rounds of hires, those employees will change. You’ll get workers from all over the world.
That’s where the real disruption comes in. If you thought globalization was fun for manufacturing, buckle up. Remote work is about to globalize a bunch of service jobs as well.
The first generation
Let’s say you just started working remotely. Everything probably feels mostly the same, work-wise. The same office crew, just on Zoom. You guys even use the old #lunch Slack channel, sometimes even ordering from the same place. Things will go back to normal soon, right?
Your office, meanwhile, is gathering dust. After the pandemic drags through Q2 and Q3 your company lets the lease run out. You say you’ll get another office when things start to open back up. This is just temporary.
But it’s not. And normal doesn’t mean anything anymore. What you call “normal” is now history. Your office culture has started evolving, and evolution doesn’t go in reverse. Like any evolution, this happens over generations, and the first generation won’t notice anything major. They’ll just be like, “Cool, no more pants.”
But the next generation will definitely notice as remote jobs become outsourced jobs.
The next new hire
Now it’s Q4 of Pandemonia, and there’s still no vaccine. You’ve been able to commute for months, but there’s no office to commute to. Your company looked at leases for a while, but then gave up. Everyone would have to sit two meters apart, which means two times the square feet, which means two times the rent. And it ultimately doesn’t matter, since the work is getting done from home anyway.
Then a team member leaves the company. The ad for her replacement reads:
Job: Manager
Location: Anywhere
The pandemic isn’t just a blip in how we work. For many jobs, it has already completely decoupled work from a location. The longer it goes on, the stronger this decoupling becomes. Long-term remote work breeds new technology, new customs, and entirely new work cultures. After a while, you couldn’t go back even if you wanted to.
Normal is just what you’re used to now. But people will be used to something else.
What globalization did to manufacturing jobs, remote work will do to many service jobs.
The economics of remote work
It’s important to remember that the economic pressures here will be immense. At first, the winners will be workers. They’ll still get paid big city salaries and will be able to move to where the rents are cheaper if they want. Very quickly, however, that dynamic will flip.
Before this pandemic, a remote worker and physical worker offered two very different types of value. You paid a premium for the physical worker because they contributed to the office culture. But work culture has changed, and in terms of value, all hires are on the same footing.
Now, you can either hire someone from San Francisco and subsidize their obscene rent, or you can hire someone from Omaha. You can get the same work done, but cheaper. What would you choose?
It’s not like wages would just go down across the board. For some jobs, they may well go up. (If you’re specialized, you can apply for jobs anywhere. If you’re in demand, your wages and offers will rise.) And beyond just wages, workers may also now be able to move near their parents, or own a big house instead of renting an apartment. It’s the promise of the suburbs without the murder of the commute. Like any big economic change, there’ll be winners and losers, and it’s not exactly clear from the outset who will end up benefiting from the change.
Globalization for service-based economies
What globalization did to manufacturing jobs, remote work will do to many service jobs. Cities won’t just disappear, but — for many jobs — living in any particular city will no longer be required. That changes things. At scale, that changes the world.
It also presents some risks. Globalization did not help everyone — it led to inequalities and labor abuses, as business leaders moved jobs to where the labor was cheaper, to keep the profits for themselves and away from their nations’ tax systems. While overall globalization lifted millions of people out of poverty and enriched lives, it could have been done better — something we should remember the second time around.
The remote future is near
We like to think of history as steady progress, but it’s really a series of violent shocks, each upending old systems in a process of creative destruction. Our culture was slowly trending toward more remote work until suddenly a violent shock made millions of people remote workers at once.
Like the first fish on land, this generation of workers will regularly return to spawn in the ocean, obsessed with a home that no longer exists. The next generation, however, will question the purpose of water at all.
Remote work just outsourced a ton of jobs, though we haven’t noticed yet. We have created jobs that are divorced from location and — over time — those jobs will start to move. Where they’ll go is anybody’s guess (it could be anywhere in the world), but I can tell you this: If you’re working on Wi-Fi at home, that means your job is literally up in the air. | https://marker.medium.com/remote-workers-just-outsourced-themselves-3f771f9d1529 | ['Indi Samarajiva'] | 2020-05-27 15:03:27.977000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Jobs', 'Work', 'Business', 'Remote Working'] |
Why religions are not affected by feminism (yet)? | Why feminism is not entering the spiritual domain? Or better say why feminism has not yet managed to seriously challenge religions?
I’ve heard about attempts of women to change the religious institutions from within. And yet, patriarchal religions that are still dominating the spiritual realms in the world can hardly be challenged from within, since they are the roots of the whole patriarchal system the feminists and everyone else uncomfortable with it try to liberate themselves from.
Therefore changing from within is not only going to be a huge waste of energy, but also apparently the patriarchal system will manage to swiftly manipulate with this “reformist” tool within it.
Going back to the question as to why feminism hasn’t yet revolutionized the spiritual domain, one thought that comes to my mind is that religions are the last remaining vestiges where patriarchy is hiding itself for preventing its final disappearance. And to do so, it uses all tools available. In this condition it may not be concerned over people (among them feminists, obviously) living a spiritual life so as not to challenge its patriarchal roots.
One such tool has been the distortion of the boundaries between religions and the spiritual. Declaring religions as spiritual, religions and their institutions in reality act mostly as political tools. While the spiritual is aimed at guiding individuals for a more harmonious living, yet when the politically motivated religions place themselves in the spiritual domain, people searching for the spiritual, find themselves in the realms of this political tool aimed at manipulating them.
And this path is one that most often takes people in two directions - either fanaticism or disappointment. Either way is having a high cost on individuals, as well as on societies, leaving so many questions unsolved — abuses, violence, environmental harm, wars and crimes.
And so most of the human rights movements, including of course feminism, have concentrated their attention to fighting against these unsolved questions, rather than finding the root causes. And so main streams of feminism have concentrated on winning rights in almost every aspect of life, except that of spiritual. Even though in the 70s the movement of feminist spirituality gained some attention, it has not ever since seriously challenged the patriarchal religious institutions.
And yet, fem-spirituality, some aspects of which I have discussed in previous posts, and the central ideology of which is hugely contributing to the creation of a balanced harmonious society with respect to women, nature and more horizontal relations in the society, has the potential to show us the way to solve many of the problems we have sadly ended up with as a result of patriarchal ideologies ruling and ruining the world.
Therefore, my thinking is that as long as the winning back of the spiritual is not taken as serious a matter as gaining the rights declared by the UN, the opportunity is missed to face the roots of patriarchy in the attempt to once and for all uproot. | https://medium.com/ecofem-spirituality/why-religions-are-not-affected-by-feminism-yet-e86f49db5a6b | ['Sofia M'] | 2019-11-07 11:39:26.157000+00:00 | ['World', 'Religion', 'Spirituality', 'Feminism', 'Patriarchy'] |
“Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian ” Season 2, (Episode 1) — Full Episodes | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian — Season 2 Episode 1 Full Episodes | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian> Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian 2x1| Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian S2E1 | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Disney+| Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Cast | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Premiere | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Eps. 1 | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian — Season 2 Episode 1 Full Series | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Eng.Sub | Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Series
Streaming Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2:: Episode 2x1 ► [Episode 2 : Making of Season Two Full Episodes ●Exclusively● On Disney+ , Online Free TV Shows & TV SERIES ➤ Let’s go to watch the latest episodes of your favourite The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian 2x1
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian promo
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian cast
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian preview
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian synopsis
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian spoilers
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian release date
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian air date
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 1
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian HD Quality
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Episode 1
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Best Series
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Disney+
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Full Episodes
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Online
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Free Online
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Full Free
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 Online
Film, also called Episode, motion picture or moving picture, is a visual art-form used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.[1] The word “cinema”, short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film The Flight Attendant, and to the art form that is the result of it.
TELEVISION (TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 5910s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new iNBCovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 5Season 8s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[5] during the 5960s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 180s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (53i, with 882 intertwined lines of goal and 882) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3456561, 88288 and 174. Since 1050, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, Starz Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 1053, 19% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[1] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 882s. Most TV sets sold during the 180s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-1050s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 1050s.[6][1][5] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 1.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 1050s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 180s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 180s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 1050s. A standard TV is made out of numerous iNBCer electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
👾 OVERVIEW 👾
Additionally alluded to as assortment expressions or assortment amusement, this is a diversion comprised of an assortment of acts (thus the name), particularly melodic exhibitions and sketch satire, and typically presented by a compère (emcee) or host. Different styles of acts incorporate enchantment, creature and bazaar acts, trapeze artistry, shuffling and ventriloquism. Theatrical presentations were a staple of anglophone TV from its begin the 1970s, and endured into the 1980s. In a few components of the world, assortment TV stays famous and broad.
The adventures (from Icelandic adventure, plural sögur) are tales about old Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking journeys, about relocation to Iceland, and of fights between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, for the most part in Iceland. The writings are epic stories in composition, regularly with refrains or entire soNBCets in alliterative stanza installed in the content, of chivalrous deeds of days a distant memory, stories of commendable men, who were frequently Vikings, once in a while Pagan, now and again Christian. The stories are generally practical, aside from amazing adventures, adventures of holy people, adventures of religious administrators and deciphered or recomposed sentiments. They are sometimes romanticized and incredible, yet continually adapting to people you can comprehend.
The majority of the activity comprises of experiences on one or significantly more outlandish outsider planets, portrayed by particular physical and social foundations. Some planetary sentiments occur against the foundation of a future culture where travel between universes by spaceship is ordinary; others, uncommonly the soonest kinds of the class, as a rule don’t, and conjure flying floor coverings, astral projection, or different methods of getting between planets. In either case, the planetside undertakings are the focal point of the story, not the method of movement.
Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero fuNBCies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk.
Find US :
• Instagram: https://instagram.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com | https://medium.com/disney-gallery-the-mandalorian-s2e1-disney-full/disney-gallery-the-mandalorian-series-2-episode-1-full-eps-74c77d565c46 | [] | 2020-12-23 14:47:19.294000+00:00 | ['Water', 'Climate Change'] |
Dome or Bullet Security Camera? | Security camera is the most needed system for monitoring your home, shop, office and outdoor. So you can not think without a security camera system. In this way you need different types of security camera for different purpose. You need to decided what you want dome or bullet security camera.
Dome is the best for home and office monitoring and bullet is the perfect for outdoor and also for small business. Bullet security camera are mostly high quality and durable but Dome is the not durable but color vision. Now i will discuss about both dome and bullet security camera with their pros and cons.
Dome Security Camera: The Pros
Dome cameras get their name from their dome-shaped structure. These security cameras are designed to face up to all elements, both inside and out of doors . Their construction allows for the camera to figure even in low-light or no-light settings thanks to the built-in infrared LEDs. All cameras have the power to send video signals over the web so an owner can access the footage at any time. Below are some advantages of putting in dome security cameras.
Bullet Security Cameras: The Pros
Bullet cameras are named for his or her distinct cylindrical shape, resembling a bullet. These cameras act as a clear deterrent and research has shown that the presence of bullet cameras makes a property less desirable to a criminal. These security cameras operate both indoors and outdoors and have features like alittle lip on the tip of the lens to guard against any glare or other weather. Below are the most advantages of putting in a bullet camera.
Long range vision
Bullet camera range is far longer than other cameras which positions them as ideal options for giant areas like parking lots or backyards. Their field of view is fairly narrow, yet the form of the camera allows for a bigger lens on the bullet camera than a dome camera. Long distance viewing is that the bullet cameras main strength. The camera’s narrow viewing angle allows the camera to ascertain clearly at farther distances, almost like how a pair of binoculars work. Often, the cameras are good at capturing clear images of individuals and license plates at great distances, making it easy for somebody to spot such things if they appear back through the footage.
Variety and adaptability
The dome security camera offers variety in terms of shape, size, and angle. Some cameras are full of night-sight while others have pan-tilt-zoom features and motion sensors. These cameras are often placed practically anywhere, from cross-roads to parking lots, to someone’s backyard. One huge point of dome cameras is their massive area coverage options. The wide angle of the dome camera provides a maximized viewing area and, if equipped with the right sensors, can act as panoramic surveillance cameras.
Appearance
Both cameras are named after their appearance. A domed camera may be a small camera mounted to the ceiling or beneath your exterior eaves 1. it’s a domed cover that goes over the camera portion, hiding it from view and protecting it. Because dome cameras are discrete and blend in well with their surroundings, they’ll be less visible and are more frequently used indoors.
Bullet cameras get their name because they appear tons sort of a rifle bullet. Some smaller models may look more sort of a tube of lipstick and should be mentioned as lipstick cameras. They mount to the wall by a base and may be positioned. they’re more visible and, therefore, may discourage theft or vandalism.
Rotation, Angle and Range
Both bullet and dome cameras have a hard and fast position, meaning that once they point in one direction that’s what they will see. However, a bullet camera are often easily repositioned to aim differently . Domed cameras must be began the ceiling and repositioned then reinstalled. This makes bullet cameras somewhat more versatile. Domed cameras are restricted, which may make them better for close quarters but not as effective for wide or long ranges.
Bullet cameras have a wider and longer range, which makes them ideal for distance and exterior views. They also often have a lip that extends over the lens of the camera to assist protect it from becoming dirty and clouded.
Night Vision
Both security camera has night vision option but bullet security camera has powerful when you want night vision. Many people are looking to buy bullet camera for night vision options only.
Features
Dome camera has more features then bullet security camera. A dome camera has color vision, battery rechargeable, solar panel, and wifi. You can see the most dedicated blog post here for dome vs bullet camera. You will get a perfect idea about dome or bullet camera.
In the end, i will tell you to buy dome for home or indoor use and bullet security camera for outdoor and small business or office use. | https://medium.com/@getlockers1/dome-or-bullet-security-camera-6d77a1b03c34 | ['Smart Locks'] | 2020-06-02 04:08:02.138000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Secure', 'Security Camera', 'Safety', 'Security Camera System'] |
TRX — Our newest member to the USDT Market. | Hey there,
For 2019, we took some resolutions, among which, one is (and has always been) breaking our own records at making cryptocurrency trading effortlessly simplistic for you. To achieve the same, a couple of weeks back, we launched USDT trade pairs for BTC, ETH and XRP.
And if you remember, we also mentioned we would launch USDT trade pairs for other coins as well.
So guess what’s up for today? We are just keeping up with our word!
Please welcome “TRX — USDT Trade Pair” — our newest member to the USDT Market.
Starting today, you will be able to trade Tron (TRX) against Tether (USDT).
Set 👉 Open Order
USDT — TRX trade pair will be made LIVE at 08:00 PM on 29/01/2019
We believe TRX — USDT is a terrific trade pair that many have been waiting for. So put on your trading hat and get the trades going!
With Love
Team Bitbns | https://medium.com/bitbns/trx-our-newest-member-to-the-usdt-market-f31ae49eb4a1 | [] | 2019-05-22 07:11:02.422000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Listings', 'Blockchain', 'Tron'] |
holy men in hell | holy men in hell
Photo by Adam Kring on Unsplash
warning: this poem references suicide and sexual abuse
It only takes paying a little attention to tell —
that by the time the old preachers get to heaven
it will be full
as hell.
And St. Peter will have to take them aside
and explain with a sigh
of someone who’s done this before.
Saying:
Sorry, we don’t let holy men in anymore.
We just don’t have the beds
you see too many children —
they ended up dead.
Do you remember that sermon?
What was it you said?
About just war and warriors of Christ to be lead?
About how you heard the voice of an old angry god in your head?
So instead of seeing each other, God’s children saw red.
Even after that disgrace
maybe
maybe
there still would have been space.
But we looked into all those gay kids
who kept killing themselves while crying
to try and find out why so many were dying.
The one’s whose tears were holy water
that mixed with their blood
the same way our saviors did
when it fell from the cross.
Well we found out who taught them
they were damned
and disgusting
and hopeless
and lost.
And I know
I know
I know what you thought.
That your prayers would protect you
because you’ve prayed a lot.
But so did the blessed boys
The ones preyed upon while they prayed
with only cold crucifixes for comfort
abused and afraid.
See they came here confused
with anger and scars that we couldn’t refuse
so we gave them the places that you could have used.
Then, finally, St. Peter will stop —
but only because he ran out of breath.
And the old preachers will wail
And demand
And break down
And question the plan
And where god can be found.
They’ll say they were just doing
what they were told was right.
That for every soul darkened
they led thousands to light.
They’ll beg
and they’ll plead
and the foolish will fight.
And St. Peter will sigh
shake his white head and wait
then slowly, so slowly, drag his keys across the gate.
And it will open
only the smallest sliver.
So before they ever have the pleasure
to look upon his face,
a vengeful Father will have the pleasure
to send them down to their fate. | https://medium.com/@paulmartincurry/holy-men-in-hell-48b14b5fcb5e | [] | 2020-12-11 22:21:01.402000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Hell', 'Poetry', 'Free Verse'] |
Recycle Today, Reuse Tomorrow: The next step to a Circular Economy | Recycle Today, Reuse Tomorrow: The next step to a Circular Economy Reath Apr 9·4 min read
As of 2019/20, the current recycling rate of UK households stands at 45.5%. With a “multi-stream” recycling scheme where citizens know which containers to put their recyclables in, and an increase in information on what items can be recycled, the UK has become more environmentally conscious about the benefits of recycling in society. So much so that the British Plastics Association (BPA) estimated that the UK could recycle 3.5 times as much plastic by 2030, one plastic bottle at a time.
And yet, the reduction of waste in the UK is not where it needs to be, falling short of the 50% target set by the European Commission. The impact of COVID-19 on waste production, including the growth of PPE equipment and general waste, goes to highlight that a more effective solution is needed in further evolving the UK’s understanding and involvement in waste management.
Reusability is a system that has yet to enter the public vernacular, though I’d argue many already practice it on a small scale; those ‘bags-for-life’ you have stacked up in the bottom draw, that Highland Springs bottle you have refilled five times? All small-scale practices of reuse. What makes reuse different from recycling is that instead of taking raw materials and making something else, reuse involves using the item multiple times for its intended purpose, which it can withstand through its design.
Why is Reuse Important?
According to a report by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), the Local Government Association (LGA) estimates that if we reuse an additional 660,000 tonnes of goods, we could save councils more than £60M a year in Landfill Tax, with a £435M increase in economic growth per year.
Reuse, along with reduction and recycling, are all practices needed to be adopted if we are to inch closer to a more circular economy. Such an economy is regenerative by design, and deviates from the current linear economy of finite, single-use resources. It aims to keep products in use as much as possible, consequently reducing the amount of waste we produce, this goes beyond the economy and contributes towards our global climate targets.
A proactive example of reuse facilitating this new economical approach can again be seen in CIWM report, in which they highlight the research done by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS); around 89,000 tonnes of material, including 12,000 tonnes of furniture, 9,500 tonnes of electrical items, and 66,000 tonnes of textiles were being reused with a turnout of £244M. Job creation also benefits here, ZWS finding that a total of 6,000 people were employed full-time in the reuse sector, a further 13,000 involved in volunteering at some capacity.
The UK government has put forward a new Resources and Waste Strategy which will help move closer to a circular economy, to keep resources in use for longer, stressing on the collective power of individuals as well as businesses to “reduce, reuse and recycle.” This is all in effort to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050, with a dramatic reduction of plastic waste entering the environment by 2025.
The Action of Big Business and large-scale reuse
Now, it is a tall order foregrounding the responsibilities of individuals and equating them to that of businesses and corporations. According to Statista, the annual global plastic production stands at 359 million metric tons, the majority coming from packaging. The biggest offenders come in the world’s most recognizable brands, Coca-Cola produces 2.9 million metric tons of plastic packaging a year, PepsiCo with 2.3 million, and Nestlé with 1.7 million. Compare this to the estimated 31kg of plastic packaging produced by one person per year. Individual waste is not equal to big business waste.
Fortunately, due to the outpouring of public awareness, businesses are becoming more aware of the need to adopt more sustainable and circular practices when dealing with waste reduction, especially when it comes to plastic packaging. In terms of food packaging, the fast-food chain Burger King has unveiled a reusable packaging system where customers can make a small deposit charge which can later be refunded to them when the customer returns boxes or cups to the restaurant. Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, has made the ambitious pledge to halve the amount of plastic packaging they produce by more than 100,000 tons by 2025, making sure 100% of their packaging will be designed to be fully reusable, recyclable, and compostable.
What Reath is doing, and the move to reuse
Such a pledge from Unilever is outstanding considering the main reasons why so many companies find it so difficult to reuse or reduce their plastic waste is because so much packaging was designed with single-use in mind. One of the most important steps in progressing to a circular economy is designing products where the aim is reuse. This goes beyond Highland Spring bottles when it comes to large-scale reusability.
One tool businesses are employing to achieve this goal is through the use of technology. From using data to help waste producers network with waste haulers, to designing packaging to individual consumer preferences, companies are making it possible to reduce their waste by taking a more innovative approach to how they use and distribute packaging.
Want to learn more?
Reath software is facilitating the shift to large-scale reusability. Download our whitepaper here. | https://medium.com/@reath/recycle-today-reuse-tomorrow-the-next-step-to-a-circular-economy-f4b3a37ba4d3 | [] | 2021-04-09 17:18:56.355000+00:00 | ['Sustainability', 'Circulareconomy', 'Recycling', 'Waste', 'Technology'] |
Flame-tongued Summer lights our way To dusty death. You gave me cause to ponder, When, painting your soul across my lips, You drank the light, made sovereign The continent of the day, And drowned… | Fleance’s Dream
Poem
Photo by Dmitry Vechorko on Unsplash
Flame-tongued Summer lights our way
To dusty death.
You gave me cause to ponder,
When, painting your soul across my lips,
You drank the light, made sovereign
The continent of the day,
And drowned night-cloaked daggers.
No one of heaven born, could shake the life to come.
The Sisters still boil and bubble in the Moors.
I have heard their songs equivocate
Like a forest held aloft.
Nikhil | https://medium.com/scrittura/fleances-dream-d8348908c992 | [] | 2020-12-15 10:48:04.320000+00:00 | ['Shakespeare', 'Poetry', 'Poet', 'Intertextuality', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
HyperX Cloud Stinger Wireless Gaming Headset Review | BUILD/DESIGN
The Stinger Wireless uses the same frame and materials as the original Cloud Stinger, save for the slight weight trimming I mentioned above.
But that’s okay. And I think the changes to the design have appeal beyond their weight reductions. The thinner microphone, while still permanently attached, is more visually appealing, and looks a little less silly if you decide to wear these out and about. It’s also more flexible and adjustable than the original model.
And the removal of the obvious HyperX logo color is a first for the company. The etched-in non-colored logos give these a sleek, professional look that none of their other headsets really have, especially if you opt for the black version.
Materials-wise, it uses a plastic frame with steel reinforcement in the headband, and steel adjustment sliders. And if you’re someone that doesn’t like exposed screws, prepare for disappointment as there are little screws all over the place.
Still, it’s a Cloud Stinger but made more subtle, and it feels nice enough in the hands and on the head for the price.
FEATURES/EXTRAS
HyperX employed the same USB wireless dongle that the Cloud Flight uses here on the Stinger Wireless, and that’s a good decision.
It’ll work out of the box with a PC, PS4, or docked Nintendo Switch. The volume knob on the back of the right ear cup spins endlessly and controls the digital volume level, and it does seem to save this volume between sessions and devices.
The 17 hour battery life claim is accurate in my testing. The power light uses an LED that progresses from green-orange-red to show you descending power percentage levels, and the headset has no audio prompts other than simple beeps when you turn it on and off, or hit the extreme ends of its volume range.
I got about 40 feet of wireless range in my apartment before it started to cut out. The wireless dongle is the only way to connect this headset to anything, there’s no wired connection option available. Recharging uses micro USB, which is great for compatibility but bad for the USB-C fans out there. The power light changes colors during charging to give you an idea of how far along you are, just like it does when in use, which is a nice touch.
The ear pads are removable in case you feel like doing that, or need to buy replacements from HyperX, and it comes with their standard 2 year warranty.
MICROPHONE
My only complaint about this mic is that the thinner design of the adjustment arm, combined with a stiffer/higher quality rotation hinge, means that it’s not as easy to flip up to mute as on the original Cloud Stinger.
But that’s a teeny tiny complaint.
The mic has a good, natural, reasonably clear tone to it, with only a hint of the muffled digital compression that often plagues wireless headset microphones. It’s on the same level as the wired Cloud Stinger, and doesn’t sound as good or clean as the Cloud Flight’s microphone. The noise gate on the microphone isn’t super aggressive, thankfully, meaning you can talk at a normal volume and be picked up.
Background noise cancellation is exceptional, and there’s probably both acoustic and digital trickery in play here.
There’s no mic monitoring/sidetone feature, which is not a huge issue for me in a lower-priced headset but might irritate some of you. I don’t blast my games loud enough that they block out my voice, but if you’re a loud listener, the isolation of the leatherette here might have you wishing this had sidetone.
If you’re wondering whether these will get loud enough for you, the answer is a resounding yes. I listened to Spotify comfortably at about 25 percent volume, and cranked it up to 48 or so in high dynamic range games like Assassin’s Creed Origins. And that was plenty of volume. So the amplifier can bring it.
You can hear some quick mic tests I recorded right here.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Cloud Stinger Wireless has better, more balanced sound than its wired predecessor, an enhanced subtle design, and the same great comfort. It doesn’t have some of the frills of more expensive wireless headsets, but acquits itself very well at its $99 price point.
Of HyperX’s wireless lineup, the Stinger is the only one that really embodies their old ethos of value for the money. It’s got the perfect combination of features at this price and a solid battery, and it’s a great and more comfortable alternative to the Corsair HS70.
It doesn’t have the red lights, longer battery life, wired mode, or detachable mic of the Cloud Flight…but if you don’t need those features, I’d go for this one every single time. It’s a better deal compared to its price analogues than the Cloud Flight is at $159.
I’ve had a great time listening to this over the last few days, and I plan to keep on using it. | https://medium.com/@xander51/hyperx-cloud-stinger-wireless-gaming-headset-review-4e17b246a5b7 | ['Alex Rowe'] | 2019-04-30 23:24:24.553000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Gadgets', 'Headphones', 'Videogames', 'Technology'] |
Perfect Dilemma: Motherhood &working life | To my male colleagues and friends, in this article, you may not find common feelings with me because I want a private chat with my sisters around the world about motherhood.
I gave birth to my baby boy when I was 35. It seems an old age when looking at the averages. After having a child my whole world got changed. I can split my life like before and after being a mother. Before becoming a mother, I was super free, earning my own money, and from time to time lived in other countries. I was only responsible for myself even I was married. I had hobbies, dancing, riding a bicycle. And one day, I became a mother…
Being a mother and take another person’s responsibility is so hard. You are looking at life from a very different perspective. Now you have empathy for the other mothers, your body is full of compassion for all of the children. The most amazing part is you feel like your love is enough for everyone.
When I was pregnant, I was so sure that I will go back to work 3 months after giving birth to my son. I was planning to have business trips again like old days, to continue my hobbies… Suddenly I found a baby in my arms, completely dependent on me even not allowing going a bath. The world was destroyed by me. I learned that it was a postpartum period for the ladies which like a nightmare. At that time, I understood that my life will never be the same. All plans need to be changed, now I knew that I couldn’t go back to work after 3 months at all.
After this, I found myself in a perfect dilemma; my working life was always my first priority but my baby reminded me every night that for a while he should be my first priority. He was so restless at night since I started to work. I took this decision because I thought that since we are working from home, I will spend time with my baby at the same time. But the reality wasn’t like that. It was so hard to take care of my son and attending meetings. My body started to give me signals, my health was going bad day by day. At that time I understood, there was another one needed to take care of.. it was me.
The bells were ringing for me to take urgent actions. I understood that I should be the first priority in my life. Because if I’m not well, nothing will be well either. But this was a very new thing for me; at any time of my life, I wasn’t first priority. I realized that I have started to discover life again with my baby.
I had to keep myself good that’s why I need to decide whether to keep working or just give a break and heal myself. I chose the second option. But this selection contains much fear -will my current position remain? Can we afford our needs during this period? And many others… But despite these kinds of concerns, the feeling of freedom to decide for me was amazing. So I took a break for a while for my baby and for me.
I know that there are many women to have the same situations and concerns in their life, I just wanted to share my experiences, feelings. I would like to hear from you because this time, I need your stories and support to heal myself.
Thank you… | https://medium.com/@nevalreisoglu/perfect-dilemma-motherhood-or-working-life-962de2b8f57b | ['Neval Reisoglu'] | 2021-01-24 17:29:42.437000+00:00 | ['Working Moms', 'Support', 'Sisterhood', 'Motherhood Journey', 'Motherhood'] |
Getting to know Terraform data sources | Photo by Leo Rivas on Unsplash
Getting to know Terraform data sources
A powerful way of bringing information into your Terraform configuration, but one which must be used with care Pat Conheady Jan 29·5 min read
A data source in Terraform is a lot like a resource, but it only implements the “read” operation. So what does that actually mean? Let’s take a walk.
It’s like a query
Well, that was a short walk. A data source is a query, a means of getting data from the outside world and making it available to your Terraform configuration, perhaps to use in an input attribute of a resource or a submodule.
Take for example a Terraform configuration like the following (borrowed from the doco):
data "azurerm_role_definition" "example" {
name = "Contributor"
}
output "contributor_role_definition_id" {
value = data.azurerm_role_definition.example.id
}
This can be thought of as equivalent to the following SQL query:
SELECT id AS contributor_role_definition_id
FROM azurerm_role_definitions
WHERE name = "Contributor";
In this example, we’re sending the data from the data source directly to an output, but you could also send it (for example) into a role assignment resource:
resource "azurerm_role_assignment" "example" {
scope = data.azurerm_subscription.primary.id
role_definition_id = data.azurerm_role_definition.example.id
principal_id = data.azurerm_client_config.example.object_id
}
/* Other data sources omitted... borrowing them from the doco is left as an exercise for the reader... */
When is the query run?
In a simple case, it doesn’t matter exactly when the query is run. You say terraform plan and there’s the data. Then when you say terraform apply it’s there again. But what if the underlying facts change between plan and apply ? Or what if obtaining the data was expensive or time-consuming in some way?
As with all things Terraform, the documentation contains some simple answers:
A data source is evaluated at plan time unless it can’t be because one of its inputs will not be known until apply time.
time. It is evaluated every time terraform is run. Therefore running terraform plan and then terraform apply will run the data source’s read operation twice.
These are simple rules and it seems quite obvious that this is what you want to do every time. However, there is a degree of subtlety required here. The best way to understand it is with examples, such as this GitHub issue on the azurerm provider:
To illustrate, suppose you are trying to create an Azure Function App and export its host keys (used for authenticating HTTP requests to functions). This does not work:
resource "azurerm_function_app" "something" {
...
} data "azurerm_function_app_host_keys" "example" {
name = azurerm_function_app.something.name
resource_group_name = azurerm_function_app.something.resource_group_name
} output "function_host_key" {
value = data.azurerm_function_app_host_keys.example.default_function_key
}
If you run this configuration, Terraform follows its rules: it checks whether it has sufficient information to evaluate the azurerm_function_app_host_keys data source. However, during the plan phase when this is occurring, the Function App has not yet been deployed. How can Terraform get its host keys if it does not exist?
The wrinkle is that Terraform has all the inputs for the data source, namely the Function App’s name and resource group name. This framework does not, however, allow Terraform to notice or recover from the fact that the underlying Function App described by that information does not yet exist. Terraform throws an error and does not complete the plan phase. The Function App will never be deployed, and nobody will ever get any host keys.
The solution is straightforward:
data "azurerm_function_app_host_keys" "example" {
name = azurerm_function_app.something.name
resource_group_name = azurerm_function_app.something.resource_group_name
depends_on = [
azurerm_function_app. something
]
}
In this version of the data source, the depends_on field forces evaluation of the data source to wait until after the Function App exists, during the apply phase. Many Terraform users cringe at this solution because referring to an output attribute of a resource is supposed to create an implicit dependency relationship. But, that’s not sufficient to control the order in which a data source is evaluated. You need an explicit depends_on field.
Photo by Eugene Zaycev on Unsplash
Data sources with side effects
I said earlier that data sources are like queries, and that they only implement a “read” operation. However, there is no real limit on what providers can do when a data source is evaluated.
For example, the archive_file data source creates a zip file on the local filesystem. Within the Terraform configuration, this gives you access to the checksum of the resulting zip file through the data source’s attributes, and use can also be made of the file itself.
Data sources vs locals
When getting used to Terraform terminology, it’s easy to mix up data sources, locals and variables. Here’s how I keep them separated:
“data sources” bring in data from the outside world via providers, such as the azuread provider for talking to Azure Active Directory;
provider for talking to Azure Active Directory; “variables” (or at least what Terraform specifically calls “variables” — I call them “input variables”) bring in data from the parent module or from the process invoking terraform ;
; “locals” hold intermediate data which may come from data sources or variables, or from internal sources such as expressions (calculations) or the output attributes of resources or submodules.
Data sources vs importing a resource
Importing an existing resource is similar to pointing a data source at it. In both cases, you get information about the resource made available inside your Terraform configuration.
However, the key difference is that if you import a resource then you now manage it. That means:
If you terraform destroy your configuration, that resource will be destroyed.
your configuration, that resource will be destroyed. If you modify or destroy the resource through some other means, your Terraform configuration will try to put it back how it was next time apply runs.
So, if you are thinking of importing an existing resource — perhaps a static piece of infrastructure that was configured manually— just so that you can access its attributes within your Terraform configuration, then instead use a data source. Only import the resource if you intend to bring that resource under the control of this particular Terraform configuration.
Conclusion
We have gone for a bit of a meander together, taking a look at some features and behaviours of data sources in Terraform. Data sources are a useful tool, but one that will get you into trouble if you make assumptions about its behaviour. While data sources can be tricky to test, the issues touched on in this article should give you an indication of where to look for gotchas in any given case. Careful consideration of the behaviour of your data source against your precise needs will yield a good design and a robust solution. | https://servian.dev/getting-to-know-terraform-data-sources-bec206a82b27 | ['Pat Conheady'] | 2021-02-08 21:14:45.938000+00:00 | ['Iac', 'Infrastructure As Code', 'Infrastructure', 'Terraform'] |
Cursos gratuitos sobre simulação multifísica. Aproveite! | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/polyteck/cursos-presenciais-gratuitos-sobre-simula%C3%A7%C3%A3o-multif%C3%ADsica-em-v%C3%A1rias-cidades-aproveite-682c97bfd4a3 | [] | 2016-12-27 17:26:45.703000+00:00 | ['Comsol', 'Cursos Online', 'Computação', 'Simulação', 'Multifísica'] |
Teach Your Child to Read Today! | ( Note: The following article may contain affiliate links to offers. If you purchase any of the offers I may receive a commission )
Reading is one of the most important skills one must master to succeed in life. It helps your child succeed in school, helps them build self-confidence, and helps to motivate your child. Being able to read will help your child learn more about the world, understand directions on signs and warnings on labels, allow them to discover reading as an entertainment, and help them gather information.
Learning to read is very different from learning to speak, and it does not happen all at once. There is a steady progression in the development of reading ability over time. The best time for children to start learning to read is at a young age — even before they enter pre-school. Once a child is able to speak, they can begin developing basic reading skills. Very young children have a natural curiosity to learn about everything. They are naturally intrigued by the printed texts they see, and are eager to learn about the sounds made by those letters. You will likely notice that your young child likes to look at books and thoroughly enjoys being read to. They will even pretend to behave like a reader by holding books and pretend to read them.
At what age can you start teaching a child to read? When they’re babies? At 2 years old, 3, 4, or 5 years old, or wait until they’re in school?
If you delay your child’s reading skill development until he or she enters school, you are putting your child at risk…
Give Your Child the Most Important Skill in Life — Reading.
Did you know that 67% of all Grade 4 students cannot read at a proficient level! According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, of those 67%, 33% read at just the BASIC level, and 34% CANNOT even achieve reading abilities of the lowest basic level!
There is a super simple and extremely effective system that will even teach 2 and 3 year old children to read.
This is a unique reading program developed by two amazing parents and reading teachers, Jim and Elena, who successfully taught their four children to read before turning 3 years old. The reading system they developed is so effective that by the time their daughter was just 4 years 2 months old, she was already reading at a grade 3 level. They have videos to prove it.
Their reading system is called Children Learning Reading, and it is nothing like the infomercials you see on TV, showing babies appearing to read, but who have only learned to memorize a few word shapes. This is a program that will teach your child to effectively decode and read phonetically. It will give your child a big head start, and allow you to teach your child to read and help your child develop reading skills years ahead of similar aged children.
This is not a quick fix solution where you put your child in front of the TV or computer for hours and hope that your child learns to “read”… somehow…
This is a reading program that requires you, the parent, to be involved. But the results are absolutely amazing. Thousands of parents have used the Children Learning Reading program to successfully teach their children to read.
All it takes is 10 to 15 minutes a day.
>>> Click here to get started right now. <<<
Reading Makes Your Child Smarter
Study Shows That Reading Makes Children Smarter
Teach Your Child to Read and Help Your Child Become Smarter
Reading is known to have numerous benefits. It increases your world knowledge, enhances your vocabulary, and works to improve your reading comprehension abilities.
But did you know that reading can actually make you smarter?
In fact, reading not only can make a child smarter, the very act of reading can even help to compensate for modest levels of cognitive ability in children by building their vocabulary and general knowledge! This is a finding reported by researchers Cunningham and Stanovich in a report titled “What Reading Does For the Mind”.
The simple fact here is that reading can make your child smarter, and that learning to read early on is directly linked to later success in life.
1) Did you know that your child’s vocabulary at 3 years old predicts his or her grade one reading success?
2) Did you know that vocabulary and reading ability in first grade strongly predicts grade 11 outcomes?
3) Did you know that your child’s reading skill in grade 3 directly influences high school graduation? Studies have found that children who cannot read proficiently by grade 3 are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers!
How to Teach a 2 or 3 Year Old to Read.
But how do you teach a young child to read, and isn’t that the job of the school and teachers?
You can’t be more wrong…
With the right tools, knowledge, and techniques, teaching young children to read can be a simple and effective process. I’d like to introduce you to a fantastic reading program called Children Learning Reading, a super effective method for teaching children to read — even children as young as just 2 or 3 years old.
The creators of this program have used it to teach their four children to read before age 3, and by reading, I mean real, phonetic reading.
I can understand if you find that hard to believe… In fact, I had a difficult time believing it myself as well… that is, until I saw the videos they posted documenting the reading progress of the their children — not to mention all the videos other parents have sent in showcasing their children’s reading progress after using the Children Learning Program. After learning more about their methods and techniques, it became clear how it’s possible to teach young children to read effectively.
It is truly within your ability to teach your child to read in a relatively short period of time spending just 10 to 15 minutes each day.
1. Vocabulary Development and Instruction: A Prerequisite for School Learning
Andrew Biemiller, University of Toronto
2. Early reading acquisition and its relation to reading experience and ability 10 years later.
Cunningham AE, Stanovich KE.
3. Double Jeopardy How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation
Donald J. Hernandez, Hunter College and the Graduate Center,
The Simplest and Most Effective Method to Teach Children to Read
Discover a Surefire Method to Teach Your Child to Read
There are many different methods and opinions on how to teach a child to read — while all are well-intentioned, some methods could actually lead to reading difficulties in children. Learning to read is a critical step towards future academic success and later on success in life. If you cannot read, you cannot succeed. There is an amazingly simple method — actually, a combination of two methods — that can teach anyone to read, even children as young as 2 and 3 years old.
The combination of these two methods has been used in the Children Learning Reading program to successfully teach thousands of young children to read. So what are these methods?
It is the combination of synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness.
Most have probably heard of phonics, but phonemic awareness is a concept less well known and ?it’s not something you hear about often. Certainly, phonics is absolutely necessary to develop fluent reading skills; however, there are different types of phonics including embedded, analogy, analytical, and synthetic phonics. While using some type of phonics is better than not including any phonics instructions at all, you will achieve FAR BETTER results by employing synthetic phonics, which is by far the most easy and effective method for teaching reading. Multiple studies support this.
In a 7 year study conducted by the Scottish Education Department, 300 students were taught using either analytic phonics or synthetic phonics. The results found that the synthetic phonics group were reading 7 months ahead and spelling 8 to 9 months ahead of the other phonics groups. At the end of the 7 year study, the children were reading 3.5 years ahead of their chronological age.
Very impressive!
Through their amazing reading program, the creators (Jim & Elena — parents of 4 children and reading teachers) have taught all of their children to read phonetically by 3 years old and have helped thousands of parents to successfully teach their children to read as well! Some are small 2 or 3 year old toddlers, others are young 4 or 5 year old preschoolers, and still others at ages 6, 7, 8 or even older.
>> Click here to watch amazing videos of young children reading, and see the amazing results so many parents are achieving with their children.<<<
The Children Learning Reading program works so well that many children will achieve reading ages far ahead of their chronological age.
Take Jim & Elena’s children as an example: their oldest child, Raine, was reading phonetically at 2 years 11 months old, and by the time she entered kindergarten at 5 years old, she was reading at a grade 5 level with a reading age of 11.9 years — almost 7 years ahead of her chronological age. Their second child, Ethan, learned to read phonetically by 2 years 9 months, and at age 3, he was reading at a grade 2 level with a reading age of 7.2 years — progressing at a similarly quick pace as his older sister. Find that hard to believe? You can watch the videos posted here.
There are many different phonics programs out there, but rarely do you ever hear a mention of phonemic awareness (PA), and PA is absolutely an equally critical component to developing reading skills in children. What makes the Children Learning Reading program so unique and amazingly effective at teaching young children is that it seamlessly combines the teaching of synthetic phonics along with phonemic awareness to enable children to develop superb reading skills.
Above and beyond simply teaching children to read and decode effectively, this approach of combining synthetic phonics and PA instructions works to help children achieve reading ages far above their chronological ages — just as the Scottish study had demonstrated with synthetic phonics. The amazing effects of this type of learning increases dramatically with time and age. Even more noteworthy is that this approach to learning reading immensely enhances a child’s spelling abilities as well! Indeed, in a report published by the National Reading Panel (NRP), the NRP had found that learning through synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness instructions greatly enhances a young child’s ability to spell.
Whether you have a toddler, a pre-schooler, a kindergartener, or an early grade school child, the Children Learning Reading program will enable you to effectively teach your child to decode and read phonetically. The lessons are taught in a logical and sequential order of learning, and the step-by-step lessons make it super easy for you to teach your child and enable your child to become a fast and fluent reader.
>>>>Click here to learn more about the Children Learning Reading program and teach your child to read today<<<
How a 3 Year and 5 Year Old Learned to Read in 4 Months
Case Study: Teaching a 3 and a 5 Year Old to Read in Just 4 Months
How a 5 Year Old Achieved a 2nd Grade Reading Level in 4 Months
I’d like to share with you an interesting case study of how 2 sisters (a 3 year old and a 5 year old) learned to read in just 4 months — both learned to read using the Children Learning Reading program. They attended the summer reading camp operated by the program’s creator, Jim Yang.
Jim has been teaching kids — and teaching parents how to teach their kids — to read for quite some time. During the summer months, he runs a reading camp teaching many children to read. most of the the children he teaches are 4 to 7 years old, with the occasional 3 year old or 8 year olds who are having reading difficulties.
To complete both stages of the reading camp, it typically takes about 4 months — attending 3 times a week and each session is 1 hour long.
This case study is about 2 little girls (sisters) that attended the reading camp. When they started (June), the older sister P. S. was 5 years 4 months, and the younger sister A. S. was just 2 years 11 months old. Probably most reading teachers would not even consider working with a 2 year old — since when can a 2 year old learn to read!?!
Well, no problem for Jim, as he had taught all of his own children to read by age 3. So when their mom asked if she could bring her almost 3 year old, Jim said: “sure, why not? I’ll have both of them reading for you in a few months.” Certainly, she had a healthy degree of skepticism.
So by the end of 4 months, after completing the Children Learning Reading program, her older daughter was reading at a grade 2 level (reading age 7.3 years), and her younger daughter was reading at a grade 1 level (reading age 6.8 years). I can’t embed videos in emails, so please head over to Jim’s website, scroll down, and watch the short video posted under “Success Story #3”. There, you see just how well her older daughter was reading by the end of 4 months, plus follow-up videos several months and one year later showing their amazing progress.
The Initial Reading Assessment
At the start of the reading camp, there is a quick reading assessment. The younger girl A. S. did not need an assessment as being just 2 year 11 months old, she did not know any letters or sounds, yet. The older sister P. S. knew most of the alphabet letter names and “sounds”, but she was pronouncing some of the sounds incorrectly.
No surprises there, as almost every single child that attends the reading camp are taught many phonemes incorrectly (!!), either at preschool or in Kindergarten. Such is the state of our education system.
Learning to Read
Being 3 years apart, there’s a big difference in how quickly the older sister will learn compared to her younger sister. They start off with the Children Learning Reading program as usual, except after a few lessons, adjustments were made to accommodate for the different learning paces of the older sister and the younger sister.
This system of teaching reading is a unique combination of synthetic phonics with phonemic awareness that produces amazing results in children of all ages. Obviously, one of the initial goals was to REALLY correct the incorrect sounds the older sister had learned in pre-school! She was starting kindergarten in September. After just the first week, the older sister P. S. caught on and was doing great with phonemic awareness activities such as blending and segmenting. Little A. S., being a lot younger, took about 2.5 weeks before she started catching on.
The Results
With such a logical and sequential order of learning, the results are always phenomenal, and parents are almost always flabbergasted at what can be accomplished in just 3 to 4 months.
By week 4, the older P. S. was already reading simple, short, decodable sentences, and the younger A. S. (just turned 3 now) is able to phonetically read many many words. After 2 months, every time they came to their lessons, their mom (always with a big smile) was always telling stories about how the 2 of them are reading everywhere they go!
After 3 months — at about 3/4 way through completing the reading program — the older sister P. S. was already reading simple, short stories independently. Little A. S. (now 3) could also read (phonetically) an amazing amount of words, sentences, and even some very simple short stories. Keep in mind she just turned 3. At 3 months is when their reading abilities really took off, and their mom just could not believe the type of results she was seeing in her children — she kept on saying that she did not think this was even remotely possible.
Indeed, it is. You just have to have the right techniques and methods when it comes to teaching reading, and one of Jim’s favorite comments he received about his teaching methods is that:
“It totally de-mystifies reading.”
The girls completed the reading camp by end of September, and their mom said it was unbelievable how far ahead both of her daughters were compared to other kids. In the video (see success story #3), you can see just how well P. S. was reading by the end of 4 months.
Teaching reading is something that Jim does extremely well. While you and your child may not live in the same city (or even country) as him to attend his classes, his Children Learning Reading program is available for parents to purchase online. Thousands of parents have used his methods to successfully teach their children to read with amazing results.
>> Click here to watch a short video presentation to learn more about the Children Learning Reading program, and see how you can effectively teach your child to read.
Here’s what their mom had to say about their experience:
My children loved the program and so did I. I am extremely pleased with the results. My children started the program at 2 years 11 months and 5 years 4 months with Jim, and neither child was reading before the program. My children loved the program, and Jim is an excellent teacher. After 4 months, my 3 year old is reading at a grade 1 level, and my 5 year old is at a grade 2–3 level. I never expected such amazing results. Jim’s program takes the mystery out of teaching children how to read. It is so well organized that any child can learn to read with it. The outcome exceeded my expectations. At the start of the program, I thought my 3 year old might learn some letters and my 5 year old would learn some words, but after completing the program in 4 months, my 3 year old could read long sentences and simple short stories, and my 5 year old could read level 2 books on her own. Thanks, Parminder S.
3 Tips to Teach Your child How to Read
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Learning to read at a young age is important for the development of the child. It helps them develop a better understand of their surroundings, allows them to gather information from printed materials, and provides them with a wonderful source of entertainment when they read stories and rhymes. Children develop at different rates, and some children will develop reading skills quicker than other children; however, what’s important is that as the parent, you are keenly aware of your child’s maturity and reading level to provide them with appropriate books and activities to help them improve.
As parents, you are the most important teacher for your children. You will introduce your child to books and reading. Below we have some tips to help you teach your child to read.
Teach Your Child How to Read Tip #1
Teach your child alphabet letters and sounds at the same time. Studies have shown that children learn best when they are taught the letter names and letter sounds at the same time. In one study, 58 preschool children were randomly assigned to receive instructions in letter names and sounds, letter sound only, or numbers (control group). The results of this study are consistent with past research results in that it found children receiving letter name and sound instruction were most likely to learn the sounds of letters whose names included cues to their sounds. [1]
When teaching your child the letter sounds, have them slowly trace the letter, while saying the sound of the letter at the same time. For example, if you were teaching your child the letter “A”, you would say:
“The letter A makes the /A/ (ah) sound.”
Then have your child say the /A/ sound while tracing the letter with his or her index finger.
Teaching a Child How to Read Tip #2
When teaching your child to read, always emphasize with them that the proper reading order should be from left to right, and top to bottom. To adults, this may seem so basic that anyone should know it. However, our children are not born with the knowledge that printed text should be read from left to right and top to bottom, and this is why you’ll sometimes see children reading from right to left instead — because they were never explicitly taught to read from left to right. When teaching your child how to read, always emphasize this point with them.
Teach Your Child How to Read Tip #3
Teach final consonant blends first. Teaching words such “at” and “and” can lead your child directly to learning words that rhyme with these. For example, for “at”, you can have:
Lat
Pat
Mat
Cat
Sat
Bat
Spat
Chat
For “and”, you can have these rhyming words:
Sand
Band
Land
Hand
Stand
Bland
Brand
Grand
and so on…
You can start teaching blends once your child has learned the sounds of some consonants and short vowel sounds. You don’t need to wait until your child has mastered the sounds of all the letters before teaching blends.
Learning to read is a long process, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult process. Broken down into intuitive and logical steps, a child as young as two years old can learn to read, and older children can accomplish even more.
>> Click here to for a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read, and watch a video of a 2 year old child reading
Best Way to Teach Kids to Read
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
What’s the best way to teach children to read? According to the National Reading Panel, “teaching children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a variety of teaching conditions with a variety of learners across a range of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to Phonemic Awareness.” [1] This is a statement made by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in their report titled “TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction.”
Phonemic Awareness instruction was selected for review by the NRP in their report because studies have identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as two of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read in their first 2 years of entering school. There is strong Scientific evidence to suggest that phonemic awareness instructions are an important part in helping children develop reading skills.
One study discussed the presence of phonemic awareness in Austrian children aged 6 to 7 that were unable to read when first entering school. This study found that many children had not one correct response in their test of a simple vowel substitution task. However, a few children who exhibited high phonemic awareness scored close to perfect on this same task. The study further stated that “there was a specific predictive relationship between initial phonemic awareness differences and success in learning to read and to spell.” Even more importantly, the study indicated that it was phonemic awareness abilities, and not IQ, that predicted the accuracy of reading and spelling at the end of grade one. Children with high phonemic awareness at the beginning of grade one had high reading and spelling achievements at the end of grade one, compared to some children with low phonemic awareness who had difficulties learning to read and spell. [2]
In the National Reading Panel report, they also determined that the beneficial effects of phonemic awareness on reading lasts well beyond the period of training. While phonemic awareness instructions are proven to significantly help children learn reading, it is not a complete reading program. What it does, is provide children with a foundational knowledge base of the alphabet language. The NRP analysis also showed that phonics instructions produces significant benefits for students from kindergarten through grade 6, and is also helpful for children with learning to read difficulties.
Children who are taught with phonics and phonemic awareness instructions are consistently able to decode, read, and spell, and even demonstrated significant improvement in their ability to comprehend text. Even older children who receive these similar teachings improved their ability to decode and spell. The NRP made a key statement saying that “conventional wisdom has suggested that kindergarten students might not be ready for phonics instruction, this assumption was not supported by the data. The effects of systematic early phonics instruction were significant and substantial in kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic phonics programs should be implemented at those age and grade levels.”
However, I would like to further expand on that by saying that children as young as two years old can learn to read through phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. If a young child can speak, then they should be able to learn to read, even if they are as young as two years old. In fact, I have proven this with my own children. We started teaching our daughter at 2 years and 8months, and she was very capable at reading by the time she was just 2 years and 11 months old.
>> Click here to learn more about the simple, step-by-step phonics and phonemic awareness program we used to teach her to read.
How to Help Your Child Learn to Read
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
The ability to read is vital for success. It helps your child succeed in school, helps them build self-confidence, and helps to motivate your child. Being able to read will help your child learn more about the world, understand directions on signs and posters, allow them to find reading as an entertainment, and help them gather information.
Learning to read is very different from learning to speak, and it does not happen all at once. There is a steady progression in the development of reading ability over time. The best time for children to start learning to read is at a very young age — even before they enter pre-school. Once a child is able to speak, they can begin developing basic reading skills. Very young children have a natural curiosity to learn about everything, and they are naturally intrigued by the printed texts they see, and are eager to learn about the sounds made by those letters. You will likely notice that your young child likes to look at books and thoroughly enjoys being read to. They will even pretend to behave like a reader by holding books and pretend to read them.
As parents, you’re the most important first step in your children’s journey into the wonderful world of reading. It is up to you to create the most supportive environment that turns your child on to reading — such as reading aloud to them often during the day and before bedtime, and placing age appropriate books for children around the house, so that the child will have access to plenty of books. Reading often to your child will help develop their interest in books and stories, and soon they will want to read stories on their own.
With the help of parents, children can learn how to read. Make reading into a family activity, and spend time playing words games and reading story books. This will not only help you child learn to read, but it’ll also help them build a rich vocabulary, teach them language patterns, and help them fall in love with books and reading.
Below are some tips to help you teach your child to read.
Talk to your child — before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn to speak. Talk to your child about everything and anything — whatever interests them. Tell them stories, ask your child lots of questions, play rhyme games, and sing songs with them.
Read to your child consistently everyday — we’re all creatures of habit, and enjoy having a daily routine. Set time aside each day to read to your child. Read to your child every night. Make this their “cool down” period before they go to sleep. This not only helps your child develop an interest in books and reading, it also help the parent bond with the child, and develop a healthy relationship.
Help your child develop reading comprehension — typically, parents will take the time to read for their children; however, many parents do not put much emphasis or thought on whether their children understands what they’ve just been read to. Instead, occasionally, make an effort to question your child on what you’ve just read. For example, you read to your child:
“Jack and Jill went up the hill…”
You pause briefly and ask your child:
“So where did Jack and Jill go?” Or alternatively, “Who went up the hill?”
Young children may not catch on right away initially, and it may take a little practice, but they’ll eventually catch on and begin to develop a deeper understanding of what they are reading. This is a very important step in helping your child develop reading comprehension. Of course, don’t do this every single time you read, or your child will quickly get bored and lose interest. Do it at random times, and do not over do it.
Help your child to read with a wide variety of books and keep reading fun — There is no shortage of children books, and you should always have a wide variety of children books, stories, and rhymes available. Reading is a lot of fun, for both parents and children. Read to your child using drama and excitement, and use different voices. Give your child the option of choosing what book they want you to read, instead of picking the book you want to read to your child.
When reading to your child, read slowly, and point to the words that you are reading to help the child make a connection between the word your are saying and the word you are reading. Always remember that reading should be a fun and enjoyable activity for your children, and it should never feel like a “chore” for them.
>> Click here to help your child learn to read
Teaching Phonics to Children
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Phonics is a necessary part of any good method of teaching children to read. Teaching Children phonics and helping them develop phonemic awareness is the key to mastering words, which is the first key step toward successful reading. Children need to develop a knowledge of the letters, the sounds represented by the letters, and the connection between sounds created by combining the letters where words are formed. This is an essential part of mastering reading, and enabling children to become independent readers. By learning phonics and phonemic awareness, children gain the ability to pronounce new words, develop clear articulation, improve spelling, and develop self confidence.
When it comes to teaching your children to read, it must include three basic principles:
1) Reading for the child, whether it’s a word, sentence, or story, must appeal to your child’s interests.
2) Never pressure or force your child into reading, turning it into a negative “event” in their life. It should be a fun, enjoyable, and rewarding experience. This will take ample amounts of patience on the part of the parents, and some creativity.
3) Teaching your child to read must begin with the mastery of the phonemes — the individual sounds which makeup the words.
The basic process of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness to children includes teaching them the letters and letter sounds; then you teach the child to combine (or blend) various letter sounds together to form words; which is then followed by reading sentences and simple stories. This is a logical progression for children to learn reading, where they develop accuracy in decoding words and pronouncing words. This method of teaching also helps the child to spell correctly. Gradually, the different elements of phonics are combined to produce new words, and leads to the discovery of new words by the child using this process which becomes an “automatic reflex”.
Teaching phonics to children should take 10 to 15 minutes each day, and these “lessons” should take place in several small sessions each day — such as 4 or 5 session lasting 3 to 5 minutes each. For older pre-school children, lessons can be slightly longer; however, several minutes each session is all that’s needed.
One way to start teaching phonics to children with with ear training — by helping them develop the understanding that words are made up of smaller units of sounds, or known as phonemes, and when you combine these sounds, a word is formed. You can start this with very short sessions, as already mentioned. A few minutes a day is all that you need. The key, however, is consistency and patience.
During these short sessions, sound out words slowly and distinctly. You can do this without even making the child aware that you are trying to teach them. Simply take words from your everyday speaking to your child and include oral blending sounds into your sentences. For example, if you wanted to ask your child to drink his milk, you could say: “Joe, d-r-i-n-k your m-ilk.” The words drink and milk are sounded out slowly and distinctly. The level of sound separation can be set by you to increase or lower the difficulty. Thus, if Joe has a tough time figuring out that d-r-i-n-k means drink, you can lower the difficulty by blending the word as dr-ink instead.
Alternatively, you could simply pick different words and play blending sounds games with your child. You simply say the sounds of the word slowly, and ask the child try to guess what you are saying.
This concept of individual sounds forming words may take some time for your child to grasp. Some children will pick it up quickly, while other children may take longer, but one thing that’s certain is that if you keep it up, your child will catch on. Below are some sample words which you can use to play blending sounds activities with your child.
J-u-m-p J-ump
R-u-n R-un
S-i-t S-it
S-t-a-n-d St-and
M-i-l-k M-ilk
S-t-o-p St-op
The first word is more segmented than the second word, and will be more difficult to sound out. Please note that hyphens are used to indicate the letter sounds instead of slashes.
ie: J-u-m-p /J/ /u/ /m/ /p/
This is done to make things easier to read; however, when you read it, you should not read the names of the letters, but instead say the sounds of the letters. This type of ear training for phonics and phonemic awareness should continue throughout the teaching process, even well after your child have grasped this concept. It can be applied to words with increasing difficulty. Again, please always keep in mind that not all children can readily blend the sounds to hear the word, so you must be patient, and drill this for days, weeks, or even months if needed. Consistency and frequency is the key to success here, and not sporadic binge sessions.
If you would like to learn about a simple step-by-step program designed to easily teach your children how to read, please click here.
Phonemic Awareness Research
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds which make up words. In the past few decades, large amounts of research have improved our understanding of phonemic awareness and its importance in helping children learn to read. There are hundreds of research studies conducted on all aspects of phonemic awareness, and how it affects and benefits reading and spelling abilities of young children. The National Reading Panel of the US have stated that phonemic awareness improves children’s reading and reading comprehension, and that it also helps children to learn to spell. Based on the research and reviews done by the National Reading Panel, they have concluded that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness produces better reading results than whole language programs.
When teaching phonemic awareness, children are taught the smallest units of sound, or phonemes. During the teaching process, children are taught to focus on the phonemes, and learn to manipulate the phonemes in words. Studies have identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as the two best school-entry predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first 2 years of instruction. In a review of phonemic awareness research, the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified 1,962 citations, and the results of their meta-analysis were impressive as stated in the NRP publication:
Overall, the findings showed that teaching children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a variety of teaching conditions with a variety of learners across a range of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to phonemic awareness (PA). Specifically, the results of the experimental studies led the Panel to conclude that PA training was the cause of improvement in students’ phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling following training. The findings were replicated repeatedly across multiple experiments and thus provide converging evidence for causal claims. [1]
As can be clearly seen, teaching children phonemic awareness early on significantly improves their reading and spelling abilities. Furthermore, the NRP research stated that these beneficial effects of phonemic awareness teaching goes well beyond the end of training period. The NRP phonemic awareness research also found that the most effective teaching method was to systematically teach children to manipulate phonemes with letters, and teaching children in small groups.
Phonemic awareness (PA) teaching provides children with an essential foundation of the alphabet system, and a foundation in reading and spelling. The NRP has stated that PA instructions is a necessary instructional component within a complete reading program.
Below are two other studies done on phonemic awareness, and its effects on reading abilities. In a study involving children aged 6 to 7 years old, researchers found that the few readers at the beginning of grade one exhibited high phonemic awareness scored at least close to perfect in the vowel substitution task, compared to none in children of the same age group who could not read when they entered school. The research also stated that phonemic awareness differences before instruction predicted the accuracy of alphabetic reading and spelling at the end of grade one independent from IQ. Children with high phonemic awareness at the start of grade one had high reading and spelling achievements at the end of grade one; however, some of the children with low phonemic awareness had difficulties learning to read and spell. The study suggested that phonemic awareness is the critical variable for the progress in learning to read. [2]
Another study looked at phonemic awareness and emergent literacy skills of 42 children with an average age of 5 years and 7 months. The researchers indicated that relations between phonemic awareness and spelling skills are bidirectional where phonemic awareness improved spelling skills, and spelling influenced the growth in phonemic skills. [3]
It is clear that with the conclusions made by the National Reading Panel and other research studies on the benefits of phonemic awareness, children should be taught PA at a young age before entering school. This helps them build a strong foundation for learning to read and spell.
>> Help your child develop phonemic awareness and teach your child to read today
Teaching Letter Names and Sounds
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
So, you want to teach your child to read, but before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn at least some of the letters in the alphabet, their names, and the sounds that they represent. To be able to read, a child must be able to recognize the letters, know the sound of the letters, and be able to recognize the letters quickly and say the sound without hesitation. There is plenty of discussion and disagreement on whether it’s better to teach children using whole language programs or using methods which incorporate phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. I think the debate on this is settled when the National Reading Panel stated from their findings of reviewing over 1,900 studies that phonics and phonemic awareness produces superior reading results than whole language programs.
There is also some debate on whether to teach your child only letter names, or only the sounds which the letters represent. However, studies have also settled this debate by finding that teaching a child alphabet names and sounds together produces the best results. In fact, studies have found that there is little value in teaching preschoolers letter forms or letter sounds separately. This was indicated by an Australian study involving 76 preschool children. The children received 6 weeks of training in either letter awareness, phonemic awareness, or control tasks, and then received another 6 weeks of training in either letter-sound correspondence or control tasks. The study found that training in either phoneme or letter awareness assisted with learning of letter-sound correspondences, and that the phonemically trained children group had an advantage on recognition tasks. The study found that there is little value in training in letter form or letter sounds separately. [1]
As you can see, there is basically no point in only teaching either the names of the alphabet letters, or the sounds the letters make. A child must learn the name and the sound of the alphabet letter. When teaching your child the alphabet, instead of simply teaching them the name of the alphabet such as “this is the letter A”, teach them like so:
“This is the letter A, and the letter A makes the /A/ sound.” (note: the /A/ denote the sound “A” makes, and not its name). Similarly, you can teach your child the other alphabet letters in this way including both name and sound of the letter. This is the way I teach my children the alphabet letters. Other studies have also determined that teaching the letter names and sounds together helped children learn.
58 preschool children were randomly assigned to receive instructions in letter names and sounds, letter sound only, or numbers (control group). The results of this study are consistent with past research results in that it found children receiving letter name and sound instruction were most likely to learn the sounds of letters whose names included cues to their sounds. [2]
To be able to effectively teach your children the sounds of letters, you must first master the proper pronunciation of the letters yourself. It is critical for you as a parent to be able to first say the sounds of the letters correctly before teaching your children, and this is much tougher than it may seem.
>> Click here to learn more about our simple program that will show you step-by-step how to effectively teach your child to read
Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Did you know that 38% of grade four students have reading abilities below the lowest basic level as determined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)? The NAEP is the only ongoing survey of what students known and tracks their performance in various academic subjects for the United States. In their report, the NAEP found that 38% of grade four students had reading achievement below basic levels, with a basic level reading score being 208.
To put things in perspective, the US reading scale has an upper limit score of 500, with average reading scores for grade 4 (217), grade 8 (264), and grade 12 (291). The grade 4 reading achievement levels are categorized by the NAEP as Advanced (268 score), Proficient (238 score), and Basic (208 score), and the basic reading achievement level is defined as follows by the NAEP:
Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read. When reading text appropriate for fourth graders, they should be able to make relatively obvious connections between the text and their own experiences and extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences. [1]
Unfortunately, over a third of all grade four students read at levels even below basic. Is your child having reading difficulties? Research on Phonemic Awareness have found that early reading helps improves a child’s reading and spelling abilities. In fact, the National Reading Panel has concluded based on their massive review of over 1,900 studies that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness produces better reading results than whole language programs.
There are numerous documented benefits and advantages of teaching children to read early on, and teaching them to reading using phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. It is clear that early language and reading ability development passes great benefits to the child as they progress through school at all grades, and that early language and reading problems can lead to learning problems later on in school. For example, a Swedish study found that children with a history of reading problems at school entry scores significantly below average on reading in grade 4. As well, children that shows very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored similarly low on sentence reading in grade 4. [2] This is just one of many studies which have similar findings, and this makes it an imperative for parents to begin exposing their children to books and reading at an early age.
So how early?
Good question!
There’s no set guideline on when you should start teaching your children to read; however, you can start cultivating your child’s love for books and reading as soon as they’re born. Obviously, very young babies would not even know what books are, however, talking to your child and reading to your child will help them develop a keen liking for books and stories. As your child grows and gets older, avoid TV-sitting them, because as they develop a dependency on television as their main source of entertainment, it becomes very difficult to dislodge that need for TV entertainment, and get them to enjoy reading books. Instead, keep age appropriate books all around the house, and read to them often. You’ll find that they’ll start picking up books and pretend to read themselves, although at very early ages, they still cannot read.
People typically think that kindergarten or grade one would be an appropriate time for their children to start reading; however, this is not the best approach as studies have repeatedly found that children with good phonemic awareness before entering kindergarten continues to outperform, and achieve exceptional reading and spelling abilities as they progress through school. On the other hand, children who enter school with reading difficulties may continue to have reading and spelling difficulties.
Click here to learn how to easily and quickly teach your child to read.
Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Before a child learns to read, he or she must first learn the spoken language, and this is one of the first instances where family members such as dad, mom, older siblings, and grandparents play an important role in “teaching” the child the spoken English language. Whether young children realize it or not, they gain very early exposure to the alphabet when parents sing the alphabet song to them. They begin to develop language skills by being read to and spoken to. One of the keys to teaching children reading early on is by exposing them to alphabet letters, books, and reading to them often.
Reading nursery rhymes and children’s books are an important part of getting children to understand printed text. Talk to your children, and talk to them often, whether they understand or not is not important when they’re just babies. The more you talk and interact with your little ones, the better they will develop. The key is exposure, and repeated exposure. Once your child learns to speak, you can begin teaching them reading at home.
I often hear parents say that they don’t want to “push” their child too hard. How can teaching your child to read at a young age be considered “pushing” them too hard? If you as a parent already have the mentality that reading is a chore, and teaching them to read is pushing “too hard”, you certainly can’t expect your children to be excited about learning reading. On the contrary, learning to read offers a young child an opportunity for a lifetime to learn, discover, and enjoy the wonders of reading. Parents (including myself) will often underestimate the abilities and learning capabilities of young children. When we first began our teaching reading program with our first child when she was 2 years and 8 months, little did we expect that in just a few short weeks, she would be reading not just words, but sentences and story books. After about 3 months, by the time she was 2 years 11 months old, our daughter could read “Step in to Reading — step 2 (pre-school to grade 1 level)” books with some guidance. The benefits of learning to read were apparent — improved speech clarity, and better reading ability and reading comprehension.
There are no shortage of studies which find many benefits in teaching children reading at an early age. For example, one study administered a Stanford achievement test at the start of kindergarten and then again at the end of grade one found that early language based skills were highly associated with later academic performance in school aged children. [1] Similar studies also found that a high level of letter knowledge in kindergarten can reliably predict better later literacy skills.[2] Having a home environment that’s conducive to literacy growth is critical in a child’s development, and directly affects a child’s language and literacy development. Studies have found that responsiveness and support of the home environment is the strongest predictor of children’s language and early literacy skills. [3] My point here is help make parents aware that children who enter kindergarten with highly developed early reading skills will achieve greater success with systematic reading education. [4]
It’s never too late to start home lessons and programs to teach your children to read. Regardless how old your child is, starting a reading program at a young age will have ample benefits. Start with lots of talking, singing, and reading to your child right from birth, and once your child is able to speak, you can start a simple reading program.
Begin with teaching your child some basic letters and their sounds, and even as soon your child learn just a few letters and their sounds, you can begin teaching them simple blends using the letter knowledge that they have acquired. Work on ear training with your child on oral blending and word segmentation. One of the keys to teaching children read is developing phonemic awareness. Studies have shown that phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of reading success in children.
>> Click here to learn about a simple, yet effective step-by-step teaching Children reading program
Teaching Children to Read and Write
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Most parents, at one point or another, frets over the education and the development of their children. Many concerned parents research and seek information on the topic of teaching children to read and write. I for one, am glad to see so many parents wanting to get an early start for their children in reading and writing, because studies have shown that developing these abilities early on before entering school provides numerous benefits and advantages later on as the child progresses through school.
More worrisome should be the fact that over one third, 38% to be exact, of all grade 4 students cannot even achieve a basic level of reading ability according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This is an alarming statistic. Will your child become one of the 38% who cannot reach basic reading achievement by grade 4? For most children, this poor ability to read can be easily prevented with early phonemic awareness teaching.
Reading must begin early in the life of a child, whether it is just an alphabet letter, a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a story. Teaching children how to read must begin early on, and children should be exposed to books, stories, rhymes, and be read to on a daily basis. Children as young as 2 years old can learn to read if you teach them to read with the proper instructions. Please watch the video below of a 2 year 11 months old reading randomly constructed sentences.
As Lida Williams said, almost 100 years ago:
Phonics is not a method of teaching reading, but it is a necessary part of every good, modern method. It is the key to word mastery, and word mastery is one of the first essentials in learning to read. A knowledge of the sounds of letters, and of the effect of the position of the letter upon its sound, is an essential means of mastering the mechanics of reading, and of enabling children to become independent readers.
100 years later, this still holds true. There has been a great debate on what method of teaching is best to teach children how to read: whether phonics or the whole language method is better. The whole language learning to read method is more of a “word memorization” plan, where a young child is supposed to memorize the “shape” of the word, and say it.
It is important to distinguish the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness is very broad, and includes phonemic awareness as a sub category. Phonemic awareness is very narrow, and it is only focused on the phonemes, which are the individual sounds of letters. There are no shortage of studies which have repeatedly found and concluded that teaching phonemic awareness to young children produces exceptional reading and spelling abilities. You can read more about research on phonemic awareness here.
The whole language method simply expects a child to “read” when presented reading material, and by memorizing sight words. The phonics method is a bottom up approach where you teach children to read in a logical and sequential order. You first teach children the alphabet letters and the sounds they represent; then you teach children to combine (or blend) various letter sounds together to form words; which is then followed by reading sentences and simple stories. This is a logical progression for children learning to read, where they develop accuracy in decoding words and pronouncing words. This method of teaching also helps the child to spell correctly.
There’s no doubt that phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is the superior method to teach children how to read. We have successfully used phonemic awareness instructions to teach our children at age 2 to read words, sentences, paragraphs, and simple story books. If you would like to learn about our simple, step-by-step method to teach your children to read and write, please click below:
Teach your child to read today using our step-by-step, proven method for teaching young children to read
Developing Phonemic Awareness and Learning Reading
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
As more research brings to light the advantages of phonics and phonemic awareness instructions have over whole language teaching methods, more parents are becoming aware of teaching using phonics and phonemic awareness skills. Many parents today are concerned about the method that is being used to teach their children how to read, and rightfully so. The whole language method is more of a method of “word memorization”, where the child is taught to look at printed words as whole configurations, much like looking at Chinese characters.
Teaching phonemic awareness skills involves the break down of words into individual sounds (phonemes), and then joining the parts to form, or sound out the words. By contrast, whole language learning stresses the flow and meaning of the text, where “sounding out” words is not used, the words are decoded through its larger context, and word memorization plays a key role. What would you rather do, memorize hundreds or even thousands of words based on shapes, or learn a systematic way of reading?
English is not meant to be memorized as shapes and sight objects. It becomes very difficult to learn to read by memorizing and recognizing shapes. Phonics and teaching phonemic awareness skills requires you to memorize the letters and the sounds they represent, and with this method, children as young as two years old can learn to read successfully, and comprehend what they are reading. Try teaching a young child with the whole language learning method, see how successful he or she will be at memorizing shapes. Teaching by using phonics will routinely produce successful readers.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that phonics is clearly a superior method of teaching children how to read. In the USA, over 30 million adults (14%) are considered functionally illiterate, and are unable to perform simple everyday literacy activities. [1] This however, should not be surprising since over one third of all children cannot even achieve basic reading competency by the time they are in grade four. This is a finding from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Are these children failing at literacy because they are dumb? I I hardly think so, but perhaps it is a result of the poor reading instructions they receive.
It has been proven time and again, that teaching phonemic awareness skill produces superior reading and spelling abilities than whole language teaching methods. Thousands of studies have confirmed this, and the National Reading Panel has also made a clear statement about this.
While most teachers will probably say that they teach using some phonics, the truth is that many teachers are not knowledgeable in the basic concepts of the English language. No, I’m not making a random statement. In a recent study, the researchers stated: “many in-service teachers are not knowledgeable in the basic concepts of the English language”. Their study found that even though the teachers may be well versed in children’s literature, but they do not know how to address the basic building blocks of language and reading. In their survey of instructors conducted, the researchers found that the teachers performed poorly on the concepts relating to morphemes and phonemes. In another second study, over 80% of the interviewed instructors agreed that phonics is a desirable method to use for beginning reading instructions. [2]
Some argue that a child will acquire a knowledge of phonics on his or her own after learning to read using whole language methods. While this may be true for some children, it is hardly the case for the other children with reading difficulties. When a child is taught to read using a whole word approach, they develop a habit of looking at all the words by their whole configurations, and this prevents the child from seeing the phonetic structure of the words. Real readers who learned to read by learning phonemic awareness skills do not need clues or cues to help them recognize shapes — they develop an automatic ability to decode the letters and words.
Ultimately, it is up to the parents to decide the path for which to teach their children to read. They can either simply leave it up to the education system, and hope that their child does not end up being one of the 38% grade four students which do not develop even basic reading achievement, or they can take the initiative and make the decision to help their children develop phonemic awareness skills early on before even starting kindergarten. Research on phonemic awareness has shown time after time that phonemic awareness skills predicted reading and spelling success of children in school.
Don’t leave your children’s reading success up to chance.
Click here to learn about a simple, step-by-step teaching method that will catapult your child’s reading abilities — a learning process so simple, that even two year olds can learn to read.
How to Teach Phonics and Reading
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Teaching children to read by teaching phonics activities is a lot like doing math, where you have to know what the numbers are, how to count, and you need to learn to add and subtract before learning to multiply and divide. Teaching phonics to children is no different where you follow a step by step approach by first teaching the child the alphabet letters and phonics sounds, and then teaching them the combination of different letters to create different words, and using words to form sentences. It is a very logical and sequential buildup of phonics knowledge and reading ability.
Before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn the alphabet letters, and know the sounds represented by the letters. It’s usually easier to teach some consonants and short vowels first before moving on to more complicated things such as consonant digraphs (2 consonants formed to produce one sound, such as “ch” or “ph”) and long vowels. As you can see, teaching children to read by the phonics method helps them develop phonemic awareness, and it is also a very logical and straight forward approach.
Start off by teaching your child the phonics sounds. You can choose to teach your child in alphabetic order going from A to Z, or you can teach several commonly used consonant sounds and vowels, and go from there. For example, you may start teaching your child /a/, /c/, and /t/ (slashes denote sound of the letters). Once your child has learn to quickly recognize these letters and properly sound out their sounds, you can then teach them to blend /c/, /a/, /t/ to make the words “cat”, or “tac”, or “at”.
As you introduce more letters and phonics sounds in your lesson plans, you can generate more words, and slowly introduce short, simple sentences to your reading lessons. Depending on the age of your child, I would suggest keeping the phonics lessons relatively short — around 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes, just 3 to 5 minutes for a short lesson is plenty, and you can easily teach these short phonics lessons 2 or 3 times each day for a total of 10 to 15 minutes. Young children tend to be forgetful, so repetition is very important.
You don’t want to make the lessons too long and boring, that the child begins to feel like doing a “chore” when learning to read. So keep it short, fun, and interesting. By keeping the phonics lessons short, you also avoid overwhelming the child with too much information, and always remember to make sure your child has mastered one lesson before moving on to new material. Confusion and uncertainty will only make their learning effort difficult and frustrating — so review often, move on to new material only after they’ve mastered the current lessons.
So when can you start teaching phonics sounds and lessons to children? Not everyone will agree with me on this, but I believe that if your child can speak, then your child can learn to read. Of course, every child is different and unique, and some children will be more receptive to learning reading than others. One thing for certain, is that the earlier a child learns to read, the better.
We have taught our 2 year old daughter to read through teaching phonics sounds and lessons, and helping her develop phonemic awareness. If you watched the video above, that is our daughter reading randomly created sentences. We simply started teaching phonics sounds to her by spending 5 to 10 minutes each day, spread between 2 to 3 separate lessons, and slowly introduced new letters and reading material.
If you would like to learn more about the simple, effective, step-by-step method of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness, please click below.
>> Teach your child to read today using our step-by-step, proven method for teaching young children to read
How to Teach Your Baby to Read
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Teaching your baby to read is becoming more and more high priority for parents now as it becomes clear that learning to read at a young age offers numerous advantages for the child once he or she begins school. Studies have consistently found that teaching a baby to read and helping children develop phonemic awareness well before entering school can significantly improve their development in reading and spelling. However, when it comes to teaching babies to read, there are two main teaching methods.
These two main methods of teaching a baby or child to read are the whole language method, and the phonics and phonemic awareness method (the phonetic approach), which should be the preferred teaching method in helping children learn to read. Some prefer the whole language method, while others use the phonics approach, and there are also educator that use a mix of different approaches. With the Look-say approach of whole language learning, a child begins with memorizing sight words, and then taught various strategies of figuring out the text from various clues.
The whole language method produces inaccurate and poor readers compared to students of the phonetic approach. Using the whole word approach, English is being taught as an ideographic language such as Chinese. One of the biggest arguments from whole-language advocates is that teaching a baby to read using phonics breaks up the words into letters and syllables, which have no actual meaning, yet they fail to acknowledge the fact that once the child is able to decode the word, they are able to actually READ that entire word, pronounce it, and understand its meaning. So in practicality, it’s a very weak argument. English is an alphabetic system, and unlike Chinese, it is not an ideograph like Chinese characters, and should not be taught using an ideographic approach.
I always say that if your baby can speak, then you can begin to teach your baby to read. I won’t mention any names here, but I think most parents are probably aware of one very popular “reading” program, which is a whole word approach. Using this method, your baby simply learns to memorize the words without actually reading the words. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that teaching your baby to read using the whole word approach is an effective method. In fact, there are large numbers of studies which have consistently stated that teaching children to reading using phonemic awareness is a highly effective method.
Teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to phonemic awareness. — statement made by the National Reading Panel [1]
I do think that the debate on the effectiveness of teaching a baby to read using either the whole language or phonics method is settled by the statements made by the National Reading Panel. They reviewed over 1,960 different studies to make their conclusions.
In fact, while my wife was pregnant with our first child, I began doing extensive research on the subject on how to teach my baby to read — after birth, of course. Like most parents I also came across the popular whole word teaching approach being heavily marketed. Seeing the infomercials got me quite excited actually, seeing the babies on TV “reading”. But after trying it out, it occurred to me that the our baby wasn’t actually “reading”, but actually “memorizing”, and I thought to myself, how are my children supposed to read newer, and more complicated words as they grow older without an appropriate method of decoding those words? This is where my long and extensive research into phonics and phonemic awareness began.
After many hours of research and learning as much as I could, I felt comfortable enough with our simple phonemic awareness teaching method, that my wife and I began giving brief 3 to 5 minute lessons to our daughter, aged 2 years and 8 months. Within just a few short weeks, her reading ability (and I mean actual reading ability, not memorization) was astounding, even for me as the parent who gave the reading instructions. Friends and family alike, were simply flabbergasted at what our daughter was capable of reading at just 2 years and 11 months. Please watch the video above, composed of clips of her reading randomly created sentences for reading fun.
I simply can’t imagine this kind of progress possible with the whole word approach — just think of the tens and hundreds of words a young child would have to memorize!
Our son is fast approaching the age where he will soon be able to speak, and we will be using the same simple step-by-step method to teach him to read. If you’d like to learn more about our simple, effective, step-by-step program, please signup for our newsletter below. We also send out new articles, updates, tips, and guides on teaching a baby to read.
Click here to learn how to easily and quickly teach your child to read.
How to Teach Phonemic Awareness While Reading Bedtime Stories
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Helping young children develop phonemic awareness early on is one of the keys for children to develop exceptional reading and writing skills once they begin attending schools. Did you know that studies have indicated that phonemic awareness is the single best predictor of reading success for young children once they begin school? In fact, studies have found that phonemic awareness is far better than IQ at predicting the reading and spelling abilities of young children.
Most people know about phonics, and what it is; however, far fewer people know what phonemic awareness is. In short, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and work with the phonemes. For example, /d/, /o/, and /g/, are the individual sounds of the word “dog”. Please note, the letters enclosed in the slashes denotes the sound of the letter, and not the name of the letter. Phonemes are the smallest units of individual sounds that form a word.
Phonemic awareness is not something you’re born with, and it is an ability that’s gained through repeated exposure to listening, speaking, and reading. As parents, there are many different strategies you can use to help your children develop phonemic awareness such as playing simple word segmentation or oral blending games.
Like most parents, we (my wife and I) read bedtime stories before we put our children to sleep, and one of the best strategies that we like to use to teach phonemic awareness to our children, is to mix in word segmenting and oral blending when we read bedtime stories for our kids. This is an exceptional method, because it doesn’t take any extra time or effort, since reading bedtime stories is something you already do. So, here’s how to go about it.
Let’s say that you’re reading a nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill”:
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Instead of reading each word straight through the rhyme, you can randomly mix in oral blending on various words in the rhyme. Please note: instead of using slashes “/” to denote phonemes, we’ll simply use hyphens to make it easier to read. So, let’s assume that your child is very young, perhaps 2, 3, or 4 years old, and you want to start helping them develop some phonemic awareness. You can read Jack and Jill like so:
J-ack and J-ill went up the h-ill
To fetch a p-ail of water.
J-ack fell down and broke his crown
And J-ill came tumbling after.
As you can see, when you read the rhyme, you simply make an effort to separate several of the first letters sounds from the words, such as /J/ from “ack”, and /J/ from “ill”. As your child begins to grasp the concept of individual sounds making up words, you can slowly increase the difficulty by breaking down each word further. For example:
Jack
J-ack
J-a-ck
Repeated exposure of this type of word segmenting and oral blending will slowly help your child develop a sense and an understanding that each word is made up of individual sounds — in other words, you are teaching phonemic awareness to your children during bedtime stories without them even knowing that they are being taught to!
>> Teach your child to read today using a step-by-step, proven method for teaching young children to read
Phonemic Awareness
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com
Phonemic Awareness is defined as the ability to identify, hear, and work with the smallest units of sound known as phonemes. It is NOT the same as phonological awareness, instead, it is a sub-category of phonological awareness. For example, phonemic awareness is narrow, and deals only with phonemes and manipulating the individual sounds of words — such as /c/, /a/, and /t/ are the individual sounds that make up to form the word “cat”. Phonological awareness on the other hand, includes the phonemic awareness ability, and it also includes the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate larger units of sound such as rimes and onsets.
Phonemic awareness can be taught very early on, and will play a critical role in helping children learn to read and spell. While it’s not set in stone on when a child can learn to read, however, I do believe that a child that can speak is a child that can learn to read. Children as young as two years old can learn to read by developing phonemic awareness, and they can learn to read fluently. Please see a video of a 2 year old (2yr11months) reading below.
Below are several of the most common phonemic awareness skills that are often practiced with students and young children:
Phonemic identity — being able to recognize common sounds in different words such as /p/ is the common sound for “pat”, “pick”, and “play”.
Phonemic isolation — being able to recognize the individual sounds of words such as /c/ is the beginning sound of “cat” and /t/ is the ending sound of “cat”.
Phoneme substitution — being able to change one word to another by substituting one phoneme. For example changing the /t/ in “cat” to /p/ now makes “cap”.
Word Segmenting — the parent says the word “lap”, and the child says the individual sounds: /l/, /a/, and /p/.
Oral blending — the parent says the individual sounds such as /r/, /e/, and /d/, and the child forms the word from the sounds to say “red”.
Studies have found that phonemic awareness is the best predictor of reading success in young children. Research has also found that children with a high level of phonemic awareness progress with high reading and spelling achievements; however, some children with low phonemic awareness experience difficulties in learning to read and spell. Therefore, it is important for parents to help their young children develop good phonemic awareness. [1]
Being able to oral blend and segment words helps children to read and spell. According to the National Reading Panel, oral blending helps children develop reading skills where printed letters are turned into sounds which combine to form words. Additionally, word segmenting helps children breakdown words into their individual sounds (phonemes), and helps children learn to spell unfamiliar words.
As a young child begins to develop and master phonemic awareness skills, they will discover an entirely new world in print and reading. You will open up their world to a whole new dimension of fun and silliness. They will be able to read books that they enjoy, develop a better understanding of the world around them through printed materials, and have a whole lot of fun by making up new nonsense words through phonemic substitutions.
For example, we taught our daughter to read at a young age — when she was a little over 2 and a half years old. Before she turned three, she would run around the house saying all types of silly words using phonemic substitution. One of her favorite was substituting the letter sound /d/ in “daddy” with the letter sound /n/. So, she would run around me in circles and repeatedly say “nanny, nanny, come do this” or “nanny, nanny, come play with me” etc… Of course, she only did this when she wanted to be silly and to make me laugh, at other times, she would of course properly refer to me as “daddy”, and not “nanny”. She is well aware of the differences between these words and is fully capable of using phonemic substitution to change any of the letters in the words to make other words.
Click here to learn how to easily and quickly teach your child to read. | https://medium.com/@reviewdoctor/teach-your-child-to-read-today-5805461604b7 | ['Review Doctor'] | 2021-03-10 18:07:05.548000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Teaching', 'Read', 'Baby Read', 'Teach'] |
Onocentauruses and the Legal Limits of Happiness | It was one o’clock and Astrid worked at a pace as steady as her ticking clock. Often, she’d check it to make sure she was on schedule. It was an expensive clock, and she liked it that way. Each letter floated, unattached and untethered to the glass in front of it while a large and small dot floated from number to number at different speeds. The body itself was suspended without strings or nails and gently hovered in place on the wall of her office, watching over her and keeping her on task.
Over the years, her office had moved higher and higher. At the moment, it was located on the 37th floor of a 62 story building. The window wasn’t as large as she would have liked, but she made do. Every day, she dreamt of the 62nd floor. Surely, their windows were bigger. Bigger windows necessitated bigger cases, though, she thought. If she were to work hard enough, she could be making nearly four hundred thousand a year by next autumn. Of course, most of that goes out the window with business expenses and what not. She pictured advocating for cases that mattered some day. Class action suits with thousands of disparaged people and a single payout bigger than the loan on her current house.
Files were spilled around her desk and she moved them, slowly, to the complete and to-be-filed pile behind her. They all felt little. Small. Teensy. Common contract violations and things of the sort. In between working on each one, she’d look out her window and sigh. She agreed with herself that, if only she were a man, this would be easier.
Amidst her plucking away, Astrid’s boss leaned in at her open and knocked. “Oh, uh, Astrid?”
“Hi Frank.”
“Hi. Just wanted to tell you, great job on the Bismith case. Interesting trial. Wonderful work, as always.”
She smiled and placed her hands together, keeping them from fidgeting. Somewhere in the depths of the internet, she’d read it was a habit that made you look weak.
“Thank you, Frank. We had a pretty strong case going into it.”
“No, you had a pretty strong case by the end of it. Who knows, you might make a big name for yourself like your old man.” He pointed at the grandiose picture of Astrid’s expensive-suited father sitting on her bookshelf. It had been her biggest case yet, but she could hear her father barking out, “Don’t let the win get you lazy, now.”
“Well, I — ” She decided to accept the compliment. “Thank you.”
“Sure. Maybe a few of us’ll grab a drink and celebrate later?”
“I’ll have to take a raincheck. Tom beat you to the punch. He’s taking me out to Prolubium’s tonight.”
“That fancy place on sixth?”
“That’s the one. And I have to get to my hair appointment at 3:30.”
“Good for you. Raincheck then. Maybe next week. Congrats again, Astrid.”
“Thanks. In any case, there are still some loose ends to take care of.”
“Life’s full of ‘em.” Frank tapped twice on the door frame and left, sipping his coffee as he went.
The next couple hours passed by with a few more congratulatory interruptions and before she knew it, it was time to leave.
The high-rise containing her favorite salon was a trip that took her twenty-two minutes in total: down the elevator, through the lobby, two blocks over, three up, and up another elevator. Factoring five minutes to check in, she packed up at 3:00 and left at 3:03.
On her walk, she passed by a lively construction site. The base of the cranes stood next to their respective dirt pits with protruding iron beams. Each crane was one large and intricate vehicle made of wood, engraved with the appropriate magical carvings that glowed bright orange as they lifted beams into place with what seemed to be invisible strings. Beam by beam, they put up skyscrapers that grew higher and higher each day. Astrid pictured herself in an office at the 100th floor of a brand new high-rise. Surely Tom wouldn’t wait so long to propose to her if she had an office like that.
Rounding the block, she came into view of the building where her salon was located.
As Astrid neared its entrance, the man walking in front of her stopped to hold the lobby door open for her. When he turned to let her pass, she saw his face, and it made her heart skip a beat. Tightening her lips, she tried to hide her shock. It was difficult, though. The man nodded and smiled. She mustered up the same gesture, spending most of the time looking at the ground and the surrounding windows.
Anything but his face.
It was grotesque. Melted. Large spots of discolored splotches were spackled around his face, and perpetual slithery slime slipped down from his cheeks to his chest, sliding under his wet shirt. Astrid wondered if his shirt was wet from sweat — it was a hot day — or whether it was wet from the ooze. She decided it was more likely that it was the ooze. Or some combination of two. Underneath his shirt, she could make out a layer of diaper-like padding. It looked like his face was endlessly creating that awful liquid goop. Her saliva, now reminiscent of vomit, reminded her that fluids should stay inside one’s body.
“Afternoon,” he said, smiling and giving another nod as she came closer.
“Thank you,” she whispered, keeping her head down as she passed by.
The lobby was pristine, and elegant music played sparsely so to match the mood of the chic decor. Still, her attention was on the grotesque man’s footsteps following behind her. She approached the elevator, pressed the button, and waited. Her eyes poked around awkwardly, still avoiding the man.
He’s probably very friendly, she thought while stopping her hands from fidgeting. She glanced at him again. His clothes were oversized but failed to hide his chunky body.
The elevator dinged its arrival.
“After you,” the grotesque man cheerily motioned.
She nodded, letting out a nervous chuckle, then entered.
Following behind, they settled into their position, finding that the man had control of the buttons.
Astrid asked, “Twelve please?”
“Sure thing.” The man hit the button marked twelve, then the one marked fourteen. After a moment, the humming of the elevator overtook the awkward silence and Astrid watched the numbers count up to her stop:
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
The steady pace calmed her down. More so, it distracted her from feeling like a bad person.
Seven.
Eight.
Thunk.
The shaft of the elevator echoed out an awful noise as it made an abrupt stop. Dropping through her chest, her heart fell nine floors down and took her off balance. Thankfully, the elevator remained at floor eight.
The man repeatedly pressed the door open button to no avail. “Uh-oh,” he said, “looks like we’re stuck.”
“Shit… Shit, shit, shit.”
“Well, I bet they’ll be in here in just a little bit, I’ll hit the… oh that was quick.” He pressed the emergency button and set off a buzzing alarm inside the elevator. “Kind of neat. I’ve never pressed that button before. Always wanted to.”
Breathing heavier and looking at the grotesque man directly, Astrid asked, “Have you ever been stuck in an elevator before? Do you know how long this is going to take? What do we do? Can we shut off that alarm? It’s so loud.”
“Nope. No, like I said, never pressed the button before.”
“Shit. Is there any way we can — ”
She pried at the door with her fingertips. Also to no avail. She sighed and looked at the man for a second too long.
He said, “Well, hopefully you didn’t have anything important you were trying to get to.”
“I have a hair appointment.” Her voice was curt.
“Oh good.”
“No. Not good. It’s important. I’ve got a date tonight. A celebration, actually.”
“Oh, not good. Well, good that you have a date, I guess.” He chuckled.
“Thanks.” She continued to avoid looking at the man’s face. Her heart beat fast and forced her into thinking up countless ways to escape this situation. The alarm’s buzzing was steady and chipped away at her sanity. She tapped her foot and took out her phone to text her hair stylist. “I’ve got to tell her I’m going to be late,” she seethed.
An awkward silence took over, aside from the alarm. After a few more exhausting buzzes, she asked the man, “What about yourself? Anything important?”
“Just a doctor visit. One of a thousand, so nothing too important.”
She thought for a moment. Then said nothing.
He awkwardly chuckled and said, “It’s kind of like a date, I guess.”
She awkwardly chuckled back.
The alarm stopped mid-buzz, and a voice came over the intercom. “Hello, is there someone in there?”
Startled, Astrid replied, “Yes. Yes, there are two of us in here. What took you so long? I have an appointment I have to get to. Please hurry.”
“Sorry, I had to find the protocol book first. We have the fire department on their way, ma’am. Now, we’re going to get you out as fast as we can.”
“Okay,” she said.
The employee on the intercom guided Astrid through the process of cycling the elevator’s power. It involved a series of pushing specific buttons for specific durations of time. After the ritual was complete, nothing happened and the man on the intercom told them to wait while the firefighters consulted some technicians.
Astrid sighed and leaned against the wall.
The grotesque man looked at her and asked, “Will she still do your hair if you’re late? Your hair lady, I mean.”
Reflexively, Astrid said, “No,” then thought for a second. “Yes. She’ll do it. If she’s free, I suppose. But, in any case, if I start the appointment late, then I’ll be late for dinner and we have reservations and…” She stopped herself when she realized she was about to chew on her thumbnail. After forcing her hands down to rest, and after taking a deep breath, she looked at the grotesque man, then told him, “I’m sorry. It’ll be fine. I don’t like being late, but I guess it is what it is. It’s just kind of a special night.”
“That’s okay, it happens. What’s the occasion?”
“I won a big case yesterday. Well, the biggest case. That I’ve ever won anyway.”
“Case, huh? As in law case?”
“Yes. It was a corporate client of ours who was suing for… well, I won’t bore you with the details, but we won, and my boyfriend was taking me out to dinner tonight to celebrate.” She paused and pondered how much information to give a stranger in an elevator. With a shrug and a laugh — a louder one than she meant to give — she said, “I’m kind of hoping he proposes tonight.”
“Oh, that’s amazing! Congratul… well I won’t congratulate you yet, I guess. But that’s fantastic!”
She shook her head and laughed, “Well, really, don’t congratulate me. I think he’s going to propose at every dinner. He never does.” She laughed harder. The grotesque man with the melting face belted out a laugh of his own.
“Women are crazy,” she joked.
“And men are stupid.”
“Exactly. Are you married or anything like that?” As the question left her mouth, she looked at the skin actively dripping from his cheeks and regretted asking.
His smile faded, and he told her, “No. No, I was for a while but, as you could imagine, a face like this is hard to be around. Romantically, I mean. Well, in general, I guess,”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to — ”
“No, it’s totally alright. I don’t have to see it all the time, so it’s really not my problem.” The casual attitude he wore gave her permission to relax. “It’s the world I live in, so it’s not as surprising to me. That’s how it goes, I guess.”
She was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then asked, “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“Not at all. Again, it’s not startling to me.” He chuckled. “It started with a doctor's visit for erectile dysfunction if you can believe that.”
Astrid covered her mouth and tried not to smirk as much as she did. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I know, who would have guessed!” The man began to explain the problems he and his wife at the time were having. Then about the doctor he’d seen, and the medical spell he’d undergone. How the doctor had made it sound tested and foolproof, and how expensive it was.
The intercom interrupted them. “Hello. Sorry it’s taking so long. How’s it going in there?”
Astrid said, “Fine, what’s going on?”
“They just found the operation block and are working on it now. They said they have to cycle the energy on this end. Sorry, it’s an old elevator. They should have you out in about five-ten minutes.”
The grotesque man said, “Okay, that’s great to hear, thank you!”
“Thanks,” Astrid chimed in, but the man on the intercom was already gone. She looked at the grotesque man again and asked, “So this doctor did the spell?”
“That’s right. And for a few weeks, it worked great.” The man went into a corny whisper. “Let’s just say it was totally worth the gooey face.”
She laughed, covering her mouth again.
He explained how quickly things changed. A few weeks after the spell, his face began peeling. After a few days of that, it started producing fluids and his skin dripped and drooped. Over the course of two weeks, his face and random spots around his body had turned from normal skin into the sagging, sloggish, slimy mess it was today. His wife left him. His employers fired him for random reasons. The state now paid for his modest trailer at the edge of the city line. He’d filed a claim against the doctor, but due to not having a job or a advocatus confident in the case, he was forced to settle for a meager payment of 6,000 pecunia a month. It was barely enough for a small portion of the medical bills.
The elevator door opened.
Standing outside, there were a few firefighters along with a few building employees of various positions. The standard procedures proceeded, and safety measures were measured. Before a few minutes, everyone had dispersed, leaving Astrid and the grotesque man alone together on the eighth floor.
“I think I’ll take the stairs the rest of the way,” Astrid joked.
“About time I got some exercise.” He gestured to his belly.
They took the stairs together and at Astrid’s stop, she halted, reached into her purse, and said, “Here’s my card. If you ever need a corporate advocatus, let me know.”
“Oh, well, thank you. I’ll keep that in mind, very nice of you!”
“Of course.”
“I’m Nathan, by the way.”
“Astrid.”
They shook hands and she hoped that he’d never find out she had once thought of him as a monster in the lobby. He took the card, said thank you many times, then continued up the stairs to his floor. She was, of course, late to her appointment. Her stylist squeezed her in just fine.
She was late to dinner as well. It all turned out okay, though.
Her boyfriend didn’t propose, anyway. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/onocentauruses-and-the-legal-limits-of-happiness-4e2201e35879 | ["Dayton O'Donnell"] | 2020-08-21 23:48:36.749000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Life', 'Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
Is Netflix Reshaping The Film Industry? | Nevertheless, for filmmakers, Netflix does not only affect the film industry positively. Many directors argue that the distribution model brought by online streaming services such as Netflix is killing the cinema experience. Recently, Steven Spielberg has suggested that the Netflix format is close to television rather than film, so Netflix films are far from offering a cinematic experience. With the rise of online streaming services, more and more people are beginning to consume movies on their smartphones or computers for practical reasons. These practical reasons began to neglect cinematic experience, which can only be achieved in the movie theater. (You can check BBC’s reflection about the matter in here) These online platforms have created many positive and negative results for filmmakers. In the future, there is no doubt that these digital platforms will have greater reflections for filmmaking and filmmakers.
Since the cinema’s invention, it has been assumed that films belong to movie theaters. However, with this new model, it seems to be the answer to the question of where the movies belong is blurred. What is certain is that with the rise of online streaming services, our movie watching practices have changed and will be changing in the future.
That is my reflection on the subject. Thank you for reading.
And I am curious about your ideas.
What is your opinion? What do you think about the future of the film industry? | https://medium.com/illumination/is-netflix-reshaping-the-film-industry-18c60d70058b | ['Mustafa Yarımbaş'] | 2020-09-01 12:12:27.471000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Film', 'Netflix', 'Business', 'Art'] |
31 Essential Proverbs That Will Enlighten Your Life Immediately | 1. “If you want your dinner, don’t offend the cook” — Chinese Proverb
Meaning — Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. A great writer once reinterpreted the proverb and wrote “A child should not criticize his parents with the roast beef they bought and cooked still in his mouth.”
2. “To fall into sin is human, to remain in sin is devilish” — Unknown
Meaning — It’s ok to make mistakes. However, once you learn from them, try not to make them again. You’re better than that.
3. “Better to eat food than read the menu” — Unknown
Meaning — Taking time to choose is important, but try not to overthink as much. Also, if you’re the type of person who takes forever to decide at a restaurant — hurry the hell up!
4. “However vast the ocean, the diver’s dimensions remain unchanged” — Unknown
Meaning — Life is a singleplayer game. As the U.S. Air Force says, “Be the calm and the storm.”
5. “If you wish good advice, consult an old man” — Romanian Proverb
Meaning — Wisdom comes with age. Life is a balance of knowing when to diminish your ego in order to learn. Humble yourself around others and listen. They may have something important to say.
6. “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush” — Latin Proverb
Meaning — Sometimes holding on to something is better than risking it. Ambition shouldn’t be confused with taking unnecessary risks.
7. “No man can guess in cold blood what he may do in a passion” — Unknown
Meaning — Put yourself into new and challenging situations every day. This will prepare you for the inevitable chaotic moments of life. When those situations happen you will be much more level-headed or cold-blooded. Think pragmatically not emotionally.
8. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” — Andrew Grant
Meaning — This proverb isn’t exclusive to interviews. You never know what the day holds in store for you and who you might meet. The great author Dostoevsky wrote to walk with a smile on your face so that you don’t accidentally detour people with your presence
9. “No book is a best seller before it’s published” — Unknown
Meaning — I recently wrote my first book. It was hard but a lot of fun. You need to be on top of yourself like a drill sergeant screaming at new recruits. However, it’s worth it in the end. Especially since who knows the kind of reach you will have.
10. “Still waters run deep” — Latin Proverb
Meaning — Reserved people are often the most interesting. Additionally, William Shakespeare wrote in “Henry VI” that they could also be the most dangerous people. “Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep / And in his simple show he harbors treason.”
11. “Don’t cast your pearls before swine” — Matthew 7:6
Meaning — Do not waste good advice or work on people who do not appreciate it. It’s their loss.
12. “Learning without wisdom is a load of books on an ass’s back” — Japanese Proverb
Meaning — When knowledge meets experience it creates wisdom. It’s why old people are often so wise. Learn as much as you can and they go and apply it.
13. “United we stand, divided we fall”— Aesop
Meaning — This is 2020 in a nutshell. Empires destroy themselves from within. Try not to demonize someone you disagree with. Instead, try to understand them and what made them that way. We’re all wired differently but at the end of the day, most of us want peace, love, and happiness. Don’t let someone’s political affiliation complicate that for you.
14. “One hates not the person, but the vice” — Unknown
Meaning — Once again, try not to demonize people, but instead, their behaviors.
15. “One volunteer is worth two pressed men” — Thomas Hearne
Meaning — People will take notice of your enthusiasm to help them out. If they have to press you for help — they’ll remember that too.
16. “Vows made in storms are forgotten in calms” — Thomas Fuller
Meaning — When the pressure is on many of us will rise to the challenge. If we get a great workout with a friend or stay after hours to get ahead on a project, we proclaim we will do it again! However, when our lives get hard, or no one is around to give us motivation — when we’re in a “calm”— we abandon our sanctimonious proclamation.
17. “A watched pot never boils” — English Proverb
Meaning — Time goes slower when you are anxiously waiting for something to happen. Be like Warren Buffet when he’s investing: “Set it and forget it.”
18. “Even homer sometimes nods” — Unknown
Meaning — In reference to the genius Greek poet Homer, whose epic poems contain several apparent errors in continuity. Even the most gifted can fall victim to mistakes.
19. “Ignorance and incuriosity are two very soft pillows” — French Proverb
Meaning — Two characteristics that are the most crippling in modernity. Learn until you die.
20. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”— British Proverb
Meaning — Money is best used for professional work. If you aren’t passionate about something then outsource it. For example, I designed the cover of my eBook because I like graphic design, but I paid good money to a pro for the page layout. Use money to alleviate stress.
21. “If the beginning is good, the end must be perfect” — Iranian Proverb
Meaning — Some will say it’s the journey, not the destination. It’s somewhat true, but it’s the cherry on top that makes the sundae, I always say. The ending makes the masterpiece.
22. “Piss not against the wind” — Unknown
Meaning — It’s good figurative and practical advice.
23. “Prettiness dies first” — English Proverb
Meaning — Your good looks will be the first thing to fade. Hopefully, your character and virtue will be the last.
24. “The best fish swim near the bottom and they are therefore the most difficult to catch” — Unknown
Meaning — As clinical psychologist and philosopher Jordan Peterson puts it, “do what is meaningful, not what is expedient.” The best things are hard to come by. If you’re patient, prudent, and disciplined, they will come to you.
25. “To err is human, to forgive is divine” — Alexander Pope
Meaning — Forgiveness is our most holy quality. Love starts with forgiveness.
26. “Envy shoots at others and wounds herself” — Costa Rican Proverb
Meaning — As I once wrote, comparing ourselves is natural and unavoidable. However, once negative emotions are attached to those comparisons, we begin to lose ourselves.
27. “A man apt to promise is apt to forget” — Thomas Fuller
Meaning — My dad never made promises to me as a kid. He‘d tell me he was going to do something and then would do it. Additionally, he never used the word promise. I think it’s an unnecessary word. Tell someone you’re going to do something and then do it.
28. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” — Matthew 19:24
Meaning — No, this doesn’t mean that rich people are damned to burn in the eternal lake of fire. I interpret this scripture as the more money and success you get, the harder it is to hold yourself accountable.
29. “Anger end in cruelty” — Unknown
Meaning — Once again, love starts with forgiveness.
30. “Murder often: divorce NEVER! — Joyce Brothers
Meaning — It’s not as cynical as it sounds. If your friend, family member, or significant other has annoyed, aggravated, or even hurt you, consider murder, not divorce. In other words, express your disappointment, get loud, tell them how much they hurt you. Moreover, do not do something in one second that ends that relationship forever. “Divorce NEVER.” (Well, unless it really is unsavable; which in that case, I’m sorry).
31. “Proverbs cannot be contradicted” — Unknown
Meaning — Oh yes, yes they can :) | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/31-essential-proverbs-that-will-enlighten-your-life-immediately-2847e2e08db0 | ['Isaiah Mccall'] | 2020-10-08 16:02:40.304000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Philosophy', 'Self Improvement', 'Motivation', 'History'] |
Team Dynamics🧬 | Photo by Margarida CSilva on Unsplash
Have you ever wondered why some teams are so in sync and successful, while some others might struggle just to do a single task? This might have something to do with what we call team dynamics. Developing a good high-performing team with good synergy is not an easy task. It’s not just about finding the right people, it’s also about how we sustain ourself and empowering each other. In this article, we will learn the steps on how to build a team with good dynamics.
What is Team Dynamics?
Team dynamics are the behavioural relationships between the members of a team. Team dynamics are created by how the team works, the varying personalities of each person within that team, how they manage their relationships with other people, and also the environment that the team works in. Team dynamics can be good or bad, good if it improves the performance of the team and bad if it hinders the team to reach their goal.
How to Build a Good Team Dynamics
There are 7 characteristics that contribute to the making of a good team:
1. Shared Purpose
It is important for the whole team to have the same goal in mind. This will ensure that every decision made will be based on this shared goal, which will make it easier to decide since nobody has a different goal in mind. If the team has trouble making decisions every time, it is time to remind everyone about this shared goal and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
2. Trust and Openness
We need to make sure that everyone in the team feels safe to share information and their ideas freely without fear of embarrassment. This environment will lead to more ideas and will drive the team members to be more creative. Each member must also trust that each of them will do their part of the work.
3. Willingness to Correct Mistakes
Each member of the team needs to realize their mistakes and learn from them. The team also need to track their work and find parts where they can improve themself.
4. Diversity and Inclusion
A good team is the one that takes all the different ideas and opinion from every member and then comes up with creative solutions. The team need to avoid having groupthink where everybody just follows the easiest idea.
5. Interdependence and a Sense of Belonging
Each team member should know why they are part of the team and have a sense of belonging in the team. Each of them should understand their value to the team and responsibility. When each member has a sense of belonging in the team, members can work together to make a job done without keeping tabs on how much they give or take.
6. Consensus Decision Making
When deciding on something, the whole team need to agree on something based on their decision and not by peer pressure, but sometimes it is okay to compromise on some things to keep the synergy in the team.
7. Participative Leadership
Instead of controlling every little thing that others do, as a leader, it is better to give them space to work by themselves and allow them to improve themselves by providing guidance and information when they need it.
Team Capacity Building
Team capacity building is the process in which individuals and the whole team improve themselves in terms of skills and knowledge needed to do their jobs competently. Each member of the team have their own weaknesses, and by allowing them to learn and practice the things that they still lack, it will build their capacity doing it. Little by little the whole team will have the capacity to do even greater tasks than before.
Servant Leadership
In team dynamics, there is something called “Servant Leadership”, to put it simply it is a concept where the leader acts as the servant that prioritizes the team’s growth and well-being before their own. This leads to more trust and stronger relationships among the team members.
Characteristics of Servant Leader
Here are some of the characteristics of a servant leader:
1. Listening
As a servant leader, you need to always listen to the team members when they are talking, this way you show that you care and they will feel valued.
2. Empathy
Understand your team members, learn their strength and weaknesses, that way you know how to make their strength shine and how you can help them overcome their weaknesses.
3. Healing
Always remember to keep the team healthy by creating an environment with a balanced work-life routine.
4. Self-Awareness
Besides understanding your team members, it is also important to self reflect, understand your strength and weakness and then see how you can utilize that to benefit the team.
5. Persuasion
Instead of Authority, use persuasion to reach a consensus to not endanger any relationships in the team.
6. Conceptualization
As a leader, you need to know where you are heading in the future with your team. You need to have a goal for the team to reach.
7. Foresight
You need to be able to learn from your past knowledge and experiences and then apply it forward so that the whole team can continue to grow.
8. Stewardship
You don’t ask people something you won’t do yourself, lead the team by being a good example for the whole team.
Resources:
https://www.leadershipgeeks.com/great-team-mottos/#:~:text=A%20great%20team%20motto%20seeks,and%20is%20easy%20to%20remember.
https://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/team/dynamics/definition/#:~:text=Team%20dynamics%20are%20the%20unconscious,one%20they%20intend%20to%20sail. | https://medium.com/porteli%C3%A9r/team-dynamics-6f5252594381 | ['Yafi Ahsan Hakim'] | 2020-11-20 03:19:00.335000+00:00 | ['Ppl Fasilkom Ui', 'Ppl2020', 'Team Building', 'Ppl', 'Team Dynamics'] |
We have finished the Development of MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp. | Nodoubt about it, decentralized applications will greatly transform all enterprises across the globe. These new technologies will conceivably bring us to a place where almost everything is tradeable and almost everyone (think buyers, sellers and service providers) can participate.
The numbers don’t lie- according to studies, the blockchain market is estimated to experience a robust growth rate. One study, for example, projects the blockchain technology market to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62.1 percent between 2015 and 2025 to reach $16.3 billion. The potential in terms of business impact is even more sobering! According to numbers from a study by Gartner, the business value-add of blockchain will grow to slightly more than $176 billion by 2025, and then it will exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030.
That’s why the dApp Builder team is working hard to enable businesses to easily deploy the blockchain technology.
We are happy to announce that we have created an extended version of MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp.
This new decentralized application (dApp) allows user to create Airdropbased on merkle-tree algorithm. It provides a way to store any amount of addresses that will receive tokens just in one hash-string. It makes deployment of such smart-contract much cheaper.
Try it now on our Marketplace
You can start your own MerkleTree Airdrop Dapp by specifying parameters:
The address of the token that will be issued to users
of the token that will be issued to users Whitelist as a link to the google sheet, where the column A contains the addresses, and the column B the number of tokens for each address, or the .txt file in the format <address> <space> <number>
Next, choose a Gas Price and confirm the transaction:
After creating the dApp, it will appear in the list “My dApps”:
How it works:
Users can create a dApp using whitelist of token receivers in google sheet or .txt file in format [address][space][amount], specifying the token address that will be distributed.
Once the dApp is deployed, users can access its interface and check whether their address is in the whitelist. If yes, there will be one simple button to receive tokens.
A smart-contract is supposed to be filled with amount of tokens enough to pay all the users listed. If the balance goes low than that, airdrop will be paused.
Try it now on https://dappbuilder.io/builder
Or watch the code on https://github.com/DAPPBUILDER/dApp-Builder
Wrap Up
The dramatic rise of blockchain and its related technologies is making enterprises rethink their strategies. With blockchain, there is no central authority or centralized data storage, but instead the database is spread and replicated across all the nodes or computing devices participating in the system.
Any changes in the data are made through consensus process — where the majority of nodes agree the proposed update is correct. This means that a blockchain-based infrastructure provides a much greater security from cyber-criminals, is much more difficult to compromise and at the same time can allow users to remain in control of their own data.
That’s why top companies in various industries such as IT, finance, healthcare, supply chain, real estate, among others are testing blockchain to exchange information or make transactions. IBM, for example, is investing millions in blockchain-related projects. It recently partnered with Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, and through the partnership, the two companies are working to create the so-called “TradeLens” supply chain solution.
This blockchain-based solution intends to keep track of essential shipping data on a worldwide scale. This has even seen 94 organizations take part in the testing and development of the TradeLens supply chain solution. In addition, this strong collaborative effort has seen the platform capture over 154 million shipping events over a multi-month period. Interesting to note is that, numbers from a Transparency Market research estimates that this supply chain solution will be a $32.9 billion global supply-chain business by 2026.
Stay in touch for updates via
· Website
· Telegram
· Bitcointalk
· Facebook | https://medium.com/ethereum-dapp-builder/we-have-finished-the-development-of-merkletree-airdrop-dapp-b8394e4bbb7f | ['Dapp Builder Team'] | 2019-03-12 10:43:56.726000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Airdrop', 'Ethereum', 'Technology'] |
Bringing my family together | So the situation right know is my mother wants me to pass the 24/25 at her house, but right now im at my dad’s house and it’s pretty far from my mums house so im gonna try and go to my mums house this morning and on the 25 go to my dad’s
it seems simple but in my mind, it’s a battle to keep everyone happy my mum wants me there cuz she is cape verdean and we open the presents at 00:00 and my dad is scottish so we open them in the morning so i need to do both but my mum is depressive and my dad is really intense and it all comes to play when making these decisions.
Im gonna make it to both even if i need to stay up all night with the mum part of the family partying and then go to my dads without any sleep.
Next storie is gonna be very good | https://medium.com/@kjj69677/bringing-my-family-together-b2cfce2b89e5 | [] | 2020-12-24 01:52:02.312000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Physics', 'Life', 'Pressure', 'Writing'] |
Navigating Into the World of Machine Learning | With the rapid expansion of Machine Learning as a field of research, it’s not easy to keep up with everything that is being invented and discovered.
I have created a graph that will make the distinction of the types of machine learning systems easier to understand.
It is useful to keep in mind there’s more than one way (ML algorithm) to solve a specific problem. Usually, there are several that fit and it’s your duty to identify which is the best algorithm with the given circumstances of its implementation.
Nowadays, everything is being solved with neural networks; why use a sword to cut bread, when a knife would be sufficient?
The ML landscape looked from above, has mainly four different directions:
In the following weeks, I will delve into each topic and discuss its nuts and bolts.
Sum up
Hope this article helped you get a clearer idea how the ML landscape is generally separated.
Did I miss any types of learning? Let me know in the comments below.
I’d love to hear your ideas on what you’d like to read next — let me know down below in the comment section!
You can always connect with me via LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/swlh/navigating-into-the-world-of-machine-learning-1c1b10ae40b | ['Bardh Rushiti'] | 2020-09-24 16:27:57.133000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Ensemble Learning', 'Neural Networks'] |
Setting up Auth0 with Terraform | Let’s imagine you have an application divided into two components, a frontend, and a backend. The frontend is a Single Page Application written in React, and the backend is a REST API written in, say, Kotlin. You want to implement some functionality that requires authorization. You naturally gravitate toward OAuth. But then you realize that implementing it by yourself implies much effort. And you still need to manage users. Maybe use an OAuth provider? It all seems kind of overkill for protecting your homemade recipes manager.
That’s where an Identity Platform like Auth0 comes in. Why reinvent the wheel when you can use an existing solution?
The authorization flow
There is so much material about authorization/authentication already out there, what else can be said at this point? Maybe we can have a look at a simple diagram that shows the position of Auth0 between my frontend and backend:
Until now, everything might sound familiar. Fetch a token in the frontend using a flow, include it in the request to the API with a header. Then verify the token in the backend to ensure its validity. Got it.
Setting up Auth0
You still need to set up the whole thing in Auth0 itself, however. Most guides you’ll find on the internet show you how to do that by clicking through the UI. Which works, more or less. But what about the second time you want to do it? You’ll start from scratch, assuming you still remember how to do it, of course.
The whole point of this article is that you are much better off using Infrastructure as Code instead. I am going to show you how to deal with the previously mentioned setup by using Terraform, a tool to provision infrastructure declaratively. It is definitely worth learning.
Auth0 + Terraform
There is an excellent terraform provider for Auth0, which will make our life massively easier. We’ll declare our stuff, provision it, and store the code in git . That way, you can quickly check what you did, and adapt it for further applications without much effort. Or even write a blog post about it.
Let’s assume we already have an account served under a domain ( auth0_domain ). If we want to work with Auth0 programmatically, we need to create an application with access to the Auth0 Management API. We have to do this step manually, following these steps. After this, we'll have a client_id and a client_secret that we can use throughout the rest of the process. On to the code.
The provider
The first thing we need to do is set up the provider.
This provider requires the credentials we manually obtained in the step before. Store them securely in something like gopass. You can export these credentials as environment variables, and they will be picked up by terraform automatically. You only need to follow this specific syntax:
Let’s set up our application
The identity provider
We can provision our users, but what about using an existing solution like Google? Then we don’t need to do any account management. For that, we need to define a connection. | https://medium.com/swlh/setting-up-auth0-with-terraform-c93ae25cf2f9 | ['Mario Fernández'] | 2020-02-23 07:34:45.209000+00:00 | ['Oauth2', 'Terraform', 'Auth0', 'Oauth', 'Infrastructure As Code'] |
Triple Eyelid — a glimpse of woodcraft in Singapore | To many of us, being environmentally conscious is the frequent (sometimes, occasion) use of metal straws instead of plastic ones, purchasing from “sustainable” retailers, or choosing to consume organic foods. The talk of the town recently is all about being environmentally conscious. It is a notion that gave rise to a multitude of “green” trends and movements we see permeating social media sites. These trends come in waves and subside as soon as they lose their freshness and novelty, and we move on, awaiting to target the next fad.
Closer to home, Jackie, a passionate local crafter, view eco-consciousness as a way of life. With over 10 years of experience in woodcraft, Jackie established his very own brand — Triple Eyelid, where he aims to promote eco-consciousness through his crafts. As the founder of Triple Eyelid, Jackie explores sustainable concepts such as upcycling and minimalism and integrates these concepts into his everyday life as well as the products he creates. Upcycling gives “old” products a new lease of life, by transforming them into better and more valuable products. For instance, jam jars can be transformed into plant pots, and wooden pallets can be converted to benches. Minimalism reduces wastage of materials yet maintains the functionality of a product, which is evident in all of Jackie’s works. At Triple Eyelid, Jackie skillfully incorporates the idea of sustainability into his wood crafts, creating unique pieces with simple, yet functional designs. Every piece of his work represents his commitment to a more eco-conscious lifestyle, and he hopes that through his work, he can prompt people to make sustainable lifestyle choices and promote the idea of eco-consciousness to the masses.
Besides encouraging a sustainable lifestyle, Jackie also aims to promote the local crafting scene and bring awareness to local crafters and brands like him. Having multiple experiences working as a crafter locally, Jackie empathises with the struggles of his fellow crafters trying to find their footing in the local craft scene. Thus, through Triple Eyelid, Jackie frequently holds workshops for the public. These workshops not only allow people to have a fun and engaging experience doing wood crafts but also develop an understanding of the intricate work done by crafters. Jackie hopes that by building his brand, it will also help to provide recognition to local crafters’ hard work and efforts.
Triple Eyelid emphasises on minimalistic and functional products. | https://medium.com/@yonglinkhoo501/triple-eyelid-a-glimpse-of-woodcraft-in-singapore-a19cfd71e627 | ['Khoo Yong Lin'] | 2020-12-18 11:26:50.980000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Woodworking', 'Sustainability', 'Upcycling', 'Local Crafts'] |
The future of distributed computing; transitioning microservices to WebAssembly(Wasm) via RPC. | 1. Write custom Rust code and compile to Wasm
Install Rust
Create a new Rust project
cd ~
cargo new --lib add_numbers_via_wavm
cd add_numbers_via_wavm
Edit the Cargo.toml file; add the lib section & also add the dependencies as shown below
[lib]
name = "adding_lib"
path = "src/adding.rs"
crate-type =["cdylib"] [dependencies]
serde_json = "1.0"
Add the necessary Wasm software and configuration, at the command line
rustup target add wasm32-wasi
rustup override set nightly
Create a new file called ~/.cargo/config and place the following build text into this newly created config file
[build]
target = "wasm32-wasi"
Write a custom Rust program with a couple of different functions that we can call. In our case below the functions “double” and “triple” which take an integer each and multiply by 2 and 3 respectively.
use serde_json::json; pub extern fn print(answer: i32){
let the_answer = json!({
"Result": answer});
println!("{}", the_answer.to_string());
} #[no_mangle]
pub extern fn double(x: i32){
let z = x * 2;
print(z);
} #[no_mangle]
pub extern fn triple(x: i32){
let z = x * 3;
print(z);
}
The above code can be compile with the following command
cargo build --release
2. Set up a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) server
I found a neat C++ RPC Server called rpcsrv. The aim here is to use this C++ RPC Server to accept HTTP POST and convert them into system calls via C++.
sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get install autoconf
sudo apt install libevent-2.1-6
sudo apt-get install libevent-dev
sudo apt-get install libtool
cd ~
git clone
cd ~/rpcsrv
git submodule update --init
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get -y upgradesudo apt-get install autoconfsudo apt install libevent-2.1-6sudo apt-get install libevent-devsudo apt-get install libtoolcd ~git clone https://github.com/jgarzik/rpcsrv.git cd ~/rpcsrvgit submodule update --init./autogen.sh./configuremakesudo make install
Start the RPC using the following commands
sudo ./rpcsrvd --listen-port 8080
3. Define custom services on the RPC server
Before we go any further I would just like to briefly discuss the use of JSON. I briefly explored a brilliant concept of the univalue. UniValue is high performance RAII C++ JSON library and universal value object class. One which I need to find more time to investigate thoroughly. For convenience in this demonstration, I used a combination of UniValue and rapidjson. Again, more time is need to explore this to ensure the best method of data interchange and interoperability.
The following code was used to install rapidjson.
cd ~/rapidjson
git submodule update --init
mkdir build
cd ~/rapidjson/build/
cmake ..
sudo cp -rp ~/rapidjson/include/rapidjson /usr/include/ cd ~
https://github.com/Tencent/rapidjson.git cd ~/rapidjsongit submodule update --initmkdir buildcd ~/rapidjson/build/cmake ..sudo cp -rp ~/rapidjson/include/rapidjson /usr/include/
After installing rapidjson, I then modified the top of the original C++ API file to include the rapidjson functionality in the rpcsrv codebase.
#include "rapidjson/document.h"
#include "rapidjson/writer.h"
#include "rapidjson/stringbuffer.h"
#include <iostream>
using namespace rapidjson;
At this stage we were able to go ahead and use the rapidjson functionality in our C++ code. Below is an example of how the original echo function was modified for this demonstration
//
// RPC "echo"
//
static UniValue myapi_1_echo(const UniValue & jreq,
const UniValue & params) { // Receive and parse incoming parameters
string s = params.write();
const char * theJson = s.c_str();
Document d;
d.Parse(theJson); // Assign parameters to C++ variables and print to console
Value & theService = d["Service Name"];
Value & theType = d["Type"];
Value & theFunctionName = d["Execution"]["FunctionName"];
Value & theArgument = d["Execution"]["Argument"];
cout << endl;
cout << "Received a new request to execute a service on Wasm Virtual
Machine..." << endl;
cout << s.c_str() << endl;
cout << endl;
cout << "Service Name is: " << theService.GetString() << endl;
cout << "Service Type is: " << theType.GetString() << endl;
cout << "Wasm function is: " << theFunctionName.GetString() << endl;
cout << "Wasm function argument: " << theArgument.GetString() <<
endl;
// Construct and execute the call to Wasm Virtual Machine
string commandString = "wavm run --abi=wasi --function=";
commandString += theFunctionName.GetString();
commandString += " ";
commandString += "~/add_numbers_via_wavm/target/wasm32
wasi / release / adding_lib.wasm ";
commandString += " ";
commandString += theArgument.GetString();
cout << "
";
cout << "Executing command ... " << endl;
string theWasmResults =
execute_function_and_return_output(commandString);
// Print the result to console
cout << "Results are as follows ...: " << endl;
cout << theWasmResults << endl;
UniValue result(theWasmResults);
cout << "Finished." << endl; // Return the results back to the caller of the RPC
return jrpcOk(jreq, result);
}
4. Install a Wasm Virtual Machine (WAVM)
WAVM uses LLVM to compile WebAssembly code to machine code with close to native performance.
The following instructions were used to install WAVM
sudo apt-get install gcc
sudo apt-get install clang
wget https://github.com/WAVM/WAVM/releases/download/nightly%2F2019-11-04/wavm-0.0.0-prerelease-linux.deb
sudo apt install ./wavm-0.0.0-prerelease-linux.deb
5. Execute your custom WebAssembly (Wasm) code remotely via HTTP Post (i.e. Curl, Python etc.)
The execution can be performed by any mechanism which is capable of producing HTTP POST. For example everything from GUIs like Postman right through to Linux curl command and of course both interpreted and compiled code bases like Python and Java respectively.
Here is an example of the calling code using Curl in the linux command line
Curl - passing in valid JSON
tpmccallum$ curl --header "Content-Type: application/json" --request POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"echo","params":{"Service Name": "Double the digits","Type": "Execution","Execution": {"FunctionName": "double","Argument": "10"}}, "id":1}' http://123.456.78.9:8080/rpc/1
When looking at this calling code, remember that our Rust program, from which the Wasm originates, has two functions; “double” and “triple”. Our additional layer of RPC means that these original functions are now defined as two individual services.
As you can see above, we are not only specifying which of the services we wish to call, but also specifying the single argument required. When this POST is executed across the web the RPC server directly calls the WAVM and then a JSON result object is returned to the calling code.
Returns valid JSON
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"result": {
"Result": 20
},
"id": 1
}
The return object is completely configurable, this is just a simple example which returns the result of the computation.
RPC Server Output
This RPC server output is optional and was just created for demonstration purposes. It still demonstrates that the RPC server has a hand in passing the JSON back and forth. There are opportunities for additional formatting etc. to be built into the RPC layer (which are over and above the Rust and Wasm code)
Received a new request to execute a service on Wasm Virtual Machine... {"Service Name":"Double the digits","Type":"Execution","Execution":{"FunctionName":"double","Argument":"10"}} Service Name is: Double the digits
Service Type is: Execution
Wasm function is: double
Wasm function argument: 10 Executing command ... Results are as follows ...:
{"Result":20} Finished.
Python - passing in valid JSON
System setup
sudo apt-get install python-pip
pip install json-rpc
pip install requests
We now pass in the JSON, to the Python code, in a way that describes which service we want. In this case we want to double the number 10 i.e. calling “FunctionName”: “double” with “Argument”: “10”.
>>>import requests
>>>import json
>>>url = "http://123.456.78.9:8080/rpc/1"
>>>payload = {
"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"echo","params":{"Service Name":"Double the digits","Type": "Execution","Execution": {"FunctionName": "double","Argument": "10"}}, "id":1
}
>>>response = requests.post(url, json=payload).json()
As we can now see, the response returns the result of the Wasm execution i.e. “Result”:20.
>>> print response {u'jsonrpc': u'2.0', u'result': u'{"Result":20}, u'id': 1}
We can try this again, by calling the other service i.e. “FunctionName”: “triple” with “Argument”: “10”
>>>url = "http://123.456.78.9:8080/rpc/1"
>>>payload = {
"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"echo","params":{"Service Name":"Triple the digits","Type": "Execution","Execution": {"FunctionName": "triple","Argument": "10"}}, "id":1
}
>>>response = requests.post(url, json=payload).json()
Again, we can see that this response is the correct result for the chosen service.
>>> print response {u'jsonrpc': u'2.0', u'result': u'{"Result":30}', u'id': 1}
This article has demonstrated the use of Wasm via RPC. By day, I am a passionate open source blockchain software researcher and core developer for SecondState (Dallas, Austin, Beijing, Shanghai, HongKong and Taipei). If you would like to learn more about Wasm and other technologies which can improve your operation please get in touch via email or GitHub.
References
Arpaci-Dusseau, R.H. and Arpaci-Dusseau, A.C., 2018. Operating systems: Three easy pieces. Arpaci-Dusseau Books LLC.
Rossberg, A., Titzer, B., Haas, A., Schuff, D., Gohman, D., Wagner, L., Zakai, A., Bastien, J. and Holman, M. (2018). Bringing the web up to speed with WebAssembly. Communications of the ACM, 61(12), pp.107–115.
Tech.ebayinc.com. (2019). WebAssembly at eBay: A Real-World Use Case. [online] Available at: https://tech.ebayinc.com/engineering/webassembly-at-ebay-a-real-world-use-case/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2019]. | https://medium.com/wasm/the-future-of-distributed-computing-transitioning-microservices-to-webassembly-wasm-via-rpc-ad6f07cbb497 | ['Timothy Mccallum'] | 2019-11-21 03:52:04.322000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Virtual Machine', 'Microprocessor', 'Rust', 'Webassembly'] |
How to upload my own notebook to Kaggle | Kaggle, a subsidiary of Google LLC, is an online community of data scientists and machine learning practitioners. Kaggle allows users to find and publish data sets, explore and build models in a web-based data-science environment, work with other data scientists and machine learning engineers, and enter competitions to solve data science challenges.
This article let we know how to uploads our own notebook and dataset on Kaggle. There are some basic steps that all are given below with screenshot representation.
Step 1:- Login your account
Step 2:- Click on “Notebooks”
Step 3:- Click on “New Notebook”
Step 4:- Click on “Create” after selecting the relevant options
Step 5:- Click on “File”, below the title of the notebook
Step 6:- Click on “Upload Notebook”
The notebook has been uploaded. If you want, you can save your notebook without data set otherwise you can upload the data set that is related to this Notebook.
Step 7:- Click on “Add data”
Step 8:- Click on “Upload a Dataset”
Step 9:- Click on “Select Files to Upload”
Step 10:- Click on “Skip duplicate”
This is the success popup of the dataset that has been uploaded.
Step 11:- Click on “Save Version”
Save the notebook version with details.
Adding collaborators is easy: just go to the Options page and search for another user by name. You can even choose who gets View or Edit permissions using the dropdown. | https://rajputankit22.medium.com/how-to-upload-my-own-notebook-to-kaggle-2b0dedbb5a6b | ['Ankit Kumar Rajpoot'] | 2020-06-07 16:47:13.314000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Dataset', 'Kaggle', 'Notebook'] |
Weeknote: Research Interviews, Accessibility Personas and Christmas Fika | Photo by Evelin Horvath on Unsplash
Hello! It’s the end of the year and what a year it has been. I’m glad I started writing weeknotes sometime in July and stuck with it.
I’m also incredibly proud of what my team has achieved this year and so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such amazing people on GOV.UK
I am now off till the new year. Here are the highlights of my last 2 weeks (5 working days)
5 things that happened
One — We published “How we made GOV.UK more accessible”
I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve been working on a blog post talking about how we made GOV.UK accessible. It has now been published!
GOV.UK hosts half a million web pages, lots of documents and receives an average of 5.1 million visits a day, that’s huge. The blog post talks about how we made it more accessible, the challenges we faced and lessons learnt.
It feels a little like a very condensed version of my weeknotes over the last 6 months. Please read it over a cup of tea if you get a chance.
Two — Research Interviews to understand how we got here
I spent 2 days talking to people from different disciplines across the GOV.UK program asking general questions about their work and accessibility
The aim is to understand why some parts of GOV.UK were not accessible enough and use that to identify which strategies to focus on to help GOV.UK remain accessible.
Craig (our delivery manager) and I talked to about 12 people in total and other people in the team joined to take detailed notes that we will analyse next year.
I quite enjoyed the discussions and learnt a lot so I’m already excited about the analysis and next steps. A user researcher for a different team has also volunteered to help with the analysis so yay!
Doing research interviews is very much a stretch for a delivery manager’s role and I feel so grateful for having such an amazing delivery manager who does his job so well and also goes above and beyond to help in many ways.
Three — Chrome profiles for accessibility personas
We had a training session on how to have the 7 personas that highlight the common barriers users with accessibility needs face as “chrome profiles”. This means that people can log in as those profiles and see a simulation of how one of those personas might experience the page. For example: For someone who uses magnification and custom colours, the pages automatically take on those qualities.
It was a very enlightening experience and I’ve heard people and teams talk about it since. It does seem like the way to make the impact of inaccessible things obvious is to show (not just tell) what the experience is like for people.
Four — Conversations about Content Strategy and Publishing
I had more publishing-related conversations.
Our little working group that has been thinking about how the content strategy (and GOV.UK’s future plans) might affect the work we plan to do on publishing. I also did some reading about the direction of travel so far on the content strategy. The current scope is quite huge.
We’ve decided to deep dive into the main themes that get talked about a lot (for example, structured information), and write down what we know about them — definitions, how it’s been adopted already, why GOV.UK is interested in them and specific problems we want them to solve, general approaches in the industry.
This will help us map them to the work we have planned for publishing and know what’s already true or what needs to be true in the future for those outcomes to be a reality.
Five — How much do you know people in your team Christmas Fika
To celebrate the end of the year, our team had a Christmas themed Fika!
We put on something Christmassy. Rosa, a content designer on my team collected personal information from all of us beforehand and planned a quiz where we won points for correctly guessing who each question was about.
It was a lot of fun and a brilliant way to wrap up the year. I also learnt that I’ve probably had the least fun experiences in my team.
What I wish I could have changed
We’ve been having a few questions from departments who need help or more guidance on how to make things accessible, which the content designers and I have been responding to.
Our current process for doing this is a mix of zendesk and google groups. It might need some improvement so it’s easier to identify emerging themes and areas where we don’t currently have the answers but might need to do an investigation so we can improve our guidance. We also need a clearer workflow for answering them.
This is within our power to change of course so we’ll do that in the new year
What I’m looking forward to in the next working week
With most people off over the holidays, we planned a really long sprint which gives us some time at the beginning of January to have some kick-off activities.
We spent some time this week planning how we want to start the next quarter in January, what team activities we want to have to make sure we all have a shared understanding of what we can achieve in the quarter and bond as a team.
I’m looking forward to that.
On a personal note
I’m grateful to be here at the end of 2020.
I’ve been a little sad because my plans for Christmas has changed significantly but I’m now looking forward to celebrating, spending time with my husband and son and stuffing myself with all things yummy.
I hope your Christmas and the new year is wonderful in every way. | https://weeknot.es/weeknote-research-interviews-accessibility-personas-and-christmas-fika-89139ad80be7 | ['Tobi Ogunsina'] | 2020-12-24 14:41:56.826000+00:00 | ['Weeknotes', 'Product Management', 'Accessibility'] |
Coupon Site Promo Code Accuracy Study By CouponBirds — Nov 11, 2020 | The fifth coupon site promo code accuracy study comes on time. CouponBirds experienced a little validation decline last week, we promise to make positive adjustments for a better result. Can CouponBirds go back to №1 on promo code accuracy? Let’s see what happened this week?
Top 5 Coupon Sites Promo Code Accuracy Study
This week, we removed Coupons.com due to its limited number code, which may give rise to unfair competition. Coupon sites promo code accuracy study conducted among CouponBirds, RetailMeNot, Honey, Slickdeals and Groupon.
Our team manually verified 4,924 promo codes from 100 popular online stores in random. We guarantee each popular store we choose offers promo codes and each promo code is manually checked according to the verification information from merchants.
Started on Nov 10, 2020, the verification work involved 10 CouponBirds specialists. We copied each promo code of the 100 popular stores, and then we added items to shopping carts and applied codes to see whether it is working based on the information provided by stores. Conclusion of this study accompanying data have been published here in this article below.
Promo Code Accuracy
Shopping season is going on, keeping a healthy validation rate seems especially crucial.
Coupon sites included in the study scores 58.13% on promo code accuracy. The average rate has gone down during the shopping season, and one of the reasons is the drop of CouponBirds.
Always plays the central role in validation rate, CouponBirds reduced a little last week. The whole team paid more attention to quality, but still have something wrong with 7 brands. A mass of codes are only used for selected products, but merchants didn’t give any notes or special tips. It’s even more unfortunate, CouponBirds has more coupon codes than other coupon sites, giving rise to the lower validation rate. CouponBirds team will try best to avoid this case, going back to №1 next week.
Recently, RetailMeNot has been playing very well this round. Not just last week, they also increased 2.19% this week, reaching a success rate of 46.44%.
Slickdeals is basically the same as last week with a validation rate of 62.02% accompanied by limited working promo codes.
Honey and Groupon reduced 2% to 4%.
Number Of Working Coupon Codes
We wiped off all coupon codes that were marked as expired. The duplicate codes were also removed at the same time. There are 5,339 coupon codes verified across 5 top coupon sites.
Same as last week, CouponBirds ranks №1 with 1,399 valid coupon codes, and also ranks №1 in total coupon codes of 2,203.
RetailMeNot ranks second with 899 valid coupon codes.
Honey and Slickdeals are much less in this round with the number of working coupon codes only 209 and 180.
Groupon offers valid codes for only 96.
Brand Coverage
We chose 100 stores in random from top 1,500 popular retail stores based on the traffic. We verify brand coverage by checking whether the top 5 coupon sites offer promo codes for 100 stores. | https://medium.com/@couponbirds/coupon-site-promo-code-accuracy-study-by-couponbirds-nov-11-2020-6aacdf5d80c1 | [] | 2020-11-13 02:24:05.684000+00:00 | ['Coupon', 'Discount', 'Code Study', 'Couponbirds'] |
Best robot vacuums: We name the most effective cleaners | Robot vacuums are all the rage—and why not!? Vacuuming is one of the most loathed household chores. While it doesn’t come with the ick factor of cleaning the toilet or the tedium of dusting, pushing and dragging a noisy, cumbersome vacuum is its own kind of torture.
Robot vacuum cheat sheet Our quick-hit recommendations:
Best all-around robot vacuum: iRobot Roomba 960 Most sophisticated robot vac: iRobot Roomba s9+ Best budget robot vacuum: iLife A4s Pro Best robot vacuum for pet hair: Yeedi K650 Robot vacuums don’t have unwieldy cords or hoses to contend with, and they require little effort from you: You can run one from your couch using a physical remote or smartphone app, and the higher-end models can be programmed to wake up and start cleaning without any intervention at all. Robot vacs easily dispose of the most common household detritus—food crumbs, pet hair, dust—making them ideal for routine maintenance and quick cleanings when you’re expecting company.
To save money on your holiday shopping, see our roundup of the best deals on TVs, soundbars, media streamers, and more.Our top pick isn’t the most expensive model on the market, though it’s price tag is up there. If you’re working with a more modest budget, we have a strong recommendation in that category as well.
Updated December 21, 2020 to add our Kyvol Cybovac S21 review. This affordably priced bot copies iRobot’s self-emptying innovation, but adds an innovation of its own: It can mop as well as vacuum. Don’t expect to be able to leave your stick mop in the broom closet, though. See the bottom of this article for links to the most recent robot vacuums we’ve reviewed.
[ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ] Best all-around robot vacuum iRobot Roomba 960 Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $699.00See itThe Roomba 960's flawless navigation, stellar cleaning, and advanced features set it apart from all other robot vacuums.
iRobot’s Roomba brand has become as synonymous with robot vacuum as Q-tips is with cotton swabs. The Wi-Fi-enabled Roomba 960 is ample evidence why. It turns a tiresome chore into something you can almost look forward to. With three cleaning modes and dirt-detecting sensors, it kept all the floor surfaces in our testing immaculate, and its camera-driven navigation and mapping were superb. Its easy-to-use app provides alerts and detailed cleaning reports. The ability to control it with Amazon Alexa and Google Home voice commands are just the cherry on top.
Runner-up Roborock S6 MaxV Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe Roborock S6 MaxV is a powerful, highly customizable robot vacuum. It's obstacle avoidance feature is fairly unique and a great addition to an already exceptional household helper.
When a manufacturer builds one device that’s designed to perform more than one function, you all too often end up with a product that’s a jack of all trades, but a master of none. That wasn’t the case with Roborock’s vacuum/mop hybrid, and this update version features stereo cameras that enable the device to avoid obstacles like shoes and power strips that will trip up robots with simpler navigation systems.
Most sophisticated robot vacuum iRobot Roomba s9+ Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe iRobot s9+ is the most advanced robot vacuum around, but it will be out of reach of many budgets.
iRobot has done it again, taking the robot vacuum to the next level by creating another model that can empty its own dustbin. A second powerful vacuum in the Roomba s9+’s docking station automatically sucks the dust and debris out of the vacuum when it docks, storing as many as 30 dustbins full of dirt. And it stores it all in a filter bag, so that nothing escapes in your home’s air when you eventually need to change the bag. But as you’ve probably guessed, this one comes with a very high price tag.
Best budget robot vacuum Mentioned in this article iLife A4s Pro Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe iLife A4s Pro is a powerful, no-frills robot vacuum that will clean your floors well without sucking a lot of cash out of your wallet.
Whether you’re budget constrained or you just don’t need all the bells and whistles (Wi-Fi connectivity, mapping, smart speaker support) that more sophisticated (and much more expensive) robot vacuums have to offer, the iLife A4s Pro delivers a tremendous amount of bang for the buck.
Best robot vacuum for pet hair Yeedi K650 Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe Yeedi K650 is a no-frills robot vacuum that's tough on pet hair.
We’ve been impressed with several of Yeedi’s inexpensive robot vacuums, but the Yeedi K650 bowled us over with its ability to pull pet hair off the floor, using the silicone rolling brush you can swap out for its regular bristle brush. The silicone brush eliminates the problem of tangled hair impeding the vacuum’s cleaning.
Robot vacuum cleaners are not cheapThe convenience robot vacuums provide come at a cost: As much as $1,000 at the high end, with many of the best models running no less than half that. To help you determine which ones are worth the expense, we tested models from some of the most popular brands in a real-world lab: my home, where the floors are punished daily by two kids, three cats, and a dog. I tasked each one with vacuuming a 400-plus foot space that includes low-pile carpet, hardwood flooring, and linoleum that was regularly littered with food crumbs, pet hair, tracked-in dirt, stray cat litter, and other debris. To maintain the real-world environment, each model also had to contend with random floor clutter during several cleanings.
Be aware even the most premium robot vacuums are a supplement, not a substitute, for your stand-up vacuum. Despite manufacturer claims, most just don’t have the same suction power of an upright. Think of them as an easy way to maintain your floors in between deeper cleanings with your current vacuum.
Robot vacuum features and functionsFundamentally, the robot vacuums in our guide all operate the same way: They autonomously maneuver around your home on a couple of wheels suctioning debris from your floors. Two to four brushes on the bottom—both rolling-style agitators and spinning side brushes—grab dirt from the floor and wall edges respectively, and guide it into the suction area or direct it straight to a small, filtered dustbin. When cleaning is complete, or their battery is running low, they return themselves to their charging dock.
But just how they get the job done can differ across manufacturers and models. Here are some features and functions to consider beyond the basics.
ControlAutonomy puts the “robot” in “robot vacuum.” Virtually all models include an “automatic” mode that requires you to do nothing more than press a button on a remote, in an app, or on the vacuum itself to clean a room. This is great for ad-hoc cleaning, but most models can also be programmed to clean on a schedule. The latter scenario is great if you want them to work when you’re not home or to create a regular cleaning routine. Some higher-end models also integrate with smart speakers, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, which allows to control them using voice commands.
Cleaning modesJust as your stand-up vacuum can be adjusted to clean either carpet and hard flooring, so to can a robot vac. Most feature the ability to change suction and other cleaning functions to adapt to different floor surfaces, either automatically or with input from you. They may also have a spot mode for more concentrated cleaning on a small area (cleaning up a spill, for example), include options for single- and double-passes of a room, or offer an option to focus just on cleaning along wall edges and baseboards.
NavigationThe allure of robot vacuums is their promise to complete their task with minimal management from you. In order to do that, they must be able to navigate a room’s unique layout, maneuver around furniture and other obstacles, and avoid hazards such as falling down stairs and getting tangled in electrical cords.
Robot vacuums “see” the world through a combination of sensors. Cliff sensors let it know when there is an increase in distance to the floor—e.g., stairs or a sunken living room—so it doesn’t tip over the edge. Other sensors tell it when it has bumped into an object, so it can change direction, or is near a wall, so it can follow it. Still other sensors help the robot vacuum track how far it has travelled. Depending on the manufacturer and model, a robot vac might also include sensors that determine the amount of dirt present so it can adjust its cleaning mode accordingly.
MappingManufacturers are increasingly including mapping capabilities in some of their robot vacuums. These models use an onboard camera or laser reflections to produce a 360-degree view of the room. This allows the robot vac to create a map of the space and locate itself within that map.
The advantage of mapping is the vacuum will know which areas it has already cleaned and which it hasn’t, to avoid going over the same spot unnecessarily. It also lets it know where to resume cleaning if it must stop and recharge midway through the task. This makes it ideal for larger rooms and—because it’s still something of a premium feature—larger budgets.
Boundary blockersIn an ideal world, you’d clear all your floors of clutter before using your robot vacuum. But we live in the real one and that’s not always possible or desirable. Knowing this, many robot vacuums include some way to block off areas you don’t want it venturing into, whether it’s a pet’s area, your kids’ room, or a cluster of device cords in the corner. Often it’s just a length of magnetic tape you stretch in front of or on a forbidden area that the vacuum’s sensors will detect and tell it to avoid. But some models employ virtual barriers, such as the ability to designate boundaries on a floor plan that signal the robot to steer clear.
SizeThe dimensions of a robot vacuum matter for a couple of reasons. First, they will determine how well it can get into tight spots, such as under your kitchen cabinets and low-clearance furniture (couches and recliners). If it’s too tall, it won’t be able reach into these spots, or worse, it will get in and get stuck until physically free it. Second, the bigger the robot vacuum, the larger the dustbin. Robot vacuums don’t use expandable bags like many of their stand-up brethren do, so when it comes to debris capacity, what you see is what you get.
There is no sweet spot for robot vacuum dimensions that we could determine—it really depends on your particular room layout—but a diameter of 13- to 14 inches and a height of 3.5 to 4 inches are the most common measurements we encountered.
Wi-FiWi-Fi-enabled robot vacuums allow you to control them with a smartphone app instead of, or in addition to, a physical remote. That convenience alone doesn’t really warrant the extra cost these models command, but some model’s apps also provide other perks, such as detailed cleaning histories and the ability to save and edit floor maps for better navigation. Those models are worth considering if you’re cleaning large, intricate spaces.
Our robot vacuum cleaner reviewsWe will add to this list as new models come to market.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@gabriel27632995/best-robot-vacuums-we-name-the-most-effective-cleaners-5d4b7a46f3c6 | [] | 2020-12-24 02:30:42.339000+00:00 | ['Cord', 'Tvs', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Streaming'] |
Jenny Dalton’s Of Butterflies and Bullies: Nostalgia, frenemies and confidence | Jenny Dalton was born in 1970 and grew up in Indianapolis, IN. She earned a B.A. in English Literature and History from Indiana University-Bloomington and since graduation, she has earned post-graduate certificates in several fields of interest. She is curious and often transforms her life in various ways. Jenny has always loved writing and published articles and poetry in numerous venues. Of Butterflies and Bullies is her first novel, which took her 10 years to finish. Then, it sat in a hard drive for a decade more.
It’s based on her real-life experience being bullied by other girls who she thought were her closest friends and how she used journal writing to connect to her own power, deep inside, to feel better. Today, she lives in Mendocino County, CA with her beloved. She’s an entrepreneur, facilitates groups and coaches individuals towards powerful change. She teaches and practices yoga; she mentors young women and helps support the education of girls in Haiti. She travels the world. And, she loves her life, and promises you it gets better every year. You can learn more about her at: www.kitchentableconsulting.com or www.butterfliesbullies.com or www.loveinactioncoaching.com
Why did you set this book back in the 1980s? Is it based on your own life? Would middle-graders and adults relate to it today? Who’s the main audience for your book?
I set the book in the 80s because it is based on my own experience being bullied in the 5th grade, which was in 1979–1980. I wanted to capture the feelings associated with this painful experience. The story is based on real events, but I did fictionalize the characters and situations, so setting it in the 80s helped me get back to the people and the time when the pain and confusion was so raw. I wanted to achieve an emotional realness that girls and women who have experienced bullying can identify with so that they don’t feel alone.
I’ve received a lot of feedback from young readers that they relate to the feelings, especially the pain of being bullied, losing a friend, and the confusion over fitting in or not wanting to fit in. Adult women readers have told me that it is a nostalgic read that helped them reconnect to their own experiences and process their own feelings in deeper ways. This was my goal, to create relatable feelings. My main audience are girls and women who have felt the hurt of that first heartbreak of losing a best friend to the whims of girl groups.
Have things changed socially for middle schoolers/teens/young women since the 1980s? Is bullying among girls more of an issue now or was it always an issue?
Oh, it’s always been an issue. I’m involved with an organization called the Kind Campaign. They do school assemblies on bullying across the U.S. and from my understanding girl bullying and girl aggression is even more prevalent now because of the anonymous power of social media and increased pressures from media in general. Girls think they can just say anything and not face consequences. And, there is so much pressure to look and act certain ways, as there has always been. One statistic showed that girls today see up to 30,000 images a day, each with the ability to influence behavior and thinking. That’s a lot of messages pulling you in different directions — a lot of information to process.
One thing that has changed since the 80s is that there are so many more supportive organizations for girls that were not around when I was young. This is one reason why I wrote the book. I felt very alone and did think I was the only one to have this experience. I wrote it so that no girl had to feel alone, that it was only her.
What would you tell a young girl who’s being bullied at school, or who’s afraid she’s going to be bullied or ignored/left out? How about a girl who’s bullying others?
To the girl who is being bullied: you are not at fault, it’s not about you and you are not alone. Talk to someone you trust. Your feelings are totally valid. It’s so important to talk about it. I’d even encourage her to ask her school to do a Kind Campaign assembly. They are very healing (and offered at no charge). I’d also encourage her to get counseling. Being bullied can have lasting effects on your self-esteem and it’s important to get support to recognize your inner strength and appreciate your unique self-expression, no matter what others say about you. Inner strength is crucial and needs to be developed in a supportive environment.
Typically a girl becomes a bully because she is jealous or feels a loss of power that she wants to reassert. It’s important for the bullied girl to tell her to stop. And, also important for peers to ask her to stop too. As an adult speaking with a bully, I’d make sure to let her know about the damage bullying does emotionally to the girl being bullied, and the long-term effects, and also ask her why she feels she needs to behave as she is. She probably needs to talk about something that is hurting her. We can talk about it. Empathy on both sides is super important. Sparking empathy with the bully is key. She needs to feel the impact of her actions. And, she needs to be heard too, she needs to be offered help to transfer her feelings of wanting to hurt others to something more productive and fulfilling.
What’s the difference between bullying and having leadership ability/being an empowered woman? I remember the campaign a couple years back to get people to stop calling girls ‘bossy’ and thought it could use some nuance. Do you think some girls/women are bullies without realizing it? How does all of this relate to feminism and ‘girl power?’
Great question. I developed a leadership framework for middle schoolers called the Sisterz to Sisterz Alliance and the key to it is mutual support. Mutual support looks like encouragement, it feels like safety, and it feels like a place where you can be yourself without being judged. Mutual support feels like freedom to be perfectly imperfect and you give that back to others. If that supportive feeling isn’t present in a “girl boss” situation and you feel you are being bullied into doing something that you don’t want to do, that’s a valid feeling. You are likely hanging out with a bully. Whereas if a girl you know is leading a group toward a mutual goal, and it feels like your unique contribution is appreciated, that’s closer to leadership. Maybe she has a harsh style that rubs you wrong way. That’s something you can both work through. But if she is stubborn about her need for power or control, she might be a bully. I can totally relate to this because I am a big sister and I bring that big sister energy to my leadership style sometimes. I don’t always realize it because it’s an innate part of who I am. I’ve bossed around and probably bullied my siblings since I can remember. But it’s not something I do intentionally. I have to catch it and recognize when my bossiness goes too far.
Feminism and girl power have evolving definitions and I think every girl/woman/female-identifying person needs to come to the definition that works best for them. There are a lot of great thinkers out there to learn from. The intersections between feminism and leadership can shift as our ideas and cultures shift. For me, I’ve learned a few main lessons: 1) Let’s not re-create the male dominated models of leadership by employing top-down leadership, dominance and hierarchy. Let’s lead through collaboration, mutual listening and support. I ask myself: “How can we facilitate collaborative structures?” 2) I’ve also learned in friendships, work situations and especially in girl groups to be kind and release judgement. It’s effective in any situation. How can I be radically kind to another, to myself? I think this is leadership. It doesn’t mean you let others walk all over you. You can be kind and assertive. You can be kind and take charge. You can be kind and allow others to express themselves while also holding a vision for a shared outcome and express that. You can be kind and tell someone you don’t appreciate how they are treating you. This is that mutual support. It comes from empathy.
As a culture, we are dealing with a lot of shared trauma. The greatest healing we can bring is first to ourselves, via self-love, and to others by understanding that their responses are often involuntary and are conditioned by so many interwoven factors from homelife, capitalism, religion, school, culture, etc. Nothing is black and white. Nuance is everywhere. So, we need to be conscious of that and lead from there. And, P.S., yes, girls and women should run the world, using our own values and structures, not by stepping into the stereotypically agressive masculine structures that define much of our capitalist society.
How can you tell when you’re being bullied? Sometimes it’s really obvious, but what can you do when you just have a vague sense that people don’t like you or you don’t fit in and you aren’t sure why?
I try to address this in my book, those subtle feelings — which is why I advocate for learning to listen to your inner voice. Journaling, writing down your own thoughts, feelings and observations, is a great tool for this. It brings you that objectivity you need to evaluate circumstances and situations.
Firstly though, if you feel you are being bullied, you probably are. Your feelings are totally valid and you should listen to them. And, what you do about it is dependent on the situation and how invested you are in the relationship and making it work. There is a great resource on Frenemies on Wikipedia that I love. It defines all the different types of frenemies and helps you understand how you might interpret a certain friend and her actions. A bully can be very similar to frenemy or she might not be someone you would consider a friend. Regardless of the relationship type, it’s super important for you to talk about your feelings with someone you trust. This is number one. You need to have someone to share your experience with and ideally this person can give you some constructive advice. I’ve found that for me growing a thick skin and trying not to care what other people think is important; this is a releasing of judgement on myself and others. But that is so hard to accomplish in our comparison culture. We are hard wired to want to fit in. I am desperate to be liked. But not everyone will like me, or you. It’s important to recognize that the only person you should focus on pleasing is yourself. I don’t mean that selfishly, but self-lovingly.
What would you tell the parents of a girl who’s getting bullied? Should your daughter stick it out and learn to develop inner resilience or should you move her to a safer environment where she’s better able to learn? How do you know what to do?
Another great question, with a lot of complexity involved. I only have my personal experience to go on and I’m not a trained psychologist. However, the first thing I’d say is talk to her. Make sure she is heard and feels heard and validated. A lot of the next steps depend on the type of person she is. You will know what to do if you know your child and can adapt to her changing needs. I was and am a super sensitive person and I took my experience to heart and had a very hard time dealing with it. It took decades. I still work on it. At the time of the most severe bullying, my parents were busy, lacked resources and didn’t really have the bandwidth to deal with my problems. So I had to stick it out and develop my inner resilience. I had no choice. If the parents are attuned to their child and have the time to dive into this situation, they should, and work with her to come up with the best solutions for her. I’ve heard from some girls who changed schools, quit teams, left groups, and felt better but there’s also something to be gained from sticking it out and developing that inner strength. You’re going to need it in life.
You can order Jenny Dalton’s Of Butterflies and Bullies here. | https://medium.com/@authorslargeandsmall/jenny-daltons-of-butterflies-and-bullies-nostalgia-frenemies-and-confidence-d9af9a55bebb | ['Lois Lane Investigates Authors'] | 2021-06-17 15:27:47.385000+00:00 | ['Friends', 'Girls', 'Bullying', 'Confidence', 'Women'] |
Overview of the most popular blockchain games | We used to have to pay for games, nowadays in the era of blockchain one can make good money on them.
Blockchain gave people the qualities that we lack the most — honesty and openness. Games “applied” to this technology were no exception. Its transparency requires all users to be honest with each other. Developers can no longer cheat players, and the “random” has become truly “random.” All that whipped the development of the industry, and especially online casinos, which have always got complaints in regards of their honesty. We bring to your attention a selection of interesting games on the blockchain that are popular with users.
Eos knights
This game is unusual not only because of virtually complete lack of plot, but also because of the fact that it plays … itself. The task of the user is to equip the three war heroes — a warrior, an archer and a witch, so that they can protect their settlement from countless hordes of evil. We hasten to add that — it won’t be possible to win in EOS Knights, because the user only watches the battle, and does not direct it. But our heroes, having died during one of unequal battles, come to life and gain experience, new armor, weapons and protective amulets made by the player makes from the collected materials shot by defeated enemies.
The more cycles — the more experience and strength, the cooler the bonuses that can be obtained after each battle. The game will never end, so you can spend at least a day in it. Unnecessary materials and heroes can be exchanged and received in exchange for the platform currency. EOS coins can be converted to any fiat or digital asset of your choice.
There is really nothing to watch during the game itself — the gameplay consists in collecting materials and pumping characters. For one battle, the duration of which increases with the development of heroes, the developers give three random rewards. The better your fighters are, the more likely they are to get something really worthy. The most important thing is that you don’t have to pay for anything, instead you can sell materials (which, in fact, are tokens) and get paid for it. Here is an obvious thing: since developers earn commissions for selling materials and withdrawing funds, they will have to make changes to the game in order to maintain a steady influx of new players and, as a result, demand for materials.
Cryptokitties
Everyone must’ve heard about this game, since from time to time it crashes the Ethereum blockchain. The players get the opportunity to acquire thoroughbred kitties (for money) and organize a cat nursery. The results of the breed crossing, just like in real life, can be sold — each cat represents a unique token.
The owner determines the price for the animals himself — the more unusual the pet, the greater the chance of selling it for a lot of money. Experienced breeders say that you can literally get your investments back in just a few days and start playing for getting pure profit. Well, the strong and independent users can just collect cute cats and admire their unearthly beauty. Also, it’s absolutely possible to look for rare pets — to buy them for cheap, and sell them at higher prices. In simple terms — to speculate.
My crypto heroes
The game from Japanese developers and in Japanese, giving its users from other countries to check it out only thanks to the smartphone application, which was translated into English. To log into the game, there must be some ethereum in the wallet — it’s just has to be there, there are no limits for maximum or minimum amount.
As in any RPG, the player will create and improve characters who fight evil, protecting their world. The strongest and most protected character has every chance to become the best of the best and receive a bonus in the form of game tokens that can be traded for real ethereum. It goes without saying that, the hero trade is flourishing, and many gamers improve their characters only in order to be able to sell them at high cost.
Pixel art lovers will like the game and visual aesthetes will be scared away — the design and characters’ detailing remained at the level of the old Dendy console, and the faces of the characters were borrowed from world celebrities. The game can be recommended to enthusiasts who know Japanese well — otherwise you simply cannot read the “strategy” section.
Eos dynasty
The game is suspiciously similar to EOS Knights — when looking into details, the games have more similarities than differences. Players also plays for three heroes, improve them and fights against goblins, protecting his settlement. They are helped by pets, which are divided into four classes of uniqueness. They will be useful on expeditions, and the higher the class of the pet, the greater the chance of finding something worthy.
The battle is divided into four stages, the higher the stage — the more valuable rewards can be found. Materials can also be collected during the battle. As in Knights, the developers did not bother with the graphics, so there isn’t much to watch during the battles. The player will have to learn how to mix materials and synthesise the new ones based on the old ones. Naturally, there is a market in the game, where you can try to sell all of that.
PROSPECTORS
The last game on our list (and the first at the moment according to the DappRadar website) is a decentralised online multiplayer strategy with an economic base, the main goal of which is gold mining. To the delight of our users, the developers brought the Russian language into the game.
First you have to invest and buy a starter tools for gold, which is purchased for the game token. The list of proposed jobs will help you decide which tool is needed — there are more or less profitable tasks. In this case, you must also consider the distance that your heroes have to cross to get to the right places. And yes — the tool wears out, so you need to carefully analyse the offers on the market. Any action takes a lot of time, and the player only needs a few minutes to make a decision. The game will appeal to fans of the genre who are tired of playing strategy without getting any profits.
LetKnow.News on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram | https://medium.com/letknownews/overview-of-the-most-popular-blockchain-games-23838ea4558f | [] | 2019-09-27 07:10:42.174000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Top 5', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Games'] |
The occult as a means to enhance one’s thoughts | Hex girls (Scooby Doo)
Hello,
I’ve recently come across knowledge that seems to be forgotten and forbidden but meanwhile, I also experienced reading about modern occultism which includes the worship of “bad” entities which by the way is a more or less resent concept from the epoch it made our way of believing being dualistic with “the concept of Good” and it’s equivalent forces in “Evil”. We were thought a long time ago that God was responsible for the good and the bad but later the pleasant idea that came just after the idea that god’s perfection came from its capacity to limit itself. God facing evil was seducing / poignant for the second testament…
Satan means something that opposes the social order, I speak of the natural order, some recent modern school around Satanism glorify the name of Satan in the name of something good for society (Which means organisation of social order), well what oppose something always seem to improve it, but we can’t take this shortened way of thinking as it is too easy to justify bad actions and awful belief.
The first things, by consequent that came into my mind throughout writing the above paragraph is that Satan is the opposing force of what order really is, form a social perspective, religions and philosophy are a means of creating, maintaining and even manipulating an order emerging from society, we accept what we don’t understand. Throughout accepting that we will suffer from evil and remain ignorant of the unknown, we accept to let our self be guided by Jeshua, we let him take the control of our hearth.
Here is the point, in understanding what individualism is (seeking for our own personal interest), we understand what the force that stands opposed to the social order is interested by: the natural order. Our primitive instinct of fight and survival or our own ego wanting more despite the good of society. Maybe it is best to be self-reliant than to ever being drawing energy from our belief in God (which is a force) to be protected against anything that would require to have self-control indeed. So here is the positive existence of evil or more commonly said, the negative existence of god: self-reliance let to the unknown as you’re more attracted by difficulties and adventure is therefore dangerous.
OK, let’s continue — Asking myself what really was of my will and what was my true will, I didn’t ask myself to believe in karma or anything but I should have recognized that the spirit is different from the mind, spirit is like air and mind like water, thus, my true will was AFTER reflection what stayed in both my mind and body (Let’s not argue on difference of such term, let’s say I am composed of water and breath air). True will is a reduction of the important component of will and idea, like your inner self, not the self, the light (Dark or bright) inside your being.
From this true will, I decided to also inspect the laws I found suspect and to question everything, to reject all lies and illusions since they bring down the strong and to fear not to think loud. This is some kind of satanism. Occultism and esoteric such as the Kabbalah brought me wisdom and a finer understanding of the illusion of reality, my new belief flow more easily from on part to the other part of my mind, my mind is awakened but it really was a quite long and awful, horrible sequences of understanding, lessons, and experience, be careful, understand yourself above yourself and others in others.
Now I quite enjoy be kind of normal, to have enhanced my thought and reduce my conformity to belief as it is to replace a lack of understanding and to have built me a new way of seeing things, I’ve learned that death is not the real terror, but life magick way is. If you fear not, you’re full of light but if you don’t understand your own limitations, seek faults in others, or even don’t question you’re acts and thoughts on a regular basis to understand yourself above yourself, you’re not going to make it so great, but the fact is, that intelligence bring better overall results, thus improving the results, results, in a better you, learn to appreciate and work on your experience, and the path you take will adapt to your mind, your mind attract reality from your belief.
You can speak to reality and it can respond, feel, stay wise, and learn, for a new path can bring wonderful opportunities.
I hope that in these words you will find: power, wisdom, and success, for a story is never fully told but for some people, they will be enough strong to pursuit it with balance / harmony. | https://medium.com/@asaitama/the-occult-as-a-means-to-enhance-ones-thoughts-1db256b0c5a7 | [] | 2020-12-25 03:02:18.102000+00:00 | ['Spiritual Growth', 'Wisdom', 'Tought', 'Occult', 'Mind'] |
Assessment of Noise in the Intensive Care Unit Using Apple Watch | Alarms from monitors, medical devices and staff activities contribute to high noise levels in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Excessive levels of noise disrupt sleep patterns in patients admitted to the ICU and may contribute to the development of delirium and post-intensive care syndrome (PICS).
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that hospital noise levels should not exceed 35 A-weighted decibels (dBA) during the day and 30 dBA at night. However, daytime noise levels in ICU were found to be above acceptable levels, around 60 dBA. Although polysomnography is the standard for assessing sleep, it is time-consuming and challenging to interpret.
More recent versions of the Apple Watch (Series 4 and 5) take advantage of the internal microphone to regularly sample and track sound levels in the environment. These devices might therefore play a role in monitoring noise levels in the ICU, thanks to their simplicity and popularity. We investigated the feasibility of collecting and analysing data from an Apple Watch to measure noise levels in the ICU.
Data export and analysis
Accordingly, we exported Health data from the personal Apple Watch of a nurse working in a referral cardiothoracic ICU managing patients after cardiac surgery and those with cardiogenic shock, refractory cardiac arrest, and respiratory failure. The ICU was composed of 14 beds organized in four rooms with two, four, six and two patients.
Sound levels were measured in A-weighted decibels (dBA), a widely adopted standard for environmental noise measurement. The A-weighting curve adjusts the sound levels to match the perception of the human ear, less sensitive to low audio frequencies. This technique effectively cuts off the lower and higher frequencies that the average person cannot hear.
Sound levels were compared between daytime, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and night-time, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Data extraction and statistical analysis were performed with the “Pandas” Python Library.
Step 1: Export Data from Apple Health App on your iPhone
Export your data from the Health app on your iPhone
Unzip export.zip into this folder and rename the unzipped folder to data
Inside the folder /data there should be a file called export.xml
Step 2: Extract Environmental Audio Exposure data
Command Line Tool to process data exported from Health app contained in the export.xml file (Credits: https://github.com/tdda/applehealthdata)
This script create multiple .csv files for each data type
To analyse noise levels we need only EnvironmentalAudioExposure.csv file as it contains recordings of noise levels
Based on the size of your Health data, this script may take several minutes to complete
%run -i 'apple-health-data-parser' 'data/export.xml'
Step 3: Manually select samples recorded in the ICU
Open EnvironmentalAudioExposure.csv file with Excel containing all data about noise levels recorded by Apple Watch
Remove rows of samples recorded outside ICU
Save file as noise_samples_icu.csv inside /data folder
Step 4: Data Analysis
#Import necessary Libraries to perform data analysis
from datetime import date, datetime, timedelta as td
import pytz
import numpy as np
import scipy.stats as stats
import pandas as pd
import glob
import matplotlib, matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline # Functions to convert UTC to your time zone and extract date and time
convert_tz = lambda x: x.to_pydatetime().replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc).astimezone(pytz.timezone('Europe/Rome'))
extract_year = lambda x: convert_tz(x).year
extract_month = lambda x: '{}-{:02}'.format(convert_tz(x).year, convert_tz(x).month)
extract_date = lambda x: '{}-{:02}-{:02}'.format(convert_tz(x).year, convert_tz(x).month, convert_tz(x).day)
extract_day = lambda x: convert_tz(x).day
extract_hour = lambda x: convert_tz(x).hour
extract_time = lambda x: convert_tz(x).time()
extract_minute = lambda x: convert_tz(x).minute
extract_day_of_week = lambda x: convert_tz(x).weekday() #Read file noise_samples_icu.csv containing all data about noise levels recorded by Apple Watch in ICU
df_noise = pd.read_csv("data/noise_samples_icu.csv") #Read file noise_samples_icu.csv containing all data about noise levels recorded by Apple Watch in ICU
df_noise = pd.read_csv("data/noise_samples_icu.csv") #Coversion of date and time field
df_noise['startDate'] = pd.to_datetime(df_noise['startDate'])
df_noise['endDate'] = pd.to_datetime(df_noise['endDate']) #Extract of date from datetime field
df_noise['date'] = df_noise['startDate'].map(extract_date) #Extract hour from datetime field: 2019-11-09 06:40:12+01:00 ==> 6
df_noise['hour'] = df_noise['startDate'].map(extract_hour) #Extract Day Of Week (DOW)
#0 = Monday, ..., 6 = Sunday
df_noise['dow'] = df_noise['startDate'].map(extract_day_of_week) #Use only needed columns
df_noise = df_noise[['startDate','endDate', 'value', 'date', 'hour', 'dow']] #Display top 10 rows
df_noise.head(10)
Analysis 1: Noise levels in ICU during daytime vs night-time
# 1. Define daytime and night-time hours
h_start_day = 7 #included
h_end_day = 22 #included # 2. Compute a column that identifies samples as daytime (= 1) and night-time (= 0)
df_noise.loc[(df_noise['hour'] >= h_start_day) & (df_noise['hour'] <= h_end_day), 'daytime'] = 1
df_noise.loc[df_noise['daytime'] != 1, 'daytime'] = 0 # 3. Display top 10 rows
df_noise.head(10) # 4. Group by daytime (= 1) and night-time (= 0)
groupby_hours = df_noise.groupby('daytime') # 5. Display count, mean, std, min, 25%, 50%, 75% and max
groupby_hours["value"].describe()
# 6. Compute t-test between the two groups: daytime (= 1) and night-time (= 0) # Create two dataframes with noise levels from the two groups
df_values_daytime = df_noise[df_noise["daytime"]==1]["value"]
df_values_nighttime = df_noise[df_noise["daytime"]==0]["value"] # 7. Compute and display t-test
t2, p2 = stats.ttest_ind(a=df_values_daytime,b=df_values_nighttime ,equal_var = False)
print("t = " + str(t2))
print("p = " + str(p2)) t = 7.385116247757598
p = 3.108910072761726e-13 # 8. Display BoxPlot and save the image # Create BoxPlot
boxplot = groupby_hours.boxplot(column=['value'], return_type='axes') # Save figure as PDF
plt.savefig('figures/boxplot_daytime_vs_nighttime.pdf')
Analysis 2: Noise levels in ICU by day of week
# 1. Group by day of week (dow) and calculate mean and std for each dow
# 0 = Monday, ..., 6 = Sunday
df_avg_noise_dow = df_noise.groupby('dow').agg({'value': ['mean', 'std']}) # 2. Display top 10 rows
df_avg_noise_dow.head(10)
# 3. Display Bar Plot with std
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=[10, 6]) ax = df_avg_noise_dow["value"]["mean"].plot(kind='bar', x='day_of_week', color='blue', yerr=df_avg_noise_dow["value"]["std"])
ax.set_ylim((0, 80)) n_groups = len(df_avg_noise_dow)
index = np.arange(n_groups)
opacity = 0.75 ax.yaxis.grid(True) plt.suptitle('Average Noise Levels by Day of the Week', fontsize=16)
dow_labels = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday', 'Sunday']
plt.xticks(index, dow_labels, rotation=45)
plt.xlabel('Day of Week', fontsize=12, color='black')
plt.ylabel('Noise Levels (dBA)', fontsize=12, color='black') # 4. Save figure as PDF
plt.savefig('figures/barplot_avg_noise_by_dow.pdf')
Analysis 3: Noise levels in ICU by hour of the day
# 1. Group by hour of the day and calculate mean and std for each hour
df_noise_by_hour = df_noise.groupby('hour').agg({'value': ['mean', 'std']}) # 2. Display all rows with mean and std
df_noise_by_hour
# 3. Display Line Plot with std
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=[10, 6])
ax = df_noise_by_hour["value"]["mean"].plot(kind='line', figsize=(10, 5), yerr=df_noise_by_hour["value"]["std"], legend=False, linewidth=2, alpha=1, marker='o', color='black', markeredgecolor='black', markerfacecolor='yellow', markersize=8, markeredgewidth=2) xlabels = df_noise_by_hour.index.map(lambda x: '{:02}:00'.format(x))
ax.set_xticks(range(len(xlabels)))
ax.set_xticklabels(xlabels, rotation=45, rotation_mode='anchor', ha='right') ax.set_xlim((df_noise_by_hour.index[0], df_noise_by_hour.index[-1]))
ax.set_ylim((0, 100)) ax.yaxis.grid(True)
ax.set_ylabel('ICU Noise Levels (dBA)')
ax.set_xlabel('Hours')
plt.suptitle('Average noise levels by hour of the day', fontsize=16) # 4. Save figure as PDF
plt.savefig('figures/lineplot_noise_by_hour.pdf')
Analysis 4: Noise levels in ICU within WHO recommended range
# 1. Filters
dayhours_filter = df_noise["daytime"] == 1
nighthours_filter = df_noise["daytime"] == 0
WHO_day_35dBA_limit = df_noise["value"] <= 35
WHO_night_30dBA_limit = df_noise["value"] <= 30 # 2. Count totale samples and samples within range during daytime and nighttime
values_during_dayhours = df_noise["value"][dayhours_filter].count()
values_below_35dba_during_dayhours = df_noise["value"][WHO_day_35dBA_limit].count() values_during_nighthours = df_noise["value"][nighthours_filter].count()
values_below_30dba_during_nighthours = df_noise["value"][WHO_night_30dBA_limit].count() # 3. Display results
print("% of values within WHO 35 dBA limit during daytime:")
print((values_below_35dba_during_dayhours/values_during_dayhours)*100) % of values within WHO 35 dBA limit during daytime:
2.781641168289291 print("% of values within WHO 30 dBA limit during night:")
print((values_below_30dba_during_nighthours/values_during_nighthours)*100) % of values within WHO 30 dBA limit during night:
0.0
Other analysis
# 1. Lowest noise level
df_noise.sort_values(by=['value'], ascending = True).head(1)
# 2. Highest noise level
df_noise.sort_values(by=['value'], ascending = False).head(1)
Results
Consecutive 1,086 samples measured during 48 shifts (48% from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and 52% from 7:15 p.m. to 7:15 a.m.) between November 1st, 2019 and February 29th, 2020 were selected and extracted. The average sound level was 66 ± 6.1 dBA (Figure 1). Sound levels significantly differed between daytime and night-time (67 ± 6.7 dBA vs. 64 ± 4.2 dBA, p < 0.001) (Figure 2). The highest average sound level was 89 dBA and was recorded on Monday between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. The lowest one was 31 dBA and was recorded between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday. In only 2.8% of samples, noise levels during daytime were below the 35 dBA recommended by the WHO. During the night, sound levels were always above the recommended 30 dBA.
Conclusion
The analysis of noise levels in the ICU using an Apple Watch is feasible and easy to perform. We found that overall, noise levels were almost always above the WHO recommended values, consistent with previously published studies. The role of wearable devices to measure noise levels deserves to be further investigated. Apart from healthcare professionals, such devices (provided or personal) might also be worn by patients to more accurately quantify noise levels and compare with the quality of sleep and recovery after ICU discharge. Effective interventions to reduce noise pollution and improve sleep during ICU stay are highly needed.
An open-source Jupyter notebook is available on GitHub with a step-by-step guide to analyse data from other ICUs and repeat our experience. | https://medium.com/swlh/assessment-of-noise-in-the-intensive-care-unit-using-apple-watch-3baa8df1eb2f | ['Tommaso Scquizzato'] | 2020-04-29 18:47:23.222000+00:00 | ['Noise Pollution', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Intensive Care', 'Apple Watch'] |
Good article. | Good article.
Not advice directed at the author, but some people may find Stoicism helpful. Think about everything that could potentially go wrong and develop strategies accordingly. Most suffering is imagined rather than experienced etc. (One such strategy is keeping expectations so low you’re guaranteed exactly the pain and disappointment you anticipated… but no more than that.)
Also, self-awareness is key, if the discomfort of interacting with friends is viewed as too onerous, then one might not consider this a priority. Many people feel their needs are met by their immediate family, so ultimately interactions outside of that aren’t worth the effort/anxiety that everyone feels to a degree. And that’s OK too, and may be the real root cause others are accurately picking up on. | https://medium.com/@angelavolkov/good-article-1f053a701553 | ['Angela Volkov'] | 2020-12-19 07:08:02.015000+00:00 | ['Stoicism', 'Social Anxiety'] |
Colouring data visualizations | Semantic factors
This is how we interpret meaning from colour. The associations we have with colour depends on the cultural, environmental and personal contexts that we’ve been exposed to. These differences can be seen in “Colours in Culture” from Information is Beautiful (below). The colour green, for example, is associated with good luck in Arab, Japanese, and Western cultures — while in African, Chinese, and Eastern European cultures, good luck is associated with the colour red.
By being aware of these perceptual and semantic factors, you can select colour combinations that avoid common constraints and help focus attention on the message you want to share.
Questions to ask before picking colours
Let’s imagine that you’re a part owner in the Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Company, a small fleet of ice cream carts in Ottawa, Canada. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself when picking colours for data visualizations.
Who’s the audience?
Are you making visualizations for a specific group of people? Are there cultural or industry-specific conventions they use for colour?
Let’s say you thought it would be helpful to put together a few visualizations to share with your business partners to help inform budget, sales targets, and other areas to focus on this year.
You know that, when it comes to cultural or industry-specific conventions in Canada, green means good and red means bad. You’ve also seen blue and red used together when referencing temperature.
By taking a few moments to write down what you know about your audience, their goals & motivations, your story becomes clearer.
What’s the story?
Ok, now that we know who the audience is, it’s important to focus on the story we want to tell before thinking about colour. What are you trying to explain to your audience? For example, at the Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Company, what are the three most important questions that you and your business partners need answered to inform the business this year?
Maybe you’re wondering what the annual sales for the top 5 ice cream flavours are because it will affect what you choose to order for your first batch this year. Or maybe you’re wanting to see sales volume by neighbourhood, so that you can strategically distribute the ice cream carts to meet customer demands. Or perhaps you want to visualize customer satisfaction per cart to see if any trends become obvious.
By knowing the story and how it relates to your audience, you’ll know how to check if you’ve achieved what you set out to do. It means you know why sharing this information matters, what data you’ll be using — and often this will lead you to the best way to visualize this information.
When to use colour in data visualizations
Now that we know the audience and have figured out what information we want to share, we can focus on colouring the data.
It’s important to remember that colour needs a purpose. If the information can be understood without it, then don’t add colour. As a general rule, if the visualization only has two dimensions of data, like gross profit over the years, then you don’t even need a palette, a single colour is perfect. | https://uxdesign.cc/colouring-data-visualizations-89c69e21ce20 | ['Cate Wilcox'] | 2019-12-05 01:10:28.246000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Design', 'Data Visualization', 'Visual Design', 'UX'] |
Všechno, co jste chtěli vědět o eRoušce. Přehledně na jednom místě! | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/ze-%C5%BEivota-adast%C5%99an%C5%AF/v%C5%A1echno-co-jste-cht%C4%9Bli-v%C4%9Bd%C4%9Bt-o-erou%C5%A1ce-p%C5%99ehledn%C4%9B-na-jednom-m%C3%ADst%C4%9B-46542d1506a4 | [] | 2020-12-07 09:22:37.366000+00:00 | ['Adastra', 'Projects'] |
Quy Ma is conducting his own Medium reader survey. | Quy Ma is conducting his own Medium reader survey. With enough data (300 respondents), he'll share his findings publicly. I just filled it out. It took me about five minutes. You don’t have to provide your email address, although I choose to, because Quy is cool and may have interesting information to share in the future.
Wondering about Quy’s credibility? He’s a professional in the consumer and market research sector, so he knows his stuff.
“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” — Zora Neale Hurston | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/quy-ma-is-conducting-his-own-medium-reader-survey-621135c9e177 | ['Aimée Gramblin'] | 2020-12-19 23:57:51.561000+00:00 | ['Research', 'Surveys', 'Ｍedium', 'Reading', 'Short Form'] |
Users Upset as Raspberry Pi OS Now Pings a Microsoft Server During Updates | The change was made without warning and potentially allows Microsoft to identify Raspberry Pi users.
By Matthew Humphries
The Raspberry Pi Foundation enjoys a good reputation among users, but it has been tarnished somewhat this week due to a change to the Raspberry Pi OS.
The officially supported operating system for Raspberry Pi single-board computers is called Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian). As HotHardware reports, the latest update to the operating system introduced a Microsoft software repository (repo) by default. The change is due to the Foundation adding official endorsement for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code editor, but it’s causing outrage among some users.
By including the repo by default, every time a user performs an OS update a Microsoft server is pinged. In a thread on Reddit, it’s highlighted that there was no warning before the new repo was added. There’s also a big privacy concern, with one Reddit user explaining, “If you’re logged into a Microsoft service, use Bing, or even pull something from GitHub they can “identify” you as a Raspberry Pi OS/likely Raspberry Pi owner and influence ads, among other possibilities.”
Inevitably, the addition of the Microsoft repo was brought up on the official Raspberry Pi forums, but anyone expecting it to disappear from Raspberry Pi OS are set to be disappointed. Gordon Hollingworth, Raspberry Pi Director of Software Engineering, commented on the thread stating, “Thank you, everyone, for your feedback, this won’t be changing because it makes the first experience for people who do want to use tools such as VSCode easier.”
Eben Upton, the founder of Raspberry Pi, was also asked on Twitter why there was a lack of transparency regarding adding a Microsoft repo to the OS. His response has not been well received, “Sorry: I can’t understand why you think this was a controversial thing to do. We do things of this sort all the time without putting out a blog post about how to opt out.”
Any Raspberry Pi users concerned about having the Microsoft repo installed on their computer does have options to avoid it by selecting an alternative OS. Wikipedia offers an extensive list of options. There’s also now a big question mark hanging over what else will be added to the official operating system without warning in future, and what that means for trust. | https://medium.com/pcmag-access/users-upset-as-raspberry-pi-os-now-pings-a-microsoft-server-during-updates-e017f85e32b0 | [] | 2021-02-09 20:28:14.593000+00:00 | ['Privacy', 'Raspberry Pi', 'Microsoft', 'DIY', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Observe your Kubernetes Admission Webhook Configurations easily | In this guide, we are gonna talk about the journey of writing a kubectl plugin for Kubernetes Admission Webhooks. Let’s divide this article into three parts, first, we are gonna explain how we decided to write a plugin for Kubernetes Admission Webhooks, then which tools we used for writing a plugin, how we accomplished to distribute the plugin via Krew.
📰 Ingredients
Please note that, the purpose of this article is not about how to write a kubectl plugin from scratch, which means we will not dive into the technical details. There is an official documentation exist about this, I strongly recommend you to take a look this documentation:
https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/extend-kubectl/kubectl-plugins The only purpose of this article is sharing our experience about writing kubectl-plugin, what we are expecting from this article is guiding to the users who wants to write a kubectl-plugin.
How we decided to write a plugin?
In the beginning, we did a little search about the available plugins in the Kubernetes community. We quickly noticed that there is no plugin available related to Kubernetes Admission Webhook. So, we started to do some research about how we could design our plugin, what information we had about Kubernetes Admission Webhook, and how we could make use of these pieces of information effectively.
Let’s first lookout for the full information that we have.
$ kubectl get mutatingwebhookconfigurations config-sidecar-injector -oyaml | silicon -l yaml — output out.png
In this picture, you will see nearly all the available fields for the MutatingWebhookConfiguration resource. You notice that there is a lot of information available on this resource that can we use, but the YAML output of this resource is not useful from the human perspective. To be able to make this output more human-readable and well-organized, we decided to extract the utmost important values to a table format in the terminal. By doing this, we are giving a clear see to the user what’s configurations that they have.
This is the final output of our plugin that shows fields that we decided to be able to understand the details of the plugin you can take a look at this from the Github repository.
What tools we used for it?
We followed the guide¹ that shows us how we can write a kubectl plugin from the Kubernetes official documentation. Writing a kubectl plugin is nothing than writing a simple CLI tool. You can write a plugin in any programming language or script that allows you to write command-line commands.We thought that Go is the best choice for this type of work, so we moved on with it. You have a lot of options to be able to write a CLI app with Go, for example, Cobra, Urfave/cli, or Go built-in flag package. We chose the Cobra among these tools because of its wonderful features that are provided. The next thing we need to do is we must give the users the same experience(flags, outputs, etc.) which kubectl does, to be able to do that we need to use some libraries. Here are the suggested libraries and samples that we can use when we write a plugin with Go.
If you are planning to write a plugin with Go, check these out ²:
• client-go: a Go SDK to work with Kubernetes API and kubeconfig files
• cli-runtime: Provides packages to share code with kubectl for printing output or sharing command-line options
• sample-cli-plugin: An example plugin implementation in Go There are also a lot of plugins available, if you interested in.
Last but not least, we need a library that we can use to gain beautiful Terminal UIs. Pterm and the tablewriter come into the picture in this part. Pterm is for the colorful and well-organized output like Tree or Bullet List, and tablewriter is for the show the output within the table. You can build great Terminal UIs by using them.
By default, plugins that use client-go cannot authenticate to Kubernetes clusters on many cloud providers. To overcome this, add the following import to somewhere in your binary ²:
import _ "k8s.io/client-go/plugin/pkg/client/auth"
How we accomplished distribute the plugin via Krew?
Krew is the plugin manager for kubectl command-line tool.
Krew helps you:
discover kubectl plugins,
install them on your machine,
and keep the installed plugins up-to-date.
Once you write this plugin, you can distribute it via krew ³, in order to do that, you should simply write a manifest file, then send it to the krew-index. Once the manifest added to the krew-index, the other krew users can download your plugin via krew with the simple command:
$ kubectl krew install view-webhook
Here is the our manifest file that we send it to the krew-index:
Conclusion
As you can see, writing a kubectl plugins is not as hard as you think.You can create your own wonderful kubectl plugins with just couple of code and the help of utility libraries.
Here is our plugin, you can find it on this repository. Please do not forget to drop a ⭐️ if you liked. 😅
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Furkan Türkal for all the support
Thanks to Ahmet Alp Balkan for adding the plugin to krew-index and all the suggestions
References
If you want to discover more: #joinus #cometotrendyol | https://medium.com/trendyol-tech/observe-your-kubernetes-admission-webhook-configurations-easily-c47d4d2917df | ['Batuhan Apaydın'] | 2020-11-18 13:34:07.413000+00:00 | ['Platform', 'Kubectl Plugin', 'Kubectl', 'Krew', 'Kubernetes'] |
A Manager’s Motivation | I once read that self-pity is unbecoming of a manager. This is not a self-pity post.
The fact is managing people can sometimes be stressful and isolating work. It’s not all giving high-fives and atta-boys. Managers must often make unpopular decisions and hold people accountable for their actions.
So why do we do it? Why become a manager in the first place? What’s stopping us from moving to Montana, living on a ranch, and living out our days in blissful stress-free simplicity?
(Pardon the day-dream, would-be ranchers. I bet no one’s life is stress-free these days.)
I remind myself of my motivations all the time. I’m driven by facing complex problems and finding creative solutions. I love the recognition and acknowledgment awaiting results like sales increases, cost savings, and employee retention. These are intrinsic motivators; the ideals that fuel my passion. Extrinsic motivators like salary and benefits are important, yes, but they only drive a manager’s motivation so far.
I like to compare the challenges of management to long-distance running. An extrinsic motivator like a good pair of running shoes sure helps, but it’s the internal will of the runner that gets her to the finish line. She wants to prove she can do it to herself and to others. She wants to finish the race because finishing is what she set out to do.
In an earlier post, I mentioned a recent organizational change that is creating challenges at work. Change is hard on the organization. Managing change inevitably leads to tough decisions and the isolating nature of holding people accountable. Your paychecks won’t motivate you through these challenges. You’ve got to love the tests and have the will to finish to be a player in the game of management. | https://medium.com/johndemmablog/a-managers-motivation-c417beb392f2 | ['John Demma'] | 2016-06-14 12:06:27.025000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Business', 'Change Management', 'Management', 'Leadership And Management'] |
6 Simple Insights to Grow Your Website Traffic — Google Algorithm | Although getting organic traffic is not rocket science, it is one of the biggest challenges for small businesses with websites and social media pages. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you need to put consistent efforts to reach your goal. It’s not only about applying SEO but it is about optimizing the content such that it appears organically on the Google search. To no surprise, properly applied SEO and content strategy can show you tremendous results. There are plenty of techniques that can be applied, and we are sharing with you some of the proven strategies that can work for you.
1. Focus on your potential readers or consumers
Readers and consumers are the most important pillar for any website. If you do not have them, then your content means nothing. Keep in mind to create content for them and address them, rather than just focusing on anything else. Create content that resonates with your audience, content that is relatable to them, and content that gives them some value. This way you will naturally perform better and improve your SEO. Working only on SEO and not focusing on your target audience can do more harm than good.
2. Consistent content
Consistency is the key to increasing the organic traffic on your website naturally. Be consistent with your content. Prepare a schedule beforehand, work on it, and put it in front of your audience. Google algorithm will rank you better if you are regular with your content.
3. Freshen up your old content
Fresh and new content can be taken as the pillar of the growth of your website. It is important that you keep creating new content. But, alongside, you should keep updating the older content. Go through your high-performing articles and contents, check whether the information there is relevant to the current scenario, if not then add up-to-date information. Also, add more relevant images, relevant keywords and LSI keywords of the current times (LSI keywords are the ones that are related to the main keyword). There are tools that can help you in finding LSI keywords, they are KWFinder, SEMrush, etc. All you have to do is input the main keyword and it will show you a list of LSI keywords.
4. Backlinking
Backlinks are an important factor when it comes to applying SEO and getting results. The links directing back to your website from another website are the backlinks. Google checks your authority from these backlinks, which means that the more backlinks you have the higher you appear on the search result and get organic traffic. Backlinks can be difficult to get but they are of absolute importance for your website.
5. Crosslinks
Crosslinks can also show you results, crosslinks are the links of your previous post that you add to your post. This helps Google to understand what content is more important and should be ranked higher. The more links you add, the more you’ll show up on the search results.
Backlinks are something that you can not have complete control over but crosslinks are completely under your control. Digital marketing agencies of this age are dedicated to working on your growth by applying SEO strategically.
6. Use data and statistics to optimize your next strategies
Analytics can be a catalyst for your website. Use tools like Google Analytics to get an insight into your visitors and other key pieces of information and improve your SEO strategies accordingly. These are important to see your readers and customers’ demographics, age groups, and more relevant factors, so that you can optimize your content based on them, specifically for users.
Focus on the potential audience, create content for them, be regular on showing up to them and you will automatically see the results coming up for you.
The-Socializers.com is a leading digital marketing agency specialising in Google Ads and FB Ads and policy.
Please follow up on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
#socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing #socialmedia #marketing #branding #business #marketingdigital #seo #onlinemarketing #contentmarketing #instagram #marketingstrategy #entrepreneur #marketingtips #advertising #socialmediamanager #like #graphicdesign #smallbusiness #design #digitalmarketingagency #webdesign #socialmediatips #digital #marketingagency #follow #socialmediamanagement #socialmediastrategy #instagrammarketing #bhfyp
pic credit:
https://pixabay.com/photos/structure-plan-coding-strategy-620304/
Give a shoutout to Stephen Phillips/Hostreviews.co.uk. | https://medium.com/@socializers22/6-simple-insights-to-grow-your-website-traffic-google-algorithm-151af48ddff9 | [] | 2021-12-27 12:58:40.538000+00:00 | ['Content Creation', 'SEO', 'Content Marketing', 'Seo Services', 'Digitalmarketing Services'] |
The Graph’s role in Web3 | Web 1.0 to Web3
Web3 has come a long way since the emergence of Bitcoin over a decade ago. Despite using an outdated tech by today’s standards, it carved in stone the principles of Web3, of which the main ones are decentralization and true P2P interaction without intermediaries (centralized authorities) such as Google or Facebook. But many people are still confused about Web3 and its potential nonetheless, so here’s a quick recap of the technological progression:
If the retrospectively-named “Web 1.0” comprised read-only static webpages in the 90s and early 2000s, Web 2.0 (read-write web) has allowed for a more interactive user experience fuelled by participatory systems. It has (very likely) peaked with the arrival and development of social media. But in Web 2.0 the user is still the prisoner of centralized authorities. If you want to talk to a friend, you would probably use Facebook or one of the other centralized platforms. The so-called internet giants run a plethora of services and have access to many if not all aspects of user data. These “middlemen” control the data and that entails a certain degree of censorship, corruption, and a sense of foreboding akin to the sword of Damocles hanging over your private data. The purpose of Web3 (Web 3.0 or unmediated read-write web) is to get rid of the arbitrary centralized authority and create composable decentralized infrastructure (imagine lego blocks that you can use to construct all sorts of toys, or use a lego model to build on top of it or reshape it). In short, Web3 is often seen as a pet name for a theoretical, completely serverless decentralized web with increased security, anonymity, interoperability, reliability, governing solutions, automation and tokenization.
The Graph
The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data on blockchain. It is often referred to as “the google of blockchain” because of its complementary nature to most Web3 projects that are being developed on blockchain. As a blockchain agnostic baseline infrastructure protocol servicing the Web3, it is extremely versatile and one of the cornerstones of the Web3 ecosystem. One way to see it is as a tokenized GraphQL for Web3 applications. Web 2.0 apps all need data base querying. This is how Facebook knows what is on everyone’s profile, what Twitter has for your tweet back on December 22th, 2016 etc. Virtually every complex Web 2.0 app uses this. GraphQL is a SQL on steroids because it doesn’t require much computational resources within your application and is easier to integrate once you learn it. As a query and interface definition language its purpose is to surpass the inflexibility and inefficiency of REST API. On Web3 GraphQL is so far being used in the DeFi industry to index data from the Ethereum blockchain brought on by Chainlink.
Another way to look at it is as the Unreal Engine, but for APIs. Unreal Engine lets game developers build video games without having to develop their own engine. They simply pay a fee to use the Unreal Engine and then they get to spend their time immediately creating games upon the game engine. The Graph Protocol is analogous to that, but instead of video games it’s dApps and instead of a video game engine it’s an API.
Why Is The Graph Critical To Web3?
The Graph aims to accelerate the development of dApps by allowing developers (users) to efficiently query data for the requirements of an application. While traditional APIs have to make distinct calls to get the information required and thus tend to congest the network, GraphQL is efficient enough to provide the needed data in a single query.
With this in mind, it’s fairly clear why The Graph’s future is bright. The data indexed by The Graph’s API (subgraphs) is relayed to smart contracts via Chainlink oracles, which allows the developers to use the indexed data to build powerful dApps. As Google is an indexing epitome of Web 2.0, The Graph has the first-mover advantage in indexing the Web3 space. Prior to the wide-spread adoption of The Graph, developers were force to come up with their own indexing code and maintain servers that was anchored on centralized infrastructure. The drawbacks of that were unreliability (servers might shut down for various reasons), maintenance costs and security risks. With subgraphs, all this becomes more efficient, decentralized, reliable and secure.
The Graph currently has over 200 indexers and over 1,600 individuals have learnt to identify high-quality subgraphs. The usage of subgraphs has increased exponentially over the past few months: from 1 billion monthly queries in June 2020 to over 10 billion in November 2020. Currently the network can support 1,000–2,000 queries per second. Subgraphs are persistently being used by some of the biggest applications such as Uniswap, PoolTogether, Curve, Zapper and many more. The explosive launch of mainnet only serves as a testament to The Graph’s contribution to the Web3 space. In the foreseeable future, the project will expand to other blockchains (apart from Ethereum) to increase the scope of usage and accelerate interoperability.
Website: https://thegraph.com/
GRT Token Address: 0xc944e90c64b2c07662a292be6244bdf05cda44a7 | https://medium.com/@mtjces/the-graphs-role-in-web3-39249532af52 | [] | 2021-01-12 09:57:28.241000+00:00 | ['The Graph', 'GraphQL', 'Web3', 'Grt'] |
So you’ve received an invitation to speak at a summit | Though most of our work is about helping hosts with their events, I often get asked for advice about the invitations that many people receive FROM hosts. When you receive an invitation to speak at a summit, what should you ask? What should you look out for? How can you know if it’s the right fit?
Though the Radical Summits approach is unique and we are a rather small boutique firm, there are a bunch of awesome people dreaming important things for the world, so here are some of the things we recommend for each stage of the process from invitation to interview to promotion for potential speakers.
So you’ve received an invitation to speak at a summit
First off all, congratulations! An invitation to speak at a summit or a conference means someone thinks the work you’re doing is going to resonate with their audience. (At least, we hope that’s why they’ve invited you!)
The invitation you received is an excellent opportunity to look for some key details that can help you decide if this is a good fit for you.
Summit speaker invitation tells
The bad news is that the vast majority of online summit and conference hosts are using a model that is about centering the host’s needs above all else. This means, many people host online events for the sole purpose of gaining access to other people’s lists and communities so that they can grow their own list quickly and without the labor that others had to put in to grow their audience.
The good news is there are many tells in most traditional invitations that make this kind of approach pretty easy to identify. Here’s what to look out for:
Specificity around the work that you do. Take a close look at the invitation. Is their praise of your work generic enough that it could apply to almost anyone? If so, that’s a red flag. Are they sharing specifics around how they know your work like workshops they’ve attended, prior talks, a specific post or idea that you’ve shared, or articulating key aspects of your perspective? While there’s only so much room in an invitation to share what someone may love about your work, they should be specifically speaking to WHY they appreciate your work.
Take a close look at the invitation. Is their praise of your work generic enough that it could apply to almost anyone? If so, that’s a red flag. Are they sharing specifics around how they know your work like workshops they’ve attended, prior talks, a specific post or idea that you’ve shared, or articulating key aspects of your perspective? While there’s only so much room in an invitation to share what someone may love about your work, they should be specifically speaking to WHY they appreciate your work. Specifics on what they’d like you to speak about. It’s not uncommon for poorly structured invitations to say “I love your work and I’d love for you to speak at my summit. Are you in?” Speak on what, exactly? And why would speaking on that be a fit for your audience or your summit theme? A great invitation will say exactly what they’d like you to speak or present on so you can make a more informed decision.
It’s not uncommon for poorly structured invitations to say “I love your work and I’d love for you to speak at my summit. Are you in?” Speak on what, exactly? And why would speaking on that be a fit for your audience or your summit theme? A great invitation will say exactly what they’d like you to speak or present on so you can make a more informed decision. Clarity on their why. What is this event about? Why does it matter? What is the host dreaming for the world and why are they bringing together these specific people? Who is the audience and what do they care about? If an invitation doesn’t include some kind of detail about the deeper why, that may be important to ask about.
What is this event about? Why does it matter? What is the host dreaming for the world and why are they bringing together these specific people? Who is the audience and what do they care about? If an invitation doesn’t include some kind of detail about the deeper why, that may be important to ask about. Minimum list/audience size requirements. This is a personal pet peeve of mine and it’s a HUGE FIERY red flag for me. Minimum list sizes are the tool of a model that positions the host at the center with a goal of gaining access to other people’s audiences and communities. If there’s a minimum list size requirement, it’s an automatic no from me no matter what. The host either likes my work and sees it as a valuable addition to the conversation or they don’t. The end. Your list size has absolutely NO bearing on whether your work is a good fit for their vision and audience. Some of the most important and valuable voices are doing work in a variety of spaces where social media and email list building aren’t front and center. Also, people who have enormous lists often also have heaps of unearned privilege. If you receive an invitation with a minimum list size requirement, know that the host is counting on a sense of scarcity as a way to trick you into a yes. This arbitrary number either strokes the recipient’s ego assuring them they’re “big enough” to be counted as worthy or it makes the recipient feel the need to apologize for not meeting this arbitrary requirement, often then leading to additional requests for unpaid labor from the host to “make up for” the failed requirement.
This is a personal pet peeve of mine and it’s a HUGE FIERY red flag for me. Minimum list sizes are the tool of a model that positions the host at the center with a goal of gaining access to other people’s audiences and communities. If there’s a minimum list size requirement, it’s an automatic no from me no matter what. The host either likes my work and sees it as a valuable addition to the conversation or they don’t. The end. Your list size has absolutely NO bearing on whether your work is a good fit for their vision and audience. Some of the most important and valuable voices are doing work in a variety of spaces where social media and email list building aren’t front and center. Also, people who have enormous lists often also have heaps of unearned privilege. If you receive an invitation with a minimum list size requirement, know that the host is counting on a sense of scarcity as a way to trick you into a yes. This arbitrary number either strokes the recipient’s ego assuring them they’re “big enough” to be counted as worthy or it makes the recipient feel the need to apologize for not meeting this arbitrary requirement, often then leading to additional requests for unpaid labor from the host to “make up for” the failed requirement. Accessibility. Though it’s rare for a host to include information about the ways they’re building accessibility into their events, it’s important for us to look for it and to ask about it as a way to normalize the importance of hosts planning for accessibility from day 1 rather than as an afterthought later on. Big bonus points if you receive an invitation with access details (like closed captions, live captions, transcripts, etc).
Though it’s rare for a host to include information about the ways they’re building accessibility into their events, it’s important for us to look for it and to ask about it as a way to normalize the importance of hosts planning for accessibility from day 1 rather than as an afterthought later on. Big bonus points if you receive an invitation with access details (like closed captions, live captions, transcripts, etc). Other speakers. Another big red flag is when hosts don’t provide information on who else they’re inviting or at a minimum, what their commitment is to including a wide range of voices and identities. Typically if this is not included, it’s because the host hasn’t thought about it (which means the speaker line-up is likely to be super homogenous) or because they’re trying to downplay how white or how cis or how conventionally attractive their speaker line-up is going to be. If it’s not included, ask and ask directly. Any host who can’t easily speak to the ways they’re examining privilege and identity is one to be suspect of.
Another big red flag is when hosts don’t provide information on who else they’re inviting or at a minimum, what their commitment is to including a wide range of voices and identities. Typically if this is not included, it’s because the host hasn’t thought about it (which means the speaker line-up is likely to be super homogenous) or because they’re trying to downplay how white or how cis or how conventionally attractive their speaker line-up is going to be. If it’s not included, ask and ask directly. Any host who can’t easily speak to the ways they’re examining privilege and identity is one to be suspect of. Compensation of speakers. You deserve to be paid for your time and labor. Unless you’re a celebrity or someone with tremendous financial privilege, it’s important for speakers to be paid/compensated for their participation. Sadly, many hosts consider “exposure” to be payment enough. But we know exposure doesn’t pay rent or buy groceries. Some hosts offer to pay speakers via affiliate marketing. This is another area worthy of additional questions — affiliate marketing can be very tricky and some software makes it nearly impossible to track certain kinds of behaviors (which means the host gets the sale and doesn’t have to share it). Many hosts over-promise and under deliver. If payment isn’t mentioned, ask about it directly. Hosts have a responsibility to pay their speakers (most hosts simply hope no one asks). That said, we must remember that hosts are taking on the vast majority of the financial risk when they decide to host an event, so the payment doesn’t need to be the same as what you might get paid by a corporation or an academic institution. Even if it’s $100, some form of payment is an important way of saying “I value your time and expertise.” If a host simply can’t afford to pay, that doesn’t mean they can’t speak to their desire to pay you while acknowledging their financial reality. They can also offer other forms of compensation like promoting your latest book or offering a discount on a program they have. Hosts who have thought about this are able to speak to it with thoughtfulness while hosts who are simply trying to extract free labor will often focus on all the “exposure” you’ll get in the hopes that you don’t ask additional questions.
You deserve to be paid for your time and labor. Unless you’re a celebrity or someone with tremendous financial privilege, it’s important for speakers to be paid/compensated for their participation. Sadly, many hosts consider “exposure” to be payment enough. But we know exposure doesn’t pay rent or buy groceries. Some hosts offer to pay speakers via affiliate marketing. This is another area worthy of additional questions — affiliate marketing can be very tricky and some software makes it nearly impossible to track certain kinds of behaviors (which means the host gets the sale and doesn’t have to share it). Many hosts over-promise and under deliver. If payment isn’t mentioned, ask about it directly. Hosts have a responsibility to pay their speakers (most hosts simply hope no one asks). That said, we must remember that hosts are taking on the vast majority of the financial risk when they decide to host an event, so the payment doesn’t need to be the same as what you might get paid by a corporation or an academic institution. Even if it’s $100, some form of payment is an important way of saying “I value your time and expertise.” If a host simply can’t afford to pay, that doesn’t mean they can’t speak to their desire to pay you while acknowledging their financial reality. They can also offer other forms of compensation like promoting your latest book or offering a discount on a program they have. Hosts who have thought about this are able to speak to it with thoughtfulness while hosts who are simply trying to extract free labor will often focus on all the “exposure” you’ll get in the hopes that you don’t ask additional questions. Timeline of interviews. Many hosts rely on a false sense of urgency to get people to say yes. They’ll say something like “all interviews must be recorded in the next 2 weeks”. However, the lack of planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part. Tight timelines can be inaccessible to people who are disabled, working multiple jobs or running multiple businesses, who are parents, etc. If a host isn’t open to collaborating on a time that works for you both, that’s an important thing to note. Hosts who are centering their speakers and their audience usually work with speakers to find times that work for both of you rather than dictating a tiny window and only accepting speakers who can fit their timeline (which proves that it’s less about your work and what you offer and more about finding people who serve the host’s needs first).
Many hosts rely on a false sense of urgency to get people to say yes. They’ll say something like “all interviews must be recorded in the next 2 weeks”. However, the lack of planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part. Tight timelines can be inaccessible to people who are disabled, working multiple jobs or running multiple businesses, who are parents, etc. If a host isn’t open to collaborating on a time that works for you both, that’s an important thing to note. Hosts who are centering their speakers and their audience usually work with speakers to find times that work for both of you rather than dictating a tiny window and only accepting speakers who can fit their timeline (which proves that it’s less about your work and what you offer and more about finding people who serve the host’s needs first). Commitment to social justice and social change. Whether it’s in the invitation itself or easily discoverable on their social media, a great host makes their values clear. This might be spoken to in the invitation directly, but there are also other cues that signal where a host’s values lie. Do they include their pronouns in their signature or their introduction? Do they have a quote or a hashtag they often use? What are they often speaking about on their own social media? Is it positioning the problem inside the individual or do they take a more systemic approach?
Whether it’s in the invitation itself or easily discoverable on their social media, a great host makes their values clear. This might be spoken to in the invitation directly, but there are also other cues that signal where a host’s values lie. Do they include their pronouns in their signature or their introduction? Do they have a quote or a hashtag they often use? What are they often speaking about on their own social media? Is it positioning the problem inside the individual or do they take a more systemic approach? Spreading the word. All events rely on people attending in order to fulfill their purpose. Of course, when you’re creating something valuable and important, you want people to know about it so that they can participate and hopefully have a wonderful experience. While the bulk of the labor for spreading the word will fall to the host, it’s not unreasonable for hosts to ask their speakers and presenters for help in getting the word out. But there is a difference between asking for help and demanding access to someone’s list and community (entitlement). As a host myself, I’ve often found that a stellar interview or pre-presentation discussion is enough to get speakers excited about telling their audience about an event. After all, as a speaker, if something really beautiful or meaningful is happening, I want my community to know about it. The red flag in this area comes when hosts expect speakers to agree to very specific marketing requirements long before any content has been created. How can I possibly know if the content is a good fit for my audience if I haven’t interacted with the host before and if we haven’t collaborated or recorded an interview yet? There’s a predatory nature to expecting someone to commit to certain marketing agreements prior to gaining insight or experience about an event. Keep a close on eye on what is being asked of you here.
At Radical Summits, we stress the importance of a very care-filled, thoughtful, thorough invitation to potential speakers because it’s often the first time someone is interacting with the host.
If you receive an invitation that is generic, doesn’t mention compensation or the other speakers, doesn’t speak to their values or what’s expected of you, it’s important to push back and ask clarifying questions. Hosts who are creating an event that’s about community, change, and relationships will appreciate the opportunity to engage in a deeper discussion about their values and the vision they’re holding.
Most invitations that are sent out these days are riddled with red flags. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t participate, it is to say that you’ll have some tough decisions to make.
Time and time again, I’ve seen hosts get called out for all white speaker line-ups or for culturally appropriating imagery from cultures they aren’t a part of or for using harmful language in their interviews, and speakers often end up in the cross fire for not having done their due diligence.
Being a speaker is an honor that comes with responsibility, so make it clear to the event host that you take it seriously and want to ensure it’s a good fit for you and those who will be attending.
You’re going to speak at a summit. Now what?
Once you decide to move forward as a speaker at an online event, there are a few things you can do that will make it a better experience for all involved.
Whether your session will be pre-recorded or live, a solid, high-speed internet connection is a must. Turn off all devices from the wifi other than your computer/laptop to maximize bandwidth. Plug the ethernet cable directly into your device if you can. Try to schedule your session for a time when fewer people are home and on the network.
Use a high-quality microphone, or earbuds at a minimum, to ensure a clear, consistent sound. A bad video is one thing, but terrible audio is nearly impossible to correct.
Ensure you have consistent, soft lighting and a quiet location.
Ask the host for an outline or key talking points they want to ensure you cover, and then do research on the host’s audience. Prepare for your conversation by writing out key points you’d like to make or having key statistics, resources, and books at the ready.
It’s also important to ask the host about the demographics of their anticipated audience. Will they have many disabled people attending? Trans and non-binary folks? How can you adapt your language and your knowledge to fit the needs of the audience so that everyone wins?
Avoid wearing anything that may rub against the microphone or cause rustling or jingly sounds that damage the audio. Long hair, earrings, turtlenecks, bracelets, and scarves can wreak havoc on an audio file, so avoid those wherever possible.
Most importantly, be you. The host invited you for a reason, so bring your wonderful self to the interview and let yourself shine. This isn’t about appealing to everyone who tunes in, but instead about connecting with the RIGHT people who are a great fit for you and the work that you do.
If you’re nervous, ask the host if they’d be willing to meet with you ahead of time for a practice run or if they can add 15–30 minutes to the call prior to your session starting for some chit chat. A little time to talk, breathe and get to know each other can work wonders for allowing you to be more comfortable during the session itself.
Only commit to what you know you can follow through on
It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement when you’re coming off the high of a great interview or when you see how awesome some of the other speakers are.
Before you commit to any kind of marketing or promotion, take time to consider the context of your life in the weeks leading up to the event and during the event. What can you commit to that is sustainable, doable, and fits the context of your life?
It’s much easier on a host for speakers to under promise and over deliver than to over promise and fall short, especially since hosts are often taking on a large financial burden that they’re trying to plan for. If you can’t email your list or if you’ll be away for a large part of the promotion period, tell the host that as early as possible.
And don’t hesitate to ask the host for anything that might make promoting the event easier on you. Whether that’s a custom color scheme in the promo materials to match your brand or hoping on a Facebook live so you two can get your audience excited, treat this as a collaboration and ask for what you need so that everyone involved can have the best possible experience.
— — -
One of the reasons I love online events is because I’ve seen the power of them to change lives and bring people together around important questions. Though many of the speakers I’ve invited to speak at my own events have been strangers, so many of them have later become friends, colleagues, and key collaborators on other projects and offerings.
When you focus on building relationships with the right people, the benefits extend far beyond the scope of this one online event.
*Originally posted on radicalsummits.com | https://medium.com/@radicalsummits/so-youve-received-an-invitation-to-speak-at-a-summit-b81777b63e94 | ['Dawn Serra'] | 2021-06-08 01:01:37.220000+00:00 | ['Event Planning', 'Online Summit', 'Feminist Business', 'Online Marketing', 'Public Speaking'] |
How Do People Get So Many Followers on Instagram? | Back in 2010, when Instagram was made, no one knew it would become such a huge social media platform one day. Today, it is one of the greatest markets and sources of revenue.
A large following mostly means larger profits.
Internet famous Influencers, beautiful girls/hot models, and large businesses have massive followers who make their pages attractive for sponsors.
You must be wondering how every other page on Instagram reaches millions. Well, the answer is pretty simple.
They get them through hard work or through money. Certainly, the former is more commendable because of its long-lasting effects.
Let’s explore both options.
There are some key factors that you need to keep at the back of your mind. Let’s discuss them each.
Production of unique content
Just don’t compromise on your content. This is the only thing that will make your followers stick to your page for longer. Design it in a way that interests your followers.
Jumping into the bandwagon sometimes works, but not always. Anytime you think of an idea, quickly note it down in a small diary and use it by the end of the month to schedule your posts.
Alternatively, even a better idea would be to get a list of hundreds of pre-written Instagram content ideas ready beforehand so that you don’t need to waste time in brainstorming, and you can remain consistent.
Remaining Consistent
If you post amazing content, but aren’t consistent, all your efforts are going down the drain. People follow you, hoping you’ll keep feeding them with what they’re here for. If you don’t, they’ll simply hit the unfollow button.
When to post
If you go to the insights section of the page, you’ll find out what the peak hours are. This is the time when the followers are most active.
Sometimes you don’t get good enough engagement despite all the efforts. It is because you posted when most of your followers were asleep.
Using all the features
Another observation is that famous accounts make the most use out of Instagram features such as IG Reels, hashtags, locations, tags, live sessions, IG TV videos, polls, shout-outs, highlights, and much more. The more you explore, the better it gets.
And by the way, here is a HOT tip:
Jump on IG Reels.
The more IG Reels content you create, the more your account will grow. It’s easy to create IG Reels content.
Here is a step-by-step guide to create and post IG Reels:
Along with that, here is something worth noting:
Using the right tactics isn’t the case all the time. A lot of many celebrities, pages, and businesses have been accused of having fake followers. These are internet-bought followers which might be actual people or robots.
Many platforms all over the internet offer such followers. Instagram did an operation against such accounts which left many in trouble. So avoid such services if you want to keep your account safe.
Conclusion
If you see effort invested in a page with a large following, then the followers must be real. Such people have reached here gradually. You can also follow the tips above and work your way towards millions of followers.
However, it’s worth noting that those hundreds of followers are of no use if you can’t monetise your Instagram presence. With the proper monetisation strategy and techniques, people with only a few hundred followers are able to make several thousands of dollars.
I hope you found this post helpful. If yes, please hit the like button to let me know.
And if you have got any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below. I’ll try my best to help.
I would truly appreciate it if you please share the article with your friends and network so that they may also learn important ideas taught in this article. | https://medium.com/@learndigitalwithrahul/how-do-people-get-so-many-followers-on-instagram-9b945bbf596a | ['Rahul Dubey', 'Learndigitalwithrahul'] | 2021-09-11 14:13:30.534000+00:00 | ['Social Media Marketing', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Instagram', 'Digital Marketing'] |
Monitoring in SpringBoot 2.0: Micrometer + InfluxDB + Chronograf | PizzaDelivery Application
Let’s develop an application for a pizza delivery store, for example PizzaHut. The application will expose an api where partners can put orders for a pizza. Suppose our partners are online food ordering apps like UberEats, Zomato, Swiggy etc. Our application will receive orders, puts them in processing and then marks them successful once dispatched for delivery.
Set up a SpringBoot application by the spring initializr. Add the above dependencies. We will start with a PizzaOrderController.
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.Counter;
import io.micrometer.core.instrument.Metrics; @RestController
@RequestMapping(“/v1/”)
public class PizzaOrderController { @RequestMapping(value = “create”, method = RequestMethod.POST)
public long createOrder(@RequestParam String partnerId,
@RequestParam String type,@RequestParam String location) { long orderId = createOrder(type);
increaseCount(partnerId, “received”);
return orderId;
} private void increaseCount(String partnerId, String state) {
// Counter class stores the measurement name and the tags and
// their values
Counter counter =Metrics.counter(“request.orders”, “partnerId”,
partnerId, “state”, state);
counter.increment();
} private long createOrder(String type) {
// create order
return (long) Math.random();
} private void processOrders() {
List<Order> orders = getReceivedOrders();
int processedOrders = 0;
orders.forEach(order -> {
bool processed = processOrder(order);
if(processed){
increaseCount(order.getPartnerId(), “processed”);
}
});
} }
In the above code, we have created an api for receiving orders from our partners. Partner will send us their id, pizza type and location of delivery. We will send them an order id in response.
We want to keep a metric for orders received at a particular moment so that we can see for any spikes. We create Counter which has a measurement (“request.orders”) which can be considered as table (for SQL people) and some tags in form of key-value pairs, somewhat like columns and their values.
Counter counter =Metrics.counter(“request.orders”, “partnerId”,
partnerId.toString(), “state”, state);
measurement = “request.orders”, partnerId = “zomato”, state = “received”
This metric data will be pushed to the actuator endpoint, this work is done by the micrometer, we don’t need to anything for this. Let’s run our application and then see for results. After making random requests we get this.
Micrometer sends this data periodically to the actuator endpoints.
Micrometer is a dimensional-first metrics collection tool which helps you time, count, gauge your code
What is dimensional first?
Suppose we wanted to measure the metric for http requests. Earlier we had to create a hierarchical measurement like: http.request.count. But now we want to count them on the basis of the protocols ex: count of POST , GET requests. In hierarchical measurements, we had to make http.request.count.post, http.request.count.get two such measurements.
But by using micrometer we make only one measurement and add tags [post,get] to the measurement. We can add any number of tags to a measurement i.e we add dimensions to the measurement. | https://medium.com/@rohansaraf/monitoring-in-springboot-2-0-micrometer-influxdb-chronograf-d049698bfa33 | ['Rohan Saraf'] | 2019-11-16 21:41:01.386000+00:00 | ['Grafana', 'Spring Boot 2', 'Influxdb', 'Monitoring', 'Java'] |
The Mayans’ Lost Guide To Doing Data Science In Fast Paced Startups | The quest is what are those key practices left unsaid while working in a fast and highly chaotic environment? Are the AI foundations and computer science degrees enough to make scalable models in real life? It’s not as easy as eating cotton candy.
Driven by intellectual progress, I decided to do a review of my past experience in working with Machine Learning and Deep Learning models. In this article, I’ll be using my work experience on one of my recent projects where the aim was to predict a user’s purchasing probability for our various offerings. The purpose of this project was to help the Performance Marketing and Growth Team at HealthifyMe to evaluate their efficacy and efficiency of our sales engines respectively. I am sharing below the insights I’ve had from the same on what one needs to strive towards while solving data problems: | https://medium.com/healthify-tech/the-mayans-lost-guide-to-doing-data-science-in-fast-paced-startups-2531128aecd0 | ['Saurav Agarwal'] | 2020-09-12 16:18:33.279000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Startups', 'Data Science', 'Product Management'] |
American Hungers | “Since the influenza broke out here there has been quite an epidemic and lots of people are dying,” the letter reads:
There is not so much difference between the death rate in France and right here in this camp. Every few minutes an orderly comes in here with a death report and a couple more go down the street with a soldier who has cashed in and probably his feet will be sticking out. If his case is interesting he is put away with those for post mortem and the next day, we get a number of slides of specimens all over his body.
The author of the letter is my great-grandfather, who was writing his grandfather in October 1918, by some estimates the deadliest month in US history. (My dad, the family archivist, still has that letter — a yellowed page of flowing and faded script.) At the time, my great-grandfather was a soldier in Camp Taylor in Louisville, where he worked at a lab collecting sputum samples from flu-infected soldiers that doctors would analyze. Those grim rounds, as the letter indicates, put him on the front lines of a pandemic that was deadlier than the trench warfare still raging in northern France: the “Spanish flu,” so-called because Spain remained neutral in World War I and, unlike Great Britain or the US, didn’t censor reports of the outbreak.
Coronavirus is devouring the US right now, but the Spanish flu was even more lethal. Close to 500 million people, or about one-third of the world’s population at the time, were infected with the flu, and 20–40 million people may have died from it. (By comparison, COVID-19 deaths worldwide have recently topped one million, with a far larger global population.) The contagion even caused life expectancy in the US in 1918 to drop 12 years, from 51 to 39. All told, deaths from that flu outnumbered all the military and civilian casualties of World War I combined.
In many ways, the medical breakthroughs of the last hundred years have insulated us from the scythes of pain and illness, so it’s jarring to realize that a 21st-century plague is ripping through the US practically uncontained. So much has changed in our national life this year that I felt like I was in a dream-state and also somewhat unsurprised to stand in a CVS store this summer and hear this ad come over the speaker: “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been estimated that 54 million Americans, including 1 in 4 children, will go hungry this year.”
If “hunger” in the US today seems anachronistic, that’s because it essentially has been: That spot I heard was an awareness ad by Feeding America, and their own language on this topic is not about hunger so much as “food insecurity.” Hunger is a complex subject, in part because it’s largely subjective. To measure it, you’d have to take blood and analyze nutrient levels. Plus, life-threatening conditions of malnutrition no longer occur in the US, at least not on par with what people in the Sahel countries of West Africa might still suffer from. Instead, our dietary diseases tend to be overconsumption mixed with underconsumption. Consequently, food insecurity is a more applicable metric in the US, since it calibrates a person’s ability to access food on a reliable basis.
Food insecurity often leads to yo-yo eating, in which someone may skip meals until a paycheck arrives and then binge on cheap, calorie-dense foods in lieu of more nutritious fare. Which leads to the paradox of a country with high rates of obesity where, during 2009, in the pit of the Great Recession, more than 50 million US Americans were food insecure. That level of food insecurity, pre-pandemic, should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to the drop in our living standards over the past decade — an odd trend, considering that those standards have risen almost everywhere else across the globe.
Only the US, Brazil, and Hungary are worse off today than when the Social Progress Index was launched nearly ten years ago. Slipping from 19th place (out of 163 countries) in 2011 to 28th in 2020, the US currently ranks in the company of Cyprus, Singapore, and Malta. Our health services are comparable to what people receive in Jordan and Albania. We’re number 100 in the world in discrimination against minorities.
The coronavirus has exacerbated these ills: Around 10 million people in the US reported losing their jobs in the second half of March. By early June, unemployment claims spiked to 40 million. Layoffs soared. Food prices shot up. Two months into the pandemic, one in six adults was food insecure. Perhaps the saddest stories to surface, though, might be the 14 million children who don’t have enough to eat.
In May, photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally set out across the US to chronicle people on the edge of hunger. The photos she took are of families at prayer, neighbors taking meals to their friends, volunteers delivering food to the homeless. But they’re also images of want: Kids cradling bags of donated bread. Kids sitting on crates reaching into bags of Cheetos. Kids eating spaghetti on the floor of a homeless shelter. Among households with children, one in three has reported having insufficient food. According to Lauren Bauer at the Brookings Institution, that is “the highest level in nearly two decades the government has tracked hunger in America.”
Studying the faces of these kids, it’s hard not to feel that our policies have failed them. Back in March, Congress passed legislation that expanded food stamps benefits and broadened nutrition assistance for kids and made cash payments to most households. Since then, though, talks for a new stimulus relief stalled in August, and the chance of a bipartisan deal before the election looks “dim.” Which is just too bad for people waiting in cars lined up bumper-to-bumper en route to food banks. Or workers earning under $14 an hour. Or anyone who has suffered an eviction or a vehicle repossession or the loss of healthcare since March.
From Justinian’s Plague to the Black Death to the Spanish flu, poxes and pestilences have been recurrent features of human existence. But what seems appalling about COVID-19 in the US today is that our response to it has been cavalier and scattershot. A nation that can freeze debt and print money without restraint and produce a relief bill if our lawmakers simply hustle has instead bungled this recovery. Our president admits he downplayed the coronavirus. A Cornell study found that Trump is the single largest driver of misinformation about the pandemic. Trump, along with many others, also rushed to reopen the economy. The result? With just 4% of the world’s population, we have 25% of the world’s coronavirus cases.
One consequence is food insecurity — one of the starkest examples of our lack of investment in our own people.
Now it seems that the liabilities we’ve ignored for generations have come due. For years we saw month-on-month gains in the stock market and assumed everyone must be doing better. We believed there was no need to underwrite affordable housing or healthcare or a higher minimum wage. And now time has found us out.
These days, in the middle of another dark October, I’m inclined to think we have had such a high standard of living that we’ve lost any frame of reference for the great catastrophes of our history, such as the Spanish flu or the Great Depression. And yet the nation feels as if it’s quivering on the edge of mass unrest. So many ingredients for violence are simmering: the pandemic, an election that already feels compromised, the anger of a nation polarized along party lines. These are hallmarks of social decay. Physical and social hungers, persisting too long, lead to chaos, nationalism, democracy dying in daylight.
Witness the circuslike squabbling of the first presidential debate. Trump’s attack style approximates (or shapes) our public discourse. The way he yelled over Biden and Wallace alike gave him a weirdly voracious aspect, as though the maw of his contempt could swallow everything before him — all the crowds, all the air, all the country itself.
But the pandemic cannot be yelled away. The pandemic serves no agenda. The pandemic simply eats us. We are all its prey, even Trump, and the metrics and forecasts we’ve set for how long it’ll run its course or how many people it’ll kill all turn out to be Pollyannish. Seeing the death toll climb month-on-month, marching upward just like the stock market, it’s also hard not to wonder: Are we even trying to live up to our aspirations for democracy?
Consider just a few of the darker anomalies about the US: We’re the only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. We have, by far, the highest prison population rate in the world. And — along with Cuba, Comoros, and Palau — we have signed but never ratified the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the UN adopted a half-century ago in the dream of guaranteeing people across the world the rights to housing, clothing, water, and food.
Every administration for the past 50-some years, Democrat and Republican alike, has refused to honor this treaty. Instead, in roughly the same timeframe, we made the decision to set out in the opposite direction: suctioning $2.5 trillion each year from the bottom 90% of workers into the hands of the ultrarich. What else can we conclude, except that our legislators — and the vested interests that often dictate their decisions — regard workaday people as sores on the body politic?
In an earlier post this year, I argued that the coronavirus has laid bare how the US only values people who can already afford to ignore disaster. Now it seems the situation is even worse than that. A plague, one of the nightmares of history, has returned, and we are looking upon ourselves for what we are: A country ravenous for profit, feeding on its own people.
Special thanks to Alisha Wheatley and Nick Otten for insights and concepting and Matthew Zoeller for art direction. | https://wolfordcharles.medium.com/american-hungers-84b84a23dba5 | ['Charles Wolford'] | 2020-10-28 14:45:44.746000+00:00 | ['Food Insecurity', 'Elections', 'United States', 'Coronavirus', 'Hunger'] |
The Stranger Across the Room | It’s been a year now since Ben died, and I never got an answer to that question. Not that it matters anyway, as no one talks about that incident anymore. James sure as hell has never mentioned it again, not after the principal gave that announcement to the whole school, in October of tenth grade, that a fellow student had died.
I’d spent the night before that announcement at Ben’s house, binge-watching Quantum Leap in his basement until around midnight, when his mother all but forced me to go home. “It’s a school night,” she’d said with a smile. “Don’t you kids need sleep?”
Ben had spent the night laughing and sneaking us beer from the fridge, and nothing was wrong with him, really. Which is why it was so surprising when I got to my first period class the next day to find Ben’s seat empty.
I immediately texted him, You’re not dead, are you?, and I swear I meant it as a joke. I figured, at most, that he’d been hungover and missed the bus. Ben wouldn’t skip a full school day unless his appendix was about to burst. But a few hours later they announced he was dead, and I didn’t react at first, and then I realized that nearly everyone in the class was staring at me, anticipating a reaction, and then James looked at me with genuine concern for the first time in years, and the reality of it all finally hit me.
The reality of it all is still hitting me. It’s not as bad as it was those first few days, but nearly every day I’ll walk past a kid on the way to class and the kid will look vaguely like Ben, and for a moment I’ll think there’s been some mistake, some sort of misunderstanding, and this is Ben walking towards me, completely fine. This feeling lasts about a second, maybe two, and then the kid gets a little closer and I realize it isn’t Ben. In fact, he barely looks like Ben at all.
Ben died of natural causes, by the way. It wasn’t an overdose, it wasn’t suicide, it wasn’t murder, it wasn’t any of the other more likely causes of death for a seemingly healthy fifteen-year-old boy. He had some sort of undiagnosed heart condition, and his parents had found him that morning collapsed on his floor, unable to move or speak, but still conscious. They called an ambulance and he died on the way to the hospital.
I think about that ride to the hospital a lot. I try to imagine how his parents reacted when they found him. What did they say to each other? How did they pass the fifteen minutes it took for the ambulance to reach them? I try to imagine how Ben handled it. Did he understand what was happening? Did he understand he was dying?
I think about Ben when I put on my glasses each day. I think about him whenever someone mentions contact lenses. He’d started wearing them during the summer before ninth grade, and I’d been there with him when he’d made the mistake of itching his eye too much, which caused the lens to roll up and dig itself deep into his eyelid where he couldn’t reach it. He started freaking out, and I started freaking out, and then after a couple minutes he accepted that the lens would be stuck in his eyelid forever. Turns out, all he had to do was blink a bunch of times and the lens would re-expand on its own.
I think about him now as I walk home from school. About how in his obituary, his mother had included “writing stories” as one of his hobbies, and how in the six months we’d been friends he had never once mentioned that he liked to write. It explained a few things, like how he was always writing stuff down in class even when there was nothing to take notes on, but it still stings that he never let me in on this. Why wouldn’t he have let me read them?
Because I’m the type of person who’d laugh at him for having a weird lunch box. There doesn’t need to be a better reason than that.
I’m not taking the bus home today because James takes the same bus, and I can only handle so much of him these days. My house is maybe a mile away, and the weather’s cloudy but warm, so walking home is hardly a big deal. I stop by a deli on the way. This place is usually packed at this time, as high school seniors always drive here after school, but today it’s nearly empty. I eat my second lunch of the day at one of the wooden tables outside.
A few minutes pass, and someone else sits at the table beside me. He exists as a blur in my peripheral vision for a few minutes, but when I do turn towards him, I freeze. I watch the kid take a sip of his Arizona Iced Tea, the type Ben would get every single time we’d come here together, and for a moment I can’t talk. My legs have gone numb, my throat’s gone dry, and it takes another few seconds before I can get his name out.
“Ben?”
The kid turns to me, and I wait for that inevitable moment where it isn’t him and I feel like an idiot, but that moment never comes. Ben smiles and waves to me, as if the last year hadn’t happened. As if we’d just spoken earlier today.
“Hey Dan,” he says.
I get up and walk towards him. I’m crying now, but Ben doesn’t make fun of me for it. He stands up and I hug him as hard as I’ve hugged anyone. I hadn’t let myself cry at all lately and it all comes tumbling out now. For once it feels good though. It feels like I’ll never need to cry again.
Ben pats me on the back and after a while says, “I’m sorry it’s been so long,” and around this point I feel stupid and let go. I have to get a good look at him again before I sit down across the table, just to make sure it’s still Ben.
“What happened?” I ask. “They told me you died. You had some sort of heart attack…”
“No, that was just a misunderstanding,” he says, with a small laugh. “There was a mix-up at the hospital. I was in a coma for a few weeks but I never actually died.”
I should ask more, I know, but I don’t need an hour-long explanation as to where he’s been and what he’s been doing in the time he’s been gone. All I want to do is keep my eyes on him. If I turn my back on him for even a second, he might disappear.
“I gotta tell Ashley about this,” I say, taking out my phone. Ashley had been Ben’s girlfriend for about two months, and then she broke up with him two weeks before his death. Afterwards Ashley and I would hang out a lot, torturing ourselves with stories of how we’ve let Ben down in one way or another. I would tell her about those first few times I tried to bring Ben along to parties, where I would barely say anything in his defense when the other kids — mainly James — would make fun of him. She told me about how she’d started a rumor about him in seventh grade that she’d caught him masturbating on the bus, and how the story had spread around like wildfire.
“I don’t even know why I said that,” Ashley had said to me, the night after the funeral. “And I’m amazed that Ben wanted anything to do with me afterward.”
“I mean, you apologized, right?” I’d said. “It was back in seventh grade. We were all assholes in seventh grade.”
“Ben wasn’t.”
I would tell Ashley that she had nothing to worry about. Ben had talked about Ashley constantly once they’d started getting along, with never a bad thing to say. I would tell Ashley about how before their first real date Ben had spent at least two hours texting me pictures of himself in his bathroom mirror, trying on different shirts, asking for my feedback. His excitement had been contagious; I’d spent that whole evening on my living room couch with TV playing in the background, waiting for the next picture.
That Ben had so easily forgiven her for the rumor never did much to absolve Ashley’s guilt, just like nothing she said to me ever absolved mine. It had taken me weeks after I first talked to Ben to realize he was worth hanging out with, and it took even longer to realize that he was my only real friend. Once, back in eighth grade, I showed James a song I liked, and after listening for ten seconds he wrinkled his nose and said, “Are you serious, Dan?” and I never listened to that song again. I would try to listen to it with headphones, but I would feel stupid listening to it. I couldn’t enjoy it.
Ben, though, would never made me feel stupid for liking things. I hadn’t realized how important that was.
But Ben is back now, and he’s right in front of me. He looks normal, healthy, exactly as I remember him. He smiles self-consciously as I take his picture.
“I know things ended kind of weird between you two,” I say as I send Ashley the photo, “But trust me, she misses you a lot.”
Below the photo I write, Ben’s alive!, and send it to her.
While I do this, Ben finishes his drink and tosses it into a nearby trash can. “You know, we never did finish Quantum Leap,” he says.
I grin. “I haven’t watched another episode since. Not the same watching it alone.”
Ben nods towards the pick-up truck across the parking lot. “See that?” he says. “That’s mine.”
“No way that’s yours.”
“Oh, it is,” Ben says with an excited smile. “Turned sixteen six weeks ago, my parents got me this.”
“That’s amazing,” I say, although this doesn’t really seem like the type of vehicle Ben’s parents would buy for him. His dad had driven a Prius, his mom a minivan. Ben himself would always point to the picture on his wall of a silver Camaro and say, “See that car? That’s gonna be my car. Just wait a little.”
I get into Ben’s truck with him, and he drives out of the parking lot. My phone vibrates, and it’s from Ashley. That’s not funny, was all it said.
I frowned, then chuckled. “She doesn’t believe me,” I say to Ben. She probably thinks I’m sending an old picture. No seriously, I text her. That’s him. I met him today at the deli. He’s really back.
I put the phone in my pocket and turn to Ben. He’s driving the car, focusing everything on the road ahead.
“Is driving hard?” I ask him. “I’m taking Driver’s Ed this summer.”
“It’s okay,” Ben says. “It stresses me out a little. Well, everything stresses me out, but driving especially. Left turns specifically, they’re the worst.”
I can’t stop smiling as he talks, this is so surreal. I’ve imagined this scenario dozens of times, about what I’d say to him if I ever got to see him again.
Feeling a little stupid I say, “I missed you, man. I really did.”
Ben eyes leave the road for a moment, as he nods at me. “I missed you too.”
“I’m sorry I treated you like shit sometimes, I shouldn’t have let James be such a dick to you.”
“Seriously, Dan. Don’t worry about it.” He says this kindly, like he really means it. Of course he means it. Ben has never been the type to hold grudges, and he always thought I was better than I am. Always so quick to forgive. Always so quick to assume the best of me.
Eventually Ben pulls into the driveway of an unfamiliar white house. “We moved,” he says simply, and I accept it.
“Your parents home?”
Ben looks around the empty driveway. “Doesn’t seem like it.”
My phone buzzes, from Ashley again. Are you serious?, she says, and I respond, Yep. 100%. Then I walk behind Ben into his new home.
“Alright, so, my mom still demands everyone take their shoes off before they walk in,” Ben says, and I smile with nostalgia as we take off our shoes and put them to the side. Ben leads me to the basement, which in his old house had always been his hangout spot, giving me a quick tour of the other rooms as he did so. “…Yeah, so that’s the living room, that door over there’s the bathroom, the door to the garage is down that way…” He leads me to the basement, which has all the same posters on the walls as the old one. It even smells like his old basement, a bizarre mix of root beer and fresh rain.
My phone starts ringing. “It’s Ashley,” I say, and Ben nods.
“Alright,” he says, “You want something to drink? There’s a lot of soda upstairs.”
“Yeah, a Coke’s fine,” I say, and as he walks upstairs I answer the phone. “Hey, Ash.”
“Dan.” Accentuating every word, she says, “If this is supposed to be a joke, it is the least funny joke in the fucking world.”
“It’s not,” I say. “I’m serious, it’s really him.”
She sounds like she’s about to cry. She takes a deep breath before saying, in an almost soothing voice, “Ben’s dead, Dan. We were both there at the funeral. We saw his body at the wake.”
I let out a shaky, uncomfortable laugh. “No, that was just a misunderstanding. You should come over, see for yourself. Ben’s fine now, trust me.”
“Dan, that person in the picture you sent me? It’s not Ben. It doesn’t look anything like Ben.”
I pull up the photo I sent her and examine it carefully. Is Ashley playing a joke on me? Because that’s not funny either. She’s talking to me like she’s trying to talk me down from a ledge.
“Of course it’s him.” My voice is trembling. “It looks like him, sounds like him. Who else could it be?”
“Where are you right now?” Ashley says. “Please tell me you didn’t go with him anywhere, the guy looks like he’s sixty.”
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” I say. “It’s him, just fucking accept it.”
I hang up the phone. She immediately calls me back. I turn my phone off. Ben walks down the staircase with the drinks in his hand. He’s already poured both sodas into glasses.
“Everything alright?” he asks.
“Everything’s fine,” I say, and take my drink. | https://medium.com/make-it-personal/the-stranger-across-the-room-be052881d802 | ['Matthew Black'] | 2020-08-09 12:01:01.947000+00:00 | ['Mystery', 'Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Young Adult Fiction', 'Writing'] |
VideoTours360- Grow your business, e-commerce or real estate in the Pandemic | The software guides you through each step and the setup is finished pretty quickly. If ever you need help with something, the support team is on its toes, no worries.
It comes with a ton of features that… see for yourself
Video detailing- Simply insert a video overlay that will play the review or details of the specific item when clicked by the customer.
Tour Experience Optimization powered by AI and Machine Learning- The Built-In AI technology analyzes the behavioral patterns of your visitors…learn what part of the tour people like… and show that part first to new visitors.
Intuitive Tour Builder- Advanced artificial intelligence technology suggests and creates tours based on your preferences.
Add and customize Hotspots- You can simply add and edit hotspots as you like! Select the size, color, icons of your choice & lots more…
Live video Chat- Interact with your audience even while being miles apart. Give the humanistic touch while pitching your property via a tour or your product at your E-commerce store.
Gamification & Incentivized rewards- Offer coupons, discounts, and freebies after customers open a certain number of hotspots or spend a certain amount of time inside the tour.
Product Sales- Sell your products over their sophisticated E-Commerce portal allowing customers to get the feel of the product through augmented reality.
Build an Email list- Collect databases on the go! You can have all your potential customers’ details on one list and contact them easily!
Integrated — Autoresponders, Webinars & Appointment booking- Compatible with all major autoresponders. You can host webinars to interact with all your leads at once or allow them to book a slot for personal interaction through Calenly.
Add Floor Plan- Add the floor plans of your property and allow your audience to understand the spatial dynamics as exists in real life. This is a powerful feature for all those in the real estate, education, and hospitality industry especially.
Add Multiple Scenes- You can create a holistic view by adding multiple scenes.
Add Background Music- Retain the attention of your leads by adding a melodic soundtrack that is synced to perfection with the visuals of your tour.
Conversion Boosters- Easily add customer reviews with ratings to all your virtual tours & stores and convert every visitor into a paying customer.
Auto Rotation- Allows people to watch the tour and shop effectively by rotating and fitting to screen.
Embed Anywhere- Embed the link of your store and tour on to your website or social media platforms.
Export Self Hosted- Enables you to export and upload tours on your own server!
Google Analytics- Integration with Google Analytics gives you access to the insights from your analytic codes within the campaign.
VideoTours360 lets you host all of its services on the Cloud, without the hassle of having to download and update stuff.
The founder of VideoTours360, Ifiok Nkem is an official member of the Forbes Business Council and has launched several successful products over the years
VideoTours360 is set to revolutionize the business, real estate, and even the hospitality and education sector. If you are a business owner, a real estate agent, or anyone who is wishing to get back or even increase your customer/client count then this product is for you.
Well, only so much can be put into words. To better understand how this product works, head over to their official page and take a look at the stunning demos and a whole bunch of other features. Click on the button below…
With all the positive reviews and feedback this product has received, we were compelled to test it out and see for ourselves. And the result is this article where we basically push you towards buying it.
There’s a limited time offer and they also provide a 30-day money-back guarantee, if you were wondering.
Disclosure- The link for the official page of Videotours360 has been embedded in each ‘VideoTours360’ keyword for easier access. | https://medium.com/@ssashok/videotours360-grow-your-business-e-commerce-or-real-estate-in-the-pandemic-a713fa4a18d6 | ['Srujan S Ashok'] | 2020-12-28 09:30:30.855000+00:00 | ['Business Development', '360 Video', 'Pandemic', 'Real Estate', 'Ecommerce'] |
Secret Seeking | I have always loved finding secrets in the world. By “secret” I mean something I believe has truth but is not widely accepted or well known in mainstream thinking. The word secret may not be exactly the right fit but it has the right feel. The following are among my favorite (and disclosable) secrets I have encountered over the years. Some of you will be privy to these. Some of you will feel your blood pressure rise with skepticism.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
I remember my heart pounding when I watched UFC 1. For the first time we would see fighters from the various differing and siloed martial arts compete against each other. The fighting world was turned upside down and forever altered by the success of Royce Gracie utilizing the beautiful and effective art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Royce would be on his back underneath his opponent in what looked like a vulnerable position. And then surprisingly he would easily win with a choke or an arm bar submission.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was developed by brothers Helio and Carlos Gracie. I consider them geniuses. They recognized a simple fact — that most fights eventually end up on the ground. And so they focused and refined their art to be highly effective in this scenario. Most martial artists ignored this fact and as a result they were helpless against a skilled Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner.
If you were lucky enough to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu prior to the early 90s you were privy to this wonderful secret and would have a significant advantage in any one on one fight. It allowed a smaller and weaker but more knowledgable practitioner to dispose of larger and stronger opponents. The secret was revealed to the world in the early UFCs and now every MMA fighter incorporates ground fighting into their repertoire.
Ben Hogan’s Secret
Ben Hogan’s swing is something beautiful to behold. There is a grace and perfection to it that is beyond description. He is widely regarded as the best ballstriker the world of golf has ever seen. His swing is also very unique and there are very few people who come close to swinging in a similar fashion.
Ben Hogan always claimed that he had a secret that he discovered which allowed him to strike a golf ball with effortless accuracy and power. He supposedly revealed this secret in a Life Magazine article. However, many believe that he did not reveal the full secret in the article or his books. There’s a little corner on the internet with golf enthusiasts who have intensely heated arguments about his secret. Many books have also been written on the subject. I personally believe he was a genius and he did find the secret to golf but I don’t think anybody has been able to solve this puzzle (at least publicly).
I spent 10 years of my life trying to find his secret on my own with zero success. In fact my golf swing deteriorated during the process. I’m a very terrible golfer in general and have little athletic talent (and the yips) so that has been a big hindrance in my search. I have an intuition that his secret was something he did in his setup prior to taking the club away as opposed to something he tried to perform during the swing itself. I believe his swing was perfectly preset in such a way that he just had to swing the club back and through without thinking or performing any manipulations. Although I have mostly given up the search, every once in a while I get an idea to try and go test it out. And inevitably, I abandon it as another failed idea. Perhaps some day.
Update: I may have finally figured it out after 14 years for golf and in general.
Bitcoin
I learned about bitcoin from a posting on an ex-google employee investing board. A friend whose opinion I respect, mentioned that it was the most asymmetric investment opportunity he had ever seen. This meant that while bitcoin may have had a pretty high chance of going to zero, if it succeeded its value could turn out to be very very high.
Bitcoin is very complicated to understand and requires an understanding of computer science, an understanding of what gives something value, and probably a healthy dose of dissatisfaction with the current financial system. If you were a computer scientist gold bug you probably had the best chance of appreciating the potential of bitcoin.
It was eye opening to see the reaction of mainstream economists and financial experts to bitcoin. There were very many of these so-called experts (from famous economists, to academics, to industry titans) who expounded on bitcoin with an air of authority and confidence. However, I could easily tell that they generally had absolutely no idea what they were talking about and did not understand the mechanics of bitcoin at all. Since then I have learned to keep an open mind in questioning narratives pushed by mainstream thought.
I believe the cryptocurrency movement is going to radically change society in a way that few people appreciate right now (although this seems to be changing). And how crazy is it that we still don’t know the identity of Satoshi?
Psychedelics
A few years ago, my friends Mike and Shin recommended that I read a book called How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollen. The book documents the current resurgence in the use of psychedelics for treating psychological disorders. There is mounting evidence that psychedelic therapy has incredible benefits for treating disorders like PTSD and depression. Johns Hopkins just recently received a large grant and opened up a center to focus on exploring the benefits of these profound medicines.
I had grown up sheeplike drinking the kool-aid and lumping most drugs as being equally bad and destructive. LSD and psilocybin were right down there with heroin and meth. But now I realize there is something special about psychedelics. These drugs have been used for spiritual purposes throughout history and across many cultures. There is something profound and I believe potentially very beneficial when they are used in the right manner. MDMA and psilocybin will likely be approved as prescription drugs within a few years.
After reading the Pollen book, I wanted to explore these personally. I was lucky enough to find an amazing guide and have experienced a few journeys. While some of them have been very difficult, they have helped me rewire my mind in a positive direction. I’m also possibly going to visit Rythmia in Costa Rica next year.
However, I caution anybody interested, to do their own research. These drugs are not to be treated lightly and can be abused.
Nonduality
Windhover at Stanford
This one is going to sound somewhat out there.
I recently attended a conference in San Jose called SANDs where I met a fellow named Akilesh Ayyar. He introduced me to the concept of nonduality. After a deep dive the last few months, I’m now of the opinion that there is a profound truth here.
Nonduality is basically another term for nirvana, enlightenment, liberation, moksha, realization. It’s a concept that seems to be common among segments of many different spiritual traditions (Advaita Vedanta and Dzogchen for example). Aldous Huxley describes this in his book The Perennial Philosophy. These terms carry a lot of baggage though and probably will turn off a large number of people. Sam Harris has recently been trying to bring this concept into the secular mainstream with his book Spirituality Without Religion and his podcast and app Waking Up.
I believe you can view nonduality from a secular and psychological standpoint. One way to look at it is as the opposite of depression. In depression, your awareness is intricately tied up with your negative thought patterns. With nonduality, you try to pull your awareness as far away from these thought patterns as possible so you can experience greater internal peace.
One thing I have noticed is that many of the proponents of nonduality are extremely intelligent and eloquent. I have been a very left brained person my entire life and have applied my logical mind and intense focus and effort to very scientific and logical endeavors such as computer programming. If you are interested in studying consciousness, you can take this same logic and effort and try to apply yourself with a scientific approach by studying the brain. However, you have direct access to one consciousness only and that is your own consciousness. So I feel that the practice of nonduality is to take that same logic and effort and turn it inwards into your own mind.
Nonduality is not just a philosophy but an actual meditative practice. In the last decade or so, mindfulness meditation has moved into the secular mainstream. Usually you perform mindfulness meditation at a particular time as a sitting meditation. The meditation for nonduality is something that you perform with effort throughout the entire day. Vedanta describes two practices — self inquiry and surrender. Loch Kelly recently wrote a book called Effortless Mindfulness in which he is trying to promote the practice of this new kind of meditation.
I personally have already experienced some benefits from practicing the nondual type of meditation. This has given me an intuition that there is something special and true here. Be warned though — you may realize something shocking about yourself and reality that is beyond words and will completely shatter and transform your perception of life. To learn more you can read my article Nonduality Algorithms. | https://medium.com/@ejhong/secret-seeking-1965abd70c16 | ['Eugene Jhong'] | 2021-04-15 13:13:02.655000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Psychedelics', 'Jiu Jitsu', 'Nonduality', 'Ben Hogan'] |
Focusing For Success | There is one characteristic that can be applied to achieve all types of success.
By
Oliver T. Spedding
Success comes in many forms and there are myriad books on how to achieve it.
But there is one characteristic that can be applied to achieve all types of success.
There’s nothing magic about it and the more you think about it, the more logical it becomes.
There are a huge number of books on the market that claim to tell you how to become successful.
Most of them focus on the way we need to think consistently to become successful.
What has become more and more obvious though, is that successful people have three dominant characteristics; they establish the one task that can make the biggest difference in their present situation, they prepare to tackle this particular problem thoroughly and then they focus on solving that one problem exclusively.
CHILDHOOD
When we are young, our lives are regulated; we rise at a specific time each morning and go to bed at a specific time, our meals are taken at specific times, our schooling follows specific times and our leisure time is also controlled.
But as we grow older these regulations are gradually phased out and we have far more choices or challenges to make.
It’s these lists of challenges that define how successful we are.
The longer the list of challenges is, the more likely they are survival challenges; tasks that don’t have a material influence on our lives.
They merely help us get through the day.
IMPORTANT CHALLENGES
The lists of important challenges that will change our circumstances drastically or solve major problems that we face are always a great deal shorter.
These challenges are such that, if they are resolved, will make everything else easier or unnecessary.
These challenges are the ones that can and will shape the future.
The important thing that needs to be done is to identify these important challenges and the results they will produce.
We need to sit down and analyze each challenge and identify what influence it has on our lives or the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
We need to identify the one challenge that will make the most significant difference to our situation and allow us to overcome the major obstacle we are facing.
We need to ask ourselves what is the single undertaking that I should do to solve the most important challenge that I’m facing?
Once we have identified this challenge we need to focus on resolving it exclusively.
MULTI-TASKING
Much has been made in the past about “multi-tasking” but in reality, multi-tasking is the quickest way to mediocrity and even non-achievement.
Trying to do even two tasks at the same time will result in both tasks receiving less attention than what they should be receiving, with the result that neither task will be as successfully concluded as it could have been.
Each task will interfere with the other in some way, and this can easily lead to mediocrity and possibly even failure.
Computers are extremely focused machines and, unlike people, they only processed one piece of code at a time.
Because of the speed with which they process their codes, they mistakenly appear to be multitasking.
But because of their programming, each task that they perform is first completed before the next one is taken on.
Each completed task then allows the next task to be dealt with.
They follow a logical progression that eventually leads to the final solution.
This is how we need to think.
We need to ask ourselves what do we need to do that will solve the major problem that we’re facing and will make everything else simpler or unnecessary?
But it doesn’t stop here.
Once we’ve identified the solitary thing that will lead to success, we need to plan the strategy that we will follow to achieve the desired effect.
Just like a computer, we need to have a progression that we can follow.
As an example, assume that you are planning to bake a cake.
Firstly, you need a recipe, and then you need to work out the order of the tasks that need to be followed.
By mentally going through these tasks before beginning, you create a sequence of tasks that will end in a delicious cake being produced.
Most recipes today, provide the baker with this process, but in most cases outside baking a cake, we have to create our own sequence.
FOCUSING ON THE TASK
Once we have mapped out the sequence that we need to follow, we need to discard all other tasks and focus completely on this one task.
By doing this, we can devote our full attention to what we are striving for and vastly increase the chances of success.
And, as the task progresses, we will gradually become aware that many of the other tasks that we faced will either disappear or become less significant.
Trying to do some ironing while you’re baking the cake will more than likely result in the cake being mediocre or flopping and the ironing being sloppily done.
The result from developing the habit of complete focus is inevitable: you produce the success you are searching for and also greatly simplify your life.
Most people believe that they have too little time to do all the things they need to do, whereas what is actually happening is that they are trying to do too many things in the time they have.
Success is not about doing everything right, it’s about doing the right thing.
The more time we spend on finding the one task that will have the most profound and positive influence on whatever we’re facing, and focusing solely on that problem until it is successfully completed, the more successful we will become.
Photographers acknowledgements
Man facing sun — Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash
Child doing homework — Photo by Jerry Wang on Unsplash
Girl with telescope — Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash
Woman in kitchen — Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash
Target 2 — Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash | https://medium.com/@ohteecreative/focusing-for-success-5e3c2447ceaf | ['Oliver Thomas Spedding'] | 2020-12-27 02:17:54.055000+00:00 | ['Focus', 'Multitasking', 'Challenges In Life', 'Lists', 'Success'] |
Online Clothes Shopping Buying Clothes Made Easy and Comfortable | Shopping has been a difficult task one has to experience in today’s busy world. For this reason, online shopping sites have been sprouting now and then. We cannot deny the fact that shopping online is hassle-free and it only takes a minute or so to purchase the desired product. A broad variety of choices in both men’s and women’s apparel is available at the online clothing store.
Buying clothes from online clothes shopping sites is a simple task to do. Some basic steps in online shopping are:
1. One should take a look at the various products you want to purchase.
2. Select the item. by simply clicking on it.
3. The site will then redirect you to log in using your online clothes shopping account and pay the bill using PayPal or another net banking system.
4. Delivery will then be made within the said time.
You need to find a trusted online clothes shopping site to purchase your product from. Problems may happen when shopping online. When this occurs, do not panic. This article will help you to help you choose a decent online clothes shopping site.
1. Complaints about the lack of quality — Possibilities are people will complain about the quality of the product they have shopped online. The remedy for this is a direct replacement for the goods
2. Complaints about delivery problems — Clothing items and apparel are sometimes not delivered on time. This is caused by courier difficulties. Chances are companies offer a cash-back system. People will now get their product at a guaranteed time.
3. Strictly, what you order is what you get — Do you know what I mean? Often, people select clothes in haste without scaling the color and the size properly. So, when buying online you should think about the product whether you like it or not. But good online clothes shopping sites allows an exchange offer but for a LIMITED time only.
The wide variety of clothing choices available makes the customer more comfortable to choose from. The real advantage of buying apparel on an online clothes shopping site is that there are huge discount deals available from time to time.
Shopping online is grouped by various factors such as brands, prices, styles, etc.
Online clothes shopping sites is now the trend in this corporate world. Consumers must also know the site well before purchasing any product from them. | https://medium.com/@kavinpaker/online-clothes-shopping-buying-clothes-made-easy-and-comfortable-8958f1f53b09 | ['Kavin Paker'] | 2020-02-20 07:59:47.832000+00:00 | ['Online', 'Brands', 'Online Shopping', 'Clothes', 'Dresses'] |
11 Lessons Publication Creators On Medium Can Learn | Photo by harishs on Pixabay
11 Lessons Publication Creators On Medium Can Learn
ILLUMINATION is no doubt one of the fastest growing publications on Medium. Less than a year old, the publication according to its founder has almost 6000K writers and 52,000+ readers.
When I was accepted as writer about two months ago, I had not realised that the publication had only been a few months old by then.
I love writing for ILLUMINATION. It’s the one publication on Medium where none of my stories have ever been rejected. I have been asked to rectify a few things here and there though before my stories were eventually accepted and published. I don’t want to spread the narrative that ILLUMINATION is a publication where anything goes.
I recently created a publication called A List Of My Favourite Things and I have been doing my research in order to find out ways to grow it and ILLUMINATION has been my core benchmark on this journey.
Here are lessons I picked from ILLUMINATION and the owner of the publication Dr Mehmet Yildiz.
Diversity and Inclusion
Illumination publishes many different kinds of stories covering as many areas as possible. From poetry to essays, to stories about innovation, technology, agriculture, humanity, medicine, love, relationships etc.
That way the publication attracts writers and readers from diverse backgrounds and interests.
Do you not have a place to publish your story about lettuce farming in your backyard? Don’t worry. Illumination will share your story with its thousands of readers.
The creator of the publication must be the kind of person that embraces diversity and encourages it. He believes in never leaving anyone out.
In my estimation, this is one of the core reasons ILLUMINATION has been able to grow that fast in such a short time period.
Collaboration
Dr Mehmet Yildiz believes in collaboration.
He provides a platform for other publication creators to introduce their publications to ILLUMINATION followers to seek out followers, writers and readers. He also provides a forum for writers to introduce their mailing lists and newsletters.
I can attest to this firsthand as after I created my publications A List Of My Favourite Things, I wrote a story about it that was accepted and published in ILLUMINATION.
As put by Dr Mehmet Yildiz himself, “I see Medium publications as a collaborative extension rather than competition to our publication.”
Empowerment
ILLUMINATION is the kind of publication that is run by a person that believes in giving people chances.
Illumination is one of the few publications on Medium where your story is least likely to get rejected. And before the editors reject it, they will let you know the reasons why and ask you to rectify the errors.
It’s also a place where your stories will find a home even if they have been previously rejected by other publications. Some of my stories that have been rejected by other publications for one reason or another and are eventually published on ILLUMINATION end up doing very well.
From what I have noticed, Dr Mehmet Yildiz believes in giving people chances and in the process empowering them and helping them to achieve their objectives and to succeed.
Freedom
There are also very few rules when publishing for ILLUMINATION. Other than the core Medium guidelines for publishing a story, Dr Mehmet Yildiz allows the artistic expression of writers to thrive.
As an avid reader of stories on the publication, I see all kinds of stories written in diverse styles from diverse writers.
ILLUMINATION is not the kind of place where all stories are about writing, making money on Medium, or love and relationships — which are topics covered thoroughly on Medium.
Here you will find stories about languages, farming, frogs, antelopes, etc. This freedom also goes hand in hand with diversity.
The two also help inform my own writing and will help guide the direction of my publication.
Stories written for my publication will be accepted in as many different formats as possible. This a tip I picked from ILLUMINATION.
Creation
Apart from ILLUMINATION, Dr Mehmet Yildiz also runs ILLUMINATION-Curated and Technology Hits among other ventures.
He is usually creating something new every now and then. He never settles for just one success. He pushes the limits and ventures out for the next one.
He is also looking for ILLUMINATION to be among the top ten publications on Medium and I am confident that this is a fete that will be achieved very soon.
That is what we can borrow here. To reach out for more.
Engagement
The regular stories and updates about outstanding stories on the publication, daily digests, welcome notes to new writers, etc. constantly keep me engaged on what’s going on in the publication.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz will mention you in a story when relevant and that will draw your attention to it.
Daily digests and outstanding stories are also my to go to places in reading stories from the publication. They help ensure that I don’t miss out on what’s going on in the publication.
Connection
Other than just engaging Illumination writers and followers, Dr Mehmet Yildiz connects with them.
Out of his busy schedule, you will find that he connected with you on your story that he resonated with by clapping or commenting on it.
He also adds that you may mention him in a story that you would like his personal attention to, that you may contact him on Medium or email. To top it all, he has created a Slack workspace- a way for ILLUMINATION contributors to communicate easier and to connect.
This connection has made me more engaged in ILLUMINATION than other publications that I follow or write for.
Community
There is a sense of community on ILLUMINATION as opposed to other publications. You will regularly receive emails and notifications about new stories from other writers with Dr Mehmet Yildiz reminding you to engage with them.
The engagement, connection and communication that Dr Mehmet Yildiz nurtures is what creates the sense of community on ILLUMINATION.
Passion
In my estimation, Dr Mehmet Yildiz is able to successfully do all these things because he has a passion for it.
Due to his background in and passion for Technology he created Technology Hits to allow writers in this area to contribute their stories.
Here we learn to have a passion for what we do. It will help us in fueling our ventures to success.
Leadership
Dr Mehmet Yildiz does not run ILLUMINATION alone. He has a team of editors who help him.
To ensure that his dreams, goals and objectives for the publication are achieved, he displays leadership in the selection of editors and in communicating his visions clearly with them.
He also does this regularly to followers and contributors to the publication through daily digests and newsletters.
That to me is a portrayal of leadership. Guiding those working alongside and with you on your vision and how best achieve it, and informing and updating those whom you serve regularly on all matters in the community.
Hard work
Running successful publications on Medium, among his other ventures and his personal life notwithstanding must be taxing and must also require a lot of hard work.
Accepting stories, reading and publishing them. Writing daily digests and newsletters must occupy a lot of his time and energy.
While running these publications, Dr Mehmet Yildiz also writes and publishes non publications related stories on Medium and on other platforms.
If that is not serious hard work, I don’t know what is!
He teaches us to work hard. | https://medium.com/illumination/11-lessons-publication-creators-on-medium-can-learn-from-dr-mehmet-yildiz-of-illumination-a836eeffb12a | ['Gal Mux'] | 2020-12-12 00:08:33.847000+00:00 | ['Publication', 'Publication Support', 'Medium Publications', 'Leadership Skills', 'Publication Spotlight'] |
First try at UX design. | I’m a graphic designer and an illustrator stepping into the world of UX design. Yesterday, I wanted to try and understand the basic principles and the process involved in User Experience design. For this, I started out by watching videos on Youtube and read a few articles on Medium. After noting down a few key points, I set out to try and learn things my own way i.e. by Reviewing.
Here is the basic UX process carried out for majority of the products.
Understanding the problem
Research
Planning
Visual Design
Development
Testing and Quality assurance
Product launch
Each product also undergoes the cycle of
Design
Prototype
Test
Validate
To ensure maximum usability and convenience.
Review process
First, I selected an existing android mobile application (UberEats), then I made note of the user’s Needs and Wants for that application to be launched in the market.
Next, I wanted to understand the userflow or how the application would guide me throughout the process (Order food). I took screenshots and started wireframing every screen I came across. For each screen, I listed out the contents of the screen, what was that particular action on the previous screen took me to this one. Then I made note of the pros and cons of that screen and also the key element(s) of that screen.
These images show the wireframing of few screens related to onboarding, delivery details, restaurants, menu items and basket. The contents of the screen are listed on the right along with the userflow, key elements and actions.
This exercise gave me a great insight on how the userflow works from the beginning till the main objective was completed. I learnt about all the screens that were required to make the application, the number of screens it took me to complete the main objective of ordering the food, and the number of actions performed by me (like typing, tapping and scrolling) to complete the main objective and also other tasks (like how many times I had to tap to move from the main screen to the edit profile screen). By doing this analysis, I learnt that by reducing the number of user interactions, the convenience is increased, and by providing the right number of options, the user doesn’t feel restricted due to less options or confused due to more.
Thank you for taking time to read this article. Please show your appreciation and encourage me on my UX journey. | https://medium.com/@irakshithn/first-try-at-ux-design-853d4602febe | ['Rakshith N'] | 2019-02-11 18:13:12.976000+00:00 | ['Design', 'UX', 'User Experience Design', 'User Experience', 'User Research'] |
Thanksgiving BetGalaxy Update | Happy Thanksgiving from the BetGalaxy Family to yours!
There has been many exciting developments and new additions to BetGalaxy! We would like to go over them with you here!
Perk Station
One of the more exciting new features that is nearing completion and right around the corner! Perks! This system grants our users additional benefits for playing on BetGalaxy! There are 6 different perks categories with 3 duration options(4, 8 and 24 hours) inside each.
10% Increased Cashback Rewards
10% Increased Referral Rewards
10% Decreased Galaxy Boost Qualification Cost
10% Decreased House Edge
10% Increase in Rank Up Speed
25% Reduction to Galaxy Boost Wager Requirement for Qualification.
As well as, a very unique mini-game! Galaxy Throne! The Galaxy Throne can only be held by one person at a time. The user in the Throne seat is earning constant rewards for holding that seat! Every wager placed on the platform has a 1% rake of the house edge that is rewarded to the Throne holder in the form of BUSD.
These perks are purchased with Galaxy Bucks. Galaxy Bucks are earned when you wager on BetGalaxy. Galaxy Bucks can also be purchased with non in-house currencies!
Migration to One Token and PancakeSwap
We have migrated from 4 in-house tokens down to one singular token. Galaxy Token (GLXY). All dividends now flow to the one GLXY token.
Token Specifications:
Network: Binance Smart Chain
Supply: 12,000,000
Contract Address: 0x1c58F9031fBCFd99aFb3d39071d199416FF25353
Trading: PancakeSwap
The Cosmolorians NFT
We have launched our NFT GameFi project, The Cosmolorians. The Cosmolorians is our first step towards entering the Metaverse. The Cosmolorians will bring with it a PvP-based Play-to-Earn (P2E) gaming experience and is associated directly with the BetGalaxy platform and Galaxy Token ecosystem.
The Cosmolorians can be purchased from our Mint Sale at: https://TheCosmolorians.com
Whitepaper: https://TheCosmolorians.com/TheCosmoloriansV1.1.pdf
New Playable Currencies
We have recently added some new playable currencies! These currencies are:
Galaxy Token
Shiba Inu
HEX
New Events Structure
We are adding new events that will run continuously. Per community request, we will soon have separate events for Dice, Crash, Wheel, and Slots. These events will run every day, with the time of day it runs out also changing daily to allow for more time zones to participate.
Reminder: No one has yet won the Referrals Event prizes!
New Slot Games
We have just added 42 NEW Slot Games from various providers! It includes the popular hit Big Bass Bonanza Megaways from PragmaticPlay!
Spinomenal:
Fortuna de les Muertos II
Lucky Jack — Tut’s Treasures
Book Of Demi Gods II Reloaded
Story Of Egypt — 10 Lines
Run Chase
Story Of Vikings
1 Reel Monkey
PragmaticPlay:
John Hunter and the Quest for Bermuda Riches
Big Juan
Bounty Gold
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways
Spadegaming:
Wild Wet Win
Royal Katt
Gold Rush Cowboy
Blueprint:
Thai Flower Megaways
Luck O’ The Irish Gold Spins
Quickspin:
Reno 7’s
Book of Duat
Tomhorn:
Mine Mine Quest
Cricket Mania
Yggdrasil:
WinFall in Paradise
Hypernova 10K Ways
Tiger Tiger
Savanna Roar
90k Yeti Gigablox
Playson:
Solar Queen Megaways Buffalo Power: Christmas
Booongo:
Gold Express: Hold and Win
Candy Boom
BoomingGames:
Mighty Gorilla
Money Moose
Caleta:
Kabaddi Raiders
Bollywood Nights
Premier League Cricket
Diwali Lights
Lords Balcony
Endorphina:
3 Thunders
Belatra Games:
Pirate JackPots
NetGame:
Fishing Kingdom
BGaming:
Road 2 Riches
Platipus:
Diamond Hunt
Big Slots Update
We have a very exciting announcement regarding Slots coming right around the corner. Many will be happy to see what is coming!
SHIBA Exclusive Promotion
In December, we will be launching a SHIBA exclusive promotion. This will be a very enticing promotion to the SHIBA community! Stay tuned.
Conclusion
We are consistently working hard to improve and bring fun new features to the BetGalaxy platform. In the coming months we have many features and some surprises planned. We want to thank all of you for coming along for the ride! We have a bright fun-filled future ahead, and again… Happy Thanksgiving | https://medium.com/@betgalaxy/thanksgiving-betgalaxy-update-f9f9f3e6e8bb | [] | 2021-11-25 08:02:29.240000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Gambling', 'Blockchain', 'Casino', 'Bitcoin'] |
Part Two: Doing too Much Loses Wars — Like Afghanistan | By Mike Nelson and Jennifer Cafarella, NSI Visiting Fellows
Mistakes are inevitable in war. The recurring strategic failure the United States experienced in Afghanistan demands serious reflection, however. There is no question that American leaders should have done better — both at home and in Afghanistan. While we cannot soon repair those mistakes, it is essential that we learn from them and ensure they do not recur in other theaters.
The serious debate about objectives that should have shaped U.S. strategy as the Taliban fought to reclaim Afghanistan’s future never materialized. In the absence of an informed and engaged public, U.S. leaders escaped greater scrutiny and isolationist narratives took root. Americans did have basic expectations regarding the war, however. Americans both within and outside the military expected to never again face the terror and loss we experienced on 9/11 and to deliver justice for those responsible. Many envisioned a better future for the Afghans. After all, that’s what the greatest nation in the world ought to be able to deliver.
U.S. leaders only recognized a hard reality that undermined our efforts as we headed for the exit: the Taliban would never come to the negotiating table absent a role in Afghanistan’s future. President Trump’s effort to broker compromise between the Taliban and the Afghan government came too late. The military balance had become a stalemate and U.S. will had eroded. The decision to cut a separate deal with the Taliban in exchange for a U.S. withdrawal doomed Afghanistan to a new phase of civil war in which the Taliban could gain the upper hand over the government.
However, the United States did accomplish some positive outcomes that were central to our initial purpose in entering the war, albeit far short of victory. The United States has enjoyed twenty years of relative safety from al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks due to the pressure the U.S. maintained on al Qaeda leaders and networks in Afghanistan. The United States also revolutionized our special operations capabilities, creating advantages our adversaries dream of replicating and which are necessary for the new phase of competition with rising powers like Russia and China. U.S. leaders should be identifying these important outcomes for the public.
The U.S. also achieved some objective good. An entire generation of Afghan girls has received an education. Many have gone on to universities in Afghanistan and abroad and have made — and will continue to make — enormous contributions to their nation’s legacy. Millions have received medical care and other services that were unthinkable under the Taliban. These outcomes are a disappointing minimum given the scale of our effort, but no less important to the Afghans whose lives we’ve changed.
Afghans now face a dark future, however. The most likely and best-case scenario would be for the Taliban to control only a few provinces and occasionally extend attacks into government-controlled population centers. Yet, the rate of districts falling to the Taliban as U.S. forces withdraw indicate it will be much worse. The Taliban could again march into Kabul to seize control. Regional instability will add fuel to the fire, including competition between India and Pakistan, backed by China. Transnational jihadists will flourish. The Taliban is already allowing al Qaeda to scale back up operations from areas it controls and could allow new external attacks. U.S. leaders are again failing the public by glossing over or putting positive spin on the outcomes we’re accepting as we leave.
Americans cannot afford to fail to learn the lessons of Afghanistan. U.S. operations in Syria already reflect similar mistakes. In Syria, the United States has pursued lofty objectives that are unattainable with the levels of resources committed, such as a nationwide ceasefire. U.S. operations have achieved important wins, including defeating ISIS’s physical caliphate, but risk becoming an open-ended conflict absent achievable near-term objectives. Just like Afghanistan, early military successes and opportunities have been hampered by indecision and vague objectives. The differences between the Syrian war and the one we’ve abandoned in Afghanistan are numerous, but the harmful policy habits that contributed to our defeat in Afghanistan could cause us to lose important gains yet again.
Fredrick the Great famously warned, “He who defends everything, defends nothing.” America’s experience in Afghanistan demonstrates that he who dedicates effort to win everything — with nothing clearly definable — may well win nothing. Wholesale retreat from the world, as some advocate, is no solution for the world’s challenges or America’s failings. Avoiding threats does not deter them and refusing to face difficult challenges will not produce the good leadership Americans and Afghans alike deserve. Leadership requires action, along with the humility to recognize error and the courage to remedy it. We failed to deliver this in Afghanistan. But there remains no nation more capable of accomplishing its bold aims. Americans simply must rediscover the will.
Jennifer Cafarella is the inaugural National Security Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and an NSI Visiting Fellow.
Michael D. Nelson is an Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel and currently serves as Professor of Military Science and Chair of the Military Science Department at George Mason University.
Previously, he served as the Deputy Director of the Commander’s Action Group at United States Central Command for General Joseph Votel. In this capacity he served as a direct adviser to the CENTCOM Commander and was responsible for coordinating all strategic communication between the CENTCOM Commander and political and military leaders throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. | https://thescif.org/part-two-doing-too-much-loses-wars-like-afghanistan-6ba68ed7fb69 | ['Mason Nsi'] | 2021-07-06 15:14:46.303000+00:00 | ['Military', 'Afghanistan', 'War', 'Conflict', 'Featured Analysis'] |
How to walk | courtesy of http://www.5minutesformom.com/
Unless you live in a parallel universe or a world of your own, all living creatures have to learn how to walk.
When a baby is born, it will take him several months before he attempts to undertake this massive project that walking is.
As easy as it now is to us, do consider that it represents a great achievement for an infant given the amount of courage it takes, the consistency of application, the flexibility and ability to adjust that it requires. It’s attempting something for the very first time with all the mixed emotions that come with it, whether the fear of the unknown and fear of failure or the excitement of an adventure and the blood rush of risk taking.
There is a very important prerequisite a toddler must meet before he can walk.
Before he takes his historical first step and inflicts sentiment of fierce joy to his genitors, a toddler must first learn how to stand.
It shook me today when this common knowledge became uncommon. When I saw things under a different light. Nature itself teaches us that we cannot achieve anything unless we are able to stand. To take a forward step, you need to first hold your ground.
This is why so many projects fail. This is why so many dreams are given up on. That’s because people are thrilled to walk but have got no spine to stand.
You must be able to stand against opposition, contrary ideas, discouragement, harsh market conditions and sometimes even your own reality, before you make any progress.
He who can stand, can walk but he who is eager to walk without the structure of a spine, and muscles to balance will surely and suddenly fail.
Before you attempt your next step, ask yourself this question : can I stand? | https://medium.com/100-naked-words/how-to-walk-e565ebddb59 | [] | 2017-07-12 09:01:00.591000+00:00 | ['100 Naked Words', 'Poetry'] |
Local | Local
I was barely awake when the train pulled into a station. There was a heavy, dusty fog outside.
My coup was empty, which was strange because I remember watching an old lady put on her teeth from a box. I also recall a pot-bellied man belching loudly right next to me. The two giggly women that offered me an orange and a pack of biscuits were also missing.
I was awake.
The seats were empty and broken, luggage was strewn around like garbage and there was black dust all around.
I may have spotted a huge orange peel nearby but I was too disoriented. As I was getting off the train, I noticed the entire bogie was deserted.
Did I miss my stop? I glanced at my watch. The clock was striking 18.26. My train didn’t reach my stop before 19.20.
I was scared. I didn’t know what was happening.
I stepped out through the door into the platform to investigate. There was a loud din in my ears.
I could hardly see anything because of the fog. I started walking along the train. The other bogies were right there but something didn’t feel right.
As I walked, the fog started to clear a little and so did my sense of hearing. There were wails in the distance that sounded like death.
Suddenly, out of the fog, I saw one of the giggly women limping towards me. Her face was covered in black soot and a wet red. I could only recognise her by the dusty orange clothes she wore.
She limped towards me. Her hair was sticky with the blood. She wasn’t giggling anymore. She had a look of terror in her eyes as she walked past me.
What happened at this station?
I followed the woman slowly as she limped to our bogie. She stopped right in front of the window of our coup and looked in.
And then, a blood-curdling scream.
What did she see?
I ran up to her and looked inside.
There were 3 and dead bodies right in our vision. The old woman lay face down on the floor, lifeless. The upper half of the pot-bellied man lay right beside her in no particular fashion.
The woman’s body was mutilated. An iron rod pierced her skull to her jaw and her eyes gaped wide.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
And then, I saw it.
I saw my own body on the seat. I couldn’t see my face because it was smashed into the blades of a fan. The blades had sliced through my throat.
Instinctively, I touched my throat and I could feel no skin. Shards of broken glass and mirrors lay around. I picked one up to get a look at myself.
The reflection had no face. It was just blood and loose-hanging skin with traces of white bone.
I stared.
…
The news channel blared in the background.
“Just In: Bomb blasts in Mumbai locals and stations — Matunga, Khar, Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Mira Road.”
“In what seem to be terrorist attacks, over 200 people have been killed and more than 700 seem to be gravely injured.” | https://medium.com/shpookies-short-horror-stories/local-92c8b8cad2a0 | ['Rapti Gupta'] | 2020-11-16 15:18:30.139000+00:00 | ['Mumbai', 'Horror', 'Fiction', 'Terrorism', 'Scary Stories To Tell'] |
What the heck is JSX? | What the heck is JSX?
React is a JavaScript library that uses a syntax called JSX this stands for JavaScript XML. It is a syntax much like XML/HTML that can co-exist with JavaScript code. This means we can write HTML like content and combine it with JavaScript.
This syntax is intended to be used by a preprocessor like Babel which converts this syntax into JavaScript that the JavaScript engine can run.
JSX is a concise HTML like structure in the same file as we write the JavaScript code. Unlike in the past, we can put HTML into JavaScript.
So let's see some code, as we’ll get a better sense of this doing that.
const html = <h1>Hello World</h1>
This looks like a cross between HTML and JavaScript. Babel is able to detect this is JSX and transform it into the following
const html = React.createElement('h1', null, "Hello World")
Babel takes this JSX code we give it and takes the tags and content and uses them as arguments for React.createElement function. Think of JSX as a shorthand way of calling this function React.createElement . The React documentation calls it ‘syntactic sugar’ for React.createElement
You can see how much easier JSX is to read, particularly when you start nesting JSX. It is not a template though! It is the syntax that has to be compiled into JavaScript.
For the purposes of the examples, we will assume that JSX gets converted, this is sometimes called rendered by React into working DOM nodes that get displayed on the page. This just reduces the complexity down of this article to focus just on JSX.
Why use JSX
JSX is not created by React, it’s an extension of the ECMAScript. You can use React without JSX but here is why most don’t.
Less proficient coders can get started early and understand and modify it easily. Designers are also more likely to understand it! You leverage the power of JavaScript without having to learn a template language. But remember JSX is not a template, it’s a syntax to express tree structures of a UI component JSX promotes the idea of inline styles, which has been a shift from previous ways to develop websites
JSX Rules
The first part of the JSX tag determines the type of React element. We have seen this in a simple example.
Capitalising tags indicate that the JSX tag is referring to a React component.
We can evaluate JavaScript within our JSX by using curly braces
const html = <h1> Hello {1+2} </h1>
If we were to convert this and display the output HTML, the JavaScript 1+2 would evaluate and the result would be
Hello 3
We can nest these JSX elements
const html =
<div> Here is a list
<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
</ul>
</div>
React will render this into a list of items!
You can render a list on the page using a list of JSX expressions.
This is more complicated, don’t worry if you don’t get this.
const todos = ['finish doc','submit pr']
const html =
<ul>
{todos.map(message =><li> {message}</li>}
</ul>
If we give this JSX to react if evaluates this JavaScript within the curly brackets. In this case, we use the map function to create an array of JSX. We take the todos array items and wrap a <li> tag and the output is a list of the array’s items.
const html =
<ul>
{[<li> finish doc</li>,<li>submit pr</li>]}
</ul>
Then JavaScript interprets the JavaScript in the curly brackets and renders the bullet-pointed array items we created.
false , null , undefined and true are valid JSX, but they don’t get rendered by React onto the page.
<div>
<div></div>
<div>{false}</div>
<div>{null}</div>
<div>{undefined}</div>
<div>{true}</div>
Beware, some falsey values DO get rendered. 0 for example still gets rendered.
The fact that they are valid JSX, and they do not get rendered to anything on the page means we can create situations where we can conditionally render certain JSX.
Based on conditions, we can tell React what specific JSX we want to render
For the moment, assume that if a tag with Capitalised First letter name a /> is a React component, don’t worry about knowing exactly if you’re unfamiliar with it. React builds from elements up to components as it becomes more complex, and they can be written in JSX like so below.
<div>
{showHeader && <Header />}
<Content />
</div>
Here we want to display the header component if showHeader variable is true. If showHeader was false, the Header component would not be seen on the screen!
This is not the end to JSX. But to understand how to properly use it and how it properly fits into the React code, we have to understand a few other concepts. Like how does React turn this JSX into something on the page.
The ReactDOM.render() function which converts all our JSX eventually into DOM nodes. We also have to understand what components are and how to create React components. Lastly to fully utilise JSX we need to understand the concept of props. Prop stands for properties and it is React’s way to pass Data down into components. This is incredibly useful and we will get to that!
Other Articles
About the Author
I’m a practising medical physician and educationalist as well as a web developer. Please see here for further details about what I’m up to project-wise on my blog and other posts. If you want to get in contact with me, please do so here: [email protected] or on Twitter @aaronsmithdev. | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/what-the-heck-is-jsx-da3f9f701fd8 | ['Aaron S'] | 2020-11-12 08:17:19.382000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Programming', 'Javascript Development', 'React', 'JavaScript'] |
What Went Wrong With Dark Phoenix? | Credit: 20th Century Fox
Woe to thee, red-headed step-child…
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is not as bad a movie as it’s being made out to be. It’s not a very good movie, either. Oddly, in some ways, it remakes X-Men: The Last Stand… a very bad movie. Dark Phoenix is also not the movie it was originally intended to be. The film as released isn’t the movie test audiences saw, according to Screen Rant. There were heavy reshoots — the entire third act re-shot after test screenings.
Writer and director Simon Kinberg and his cast were quite candid about that. Kinberg told Collider it was to make the movie more grounded:
“Mostly we focused on the third act, both emotionally and in terms of the physical scale and the action of the third act that we adjusted. And then there were certain things in the first two acts of the movie — very few things, but to set up those changes in the third act we had to adjust some things in the first two acts so that that all was fluid and felt consistent.”
And James McAvoy, who plays Charles Xavier, told Yahoo! Movies (via Screen Rant), that ‘Dark Phoenix’s initial ending changed “a hell of a lot” during reshoots, adding that it had to evolve because “there was a lot of overlap and parallels with another superhero movie that came out… a while ago”. However, in the actual video, McAvoy seemingly starts to say “recently” before changing to “a while ago”, leading some to speculate that he’s talking about a film that only came out a few months back.’ — Captain Marvel.
What changed? Reportedly, a giant showdown at the United Nations in New York. An alien armada attacking from space — repelled by the Phoenix, perhaps sacrificing herself. The identity and mission of the aliens also reportedly changed. Originally, whoever they were, Jean becoming The Phoenix caused some sort of disruption on their world, and they declared war on humanity. They manipulated Jean into losing control to launch a mutant scare, to get the superheroes out of the way so they could strike. Jean and Scott Summers — Cyclops — relationship was said to be on-screen for more time. There was more character development in general. In fact, there was said to be a great deal more dialog in the initial cut.
Dark Phoenix began creative development before 20th Century Fox was taken over by Disney, but was finished and has now been released after the fact, so it is in reality a sort of stepchild. Timing suggests Disney didn’t have much to do with the changes in the movie. Not directly. But, anticipating the takeover certainly could have changed the way executives at Fox handled the film. Something sure did.
First of all, no matter the public spin, the reshoots scream Budget Cuts. Let’s get real — they went from a planned, effects-heavy space battle to a train trip and throw-down on a soundstage. Call this deductive speculation, if you must. However. Test screenings often show audiences animated storyboards instead of CGI — minimal FX. There could be some truth in the spin. Maybe, presented this way, it was jarring and confusing, and didn’t test well.
Something in the audiences’ reactions led the execs at Fox to say, “Scrap the Space Crap — Put ’Em On A Train!” I imagine some cranky old Fox exec for whom this is a standard response, as the Science Fiction TV series Firefly on Fox — based in space — was forced to re-shoot its pilot episode. And re-set it on a train. But I digress.
Test screenings may have been intended to justify the budget. Special Effects are expensive. If test audiences didn’t absolutely love the film, Fox might not want to keep pouring money into it. Kinberg had expressed interest early on in both grounding the moving on Earth, yet also spoke of embracing the cosmic side of the X-Men comics. It may be that the tone changed too much in the space-based third act for test viewers.
How much did the aliens change? An early rumor had Jessica Chastain cast as Princess-Majestrix Lilandra Neramani, empress of the Shi’ar, not Vuk of the D’Bari. Actor Tye Sheridan, who played Scott Summers, told the Reelblend Podcast (reported by Collider) that the aliens were Skrulls, but were changed to D’Bari. A last minute change to the D’Bari makes sense — the D’Bari are so little seen as aliens on screen, this may not speak to their stealth so much as to their entry into the project at a time when the SFX budget was just about gone. It appears the aliens were changed to D’Bari late in the process, when it was discovered Captain Marvel had gotten to the Skrulls first.
But the aliens could well have been the Shi’ar before the reshoots. The release of the film was pushed back twice. The Shi’ar are a big part of the original storyline in the comics, after all.
In the comics, the Phoenix “saga”, if you will, took about four years and thirty-six issues to tell, and the Shi’ar were all over it.
It begins in the comics as it does in the movie, as Jean Grey dies saving a space shuttle from a powerful solar storm, and is reborn as The Phoenix. Jean at first enjoys growing more powerful. The alien Shi’ar Lilandra shows up looking for help against her mad brother, the Emperor, and The Phoenix ends up saving the Universe from an unstable neutron galaxy the Emperor tried to tap into. In so doing, she sees her power is nearly limitless.
The Phoenix does superhero stuff for a while, until the Hellfire Club enters the picture. Jason Wyngarde, the evil mutant Mastermind, unknowingly unlocks restraints in Jean’s mind as he entrances her in a delusional past, convincing her to help the Hellfire Club capture the rest of the X-Men. They plan to damage the X-Men’s public reputation by turning an uncontrolled Jean loose. But Mastermind’s illusions break when Jean grows too strong and she starts helping to free her friends.
Jean shows incredible power and ferocity taking down evil mutant Emma Frost, and renders Mastermind a vegetable by expanding his consciousness into infinity. And as the X-Men, now freed, are leaving, Jean loses control of herself and becomes Dark Phoenix in an eruption of power that explodes the X-Men’s Quinjet over New York City. The X-Men try to subdue Jean in an all-out battle. They fail.
Jean lets rip an enormous amount of energy — a giant flaming Phoenix appears over New York City — then heads to the stars. She powers up by diving into a sun, not caring that its wanton destruction kills five billion D’Bari on an orbiting planet. A Shi’ar warship witnessing the destruction tries to stop her. She wipes them out as they report it all back to their Empress — Lilandra.
Jean returns to Earth, scares the crap out of her family, and the X-Men show up and again try to subdue her — and Charles actually seems to succeed. But former ally Lilandra and the Shi’ar show up to kill The Phoenix. The X-Men disappear, beamed up to waiting Shi’ar spacecraft to face an interstellar court. The Phoenix and the X-Men then enter a trial by combat on the dark side of the Moon — until The Phoenix force again bursts forth from Jean, and she blasts the Shi’ar before they can kill her, or scorch the Earth in the process
The X-Men try to finally stop Jean. Kill her. She begs them to — she can’t control The Phoenix force. They each try, but cannot, and finally Jean lures Scott in front of some old weapon which she somehow triggers — and, in her weakened state, kills herself. An alien lurker known as The Watcher then observes that, “Jean Grey could have lived to become a god. But it was more important to her that she die… a human.”
How much of this was in Simon Kinberg’s original Dark Phoenix? The movie as released was so much… less. And yet, given rumored details from the test screenings, and even some of the locations in the released film, much more of the above could have been in there.
Did Kinberg, upon getting notes saying cut all the cosmic crap, realize the limited imaginations of execs led them to simply want a remake? I imagine him writing the train scene, which parallels the prison truck scene in X-Men: Last Stand, saying, “They want Last Stand? I’ll give ’em Last Stand!” (twirls mustache).
Given Sheridan’s disclosure that the D’Bari were originally Skrulls, most have assumed this was the change McAvoy was referring to — but he said there were a LOT of overlaps and parallels. Perhaps there was a similar plot twist to Captain Marvel that had to be un-twisted as well — where aliens who had seemed bad turned out to be good. The Shi’ar, in hunting Jean, could have seemed bad, but have turned out to be good when the Phoenix went Dark.
They could also have been Skrulls throughout, up until the final change to the D’Bari. Unlike their status in Captain Marvel, the Skrulls in the comics have, at times, been imperial overlords in their own right, and could have stood in for the Shi’ar in the movie, even in an earlier, space-based third act. This tracks with another pet theory — that Jessica Chastain wasn’t meant to be Lilandra — or Vuk, for that matter — but Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club… who could have been revealed to actually be a Skrull.
There are possible clues. Knowing that the movie was re-cut, and thinking about the speech Vuk gives Jean in the bar about not being a little girl answering to Xavier anymore, that dialog sounds more suited to Emma Frost than a D’Bari. And the city scene for the pre-train battle sure could stand in for the Hellfire Club. Having her turn out to be a Skrull would then have been shocking! Well, had it not been for that other little movie. With people turning out to be Skrulls. Who were actually misguided good guys.
Emma isn’t that prominent in the Dark Phoenix storyline in the comics, but her presence there at all, and the inclusion of the Hellfire Club itself in a major way, would allow for her role to be adapted in the movie. She could have taken the place of the Mastermind character — Emma is a strong telepath. It would have then been her trying to subtly lure Jean into their club through mental persuasion.
Ah, the what ifs, maybes, and might-have-beens of Dark Phoenix.
What went wrong with Dark Phoenix? Well, perhaps it’s that there is so little story left on the screen, so much cut, that there’s the nearly palpable presence of another movie in the background, trying to get out — “hey, I got a hint of something else there, why aren’t we seeing that?” It started out with good intentions, but after stripping out the “cosmic stuff” and scrapping twists and characters too similar to another movie, all that was left was a slightly better version of Last Stand.
As the inevitable post-mortems on Dark Phoenix’s fate begin to roll in, how much of their original plans will Kinberg and company now reveal? How much of the scrapped third act will be made public? So many questions! Including — will we one day see a director’s “cut” with the original third act, like Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut? Inquiring minds want to know… And, quite honestly, though all this rumor and speculation is fun, actual facts from original sources are much preferred. | https://medium.com/fan-fare/what-went-wrong-with-dark-phoenix-29447e07a944 | ['Mike Luoma'] | 2019-06-28 15:43:48.528000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Film', 'Dark Phoenix', 'X Men', 'Comics'] |
Communication requires courage, too. | Communication requires courage, too. Often, it is easier to stay in silence to avoid any unexpected misunderstanding and yet another conflict. Thank you for sharing this story. | https://medium.com/@giajiahkim/communication-requires-courage-too-12b84f8fb155 | ['Gia Kim'] | 2020-12-23 03:00:20.320000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Courage'] |
The Amusement in Freight | Just keep reading, you’ll see what I did there…
When most people think of freight and shipping they probably think of the solid color shipping containers seen piled on boats or in shipyards on TV, or just the back of an 18-wheeler barreling down the interstate next to them. They probably think of those containers as filled with cardboard boxes packed with nameless, typical consumer goods. What they probably don’t think of is giant caterpillars or UFOs being driven across the country.
Hauling America’s Amusement Rides
Here at Lync we haul all sorts of freight, and that includes hauling carnivals, getting amusement companies from one fair to the next. Fixer Justin Badgett coordinates these loads for us and explains that despite its challenges, this seasonal freight is filled with nostalgia.
Everything in a carnival must travel; from the rides that fold up and back down, the ticket booths, living quarters for crew, to a reefer truck full of chicken drums. Every part of the carnival travels together. That means a lot of freight moving at once and some companies are putting on several fairs at a time throughout the country. The rides and games are typically built on custom trailers, so Lync is generally providing just the tractor or hot-shot moves, as the fairs aren’t usually travelling very far.
How do you haul a Caterpillar?
In addition to the high volume of freight moving all at once, the other tricky aspect of hauling carnival freight is the sometimes just crazy loads. Justin has had carriers nervous of certain loads simply because they’ve never hauled anything that looks like a giant spaceship, even if it is legal. Some of these loads also have a really high cargo value, so we make sure each shipment is completely covered. We had the honor of shipping the largest portable Ferris wheel ever made; can’t mess that one up!
It’s not always just convincing carriers to accept a load, sometimes it’s making sure a load is safe to be carried. A ride was shipped in from Italy but when the driver arrived at the port to load it, nothing was to U.S. code, everything had to be shifted around to make it work. But, as fixers, we made it work and our customer was pumped.
What do you need to haul?
At Lync, we don’t worry about what kind of load you’re asking us to transport. We’re always up for the challenge and we’ll always treat it like it holds the sweet memories of our childhood. | https://medium.com/@tvinson_53233/the-amusement-in-freight-2009d364551f | ['Lync Logistics'] | 2019-11-15 13:27:26.884000+00:00 | ['Logistics', 'Carnival', 'Shipping', 'Freight'] |
The Ride 2 Stop Suicide | The Ride 2 Stop Suicide
ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2021, Aaron Hunnel will pedal 3,100 miles across the country to honor those military veterans we’ve lost to suicide. The ride aims to align military veteran organizations, communities, friends, and families to work together to solve the problem of veteran suicide — and get bikes in the hands of veterans.
“We want to get more veterans involved in this physical journey so they can experience the benefits themselves. Access and knowledge are two of the greatest barriers that exist when it comes to getting involved in an endurance sport. We’re setting out to remove those barriers — one bike and one veteran at a time.”
Aaron Hunnel, US Army
A military veteran and active duty service member with almost 17 years of service, Hunnel got into endurance racing ten years ago when he ran a marathon while stationed in Iraq. To his surprise, the experience was life-changing.
“There were times when I felt like quitting. I felt like giving up. I felt like I was going to die. And I gave myself two options. Either quit. Or keep moving forward — no matter how fast or slow. That became the mantra for my life. Just find a way to keep moving forward.”
Hunnel says one of the things the Ride 2 Stop Suicide aims to do is bring light to the veteran community and let veterans know that they’re not alone, and that there are many ways to reestablish a sense of purpose and connection to life.
“It’s connections and relationships that act as a buffer to improve our mental health and keep our thoughts on positive things. Connections and relationships make life meaningful.”
Hunnel believes endurance racing is worth so much more than the feeling you get when you cross the finish line. The preparation leading up to the race challenges and strengthens you mentally and physically, and he’s seen how the experiences — in yourself and with others — carry over into other aspects of your life.
Hunnel’s experience during a race in 2014 serves as an example and a reminder of the impact an endurance sport can have — not just on the body, but on the heart, mind and spirit.
My friend Adam and I pushed and pulled our friend Katie through the Ironman Wisconsin. Two hundred meters from the finish, a volunteer saw we were going to help Katie try to walk to the finish line. “I don’t know if you should do this,” he said. “You guys are exhausted.” Katie looked up and said, “It’s okay. I’m going to do this with my willpower.”
We picked Katie up, and together we trudged the last two hundred meters — arm in arm. Nine minutes later, people had gone from cheering to crying. As we put Katie back in her wheelchair on the other side of the finish line, she smiled. “That’s the farthest I’ve ever walked in my life.”
Through endurance sport, Hunnel learned that he had been limiting his potential, often getting in his own way. Through the teamwork involved in elite racing, he experienced the kind of connection he had previously only felt while in the military.
“When you put that uniform on, you get a sense of purpose. And when you put that uniform on with other people, you feel a sense of connection. You’re part of a team. When you leave military service or come back from a deployment, those two things can vanish. That can be tough on people.”
Hunnel believes cycling is one way to combat depression, anxiety, and even PTSD. Physical activity is one of the most powerful interventions for someone who’s struggling with their life, health, or wellness. And for Hunnel, cycling represents not only the proven mood boost that exercise can provide but also a powerful metaphor for mental health.
“For the bike to move forward, you have to pedal it. It doesn’t move forward unless you input energy by pedaling. And that’s a lot like life. If I don’t put the energy or effort into my life, I’m probably not going to move in the direction I want. The second part of that is that a bike only goes in the direction that you steer it. That’s also true in life. You have to grab the handlebars and steer it in the direction you want it to go.”
Hunnel stresses that the Ride 2 Stop Suicide isn’t just about raising awareness, and it’s not about cycling from coast to coast. It’s about moving people forward and improving their mental health with purpose through connection. He believes that bikes, along with communities, are valuable tools to improve our mental health.
“I want veterans to get these bikes and feel like they’ve gained a valuable tool for life. Together as part of a team, you gain energy, purpose and hope. These are transferable skills that can carry over into other areas of life. It can impact your work and your relationships. It can increase your desire to help in your community. The benefits are endless.”
The grueling, 22-day ride begins in Oceanside, CA, and ends in Annapolis, MD. Hunnel will cross hot and elevated terrain and likely encounter challenges along the way. But for Hunnel, embracing the struggle is what makes life meaningful. | https://medium.com/served-with-honor/the-ride-2-stop-suicide-cbe61d86437 | ['Eric Thomas Webb'] | 2021-09-10 05:38:34.208000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'September 11', 'Suicide Prevention', 'Cycling', 'Military'] |
Digital Assets Payment Industry Research Report | About TokenInsight
Founded in 2017, TokenInsight is a Leading Data & Tech Driven Blockchain Financial Institution. TokenInsight pioneered a complete blockchain industry classification system, covering more than 1,600 projects, releasing more than 300 rating reports, and conducting in-depth studies into 10 major industries.
TokenInsight’s data, ratings, and research reports have access to more than 70 data platforms worldwide, including Messari, Delta, Binance Info, AICoin, Huobi Info, etc., with a monthly PV of over 30 million. TokenInsight has officially joined the Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance (DATA), initiated by cryptocurrency ranking site CoinMarketCap.
If you like our research, please follow us on:
💡Official website: https://www.tokeninsight.com
📌Official LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokeninsight/
🔎Telegram: https://t.me/TokenInsightOfficial
🗺Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tokenInsight
📕Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TokenInsight/ | https://medium.com/coinmonks/digital-assets-payment-industry-research-report-e040c0d113ed | [] | 2020-08-08 09:04:09.617000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Digital Asset', 'Payments', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
Cotton Prices Jump After U.S. Cut Exports Twofold | Cotton Prices Jump After U.S. Cut Exports Twofold — IndexBox
Biogas Market: Getting to Net-Zero amid Energy Crisis
Join our live webinar to get insights into the global biogas market.
Thursday, November 18th, 2021 @ 10:00 am ET
IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘U.S. — Cotton Lint — Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.
In October 2021, the global cotton price jumped by +13% to $2.59 per kg, according to World Bank’s data. Global supply shows a sign of reduction, as American cotton exports dropped twofold from September to October. Droughts have wiped out a significant part of cotton crops across the U.S., reducing yield, especially in Texas. The U.S. remains the world’s leading supplier, accounting for 41% of global cotton lint exports. China, Viet Nam, and Pakistan represent the critical importers of cotton lint from America.
Global Cotton Price Trend
According to World Bank’s data, from September 2021 to October 2021, the global price for the cotton A Index jumped from $2.29 per kg to $2.59 per kg. The reducing cotton yields in the U.S. due to unfavourable weather forced American suppliers to slump exports, decreasing global market supply. The U.S. represents the leading supplier, accounting for 41% of global cotton lint exports.
Since the beginning of this year, the global price increased from $1.92 per kg in January to $2.59 per kg in October. In 2020, the global average cotton price estimated at $1.59 per kg.
American Cotton Exports by Country
Since the second half of 2021, American cotton exports have started to decline steadily. The most prominent drop was recorded in October when the supplies abroad fell from 209K tonnes to 122K tonnes over a month.
In 2020, the amount of cotton lint exported from the U.S. rose significantly to 3.8M tonnes, picking up by +7.3% compared with 2019 figures. In value terms, cotton lint exports fell slightly from $6.1B in 2019 to $6B ( IndexBox estimates) in 2020.
China (1.2M tonnes), Viet Nam (782K tonnes), and Pakistan (507K tonnes) were the main destinations of cotton lint exports from the U.S., with a combined 65% share of total exports. In 2020, the supplies to China grew threefold, while shipments for the other leaders experienced mixed trend patterns.
In value terms, China ($1.8B), Viet Nam ($1.2B) and Pakistan ($788M) appeared to be the largest markets for cotton lint exported from the U.S. worldwide, together comprising 63% of total exports.
The average export price for cotton lint from the U.S. stood at $1,56 per kg in 2020, shrinking by -9.5% against the previous year. Average prices varied somewhat for the major overseas markets. In 2020, the highest prices were recorded for prices to India ($2,12 per kg) and Indonesia ($1,62 per kg), while the average prices for exports to Viet Nam ($1,5 per kg) and China ($1,54 per kg) were amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable growth rate in terms of prices was recorded for supplies to India, while the prices for the other significant destinations experienced a decline.
Source: IndexBox Platform | https://medium.com/@indexbox/cotton-prices-jump-after-u-s-cut-exports-twofold-25288ebc6bf1 | [] | 2021-11-10 11:11:13.686000+00:00 | ['USA', 'Indexbox', 'Cotton', 'Export'] |
Getting A Mentor Like A Tinder Date | I believe people can accomplish anything they want in life if they have the right resources to get them to their destination. It is easy to flip through social media platforms to find ‘successful’ and convince yourself they are the right one to get advice from.
The question is, is it right for you? Maybe it is, and may it isn’t. I believe it will work out for a small percentage of people, and for the majority, it will not.
I genuinely believe the best accurate advice you can receive are from the relationships you have built.
Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
Having a mentor is essential for advice
When we have this vision of doing something and have never done it before, we will most likely suck at it. It’s okay, and you shouldn’t be hard on yourself.
I “suck” at tons of things.
When I decided to quit my sociology major my senior in college and jump the pre-med route, I failed my first chemistry and biology class. During the traditional work week, I don’t get the recommended 8 hours of sleep, so I make tons of mistakes. I don’t feel comfortable with public speaking, and I stutter when I trip on my words.
On top of that, I make tons of mistakes daily. I make mistakes every day at my professional job.
The only way you will reduce your mistakes is by going through the process of learning and gaining experience.
Having a mentor is the perfect way to learn. I still remember my first mentor when I was still an undergrad at Illinois State University. I actually worked in his research lab for a few years, which led me to my first scientific publish article. The thing is, Mentors can teach you a lot more than you think. During my years in his lab, I learned the importance of being organized, writing precise notes, and how time management was essential. I still use all those learning experiences as the foundation of my work ethic.
Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash
Stop looking for advice in the wrong places
This is a big reason why I see so many people going in circles. With just a few clicks, it is easy to find a super ‘guru.’ For me, I wouldn’t go this route on the get-go. I would find someone within your network first to see if they can help or ask someone within your network if they know anyone who can help. The only reason why I say this is because you have established a connection with the people within your network that will vet you legitimate resources.
Another mistake that I see that is far too common is they are asking the wrong people. From my observations, I have seen people ask questions about publishing a book to a digital marketer that has never published a book before. That is remarkably like asking my plumber for advice about health issues. The bottom line is that it is vital to ask the right people for advice who can provide you value, so you can make the right decisions now and in the future.
I hope this article helps you realize how important it is to seek the right resources for advice. | https://medium.com/@invertedleadership/getting-a-mentor-like-a-tinder-date-2c82e91a6f3f | ['Ian Golightly'] | 2020-12-18 23:54:01.632000+00:00 | ['Skills', 'Advice', 'Mentorship', 'Development', 'Growth'] |
🔐 Secure your wallet with a PIN code | 🔐 Secure your wallet with a PIN code
Set up a PIN code in the Settings tab > PIN Code.
You’ll be prompted to enter the PIN every time you open the app. After three failed attempts you’ll be immediately logged out.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be making more improvements to this experience (like adding fingerprint authentication) and rolling out more security features. Make sure you’re on the latest version and follow this blog to stay up to date!
Links for download (v1.2.483)
Google Play Store
Apple App Store
https://shakepay.co | https://medium.com/shakepay/pin-code-product-update-8-fca13da3284 | ['Jean Amiouny'] | 2018-06-27 22:05:47.426000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Product Updates', 'Bitcoin'] |
Project ‘Eximius Hardware Key’ Takes Hardware Security Keys to the Next Level | Project ‘Eximius Hardware Key’ Takes Hardware Security Keys to the Next Level
‘Eximius Hardware Key’ is the winner of the Summer 2020 Lily L. Chang MICS Capstone Award.
According to statista.com, in 2019, the number of data breaches in the United States amounted to 1,473 with over 164.68 million sensitive records exposed. Of the data breaches studied in the 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report, 24% are caused by human error, including the use of malware-infected devices, phishing attacks, and social engineering.
MICS students Jorge Montanez, Daniel Omeh, and Yu Qiao set out to prevent these data breaches with Eximius Hardware Key, which takes the state-of-the-art hardware security keys to the next level.
Eximius Hardware Key Logo
Tell us about Eximius Hardware Key.
Jorge: The Eximius Hardware Key is the next generation of hardware security keys. Leveraging technologies such as Contextual Authentication and Trusted Computing Group Remote Attestation, this key can avert the proliferation of malware-infected devices and mitigate the risks posed by the loss or theft of devices. It utilizes more than two-factors of authentication, raising the bar for hackers to not just having to steal your key, but your systems and possibly you as well.
Yu: The Eximius Hardware Key takes the state-of-the-art Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) security key to the next level by implementing Trusted Platform Module (TPM) key attestation and contextual authentication. It provides better theft protection for the users.
Daniel: The Eximius Hardware Key is different from the current state-of-the-art hardware keys because it bakes in threat modeling and secure-by-design principles, thereby making it difficult for bad actors to compromise it when lost or stolen for instance.
Secure your Accounts with Eximius Hardware Key
What inspired your project?
Jorge: Traditional Hardware Keys that only require a PIN are significantly vulnerable to theft. This limitation of standard keys inspired the search for a more secure solution. Also, Berkeley’s research into the Feasibility of One-step Three-factor Authentication with Ear-EEG inspired this project with the idea of having more than just two factors of authentication. The Eximius Hardware Key can also provide three-factor authentication by requiring a PIN (“something you know”), by having the key on hand (“something you have”) and by validating the context of the authentication (“something you are”).
Yu: During the second to last semester, Jorge, Gopal, and I designed a survey on How Knowledge of Account Recovery May Affect Multi-Factor Authentication Adoption as our final project for our class, W215: Usable Security & Privacy. I read some really interesting research papers during that time, and when Jorge later contacted me about this capstone project idea I was hooked. The contextual authentication piece was eye-opening, and I was stoked to be part of the journey.
Daniel: I currently work as a Senior Security Engineer for a consulting firm and specialize in Network Security and providing network access level security by means of Identity & Access Management, so I see the need for this kind of security as the current methods available doesn’t always do a great job. When Jorge approached me with this idea, I immediately jumped on it and dropped my own project idea.
What was the timeline or process like from concept to final project?
Jorge: The process from conception to final deliverable was hectic given the time constraints. However, it was a great learning experience and lots of fun. We had fourteen weeks to get familiar with TPMs, Remote Attestation, OpenSSL crypto library, Windows/Linux drivers, WebAuthn, CTAP, Azure, and more.
Yu: It was a continuous learning experience and a very technically challenging one. Personally I wasn’t familiar with any of the core technologies (i.e. WebAuthn & CTAP2, TPM, .NetCore, etc.). I found myself trying to catch up constantly and exploring other ways that I could better contribute to the project. I think we have always had a clear objective despite the roadblocks.
Daniel: It was a tough journey trying to complete this project within the short time frame allotted for the semester, we put in a lot of effort, and it was a major learning curve for me and the team.
User Registration Sequence Diagram
How did you work as a team? How did you manage to work on your project as members of an online degree program?
Jorge: As a team, we managed our work using Azure DevOps. With the program being online we had the flexibility to meet at a moment’s notice as ideas came about, as we ran into issues, and as we made progress.
Yu: Communication was definitely the key. We met on average about twice a week outside of class, and almost every day when the final presentation was around the corner. We communicated our concerns and contributed to the best of our abilities.
Daniel: I think good communication was one of the major keys for us, we always stuck to time and met regularly.
Trusting New Authentication Context Sequence Diagram
How did your I School curriculum help prepare you for this project?
Jorge: The I School curriculum exposed us to many ideas and technologies that inspired the work on this project. For instance, we discussed ideas such as trusted computing, trusted platform modules, and remote attestation in our Operating System Course. In the Usable Security course, we were introduced to the Trusted Path Problem. In addition, in the Cryptography course, we became familiar with Elliptic Curve Cryptography.
More importantly, it was the community at the I School that served as a catalyst for this project.
Yu: It really has paved the way for this project. Like I mentioned earlier, the Usable Security & Privacy course prompted me to look deeper into Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) technology, and the concept of Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) was introduced in Operating System Security. We also received really good guidance from Professor Matthew Garrett on this topic. The problem solving and team collaboration skills developed over the course were definitely crucial to the success of this project.
Daniel: The MICS curriculum definitely played a major role in helping us put this project together as it comprised multiple areas of the courses we took during the course of the program. Network Security, Operating Systems Security, Software Security, and the Capstone course itself just to mention a few.
Do you have any future plans for the project?
Jorge: Currently we are in the patenting process.
How could this project make an impact, or, who will it serve?
Jorge: According to the Cost of a Data Breach report by Ponemon Institute, approximately a fourth of all data breaches are due to human error, these are things such as using infected devices and falling prey to social engineering. The Eximius Hardware Key can help mitigate these human errors making it costlier to carry out cybercrime.
Yu: On a broad scale, the Eximius Hardware Key serves everyday internet users. As more people become well versed in the cyber world, better security products need to be in place to protect personal information and to prevent data breaches caused by human errors. MFA hardware key adoption should also increase over the years as the younger generation gets educated in cybersecurity.
Daniel: Eximius is designed for anyone needing additional security that gives them peace of mind knowing that their key isn’t trusted in the hands of an adversary. | https://medium.com/berkeleyischool/project-eximius-hardware-key-takes-hardware-security-keys-to-the-next-level-d1a3e77eb76f | ['Berkeley I School'] | 2020-09-01 14:38:58.345000+00:00 | ['Cybersecurity', 'Cybercrime', 'Ischoolprojects', 'Security', 'Authentication'] |
Ritual | Written By Yesenia Berroa, June 23 2016
Ritual work is seen throughout the history of mankind. It is prevalent in every spiritual belief and Religion. It exists in our daily patterns, the way we live, the decisions we make. We each have our own rituals, such as what we do when we awaken from sleep. One ’s ritual may be to make coffee and shower, while another being goes out for a run. These are all small subconscious rituals we take to produce the energy we want for the day ahead.
Ritual is about intention and belief, you create an environment, an atmosphere to enhance the belief of your success. The more energy and intention used the larger the potential of obtainment.
We live in a universe of mirrors and the energy you send out is what will echo back to you.
The most important step of a ritual is your belief. Do you believe that it will work and that you will receive your desired outcome? All other ritual steps taken such as the use of candles, crystals and even blood are all to enhance this belief. You must subconsciously believe that you will succeed… and you will.
An important thing to note is that the universe is not of ill nor good intent, it just is. It is a mechanism for materialization. You are what determines the intention. Whether it be good or bad, rituals taken will promote its manifestation.
The universe is a place of balance, of giving and receiving. Cause and Effect. We exist in a mirror and what you send will eventually echo back to you. This is known by all practitioners of magic. What you send you will receive threefold, whether it be good or bad. With this in mind, make your choice and decide what you in the long run want to manifest for yourself.
You decide exactly what kind of ritual you want to create, what kind of intention you are setting and the experience you want to have in order to intensify your belief of a successful outcome. Each ritual is unique to each individual.
Ritual is about intention and belief, you create an environment, an atmosphere to enhance the belief of your success. The more energy and intention used the larger the potential of obtainment.
How to create a conscious Ritual
Make it an event, the more details you include the stronger the ritual and manifestation.
Include the 5 elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Aether (spirit) to introduce earthly and celestial energies. Create a sacred space around nature or in your home. You can begin by commencing a period of cleansing, removing old negative energy from your body and adding positive frequencies. You can do this with meditations such as yoga, or the use of sage, palo santo or other air purifiers. The use of crystals enhances your manifestation as well as the use of candles. It is all about creating the right atmosphere to bring forth the frequency you desire.
You can also use celestial events to enhance your rituals, such as New moons, Full moons, Eclipses, and meteor showers. Planetary alignments and the use of numerology can also enhance your manifestation.
New Moon Rituals:
New moons are about beginnings. You can use this time to conduct rituals to launch a new career, enhance the success of goals and projects and set intentions for the lunar month
Full moon Rituals:
Full moons are our peak of energy. You can use this lunar energy to conduct rituals of gratitude and release of the old.
Using the exact time the moon becomes New or Full in correlation with the zodiac sign it is positioned in, will enhance your manifestations.
Example:
New moon in Capricorn
New moon= Beginnings Capricorn= structure, discipline, earth Therefore rituals conducted during this celestial event can bring about more discipline, better work ethic grounding and connection to the earth.
Ritual steps
Before conducting a ritual you must know exactly what you want to manifest, in great detail.
1.Find an environment that makes you feel safe, comfortable and inspired. This can be out in nature, by the sea, a lake, the woods, a garden. Or it can be in the comfort of your own home in the place where you feel most at ease.
2.Set the atmosphere: create an atmosphere of ease, by introducing things such as candles, incense, sage, crystals and calming music. Whatever resonates with you best, ( what are some elements you believe can ease your mind)
3.Cleanse the space: You can do this by lighting sage or any herbs you resonate with. Each herb has its own meaning/symbolism and can add different elements to your cleanse. Herbs and plants such as Mugwort, rose, lilac, thyme, bay leaf. You can also set an intention of clarity & safety for your space through the use of prayer & meditation. Calling upon your guides, or a higher power to assist you, or Imagining your space enveloped in gold. Make sure to open windows when you sage.
4.Bring balance to your mind: Do something that centers you. This can only be truly determined by you. Test out different things to see what works best for you. It can be to sing, dance, painting, reciting mantras, or breathing techniques. A quick body clearing meditation can aid in grounding the body.
5.Count your blessings and give an offering: Take time to state your gratitude for what you already have and for what you will manifest. Give an offering such as a song, a flower, the energy of love.
6.Set your intentions for the lunar cycle: You can do this by speaking them out loud and or writing them down. Making your goals, desires physical in sound or writing will enhance its manifestation. This step is very important. Keeping goals in your thoughts makes it less obtainable. They are easy to forget or lose track of. Writing it down is the first step in holding yourself accountable & a way to keep track of your manifestations and patterns in your universe.
Script it and Speak it into existence.
7.Meditate on the feeling of success. How will having what you desire make you feel? In order to experience what you desire you must match the vibration of that particular universe. Your emotion is the wheel to get you there. Meditate on the feeling of already having it. During this time ponder about what you will do with this success and who will you be when you have it? How does that person feel? And what will they do next?
8.Close the ritual: Thank the elements and your guides /higher power, blow out your candles & close the space.
9. Sit in gratitude for what is to come. Feel and know its inevitability. | https://medium.com/@yesigloribel/ritual-12b0616256aa | ['Yesenia Berroa'] | 2020-12-05 04:54:42.223000+00:00 | ['Scienc', 'Belief', 'Metaphysical', 'Ritual', 'Magic'] |
Dismantle Of Migrant Tents Leads To Human Rights Violation In Paris | Paris migrant camp has been rocked by human rights violations that has unearthed violence against media and journalists. Two police officers are under investigation for attacking journalists on more than one occasion. These officers were dispatched to remove a group of mainly Afghan migrants from Place de la République in the centre of Paris recently.
Episodes of notoriety and deliberate physical violence were filmed by the social media. One officer was found tripping a man who was running away from the police. This made him fall and injure himself badly. The second officer pinned a journalist to the ground while appearing to be threatening him with a truncheon.
Violence was also used with other immigrants that were trying to dissuade the officers from tearing off makeshift tents. This was despite appeals made to a number of local councillors, politicians, lawyers and humanitarian organisers. Immigrants from various parts of Middle East nations have been trying to find a place to stay.
The stand is ironic to the recent speeches that French president Emmanuel Macron has been making over equal rights of French nationals. It seems there is no concern for the lives of the immigrants stuck in transit. The French authorities were ordered to send in a squadron of mobile gendarmes as well as officers from the anti-crime brigade and several companies from a “security and intervention unit” to break up the camp.
This camp was relocated from an ad-hoc one on the northern edge of Paris at Saint-Denis. Several hundred migrants had set up tents in Place de la République after a call by humanitarian organisations. Literally all of them were thrown out of the ad-hoc one.
Paris is a hot spot for the stopover for migrants. Thousands have travelled from Paris to the port of Calais and attempted to stow away on trucks heading across the Channel to England. A small number attempt the crossing by boat.
https://www.theworkersrights.com/dismantle-of-migrant-tents-leads-to-human-rights-violation-in-paris/ | https://medium.com/@theworkersright/dismantle-of-migrant-tents-leads-to-human-rights-violation-in-paris-faaa10b223dc | ['The Workers Rights'] | 2020-11-26 13:37:58.061000+00:00 | ['Human Rights', 'Paris', 'Tents', 'Migrants', 'Violence'] |
What It Means to Be an Elder Orphan | What It Means to Be an Elder Orphan
I’m an elderly person with no children, siblings, or parents. I need more resources to navigate major life decisions.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
I’m an “elder orphan,” a solo ager, someone who is aging alone. That may sound depressing until you learn that the American Geriatrics Society calls me and my ilk “unbefriended.” Yikes.
An elder orphan is someone “of an age” who has no immediate family in their life. No parents, spouse, siblings, children, or grandchildren. They may have immediate family, but the relatives live too far away to be of assistance in times of crisis. There’s another scenario, as in my case, where my immediate family and I are estranged.
This means there is no one to help me with major life decisions as I age, such as moving into a smaller home or to a warmer climate. There’s no one to take care of me when I’m sick or incapacitated (mentally or due to a fall or accident). No one to help manage daily chores, including shopping and writing checks to pay bills. In a worst-case scenario, someone who doesn’t know me might be tasked with making emergency medical decisions on my behalf, including choices I might not have made. Fortunately, I’m in fairly good health, and I see my doctors on a regular basis to help keep me that way. But still, I worry.
Statistics are woefully inadequate when it comes to how many of us elder orphans there actually are, though data suggests that elder orphans — not including those with estranged families — may represent 16 to 20 percent of the U.S. population. By 2035, people who are 65 and older will outnumber people under 18 for the first time in history.
That’s not that especially far from now, and I can attest that the United States is woefully unprepared for the reality of more elder orphans. Anthony Sahlender, an executive associate at the Maryland Department of Aging, says elder orphans are a growing concern, especially “when people don’t have the ability to make medical decisions.” When someone hasn’t named a guardian, they become a ward of the state, and an expense.
And yet there are not many places I can go for information on navigating the elder orphan life. So, for the most part, I find myself turning to Facebook, where my peers have created dozens of pages dedicated to the solo-aging population. It’s in these groups that I am told what kinds of questions I need to start asking myself and what parts of my life I need to get in order.
For example: Who do I list as my emergency contact? Who will have my power of attorney? Who will take care of my pets when I can’t? If I have a medical procedure, who will drive me to and from the appointment and stay with me for the night? Where do my financial assets go when I die?
The upside of living alone means there’s no one to tell me not to eat a double scoop of ice cream.
The questions are fair, though the process of thinking through the logistics of my lonesomeness can feel dark. There’s also not much being done to help me and others prepare. The state of Maryland is working on a unique Senior Call Check program, where anyone age 65 or older can sign up to receive a daily call at a set time to make sure the person is awake and functioning. Some individual civic and religious groups also have such programs, but Maryland’s is a first for a state-based initiative. Another telephone reassurance option is available through Programs for Elderly, where scheduled calls can be made to check in on elderly individuals.
But even if I were to set up such a service for myself, most programs require a contact person “in case of emergency.” Finding or naming someone who can be available at a moment’s notice is hard when none of your options are family members.
While this may all sound disheartening — insert a woeful sigh here — there are also a lot of advantages to living alone and unattached. I ran an unofficial survey on a Facebook page dedicated to elder orphans, and my fellow “unbefriendeds” came up with a few benefits. “My time is my own to do as I wish,” wrote a jewelry designer from San Diego. “I can change my mind at the last minute. In a word, independence.”
“I’m not mired in dysfunctional dynamics from which there is no escape,” a nurse said. Another woman in the group added, “No one asking for loans for a home, car, or other worthwhile or worthless reason.”
For me, the upside of living alone means there’s no one to tell me not to eat a double scoop of ice cream, which I know I shouldn’t do, but what the heck? I don’t have to answer to anyone.
Of course, the obvious downside is the possibility of loneliness. But for me, that’s a matter of perspective. Realizing you’re not dependent upon someone else to entertain you is empowering. I keep busy with traveling, attending seminars or classes, or volunteering. I am happy and fulfilled. Sure, being an elder orphan means living alone, but it doesn’t mean you’re lonely. | https://forge.medium.com/what-it-means-to-be-an-elder-orphan-cd4fc73a68bd | ['Judy Colbert'] | 2018-12-18 17:35:30.918000+00:00 | ['Aging', 'Elder Orphan', 'Elder Care', 'Seniors', 'Life'] |
How to Play With Fire | If scientists could harness the material that makes up one’s closet door, they’d have an indestructible war vehicle that could blow us all to smithereens, but they haven’t yet, so you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that the closet door, at times, feels like steel.
It feels like cotton in your throat, it feels like water in your nose, and occasionally it feels like black smoke in your lungs.
If that’s what it feels like, I’m sure you can imagine what it does to your spirit.
The Effects of the Closet
Self-Hate and Emotional Detachment
In the closet, it’s difficult to be proud of yourself because, fundamentally, you feel slighted, oppressed, and unloved.
When I was closeted, any time I heard the words, “I love you,” I would shut down because I knew those words meant that they loved me conditionally — that they only loved the parts of me that they wanted to see.
Growing up, I was reminded of this discrepancy every day, leaving for school, and every night, when I went to bed. The cumulative result is a numbness toward anybody who — if you are not out to them — professes any semblance of affection for you.
Deluded Perceptions of Healthy Relationships
We were big classic film fans at my house and I grew up watching a lot of mid-20th-century Hollywood romance movies. I imagined meeting the man of my dreams in the same way Doris Day met Rock Hudson, or Audrey Hepburn met George Peppard. The glorious, Cinemascope love affairs I watched set a precedent for me — I wanted to meet Mr. Right, just like in the movies.
Later, I used to go for walks in the city night after night, hoping he would be leaving a department store in a wool suit and we’d catch eyes. He’d ask me for the time and then, well, want to marry me. Cue the music.
Not only was this preoccupation faulty because many classic films simply depict affairs, but people meet in all sorts of ways — not just in thematic meet-cutes. It also fuelled a delusion that drama-filled relationships were the natural mode of love and that soft-focus, teary-eyed, break-ups were necessary for a real relationship.
I was lucky to have the internet, so I fervently watched the American Queer as Folk — which isn’t much help either, if I’m honest! I secretly rented Edge of Seventeen on iTunes, and I fell down the rabbit hole of high-school Tumblr.
With no example of a healthy, functional same-sex relationship, and several Biblical examples — thanks to the parents — of why same-sex relationships could never work, it was extremely difficult to have any faith at all that I would eventually find a caring partner.
The Question of Intimacy and a Warped Sense of Self-Image
With the gay “birds and the bees” talk strictly out of the question, pornography is most likely the only example of physical intimacy that a young gay man witnesses. Unfortunately, gay pornography is extremely stimulating to a repressed young man and can become quite addictive.
Despite the facts, the message becomes clear: if I want to be with another man, I have to look like that. Suddenly, our fragile, volatile, and undeveloped bodies become an even more drastic, pubescent nightmare — what happens if I don’t look like that? | https://medium.com/rainbow-a-queer-publication/how-to-play-with-fire-9f8f362ec4b7 | ['Jess Darnell'] | 2020-08-13 03:52:24.740000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Recovery', 'Community', 'LGBTQ', 'Addiction'] |
You are the blue collar, working man, hero master. | You are the blue collar, working man, hero master. You got me all riled up. I'm ready to see what this one will do. | https://medium.com/@kcwriter/you-are-the-blue-collar-working-man-hero-master-557b48255732 | ['K.C. Knouse'] | 2020-12-08 21:17:46.845000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Diary', 'Horror', 'Magic'] |
Niftyx Protocol: product pipeline and rollout strategy | Hi Shroomies! As we wrap up this year we’d like to shed some light on what’s coming in early 2022 with our rollout plan, and also show additional sneak peeks of work we’ve done internally.
This past year has been one of transitions, introspection, waiting, planning, and finally all pieces are falling into place. We’ve gone from targeting indie games to doubling-down on AAA-quality titles. From being a pixelated meme to adopting a better brand ready for the mainstream. We have learned that quality takes time, and accepted trade-offs that allow us to not compromise or give up our vision of an open, neutral and community-driven Metaverse.
Just some growing pains! And we did everything to ensure that we end up with a future-proof project. So, here’s what to expect as we enter the new year and in what order…
What to expect — Timeline of Events
Current timeline of events as per best effort estimates
Each of the timeline items will come with a dedicated post in the coming days and weeks, so we will simply go over the overall strategy. There are more items but the general action plan for the first months of the year could be summarised in 3 simple stages.
Liquidity Improvements → Subnet setup → DEX and Game launch
This doesn’t mean that advances for each of these work streams won’t happen in parallel. We have a lot of stuff being cooked in the kitchen at the same time!
SHROOM migration and Liquidity Program.
Drawing inspiration from new algorithmic reserve currencies, we will borrow some of their innovations and apply them to our ecosystem, which already has a compelling use case as NFT trading layer.
Having protocol owned liquidity has undeniable benefits and will ultimately help us solve liquidity issues and slowly build a treasury of risk-free + ecosystem assets that can be deployed to further boost the growth of our protocols.
In the next post we will be announcing the migration plan and the new incentives to attract liquidity as well as honouring the pending rewards as soon as the new GSWAP token is issued in our upcoming subnet.
Gaming Subnet setup
Avalanche Subnets should be feature-complete during Q1, and as you know this is a moment that we’ve been waiting for over a year. Cross-subnet transfer will be the final critical feature that will allow teams to build with confidence without fears of their ecosystems being isolated.
During the Gameswap subnet bootstrapping the new GSWAP token will be issued with renewed tokenomics that we will explain in an upcoming update. The main change will be the introduction of a small inflationary process. Of course the community will need to approve any tokenomic changes.
We remain positive our Subnet will be operational at some point during Q1.
Gameswap DEX release
Following the Subnet launch focus will switch to the Gameswap DEX release, first for beta testers and then for the general public. NFT trading and protocol rewards via staking will be available from the get go.
New staking section
We have been adding additional views such as integrated bridge in the UI, Staking/Farming views, and many more that will be functional on launch day.
A superior bridging experience will help Gameswap attract liquidity to/from other chains
AAA Game dropping during first half of the year!
A lot has been talked about “the game”, and it almost seems like it’s the only topic, but we can’t stress how important it will be for the ecosystem so obviously we should all be very excited.
Not only will it be setting the bar for the quality of the assets that we expect to host on Gameswap, it will also introduce the NFT technology standards that future games will need to adopt there.
The game world is primarily set in an ‘Accretion Class’ asteroid, at geosynchronous orbit in 2126
Gameswap will be betting on new technology and it will be a requirement for listed games to integrate using it. The goal is to progressively build a AAA Metaverse, where true migration of assets from game to game is achieved flawlessly via standard primitives for trading, VFX and SFX.
The development for this game system is designed to be available as a basis for this Metaverse building process, a building block that can help the community build an open system moving forward.
Early Artwork (Q2'2021) of in-game AI (albeit a hacked AI from the Exomarts)
Weapons and characters in the game are expanded by an AI system which adds an extra dimension to the NFT collections, this is along with a number of other features that add a variety of new gameplay experiences are being kept mostly under wraps for now but will be revealed along with the game itself. Achieving composable NFTs across games will unlock new gaming experiences, this is part of a larger system that is built on a standard designed to be beneficial to both players and developers.
There are more than 30 types of weapons and other equipment being built with unparalleled details and most are ready now
The emphasis in this game world is about creating engaging stories with great characters and new, interesting gameplay.. Real quality of immersion is key, blurring the line between the real world and the game world is where the most fun lies.
We have been low-key leaking some details about what’s being built, and who is building it… so there are many reasons to be excited about the 1st upcoming trailer and game reveal in January. And obviously for the playable alpha launch during late Q1'2022 with priority access for the Niftyx community! 🎉
Next steps
The next update will cover details about the SHROOM migration after we discuss and nail down some details with the community.
We don’t want to steal more time from your NYE celebrations. So with this update we want to say thank you for being there supporting us all these past months and we want to give you reasons to believe that 2022 will be a great year for our ecosystem!
Happy Pew Year!!!
Niftyx Team | https://medium.com/@niftyx/niftyx-protocol-product-pipeline-and-rollout-strategy-85d11da38975 | [] | 2022-01-04 17:33:43.523000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Nft', 'Avalanche', 'Metaverse'] |
documenting my design journey | documenting my design journey
Hey everyone! Long time no posts….More shit went down the last month and I wasn’t able to post an article for November :(
But, I have another treat for you. I started a youtube channel recently where I’m documenting my journey as a part time design student + sharing other parts of my life and what I am up to.
I am currently taking Designlab’s bootcamp — UX Academy — and it’s been a whirlwind journey so far. It’s been great to learn something new during this crazy year and I’m grateful for the design & YT community 🙏🏽
If you are interested, check out my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgTv8Z9sPnkRGDsv7cz8lA | https://medium.com/@sabrinasukumar/documenting-my-design-journey-59b52f2f8a05 | ['Sabrina Sukumar'] | 2020-12-22 02:04:21.836000+00:00 | ['YouTube', 'Journey', 'Design', 'Vlogs', 'UX'] |
Living in the Red. Part 3 | Searching for Solutions
It takes me so long just to get clarity in writing. I put it off and put it off, choosing to simply keep doing the daily grind thing instead. I can’t seem to force myself to stop burying my head in the sand, and to do the work. Why? I’m afraid of confronting, because I’m afraid there are no solutions. The bit of digging I’ve done, offer me no solutions. Everything I read about how to handle life at this stage of debt mess, says that I have to just wait it out. 7 years before my credit can improve. I reject this. I will find a fucking way.
Last night, I put it down in writing. And basically, I’m in the red monthly, by about $1200. On the surface, that seems like a huge increase in income to somehow try to find. Thankfully, I’ve been studying financial mentors for about 2 years now, and I don’t see it as impossible. I even have real life examples, such as a friend who is getting herself out of debt by working full-time and freelancing and driving Uber on the side. She’s making $400 a week extra — exactly my $1200 needed. She doesn’t possess greater skills than me. If she can do it, I can do it.
I can’t drive Uber, at least not with my Jeep the way it is. (It’s lifted and I have no step.) I need to modify it or choose something else. My beautiful 4-door Jeep Wrangler is also a puzzle piece that is ridiculous. $600 a month car payment. And I missed my window of opportunity to trade it for a lessor car payment. Or to even refinance. I should have done it before the missed credit card payments and the downhill slide of my credit score. It’s probably too late for that now. More research to be done.
The internet is a beautiful thing, and I know there are answers to be had. But our society in relation to debt and money, is not a beautiful thing. We reward those who don’t struggle, and encourage dependency and a victim mentality on those who do. But those of us who find ourselves in this place are not powerless, and being a victim is a choice. I will not accept endless failure or reliance on federal aid, just because there is no good advice, help, or encouragement out there.
What I did last night, was a huge step. I can now see my goal in black and white. The facts for me at this point, are that I have no more choice of using credit. That’s gone and I must live within my means. This is actually a positive thing, forcing me to increase my income and decrease my expenses. I may have to give up Netflix and even health insurance for a while again. But it’s all doable. And the next step after that, is my battle with the creditors. I know they have the power to take those marks off my credit report. There has to be a way to fix/improve my credit, besides waiting it out. Just because something is accepted by a majority, does not make it an only choice. Puzzle solving requires an open mind and a bull-headed insistence for better solutions.
I’m going to find them, damn it. | https://medium.com/swlh/my-financial-journey-into-the-depths-of-hell-c92070cc93d4 | ['M B'] | 2020-04-18 19:32:49.219000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Money Management', 'Single Moms', 'Money', 'Finance'] |
Client vs Customer | Client vs Customer
What’s the difference?
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash
A customer is somebody who buys goods, e.g. in a supermarket. Or somebody who buys services like at a hairdresser.
A client uses professional advisors and services. Accountants, architects, attorneys, consultants, and sex workers have clients. | https://medium.com/plain-and-simple/client-vs-customer-df3d6a9011a8 | ['Martin Thoma'] | 2020-09-16 10:45:17.460000+00:00 | ['English Language', 'English', 'Business', 'English Learning'] |
Unmarsahl Nested JSON in Go. It is undeniable that JSON (JavaScript… | It is undeniable that JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) has gained a lot of popularity in the last years. According to Stack Overflow Trends, more questions are asked about it than for any other data interchange format.
JSON will often be the best choice when working with data and writing JavaScript code, because it is a natural format of the language. However, there are implementations for many languages, Go being one of them.
Paraphrasing from the dictionary, decode is:
to convert something into a human readable form
Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash
Go json package
The package json implements encoding and decoding of JSON. For this post we will focus on decoding, specifically nested JSON to a Go struct.
Unmarshal or decode?
Unmarshal is the function used for decoding. There is also a method called Decode in the json package, where its name is self explanatory of what it does. There is often a misconception between these two.
Which one should you use? As to every good question, the answer is, it depends. If you are reading values from an input stream, decode will be the right option for you.
We will be using the unmarshal function in this post. So let’s decode some JSON in Go!
Unmarshal
Let’s say that we have a list of libraries in JSON. And we want this information organised in a struct like this:
type Libraries struct {
LibrariesList []struct {
Name string `json:"name"`
City string `json:"city"`
Country string `json:"country"`
Books []struct {
Title string `json:"title"`
Author string `json:"author"`
Availability bool `json:"availability"`
} `json:"books"`
} `json:"libraries"`
}
The json values are important since they make it possible for the Go package to map the values correctly. If the value is missing for a specific field, it will be initialised with a zero value.
The value of librariesInformation variable is printed out with its field names and the variable will look like this:
If you want to check the code you can do so here: | https://medium.com/swlh/unmarsahl-a-nested-json-in-go-c1a953aeda2 | ['Julia Álvarez De Eulate Sainz'] | 2020-12-10 16:06:31.088000+00:00 | ['Json', 'Golang', 'Nested Json', 'Go Programming', 'Decoding'] |
Setting up a podcast from scratch | Setting up a podcast from scratch
Tips and tricks from a hobbyist learning on the job
Neck bones optional
I hate my voice. We all hate our voices, but I really hate my voice. I remember many years ago doing a Spanish degree via the Open University. Learning a language by distance learning is obviously tricky, given the strong benefits of face-to-face communication and immersion, but we used the technology as best we could. Oral assignments were recorded and sent in to be graded, which meant I had to hear myself talking a lot. I did not enjoy one single minute.
Which is why it feels weird, even to me, that I recently started a podcast focusing on Product Management & Tech. The idea came to me kind of out of nowhere, but in many ways seems a natural extension of my general desire to learn from, and teach, people with different experiences from me. So, in true Lean fashion, and to paraphrase my namesake Phil Knight, I just did it. Here are some of the things I’ve learned, in case you want to dip your toe in the water too!
First things first, choose a show format and write some spiel
There are lots of types of podcast out there. I enjoy many of them, but I tend to personally enjoy podcasts with a semblance of personality (but not too much… I don’t need pow! pow! enthusiasm.. too British for that). A couple of my favourite podcasts recently have been What You Will Learn and Talking Sopranos. These are both completely different experiences, but share a common theme of a couple of friends having an open, informal chat about stuff they’re interested in. I initially decided to go down this route but also wanted to focus on hearing a variety of stories, so decided to pivot slightly into having an open, informal chat with a variety of people — i.e. the interview format.
After that, pick a name that speaks to you and the values of what you’re trying to achieve, come up with a pithy description (just a paragraph will do). This description is your value proposition and reason to listen. Make it good, or at least not terrible.
People want to speak to you! But, try to get a queue
I put out a call to action on LinkedIn asking for people to interview. I have a reasonable list of followers on LinkedIn, but I was expecting maybe 1 or 2 people to be interested — after all, who the heck am I? Do I even have any listeners?
I was blown away by the response. A couple of dozen people expressed interest and even started booking slots. I had to set up a Calendly account. I’ve arrived!
I was keen to get a queue of people and start getting some recordings down — I didn’t want to have 2 episodes and be done. I started scheduling stuff and getting ready to speak to people.
Buy a good enough microphone and headphones, and learn how to use them
Say hello to my little friend
No one wants to listen to a podcast that sounds like it was recorded on two tin cans. I immediately repaired to Amazon to buy a condensing mic (with a pop shield!) and some balanced headphones. This is important — you ideally want a quality, directional mic and some Goldilocks headphones that aren’t too bassy or too light.
It’s important to get used to handling your equipment too. To start with, I was recording underneath my desk with a towel over the gap to try to reduce echo. A few cricked necks later I realised this was overkill — you’ll need to do a bit of practice with mic placement, tone of voice, rooms. You don’t want echoes! But also, you’re not recording vocals for a bestselling audio book, so don’t obsess over it. Just try to get some of the basics covered so that you’re broadly happy with how it sounds.
Get some music and some art to at least look half professional
I can’t draw particularly well. I can play a few musical instruments and know the fundamentals of how to put music together on a computer, but I’m not really the guy to write you a song. Luckily, places like Fiverr are full of people who are really good at this stuff! For a couple of bags of coppers, and a frankly a pathetically vague spec from me, I was furnished with art and some music that blew me away.
Work out how you’re going to record
In COVID times, we’re not sitting in a studio with other speakers, it’s all remote. Maybe I’ll have to worry about studios (and extra equipment) one day, but for now there are two simple choices: record everything manually or use a platform. Long story short, I’m too stupid to set it all up properly so I used Zencastr to record. The free tier is audio only (but that’s fine since I was originally stuck under a desk) but one thing I love about the platform is that it’s all browser-based, and also you get separate tracks. What this means is that if the other party has a slightly different sound set up, you can post-process separately. If everything is in one track, your options are rather more limited.
Record for longer than you need
I decided to aim for a 30-minute episode. I actually prefer podcasts to be longer than this personally (as I listen to them on long runs) but I didn’t want to overburden either my guest or my listeners. The first couple of recordings I did were pretty much 30 minutes’ worth of material on the nose. Success! Right?
Wrong — record more than you need. This means you can edit out any nonsense / false starts. Also, if anything just didn’t work (dud question or difficult response) you can just chop it out. You want it to be a natural conversation, but you can still edit it. Worst case scenario, you have a slightly longer episode of killer content.
Errs, Ums and ahs, pauses and stops
I will say that one of the biggest, most sobering parts of your first listen back of a recording is how many filler words you use (or certainly that I use). To some extent this is fine — again, this is a conversation not a pre-prepared speech. However, one thing that I have definitely learned is to try to separate your parts of speech as much as possible. And also, if you flub something, or your guest does, it’s totally fine to redo it — but redo it properly! Stop, reset, start again — like you see in bloopers from films.
This is really important because if you just try to recover on the fly and save it, this might work in a live conversation, but it makes it really, really hard to save it in the edit. If you find yourself going down a blind alley, if someone flubs a word, or if you just want to do it again, do it again. No one will know — your secret is safe via the edit. Make it easy for yourself.
Don’t listen back immediately
Good recording or bad recording, it doesn’t matter — give it time before you go back to it. Obviously, you’ve got a vested interest in this stuff, but try to approach it cold and be as analytical as possible.
Editing.. don’t go overboard
I’m actually pretty comfortable working with sound in programs like Audacity (there are others, but Audacity is freeeee). Others may be less comfortable, and there are more turnkey solutions out there (or even our friends at Fiverr might be able to help us out). However, for me it all boils down to doing the basics.
Have a listen through — make sure you’re happy with the content at all
Have a listen through again — start chopping out stuff that’s just rubbish — all the flubs we were talking about, but also any sections that you don’t think worked (you did record more than you needed, right?) … again, this is easier if you get used to getting good separation so that phrases and sections are easy to identify and prune if required.
Have a listen through… again! Make sure you’re happy with the flow, the content, and the storytelling thread from start to finish.
You’ll probably iterate through the second and third points several times. The most important thing is not to worry too much about the audio quality as such…. that comes later.
Processing — not too much, not too little
Do podcasts have cowbells?
I’m not a sound engineer, but again, I’ve got the basics. As mentioned before, I like to record separate tracks so I can process them separately. There are plenty of articles out there telling you how to do this stuff, and I’m quite likely doing it all wrong, but for me it boils down to the following:
Use compression (I aim for threshold of about -16dB) to basically even out the volume of the track so you don’t have too many massive shifts in volume
(I aim for threshold of about -16dB) to basically even out the volume of the track so you don’t have too many massive shifts in volume High-pass filter (I go around 80Hz) … there’s no human voice below this range, so you’re just removing unwanted noise
(I go around 80Hz) … there’s no human voice below this range, so you’re just removing unwanted noise Low-pass filter (I go around 5KHz) … there’s no human voice above this range, so… well, like I said above.
(I go around 5KHz) … there’s no human voice above this range, so… well, like I said above. EQ —this isn’t really one size fits all, it depends on the quality of the recording (your and theirs) but I normally try to boost between 100Hz-400Hz and 1.6KHz to 4KHz. This seems to work OK but if someone’s got a really bassy voice, or a really tinny microphone, you may need to tweak.
—this isn’t really one size fits all, it depends on the quality of the recording (your and theirs) but I normally try to boost between 100Hz-400Hz and 1.6KHz to 4KHz. This seems to work OK but if someone’s got a really bassy voice, or a really tinny microphone, you may need to tweak. Loudness Normalisation — I normally aim for -16 or -18 LUFS depending on the track. I don’t really want to see the overall track peak much above -6dB
Stick it all together, pick a platform and just release it
Stick your music on the front, if you have any, or just record a pithy intro and stick it on. Give it another listen for luck. Make sure you’re happy with it, but don’t obsess over every syllable.
Make sure you remember a release form! I thought this was a bit officious up front but there are tales online of people not doing this and either a guest takes off, or the podcast takes off, and it all gets messy. There are plenty of templates online, and free tiers at places like SignRequest that allow you to just get this unpleasantness out of the way.
Then just pick a platform. I use Podbean as it’s simple. It hosts your audio and handles sending to all the major platforms (iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify). There are plenty of other platforms too, or you can just stick the files and make your own XML file (please don’t do that). A word to the wise — it takes forever to get your podcast approved onto these platforms. OK, so not forever, but longer than I expected (and I’m looking at you, Google).
There’s no better feeling as a budding podcaster than seeing your stuff listed on these sites. You’re a podcaster now!
Stop refreshing your stats and just enjoy it
I’m still learning! But, so far, podcasting has been an amazingly enjoyable experience for me. I’ve spoken to some great people, had some great conversations, learned a bit about them and a bit about me. It’s raised my profile and opened up subsequent conversations and initiatives that I hadn’t thought of. I would recommend trying! I’d love to know how you get on.
If you want to come chat to me for my podcast, or you’re just interested in podcasting in general, or just fancy a chat about anything, please feel free to add me on LinkedIn or Twitter, or send me an email on [email protected] — it’s good to talk! | https://medium.com/an-idea/setting-up-a-podcast-from-scratch-f6f42514feeb | ['Jason Knight'] | 2020-09-26 23:35:31.224000+00:00 | ['Podcast', 'Product Management', 'How To'] |
The Curse of “Should” and What to Say Instead | I was sitting on my couch, indulging in some Black Raspberry Chip, watching the last episode of Tiger King (because I had to see what everyone else was talking about and then ended up rubbernecking the rest of it), when a thought popped into my head, I should really stop eating ice cream every night. The thought was all too familiar and, quite frankly, one I often ignore. I mean, it’s my life, my pint, right?
But then, in a moment of clarity, I asked myself why. Why is it that I should stop eating ice cream at night? Because it’s not healthy? Because it’s an unnecessary expense? Because it’s just too freaking cliché to sit on a couch in my underwear watching Tiger King? Quarantine or not, I was falling into a pit of self doubt. Here’s where I went wrong:
“Should” is a dangerous word and needs to be removed from our vocabulary effective immediately.
The word “should” implies that we’re supposed to be doing something other than what we’re doing right now; that whatever it is we’re currently occupied with is unworthy or meaningless. “Should” attaches itself to external motivations rather than encouraging a healthy relationship with your own needs. Lemme ‘splain.
When I said, “I should stop eating ice cream every night,” it wasn’t because I actually wanted to restrain myself from diving into the world’s tastiest ice cream. I promise you, I had no second thoughts about how much I was enjoying that. No, it was because I knew that eating ice cream wasn’t going to help me lose the extra pounds I feel compelled to shed for the betterment of my post-quarantine debut and, perhaps more importantly, my pants. That’s right, my brain suggested I stop eating ice cream every night because it was worried about one thing and one thing only: my appearance.
By saying “should”, I was reflecting what someone else might want for or expect of me, rather than what I genuinely wanted.
Look, social distancing is hard and COVID-19 has thrown us into some uncertain circumstances. I mean, I’m cooped up with a body builder who lives off of mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. And let me tell you, my metabolism doesn’t work like his. Not even at half the pace. Plus, this has been quite an emotionally draining and at times stressful experience. So, yeah, I’ve put on a few pounds. And it sometimes feels like a slap in the face when I see myself in the mirror or try to stuff my thighs into leggings. But here’s the real truth behind why it hurts:
When all this is over, I presume that people are going to notice I don’t look the same, and whether or not it’s conscious, I assume they will judge me for it.
Let’s recap: the reason I dread seeing my reflection is because I’m worried about what other people will think when social distancing lifts and the world starts to function again. My fear is that I’ll be perceived as the girl who couldn’t keep her life together enough to make healthier choices. I’m assuming that to other people it will appear as though I did nothing for over a month but sit on my couch in my underwear eating ice cream. See where I’m going with this? The underlying reason for my “should” was anyone except myself.
I love what fitness, life, and food freedom coach Mik Zazon says about that totally normal beautiful extra bit of weight you might carry. “It’s your life. It’s the late night pizza with friends, your favorite memories, travel, and freedom.” It’s what happens when you’re living a life filled with the things that bring you joy. Even if what brings you joy is working out, we’ve all been here at one point or another.
These extra few pounds are the time I’ve spent decompressing from my otherwise chaotic and, honestly, overwhelming lifestyle. It’s eating regular, full meals rather than a granola bar (or, worse, nothing at all) on the run from one appointment to another. It’s the hours of writing and further development of my business, the lazy hours of watching Netflix to distract myself from how crushing the world can feel right now, and the quality time I get to spend with loved ones. It’s the evenings on my balcony, sipping a glass of wine, wondering what the world will be like when this is all over.
“Should” has a tendency to encourage us to forget about what makes us happy.
Right now, those extra few spoonfuls of ice cream and afternoon naps are bringing joy to my life. So are the evening walks with my boyfriend and the occasional run when I find the energy. Yes, everything in moderation, and life is about balance, but right now, if a little bit of Graeter’s adds enjoyment to my day, then to the freezer I go. Not to mention, that “should” is a pretty meaningless intention. More often than not, after we say we should be doing something, we say, “but it can wait,” or, “but it doesn’t matter right now.” Oh, you really think I was going to put down the ice cream after thinking to myself that I should? That’s cute.
Take a moment to think about something you regularly say that you should be doing. Is it something you want? Or is it what others want for or expect of you? Is it something that’s important to you? Or does it merely serve to present you in an ideal way to the rest of the world? But, more importantly, would the thing you should be doing actually make you happy?
Instead of “should”, try using one of the following:
“I want…”
“It is important to me that I…”
“I find value in doing…”
“It would be meaningful for me to…”
It will bring me joy to…”
This is not a time to inflict guilt for not doing the things you feel compelled to in the name of fitting in with, relating to, or impressing others. There is never a time for that, but especially not now. You are an incredible, beautiful, and worthy person who deserves to focus on the joy in your own life rather than compare to the joys of others. Just because your neighbor goes for a socially distant run, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with watching another episode of Tiger King. Your neighbor is not you, and you are not your neighbor. So, instead of “should”ing your way into doing something your neighbor might do, think about what would bring you joy and go do that, instead. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-curse-of-should-and-what-to-say-instead-d1564cc40fce | ['Erin O Neil'] | 2020-05-03 11:05:20.649000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Wellness', 'Self Talk', 'Covid 19', 'Self'] |
The adventures of Captain User Research in the post launch phase | Pain points better behave : Captain User Research is back 🙀!
User Research consists in meeting final users of a website or an application to design the product that suits their needs. In the first episode, Captain User Research helped Businessman to design an app running observations, interviews, surveys and user testings. What happens now ? What do users and the app become ?
Several months have passed since Businessman’s app has been launched. The success was huge. Businessman was thrilled, and so were the users. Yet, several months after the launch, a slight decrease was observed in the use of the app.
Businessman goes straight to his very good friend, Captain User Research, and says :
-I need your help ! The success was incredible and immediate, but we now have less users, I don’t get it !
-Don’t worry, I got the solution, answers Captain User Research.
-You already used your superpower for the build phase, what else can you do ?
-My superpower is limitless and goes beyond the first steps of the lifecycle of an app. People, habits, markets, technologies . . . everything changes ! It is mandatory to get updated.
Users evolve, so do their needs and thoughts. So what you offer has to be adjusted, constantly. The only way to take into account these evolutions, is to do user research and test the design continuously to be and stay the best in the market. The International Design Foundation made this process very clear :
Users meet pain points, interaction moments that cause negative emotions. You have to identify and solve these if you want to lead your users to happiness.
Captain User Research already used surveys, observation, interview and user testing in the previous article. All these methodologies can be used during the post launch phase. The user research and test methodologies explained in this article are specially designed for this phase.
-The first step, says Captain User Research, it is to look at what we have today and the data we are able to collect.
Without further delay, they leave Captain User Research’s secret laboratory and fly to the breathtaking Businessman’s tower.
Using the data
Captain User Research accesses to the analytics page of the application. Google Analytics, Matomo, Tag commander, or GoatCounter (which is open source) . . . No matter the tool, analytics are gold.
This is a great advantage of working on an existing website or application : you have data on its use. Analytics inform you, among others, about the visitors, their origin, the pages they visit and the time spent on each page, when they stop using the website. These data are very precious and to use the best of it you have to work with an analytics expert.
What analytics give you is information about users’ behavior. What they don’t are the reasons for this behavior. 95% of the users “bounce” from the home page and don’t navigate on the website. It means that there is a problem, but it does not tell you which one.
-There is another type of information we can look at, says Captain User Research. Customers’ feedbacks : ratings given by customers on the app stores or directly on the website, or even transcripts gathered by customer service.
The principle is to collect all the verbal data coming from the customers and proceed to a lexical analysis. It is possible to use dedicated tools, or a thematic analysis table, exactly after an interview. It is a good start to gather qualitative data and identify needs, expectations and pain points.
Another interesting methodology consists in combining analytics data with a tool like Hotjar that allows to gather others users behaviors like clics, moves and scrolls heatmaps, but also to ask questions to users and make polls on specific pages.
Using different data types is an excellent starting point. The rub is that data is not always available. Then, to receive feedbacks, Captain User Research will set up UX diaries.
-A diary ? asks Businessman, skeptical.
The UX diary
The objective of this methodology is to collect the participants thoughts and feelings toward the product in their everyday life. It consists in giving them a diary and asking them to fill it on a given period, a month at least.
The diary is set up by the designer : the information to write, the rating scales, the filling frequency. It can be physical or online, but considering the huge amount of data to analyze, you better choose the online option.
The filling of the diary depends on the participants : no more battery (or pen), hangover, Netflix . . . there are so many good reasons not to fill it. To make sure the methodology is effective, it is mandatory to onboard the participants. It means having an active follow up by, for example, reminding them daily to fill it.
Let Captain User Research take care of the diaries, and we will come back when she is done.
A/B testings
-UX diaries delivered many useful information and revealed some pain points met by the users.
-Great ! What do we do now ? replied Businessman.
-I have several optimization leads for your application, says Captain User Research to an impatient Businessman. I will set up A/B testings, to compare KPIs of several versions of a page.
On the studied website or app, some of the users will see the A version of a page, and the others will see the B version. Here are some examples of the differences between these pages :
Text (product description, menu titles . . . )
Buttons and CTA (Call To Actions)
Colours
Typography
Zoning of the page (position of the elements of the page)
After a defined period, or when a specified amount of visitors is reached, the test is stopped. Users are not always aware that an A/B test is running, consent is made with cookies.
This methodology focuses on performance : we will look at precise KPI like the bounce rate or the conversion rate obtained by each version. These are quantitative data, easily comparable in order to keep the most effective version. This methodology is often used for landing pages or product pages because effectiveness is crucial.
During the build phase, Captain User Research led user testings. To recall, this methodology starts with an user interview, followed by a presentation of the product to gather his feedback. It is a powerful methodology because the designed product faces directly its real users. The good news is that you can use this methodology in the post launch phase ! User testings and A/B testings don’t follow the same objectives. Meeting users allows to gather qualitative data on needs and expectations. A/B testings are used to gather quantitative data on performance.
So the most effective version is kept on Businessman’s app. He is delighted, the performances increase and are incredible !
-User research is fierce ! Thank you Captain !
-All the pleasure was mine. We will meet again soon Businessman, because user research and testing have to be led regularly !
Meet the users and test the product, this is the key of success. To be effective, it is necessary to do a bit all the time. The adventures of Businessman and Captain User Research are then not over yet and they will have more beautiful days together. | https://medium.com/smile-design-performance/the-adventures-of-captain-user-research-in-the-run-phase-d066a9802af8 | ['Jerome Benaud'] | 2021-01-07 10:31:25.450000+00:00 | ['User Research', 'UX', 'Business'] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.