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How to Setup CI/CD for Flutter Apps with GitHub Actions
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Some programmers claim that there is always a dilemma between building good software and writing code quickly to achieve business goals. With CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) developers are empowered to write better software and also build products faster, which is a win for everyone.
This article is a guide on implementing CI/CD with Flutter and why it’s important to integrate on your engineering team.
Theoretical side
They say you cannot please everyone, but CI/CD breaks this rule. This simple idea belongs to IT pioneer, Grady Booch. Can you imagine your colleague running from department to department with a floppy disk three times a day to introduce CI? That’s how challenging it was to implement CI in 1991. Today, things are much less complicated.
The main purpose of CI/CD is a continuous merge of working product versions into the main development branch and frequent project build execution for a discovery of potential bugs and resolution of integration problems.
The faster you find a bug, the less you pay for it. Sometimes the price is too high, like with Mariner 1 and Therac 25.
What are the benefits of CI for a business?
1. Efficient Developers
By incorporating CI, the development team becomes more bankable and the cost of your software projects decreases. CI aims at refining the integration process, thus breaking it down into simple, daily development tasks, to help minimize the build costs and detect defects early in the software lifecycle.
2. Faster Software Builds
Infrastructure and deployment are automated. Everyone loves to see the output of their work, developers especially, and the business gets to see the benefits of this code right away. Deploying a smaller patch of code is less risky when developers can take advantage of test automation, so they have less overhead and coordination with a QA team.
3. Focus on solving business problems
Dev-ops team must support pipeline development, and this helps developers to focus on solving business problems, without thinking about infrastructure deployment.
Practical side
inVerita Flutter developers are experienced in working with CI systems such as Jenkins, Circle IO, Bitrase, and Gitlab CI. Since we have a Github project code store, it’s better to integrate CI into Github rather than any other third party service.
Github Actions is a new feature of Github that enables users to create a CI/CD system directly in a Github repository. Developers and Dev-ops can write individual tasks, called actions, and combine them to create a custom workflow. It gives us the ability to build our product, rapidly test our app, and publish them. The best thing is that you can do this inside Github and avoid third-party websites.
Github private repositories usually offer a free plan of 2000 build minutes a month. We usually use 1800 build minutes a month for both middle-sized and big projects.
Now let’s talk about the steps needed for the integration of the CI/CD workflow for a Flutter app.
1) Create Github Project
For example, you have a standard Flutter Counter App.
Then add Flutter integration tests, unit tests, and widgets tests to the project.
Widgets test
Integration test (UI tests)
2) Add a workflow file
In the root folder of your Flutter project, create a new folder .github and a subfolder workflows. This is where your workflow .yml or .yaml extension files will reside (for example we provide its main.yaml)
A project can have multiple workflow files, but for simplicity, we recommend using only one file for this project.
3) Writing Commands
We’ve tried to explain every line of the file with comments. If you need more information about a syntax for Github Actions, check it out here.
Run unit and widgets tests job
We integrated CodeCov to automatically generate beautiful reports from CI.
Here’s what the reports look like:
CI report #1
CI report #2
CI report #3
Run integrated tests iOS job
Run integrated tests android job
Build and deploy job
Recommendations on how to improve workflow. We recommend adding personal notifications for developers in messengers like Slack, Telegram, or WeChat because this allows them to quickly provide some help if needed.
See the workflow and release in Github
Once you have pushed the code you can see the workflow in action by going to <repo-url>/actions .
You see the release files by going to <repo-url>/releases .
Your site will be published <yourusername>.github.io/<repo-name> . Here’s an example.
Now you have a beautiful desktop application.
The full code is here.
Useful links
Great article about running flutter driver tests on Github actions
About GitHub Actions doc
Flutter testing
Wrap Up
We believe that in many cases, CI/CD improves code quality and allows us to iterate on first-rate products quicker than other approaches.
When should we use CI/CD? We recommend using it whenever you start developing from scratch. In case you have monolithic IT systems and you’d like to integrate CI/CD into the development process, think twice, because you will have to rebuild the architecture according to the new requirements. It is more likely, you won’t benefit from CI when making improvements in your old code, but you will definitely win if you use it for a new project. If you stuck with your Flutter app development, contact inVerita.
|
https://levelup.gitconnected.com/ci-cd-for-flutter-apps-3a56e3fc6d8e
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[]
|
2020-07-28 12:07:52.587000+00:00
|
['Cicd', 'Flutter', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Flutter App Development', 'Continuous Integration']
|
Founders’ silent struggle — Key takeaways (Part 9)
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Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Getting addicted to the constant high of an adrenaline rush is exciting. A dream of changing the world and making a difference is inspiring. Pressure, competition, passion for the dream force people to push abilities beyond their limits. Startups and sports are very similar in that. However, the support systems are very different between founders and professional athletes.
In sports, elites have all the help to drive their performance results. They train every muscle on their body and mind to handle pressures, they are supervised by doctors and advised by personal coaches daily.
Founders, in contrast to athletes, have to learn how to survive these pressures on their own, in silence and constantly pretending what everything is “amazing”.
If we want to get stronger and not weaker from failures it all depends on our preparation to face them.
Due to startup development pace and experimentation with novel ideas founders have to elevate their self-management skills to much higher levels.
Key takeaways reflecting on founders from all around the world candid interviews:
Pivots are necessary;
Startup failure doesn’t mean that the founder is a failure;
Have a financial and emotional safety net;
Never sacrifice family;
Build meaningful relationships;
Ask for help sooner;
Create a very strong support system.
|
https://medium.com/ofounders/founders-silent-struggle-key-takeaways-part-9-94f41371f690
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['Inga Stasiulionyte']
|
2020-04-06 08:44:09.236000+00:00
|
['Mental Health', 'Interview', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Founders']
|
What I’ve learned about loss
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Some days, dealing with loss feels as though I am running through quicksand. No matter how strong I feel I may be, I cant seem to move forward, and it just seems more and more impossible as time goes on. Other days I forget. Forget that anyone ever died, forget how I’ve been hurt, feel almost okay. That’s the problem with loss. The emotions come and go, you’re fine and then you see someone who looks a little bit too much like them, and a tidal wave hits you. I don’t think anyone ever really recovers from loss. It stays with us, as a lesson, a memory, a reason to keep going on hard days. Some turn to religion to cope, some numb out with drugs, others just learn to live with the loss.
I learned not long ago that loss does not directly need to be death. You lose friendships, relationships, pets, jobs, sports, abilities, hobbies. Some losses are small and unimportant, other crash your world and have you wishing you could run away. Hell, I’ve spent hours upon hours dealing with my losses, yet some days all I want to do is run away from the pain.
So how do you get better. They always say time heals, which is true, but time without work is just a gap. Sure, take time to be sad, but then take time to understand your emotions, reach out, get perspective on your loss. Take it as a lesson, Or spend time deciding how you want to remember. I can think back on my friend and get sad that she is gone, or I can think back and be content with the time we shared. That’s when I can think of her and smile, even though I will never see her smile again. She lives in my memories, and that’s what is important.
Some loss is bad, I lost my sense of security at a young age and that has effected my life greatly, but what am i going to do with that emotion. Being angry is going to solve nothing and help no one. Its growing through the loss, understanding what happened, how it made me felt, and forgiving that helped me. Not forgiving blindly, but forgiving mistakes of some who may not have known better, who did their best, who were powerless as well. Forgiving for my own healing, because hating will get me nowhere.
Loss is part of life no matter what, and it will break me at times. That is okay, I will be okay in the end.
|
https://medium.com/@rbvelvet/what-ive-learned-about-loss-b72bf0ccc219
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['Miranda Bloomfield']
|
2020-12-18 05:37:30.460000+00:00
|
['Emotions', 'Growth', 'Loss', 'Sadness', 'Grief']
|
Renovation of Dr. James Still office set to resume
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The renovation of the Dr. James Still office, located on Church Street in Medford, has resumed.
The structure, dated to 1839, was originally purchased by the state in 2006. Renovation of the property was halted due to lack of funding.
Recently, the Medford Historical Society, donations, educational grants and volunteers have stepped up to resume restoration.
“The project is very important. The property has been sitting there,” county historian Joe Laufer said. “We were all excited when it was purchased.”
Plans for renovation include herbal gardens designed by Jeanie Francis, an herbalist “passionate about Dr. James Still,” said Janet Carlson-Giardina project manager for the renovation.
According to Carlson-Giardina, many of the professional services needed to complete the project will be donated.
Additional gardens are slated to be designed by Jack Harmon for educational purposes and will be used to grow vegetables and fruit that will be donated to local food banks.
“We believe we can do this through donations,” she said. “We’ll be working off a grant and hopefully support from Burlington County College.”
The property was recently upgraded during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.
Carlson-Giardina expected 30 to 35 volunteers to come out and clean the area around the office. The organizers were pleasantly surprised when approximately 100 people showed up.
“The restoration project will take more than [the MLK Day of Service], but we’re excited about the community involvement,” said Valerie Still, the great-great granddaughter of the famed physician.
The historic site will be a destination for residents in the area and across state lines.
“It’s really very exciting to know we’re part of an activity that will have such an impact,” Laufer said.
According to Laufer, Dr. James Still is considered the first “black doctor of the pines.” He is known for practicing an unorthodox herbal method of treatment during a time when African-Americans were still fighting for their freedom.
“He was able to practice medicine and excel in a hostile environment,” Valerie said.
According to Valerie, the property is the first African-American site not directly related to the Underground Railroad the state purchased.
“To a point, it was related to the Underground Railroad with Dr. Still’s brother, William, involved in the movement, but overall the property was dedicated to Dr. Still’s practice of medicine,” Valerie said.
Dr. Still was born to former slaves in Shamong on the Saw Mill by Willow Grove Road.
His father, Levin, was a freed slave from Maryland who traveled to Shamong to create a life for himself and his wife Charity, a twice-captured slave, before her final escape to freedom and eventual arrival in Shamong, Laufer said. The couple moved to Stokes Road and had 16 children, three of whom are recognized for their accomplishments.
Currently, there are markers where the house was in Shamong.
In June, students from the Shamong school district dedicated the previously unmarked graves of Levin and Charity.
In addition to marking and honoring the Still gravesites, students from Lenape Regional High School District created a documentary on Dr. James Still and the family.
“The fact that it’s coming from young people makes me believe there is hope to continue teaching the history of the area,” Laufer said. “It’s important to show the history right in our backyard in Burlington County.”
Dr. Still was a self-taught professional, overcoming lack of education, race and going against the norms in his field.
According to Valerie, he only received a few weeks of schooling, and she often references his autobiography for inspiration and guidance.
“His autobiography is awesome. His book is really an empowerment guide,” she said. “For me, it meant that no matter what the circumstance you find yourself in, if you have a dream and the drive, you can achieve anything.”
Valerie expressed the importance of education for children on Dr. Still.
“This isn’t about some old guy from the 1800s, this is about everybody,” Valerie said. “It crosses age, race, gender and economic lines. It breaks all the socially constructed boxes people create. That’s what it’s all about.”
A symposium will be held Feb. 23 to benefit the restoration project at Medford Leas. Valerie will be a featured speaker at the event, in addition to Laufer’s presence on the panel.
Valerie’s company, Still Publications, recently released Dr. Still’s autobiography. It is available for purchase for $20 on stillpublications.com and Amazon.
The book will be sold at the symposium. For more information on the symposium and to buy tickets, visit medfordhistory.com. For questions on Dr. Still, email Valerie Still at ValerieStill1@gmail. com.
|
https://medium.com/the-medford-sun/renovation-of-dr-james-still-office-set-to-resume-63724ddf664f
|
[]
|
2016-12-19 15:22:59.197000+00:00
|
['Headlines', 'Families', 'Burlington County', 'Burlington County College', 'Autobiography']
|
[Official] — Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021 Watch on Full Free HD
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We begin at the beginning: It’s a lovely, late spring day in Smalltown USA. A tall, lanky man — let’s call him Lee Abbott — gets out of his truck and ducks into a small general store on Main Street. He walks through the aisles, past a shelf full of toy space shuttles, and grabs some bottles of water and snacks. The owner argues with a customer as Lee nods and whizzes out the door. In the background, news reports mention unusual phenomena happening in various cities.
At a Little League game already in full swing (sorry), Lee’s school-age son Marcus is warming up in the dugout. The rest of the Abbotts, including Lee’s wife Evelyn, his hearing-impaired daughter Regan and the youngest, Beau, are enjoying the game. Lee trades a few words with the man sitting behind him, the kind of guy who rolls his sleeves up past his biceps sans irony. His son is playing as well. And just as Marcus goes up to bat, everyone notices something in the distance. Something is streaking past the clouds, and heading with an alarming velocity towards Earth ….
You should soak in the prologue that kicks off Spider-Man: No Way Home: F9, John Krasinski’s follow-up to his out-of-nowhere 2018 hit — it’s a brilliant watch-the-skies movie in miniature, filled with lack-of-sound and fury, and it distills everything that made the original so unique and exhilarating into a single set piece. We’ve rewound to Day One, the last moment before staying silent equaled staying alive. The bewildered crowd has no sooner gathered on Main Street then those aliens, the ones that answer the eternal question “what would it look like if a daddy-long-legs spider mated with Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors,” make their presence known. Havoc ensues.
Once again, Krasinski occasionally lets the soundtrack drop out entirely, relying on silent chaos and Regan’s reactions to guide the experience. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’re familiar with the POV shot of an oncoming bus on a collision course with the Abbotts’ car, as one spindly arm reaches out of a cracked windshield. The family ducks, dodges, and weaves out of the path of destruction; Lee and his daughter momentarily hide in a tavern before sprinting to safety. Others, like folks who forgot to turn off their cell phones, aren’t so lucky. Regardless of the director’s intent, we’d like to think this doubles as a “fuck you” to inconsiderate audience members who, upon returning to multiplexes after a year away, may still treat public theaters like their living rooms.
Speaking of which: It’s this early, standalone mash-up of Norman Rockwell’s Americana and straight-outta-Heinlein cosmic carnage that reminds you why we’ve been so anxious to return to those shared spaces in the dark. Like a countless other films big and small, Spider-Man: No Way Home: F9 was set to be released last year before a real-life nightmare overtook the fictional ones we consider escapism. An opening salvo of everyday life interrupted by an out-of-nowhere threat, which then escalates quickly into emergency measures and confusion, plays slightly differently near the midpoint of 2021. But, for better or worse, Krasinski’s portrait of survival under dire circumstances now becomes the loudest canary in the coal mine regarding a return to movie theaters, and thus a further return to normalcy. Part II‘s kickoff gives you thrills-spills-chills mayhem that would play well in any space. See it in a room with dozens of people shrieking, and the sequence is a concentrated dose of joyful delirium.
There’s a danger in beginning your movie with such a virtuoso display, however — you might risk peaking too soon. (Just ask Zack Snyder.) After the rush of this Spider-Man: No Way Home, we’re whisked back to the present, a.k.a. minutes after the first movie’s climax. Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Regan (Millicent Simmonds — once again the stand-out here), Marcus (Noah Jupe) and their newborn brother are preparing to leave their farmhouse in search of fellow survivors and sanctuary; a map is dotted with the locations of potential safe spaces. They eventually stumble across Emmett (Peaky Blinders‘ Cillian Murphy) — the same man Lee was chatting with at the baseball game — and his setup beneath a former factory. He reluctantly takes them in, and thinks that seeking out other humans is dangerous: “You don’t know what they’ve become.” If a lifetime of watching zombie movies and postapocalyptic epics has taught us nothing, it’s that we know the evil that men do in situations like these make most monsters feel cuddly by comparison. The haggard gent has a point.
Still, Regan persists. The family has stumbled upon a transmission, broadcasting an endless loop of Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea.” She senses a clue in the title: Look for an island, and there’s your Eden. Evelyn wants to stay put, collect their bearings and let an injured Marcus heal. Her daughter takes off in the dead of night, against Mom’s wishes. Emmett goes after her, initially to bring her back. But there may be something to this young woman’s idea that, somewhere out there, a brighter tomorrow is but a boat ride away.
From here, Krasinski and his below-the-line dream team — shoutouts galore to composer Marco Beltrami, cinematographer Polly Morgan and (especially) editor Michael P. Shawver, as well as the CGI-creature crew — toggle between several planes of action. Regan and Emmett on the road. Evelyn on a supply run. Marcus and the baby back home, evading creepy-crawly predators. Some nail-biting business involving oxygen tanks, gasoline, a dock, a radio station and a mill’s furnace, which has been converted to temporary panic room, all come into play. Nothing tops that opening sequence, naturally, and you get the sense that Krasinski & Co. aren’t trying to. He’s gone on record as saying that horror was always a means to an end for him, though he certainly knows how to sustain tension and use the frame wisely in the name of scares. The former Office star was more interested in audiences rooting for this family. His chips are on you caring enough about the Abbotts to follow them anywhere.
And yet, after that go-for-broke preamble, it’s hard not to feel like Spider-Man: No Way Home: F9 is all dressed up and, even with its various inter-game missions and boss-level fights, left with nowhere really to go. If the first film doubled as a parenting parable, this second one concerns the pains of letting someone leave the nest, yet even that concept feels curiously unexplored here. Ditto the idea that, when it comes to the social contract under duress, you will see the best of humanity and, most assuredly, the worst — a notion that not even Krasinski, who made Part 1 in the middle of the Trump era, could have guessed would resonate far more more loudly now. (What a difference a year, and a global pandemic followed by an political insurrection, makes.) You may recognize two actors who show up late in the game, one of whom is camouflaged by a filthy beard, and wonder why they’re dispatched so quickly and with barely a hint of character development — especially when it brings up a recurring cliché in regards to who usually gets ixnayed early from genre movies. Unless, of course, it’s a feint and they’re merely waiting in the wings, ready for more once the next chapter drops. Which brings us to the movie’s biggest crime.
Without giving any specifics away (though if you’re sensitive to even the suggestion of spoilers, bye for now), Spider-Man: No Way Home: F9 ends on a cliffhanger. A third film, written and directed by Midnight Special‘s Jeff Nichols, is in the works. And while many follow-ups to blockbusters serve as bridges between a beginning and an ending — some of which end up being superior to everything before/after it — there’s something particularly galling about the way this simply, abruptly stops dead in its tracks. No amount of clever formalism or sheer glee at being back in a movie theater can enliven a narrative stalled in second gear, and no amount of investment in these family members can keep you from feeling like you’ve just sat through a placeholder, a time-killer.
A Quiet Place was a riff on alien invasion movies with chops and a heart, a lovely self-contained genre piece that struck a chord. Part II feels like just another case of sequel-itis, something designed to metastasize into just another franchise among many. Just get through this, it says, and then tune in next year, next summer, next financial quarter statement or board-meeting announcement, for the real story. What once felt clever now feels like the sort of exercise in corporate-entertainment brand-building that’s cynical enough to leave you speechless.
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https://medium.com/@jelityama/official-spider-man-no-way-home-2021-watch-on-full-free-hd-45acf252d0ac
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[]
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2021-12-18 02:12:38.207000+00:00
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['Spider Man No Way Home', 'Marvel', 'Spider Man']
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2021 Will Be The Worst Year Of Your Life
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2021 will be the worst year of your life….if you don’t change your belief system. I undoubtedly write about the upcoming year, every year. Why? Because the promise of a new year does not mean the new year will be good. You can’t bring old {destructive} habits into the new year, and expect new results.
A new year is like a new relationship. You ever meet that person who has had many partners and complains about all the bad things that happened to them? You probably have. But the reason why they keep jumping from relationship to relationship, is because they are not looking at themselves. Imagine if they took a hard look and made some corrections.
People get comfortable in being uncomfortable. We all make mistakes. We all walk blindly into hard times. But do you know what the difference is between a victim and a victor? Responsibility. The victor own his or her part in the tough times. They make those corrections, up their IQ or get a new skill-set. In other words, they don’t stay stuck.
I am reminded of the old saying {forgive me I do not know the point of origin.} It says “People don’t drown because they fall into the water. They drown because they stay there. Get it! If you walk into 2021 still feeling dejected, victimized and stuck, 2021 has nothing new to offer you. That hope you have will be short lived.
I know that some, probably many, have some very real situations to deal with. Trust me I get it. After losing my daughter, my life took turns that I had not expected. But here’s the thing. If you’re still reading this…there is hope. And that hope is you. God gave you an intelligence. Use it. Just as the person who goes from one bad relationship to another, until they believe that they deserve better, they’ll stay stuck.
2021 will be a difficult start for many. Dig deep, pray, meditate, find a new social circle, job, partner or learn a new skill. It may very well get worse before it gets better. But if you stay in the fight, it will get better. You know how they say summer bodies are earned in the winter. The new year is earned in the mind.
So get busy creating. Make 2021 the year where you make your comeback.
|
https://medium.com/@vancelarson/2021-will-be-the-worst-year-of-your-life-126c71cb94ac
|
['Vance Larson']
|
2020-12-27 15:23:01.505000+00:00
|
['Relationships', 'Life', 'Life Lessons', '2020', '2021']
|
HOW EXACTLY TO Lose Weight In four weeks
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This article features proven tips that are based on scientific research and experience to assist you reach your weight loss goals quickly and efficiently. Indeed, studies show that despite suggestions that women gain minimal amount of weight during the first trimester, in actuality, this is the trimester when the biggest amount of excessive fat gain (pounds gained above the recommended levels) occurs.
best diet for women over 50
Even when I’m not really exercising for stretches at the same time, my pounds holds steady at 185, and it has been that way for 4.5 years now. If you drop your calorie consumption without maintaining your nutrient intake, your body takes steps to make sure its nutritional requirements are met as well as your weight loss efforts are nearly certain to fail.
The intervention focused on eliminating junk food, eating more vegetables and reducing the entire number of calories the ladies were consuming eventually, she told Live Science. And over the next couple of weeks, a woman may also expect to lose the pounds of the extra liquid in her body that built up during pregnancy. In fact, this is what the Atkins Diet is banking on. Eating plenty of lean protein means that you can cut back on calories and shed weight without feeling hungry. In short, avoid your body from catching on to your weight loss efforts (see intensive training ), otherwise weight reduction shall slow or stop.
Jill Kanaley and her co-workers recruited 75 obese women and men who had been identified as having type 2 diabetes. It keeps your fat in check as well as away from all the fat associated is in fact the fastest method to lose excess weight without having to diet. This awesome food supplement can help with weight loss and has a bevy other other beneficial health effects. They tell me their advice remains the same for any post menopausal weight gain: grab your activity and lessen calories. My results are, I believe, pretty typical among those who are just losing a pound or less every week. I tried to lose excess weight the slow way by eating just a little less or doing slightly more exercise for several years.
If you don’t have so very much weigh to lose that your doctor prescribes a very-low-calorie diet, you can safely lose excess weight on your own by reducing your daily calorie intake by 500 to at least one 1,000, which will make you lose about 1 to 2 2 pounds per week.
Research shows that drinking 5 cups of green tea each day increases metabolism by 20%, assisting you burn lose and fat weight, while 2 cups of coffee will also boost metabolism. A motley complex of emotional and behavioral issues possess a powerful impact on the way women and men approach weight loss. However, 12 months seems to be the upper limit for how long it will take for women to lose all of their pregnancy weight. The key to slimming down is eating fewer calories than you consume via food and drinks. With my clients I teach them to put into practice measurements to obtain a good indicator of progress instead of scale weight. This article is part of a Live Science Special Report on the Science of Weight Loss. You should think of weight loss in conditions of permanently changing your eating habits.
For example, when I think that my husband’s ideal weight is almost 100 pounds more than mine I do not get as frustrated by the fact that he can eat more, because it’s just physics. But if I eat 1500–1900 calories each day, and keep the carbs in the Primal Sweet place of 50–100 carbs per day, and workout at least three times per week, I continue to lose weight. Try not to eat straight from a huge package of food — it’s simple to lose track that way. If you are overweight, we suggest that you combine all three methods listed, and obvious changes in both your bodyweight and overall health should be visible in less than two weeks. In fact, with consistency and discipline, you can even lose 2o pounds in 2 weeks.
In a report published in the January 2009 problem of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , even though women said they weren’t hungry when asked to smell, taste, and observe treats such as pizza, cinnamon buns and chocolate cake, brain scans showed activity in the regions that control the drive to consume (false for men).
from Burn Fat http://ift.tt/2eoYfvL
via eugenioplit.jigsy.com
Originally published on Tumblr
Read More earnonline11 on jigsy.com
|
https://medium.com/@xavierpzir/how-exactly-to-lose-weight-in-four-weeks-593e937e7bf4
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[]
|
2016-10-21 20:50:08.071000+00:00
|
['Health Foods', 'Weightloss Foods', 'Fat Burning Foods', 'Health Recipe', 'Weightloss Recipe']
|
gospel of sadness.
|
the soprano clouds screech,
while covering the sun as a blanket,
the sky losing life,
turning gray,
the rains holding the eulogy,
tears of agony placed in alto,
to carry the melody of ruin,
while the corrupt pray.
|
https://medium.com/@paradigse/gospel-of-sadness-45cdce8dca17
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[]
|
2020-10-15 18:07:52.677000+00:00
|
['Poems And Stories', 'Poem', 'Music', 'Lyrics', 'Poetry']
|
Current Events Present Challenges to Family Governance - Susan Schoenfeld
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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Susan Schoenfeld, an expert advisor to families of wealth, recently spoke on how the events of 2020 along with the political climate can impact families. Susan further delves into how such events have the potential to cause friction amongst families. Each generation has grown with their own unique perspective on life and considerations of what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ Susan reinforces the idea of family communication in which each person is permitted to speak their mind, and is heard by others with respect.
Watch the video or read below:
“Older and younger generations alike have come to be a lot more socially aware this year. The Black Lives Movement has energized this awareness, especially amongst the younger generations.
“Numerous issues arise from this in the governance sphere, one of them being the need to reconcile generational differences of opinion. Making sure that all voices are heard becomes all the more important when each person at a table has a different point of view.
“Today, when the nation is so divided, the need to listen to other people’s point of view is critical — even if you disagree with them. Be it Thanksgiving or any other family gathering, the possibility of conflicting views is higher than ever. The need for respectfully listening and giving voice to other members of your family and their passions to come through is critically important.”
Yahoo! News Google News HuffingtonPost CNN New York Times De Telegraaf NBC News Mail Online Washington Post The Guardian WSJ ABCNews BBC News USA Today LA Times De Volkskrant Le Monde Le Figaro
|
https://medium.com/@a-point-of-view/susan-schoenfeld-542117f2d90a
|
['Point Of View']
|
2021-03-10 13:29:45.139000+00:00
|
['Thought Partner', 'CEO', 'Wealth Legacy Advisors', 'Susan Schoenfeld']
|
Enter, Exit
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Enter, Exit
At the Paddington pub, there existed only one cue for the pool table. The other three had gone missing in a variety of devilishly creative ways: one had been cracked over the head of an unruly patron by his on-and-off girlfriend (off that particular night), another had been broken into even pieces and attempted to be flushed down a toilet, and the other had disappeared up the dress of a tall, pregnant, backpacking Swede.
So, the obstetrician and the funeral director had to share.
They both had a tinge of inner-city elitism about them. Their clothes were tasteful, exuding expense. Both wore tan chinos and a button-up shirt, sleeves rolled up to their elbows. They drank craft beer intermixed with the odd Old Fashioned. Well-groomed facial hair adorned their cheeks and jawlines, though both would have shaved it off at the first hint of complaint from their wives. Or mothers.
In fact, they reeked of the affluent East.
Abandoned by work colleagues, the two had headed for the empty pool table at the same time.
“Up for a game?” the funeral director proposed rhetorically.
“Pub rules?” asked the obstetrician.
“Suits the setting,” said the funeral director, who knew all about the importance of a good setting.
“Gaz,” said the obstetrician, offering his hand.
“Murray,” said the funeral director, taking it.
“Winner buys?” suggested Gaz.
“You’re on,” said Murray, already nursing a pint of pale ale from some backwash local brewery.
Gaz spilled the coins and Murray grabbed the rack to set up the balls. Gaz slid the white ball smoothly across the red baize and offered the cue to Murray.
“All yours, mate,” said Murray. He knew his history with first breaks.
Gaz shrugged and moved to the end of the table. At the bar — a behemoth of stone and mosaic tiles — a group of women groaned unanimously after a round of tequila shots. The Polynesian bouncer barely glanced at them, resuming his thousand-yard stare at a group of Indian punters waiting for a horse to jump on the television.
The break was crisp and clean. The balls whizzed off around the table, well and truly in disarray. No balls were potted in the end, and Gaz passed the cue over.
Conversation sparked.
“So whaddaya do when you’re not playing pool, Murray?” said Gaz.
“I own and operate a funeral home,” said Murray, breathing down the glossy wooden neck of the cue. Murray had always played like that; the cue directly under his chin, a habit picked up from watching his father. He took a punt on an easy small into the right pocket, top cushion. He potted it easily. “Yourself?” he asked.
“I’m an obstetrician,” said Gaz.
Murray, who was into irony as well as being vaguely superstitious, even after years at the home, began to chuckle. His second shot went wind, and the cue back to Gaz.
“So is this some divine, contrived meeting is it?” said Murray. “People start with you and end with me?”
“Something like that,” said Gaz, whose shot went wide.
They fell into a rhythm; both were average pool players, and pissed, so potted balls were rare. On the occasion one did get one in, the other would quickly catch up, their concentration suddenly honed by the concern of losing. They went round for round at the bar, too. The group of girls left soon after the Polynesian bouncer had kicked out a few twenty-one-year-olds hunched over some lines on a phone in a bathroom stall. The Indians won, lost, won twice, and then put it all on a horse running out of France, and tossed away a week’s pay. The pub, though not empty, was slowly becoming a shell of its earlier hours. It was losing its charm just as the floor was getting more sticky.
“Let me ask you this,” said Gaz, who’d returned with a round of scotches, with two balls each left before the black. Although the play hadn’t improved, the game was now tinged with a seriousness it was bereft of before. “We come into this world covered in blood and vernix. That’s how we enter. But you and your crew do the opposite upon exit. You clean the body, dress it up well, let people stare at it one last time, and then place it in a pit or incinerate it for display on a mantelpiece somewhere. Don’t you think it’s unnatural?”
“Think about that a lot, do you Gaz?” asked Murray.
“Well, hasn’t it ever occurred to you?”
Murray shrugged, and potted a ball. “Occasionally I’ve questioned it, yes,” he said. His next shot went off the table. The bouncer glared at the ball as it rolled past him on the ground, as if personally affronted.
Gaz retrieved the white for his shot. “And?” he pressed.
“It’s all for everyone else. Families, friends — they’d prefer to see their dearly departed leave cleanly,” said Murray. “You don’t think people would prefer a cleaner birth too? If they had the choice, you don’t think people would choose their children to be born already swaddled in clothes and fast asleep?”
“Agreed,” said Gaz. He potted the two he’d been slowly chipping toward the centre holes for the last five rounds.
“Alright, so we make it unnatural because that’s the preference. To be removed from that natural part of life that is death, because in grief, death is unnatural,” said Murray. He thought that made sense, even through his drunken haze.
Gaz held off his reply he finished his scotch and the game.
When he did so, Murray shook his hand and they both grabbed their jackets. Though he’d lost, Murray didn’t offer to buy the round. He could sense the mood; he knew all about sensing moods.
“Well, whatever the case, I reckon all that we are are highly-paid facilitators,” said Gaz.
Murray nodded knowingly. “First and last,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, Murray,” said Gaz.
“You too, Gaz,” said Murray.
The bouncer nodded at the pair of them as they exited the pub and entered the night.
|
https://medium.com/the-junction/enter-exit-3f7e99188c5d
|
['Matthew Querzoli']
|
2020-02-22 20:41:03.382000+00:00
|
['Short Story', 'Birth', 'Pool', 'Death', 'Fiction']
|
Make Your Dashboard Stand Out — Likert Chart (Part 2)
|
Image by Tableau.com
Make Your Dashboard Stand Out — Likert Chart (Part 2)
To me, Tableau is the only kind of tool that allows me to do data science like an artist. However, there will be no fun if everyone does the same visualization with Tableau. This article is one episode of my series “Make Your Dashboard Stand Out” which provides you with some brilliant but not default visualization ideas. If you are new to me, do check out the following articles:
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Today, we are going to continue our exploration of Likert Chart.
Ideas
From Part 1, I have already introduced that Likert Chart is a type of stacked bar chart that visualizes the distribution of survey respondents’ likelihood or attitudes towards the survey questions. And sometimes, we might want to see what side the surveyees are more inclined if the answer options are roughly binary. In this case, Butterfly Chart is in good use.
As one important variant of Likert Chart, it displays the data series where it is divided into 2 parts side by side. It gives a quick glance at how the data is skewed so that we could do further analysis about, for example, people’s sentiments or attitudes on the survey objects.
A basic Buttery Chart (Source: https://www.manageengine.com.au/analytics-plus/help/chart/butterfly-charts.html)
And in this article, I am going to show you how our existing Likert Chart could be displayed as a butterfly.
Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash
Implementation
Basically, the implementation of Butterfly Charts is a process to get our hands dirty by creating a bunch of new calculation fields. To better demonstrate my thoughts, I will begin with a table that will contain all new fields.
Image by Author
The first thing we need is undoubtedly the number of respondents to each option of the questions. Our following operation will be mostly based on this fundamental field.
Image by Author
Before we move on, let’s take a look at our final work so I can better explain. In my opinion, those people who enjoy should stand opposed to the others who do not, in spite of their degree. However, because of the existence of the neutral option in all the questions, we can simply separate this group into 2 sets and each of them stands with different sides.
Image by Author
To do so, we need to create the next 2 measures: “Negative Score” and “Total Negative Score”. The main function of “Negative Score” is to separate the group of answers that are “Neutral”, so that “Total Negative Score” can get the total amount of people who are supposed to be reflected on the left on the 0% scale.
Negative Score: IF [Preference Level] < 3 THEN 1
ELSEIF [Preference Level] = 3 THEN 0.5
ELSE 0
END Total Negative Score: TOTAL(SUM([Negative Score]))
Note that the declaration of “Negative Score” is optional when there is no “Neutral” option. You can simply accumulate the count number of the people who selected a negative answer to get a “Total Negative Score”. Moreover, “Total Negative Score” needs to be computed using Pane(down).
Image by Author
Thirdly, we have to sum up the total amount of respondents to each question. That is because we need an entire view of our data instead of the people who responded negatively.
Total Score: TOTAL(COUNT([responses.csv]))
Again, it should be computed using Pane(down). (Image by Author)
With that being done, we can easily get the portions of respondents choosing different answers in each question. You shouldn’t be worried that if all you can see is 0’s because the values in this column shall always be between 0~1, and you might probably like to conform its format to percentage as a better way of display.
Percentage of Total Size: COUNT([responses.csv]) / [Total Score]
And then, because the bars won’t start from the beginning of the scale, so it’s necessary to have another measure to record where it should start. My workaround is to imagine the bar is starting from the 0% scale, and the leftmost location (starting point of a bar) it goes should be as far as the “Total Negative Score” shows.
Gantt Start: -[Total negative score] / [Total Score]
After this, we can get the starting points of different groups by stacking the percentage respectively:
Gantt Percent: PREVIOUS_VALUE([Gantt Start]) + ZN(LOOKUP([Percentage of Total Size], -1))
Image by Author
Alright! We’ve got everything for a Butterfly Chart now. Let’s see what we can do to aggregate it.
There’s one thing that I should have let you know earlier: as long as the calculation field uses table calculation, you should always change its default computation to using “Preference Level”.
Image by Author
Then, as soon as you drag “Preference Level”, “Gantt Percent”, “Genre” respectively to Color, Columns and Rows, everything is all set.
Image by Author
Before I go…
You made it! In this 2-part series, I’m pretty sure that you have already seen the beauty of Likert Chart. Now it’s time for you to be creative and become a data-viz storyteller!
For the details of my work, feel free to check it out here ⬇⬇⬇:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/memphis4346/viz/LikertChart_16263693757630/divergent?publish=yes
|
https://pub.towardsai.net/make-your-dashboard-stand-out-likert-chart-part-2-a1216d8c8015
|
['Memphis Meng']
|
2021-07-22 12:03:48.719000+00:00
|
['Data Visualization', 'Tableau', 'Dataviz', 'Artofdata', 'Likert Scale']
|
Traffic Police in Vietnam to Accept Tears as Payment for Violations
|
Starting next month, police in Vietnam will accept tears as payment for all minor traffic violations. Mr. Bao Wow Nguyen, Chief of Police for the Ho Chi Minh City Region, outlined the Department’s plan to improve traffic statistics at a press conference this week.
“Public safety is still our primary mission,” Said Mr. Nguyen, speaking to The Lazy News through his security gate. “This change in policy has the support of everyone in the Department, as we believe it will result in fewer reported traffic violations. Who did you say you worked for again?”
However, leaked memos obtained by The Lazy News tell a different story. The documents portray a bureaucracy with systemic morale issues — an organization that doesn’t understand why people dislike them.
“Everyone is super mean to us,” said one officer in a heavily redacted postcard. In another: “It’s day after day of negative interactions, and our officers need help. The Department needs to look for new ways to improve relations between police and those we’re meant to protect. An officer can only be called a ‘Yellow Dog’ so many times before it hurts our feelings.”
When we contacted the Department for a response concerning the leaked memos, the Chief cited an internal policy of refusing to comment on anything that looked like the work of a child. Regardless of their veracity, these documents show a police force that is struggling with its image. One officer summed up the dilemma with this: “I joined the force because I wanted to make a difference in my community, but everyone hates us. We’re the villains. When I issued my uncle a citation for passing out drunk on his motorbike in the middle of an intersection, my family stopped speaking to me. I’ve lost so many friends because of this job. Everyone just assumes that I’m trying to get rich from bribes, but nobody sees all the challenging work that goes into improving road safety — things like random stops around blind corners and fish nets to capture street racers.”
The memos also show a recent surge in officers filing for long term medical leave, each claiming “Emotional trauma.” When asked by management about the possibility of moving sad officers into desk positions, Human Resources said they had no place left to put them.
“There are no desk jobs left,” said one HR Manager. “We already have too many people working clerical positions. Every building has at least one person who just staples papers together, and another who operates the water cooler. Our offices are saturated with officers suffering from depression. We have to find a way to reconnect our them with the public, or else the organization will suffocate under its own weight.”
According to emails, the Department also consulted with animal psychology experts to discuss proposed changes. It’s not entirely clear what the options were, but one memo discussed a new marketing campaign — one that would show police as helpful members of the community. A senior manager responded with: “We already have posters and billboards that show the glorious deeds of our benevolent officers, but market research shows that nobody even notices them — except for children and foreigners. Both groups told us that the billboards are just creepy.”
One memo in particular seemed to offer the rationale behind the decision to accept tears in lieu of a fine. The memo stated that if a person cries when stopped by the police, then they’ve already shown enough remorse.
Some within the Department raised concerns over finances, calling the new policy a pay cut. “Fear is an essential part of how we work,” one email from a lower ranked officer said. “People are scared of us, and that feeling keeps drivers from just doing whatever the hell they want on our roads. If people don’t shit a literal brick when we come out and point our batons at them, how can we be expected to make any money?”
Despite some internal push back, Chief Bao Wow Nguyen reiterated that traffic police in Vietnam are committed to a new era of compassionate law enforcement. Only time will tell if tears can reduce traffic related fatalities, but one thing is for sure: Police have feelings, too.
|
https://medium.com/the-lazy-news/traffic-police-in-vietnam-to-accept-tears-as-payment-for-violations-459cacf60433
|
['Matthew Pike']
|
2018-05-11 06:54:34.774000+00:00
|
['Comedy', 'Vietnam', 'News', 'Funny', 'Satire']
|
Dogecoin has been banned from being listed on Thai cryptocurrency exchanges (DOGE)
|
Dogecoin has been banned from being listed on Thai cryptocurrency exchanges (DOGE) Keith Hudson Jun 12·2 min read
The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prohibited crypto exchanges from trading certain types of crypto assets in the nation. Meme-based tokens, fan-based tokens, and nonfungible tokens were all affected by the prohibition (NFTs). Exchanges have 30 days to comply with the new rules or risk being delisted.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand has made it illegal for crypto exchanges to trade with certain types of tokens.
The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published the recommendations, instructing exchanges to stop trading four distinct types of tokens. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), fan-based tokens, meme-based tokens, and exchange-issued tokens are examples of these.
The SEC also stated that any crypto asset issued by exchanges must comply with existing asset guidelines and match descriptions in their respective white papers.
Any exchange that does not comply with the new guideline will face penalties, according to the regulator. The coin will be delisted from the exchange, according to the SEC.
The Thai watchdog has given exchanges 30 days to comply with the new limits, as per the new guidelines.
As a result, when the new prohibition takes effect, meme-based currencies like Dogecoin (DOGE/USD) will not be listed on Thai exchanges. It also impacts collections and tokenized artwork.
The action follows allegations that Jay Mart, a SET-listed company, is aiming to launch NFTs with the help of nine local celebrities and stars.
Many feel that the Thai SEC is reacting to the news in order to protect the market from an overabundance of such tokens.
Non-transferable tokens (NFTs) are often recorded on blockchains and are considered non-transferable. They have become more popular means of selling digital artworks in recent months, with some auctions fetching millions of dollars.
Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol, Secretary-General of the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, claimed that exchanges are prohibited from dealing in crypto assets with specific characteristics. He also stated that tokens whose value are based on social media trends are not permitted.
He also stated that tokens with no actual value or clear goals are not permitted to be traded on crypto exchanges.
Thailand’s bitcoin sector isn’t easy to understand. In an effort to reduce market fraud, the government has introduced Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations for exchanges.
|
https://medium.com/@Sun.Dispatch/dogecoin-has-been-banned-from-being-listed-on-thai-cryptocurrency-exchanges-doge-cf68123f8319
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['Keith Hudson']
|
2021-06-12 13:13:32.488000+00:00
|
['Nft', 'Ban', 'Thailand', 'Doge']
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Stablecoin Patent — System for Maintaining Account Valuation (Priority: July 15, 2014. US 10,121,126 B2)
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INTRODUCTION
The “Stablecoin Patent” I filed in 2014 and received in 2018 has been written about in a variety of publications and mentioned in several interviews and podcasts. As some aspects of it are esoteric, this will help breakdown what its purpose is and how it promotes the progress of science and useful arts.
This patent describes a two-account system that balances and adjusts the value of both/all the accounts so that the total value of both accounts remains the same. You can use the word portfolio to describe the collection of assets and accounts, but extend it outside of the investment context into a consumer retail application after the advances in infrastructure are put into place.
Colloquially, the term “stablecoin” was not in use when this patent was drafted and filed in 2014. Similarly, in practice, the stablecoins that reached the market during that decade do not implement my strategy for providing stable value to users of crypto assets. Disinflationary and deflationary digital assets align the incentives for market participants to make them scarce and valuable, by improving their utility and scarcity. Stablecoins that are separate digital assets do not accomplish this and dilute the capital reaching the native digital assets, eventually hampering the security model and confidence in the digital asset’s foundational ledger (the blockchain).
For example, when $100 is used to purchase Bitcoin it makes bitcoin slightly more scarce, whereas using $100 being to purchase Tether simply creates more Tether. Tether payments and ownership operate on the same network as bitcoin payments and ownership (the bitcoin blockchain), but bitcoin is not made more scarce when native bitcoin payments and ownership are not being used.
Live view of existing value being traded for bitcoin, by currency. Source: fiatleak.com
The concept behind Tether is that it is “tethered” to the value it was converted from. $100 in USD equals $100 of Tether. Tether ownership allows users to participate in the digital asset economy in a way that has been incompatible with fiat currencies while retaining the predictable value of fiat currencies. To accomplish this, Tether is operated by a group of large companies and an army of lawyers, who spend unfathomable resources maintaining banking relationships, fielding state-level legal challenges, operational security, and maintaining confidence in the system to support the Tether asset’s value and promises of convertibility.
The invention is based on the observation that this level of infrastructure is not necessary, and that parallel meta assets dilute capital, utility and price discovery of the native digital assets such as Bitcoin.
Comparisons. MakerDao DAI collateralizes digital assets, some are native, requires community votes to increase issuance & self perpetuate.
DETAILS
To understand the utility and differentiating factors of this stablecoin patent, there are a few key components to understand:
Spot & Derivatives
Delta Hedging
Cross Margining
Infinite divisibility
This patent builds upon these pre-existing tools and combines them to add utility to the crypto and digital asset market participants.
Spot & Derivatives
Spot assets are the real or physical version of the asset. They can also be contractual claims for the asset as long as they perfectly track the prices of the asset. So owning a piece of gold, or a certificate that says you own gold would be the spot asset.
Derivatives are merely assets whose price is “derived” from a spot asset, and they have a different independent price from the spot asset and the pricing mechanisms occur for different reasons. For example, a gold future has a different price than gold, and a gold option has a wildly different price than the gold future or spot gold. The word spot can be interchanged with “underlying” when the context is a derivative, as you need to know what “underlies” a derivative contract. Underlying assets do not have to be spot assets as they can be other derivative contracts. For example, a gold futures contract is a derivative of spot gold, the underlying being physical gold. A gold futures options contract is a derivative as well, with the underlying being a gold futures contract.
The same concept can apply to any asset. Such as bitcoin. In the coming years, more digital assets will have more derivatives, operating in standardized, predictable, regulated environments. In the United States, it is impossible to operate derivatives outside of regulated environments, and the United States attracts the highest degree of market confidence and capital. It is therefore important to build the infrastructure for digital assets derivatives in the US, as exchanges operating in other countries have already handicapped the capital and liquidity they can attract.
Although this explanation relies on incumbent financial institutions to host infrastructure, the patent predicts the rise of decentralized finance which is now known as “DeFi”, which allows for autonomous robust exchange and contract execution without the permission or predilection of a regulator and the financial institutions whom they license.
Delta Hedging
Delta hedging mitigates risk in a portfolio, where the rise of the spot asset offsets the fall in the derivative asset, and vice versa. The granularity in the transaction sizes of digital and crypto assets allows for more effective delta hedging.
Delta Hedging illustration from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deltahedging.asp
This form of delta hedging has the goal of staying delta neutral, with the positive delta spot asset appreciating on the rise of its value, and the negative delta derivative appreciating on the fall of the spot asset’s value.
Cross Margining
This refers to a single portfolio of assets that is capable of managing the risk and accounting of multiple types of assets. Specifically where the margin and collateral requirements are lower because different kinds of collateral are taken into account. Cross margining is an embellishment that has the possibility of increasing the practicality of implementing this system, but not a requirement.
In this case, margining systems need to monitor the spot and the derivatives positions. The current landscape of portfolios are built exclusively for active investors, and typically for a single market. For example, a portfolio for the stock market would only have stocks, a portfolio for the futures market would only have futures, a portfolio for real estate would only have the value of homes in them. Cross margining has been in the purview of investment bankers, but the concept can be extended outside of the institutional investment world, leapfrogging exposure to the retail investor, providing utility to the consumer who now operates between parallel global economies and requires predictable stable value of their digital assets.
For example, if a mortgage application required 20% collateral against the value of the home, in a cross-margining system the mortgage application would look at the applicant’s stock portfolio, evaluate the risk of its value changing, and allow that as collateral therefore not requiring the applicant to liquidate.
Banks, brokers, digital wallets, and exchanges have to extend the ability to own the spot digital assets — such as real bitcoin — alongside ownership of the futures and options.
Infinite Divisibility
The advantage of digital assets, compared to physical assets, is the infinite divisibility. So even though Bitcoin is deflationary properties, forcing it to rise in value to high extremes, a smaller and smaller fraction of a bitcoin can be used to purchase goods and services which retain a fixed price in their relative local economy.
These components working together allow for the financial inclusion that is promised by the digital asset blockchain technology (cryptocurrency) while exempting consumers from volatility. All values can successfully leak from the state-run economic system into the decentralized, permissionless, global digital asset economy. Thereby accelerating the price discovery and repricing of native digital assets like Bitcoin.
The current infrastructure to support this simply requires the existence of standardized and regulated futures and options contracts.
At the beginning of this new decade, only Bitcoin has standardized regulated futures and futures options contracts, setting its available infrastructure far ahead of any competing digital currency. Competition in this arena has promoted cash-settled bitcoin futures, cash-settled bitcoin futures options, somewhat physically-settled bitcoin futures, and somewhat physically-settled bitcoin futures options. Current contract sizes are for 1 or 5 bitcoin, which still results in derivatives contracts to expensive for expanded utility.
More competition can bring about smaller contracts, such as how the S&P 500 has both the E-mini futures contract, and the micro E-mini futures contract.
Better price discovery in bitcoin can mean lower margin requirements, allowing for much less capital to be put up to hold any futures contract, even futures that represent fractional amounts of bitcoin as the underlying.
User Experience
A consumer’s application can show a stable value, and the stable value can be spent like a meta asset similar to how Tether and other stablecoin balances are represented, but there would be no meta asset diluting capital away from the native digital assets powering the whole system.
Square’s “Cash” mobile app, featuring its Bitcoin custodial features. For illustrative purposes.
Hiding the deflationary properties of Bitcoin allows Bitcoin to function as a currency for consumers, and as a currency in the economy for investment. The economy is not built around deflationary assets, and prevailing schools of economics only function when the native asset (fiat currency) is inflationary, the idea being to force the entire market to continually search for returns that exceed the rate of inflation. Hedged digital assets functioning as surrogates and mere visual representations of stable fiat currencies will expand their utility as currency. This nullifies all arguments against a cryptocurrency’s ability to be a currency, pushing the goalpost much further towards even higher fictional standards towards a perfect transmutable, programmable asset class.
You can read the plain text of this stablecoin patent here. It is not specifically a “blockchain patent” because the patent envisions other kinds of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) existing. It does not specifically mention “smart contracts”, but envisions the auto-executing covenants of an agreement being able to power global exchange and universe-wide state machine. It is not specifically a “DeFi” (decentralized finance) patent because the term did not exist. It does not specifically mention “oracles” because that also was not in the collective consciousness as an agreed-upon term, but the automatic portfolio rebalancing relies upon external pricing data to be evaluated for transactions to occur.
There are continuation patent(s) filed for US 10,121,126 B2 to further promote the progress of science and useful arts, and align with the direction that the market has formed.
This patent is currently assigned to Blockchain Development Company LLC which I manage for similar properties in the digital asset and crypto space. I can be contacted on Twitter and LinkedIn.
|
https://medium.com/the-capital/stablecoin-patent-system-for-maintaining-account-valuation-priority-july-15-2014-80b46105b36c
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['Eric Lamison-White']
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2020-02-04 15:38:11.945000+00:00
|
['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Stable Coin', 'Patents', 'Defi']
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When Monogamists Explain Polyamory To Me
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Clearing up some misconceptions that come from patriarchal thinking
Photo by Alexandra Novitskaya on Unsplash
One of the topics that I write the most about on Medium is polyamory. My husband James and I opened up our relationship about 5 years ago, and ever since we’ve been on a path of exploration and growth, both as individuals and as a couple. I’ve written about the sexual aspects, the emotional aspects, and the philosophical aspects of polyamory. It’s something I’ve read a lot about and I think that I write with an approachable yet authoritative style on the subject. None-the-less, that doesn’t prevent some people who don’t know much about the subject from trying to tell me all about it, usually in the comments section of one of my stories.
I’m not sure why they think that this is appropriate or reasonable. I have some informed thoughts and ideas about what it would be like to be a gay man, but I would never presume to tell one all about what his relationship(s) are actually like. First off, unlike traditional hetero monogamy, polyamory, and to a certain extent, many homosexual relationships, do not necessarily fit into a pre-fab box. Partners co-create their own parameters, and for me to assume that I know what those are would be incredibly condescending.
One of the biggest attractions of polyamory for both me and James is that our relationship and the ones we have with other people are designed solely by us. We choose what affection and connection look like and how they are expressed with each other as well as our other partners. I’m in love with and committed to a man who is married to someone else. Rather than that being a source of guilt or tension, it’s just an accepted part of the way that we all interact with each other. Not everyone has to choose that, but we have, and we’re happy with it. The reason that we can have this is that all of our relationships are built on honesty, communication, independence, and self-responsibility.
It’s true that not every single polyamorous relationship rises to the level of those precepts, but they are still the foundational elements of poly life. Aside from the occasional judging comment, that typically is an accusation of selfishness and greed (which makes no sense at all since poly is the opposite of that), are the ones that are just trying to overlay monogamy on top of the little they know about poly. Of course, it doesn’t compute, because it’s an entirely different way of looking at romantic connection.
Most of these guys, and they pretty much are all guys, are very concerned that polyamory is just some kind of sanctioned cheating for women, who are then leaving their male partners at home to cry in their beer. The other misconception is that a small percentage of “elite” men have access to all the women, and regular guys are left with nothing, while the elites essentially have a harem. Both of these misconceptions come out of a patriarchal construct where control and ownership of romantic partners is not only expected, it’s celebrated.
Although overwhelmingly it is women who initiate opening previously monogamous relationships, they are not off screwing around while their husbands or boyfriends sit home by themselves. First off, polyamory isn’t only about sex, and in order for polyamory to work, both/all partners have to have equal opportunity to pursue other intimate relationships.
Some polyamorous relationships are closed, the functional equivalent of a multi-person marriage, but for the most part, all partners also have partners of their own. The false narrative that any and all women can easily find other sexual and romantic partners, where it’s much harder for men, drives some of this preconception that women are benefiting from polyamory in ways that men aren’t. That belief is a whole story on its own, so I won’t go into it further here.
It may be marginally easier for women to find other partners in certain situations, but it is not a gross imbalance, in my experience. The main reason being, polyamorous women are looking for poly men, not men who are cheating on their wives or girlfriends. And they want quality men; not just any old Joe who expresses interest in them. The strange and incongruent flip side to the idea that poly women will hook up with anybody is the patriarchal notion that only a few elite men have access to most of the women. This is based on an interpersonal hierarchy that comes out of monogamy and doesn’t really exist in polyamory. Patriarchy is at heart, a dominance-based hierarchy, and that’s the social structure in which monogamous marriage was formed.
First off, polyamory isn’t only about sex, it’s about intimate connections, which may very often involve sex. I haven’t seen my other life partner Nat for over three years because we moved away from where he lives. That doesn’t make us any less committed to each other. We just have a different kind of connection that a traditional monogamous relationship that has as the ultimate goal, cohabitation and marriage as a show of commitment.
Although my relationship with him is very different than the one I have with my husband, he is no less important to me. James and I are both involved with Tamara and being in a three-way relationship is also very different than traditional monogamous pairings. Nat has his own wife and family and Tamara has other intimate connections as well. No-one is controlling anyone else and our relationships are built on our intimate connections to each other and that alone.
Polyamory doesn’t work well with people who are overly controlling, jealous, or co-dependent. These are traits that tend to be more a part of monogamous relationships, although there are, of course, healthy monogamous relationships and unhealthy poly ones. But there are no “elite men” who have dozens of women all to themselves. Most poly women will expect to have access to multiple partners also, some of whom might be female.
Polyamory doesn’t just disrupt the fundamentals of traditional relationship pairings, it frequently also has greater sexual fluidity. Bi-sexuality or pan-sexuality is not universal in polyamory, but it is much more common. I believe this is because poly encourages people to figure out what works for them, rather than asking them to follow rules that have been designed by society. When you have a sub-culture that encourages exploration and individuality, rather than conformity, that is what you often get. Perhaps this is why many homosexual relationships have polyamorous aspects to them.
So let’s recap what polyamory is and isn’t:
It is an expansive relationship style that encourages deep and ongoing communication about your needs and your boundaries; it encourages you to take responsibility for your emotions and your actions; it asks for honesty and transparency.
It is an avenue for having an abundance of love, caring, connection and sex that is not constrained by artificial boundaries devised by other people.
It is not about having a variety of casual relationships rather than one meaningful one. All poly relationships, even the ones that are primarily about sex, are probably going to be meaningful on some level because poly is about intimacy, not about hooking up.
It is not a pressure release valve to make struggling relationships work better. Relationships that are not already healthy and strong are unlikely to survive the pressures of polyamory because it takes work to live with the high level of communication and intention that poly relationships require to be successful.
In other words, the narrative of a woman with more power in the relationship using it to run around and see other people while her man languishes at home is a fear born out of a hierarchical relationship style. In that paradigm, someone always has more power, but this zero-sum outlook isn’t what polyamory is about — it’s what patriarchy is about. Having multiple partners encourages power-sharing and cooperative relationships. The fear that if I can’t control you, you will cuckold me is straight out of patriarchy.
It is not a couple of men with harems of women and it never will be. The relationship dynamics are completely different between polygamy and polyamory. Different partners quite often meet different needs in poly relationships. Why on earth would a polyamorous woman revert to getting all of her emotional, sexual, and other needs met by just one man? Why would she give up the freedom and individuality of poly life to be intimately involved with only one person again?
I hear from people all the time about how polyamory has increased the intimacy they have with their primary partner (if they have one, not all poly people do) at the same time that it has increased their sense of individuality and independence. This doesn’t make any sense when you look at it through the lens of a patriarchal, hierarchical relationship style, but that’s because it isn’t that. Polyamory has to be evaluated for what it is, not for what it is imagined to be by those who don’t understand it.
© Copyright Elle Beau 2020
Elle Beau writes on Medium about sex, life, relationships, society, anthropology, spirituality, and love. If this story is appearing anywhere other than Medium.com, it appears without my consent and has been stolen.
|
https://medium.com/inside-of-elle-beau/when-monogamists-explain-polyamory-to-me-ea0e117bb70
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['Elle Beau']
|
2020-08-30 18:42:16.230000+00:00
|
['Relationships', 'This Happened To Me', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Polyamory', 'Life']
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How To Write A Product Description In 2021— A Step-By-Step Guide
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HOW TO WRITE A PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Product descriptions are the backbone of making sales in your business. A compelling product description can be the stepping stone to selling your products. However, there aren’t many product description guides that offer steps on how to write a product description.
In fact, according to a study, unclear or missing product information results in at least 20% of buying failures. If you have been wondering how to write product descriptions like a pro, this article is just for you. Here, we will discuss everything that makes a great product description.
Know Your Audience
The first step to writing a killer product description is knowing your audience. It is important to understand who your buyers are. This will help you appeal to their interests and attract them to your products accordingly. Consider some important questions. Who are your buyers? What are their interests, ages, and demographics? Keeping your target audience in mind is key to writing a good product description.
Include Benefits & Features Of Your Products
Including product specifications, and product features is a must. In addition to that, you must list all the benefits of your product. This will help the buyers understand how your products can help them. Describe the best advantages and features of your product. Let the buyers know what they stand to gain from buying one of your products. Present a problem and offer a solution (your product).
The Product Description Must Reflect The Essence Of Your Brand
Remember that the product description must reflect your brand’s tone of voice. If your brand’s usual tone of voice is casual, ensure that your product description is the same. If it is conversational or professional, your product description must mimic that tone of voice. Do not confuse your readers and help them make a buying decision quickly!
Make It Easy To Read
Readability is a huge factor when writing your product description. Include bullets and subheadings so that the buyers are not tired of long and boring paragraphs. Also, make all the information as concise and as clear as possible. Make sure the most important information about your products appears first.
Bulleted lists are the perfect visual elements to keep the readers hooked to product descriptions. Moreover, you can use different bullets like checkmarks or unique shapes to attract readers.
Don’t Forget Power Words
Some words are psychologically more appealing to people and can generate an instant emotional response. Hence, using those words can be immensely advantageous for the sale of your product. Some effective product description writing examples highlight power words such as miracle, delight, eye-opening, and many more.
SEO Is Key
The importance of optimization for search engines cannot be stressed upon enough. It is one of the best and the easiest ways to get new customers. It is the first thing that attracts your customers, and then you need to take the next step and convince them to buy your product.
No matter how good your description is, if you don’t do the right SEO, you will not get leads. Hence, you can spend some time on keyword searches before you get on to writing a description.
An Image Speaks A Thousand Words
A nice product image is very important and plays a vital role in selling your product. So, even if you have a great product description, it is still important to have high-quality and relevant images attached to it. You must also try to highlight all the important product features in the image. It is a great way to sell your product. In fact, it is even better to add some creative product videos to go along with the description and the image.
Make Your Audience Connect With the Brand
Storytelling is a great way to help your audience connect with the brand. Therefore, if you can tell a story about the product or how it came into existence, you will appeal to a larger audience. Communicating the right message is the key to the success of any product description.
Therefore, you must tell a great story about your brand and reach out to a bigger audience. Hence, apart from the product’s key features and benefits, you must have the story behind the product too. It can help you when you are thinking about how to write product descriptions.
Have a Concrete Goal To Assess The Success
Concrete goals in place are the best way to assess the success of your product descriptions. Therefore, you must keep track of the increase in the overall conversion rates after writing your product description. In addition to that, you can also see if there is a decrease in the return rate as well as the cart abandonment rate.
Finally, if you are doing everything right and following the steps given here, your organic search ranking should also improves. Hence, if you are well aware of these things, you can assess your descriptions’ success.
Use a Simple tone
A product description should never use difficult words. It would help if you used a conversational tone so that all your visitors can understand your language. It should sound more like a friend telling you about a product that gets you interested.
If the tone is too serious with a bunch of technical words about your product, it might not be as effective. As an example of a product description for a necklace, you can write a funky necklace for college girls. This can immediately attract the right audience for your product. A simple and attractive tone is very important.
Final Words
Writing product descriptions is not as difficult as it seems. All you need to write a product description that sells is these 10 ingredients. Using these tips, you will be able to write a good product description seamlessly. So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking and make unlimited sales!
|
https://medium.com/@sanjaypatra.121/how-to-write-a-product-description-in-2020-a-step-by-step-guide-38fec1ed7e2b
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[]
|
2021-01-02 09:25:07.459000+00:00
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['Product Features', 'Product Descriptions', 'Content Writing', 'Ecommerce', 'Writing Tips']
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How to Grow, Care & Propagate Begonia Maculata(Polka Dot Begonia)
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The scientific name of Polka Dot Begonia is Begonia maculate. It is also called Spotted Begonia, Trout Begonia, Angel Wing Begonia, and Polka Dot Begonia.
Begonias are lovely plants and they’re shockingly simple to deal with.
Begonias come in all shapes and estimates and can be very scary because it has such countless subtleties on it.
Fortunately, nothing is further from reality. In this aide, we’ll center around the Begonia Maculata and how to best deal with it.
We’ll go over subjects like daylight prerequisites, watering, the best soil, manure, and blossoms. After perusing this aide, you’ll have all you require to have the option to effectively deal with a Polka Dot Begonia.
How much light does a Polka Dot plant require?
The Begonia Maculata can be presented to two unique kinds of daylight openness: brilliant, backhanded daylight, yet additionally lower light circumstances.
This makes it an ideal plant for those spaces where you’d love to have a plant, yet they all require more daylight.
Try not to keep it’s anything but space where it doesn’t get any daylight, it actually needs some daylight.
Likewise, try to keep the Begonia Maculata out of direct daylight in the early evening.
At the point when your Begonia Maculata is presented to this daylight for a really long time, its delightful leaves can get burns from the sun and dry out.
The video credit goes to Bleu Lotus: Gardens
How should you water your Polka Dot plant?
A Begonia Maculata is a plant that loves to be in damp soil. This implies you should water it routinely.
Contingent upon the season, this could be at one time like clockwork in the mid-year and consistently to about fourteen days in the colder time of year.
You can discover if you need to water your Begonia Maculata by contacting the dirt with your fingers and decide whether it’s as yet sodden or if it’s dry.
On the off chance that it’s dry, it’s an ideal opportunity to water your Polkadot plant.
It doesn’t prefer to be dry for a really long time, so try to check routinely.
In the event that the dirt is as yet soggy when you check it, stand by one more little while and check once more.
This assists with forestalling overwatering this plant. The Begonia Maculata roots are slim which implies it’s very touchy to overwater.
So make certain to check the dampness levels of the dirt prior to watering your plant.
Are you making shades for your plants?
Get 5 FREE shade plans + A massive discount on a purchase!
What is the best soil for your Begonia Maculata?
Begonia Maculata plants like to be in sodden soil, so you should discover a dirt blend that holds water very well.
A palm soil blend is a blend that holds water very well, and yet, it doesn’t reduce in the wake of watering your plant a couple of times.
The palm soil blend is the best approach for a Begonia Maculata.
How to grow Polka Dot Begonia?
The Begonia Maculata is a blooming plant, which implies it requires manure from time to time to have sufficient energy to have the option to continue to develop.
A decent general guideline is to add fluid manure to the water all other times you water the plant.
Preferably, this would mean the Begonia gets prepared at regular intervals.
Nonetheless, just prepare your Begonia during its developing season (spring and summer).
During the lethargy time frame, harvest time (fall), and winter, the plant shouldn’t be treated, on the grounds that this is the point at which it needs to recuperate from the developing season and it needs to rest and get ready for the coming developing season.
How should you assist the blossoms?
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https://medium.com/@gardersworld/how-to-grow-care-propagate-begonia-maculata-polka-dot-begonia-a66b72e5b3f3
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["Gardener'S World"]
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2021-06-17 18:18:15.407000+00:00
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['Begonia Maculata', 'Garden', 'Gardening', 'Angel Wing Begonia', 'Polka Dot Begonia']
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How To bake Your Favorite Christmas Treats
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Caramel Apple Pie
Recipe:
CRUST
3 c- all purpose flour, plus more for surface
(2 sticks) butter, cut into ½” pieces
2 tbsp- granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp- kosher salt
1 tbsp- apple cider vinegar
6 tbsp- ice water (incase, needed)
FILLING
3 1/2 lb. Assorted apples (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Gala) peeled and sliced finely (somewhere about nine apples)
1/4 c- packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsp- freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp- cornstarch
1 tsp- cinnamon
1/2 tsp- pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp- kosher salt
1/2 c- caramel, plus more for serving
1- egg beat with
Coarse sugar
Method:
Step 1– Before beginning, set the flour as well as the butter into the freezer for about 25–30 mins.
Step 2– Firstly whisk the sugar, salt, and flour in a bowl. Later on, add butter by cutting it apart into the mixture until fine and small. Secondly add Vinger as well as ice water in small 1 tbsps at a time, as the dough comes together and is damp that’s the cue to stop.
Step 3– So, drop the dough and roll around a floured surface, moreover form into two equal-sized balls, and then use a roller to roll it until the dough is completely flat.
Step 4– Wrap with a plastic wrapper and place it in the refrigerator until the dough is colder, time: 2hrs-overnight.
Step 5– Accordingly, Place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Step 6– Set apples, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, as well as lemon juice in a skillet over medium heat. Continue cooking until the liquid gets thickened and apples get much tenderer, which may take between 10 to 17 mins.
Step 7– Flour the surface and roll one ball of dough into a circular disc. Attach the crust into a plate furthermore, moderately press it onto it. Trim the edges that hang around the plate and later tuck it under itself. Set the apples on the crust and then drizzle caramel over the apples.
Step 8– Roll out the second disc of dough into a circle. Moreover, cut into lines, and place a few over the apples. Double over the other stripes a few times and continue to do so with the remaining crust. Trim the lines and press onto the crimped crust and let it freeze for 15 mins until crust is chilly.
Step 9– Paint the crust with egg wash and powder with coarse sugar. Prepare the pie plate to the preheated baking sheet and bake until the crust gives off a golden color and the filling is fizzling this may take somewhere between 40–50 mins. Lastly, If you notice the crust is darkening fast then wrap it with a foil wrapper.
|
https://medium.com/@handmade-xmas/how-to-bake-your-favorite-christmas-treats-c067c4f012b8
|
['Handmade X-Mas']
|
2021-06-17 09:43:31.132000+00:00
|
['Christmas', 'Holidays', 'Baking', 'Bakery', 'Sweet']
|
Both of My Parents have Cancer
|
There, I said it, out loud.
There are like 44 individual sounds in the English alphabet and another tens of blends. Millions of combinations, few sensible, often misunderstood and mispronounced by myriad humans trying to speak English or make sense of American ways. We’ve somehow rallied to convince a big and diverse beautiful planet, teeming with life and language and history and resolution, that this hodgepodge of Germanic tribute and romantic resolve is worthy of being taught in every nook and cranny of a wide world and so, even in remote villages in Sri Lanka; when I traveled there last year, students in American brand t-shirts would clamor to me and use English to ask for candy or cash, their curiosity running alongside the road and up against their needs.
This has nothing to do with what I’m writing about but it’s sorta interesting, on its own, I suppose, and even more if you’re better traveled, more diversified, intellectually acclimated to worldly ideas and sprawl and rage. Or maybe if you’ve ever climbed the Sisyphian slope of acquiring English as a second or third or ninth language and the sounds and symbols still stutter or get stuck on your well spoken tongue you can at least recognize and probably relate to the gross improbability that anyone should master this ridiculous, my mother, tongue. And yet we do.
Anyhow.
American babies aren’t born into knowing their language is out to get them. Adaptation and evolution, though I’m no qualified scientist, insist that language occurs through the happenstancial overhearing an infant does as it matures. Raised in a vacuum, no noise resembling words being heard, a child would never know to move their mouth outside of sucking or chewing, to make sounds have meaning outside of anguish and pain.
From early on we begin to hold meaning in sounds and silences. The stretching symbolism of an lover’s quiet becomes the cord, unplugged, slowly draining connection from what was once electric. The battle cry, raised fist and steely gaze, makes sense in light of broken treaties, the covenants we write and speak, sign and surrender, break and burn. I guess what I’m saying is that words, alongside action, create lives. Verbs, I suppose, are the blocks I’ve built everything upon and so it is in these words that everything hinges, falls and fails — adjectives chinking the in-betweens.
Aggressive.
Different.
Still.
Lymphoma.
It’s a cold Saturday at the ski resort when I find out that both my parents have cancer. Lymphoma, specifically, I’d say, because I like the way it rolls off my tongue. First we name the beast, I discovered, then we tame it and make it beautiful. I am good at step one, only. I have never progressed into moving my right foot to follow my left. My mother is terminal, and in remission, confusingly both, two years in, $360,000 of immunotherapy dripped slowly into South Dakota veins in a Texas hospital where a Chinese doctor practiced world renowned medicine but awaits the words for the definition of a cure. My father’s beast spreads chest and armpit, newly, three years post-stroke and through chronic back pains — we’ve imagined him the healthy one. A pesky lump raised eyebrows but not overwhelming alarm until the doctors confirm it and we await treatment plans and staging, pacing the first few days of a cold January hoping the climate and the elevation make for a slow grow.
It’s a cold Saturday here, roughly 19 driving hours north of mom’s specialist, and a mile and a half, as the crow flies, from my parents house though, of course, they sent the news in an email. My family performs perfection with painstaking attention to detail, proper spelling, the absence of meaningful emotional delivery or expectancy of response. We are nothing if not efficient in our processing, the distribution of news. There are 44 sounds in a 26 letter alphabet and we excel in their arrangement, drag and drip meaning across screens and accept the ways sadness colors our tone, though we’d never claim it. We are obnoxiously logical about our deep emotions and so we copy some links, label prognosis, cite statistics, cc: all.
I do this, too, with my clients when I insist, with under breath mutters of “ok boomer” when they push back, that they never call me, only email me. “It’s better in writing,” I clarify and it’s failed me only when printing terms like “uncoated” or “matte” still mean different things to different people, still have to be touched with fingertips and felt out loud.
Oh! It’s the wife of the surgeon who I clash with on the paper coating and terms of printing. Oh it’s this small town joy that her husband will remove my dad’s lymph nodes just almost exactly 24 months after he removed my mom’s. It’s this small town kismet or karma that I pray the $1000 credit I gifted his wife, the wife of a well to do surgeon, will come back in careful hands, the prayerful and pausing power of his slow cuts and patient knife as he sutures and saves or digs and diagnosis my father, the parent of a self employed graphic designer, the husband of a teacher. Is $1000 enough? Is there more money or more kindness I can breathe into the energy I’m passing, ensure that the cancer is touched with fingertips, eeked from open veins, felt out loud.
Can I give up an hour or two, now, from the end of my time to give my dad an hour or two, now, as he begins fighting for his. What are the trades I’m allowed to make, meaningful emotional delivery, expectant response?
It’s a cold Saturday here but places where white people love to travel are burning and places where brown people live are being traded for the price of a barrel of oil, barrel chested mini-men with eiffelesque insecurities holding the barrel of a gun against the chest of the Middle East and asking what is a life worth and what will you trade, now, for an hour or two.
What is it worth.
“You really got shit luck in the genetic lottery,” he tells me, shrugging but likely struggling with serious implications, his kids half mine. “But you’re pretty.” He means it like a compliment, like the sort of comfort an umbrella provides in a hailstorm, symbolic but insufficient as shelter. “Yeah,” I muster with a glare doused in straight up grace production, “I’ll look good in a casket when I die young.”
“Your life seems dramatic,” I’m challenged. I retort, quickly, verbally building walls and digging moats of defiance at adjective and subjective labels, “the drama is in the response. We never act dramatic.” The truth is somewhere in that chinking. Armor. Walls. The colors and the blends of sounds and stories combined to risk and rattle. It’s dramatic, of course. Two parents. Two cancers. Two years. But there’s worth in the way we react and respond, the lives we live in conjunction to the diagnosis. The ways we lean into the difference between sadness and depression. John Gorman said, “depression is numbing and hopeless. Sad is life-affirming and beautiful.” And really, logically, they are built in the same set of 26 letters and the same 44 sounds, tens of blends and myriad meanings. The impossible reality that we will battle alongside a second parent in the span of 24 months, a second beast, in the span of two years, and we will fight to make that beast beautiful, bald-headed and resolute, in the mix of sad and salvation that always sees us through.
I don’t wanna be dramatic, but it’s a cold Sunday in these sacred Black Hills and I thought of going to church to hold hope and prayer alongside other people experiencing 26 letters of chaos spread and arranged in aggressive prognosis or hopeful gaze. But I made a roaster filled with cheesy potatoes and trudged two miles north to spoon warmth into the bellies of food insecure friends because is it enough? Can we move the needle on grace or retribution. What is it worth, in kismet or karma, blood or belief?
My fingers go numb in the wind, though the sun shines. My blood is thick, thicker than water, flowing with life and love and a genetic disaster. I lick cheese from my finger, watch the wind whip my pink-haired son’s cheeks rosy and remember the way to put letters into words, words into sentences, sentences into prognosis or prediction or deduction or logic or limits or lessons or living or love. Is it enough? An email with links to education. A million dollars of chemotherapy. The scales tip from depression to sadness when we remember this is 100% the way to be alive.
We will not go numb in the face of diagnosis because when we have named it, it becomes knowable. Anything we know we can love, lick, leave, lose, let go. This drama is the heartbeat of this long lean into being, that ever hopeful hallelujah I reference but rearrange into hell or high water when I forget to first breathe, when I realize everything weighs harder and presses heavier without hope of eternity, here, ever, now.
So here, ever, now, cc: all… we’ll arrange the letters and sounds into meaning. Join hands and bring numb parts back into warm, though sometimes insufficient, shelter. Press the palms of our hands in prayer and holding, parallel lines leading to hearts that are carbon copies in chromosomes and tears. Twice in two years, two parents, an entire line of screaming genetic drama and happenstance means we’re armored and ready to fight, cry, stand, deliver — together.
It will be enough.
|
https://natalielafranceslack.medium.com/both-of-my-parents-have-cancer-ef62ea57d0c4
|
['Natalie Lafrance Slack']
|
2020-01-05 19:52:34.542000+00:00
|
['Narrative', 'Family', 'Prose', 'Mental Health', 'Cancer']
|
What Mattel’s Accounting Mistake Teaches Us About Material Weakness and Deferred Taxes
|
Who knew that Thomas the Tank Engine could stir up so many problems?
Mattel, the owner of the toy brand and PwC, Mattel’s external auditor, did not take proactive steps to correct an accounting error.
The company and the auditor have paid a heavy price.
This excellent article from the Wall Street Journal, “Mattel and PwC Obscured Accounting Issues, Former Executive Says”, lays out a great example to explain a material weakness, and how deferred taxes work.
The story begins when an error is discovered.
What is a Material Weakness?
Mattel is a public company, so it makes sense to refer to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The Board was created after the Enron collapse, in an effort to improve the amount and timeliness of accounting disclosure.
Here’s how PCAOB defines a material weakness in Auditing Standard 5:
“A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.”
Let’s break that down, starting with materiality.
Materiality
The term “material” refers to a dollar amount that is large enough to change the opinion of a financial statement reader. The level of materiality is a judgment call. A $5 error in a $2 million inventory balance isn’t material, but a $10,000 mistake is probably material.
Firms needs controls in place to prevent material errors.
Internal controls
A business needs controls in place over inventory, including physical inventory counts.
During the count, the internal auditors compare items in the detailed inventory listing to the physical items in the warehouse. This procedure is the strongest evidence that the inventory exists.
Companies also need to control how goods move in and out of the warehouse, so that accurate records are maintained.
If controls are weak, the company will not report the inventory balance accurately. A material weakness means that a firm’s accounting system does not produce reliable reporting.
Timing is particularly important.
Timely basis
When you find a material error, you need to disclose it and correct it right away.
But that’s potentially embarrassing- and may change how investors view your firm. Which brings us back to Mattel and PwC.
Why Earnings Restatement Are a Disaster
Here’s a quote from the article:
“The accounting problem was tied to Mattel’s ownership of Thomas & Friends, an animated children’s show about talking trains. The finance team discussed fixing the problem and restating earnings, with the expectation that Mattel would have to admit to shortcomings in its accounting and reporting procedures…”
Ouch.
Restating earnings is a problem, for two reasons:
Analysts and investors will have less confidence in Mattel’s management
PwC, the auditor’s reputation will be damaged, as well as the firm’s reputation with the client (who they’ve audited for decades)
So, what did Mattel and PwC do?
“… senior finance executives and Mattel’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, decided to change the accounting treatment of the Thomas asset, effectively burying the problem, according to Mr. Whitaker and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The executives agreed not to tell Mattel’s then-chief executive or its board of directors, an internal investigation found.”
They buried the problem- so the public (and particularly investors) didn’t know about the mistake right away.
There was a great deal of fallout. The Mattel CFO left the firm, and the PwC partner was put on administrative leave and is expected to leave the audit firm.
Let’s shift gears and talk about intangible assets, and the accounting error itself.
Reviewing Intangible Assets
Intangible assets include patents, copyrights, and other assets that are not physical.
Goodwill is a common intangible asset category. If you pay more than the book value for a company, some of the purchase price may be posted to goodwill. This video explains accounting for goodwill.
Intangible assets are amortized, which reclassifies the asset balance into amortization expense over time. It’s similar to depreciation expense for physical assets.
When Mattel buys an intangible asset, the company has to review the asset for possible impairment.
Impairment
GAAP requires that intangible assets must be evaluated each year for impairment.
If the fair value of the intangible asset is less than the amortized balance in the intangible asset account, the asset is impaired.
Here’s an example:
Let’s assume that you buy a copyright for a book that generates $100,000 in sales a year. Time goes by, and the annual revenue for the book declines to $30,000 a year. Obviously, the value of the copyright has declined.
But by how much?
Estimating the fair value of an intangible asset is a complicated issue. This blog post from the CFA Institute goes into detail on the valuation process, if you want to know more.
Writeoff
If an intangible asset is impaired, you must write off the impairment amount to expense.
That’s consistent with other areas of accounting. We never want an asset on the books to be overstated. If an asset is overvalued, we generally expense the overage amount.
Here’s the Mattel accounting issue:
“The accounting error was tied to a $562 million valuation allowance — a reserve for a potential loss in value — that Mattel created against its deferred tax assets in September 2017.”
Reserve for Potential Loss
Reserve accounts help a business comply with the principle of conservatism.
This principle states that, when in doubt, choose the accounting method that generates less net income.
So, if Mattel is considered that an intangible asset may be worth less in the future, why not set aside some dollars now to address the issue?
That’s taking a conservative approach.
Banks use reserve for loan loss accounts to set money aside for potential loans that aren’t paid. In fact, the amount of a bank’s loan loss can be an area of dispute between bankers and their external auditors.
Let’s talk about deferred taxes.
Deferred Tax Asset
The concept of Deferred taxes is one of the toughest topics in accounting. This video and the video here both explain the topic.
The journal entry for the Mattel error was a debit to Deferred Tax Asset and a credit to a Reserve for Loss account.
A deferred tax asset means that you have a tax expense in the future, which reduces your tax liability in the future.
Depreciation expense can be different between book (accounting records) and the tax return. These temporary differences create deferred tax assets.
Let’s say that you have $30,000 more in depreciation for taxes than book depreciation in 2021. Higher expenses means less net income- and a lower tax liability.
You would have a $30,000 deferred tax asset.
A deferred tax liability means that you have a higher tax liability in future years.
So what, exactly, was the big problem with the Mattel accounting?
How Mattel Made a Mistake
“The allowance was reduced by $109 million, which came from deferred tax liabilities related to the company’s 2011 acquisition of HIT Entertainment Ltd., which included Thomas & Friends, Barney & Friends, and Bob the Builder. Reducing the allowance lowered Mattel’s loss for the quarter.
Soon after, the company did an internal review of its intangible assets. Finance executives discovered that because of the way the HIT liability had been categorized, it shouldn’t have been used to reduce Mattel’s loss …”
Mattel mixed apples and oranges.
The reserve for potential loss for “A” should not have been reduced by an event from acquisition “B”. Events A and B were not related to each other.
My next book, 25 Intermediate Accounting Spreadsheets (and How to Use Them) will be out in 2020. The format will include a written discussion of a spreadsheet, with spreadsheet images, and a related video.
To learn more and get sample chapters of the book, watch this video.
For live CPA exam prep and accounting classes, join Conference Room for free. Members will be notified of course dates, times, costs, and how to attend these courses.
Get your questions answered to pass the CPA exam, and to learn accounting concepts.
Go to Accounting Accidentally for 300+ blog posts and 450+ You Tube videos on accounting and finance:
Good luck!
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(email) [email protected]
(website and blog) http://www.accountingaccidentally.com/
|
https://medium.com/@kboydstl/what-mattels-accounting-mistake-teaches-us-about-material-weakness-and-deferred-taxes-dcbaf2a95c19
|
['Ken Boyd']
|
2019-11-15 17:01:42.748000+00:00
|
['Finance', 'Accounting', 'CPA', 'Business']
|
Ursula K. LeGuin, 1929–2018
|
To say that Ursula K. LeGuin has been an influence in my writing life would be a woeful understatement. Her Hugo award winning novel ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ opened my eyes to what could be done. By women. With courage.
The world has changed a great deal since LeGuin finally found a publisher for Left Hand of Darkness, but the book still stands as a beacon to all writers: stay true to yourself, be brave, sometimes merit is recognized.
This is a screenshot of LeGuin’s author page on Amazon:
Such wonderful books, and now there’ll never be another.
Never being forgotten,
Meeks
|
https://medium.com/tikh-tokh/ursula-k-leguin-1929-2018-ed9046b42470
|
['A.C. Flory']
|
2018-03-07 00:08:35.115000+00:00
|
['Science Fiction', 'Author', 'Earthsea', 'The Dispossessed', '2018']
|
Spark vs Pandas, part 3 — Scala vs Python
|
Why Programming Languages matter
Of course programming languages play an important role, although their relevance is often misunderstood. Having the right programming language in your CV may eventually be one of the deciding factors for getting a specific job or project. This is a good example where the relevance of programming languages might be misunderstood, especially in the context of Data Science.
Don’t get me wrong, being an expert for a given programming language takes far more time than coding a couple of weeks. You do not only need to get used to the syntax, but also to the language specific idioms. It’s really like learning a foreign natural language, which takes more than only knowing the words and the grammar (which in itself already is a huge task).
On the other hand, in certain areas like Data Science, methodology matters at least as much as knowing a specific programming language. I would prefer to hire a machine learning expert with profound knowledge in R for ML project using Python instead of a Python expert with no knowledge in Data Science, and I bet most of you would agree. So from an experts point of view, the programming language doesn’t matter so much on your CV (at least it shouldn’t — I know that it’s different in reality), as long as you know what’s going on under the hood and understand the scientific method of approaching a problem.
But things look quite differently from a project’s point of view: When setting up a larger project and starting to create actual code, you eventually need to think about which programming language you’d preferably want to use. And this decision has many consequences, which you should be aware of. I will discuss many of them in this article, with a strong focus on Scala and Python as being the natural programming languages for Spark and Pandas.
Python vs Scala
When comparing Spark and Pandas, we should also include a comparison of the programming languages supported by each framework. While Pandas is “Python-only”, you can use Spark with Scala, Java, Python and R with some more bindings being developed by corresponding communities.
Since choosing a programming language will have some serious direct and indirect implications, I’d like to point out some fundamental differences between Python and Scala. Going into more detail would probably make up a separate article on its own. I mainly pick up this comparison, as the original article I was referring to at the beginning also suggested that people should start using Scala (instead of Python), while I propose a more differentiated view again.
Type System
Let’s first look at the type systems: Both languages provide some simple built in types like integers, floats and strings. The fundamental types in Scala also provide some specific sizes like Short for a 16bit integer, Double for a 64bit floating point number.
Both languages also offer classes with inheritance, although many details are really different.
There are two main differences between the type systems in Scala and in Python:
While Scala is a strongly typed language (i.e. every variable and parameter has a fixed type and Scala immediately throws an error if you try to use a wrong type), Python is dynamically typed (i.e. a single variable or parameter technically can accept any data type — although the code may assume specific types and therefore fail later during execution).
Due to the dynamically typed nature of Python, a suitable type for a certain operation often is only determined by the operations it implements. Using a correct base class or inheritance often is not crucial, only the available methods are. This paradigm is called “Duck Typing”
These differences have a huge impact, as we will see later.
Functional Language Aspects
While Python has grown from a simple scripting language to a fully featured programming language, the focus of Scala as a research project was from the very beginning to combine aspects from functional programming languages (like Haskell) with those of object oriented languages (like Java) — there is a some debate if this combination is successful, or even desirable.
For me, the term functional programming refers to a certain paradigm that functions shall not have side effects (i.e. they do not change some global state and respect immutability). Object oriented programming on the other hand is just about the opposite, where each method is seen as some way to communicate with an object, which in turn changes its state. It is important to separate the paradigm itself from specific language features — one can implement purely functional programs in almost any language, but only some languages will provide supporting concepts, while things will get complicated in other languages.
Both Python and Scala support some functional concepts, specifically functions can be passed as values and anonymous functions (lambda functions). Scala also comes with a rich collections library which very well supports functional approaches like immutability, while Pythons best offering in this area is list comprehension.
Execution Model
Python is an interpreted language, which essentially means that Python can immediately execute any code, as long as it is valid Python syntax. No “build” or “compile” step is required. This makes Python a great choice for interactive work, since Python can immediately execute code as you type it.
Scala on the other hand is a compiled language, which means that a Scala compiler first needs to transform Scala code into so called Java bytecode for the JVM (which in turn is translated into native machine code during execution). This three-step approach (write, compile, execute) often makes code experiments more difficult, since the turn over times are higher. Luckily Scala also provides an interactive shell, which is able to compile and immediately execute the code as you type it. But generally speaking, Scala is meant to be compiled.
Learning Curve
Generally speaking, Python is very simple to learn — it was specifically designed to be like that with a strong focus on readability. Pythons dynamic type system is well suited for beginners, which had never contact to a programming language. Python is very forgiving and its syntax is easy to understand.
Scala on the other hand has a much steeper learning curve, and — as opposed to Python — code can become quickly hard to read for novices. Although for using Spark you first only need a small subset, you eventually need to understand more and more details of Scala when you begin to dig deeper into Spark and when you try to solve more complex problems.
I found that most Java programmers at the beginning have big problems getting used to the functional aspects of Scala, partly because of a very concise syntax. I always feel that the information density (i.e. how much logic is encoded per letter program code) is much higher in Scala than in Java, and this density is challenging for most peoples brain at the beginning since they are used to much more boiler-plate code in Java, which significantly lowers the information density.
Robustness of Code
Dynamically typed languages have one huge disadvantage over statically typed languages: Using a wrong type is only detected during run time and not earlier (during compile time). This means that if a function is called with a wrong data type under some very rare conditions, you might only notice that when it’s too late — in production.
In contrast a statically typed and compiled language will stop you from releasing the broken code to production. It will point directly to the usage of the wrong type and you have to fix that before the compiler can finish its work.
Because of this difference I found writing robust, production-ready Python code much more difficult than writing robust Scala code. This is even more difficult when writing a whole framework or library, that is then used by other applications. Applications could pass wrong data types to functions, but maybe those types are “good enough” in some cases (because they implement all required methods) but fail in other cases (because other methods are missing or their signature has changed).
On top of that, refactoring with Python can be very difficult, since the consequences of using different types or renaming methods are not always correctly detected by your IDE.
Ecosystem
Nowadays the success of a programming language is not mainly tied to its syntax or its concepts, but to its ecosystem. This includes many aspects like the availability of useful libraries, the choice of good editors, the support of relevant operating systems and more.
Specifically the set of libraries nowadays has a huge impact of the primary domain where a specific programming language is used. The most prominent example is Python, where most new state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms are implemented for — an area where Scala is far behind, although projects like ScalaNLP try to improve the situation.
While Scalas boost during the last years probably can be traced back to the success of Apache Spark, it is also used in many projects for network services which require a high concurrency, something where Scalas functional programming features can provide support for implementing robust multi-threaded code.
Conclusion
Both Scala and Python have their place. Specifically in the area of data processing, Python well suits a scientific workflow with many small and quick code experiments as part of an exploration phase to gain new insights.
Scala’ s “write-compile-execute” workflow its static type system better fit to an engineering workflow, where the knowledge for approaching a specific problem is already there and therefore experiments are not performed any more.
As I pointed out in “Robustness of Code”, I prefer to use a strongly typed language for production code except in some simple cases, where the application is almost trivial.
The Value of Ecosystems
After this excursion in a comparison of Scala and Python, let’s move back a little bit to Pandas vs Spark. There is one aspect that is highly coupled to the programming language, and that is the ecosystem. I already mentioned this aspect above, but let us focus more on libraries which can be used together with Pandas and with Spark.
Python Ecosystem
Since Pandas at its core is built on top of NumPy arrays, it naturally integrates very well with a very rich ecosystem of many numerical and statistical libraries. Just to name a few important examples:
Moreover we also have the lovely Jupyter Notebooks for working interactively as part of an experimentally driven exploration phase.
Scala Ecosystem
Spark on the other hand lives in a completely different universe. As being a citizen of the JVM world, you can use all kind of Java libraries — but the focus of most Java libraries is networking, web services and databases. Numerical algorithms is not in the core domain of Java.
Therefore the ecosystem for Spark looks very differently. Most importantly, there are many connectors to use Spark with all kinds of databases, like relational databases via JDBC connectors, HBase, MongoDB, Cassandra, and so on.
In addition to connectors, Spark already implements the most important machine learning algorithms like regression, decision trees etc. And then we also have Breeze and ScalaNLP for lower level numerical algorithms (which also cannot be directly scaled by Spark to work on different machines in parallel). But when you compare these libraries with the possibilities of the corresponding Python libraries, you quickly find out that these are much smaller in scope.
Finally with Zeppelin or by using PySpark (the Python binding for Spark) in Jupyter, we can also use Spark in notebook environments.
Conclusion
We see huge differences in the ecosystems of Pandas and Spark. While Pandas has strong ties to all sorts of numerical packages, Spark excels in uniform connectivity to all sorts of data sources.
Python vs Scala for Spark
Since Spark can be used with both Scala and Python, it makes sense to dig a little bit deeper for choosing the appropriate programming language for working with Spark.
I already indicated that Python has a far larger set of numerical libraries which are commonly used in Data Science projects. Although this is already a strong argument for using Python with PySpark instead of Scala with Spark, another strong argument is the ease of learning Python in contrast to the steep learning curve required for non-trivial Scala programs. Even worse, Scala code is not only hard to write, but also hard to read and to understand. That makes Scala a difficult language for collaborative projects where colleagues or even non-programmers also need or want to understand the logical details of an application. This is often the case in a Data Science environment.
Python for Data Science
Because of the availability of many relevant libraries for data science, and because of the easy readability of Python code, I always recommend to use PySpark for real Data Science. This also fits well to the profile of many Data Scientists, who have a strong mathematical background but who often are no programming experts (the focus of their work is somewhere else).
By using PySpark, data scientsts can work with huge data sets which do not fit into the RAM of a local machine any more, and at the same time (to a certain degree) they can still access all the relevant Python libraries — as long as they can downsample or aggregate the data such that these tools and libraries become feasible again.
Scala for Data Engineering
Things look differently for data engineering. I highly recommend to use Spark with Scala for these types of tasks. First data engineers should have a strong technical background such that using Scala is viable. Next it may be well the case that some custom transformations are required which are not available in Spark. But Spark is very extensible, and in this case it can really pay off to use Scala as the native Spark programming language.
Using Scala instead of Python not only provides better performance, but also enables developers to extend Spark in many more ways than what would be possible by using Python. With Scala you can access even the internal developer APIs of Spark (as long as they aren’t private ) whereas Python can only access the public end user API of Spark.
Moreover I strongly believe that in data engineering projects all the aspects of “production quality code” are far more important than for an explorative data analysis task performed in a notebook environment. This is precisely where having a statically typed and compiled language like Scala provides great benefits.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/spark-vs-pandas-part-3-scala-vs-python-7b267b130158
|
['Kaya Kupferschmidt']
|
2020-10-26 15:57:01.224000+00:00
|
['Pandas', 'Spark', 'Big Data Analytics', 'Python']
|
Export CSV file using C# MVC
|
Export CSV file using C# MVC
Sharing here how you can export CSV file on runtime using C# MVC 4.5. In below code I am executing query to get data and then exporting it as CSV files.
public ActionResult exportData(FormCollection exportForm)
{
var exportReport = exportForm["exportList"];
if (exportReport != "")
{
var BL = new businesslogic();
string sqlQuery = "SELECT * FROM " + exportReport;
DataSet tableDataSet = BL.GetResultsDS(cs, sqlQuery); string data = ""; //will store file data
bool flag = true;
string headings = ""; //to store column headings
foreach (DataTable table in tableDataSet.Tables)
{
foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
{
data += "
"; // New line for each column
foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)
{
if(flag)
headings += column + ",";
data +=row[column]+",";
}
flag = false; //once we get heading setting to false;
}
}
data = headings+data;
Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/CSV";
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + exportReport + ".csv\"");
Response.Write(data);
Response.End();
return new EmptyResult();
}
else
{
//redirecting to different page if no form data found.
return RedirectToAction("index", "ExportImport");
}
}
Hope this will help someone!!!
Generating and Formatting Excelsheet Using EPPLUS
|
https://medium.com/@suresh-kamrushi/export-csv-file-using-c-mvc-364d888cbd96
|
['Suresh Kamrushi']
|
2020-12-21 08:47:08.600000+00:00
|
['Aspnet', 'C Sharp Programming']
|
Express Entry Draw: 5000 Invitations
|
Canada Immigration division has now surpassed the mark of 100,000 ITAs for the year 2020.
On the draw held on 9 December 2020, Canada has welcomed 5000 new foreigners for the utilization of permanent residency in the Express Entry draw.
The base Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score expected to get a greeting was 469.
With this draw, the total number of Invitations to Apply (ITA) issued arrives at the sign of 102,350. This denotes the most noteworthy number of ITAs gave till now.
As we all know that the Express Entry Program is an application management program significantly for three Federal monetary class programs specifically:
Government Skilled Worker Program
Government Skilled Trades Program
Canadian Experience Class
Candidates in these projects, just as the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), have their profiles assessed dependent on the CRS score. The elements associated with the entire assessment measure are given underneath:
Age
Educational Qualification
Language Proficiency (French or English)
Working Experience
After the assessment, the candidate with the most noteworthy CRS score at that point gets an ITA to apply for a Permanent Residency (PR) Visa.
The ITAs given have been the most noteworthy to date. Canada Immigration Department has additionally surpassed the ITAs focus on the draw held on November 18. This draw presently has taken the ITAs number to cross 100,000 out of a single year which at first was never done too.
This huge number of ITAs means that Canada is clearing their way towards its responsibility of having 400,000 settlers for the year 2021 through the Express Entry Program.
IRCC likewise consolidates a sudden death round guideline for choosing applicants with similar CRS scores. As in this draw, the CRS score was at least 469. So for the CRS score of 469, the sudden death round standard was that the competitors are more likely than not presented their Express Entry profile before June 4 at 22:26:05 UTC, for the profile to get a greeting.
This is the second time when the CRS score has seen a plunge in a constant way. It has seen that for the year 2020, the CRS score has floated around a score of 470 for practically all projects. The least CRS score was for the Federal Skilled Trades Program with a score of 415 while the Canadian Experience Class has a score of 440 as it were.
PNP is a program that requires a higher CRS score in view of the 600 extra focuses added to the CRS score for getting a selection from one of the regions. PNPs offer an elective pathway for applicants who are having a low CRS and need to move to Canada too.
|
https://medium.com/@pioverseas/express-entry-draw-5000-invitations-7cb4349d9d77
|
['Pi Overseas Pvt. Ltd.']
|
2020-12-19 07:58:18.781000+00:00
|
['Crs', 'Express Entry Draw', 'Pnp', 'Canada Immigration', 'Canada']
|
Sun Editorial: Let’s resolve to give back in 2016
|
Sun Editorial: Let’s resolve to give back in 2016
Most of us are lucky enough to spend the holidays with our loved ones. Most of us are lucky enough to be able to give and receive presents, to put a home-cooked meal on the table and to sit back, relax and enjoy what’s important in life.
There are many, though, living right here in our state who are not as lucky as we are. And these are the people who need our help the most.
So as we are about to put 2015 behind us and enter a New Year, let’s all resolve to give back more in 2016.
We like to think of ourselves as giving people, but compared to the rest
of the country, that’s just not the
A study released recently by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the National Conference on Citizenship found that 22.5 percent of New Jersey residents volunteered their time in 2014.
That ranked us near the bottom, 45th, in the nation. Utah topped the list at 46 percent.
The study found that 1.61 million residents volunteered a total of more than 225.5 million hours of service. The stats counted only non-paid work as volunteering.
These numbers did get better since 2013, even if New Jersey’s overall ranking did not, as 1.45 million residents volunteered a total of more than 206 million hours of service that year.
The good news is it doesn’t take much to change this trend. Volunteering doesn’t have to take up all of one’s free time, and it doesn’t have to include big monetary donations.
Volunteering can be as simple as pitching in at a soup kitchen, coaching a Little League team or collecting trash at a public park. Doing a little can go a long way. What may seem as not much to most of us can have a huge impact to someone else.
So while you’re compiling your list of To Do’s for 2016, add giving back to the community by volunteering. You’ll be surprised at the impact you can have.
|
https://medium.com/the-marlton-sun/sun-editorial-lets-resolve-to-give-back-in-2016-84d0e170ada8
|
[]
|
2016-09-23 18:55:26.807000+00:00
|
['2016', 'Headlines', 'Editorial', 'Give']
|
Centralize Your Docker Logging With Syslog
|
Background
During one of the projects that I worked on in recent years, I had the task of integrating a centralized logging system with the applications stack we use (following a microservice architecture). The first idea that came to mind was to build an ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack to accomplish this task. However, it turned out that this was not an option due to a limitation on the project’s resources.
As a result, I investigated all the options and ideas that would help me implement this feature without conflicting with our limitations. I ultimately came up with the following ideas:
Collect Docker logs directly.
Using Syslog to collect the logs.
As I already said, the first idea was to build an ELK stack for collecting the logs. However, that was not an option due to budget and resource limitations for the project.
Another idea was to forward the logs to a managed service like logz.io. This option was also not possible because production servers have no internet access—plus the same budget limitations.
The third idea was to set up a Logrotate script that performs the following actions to generate the log files:
Collect the Docker logs from /var/lib/docker/containers/* .
. Rename the files with the container names instead of the ids.
Compress the log files.
The second step of this idea was to set up a Cron job to copy the log files to a centralized server where the logs could be loaded and inspected.
This idea had many disadvantages and was more like reinventing the wheel. One of the most important disadvantages was that logs would be lost if a new deployment occurred and the containers were replaced.
That is why I started looking for an alternative solution that would help us collect the logs from the servers to a centralized server without losing logs. Luckily, Docker supports multiple log-drivers (see the full list). One of these log-drivers is Syslog, which is by default installed on Linux systems (no extra software needs to be installed). For this reason, I decided to implement a centralized logging system with Syslog.
|
https://medium.com/better-programming/docker-centralized-logging-with-syslog-97b9c147bd30
|
['Al-Waleed Shihadeh']
|
2020-04-15 12:12:12.909000+00:00
|
['DevOps', 'Programming', 'Docker', 'Logging', 'Containers']
|
Never-Trumpers. We’d better watch them carefully.
|
Never-Trumpers. We’d better watch them carefully.
It would be a mistake to trust them. Some seem to be genuine converts, finally seeing the light. But some of them are no doubt just setting themselves up for 2024 elections. Being Liberal Editor Follow Jun 24, 2020 · 5 min read
by Andy Edelstein
June 23, 2020
What are we to make of the so-called Never-Trumpers?
Their steady acceptance by the media seems way out of sync with their actual numbers. True, there is a gaping credibility gap in the Republican party these days — not a word out of their collective mouths can be believed — and these former operatives have deftly stepped into the vacuum. The media can’t get anything accurate from Republicans in power, so they turn to Republicans who are out of power.
You know the names — you see them every day. Bill Kristol, David Frum, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Charlie Sykes, Bret Stephens, David Brooks, George Conway, and a bunch of others. Most of them should have left the scene in disgrace years ago. Yet they’re all over the panels on MSNBC, CNN, PBS. They land prized columns at NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and get syndicated all over.
It’s like a bad flashback. These were the abettors and enablers of George W. Bush and his puppetmaster, Dick Cheney. But here they come again, their pasts freshly scrubbed — Wikipedia will tell you the titles they had in the Bush era, but not what they actually did. You have to dig.
But these were the officials and staffers, journalists and speechwriters, lobbyists and Republican apparatchiks who shamelessly played the American electorate for decades, bringing their considerable but ethically challenged political skills, not just to the Bush Administration, but to the slimy presidential campaigns of Bush, McCain, and Romney.
They were paid to cynically manipulate the forces of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and climate denial, all in the name of a plutocratic agenda. With very few exceptions, they still don’t seem to understand the damage they’ve done, and they certainly don’t admit to it. Yet they somehow continue to get an outsized seat at the pundit table.
Since we are a nation of fast forgetters, let’s take a moment to remember the Bush Administration, shall we? The fact that Trump is far worse doesn’t excuse the stuff these guys once had a hand in:
The Afghan War (still going on). Patriot Act (still there, never talked about). Donald Rumsfeld (“There are no good targets in Afghanistan”). Black sites. Paul Wolfowitz. Extreme rendition. Massive tax cuts (turned Bill Clinton’s surplus to a deficit). WMDs (non-existent). Iraq War (sold with lies, bought on credit). “Mission Accomplished.” Torture memo. Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo detainees (still sitting there). Alberto Gonzalez. Condolezza Rice. Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. Swift-boating of John Kerry. Scooter Libby. Valerie Plame. Hurricane Katrina (“Heckuva job Brownie”). And the grand finale: the Great Recession.
There are surely a bunch of crimes there, none of which have been answered for. And while I won’t match the Never-Trumpers to their involvement in any of this, suffice it to say that Obama did them all a huge favor by not turning DOJ loose on them.
There aren’t that many of them, and they are so far out of touch with the Trump-addled base, there’s no longer a place for them in their morally bankrupt party. They could have easily sold their souls to Trump — he would only be the latest buyer — but I think their antipathy to him is genuine. Mostly what bothers them is his stupidity.
I think their antipathy to him is genuine. Mostly what bothers them is his stupidity.
They’d be fine with the ideology — the tax cuts, deregulation, pro-business agenda — but the fact that he’s so incompetent, so bad at everything he does, offends their sense of professionalism. So they sit in their incredibly cushy jobs, where they pontificate and lament the Trumpification of the Republican party, basically ignoring their own part in bringing it about.
But what’s especially galling is that much of what they say makes sense. They actually do have insight into the Republican mind, such as it is. They understand how Mitch McConnell thinks. They know all the underhanded tactics taught them by the likes of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and the patron saint of dirty tricks, Lee Atwater. Their default mindset of going negative, which Democrats simply can’t grasp, gives them a perspective we can’t get elsewhere, and normally wouldn’t want.
And then there’s the Lincoln Project. The commercials being churned out by that group are unusually good. Exactly the kind of gut-punching emotional pitches Democrats never seem to get the hang of. And there’s no doubt that they’re effective, not so much with the Trump base — Fox will never run them — as with Trump himself. They have him rattled and over-reacting. These guys seem to know the right buttons to push.
It’s been said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So be it with the Never-Trumpers. I’m happy to have the help of anyone who wants to rid the world of this monster.
But it would be a mistake to trust them. Some seem to be genuine converts, finally seeing the light. But some of them are no doubt setting themselves up for 2024, when — they hope — they’ll be the ones to raise their diseased party up from the ashes.
By then, if all goes well for the Never-Trumpers, they can latch onto someone like Tom Cotton, who is at least as fascistic as Trump, but with a brain. Talk about scary.
So for now, we’ll watch them do their thing. But we’d better watch them carefully.
Berkley MI, 06/23/20
by Andy Edelstein
A veteran copywriter/creative director with Clio and Effie on his shelf, Andy spent two decades among the “Mad Men” and yes, actually worked on Madison Avenue — the street, not the metaphor. Challenged to write a journal about life in the time of Covid-19, published as “Viral Ranting” Blog.
|
https://beingliberal.org/never-trumpers-wed-better-watch-them-carefully-a3defe374113
|
['Being Liberal Editor']
|
2020-06-24 01:03:34.567000+00:00
|
['America', 'Never Trump', 'Republicans', 'Conservatism', 'Elections']
|
BitClave Takes Center-Stage with Blockchain-Powered Search Engine
|
Ever imagined the possibility of having all your crypto and blockchain related topics and keyword searches in one place? Or even the security that comes with knowing that there are no centrally controlled algorithms which take advantage of your digital footprints and browsing patterns on your favorite search engine? Imagine the efficiency, accuracy and security that such an engine can deliver!
That’s exactly what BitClave’s search engine, Desearch, offers.
Desearch enters the search engine ecosystem as BitClave’s answer to all user concerns over centralized control of the existing search engine providers, eliminating once and for all the problems and ambiguities in searching for specialized content (such as cryptocurrency and blockchain related information), the overbearing influence of service providers on such content owners, and exploitation of private data for advert revenue generation.
Desearch is able to eliminate these existing shortcomings by leveraging the BitClave ecosystem on the revolutionary blockchain technology. By virtue of this innovation, you can now get all your crypto information needs and curiosities in one easy dashboard, but without the bother of interfering ads or the age-long worries of invasion of your privacy.
How It Works
Essentially, the Desearch engine is an expansion of existing crypto-centric websites such as Coinmarketcap, Coincap, Coindesk, Cointelegraph, Crypto Answers, Coin Calendar, etc. and official websites, blogs, social links, and other digital resources of cryptocurrency concerns. But instead of serving as just another news or market information source that is still dependent on existing centralized search engines, Desearch acts as a decentralized pool for all the information and data resources of these specialized crypto-centric sites. This way, users have all the industry-related information in one place, with the extra benefit of searches being more focused and results more accurate and, of course, all the problems with centralized dependence engines are eliminated.
An Intuitive Search Algorithm
Besides the benefits of a decentralized ecosystem, the Desearch engine is also distinguished by its optimized, intuitive search algorithm which delivers a better experience when surfing, because it connects intelligently with the most trusted, relevant websites to gather the essentials on any search keywords. Furthermore, Desearch’s powerful search capability also looks through the top sites used in the Blockchain space, searching Telegram channels, BT, company and influencer Medium content, and Reddit, always going for the deepest dive on ICO and all crypto information — and that at the speed of lightning!
With a streamlined and specialized focus, Desearch is invaluable to the industry because it is now easier to stay up-to-date on crypto exchanges, find a strong ICO, track your favorite apps and developers, and quickly get the useful content that is restricted on the old search sites. It doesn’t get better!
The Future of Desearch
In line with BitClave’s vision, Desearch.com is designed to be the future of search, with a decentralized search engine that is the ultimate go-to for all types of content on the web. Even more, the BitClave blockchain ecosystem comes packed with even more juice, as it puts more power in the hands of the everyday internet surfer.
|
https://medium.com/bitclave/bitclave-takes-center-stage-with-blockchain-powered-search-engine-2963f28b5320
|
[]
|
2018-05-18 09:12:39.495000+00:00
|
['Internet', 'SEO', 'Decentralization', 'Blockchain', 'Search Engines']
|
Enter, The Mentor
|
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
Ed: No one knows the full story. Not even me.
The Monk: Pray tell.
Ed: I’m ready to talk about Mercedes.
The Monk: Why don’t you describe your dynamic with her?
Tears well in Ed’s eyes. He laughs slightly as the tears pour out. A wane frown replaces his affection.
Ed: Only one word fills my head — perfect.
The Monk nods.
The Monk: What made it perfect?
Ed puts his hand over his heart, unable to control its plagued beats.
Ed: Mercedes was kind. I could tell her everything. We talked all day. Everyday. She had me thinking in different ways. She was funny and smart. Full of integrity. Mercedes never sexualized me, though she could have. She would have had the power to take things that way — she had that sort of control over me — but didn’t. We exchanged messages and thoughts, books and poetry, films and ideas. We took each other’s recommendations seriously. I’d never experienced that before. And every time I was weak, she was there. Mercedes was there for me when my marriage fell. Patient and listening. So attentive. She got me through the first half of the divorce. I couldn’t have made it through without her. Being around Mercedes made me believe in soulmates.
The Monk’s forehead wrinkles.
The Monk: You spoke every day. You were authentically yourself. You exchanged many words. This sounds like intimacy. This sounds like a relationship.
Ed: Yes, it…confuses me. I thought things were building a certain way. I saw us one way and Mercedes must have seen us another. I don’t understand why she would give me so much time if I wasn’t…you see, she sent me a gift. A meaningful gift at that. It was on my birthday. A book came to me that I had always wanted to read. I ate it up as soon as I got it. I look at it often. I keep it right above my head, on the shelf of my headboard. I stroke its spine when I miss her…
Snot builds within Ed’s nose and runs down to his lips. They mix with the tears coating his face. Ed tries to wipe them away with his shirtsleeve, but his liquids keep running. With every beat of his sacred heart, more of his essence leaves him.
The Monk: She never defined things.
Ed: I’m not sure. I told Mercedes I had feelings early on. She didn’t seem to think much of them. She told me they would go away. That was back when Mercedes was an undefined possibility. I hadn’t known for sure what her constant care and communication meant. When she said what I felt would go away, I sealed my adoration up tightly. I thought I’d shelved it, but I always hoped she would want those feelings from me eventually. Maybe it was the state of the divorce that made Mercedes hesitant with me. It was hard to say. Still, she seemed to move forward month by month with ease. She called this man cute and that man interesting. Mercedes revealed a number of crushes as time went on. A whole range of people who weren’t me. I died inside everyday she looked away from me and towards another partner. In those months she explored, I knew more and more each day how purely I loved her. How do you not love a person who is so innately there for you?
The Monk: Mercedes never told you why you weren’t the right fit for her?
Ed strains to keep his face more up than downcast. His smile bobs up and down like a buoy, as if to say, Yes, I’m in pain, but please don’t feel this wretchedness too.
Ed: No. Mercedes said she would never see me romantically. It could be a number of things. I wonder if I would torture myself about it if I did know the exact reason. Mercedes had repeatedly mentioned she didn’t like emotionally expressive people. She likes people who internalize what they feel. People who have more of an even keel. And that certainly isn’t me. I have to get emotion out or it kills me. Which is…why I’m here. I’m failing with that even now.
Ed sets his jaw, wishing he could be different. Even just for her.
The Monk: Mercedes being attracted to more internalized emotion might reflect her insecurity around expressing her own emotion. Maybe she doesn’t want to be constantly confronted by her inability to do what you so naturally do.
Ed’s eyes widen, having never considered the why behind her unintendedly cutting assertion.
The Monk: You’re not made wrong. You’re made in the exact way you’re supposed to be.
Ed: It’s felt that I was made wrong for a long time. I keep thinking that if I could just not express, if I could just not feel things so deeply, if I could just shut off one of the predominant things that drives me, then she could see me like I see her.
The Monk bites his inner cheek.
The Monk: What did it feel like when Mercedes gave you her final answer?
Ed: I knew what Mercedes would say before she said it. I felt it in my bones. ‘It hurt me’ would be putting it lightly. I showed Mercedes everything I was and everything I had. And still, that wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough. It’s difficult when this person you hold in high esteem looks you over and comes to an irrevocable judgment against your personhood. Mercedes was confirmation for me that I wasn’t enough.
The Monk leans forward and puts his hand on Ed’s knee.
The Monk: I was worried you felt that way. You not being enough is not the truth. That idea is what we need to pull apart.
Ed: But how can it not be? When you find someone who you can be your authentic self with for the first time in your life, when you find someone you are safe with, when you find someone who engages with you daily, when you find someone who makes you feel like what you say is important, when you find someone who you think sees you and they still say no…that is the ultimate rejection. You just feel worthless. As though even the best sort of person has deemed you unfit to love.
Ed’s tears build and fall, again and again. He can’t say her name without his truth overflowing, his brokenness wearing through his skin like a faulty cloak.
The Monk’s voice turns soft, almost a whisper.
The Monk: Did you ever tell anyone about her?
Ed bends forward in his chair, wishing his heart would fall out of his chest and tumble across the floor. It would be easier if his emotion would leave him like she promised it would.
Ed: No. It was this big, hard secret I kept to myself. I loved her and no one knows how it killed me.
The Monk: Thank you, for trusting me enough to tell me all of this.
Ed: I had to. It’s been six months and I’m still having a hard time. I’m still weeping. No contact and I’m at a loss of how to fix this. I felt her energy slip away month by month, but I love her and I don’t know how not to.
The Monk: Love Mercedes all you want. It’s not about not loving her. You can’t forget her. It’s more about what compartment that love needs to take up.
Ed: I just want peace. I’m having a hard time getting there. Mercedes said it would just go away. It hasn’t.
The Monk: You need to release this love so that the universe can find someone to return that love to you. What do we know, my son? We know that Mercedes is not the right person for you. First, because you are an emotionally expressive person and you deserve someone who values all of the color you provide through that, as I do. And second, because she doesn’t want to be and you deserve someone who chooses you back. Believe it or not, Mercedes did not check all the boxes.
Ed: That’s…fair.
The Monk: It’s messy, but we will clear the mess together. You don’t have to do this alone.
Ed breathes a long sigh and leans his head back in his chair. Tears stream down both sides of his face, pooling at his earlobes. He feels gone. Done. Toast.
The Monk: Edmond, she broke your heart.
|
https://medium.com/@apersonthatlivesalife/enter-the-mentor-a1b08d2a03b8
|
['A Person That Lives A Life']
|
2020-12-23 20:15:06.244000+00:00
|
['Relationships', 'Pain', 'Love', 'Depression', 'Heartbreak']
|
Creating a Garmin Connect IQ application. Part 1 — Hello Monkey C!
|
In this series of posts I will walk you through the development process of a Garmin Connect IQ application. The application that we will develop is a Tabata timer, that has been published on Garmin’s IQ store with over 35000 downloads.
In Part 1 we will set up the development environment and say Hello to Monkey C — the language you will use to write Connect IQ applications.
Get the SDK
First things first! Get the SDK here. This post has been written with version 2.4.4, so any 2.x.x version will do. You will also need Java Runtime Environment in version 8 or higher.
Overview of the SDK
If this is your first contact with Monkey C, I recommend skimming through the official introduction. Monkey C, despite being tiny in its API, provides direct access to all the device’s major features like Activity Tracking, sensors (location, heart rate sensor, compass), buttons, etc.
Project seed
Garmin suggests using an Eclipse plugin for your development, but in my experience it’s not a good option for a couple reasons. The Monkey C language is weakly typed, so the IDE doesn’t provide much support like code completion, as it does with Java for instance. Secondly, development life cycle operations like compilation, running, packaging are not natively supported by Eclipse. Lastly, neither the plugin, nor Eclipse itself are good quality products, with many bugs, low responsiveness and poor developer experience. I also believe, that developers should be free to pick their own IDE.
What I found much more preferable is using my favorite text editor — Visual Studio Code with make scripts to compile/run/package the application. For this purpose, I created a seed project, that can be used to kick start a Connect IQ application. You can find it here. Once you clone this repository, follow the instructions in README.md.
Hello… Monkey C
Finally, confirm your setup is working by typing make run in the project’s root folder. You should see this output:
Congratulations, that’s all for Part 1!
|
https://medium.com/dan-on-coding/creating-a-garmin-connect-iq-application-part-1-hello-monkey-c-813eff5076e6
|
['Dan Siwiec']
|
2019-02-20 06:18:06.194000+00:00
|
['Garmin', 'IoT', 'Connect Iq', 'Software Development']
|
The Bath and Body Works Cult
|
You’ve heard of pyramid schemes as silly as tubberwear parties, email scams for a chance to win $500, or even an all expenses paid vacay, but why is no one talking about the sketchiness of Bath and Body Works?
In general, the appeal of Bath and Body works is self-explanatory. You walk into the store and are instantly met with various aromas of floral and spice. What’s not to love? Their inventory is full of products focused on self care including body lotions, hand sanitizers, soaps, shower gels, fragrances, etc. See all of those items are fine, it’s the candles that I have a bone to pick with.
Once a year Bath and Body works has a sale for their three-wick candles. Normally they’re priced at $24.50 for a 14.5oz candle, except for their three day sale when the candles are priced at $9.95. During this “Candle Day” event peoples’ insanity rises and their wallets become empty.
To be fair, a bargain is a bargain. Who doesn’t love a good deal? Buy a candle or two for that lowered price, that’s fine. (I personally love the “Tis the Season” scent.) However, it’s to the point where Bath and Body Works seems like a cult when people have stacks upon stacks of these candles. They showcase their stockpiles in pyramids all over social media and constantly post about them.
Is there some secret underlying meaning behind all of this or is this a trend that will eventually die out? Do they hold the answers to world peace or the formula to the Krabby Patty recipe?
What are your thoughts on Bath and Body Works, and do you have a candle obsession yourself?
|
https://medium.com/@oliviadhugo/the-bath-and-body-works-cult-42f3ded654f5
|
['Oli Hugo']
|
2020-12-19 23:15:33.591000+00:00
|
['Money', 'Bath And Body Works', 'Candles', 'Cult', 'Shopping']
|
How to choose the most effective breathing app?
|
How to choose the most effective breathing app?
You decided to practice breathing exercises. How to choose the most effective breathing app?
Breathing exercises are a new health trend
Follow along breathing exercises are quickly becoming a new popular trend among health enthusiasts. They are scientifically proven to reduce anxiety, stress, high blood pressure, improve work focus and night sleep, wake you up for a day full of energy or prepare for a great workout.
Breathing exercises developed over the centuries along the development of Asian mindfulness practices and yoga. The modern science has proven that they provide immense health benefits. Here is a very simplified explanation of how they work. Modulating the ratio of inhale and exhale length as well as the length of hold periods between inhale and exhale cycles regulates the balance between your sympathetic nervous system, responsible for fight or flight behavior, and parasympathetic nervous system responsible for rest and digest.
For example, probably the most famous breathing exercise for calming is boxed breathing. It emphasises deeper breathing and longer hold periods. You breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds and hold again for 4 seconds. This exercise activates parasympathetic nervous system and calms us. It has been proven so effective that they teach it to the US Marines.
On the opposite, emphasizing longer inhales and short and energetic exhales activates sympathetic nervous system. A breathing exercise which consists of 4 second inhales and 2 second energetic exhales with very little pause between them will provide an excellent start for your day full of energy.
There are several mobile apps which facilitate guided breathing exercises. Their functionality is very similar. Most of them display a breathing guidance of some sort, i.e. a circle which expands on breath in and contracts on breath out. A user can set a different length of each breathing cycle component. How do you choose the most efficient app out between those available?
A recent scientific paper suggests that breathing apps which produce more visualization produce better results both subjectively and objectively [1]. Here is where BreatheNow app leads the pack. It has a very simple design and its breathing circle is very easy to follow. However, BreatheNow app also takes a measurement of your heart rate during a breathing exercise. To do this one needs only to cover a camera and flashlight at the back of the phone with their finger. After breathing exercise is over, the app shows the change in heart rate and stress level at the beginning and at the end of exercise. Very easy to understand if you focused sufficiently on the exercise or need to repeat it for more effect.
Creators of the BreatheNow app used a scientific method Heart Rate Variation (HRV) for understanding the balance between a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and derive a change in stress level. HRV is extracted from heart rate measurements. Heart rate is measured with the help of a phone camera in this app, so the accuracy of such a measurement is not super precise. Also, in addition to breathing exercise outcome HRV depends on some other factors, i.e. your current emotional state. The creators of BreatheNow are pointing out, that heart rate and stress level changes measured by the app should be viewed as directional only and should not be considered as a medical advice.
One can check objectively the effectiveness of breathing exercises delivered by BreatheNow by taking a blood pressure measurement before and after the breathing exercise for high blood pressure. Use this simple technique daily and observe reduction of your blood pressure. As someone who has suffered from anxiety and high blood pressure I found these simple exercises to work very well. Use also BreatheNow app to make your yoga or meditation exercises more effective.
Please check my website for more information about breathing exercises and how they could make you healthier
REFERENCES
|
https://medium.com/@dmitri-konash/how-to-choose-the-most-effective-breathing-app-5d50bf8d70f1
|
['Dmitri Konash']
|
2020-12-18 10:09:20.258000+00:00
|
['Breathing', 'Mobile Apps', 'Breathing Technique', 'Box Breathing', 'Breathing Exercise']
|
Chandigarh Tour and Travels
|
For travelers who are willing to go out of the way for their trip to be exciting and gain new perspectives and new experiences, adventure tours are best for them. Adventure tours are an exciting and different way of deeply understanding a new country or an entirely new culture along with learning about new surroundings by interacting with local population there.
Choosing the best tour and travel company
Few travelers think that hiring services of a Chandigarh tour and travel company will make them dependent on their itinerary during their trip. But what they don’t realize is, that hiring one of the best travel agents would let them follow a perfectly planned itinerary which is based on the expertise and experience of the tour and travel company. Since they have expertise on planning such trips they would know better, what kind of place would fulfil the desire of a particular traveller. But the traveler must make sure that the company they hiring the services from must be among the best travel agents and has a good experience?More
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https://medium.com/@sanketmaniiweb/chandigarh-tour-and-travels-23860b40aedc
|
['Sanket Mani']
|
2020-01-24 13:31:22.167000+00:00
|
['Chandigarh Taxi Service', 'Tours And Travels', 'Chandigarh', 'Tourism']
|
Negative effects of social media on people
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Social media is a wide place that creates opportunities for multiple entities. But how different professionals use different social entities counts for the prosperity of their careers in the future. Nevertheless, social media is highly useful when counting down the platforms for individual engagement. At one time where it provides a platform for people all over the world to connect and share, it is, at the same time, capable of destroying the very reason it was created to. The folks at theory51.com attempt to debunk and identify false information particularly where conspiracies are concerned.
But how does it work?
Having a proper understanding of how social media system works, how social media platforms allow the users to broadcast their messages effectively and how digital content can improve the marketing of a particular business or a campaign is very essential in the modern tech world. But that is not always the case in the hands of people. Social media is being used both positively and negatively, but which one is more common, that’s up to every individual who uses it for both purposes.
Many organisations have been using social media to excel in their everyday business that includes selling products and further contact with customers but at the same time, this technique might not be the best thing on the planet. It also possesses a darker yet risky aspect to the people. Information, whether correct or not, can bear real damage to others. Social media is not only limited to information, rather it’s a whole visual experience where individuals connect with each other from different areas of the world and unite.
I just can’t stop checking my phone!
The first and foremost thing that social media requires is time management and once it is achieved, you might be off a little worry. Even when people are at work, they are constantly checking their social media accounts. That is where bad time management comes in place. People are not aware of how these things destroy their effective time routine. They are addicted to check their social media account, whether on phone or laptop every once in a 15 to 30 minute time period. The reason behind this constant check would be sometimes, the boredom of work or maybe they are just annoyed. The initial focus of an individual is lost whenever a social media account is opened and re-focus takes a lot of time. People hiding behind social media accounts are often not performing well in their office environment.
So, how does it affect me?
Many mental health problems arise with social media impact too. The professionals are aware that it deeply affects the minds of individuals and they are very much concerned as well. They are aware of the fact that these constant interactions with social media accounts are contributing to very short spans of attention. These professionals have also reported that people who regularly use Facebook, Instagram and many other social media platforms like WhatsApp are having higher levels of stress. These stress levels are also contributing to low work output by the employees. So, apart from wasting time over social media, work output is also being affected in other ways too. Employees who ponder over the use of social media also proved to be more productive and have better relationships with other co-workers and customers. These platforms are not only affecting the mental health, but a little physical torture takes part as well.
Apart from worse time management and mental/physical health problems, social media is also responsible for spreading false information and very much alike. The fake news has made a commonplace in the minds of many customers and clients as well. The truth is always hidden over these platforms. False and misleading information is present over many social media platforms than there is over the television media. These fake news can very much damage the reputation of a renowned brand and can harm their reputation in a very particular way if not taken care of. Even loyal customers are sometimes affected by these fake persuasions.
One of the main ideas behind the fake news spreaders is fake online reviews. Because of social media, people rely highly on online reviews. Many platforms such as Facebook tracks these reviews and keeps a record of each and every person rating them so that others can have a little benefit in choosing their shopping or eating area. This highly affects the business of many people and is, therefore, a big deal. Some of these reviews are highly fake and they either praise or degrade a business making them vulnerable to business ending threats. This trend negatively affects a lot of organisations. If something inappropriate goes viral because of an uneducated or unethical employee who has some other things in mind, then it can possess a much bigger threat to the business and may result in huge losses. Safety of certain foods and treatments is also compromised when they are exposed to such threats over social media. Many users spread misinformation to make their own organisation better.
Then there’s bullying…
Many people using the social media become the victims of cyber-bullying as well. Especially young people who are prone to be bullied online are targeted, very often, by their fellow co-workers. These types of bullying include private threats over SMS, inappropriate public comments and manipulated pictures of individuals that were not targeted towards the very reason they were captured. Many young people become the victim of stress and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety because of these bullying standards. This, in turn, affects their performance in academic as well as physically. Many workplace tensions are created because of this cyber posed threats.
Many controversial topics are shared over these platforms which might create tension in a greater circle which the individual might not be aware of. This can potentially create hypertension politically on a much larger level and can also cause extremism as well. Pictures and videos that are shared over these platforms may often contain blood, gore, and violence which can alter the minds of multiple individuals and can further lead to increased stress levels. So, it can be concluded that social networks have negative effects on the personal and professional life of users.
|
https://medium.com/@theory51/negative-effects-of-social-media-on-people-66fab5d1fe2b
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[]
|
2019-04-04 21:18:38.266000+00:00
|
['Conspiracy Theories', 'Social Media']
|
৭ কেজি ওজনের টিউমার ৫০ বছর নারীর পেটে!
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in The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer
|
https://medium.com/@tahonrichand123/%E0%A7%AD-%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF-%E0%A6%93%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A7%AB%E0%A7%A6-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%87-d3b2de39756f
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['Tahon Richand']
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2020-12-14 06:01:08.907000+00:00
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['Cancer', 'Saudi', 'Cancer Cells', 'International', 'Saudi Arabia']
|
Wearing a Mask: The Christian Thing to Do
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Wearing a mask is about serving others.
Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash
As I understand it, Christ taught that we are supposed to serve the needs of others. To knowingly do harm to another person is outright evil.
We all need to be well. Covid19 is an illness with the potential for causing death.
I saw a graphic that informed me that if I am not infected with this virus and I am wearing a mask, but I get around someone who is infected who is not wearing a mask, I have a 70% of getting infected. If I am infected but I am wearing a mask and I get around someone who is not infected, that person only has a 4% chance of getting infected. So wearing a mask is about serving the need of other people to stay healthy.
Of course, anyone can simply choose to declare that any particular piece of information that person receives is ‘false’. That is what many people do when they receive information that contradicts in one way or another the outlook on life they want to preserve.
In this case, some people apparently want to preserve the point of view that whatever they say goes for them, no matter what. Any talk of ‘consequences’ is irrelevant. That display of power is all that maters to them. Displays of power that disregard the need for health of other people are anti-Christian.
|
https://medium.com/@sdyearwood/wearing-a-mask-the-christian-thing-to-do-46087118623
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['Stephen Yearwood']
|
2020-05-27 10:25:18.861000+00:00
|
['Coronavirus', 'Christian', 'Christian Living', 'Christianity', 'Covid 19 Crisis']
|
Scientists Prove that Yoga Can Help With Fighting Migraines
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We’ve all had to deal with having a headache.
Some of us get it regularly in stressful times, others might experience headaches when the weather changes, when they don’t drink enough (or too much, right?) or when they have other issues to deal with, like back pain or musculoskeletal problems.
Around 12% of people worldwide are suffering from migraines. Now, even though the term migraine might have been used ubiquitously to describe a very bad headache in the past, it is actually way worse than that.
Patients suffering from recurring migraine attacks can have various symptoms, reaching from extreme vulnerability to light and noises (phono- and photophobia), to vomiting, blurry vision, the inability to stand up straight, and — of course — a severe, pulsating headache. An attack can last from 30 minutes up to a whole day.
Migraines are hard to treat
Once an attack occurs, it knocks out the patient completely. He or she has to stay home from work, hide in a dark room, and will not be able to tolerate any light, loud noises or movements. In the long run, this can lead to complications like depression, sleep deprivation, and decreased quality of life.
Photo by Artem Podrez by Prexels
Of course, modern medicine offers medications to treat the disease. This includes pain medication, like ibuprofen or paracetamol, and also specific treatments like triptans that work centrally in the brain itself.
Nevertheless, a treatment for migraine can be tough. Some patients don’t respond to the offered treatment and have to try out multiple medications until they experience an improvement of symptoms. Triptans come with unwanted side effects and can lead to an increase in blood pressure, dizziness, ischemia of the heart muscle, and more. Plus, if taken for a long period of time, the migraine might stop to respond to triptans and the pain might come back even worse.
Multiple other treatments and supportive measurements have been proven to help with migraines. To decrease the frequency of attacks, patients are advised to avoid stress and to exercise at least three times a week.
Yoga might be a new potential therapeutic
In May 2020, a research group from New Deli in India published their results of the randomized clinical trial CONTAIN in the renowned journal Neurology, introducing a new and promising treatment option to help with migraines.
In the trial, 160 patients suffering from the disease were observed for three months. Before the trial started, they were randomly divided into two groups:
The first group received only the standard medications recommended for prophylactic and acute medical therapy.
The other group received a supervised regimen of yoga modules, consisting of 60-minute classes 3–5 times a week next to the standard medical treatment.
Both groups were assessed at baseline for their migraine severity and handed a headache log book to write down symptoms and attacks throughout the study. Patients were also asked to document any side medication. Multiple objective scales like the Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire (MIDAS) and the Visual Analogue Scale were used to quantify symptoms.
The two groups were very comparable due to similar baseline demographic and clinical characteristics except for the yoga group showing a slightly increased baseline headache frequency before the trial when being compared to the group treated with medication only.
Promising results are highly significant
After three months of observation and follow-up examinations, patients in the yoga group showed a highly significant reduction of headache frequency, headache intensity and pill count.
Supervised yoga sessions helped with reducing stress and increasing relaxation. While other studies have suggested yoga sessions or meditation in the prodromal phase of an upcoming migraine attack, this study stresses the need for practicing Yoga on a regular basis.
In conclusion, this well-planned trial published in a well-known and critically reviewed medical journal shows the beneficial effect of add-on therapy with Yoga when being compared to medical therapy alone.
Photo by Samuel Silitonga by Prexels
Yoga can be studied by almost everyone and does not cause any unwanted side effects.
Moreover, it could effectively reduce the number of pills needed to treat the migraine after all. It is also cost-effective, making it very attractive to low-income countries.
Even though the study has only observed patients for the course of three months, the effect is assumed to last also for longer periods of time.
More studies will be needed to understand the biochemical and psychological changes yoga induces in the human body. Nevertheless, this study shows the need of integrating different therapeutically approaches to match a patient’s needs.
|
https://medium.com/beingwell/scientists-prove-that-yoga-can-help-with-fighting-migraines-e00017d69283
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[]
|
2020-06-29 07:20:09.123000+00:00
|
['Migraines', 'Yoga', 'Science', 'Health', 'Medicine']
|
Under an Oppressive System: Transgender Youth Find Solace in Music
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Image Credit: Angela_Yuriko_Smith — “gay pride flag”
Think back to when you were in middle or high school. Were you bullied or teased by your peers or even by family members? Were you ever called by a nickname that bothered you? Imagine what it would be like if everywhere you go, you are referred to as a name that invalidates you as a person. You may feel isolated, inferior, or depressed. For many transgender individuals, this is the reality they live with when they are misgendered or deadnamed (being referred to as their birth name). Can you imagine what that feels like? How do you think you would cope with that?
Cover Art for the single “The Village” by Wrabel, released under Epic Records.
In 2017, the musical artist Wrabel wrote a song named “The Village”.
The opening lyrics include: “No your mom don’t get it and your dad don’t get it, Uncle John don’t get it. And you can’t tell Grandma cause her heart can’t take it.”
The lyrics tell a story that many members of the LGBTQIA+ community have experienced or are currently living, a story about having to deal with rejection or denial of their true selves. For transgender individuals, this might mean having to dress, look, or act according to gender norms that do not reflect the person you are inside. The chorus of “The Village” offers an affirmation to those who are living with this hardship as it repeats the lines “There’s nothing wrong with you, there’s something wrong with the village.”
In a LogoTV performance and interview, the artist tells the story of how “The Village” came to be. In the interview, Wrabel shares a story of two trans kids who were fans of his music who came to the stage door at one of his shows. From this meeting, he was moved by their stories and explained his admiration by saying “They were just so themselves in this really simple way. And it blew me away.”
They ended up keeping in touch, and through their friendship, Wrabel learned about their lives and their experience as transgender youth. Their friendship continued and in February 2017, the Trump Administration repealed protections against transgender youth in public schools. In the LogoTV video, he explains: “I wrote this song [The Village] the day federal protections for trans students were taken out of public schools. I was talking to one of them that day, hearing about what it was actually like to be a trans kid in a public school that day and it broke my heart […] I sat down with two of my friends and we wrote this song for them [transgender youth]”
What’s Wrong with the Village?
On February 22nd, 2017, the Trump administration repealed the Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students. This joint guidance issued in 2016, by the Departments of Justice and Education, clarified that the Title IX law should be interpreted to protect Transgender students in public schools from discrimination.
By repealing this guidance, the Trump administration eliminated the following protections for transgender students:
- School staff and contractors were no longer required to use students’ preferred names and pronouns.
- Transgender students were no longer guaranteed access to facilities that are consistent with their gender identity such as bathrooms or locker rooms.
- It became easier for administrators to deny students’ rights to participate on sports teams that were consistent with their gender identities.
The implications of these repeals might not be immediately understood by those who don’t have much knowledge of transgender issues, but they are, for many, the difference between life and death. Recent research from the University of Texas at Austin found that one in three transgender youth (aged 15–21) reported considering suicide, which is twice the rate of their cisgender peers.
However, being able to use their chosen name and pronouns consistently (at school, work, home, and with friends) reduced this statistic. Consistent use of a young person’s chosen name/pronouns showed:
71% decrease in symptoms of severe depression
34% decrease in reported thoughts of suicide
65% decrease in suicidal attempts
Image Credit: ArmyAmber — “soldier military uniform”
While inspired to write the song by the February repeal, Wrabel released “The Village” after the Trump administration announced yet another harmful policy against transgender individuals in July 2017; the so-called “Transgender Military Ban” This bans anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria who is taking hormones or has already undergone gender transition from enlisting in the U.S. military. The ban also bars any actively serving troops who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria (after April 12th, 2019) from receiving any gender-affirming treatments. They also must continue serving under their sex assigned at birth.
Because the release of “The Village” corresponded with the Transgender Military Ban, some people interpreted the song as an act of protest. However, when the Huffington Post asked if he considered himself an activist, Wrabel responded, “If I am an activist of any sort, I just want to make people feel like they are allowed to be themselves. If we all could just be OK with that, especially nowadays, you turn on any news channel, people have a lot of issues with just being themselves.”
“It’s incredible to see what a song can do and it can go places where you can’t go.” — (Wrabel, 2019)
Wrabel’s message seems to be well received as there are almost 22,000 comments on the official music video for the song. Many of the comments are from LGBTQIA+ Youth sharing their stories and expressing comfort or support they have gained from the song and others online, even when their real-life situation is surrounded by people who aren’t accepting. For example, here is a comment left on the video recently:
“Am I too scared to come out to my family? Hell Yes. Will I come out here? Also yes. I know this comment probably won’t be seen by anyone, but hi! I’m Elliot, a bi FTM dude. I know my family would never accept me, but this song (and it’s comment section) gives me some hope. Thank you for that.” — (The Man in Your Closet, 09/25/2020)
As of December 2020, changes to Title IX have not yet been made. However, in July 2020, the Supreme Court determined through the Bostock v. Clayton County case that the prohibition of “sex-based discrimination” in Title VII provides protection to individuals in regard to sexual orientation and gender identity in the context of employment. This is a hopeful sign that the prohibition of “sex-based discrimination” within Title IX can also be determined this way.
The appointment of President-Elect Joe Biden is a hopeful step for the future of transgender and other LGBTQIA+ people. His campaign’s website specifically addresses the detrimental actions the Trump-Pence administration has taken against the LGBTQIA+ community and how their defeat is an “essential first step in resuming our march toward equality.” Biden also believes “that every human being should be treated with respect and dignity and be able to live without fear no matter who they are or who they love.”
The webpage makes no promises as to what might be done, but I urge the new administration to take concrete action in regards to the injustices against the LGBTQIA+, especially the transgender community.
In order to help the transgender community on a more personal level, you can help trans youth this holiday season by helping fulfill their Christmas lists with TransSanta. This initiative allows users to anonymously gift presents to transgender kids and young adults in need. You can read more about the program and how to help here. After the holidays, you can help by donating to other organizations that provide resources to transgender youth, such as the Trans Youth Equality Foundation.
While there are still many challenges to overcome, positive action towards the betterment of transgender and other LGBTQIA+ people will be a step toward a better village.
|
https://medium.com/@alanaaninipot/in-a-mocking-society-and-under-an-oppressive-system-lgbtqia-youth-find-solace-in-music-41b3245f878b
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['Alana Aninipot']
|
2020-12-21 23:08:25.210000+00:00
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['United States', 'Transgender', 'Change', 'Music', 'LGBTQ']
|
Does tooth brushing prevent dental decay? The answer might surprise you. — Dr. Kris Roling, CEO Virtual Dontics. Live, Online Continuing Dental Education.
|
As a dentist, I was trained to advise my patients on “good” oral hygiene practice to prevent tooth decay. Brush twice a day, floss daily, use a fluoride toothpaste, and see your dentist every six months for a checkup and cleaning. We tell our patients, if you do these things, “chances” are you won’t get a cavity. Recently there has been discussion amongst the public health dentistry world, “Does brushing your teeth really prevent dental decay?” Honestly, dentists don’t know this for sure. Yes, you read this correctly. Evidence Based Dentistry does not support the prevailing thought among dentists that brushing your teeth prevents dental cavities. If you are a dentist or a dental hygienist, raise your hand if you have witnessed a patient who has done everything right and still developed a cavity. What have we told this patient? Looks like you missed a spot with your toothbrush? Right? The fact is, there are areas of the tooth that a brush cannot reach, including pits and fissures. So why do some folks develop a cavity, and others don’t? Why are the poor twice as likely to be afflicted by dental decay? Why is there an assumption among dentists and the public, that poor people don’t brush their teeth, creating a greater prevalence of disease? Isn’t this a little like the notion of using leeches for 2000 years in the ancient practice of bloodletting? Sometimes the disease improved, and we credited the leeches, and sometimes the patient’s condition worsened. The tooth brush companies have made billions on the notion of creating a “better mousetrap” and while they may reduce plaque, the focus of a toothbrush as the silver bullet to eradicate an epidemic, is questionable, especially when EBD suggests that the plaque removed may be transient. Although CAMBRA was developed to assess risk of developing disease and assign appropriate treatment, what about other non-dental circumstances that have little to do with brushing and flossing that seem to drive this silent epidemic? Risk factors include poverty, not graduating from high school, low socioeconomic status, being part of an ethnic minority group, being developmentally disabled, geriatric, recent immigrants, tobacco users, and people infected with HIV/AIDS.
In my practice, I treat the poor. Historically, dentistry’s approach in treating the socioeconomically disadvantaged is to give them a free toothbrush and advise them that their catastrophic dental disease is a result of their own behavior, they just aren’t brushing to our (dentist’s) satisfaction. Not too long ago, I had a dentist tell me that they didn’t “buy the whole ‘poor’ thing”, and further stated, “We give them a toothbrush, it’s up to them to use it.” Now that dental decay is an epidemic of the poor, can we say this approach is working? We do know that plaque left on teeth may cause a breakdown in the enamel leading to decay. Tooth brushing can remove plaque, so it stands to reason this should prevent cavities, right? The answer is not necessarily, so what are we overlooking? The body’s reaction to stress and the environment. Like any chronic disease, dental decay is exacerbated by stress in the form of living in poverty, poor nutritional status, illness, isolation and disconnection from community. Studies measured cortisol levels as an indicator of stress in children and caries level. Children with higher levels of cortisol levels experienced more decay. Recently, research pointed the exposure to second hand cigarette smoke as an increased risk factor in developing caries in young children.
So do we stop giving away the free tooth brushes?
No. Although not evidence based, tooth brushing is shown to reduce plaque levels, especially in conjunction with fluoridated toothpaste. More evidence based practice must be introduced. The dental and medical profession however, must approach dental decay as a public health epidemic of the poor. Rather than focusing on the best way to brush, public health policy should be developed to address the inequity of access to care, healthy communities and the reduction of poverty �h��_(�
|
https://medium.com/@virtualdontics/does-tooth-brushing-prevent-dental-decay-2959a9096275
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['Virtual Dontics']
|
2015-12-16 05:24:17.181000+00:00
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['Dental Care', 'Dentistry', 'Dental Hygiene']
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Ecommerce Bakery & Cakes — UX Case Study
|
The emergence of online food delivery services such as UberEats, Foodora, and DoorDash has fundamentally changed the way consumers are purchasing food. Despite the eCommerce industry experiencing double digital growth year over year, there are still many products that are not traditionally viewed as items that are sold online. Cakes and bakery goods are one of the non-traditional items.
Myself and 3 other team members were tasked to conduct user research and deliver mid-fi prototypes for an eCommerce store that sold and delivered bakery and cake goods.
The Challenge:
We wanted to create an excellent buying experience that plays to the strength of online shopping while overcoming consumers’ hesitations about purchasing cakes and bakery goods online. Bakery and cake goods also pose their own unique challenges and the need to stand out from an extremely competitive industry became very apparent.
Research Phase:
Domain & Organizational Research:
To start, we did extensive domain and organizational research to get a better understanding of the industry as a whole. This allowed us to set our expectations and more effectively ask the right questions in our interviews and survey. We learned about the current status of the industry, its projected growth, and how consumer preferences are changing.
Interviews & Surveys:
Armed with a host of questions from previous research, we set out to interview 4 people that we felt would be good candidates to use an eCommerce platform we were designing. As we started to compile the research some trends and insights started to emerge.
Interview Findings:
Many interviewees never considered purchasing these goods online.
They were time-strapped and welcomed the idea that online shopping could bring.
They had objections and trust concerns about product quality and delivery.
organic ingredients were important factors with some interviewees stating that adhering to dietary requirements would help them make a purchase decision online.
From there we created a 13 question survey to paint a better picture of who our potential user is and what challenges they face. In total, we received 62 responses from our survey. The results reinforced our findings from our interviews. Despite these challenges, we found some opportunities and gaps in the market that an eCommerce store could potentially solve.
Survey Findings:
|
https://medium.com/mike-renton/ecommerce-bakery-cakes-ux-case-study-c6de43ff79d6
|
['M Renton']
|
2020-04-07 04:13:49.681000+00:00
|
['User Experience Design', 'User Research', 'Ecommerce', 'Case Study']
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[Commoner’s Corner] March 2019
|
Hello fellow Bitcoin and Blockchain enthusiasts. My name is Liam Hodash and I have been involved with Bitcoin and Blockchain technology for a few years now. When I was younger I explored the dark web out of curiosity and found/bought some bitcoin back in 2015. Fast forward a few years to 2018, I started hearing about bitcoin again in the news because of its $3k rally in April of last year. I bought some more and started becoming more heavily involved. A few months later I joined a group called Cypher Core where we focus on blockchain solutions, and I just became more fascinated with the technology that Bitcoin and Blockchain offer the world.
In the year of 2019 technology is advancing beyond our wildest imagination and the world of the future is at our fingertips. But what no one talks about is our currency, will it stay the same when everything else has changed? Is the world really going to continue to use paper, cloth and metals as money, will we keep using resources just to buy other resources? In an increasingly tech age, why would it be so far out there for our currency to be a part of that? We already have Apple pay and Samsung pay, that connect your debit or credit cards to your phone and allow you to pay by simply hovering your phone over a payment terminal.
People like their privacy and protection, it keeps us comfortable knowing we are safe and secure. There is a way of transferring money across the globe while only paying dollars and pennies. A way where wait times are just minutes and not three to five business days. The privacy of having people only know who you are by a long combination of numbers and letters.
Bitcoin has been around for 10 years now, silently growing around us waiting for the perfect time to become adopted world wide. With countries already investing in Blockchain technology and Bitcoin itself, it is not hard to see what is coming. Paper money is a thing of the past. I myself don’t even carry cash anymore. It’s pointless with the invention of a debit card so why do I need cash? People walk around and lose hundreds or thousands of dollars everyday; the only way to lose Bitcoin is if you lose your private keys.
Bitcoin a physical and digital asset and is held by the individual not a corporation, this prevents theft, loss, and banks taking it from your account for fees.
With the invention of Bitcoin came the concept of blockchain. With blockchain receipts are stored in a digital block of data. Every transaction that was made in that amount of time (8–10 min.) can be found. You can see where money was sent to and from, what time, how much was sent, the fees, the energy used, and the block number it was stored on with it still being completely anonymous. What they can’t see is your name, location or why the money was sent and no one will come asking down the line why you sent millions of dollars somewhere.
With this new technology slowly coming to play, more and more people are able to realize their ideas and bring them to fruition. The technology that Bitcoin and Blockchain offer are something that an average person won’t be able to ignore in the coming time. People are already creating this, I have recently worked with a group who aims to eliminating plagiarism on the internet, a group who wants to reshape the health industry, along with Cypher Core that provides Blockchain solutions and education for the interested.
Samsung is releasing a cryptocurrency wallet on their next phone platform; Facebook is launching its own crypto currency; South Korea is investing in Blockchain technology, and some small European countries are allowing people to pay their taxes with Bitcoin. Just like the invention of money and the invention of the internet, Blockchain will be a want and a necessity in daily life not too far down the road.
Get in Touch
E-mail
Website
Twitter
Telegram
Instagram
|
https://medium.com/cypher-core/hello-fellow-bitcoin-and-blockchain-enthusiasts-my-name-is-liam-hodash-and-i-have-been-involved-e4d939c5e25b
|
['Liam', 'Cypher Core']
|
2019-04-01 23:51:15.378000+00:00
|
['Commoners Corner', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Technology']
|
Tutorial GIS (crud) Laravel dan leaflet js
|
in Digital and innovation at British Red Cross
|
https://medium.com/@eripratama/tutorial-gis-crud-laravel-dan-leaflet-js-69dd56a56faf
|
['Eri Pratama']
|
2021-01-17 03:23:54.992000+00:00
|
['Tutorial', 'GIS', 'Laravel Framework', 'Laravel', 'Leaflet']
|
A one year PWA retrospective
|
Zack Argyle | Engineering manager, Core Experience
The idea of building a “Progressive Web App” (PWA) is not new, but its definition has changed with the emergence of key technologies like service workers. Now it’s finally possible to build great experiences in a mobile browser. Being an early adopter can be scary, so we’d like to share a brief overview of our experience building one of the world’s largest progressive web apps.
Three years ago we looked at the state of our website on mobile browsers and groaned at the obvious deficiencies. Metrics pointed to an 80 percent higher engagement rate in our native apps, so the decision was made to go all-in on our apps for iOS and Android. Despite increasing our app downloads substantially, there were some obvious downsides.
Emily. Owen. We would like to take this moment to offer an apology. You were right. It was terrible.
One year ago (July, 2017) we brought a team together to rewrite our mobile website from scratch as a PWA. This was the culmination of several years of conversation, months of metrics investigation and one large hypothesis: mobile web can be as good as a native app. The results are quite…pinteresting.
Why did we do it?
There were two main reasons why we reinvested so heavily in our mobile web. The first was our users. Our mobile web experience for people in low-bandwidth environments and limited data plans was not good. With more than half of all Pinners based outside the U.S., building a first-class mobile website was an opportunity to make Pinterest more accessible globally, and ultimately improve the experience for everyone.
The second reason was data-driven. Because the experience wasn’t great, a very small percentage of the unauthenticated users that landed on our mobile web site either installed the app, signed up or logged in. It was not a good funnel. Even if we weigh the native app users more heavily for higher engagement than mobile web users, it’s not the type of conversion rate anyone strives for. We thought we could do better.
How did we do it?
In July 2017, we formed a team that combined engineers from our web platform and growth teams. Internally, we called it “Project Duplo,” inspired by simplicity and accessibility. At the time, the mobile website accounted for less than 10 percent of our total signups (for context, the desktop website drove 5x that).
Timeline
July 2017: Begin “Project Duplo”
Aug. 2017: Launch new mobile site for percentage of logged-in users
Sept. 2017: Ship new mobile site for logged-in users
Jan. 2018: Launch new mobile site for percentage of logged-out users
Feb. 2018: Ship new mobile site for logged-out users
Part of the reason we were able to create and ship a full-featured rewrite in three months was thanks to our open-source UI library, Gestalt. At Pinterest, we use React 16 for all web development. Gestalt’s suite of components are built to encompass our design language, which makes it very easy to create consistently beautiful pages without worrying about CSS. We created a suite of mobile web-specific layout components for creating consistently spaced pages throughout the site. FullWidth breaks out of the default boundaries of PageContainer, which breaks out of the boundaries of a FixedHeader. This kind of compositional layout led to fast, bug-free UI development.
In addition to Gestalt, we also used react, react-router v4, redux, redux-thunk, react-redux, normalizr, reselect, flow and prettier.
How we made it fast!
Performance was baked into the goals and process because of how tightly correlated it is to engagement, and how sensitive it is on a mobile connection. In fact, our home page Javascript payload went from ~490kb to ~190kb. This was achieved through code-splitting at the route level by default, encouraging use of a <Loader> component for component-level code-splitting. An easy-to-use route preloading system was built into our client-side router, which creates a fast experience for initial page load as well as client-side route changes. For more details on how we made it fast, check out a case study we did with Addy Osmani.
After one year, there are ~600 Javascript files in our mobile web codebase, and all it takes is one ill-chosen import to bloat your bundle. It’s really hard to maintain performance! We share code extensively across subsites for *.pinterest.com, and so we have certain measures set up to ensure that mobile web’s dependencies stay clean. First is a set of graphs reporting build sizes with alerts for when bundles exceed permitted growth rates. Second is a custom eslint rule that disallows importing from files and directories we know are dependency-heavy and will bloat the bundle. For example, mobile web cannot import from the desktop web codebase, but we have a directory of “safe” packages that can be shared across both. There’s still work to do, but we’re proud of where we are.
While the case study deals mostly with page load, we also cared deeply about a fast, native-like experience while browsing. The biggest driver of client-side performance was our normalized redux store which allows for near-instant route changes. By having a single source of truth for models, like a Pin or user, it makes it trivial to show the information you have while waiting for more to load. For example, if you browse a feed of Pins, we have information about each Pin. When you tap on one, it takes you to a detailed view. Because the Pin data is normalized, we can easily show the limited details we have from the feed view until the full details finish being fetched from the server. When you click on a user avatar, we show that user’s profile with the information we have while we fetch the full user details. If you’re interested in the structure of our state or the flow of our actions, the redux devtools extension is enabled in production for our mobile web site.
At the heart of the new site was our attempt at building a truly progressive web app (PWA). We support an app shell, add to homescreen, push notifications and asset caching. The service worker caches a server-rendered, user-specific app shell that’s used for subsequent page loads and creates near instant page refreshes. We’re excited that Apple is building support for service workers in Safari so that all users can have the best “native-like” experience.
And what kind of “native” experience would it be without a “night mode”? Head over to your user settings and try it out!
The verdict
Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for: the numbers. Weekly active users on mobile web have increased 103 percent year-over-year overall, with a 156 percent increase in Brazil and 312 percent increase in India. On the engagement side, session length increased by 296 percent, the number of Pins seen increased by 401 percent and people were 295 percent more likely to save a Pin to a board. Those are amazing in and of themselves, but the growth front is where things really shined. Logins increased by 370 percent and new signups increased by 843 percent year-over-year. Since we shipped the new experience, mobile web has become the top platform for new signups. And for fun, in less than 6 months since fully shipping, we already have 800 thousand weekly users using our PWA like a native app (from their homescreen).
Looking back over one full year since we started rebuilding our mobile web, we’re so proud of the experience we’ve created for our users. Not only is it significantly faster, it’s also our first platform to support right-to-left languages and “night mode.” Investing in a full-featured PWA has exceeded our expectations. And we’re just getting started.
* Huge shout out to the engineers and product managers who worked on the rewrite: Becky Stoneman, Ben Finkle, Yen-Wei Liu, Langtian Lang, Victoria Kwong, Luna Ruan, Iris Wang and Imad Elyafi.
|
https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/a-one-year-pwa-retrospective-f4a2f4129e05
|
['Pinterest Engineering']
|
2018-07-20 17:00:30.162000+00:00
|
['JavaScript', 'React', 'Progressive Web App', 'Mobile', 'Web']
|
How to be more influential?
|
How to be more influential?
There is a real buzz about influence in the business world at the moment. People want to know who is influential, who does not have influence and why influence is really necessary. If you believe that you are not as influential as you want to be then you can do something about it.
The fact is that you will have more influence than you credit yourself for. What you are not doing is identifying the opportunities to use it. A lot of people do not have the confidence to use their influence as they may feel that they do not have the right authority to do so. This is especially true in organizations.
But running scared is not a good option. There have been cases where children have asked innocent questions that have resulted in government’s making changes to their policies. It doesn’t matter where you fit in the scheme of things — you have an idea and it needs to be heard.
3 Steps to become a Person of Influence
You can always make improvements to enhance your powers of influence. To be a sustained person of influence we recommend that you follow the 3 steps below. Change will not always be easy so you need to stick at it.
1. Be Consistent
If you are not someone that walks their talk then it is going to be really difficult for you to influence others. People want to see that you stand behind your values and practice what you preach. You are not perfect so you are likely to make some mistakes. But as long as there is consistency with what you say and do you are on the right track.
So if you say you are going to do something then do it. If you agree to be somewhere at a certain time then don’t be late or not show up. Integrity is essential for influence. By stating that you live your life against specific values you must demonstrate that you do this — even in your private life.
Consistent people are transparent. They do not have hidden agendas. Over time others know that they can trust them to deliver the goods. Others will listen to you a lot more when you achieve this and it will be easier for you to influence them.
2. Use Empathy
If you want to be a person of influence then you must listen to others. It is essential that you are able to understand the point of view of others. You may not agree totally with what they are saying but you certainly get the gist of it. Using empathy is a very powerful way to gain trust and help you to influence.
When other people feel that you understand them, they will be very likely to listen to you. They feel that you take their views into consideration and have their interests at heart. So, use empathy to your advantage.
3. Be Courageous
It is essential that you have the courage to get your point of view across. When an opportunity presents itself then you need to take it. Back this up with research and the facts to present your opinion.
A more difficult situation is where you believe that existing ideas need to change. You are going to need even more courage to stand up and say what you feel here. But if you don’t say anything when you know things are not working then you will let yourself down as well as others.
If you would like to be more influential or would like a more detailed guide please click here to take a look at an ebook that can help:
You will learn how to influence others to do what you want
You will learn how people are wired and how they make decisions so that you can influence them
You will be able to build unshakable credibility
You will learn the benefits and importance of influence
You will learn 8 influence and persuasion methods you can use in business
To make it easy, I’ve put together a step-by-step guide that will show you exactly how it’s done
|
https://medium.com/@adamwfh89/how-to-be-more-influential-e63ff1df8653
|
['Adam Castle']
|
2020-12-24 23:15:05.548000+00:00
|
['Influencer Campaigns', 'How To', 'How To Be A Better Person', 'Influencers', 'Influencer Marketing Tips']
|
Singing in the Sunshine
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I eagerly returned to mass with the sisters this morning. I took with me the three new volunteers who arrived last Sunday night. We sat right behind the sisters. The sermon and hymns were scheduled to be in Hindi today. However, the priest and choir switched some parts of the service to English so that we could participate. It was a sweet gesture.
One of the English hymns they chose to sing, called “Here I Am Lord,” was particularly gripping.
However, my favorite hymn so far is one from last week. I can’t seem to find a recording of it, but these are the lyrics:
Walking with the Lord,
We are walking in the morning,
Lift up your hearts,
For you are walking with God.
Singing to the Lord,
We are singing in the sunshine,
Lift up our hearts,
For you are singing to God. Hand in hand with everyone,
We’re walking, walking,
Black and white and brown,
Together, walking, walking,
Singing new songs now,
Living new lives,
Building new bridges,
Walking distanct miles,
Well we’re walking with the Lord…. Rain and storm will not prevent us,
Walking, walking,
Faith and hope and love,
Will send us walking, walking.
Crossing all barriers,
Climbing all stiles,
Breaking through fences,
Walking distant miles,
Well we’re walking with the Lord….
Taking into account all of the current circumstances, I seems like a perfect soundtrack for the month. If anyone has heard it before, please chime in! I have had it stuck in my head all week.
Heather (Nova Scotia), Crystal (Saskatchewan), Natalie (California), and me with the priest
Once again, I met with nearly the entire congregation. We took pictures with the priest and some of the exceptionally welcoming parish members. We went home, changed, and headed out to the slum for our meeting with the parents.
|
https://medium.com/squalor-to-scholar/singing-in-the-sunshine-63e2409e2fd3
|
['John Schupbach']
|
2017-06-29 00:56:38.554000+00:00
|
['Poetry', 'Squalor To Scholar', 'India', 'Spirituality', 'Religion']
|
Why I Love My Calendar. We’d probably go insane without them
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Why I Love My Calendar
Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash
There is nothing as optimistic as a calendar — it takes the endlessly unfolding nature of time and gives it structure and circularity, offering us a sense of fresh starts and soft endings. Calendars (and clocks and all devices that mark time) help us manage the very unmanageable notion of time itself. We’d be literally lost without them.
Take 2020 (please). What an awful year this has been, right? Seeing it as “an awful year” holds out the notion that 2020 is a fixed period of time that will come to an end. No one thinks the pandemic or the economy or national divisiveness will disappear, poof!, at midnight on December 31, but still, it feels like… maybe it will be the beginning of a better year. I have never cared much about celebrating New Year’s Day, but this year I can’t wait. I know it’s not rational, but it feels like January 1, 2021 will be a new beginning, a chance to shed the ugly, wrinkled skin of 2020 and be reborn, sleek and silky and full of promise.
Calendars, of course, are an invention. In truth, time is a linear thing, marked only by the recurring seasons and the arc of lifetimes. Otherwise, time is a long march, ever forward. Calendars are comforting; it’s reassuring to feel that time exists in predictable, familiar units rather than in an undifferentiated existential sprawl. In my first book, Saturday Night, I wrote about how a score of different communities around the country spend Saturday night. What intrigued me was how urgently we all — rich, poor, young, old, married, single, and in every region of the country — yearn for a marker in time. We need to believe time forms an arc that has a beginning, a hump in the middle, a celebratory end. This urge is universal and eternal (hello, Biblical tale of six days on/one day off!). We need to feel that time is a narrative that unspools and renews frequently. In particular, we want to be able to package a bad stretch and be able to tie it up and believe that it ends. I can barely count the times I’ve declared that I’m having a bad week, as if it’s a predetermined stretch that will end magically Sunday night.
One thing about the pandemic has been the strange, smooth nothingness of time. Every day seems the same as the next, a muddied blur. We’ve lost the narrative — our narrative of how time has texture, the narrative that we aren’t on an endless, shapeless journey but are traveling through a series of manageable, distinct periods that have highs and lows, entries and exits, in a cycle that is human-sized, that is comforting and concrete rather than stretching without end into eternity.
This has been a bad year. I can’t wait to start a new, fresh one.
|
https://medium.com/@susanorlean/why-i-love-calendars-9a757e1872d7
|
['Susan Orlean']
|
2020-12-23 07:16:03.371000+00:00
|
['Writing', 'Time', 'Calendar', 'First Person']
|
The 5 Best Books I Read in 2020
|
Being cooped at home this year, I took advantage of the opportunity to dive back into reading. Here are 5 of my favourites.
Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Image Courtesy of Waterstones
This book feels like one of those stories your grandparents told you about their childhood.
A tale following seven generations of a Colombian family in a far-flung settlement, this was unlike any book I’ve ever read. While totally mind-boggling, it’s ultimately eccentric and thought provoking.
Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
If you're into psychology, or simply want to better understand those around you, give this one a go. Erikson’s personal anecdotes bring theories on human behaviour to life in an informal yet educational manner.
It’s a short read, chock full on useful tactics on how we can better understand and react to different personalities.
River God by Wilbur Smith
Image Courtesy of Target
I could not put this book down. As a sucker for ancient history and mythology, I found myself lugging this around everywhere, despite it being an insanely dense book.
It has everything from war, to culture, romance and politics flowing smoothly throughout. This is the first book in Smith’s series, which I’ve already added to my Christmas wishlist.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Image Courtesy of Amazon
I got my copy when Singapore announced the lockdown in April, which was perfect seeing that the story follows Count Rostov who is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in a luxury hotel.
During his time there, Towles explores his relationships formed with guests and employees, moral dilemmas and Russain history.
Reading about his 30-year confinement definitely helped to put my 2 months in perspective.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Image Courtesy of HarperCollins
I hope you can sense a theme here by now.
While it came out in 2011 and was pegged by some as a fictitious and biased perspective on humankind, I have to admit that I enjoyed it. For what it’s worth, Sapiens is well organised, entertaining, and provides a decent introduction to human history.
I’d recommend it to anyone interested in anthropology and genetics, but be prepared to do your own research to attain more up-to-date information.
|
https://medium.com/@yasminsara/the-5-best-books-i-read-in-2020-7de8c9dbc25e
|
['Yasmin Sara']
|
2020-12-24 12:42:43.406000+00:00
|
['Reading', 'Book Recommendations', 'Book Review', 'Books']
|
Actually Stephen VPN Coupon Code — How to Get It
|
Stephen a.k.a Actually Stephen on Youtube is a Canadian content creator who is known for his weekly livestreams, animation videos and gaming videos. He is funny, charming and we all can’t stop watching him.
Asides from being a charming fella who loves gaming he also cares about his and his viewers security online, that is why he recently partnered up with Surfshark VPN and presented his viewers a 83% discount for their services.
How to get VPN coupon code by Actually Stephen
Go to VPN website here
Insert the coupon code stephenvpn
Sign up with your email and continue the purchase
With this coupon code you will get an 83% discount for a 2-years plan and 1 extra month for free.
Surfshark
Uses industry leading encryption;
Based in privacy friendly location — British Virgin Islands;
Strict no logs policy;
IP and DNS leak protection;
Built-in kill-switch;
Supports an unlimited number of devices;
Built-in ad-blocker;
Fast and secure servers worldwide;
Easy to use and set up on any device;
Unblocks major streaming platforms;
Supports anonymous torrenting;
GPS spoofing feature on Android devices;
Offers 24/7 customer support;
Offers 30-day money back guarantee.
Get VPN with 83% discount here
|
https://medium.com/@osvaldfreebnor/actually-stephen-vpn-coupon-code-how-to-get-it-6ceaed145077
|
['Osvald F.']
|
2020-05-11 08:31:03.584000+00:00
|
['Coupon', 'Discount']
|
Data Science: Regression on Javascript
|
Background
In the previous article, we analyzed the data representing the statistics of javascript during the year 2019. The data visualization showed us how various types of javascript developers are distributed across the countries. In this article, we will look at linear and logistic regression mechanisms that can be applied to the data to predict the type of javascript developers and the various technologies that will gain more usage in the future. We will particularly look at using several descriptive features given by the users to predict whether they work in AngularJS or not.
Data Preprocessing
The combineddf used for visualizing various charts to see the data distribution will be again used for regression. Since most of the descriptive features are categorical we will be using LabelEncoder to transform this to Numerical data. This can be done in two ways:
Use the LabelEncoder method from sklearn.preprocessing library:
encoder = LabelEncoder()
df_LE = combineddf.apply(encoder.fit_transform)
print('Replacing categories by numerical labels: ')
print(df_LE.head())
This method would replace all the categorical columns/features with numeric features.
2. Use replace to find the various categories and replace them with appropriate numeric value:
filtered_df = combineddf[combineddf["yearly_salary"].notna()];
cleanup_nums = {"yearly_salary": { "work_for_free": 0, "0_10": 1, "10_30": 2, "30_50": 3, "50_100": 4, "100_200": 5, "more_than_200": 6}}
filtered_df.replace(cleanup_nums, inplace=True)
print(filtered_df)
This method will transform the yearly_salary column to numeric.
The transformation would be done for yearly_salary , years_of_experience , and job_title categorical features. And these are the features we will be used for classifying the data. We will also transform the column angular to predict how many users would be using angularjs given their descriptive features.
Logistic regression — linear model
The first step is to apply a linear model for logistic regression. This means we would try to see if the data can be fit using a straight line. The logistic regression would give out a function that separates the two output classes of data (In our case whether the person codes/uses AngularJs or not). Using a linear model, we would get a function that represents a straight line.
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
import seaborn as sns
from sklearn import metrics
data_req = filtered_df[:1000]
feature_cols_react = ['yearly_salary', 'years_of_experience', 'backend_proficiency', 'css_proficiency']
X = data_req[feature_cols_react] # Features
y = data_req['angular'] # Target variable
X_train ,X_test ,y_train ,y_test = train_test_split(X,y,test_size=0.2,random_state=0)
logreg = LogisticRegression(solver = 'lbfgs', C=1e5);
logreg.fit(X_train,y_train);
y_pred=logreg.predict(X_test)
cnf_matrix = metrics.confusion_matrix(y_test, y_pred)
print("confusion matrix
", cnf_matrix)
print("Accuracy:",metrics.accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Precision :",metrics.precision_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Recall:",metrics.recall_score(y_test, y_pred))
In the above code:
We are first selecting the set of columns to be used as descriptive features. These include an array having the values ‘yearlysalary’, ‘yearsofexperience’, ‘backendproficiency’, and ‘css_proficiency’. Next, we select the target we want to predict ‘angular’. The data is now split into a training set and test set. The logistic-regression function from sklearn.linear_model is now used to fit the training data. The test set can be used for the prediction and verification of our model.
Following are the metrics obtained:
Accuracy of the classification: 81%
Confusion matrix:
We can see that the model is overfitting, and is classifying every data point to be an angular js user. In other words, the number of false positives in the predicted data is very high.
Logistic regression — Polynomial model
The linear model used for classifying data is overfitting. The simpler way to solve this would be to provide different attributes as descriptive features and check their effect on the model. The reason for overfitting can be:
The amount of data used for training is less
The Data has too many 1’s compared to 0’s for the Brown frogs.
The logistic regression is also sensitive to the outliers.
We can either use a different algorithm or try the polynomial logistic regression function:
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
import seaborn as sns
from sklearn import metrics
from sklearn.preprocessing import PolynomialFeatures
from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
data_req = filtered_df;
feature_cols_react = ['yearly_salary', 'css_proficiency']
X = data_req[feature_cols_react] # Features
y = data_req['angular'] # Target variable
X_train ,X_test ,y_train ,y_test = train_test_split(X,y,test_size=0.2,random_state=0)
poly = PolynomialFeatures(degree = 2, interaction_only=False, include_bias=False)
X_poly = poly.fit_transform(X_train)
logreg = LogisticRegression(solver = 'liblinear', multi_class = 'ovr');
logreg.fit(X_poly,y_train);
X_poly_test = poly.transform(X_test);
y_pred = logreg.predict(X_poly_test)
y_pred=logreg.predict(X_poly_test)
cnf_matrix = metrics.confusion_matrix(y_test, y_pred)
print("confusion matrix
", cnf_matrix)
print("Accuracy:",metrics.accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Precision :",metrics.precision_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Recall:",metrics.recall_score(y_test, y_pred))
The training set obtained by splitting the data is now transformed into the set of polynomial features of degree 2. This increases the number of features that would be used as independent variables. The logistic regression function can now fit the model and predict the data.
Following are the metrics obtained:
Accuracy of the classification: 69%
Confusion matrix:
We can see that the model is also overfitting, however, its accuracy has come down to 69%. But note that this model is predicting the values in both categories and is not completely biased to one side. This shows that logistic regression is sensitive to outliers is not the best type of algorithm that can be used for prediction. We can use better ML algorithms. In the next post let us explore SVMs and how they can be used to better predict the values from the same data.
|
https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/data-science-regression-on-javascript-adef1fcb1aec
|
['Aparna Joshi']
|
2020-12-20 03:42:41.624000+00:00
|
['Linear Regression', 'Datascience Training', 'Logistic Regression', 'Data', 'Data Science']
|
How to ace the product management interview: Zooming into building better video solutions for…
|
Solutions and Implementation:
After you identify unmet customer needs, it is time to come up with possible solutions. Here are some ideas for the prioritized needs.
Conversation Assistant:
Credit: Shutterstock
This assistant could analyze gestural and nonverbal cues to help the speaker understand underlying cognitive state of the participants. The assistant would indicate overall quality of conversation based on the type of conversation (sales pitch, driving consensus, brainstorming, negotiation, giving / receiving feedback, hiring etc.) and provide visual feedback to participants in real time so that they could modify their conversation style.
How this would work: The assistant analyzes streams of audio and video in real time for parameters such as facial expressions, posture, speaking time, pitch, selection of words etc. to identify roles of participants and their conversation style. These parameters could be fed into a machine learning model to predict qualitative behavioral aspects such as degree of influence, involvement, empathy or disagreement. These metrics could be shown on the screen of the participants for them to take appropriate actions based on the feedback. For instance, imagine a salesperson pitching her / his product over video call. Based on the initial conversation, the assistant could help the salesperson identify roles of different participants in the meeting as well as show which participants need to be persuaded. Moreover, the salesperson could get real time feedback on requisite changes in their conversation style. This feature would be more useful for teams working in global and multicultural settings where interpreting the underlying cognitive state is complicated.
2. AI based Bot for enhancing meeting productivity:
Credit: Shutterstock
Meeting productivity could be enhanced by leveraging machine learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and bots to increase productivity, save time and reduce frustration.
How can we enhance productivity?
· Auto suppressing echo or distracting background noise
· Enhancing visual effects by emphasizing faces in dim or backlit rooms
· Failure Resilience: For example, using speech to text to show subtitles on screen in case speaker loses voice or has broken audio
· Predicting potential failures (broken audio, call drop offs, mute malfunctioning etc.) and recommending actions
· Automating tasks before, during and after meeting — transcribing and sending meeting notes / meeting agenda, rescheduling or rebooking meeting rooms, allocation of tasks, setting up calendar invite or pulling out recent version of documents required for the meeting.
· AI enabled Collaborative Whiteboarding: Provide AI enabled intelligent whiteboarding features that can convert handwritten text and rough shapes to typed text and exact shapes. Whiteboards should be accessed simultaneously from multiple devices (PCs, laptop, tablets, phone) and should provide ready to use templates to create new content on the whiteboard.
ACTIVITY: Choose 1–2 areas in the above listed solutions and detail out how you would implement those.
3. Talent Analytics and Performance Management:
Credit: Shutterstock
Video conferencing presents the opportunity to analyze discussions in the meeting rooms to supplement additional insights into employee reviews. This will help in making decisions with regards to hiring, firing and promotions more precise and backed with objective measurement. This also presents an opportunity to provide constructive feedback to employees.
How this would work: The video conferencing platform will analyze streams of video and audio data to reflect metrics such as participation score, and quality of contributions (empathy, patience, insights etc.). Moreover, it could show (conditional upon employee’s approval) video snippets of high-quality contributions or areas of improvement by using facial recognition algorithms, audio to text conversion and text analysis. These metrics could be shared via API integration with a Learning Management System (LMS).
Trade-offs: In order to build powerful machine learning models and perform actions in real time, a robust training dataset is required which could be complex to generate given the privacy concerns on using meeting recordings. How will you resolve privacy concerns on using meeting recordings?
ACTIVITY: Brainstorm some solutions here: encrypting data, data access rights and secured authentication process, public cloud versus private cloud for storage, taking employee consent on which data is to be stored etc. Moreover, taking actions in real time would mean pushing processing from the cloud to the edge and using computing power of devices to reduce latency. Do we have these capabilities? How will this impact time to market, budget or talent requirements? Would we would require integration with other workspace collaboration tools or with another technology vendor?
Last, discuss with the interviewer what metrics will you use to test if the proposed solution actually works. For instance, if you proposed a conversation assistant, you may want to track metrics such as hours spent on the platform, engagement score of participants (attention span, participation), improvement in individual performance or meeting outcomes.
In going through my PM journey, I found the following resources really helpful in thinking about the right concepts to ace my PM interviews. Consider the above case study with a shift in focus in relation to the following concepts:
Estimation (e.g. “what is the estimated market size of this solution?”) Product Design (e.g. “how would you approach this from a Product Design perspective if you were building a Zoom competitor?”) Product Metrics (e.g. “what are the top 5 product metrics you would use to track customer engagement?”).
The following books are useful in prepping for case interviews: Cracking the PM Interview & Decode and Conquer.
Some final thoughts on general preparation study:
Pay careful attention to the frameworks used in the different types of questions used, and study 5–6 products comprehensively utilising these frameworks.
Have more ideas on how can video conferencing solutions be improved? Let’s keep the conversation going, feel free to comment or drop me a line at [email protected]. Stay tuned for more on PM interviews in my next blog!
|
https://medium.com/@rachitt.gupta/how-to-ace-the-product-management-interview-zooming-into-building-better-video-solutions-for-f261f77bd202
|
['Rachit Gupta']
|
2020-04-26 20:05:56.036000+00:00
|
['Pm Interview', 'Video Conferencing', 'Zoom', 'Product Design', 'Product Management']
|
An Idiot With a Plan Can Beat a Genius With Hope
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Is it just me or does it seem like the quiet ones that you least expected to succeed in high school are the ones now living the lives we all dreamt of heading into adulthood?
I mean, I guess I heard the idea of people "peaking" early — I just didn't have any true understanding of what that meant when I was younger.
Listen, I'm not trying to prop myself or anyone up in writing this — it's just something that's been on my mind.
I wasn't a part of the "popular" kids growing up. I had my friends and we were always kind of just doing our thing. Then — into adulthood, I moved away from home, "peeked" at what others from my graduating high school class were up to, kept my head down, and got to work.
Now, I'm making a very healthy living doing what I love to do and helping build a community of other badasses achieve the same for themselves.
It got me thinking about all the other weird kids I grew up with and how I notice a lot of them are doing really rad things in life. Of course, I'm able to see some of my own confirmation bias here — it isn't a perfect generalization, however I do think there is a trend.
I don't think I'm anything special.
Of course, I know that me being me is special — just like you being you is special.
What I mean is I don't have any special skills, knowledge or education that allowed me to accomplish what I have and I know there are millions of other people who fall into that camp as well.
In this piece, I'm going to go over the plan and share the strategy I have followed over the years that have helped me build, scale, and grow my online business so you can too.
|
https://medium.com/the-ascent/an-idiot-with-a-plan-can-beat-a-genius-with-hope-bf60faa4b3bd
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['Jon Brosio']
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2020-10-17 13:03:08.498000+00:00
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['Blogging', 'Motivation', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Life', 'Self Improvement']
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Dean Jones in Shanghai. <First published on Facebook on 27 Sep…
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<First published on Facebook on 27 Sep 2020>
Last week was another one this year that brought only bad news. The death of Dean Jones was fate being very cruel. He was only 59 and not sick or anything. More importantly, he was a gem of a person. And, of course, one of the greats of the modern game and cricket broadcasting.
I spent a long weekend with him in 2007 when he joined us in the Shanghai Sixes. Memories of that special weekend came back when I saw WhatsApp groups buzzing with messages about Dean Jones. In spite of Brett Lee’s heroics, he didn’t make it. It is just tough to read about someone suffering in that fashion, and especially if you have seen that person as full of life.
Shanghai Sixes was an annual feature near the end of the city’s cricket season. Retired international cricketers joined us and we played some silly but fairly tough six-a-side 5-over-innings matches.
The tournament started on a Friday. I reached late due to rush hour traffic as I had to cross the Pu river that divides Shanghai into East and West districts. I lived on the West side and the cricket was played on the East side of the river. The pitch was a mat wicket placed in the middle of a large Rugby field of a British international school. It was called the Shanghai Rugby & Football Club (SRFC). The SRFC had a clubhouse at the ground where space was made for Shanghai Cricket Club members on usual match days. The Sixes weekend saw all member teams, families, and friends present. So, each team had its own tent that was used for changing, keeping kit bags, and frequently drinking beer. By the time I entered our tent, everyone had already changed into the the assigned maroon team shirt.
I had to get ready quickly & did not notice the guy next to the team kit bag. He saw me and said
“Hi, I am Dean”
“Hi, I am Ram”, I replied and put my head back in the bag looking for my gear.
A second or two later my mental bulb lit. I thought ‘oh, fuck it’s Dean Jones’. And I said,
“Oh fuckk it’s Dean Jones”
“Of course, behenchod! Haha”
There, right there, I knew it was going to be a great weekend
We had a couple of games on Friday and similar number on Saturday. Sunday was just for the finals if I remember correctly. That meant a lot of free time between matches. Dean spent that time regaling us with stories. So many of them. The best one was when he had asked Ambrose to remove his white sweat bands. A video of that incident along with Dean’s narration is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQ2D9ivqpg. He narrated this incident exactly like that to us in that little tent.
Another story was about David Boon drinking 50+ beers from Sydney to London. While Boon left the aircraft on his feet, Dean had to carry him to their hotel room. Apparently, Dean had to use a forklift to get him up to the hotel lift.
Dean had been retired for many years by then, but he was in good shape and ready to play. He played all the matches. I opened with him in two. I was hoping to watch some fireworks from the best seat in town. But, Dean got out on zero both times. Well….
At the end of the first day we gathered for a team photo.
As we finished taking this pic, I said
“Hey Dean, I’ve got a great story to tell folks back home”
“What story mate?”
“That I batted with the great Dean Jones twice and both times he got out on zero”
Next thing I know my face had a meeting with the footie ball that you can see in his hands.
The guy behind me in the pic is Tim, our perennial number 11. Tim was a really good pace bowler and a fantastic bloke. But, he would probably bat no. 11 in a team of tailenders. He had a nice GM bat though. It was as good as new. It had two red spots: one on the bottom and one on the edge. Those spots showed how well and how much he had batted that season.
Tim asked Dean to use his bat as Dean was padding up for one of the games. Tim also kissed ass a bit and said, “It will be an honour for me if you used this bat”
Dean said “Sure mate” and took the bat.
Dean walked out with the usual swagger and took guard. First ball on good length, high backlift, Dean drove it down the ground. The ball went a few yards outside the 30-yeard circle. As he ran to the non-striker end, Dean shouted from the middle
“THIS IS A SHIT BAT” and threw it away.
Our tent erupted!
In the next game, Tim opened with me. He had to prove something now. With only 4 fielders, I told him “Don’t try to hit every ball for a six. Focus on connecting and run. Follow my call and you will be fine”
I would shout “YES….2” or “YES…..3” judging what we could run after a ball was hit. Tim was following that well. Or so I thought. At the end of the over, Tim and I met. Panting a bit after all the running, he said “mate, I am new to this batting thing. I don’t understand why you shout numbers before running”.
Tim did score a few and returned to his beers in the tent.
With a beer in his hand and grinning ear to ear, Tim walked up to Dean and said
“Dean, did you see that?”
“Piss off mate. I saw what was happening in the middle. Your bat is still shit.”
Our team captain, Jeremy, later told me that Dean had praised my batting. That made my day!
Dean had no reason to hang out with us. He could have been just a celeb addition, played a game or two, took some pictures and gone off to the hotel room like some of the others did.
He was awesome.
He stayed with us throughout. He told stories. He cracked jokes. He tried to teach me footie. We drank beers together. We made top ten lists about all kinds of nonsense, discussed the state of the game, about 20–20 (Dean was the agent of ICL at that time). He asked about our lives in Shanghai. He made fun of Phil Simmons as we went past his tent wearing Maroon. And, of course, he told us more stories.
At that time, Dean was off TV because of that unfortunate Amla comment. He had to pay the price of being in the public eye. He wasn’t racist for sure.
He did his commentary in the tent. While watching the ongoing silly 6-a-side matches, he would suddenly switch into commentary mode.
“slightly short ball, tucked behind square over there; should be two, oh a misfield; they run three; great running between the wickets. Captain’s not going to be happy about that fielding effort”
Imagine describing amateur cricket like that! Dean Jones was so good.
I was so fortunate to see him in action. On the field as well as doing that commentary. He was exactly like how you saw him on TV.
It is a big loss to all who came in touch of this magnificent person.
Can’t imagine what Brett Lee went through. And, it is unthinkable grief for the family.
I hope they find strength to deal with this loss.
RIP Dean Jones!
They don’t make many like him. I will always be a fan.
#DeanJones #RIPDeanJones
|
https://medium.com/@ramdeshpande/dean-jones-in-shanghai-2007-e2dc7340efef
|
['Ram Deshpande']
|
2021-01-01 09:32:03.148000+00:00
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['Australian', 'Cricket', 'Memories', 'Shanghai', 'Dean Jones']
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Italy and Belgium, from theory to practice
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Belgium stands out for its professional training at university
Introduction
Education is particularly relevant and always current: it is the key to allow the world to progress in the long term, teaching the new generations all there is to know and giving them tools to discover more and more, making life easier.
This research focuses on Higher Education, analyzing the two systems, the Belgian and the Italian one, in order to make comparisons and find out new perspectives.
Interviews of two experts on the subject will be reported, who are Frauke Van der Rijt, working at the central office in Hogeschool PXL as an education supporter, and Mariet Vrancken, member of KU Leuven, an institution for research and education with international appeal.
Administration
First of all, the main difference lies in the administration of education.
Belgium counts 300,000 students, of whom 30,000 are foreigners. Since 1993 Belgium is a Federal State with autonomous governments of the three Flemish, French and German-speaking communities.
The federal government is responsible for matters of justice, security, foreign affairs, defense and finance. Instead, education is a matter of the communities since 1989, as Frauke Van der Rijt stated, and this is why each of the three (Flemish, French, German) has its own distinct school system, they manage it independently.
Brussels experiences a particular situation as it is an autonomous region but, being bilingual (French and Flemish), it is “under the influence” of the Francophone and Flemish Communities.
In Italy, on the other hand, education is under the jurisdiction of the state. The institution’s name is MIUR, (Ministry of Education, University and Research — (in Italian “Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca”), it is the ministry of the Italian government for the national education system, the Italian universities and research agencies, and applies to all regions.
Ministry of Education in Italy
Credit system
Then, Belgian and Italian university study programmes, as all the European ones, are structured in credits; this means that to get a title/degree you need to obtain a certain number of credits, successfully passing a certain number of exams.
In Italy, they are called “CFU” (Crediti Formativi Universitari = University Educational Credits) and normally correspond to 25 hours of student work, including individual study.
The CFU system is equivalent to the ECTS system (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which is adopted in Belgium.
“It is based on the workload required of the student to achieve the objectives of a course of study”
(European Commission, about ECTS)
Universities and Hogeshools
Education in Belgium is made up of two types of institutions: universities and vocational/professional schools (hautes écoles/hogescholen). The former provide more theoretical and research training in a certain field and normally aim to teach students how to do research in a university environment. The latter are specialized in preparing students with a more professional/practical training.
Moreover, universities last 3 years, but as you obtain just an academic bachelor degree, that’s not enough to enter the labour market; most of times you’re supposed to keep on studying and attending a Master’s degree, later on a doctorate or a specialization (applying in private business schools is also possible).
On the contrary, University colleges (or hogescholen) last 3 years too, but usually it is enough to find a job once the degree is obtained, since the whole career has been based on addressing students to learn about a specific profession. Frauke van der Rijt defines it as an “authentic education” because it involves students to experience tasks and situations they will face later in the workplace.
Although students achieve a professional degree, some of them decide to keep on studying, joining the 2 Master years, through a “connection year” which gives them access to academic studies. Van der Rijt explained, for example, that she got the secondary education bachelor degree, in PXL, then she passed to KU Leuven and did the connection year in order to study educational sciences, pedagogy.
According to what Vrancken says: “Nowadays both hogescholen and universities adopt a practical approach giving constant assignments such as papers to do as an individual task. Things changed because since 10 years ago in university it was only a matter of studying. Also, hogescholen improved very much in time.”
She also said that most universities don’t have an entry test, apart from some fields such as medicine. There are also some universities where you have to attend a test, but even if you don’t pass it’s possible for you to join the course. It aims at making you understand your level in order to know if you’re “good enough”.
Also, if you want to become a teacher you must attend a hogeschool but you don’t have to get any test. Although things could change because too many students want to apply so maybe a test will be installed.
An interest thing that happens in Flanders and differs from Italy, as Frauke affirmed, is that: “According to the Flemish Government, institutes of higher education must accept every student, they can’t refuse them”, both universities and hogescholen. This means that every student should be allowed to study.
Anyway, the cycle of studies in Belgium and Italy is quite the same, as it is articulated on three levels, and each of them correspond to the academic qualifications that are recognized in the whole European Union:
1. “Laurea” (Bachelor Degree), it lasts 3 years;
2. “Laurea magistrale” (Master’s Degree), it lasts 2 years;
3. “Dottorato di ricerca” (Research Doctorate), from 3 to 5 years.
University fees
In Belgium, tuition fees are around 500 to 1000 euros a year depending on the institution. Higher education is largely supported by the state. As in Italy, they vary according to the income; there are facilities for less well-off students.
Here we find 3 categories:
- Non-scholarship student: € 938.80
- Near-scholarship student: € 494.80
- Scholarship student: € 110.8
(https://www.ap.be/studiekosten)
On the other hand, Italy is the third country in Europe where more university fees are paid, after England and the Netherlands. On average, the costs are above 1,000 euros per student each year. Since the fee increases proportionally to income, a “Student Act” was made to help students who live in families with a low income.
Teaching methods
The main difference between the two teaching methods is that in Belgium you will be constantly asked to write papers and carry out tasks on your own (or sometimes even in pairs/groups). These assignments play an important role in determining the final score; sometimes they represent the exam itself.
Furthermore, the rating scale is different too. In Belgium, the maximum score is 20, and to pass the exam the minimum to take is 10 (50% sufficiency). In Italy the maximum is 30 instead, and sufficiency is reached with 60%, thus taking 18 as a score. In addition, if you take a score that you do not like in Belgium, you cannot choose to reject it, as it occurs in Italy.
There are cases in Belgium where there is no 2nd chance for examinations. While in Italy you always have the chance to repeat it until you pass it. On the other hand, the belgian programmes are more flexible:
in Italy students have to pass two specific exams they’re obliged to pass: one is about English (or another foreign language) and the other one is about knowledge in IT (Information Technology). In Belgium, universities don’t have them or, at least, they are not compulsory to attend; it doesn’t compromise the student’s career.
Finally, as far as lessons are concerned, a subject in Belgium is weekly (it only occurs once a week). In Italy, there are more lessons of the same subject several times a week.
Sources:
§ onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/nl/node/4915
§ www.highereducation.be
Campus of the University Milano-Bicocca in Italy
|
https://medium.com/@chiccanarri99/higher-educational-system-8d68a0794c66
|
['Francesca Narri']
|
2020-01-13 16:56:01.857000+00:00
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['Higher Education', 'Univeristy', 'Education', 'Belgium', 'Italy']
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Data Visualization Design 7 | Highlights, Distractions, Hierarchy, and Text
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Highlighting
(1) Main Principle of Highlighting
The main principle of highlighting is that at most there can only be 10% of the visual design that should be highlighted. To highlight a specific thing in the graph, that must be important to the storytelling.
(2) Ways to Highlight
Bold, italics, and underlining can be used for titles, labels, captions, and short word sequences to differentiate elements. Although the bold is the most preferred one compared with the others. The problem for underlining is that it actually adds to the clutter and the problem for Italics is because it doesn’t stand as much as we expect.
We can also use upper cases and typeface for highlighting but this can also add to the clutter.
Color is a good way to highlight something we want if this appears infrequently, and it is also a feature related to bold that we usually use them together. Our final option is to change the size of the texts and the larger they are, the more important they will be in a plot.
2. Eliminate Distractions
(1) Common Distractions
Clutter: the element that doesn’t add information
No Context: need to give more information so that your point makes sense
(2) Identity Distractions
In practice, not all the data in a plot are equally important so that we can get rid of some of them to make a plot more rational. It is important to know that when the details are not important, we have to summarize them and remember the details in case we are asked about them.
To deemphasize elements that are necessary but don’t impact your message we can use light grey for plotting them so the audience knows that they are going to be less important than the others.
3. Create Hierarchy
(1) The Definition of the Hierarchy
The sequence that we expect the audience to go through in plots is the hierarchy that we have designed in the plot. This is a key element of visualization because people can know what to do without any further instructions.
(2) Tools for Hierarchy
To set up a hierarchy, we can firstly use different sizes and colors and they would tell the people where to start reading and what is the order. We can also highlight the most important part and this helps the audience quickly process the information.
4. Add Proper Texts
(1) Where To Use Texts?
First of all, all the graphs need titles. It is also that every axis needs a label to explain the meaning of the variable. You can also annotate important points directly on the graph and also put some important footnotes (source, date, necessary assumptions, methodologies).
(2) Golden Rule
Never assume that the plot will be telling the same story if you imply a conclusion. If you want to draw a conclusion, state it in direct words and then attach the statements to the graph.
|
https://medium.com/adamedelwiess/data-visualization-design-6-highlights-distractions-hierarchy-and-text-364eb917bbc8
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['Adam Edelweiss']
|
2020-10-06 16:32:40.024000+00:00
|
['Data Visualization', 'Data Science']
|
How To Make Money On Instagram 2021
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If by now you’re wondering what number of followers you want it to happen, the short answer is “not as many as you think”.
The great answer depends on factors that range from:
What niche you’re in and the way easily you’ll directly tie it to a product category (fashion, food, beauty, and fitness are popular niches, supported top Instagram hashtags)
How to engage your followers are (100K fake followers won’t amount to much).
Which revenue channels you explore.
Naturally, the more engaged followers you’ve got, the higher. Check our recommendations on the way to get followers on Instagram.
While top Instagrammers make thousands per post on the photo-sharing platform, even those with a smaller-but-engaged following of 1000 have the potential to start out making money.
How to make money on Instagram in 2021
Depending on your unique brand of Instagram Account Contents, your fans, and your level of commitment, you’ll earn money on Instagram within the following ways:
Doing sponsored posts for brands that want to urge ahead of your audience.
Becoming an affiliate and earning a commission selling other brands’ products.
Building and selling a physical or digital product, or offering a paid service.
Selling licenses for your photography or videos.
The advantage here is that chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another.
So let’s start with the foremost common approach to Instagram monetization: partnering with brands as an influencer.
http://prefectblogging.com/how-to-make-money-on-instagram/
|
https://medium.com/@sujeeshsujimon/how-to-make-money-on-instagram-2021-c5379f9e6b81
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[]
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2020-12-25 06:27:18.987000+00:00
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['Instagram', 'Instagram Stories', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Earn Money Online']
|
Intro to Machine Learning via the Abalone Age Prediction Problem
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Collect and Know the Data
We will be using the already collected Abalone dataset to see the algorithms in action. The first step in knowing the data is to know what it contains. This means understanding the type (continuous numeric, discrete numeric or categorical) and meaning of each feature and noting down the number of instances and features in the dataset. (For readers familiar to Excel, features correspond to columns and instances correspond to rows).
A brief aside on the motivation behind collecting the dataset. Abalone is a type of consumable snail whose price varies as per its age and as mentioned here: The aim is to predict the age of abalone from physical measurements. The age of abalone is traditionally determined by cutting the shell through the cone, staining it, and counting the number of rings through a microscope — a boring and time-consuming task. Other measurements, which are easier to obtain, are used to predict the age.
Let’s now see the type and name of the features:
Sex : This is the gender of the abalone and has categorical value (M, F or I). Length : The longest measurement of the abalone shell in mm. Continuous numeric value. Diameter : The measurement of the abalone shell perpendicular to length in mm. Continuous numeric value. Height : Height of the shell in mm. Continuous numeric value. Whole Weight : Weight of the abalone in grams. Continuous numeric value. Shucked Weight : Weight of just the meat in the abalone in grams. Continuous numeric value. Viscera Weight : Weight of the abalone after bleeding in grams. Continuous numeric value. Shell Weight : Weight of the abalone after being dried in grams. Continuous numeric value. Rings : This is the target, that is the feature that we will train the model to predict. As mentioned earlier, we are interested in the age of the abalone and it has been established that number of rings + 1.5 gives the age. Discrete numeric value.
Let’s take a look at the actual data with the code for it.
target_url = ("http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/machine-learning-databases/abalone/abalone.data") # we use pandas to read the dataset and specify its feature names
abalone = pd.read_csv(target_url,header=None, prefix="V")
abalone.columns = ['Sex', 'Length', 'Diameter', 'Height',
'Whole weight', 'Shucked weight',
'Viscera weight', 'Shell weight', 'Rings'] # this line displays the first five rows of the dataset
abalone.head()
First 5 Rows of the Abalone Dataset
Clean and Analyze the Data
Now that we can make sense of the features the next step is to clean and analyze the data. Both of these go hand-in-hand and we may need to repeatedly do one after the other. But first, cleaning. Why do we clean the data? There are many reasons why data cleaning is important. Sometimes due to wrong entries, the data may contain some weird characters which can confuse the model as to what they mean. Sometimes, some fields have been unintentionally left blank. The model then needs to know how to treat these blank values: whether to ignore them or fill in a default value.
Next, let’s make sure that there are no missing values in the dataset. We can do this with: abalone.isnull().sum(axis = 0) where (axis = 0) specifies that we are summing null values over each feature. We can see from the output there are no null values in the dataset.
Checking for Null Values in the Dataset
Now, let’s look at some statistics of the dataset possible by: abalone.describe()
Statistical Description of the Dataset
As we can see, the feature Sex is missing. This is because the values of Sex are categorical and categorical values do not have means and percentiles. A point to note here: ML models find it difficult to work with values of different types (such as both categorical and numeric, as is the case here) at the same time. This is why we will convert Sex by doing something called one-hot encoding which is basically converting a categorical feature into binary numeric feature(s) indicating the presence or absence of the values that were originally there in the categorical feature. This is done by: abalone = pd.get_dummies(abalone)
First five rows of the converted dataset
Now, let’s move on to analyzing the dataset. Why do we analyze the dataset? Quite simply, to decide on the best algorithm and the best features to use to train a model on the dataset.
One way to approximate what might be the best features for prediction is to use a correlation heatmap. For those who do not know what correlation is, it is simply a measure of the degree to which two variables move in relation to one another. For instance, a positive correlation implies that variable A increases or decreases as B increases or decreases. Now, what does this have to do with feature selection? Well, we can find out which features are strongly correlated with the one we are trying to predict (target) as these are the ones that have the most effect on the target. We do this in code:
#calculate and round off correlation matrix
corMat = DataFrame(abalone.iloc[:,:8].corr()).values
corMat = np.around(corMat, decimals = 3) #print correlation with 'Rings' feature
feature_importance = DataFrame(abalone.iloc[:,:8].corr()).iloc[:-1, -1].sort_values(ascending=False) print('Features in Descending Order of Importance', list(feature_importance.index))
Features in descending order of importance
Here too, Sex is missing. And this is again because correlation is a statistical measure for continuous numeric values. Not to say that it isn’t useful but it doesn’t cover all the features in this case. Now, if we look at the distribution (or even the values) of the target in the data, we will find that even that is not continuous but discrete valued.
The set of discrete target values
You may ask, is that a problem? No, its not a problem but a good place to mention that supervised learning problems can be solved in two ways: regression and classification. Regression is when we train the model to output a value belonging to the real number set. Because both input and output are continuous-valued, correlation is better used here. On the other hand, classification is when we train the model to categorize an input into one of the two(binary classification) or more (multi-class classification) of the categorical or discrete target values. For instance, in our case any input can be said to belong to an abalone of age in the range of [1,29]. Hence, ours is a multi-class classification problem. Now that we don’t have a method for finding out the best features, that leaves us in a bit of a quandary, doesn’t it? Not quite. There are many other methods but I do not cover them here because they are highly math-based and related to correlation which gives a good approximation anyhow.
Finally, because we are training the model to predict Rings, we will remove it from our dataset and pass it separately. We will do this by:
y = abalone["Rings"]
X = abalone.drop(columns=”Rings”)
Since we are finally done with the cleaning and analyzing, lets dive right into the algorithms! Take note here that training, evaluation and inference are done iteratively, together (even in practice).
|
https://medium.com/@kunjmehta10/intro-to-machine-learning-via-the-abalone-age-prediction-problem-4e290a8b2ed3
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['Kunj Mehta']
|
2021-07-24 19:03:46.366000+00:00
|
['Supervised Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Pandas']
|
For many smallholder farmers in Tanzania, money and technology are not the only barriers to climate change adaptation
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Women and youth come together to discuss inclusive agriculture, as part of CIFOR’s work on corporate commitments to sustainability and the incorporation of outgrowers. N. Mtimgwa (CIFOR)
Unequivocal evidence of climate change has called for shifts in mindsets and behaviors all round the world, and agriculture is no exception. Climate adaptation measures are needed in nearly every hub of the food value chain: input providers, farmers, processors, transporters, retailers, and end consumers. Adaptation measures are many and various. For farmers, adapting to a changing climate may mean completely abandoning familiar yet unsustainable practices such as monocultures; adopting new measures, like using drought-tolerant crop seeds; or simply doing more (and doing better) of what they have been doing for decades, such as diversifying crops.
The consequences of climate inaction will become devastating for nature, economies, and societies within the next ten years. By 2030, our current global trajectory will have pushed an additional 100 million people below the poverty line; significantly reduced the food security and livelihoods of some 500 million smallholder farmers; and left more than US$ 7 trillion in net adaptation benefits unrealized. The consequences will be far-reaching; for example, by 2030, climate inaction will be costing Tanzania up to 2% of its national GDP every year.
But there is much more than meets the eye.
Climate adaptation measures offer real benefits, yet adoption of these remains limited.
Tanzania´s population has increased more than fivefold in the last five decades (1965–2015) even as crop yields have remained virtually unchanged or diminished as a result of soil degradation, droughts, and suboptimal farming methods, among other issues. The consequence of this has been widespread food deficits and insecurity.
Climate change in Tanzania is expected to further reduce the yields of major crops by 2050. Smallholder farmers, who currently produce 75% of the country’s agriculture products, will suffer an outsized proportion of this impact. Measures that enable farmers to adapt to the new climate realities — such as drought-tolerant crop varieties, soil and water conservation techniques, and integration of trees on farms (also known as agroforestry) — are therefore fundamental for maintaining and improving livelihoods, socioeconomic outcomes, and natural resources.
Despite the agriculture sector’s imminent need for adaptation, the use of climate measures in Tanzania remains among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Highest adoption rates throughout the country are about 46% — a mere half of the 90% adoption rates observed across the rest of eastern Africa for the same measures. Within the country, adoption rates vary widely across measures, crops and livestock systems, and geography, in some cases sitting below 5%. Understanding what enables and hinders adoption can help elucidate what mechanisms have been stifling climate action and what leverage points exist for catalyzing change in the sector.
Adoption remains sluggish for many reasons.
Farmers are faced with complex choices and risks daily. They must juggle many different, sometimes conflicting objectives, including increase productivity and income, conserving natural resources, and ensuring household food security. Their climate adaptation choices have similar complexities and trade-offs. Some options are costly to adopt or maintain; others are extremely unfamiliar to the farmer and therefore risky in terms of both function and benefit. The increasing uncertainty around climate, as well as distortionary policy and social systems, may further frustrate efforts.
A recent study by World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Tanzania, published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, considered factors that may speak to the minimal adaptation progress to date. The study was conducted across Iringa, Zanzibar, Dodoma, and Tabora regions to account for the diverse farming systems prevalent in the country. Scientists observed trends in the adoption of five climate adaptation measures that have proven effective in sustaining and increasing productivity and resiliency to climate shocks: crop diversity (cultivating more than one crop type in rotations or intercrops); livestock diversity (keeping more than on type of livestock on the farm); agroforestry (inclusion of trees in agricultural fields); irrigation (of any type, including drip irrigation and traditional systems); and fertilizer application (of any type). Factors influencing adoption were classified as either household characteristics (e.g., size, age of household head, extent of women’s control over farm resource) or household assets (e.g., ownership of land, livestock, cultivated area, off-farm income).
No one factor universally and significantly affects adoption of climate adaptation measures, the study shows.
For instance, farmers owning some land are more likely to diversify crops and integrate trees on farms than those who don’t own land at all, but they do not necessarily keep more types of livestock. Rather, livestock diversity is linked to larger land areas, which enable farmers to produce a wider range of livestock feed crops. Indeed, evidence shows that every hectare of land used increases livestock diversity by 5%.
Agroforestry in Lushoto, Tanzania. Woman farmer preparing tree seedlings for transplanting. P.Kimeli (CCAFS)
Women farmers are crucial to climate adaptation efforts because they play a prominent role in household food security and nutrition, are generally more vulnerable to climate change than men, and yet have fewer opportunities to adapt. The Tanzania study shows that women’s agency over what to produce and how is directly related to on-farm agricultural diversity. Agricultural diversity, in turn, can positively influence food security, incomes, and overall social empowerment.
Farmers’ ages also appear to be relevant, particularly for labor-intensive measures such as manual irrigation, wherein the water source may be at a distance from the household. Risk aversion and short-term investment planning are more prevalent among older farmers, suggesting that strategies to incentivize youth in agriculture are critical in driving transformation and increasing sectoral resilience.
The findings of the research also underscore the importance of social and political leverage points for climate action. For example, reflecting contextual realities in land tenure policies and minority inclusiveness helps pave the way toward effective climate adaptation strategies by farmers. These are far from purely economic or technical mechanisms, but rather an interdisciplinary package of interventions that consider climate action as part and parcel of the broader socioecological system.
Beyond the farm and into the future
Farms operate in a highly dynamic context; the environment is changing constantly. Current climate change adaptation measures may not be as effective in twenty years’ time, implying that climate measures should not be regarded as a one-time event, but rather as a continuous process of innovation and optimization. Therefore, understanding how adoption barriers and enablers shift over time will be crucial for optimizing interventions in terms of sustainability across time. Panel studies can provide valuable insights into farmers´ choices in the face of changes and shocks, as well as how they react to repeatedly poor results.
Moreover, climate adaptation measures extend far beyond the farm. Robust research for development, extension, and input markets are necessary for developing and disseminating improved seed varieties. Resilient transport and post-harvest infrastructure are crucial for moving products reliably in any weather. Credit, insurance, and business services support innovation and risk-taking. As such, engaging a range of stakeholders in the design of effective adaptation measures is critical to ensure that enabling environments are established and maintained. The role of consumer demand in accelerating and sustaining adaptation measures will become increasingly important in the coming years as consumers gain interest in sourcing environmentally and socially responsible products.
Local market in Tanzania. M. Konningstein (CIAT)
This blog is part of work funded by the United Stated Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service, implemented through the Partnership for Scaling Climate-Smart Agriculture Project of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS is carried out with support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. USAID funds came from USAID to ICRAF/IPs via USDA.
|
https://medium.com/@andreea-nowak/for-many-smallholder-farmers-in-tanzania-money-and-technology-are-not-the-only-barriers-to-fbe0270000a7
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['Andreea Nowak']
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2020-11-27 16:09:17.923000+00:00
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['Barriers To Innovation', 'Climate Action', 'Climate Adaptation', 'Smallholderfarmers', 'Technology Adoption']
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My Journey into CQRS and Event Sourcing
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My Journey into CQRS and Event Sourcing
Using Elixir — Part 3
Note: This is part of "My Journey into CQRS and Event Sourcing" series. If you're jumping in right now, please consider reading the previous ones and if you like what read here, please consider reading the next ones.
<< Part 1 | < Part 2 | Part 4>
Recap
Last time we exposed the Consent Service as an HTTP REST-ish API using the Phoenix Framework:
Command-side api exposed as POST requests
Read-side api exposed as GET requests
Introduction
This time we'll tackle another element of the CQRS + Event Sourcing architecture pattern: the Event Handler.
We'll develop an Event Handler that will be responsible for notifying the patient when another system actor — another patient or a health care professional — asks the patient for data access consent.
By using an Event Handler we'll handle the side effect of notifying a user totally separate from the command-side API i.e. we'll not impact request/command processing in any way. Plus we know that all the business logic has already been validated by our aggregates, command handlers and command middlewares. So notification will only be triggered after all business invariants have been validated.
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https://medium.com/nexa-digital/my-journey-into-cqrs-and-event-sourcing-676a52d3e733
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['Rodrigo Botti']
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2019-11-05 01:40:39.579000+00:00
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['Event Sourcing', 'Cqrs', 'Software Architecture', 'Elixir']
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Cryptocurrency Tax Rules
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Hi there! It’s obvious, that any industry, which currently stands at a rough valuation of more than 0.5 trillion USD will have to undergo certain speculations and manipulations. Thus the governments are putting all the efforts they can in order to prevent the malfunctioning cases found in the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, all countries both developing and developed ones, are currently coming up with certain regulations in order to oversee the business in the cryptocurrency market in order to deliver a safe and transparent space for the investors.
Cryptocurrency Tax Regulation
Starting from October 1, 2020, the cryptocurrency investors are required to pay a 20% capital gain tax on ‘excess profit’, if that profit goes beyond $2100. If the income level does not exceed this threshold, the taxation will not kick in. Non-residents and foreign corporations that trade on South Korean exchanges will also be taxed: under the new rules, Korean exchanges will be responsible for deducting the tax from transaction gains and paying it to the Korean customs office.
Taxation Period
According to the Income-Tax Act, the taxation period takes place from 1st January to the 31st December, roughly 1 year. Cryptocurrency taxes can be paid after reporting them together during the comprehensive income tax reporting period in May 2022. Cryptocurrency items will be added to the comprehensive income tax return form in the future.
Report Method
The South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges will start providing additional services for investors to assist them in reporting their taxes. Thus, you will be able to confirm the numbers in your capital gains through the exchange and report them in your taxation later. On the other hand, the National Tax Service will separately receive the details of all transactions incurred in the domestic exchanges on a quarterly basis and will compare them with every investor’s taxation report.
※ If an investor uses a domestic exchange that does not provide tax services, the investor should directly calculate the taxable income by computing the capital gains and report it to the National Tax Service.
Capital Gain Calculation
Taxes are levied on the proceeds deducted from the purchase price and additional expenses (transaction fees, tax expenses, etc.) from the selling price during one year, which is calculated for the threshold above $2100.
Reporting of accounts on the overseas exchange
The existence of overseas exchange accounts should be reported to the taxation authorities, apart from the report and payment made annually in May. The National Tax Service will add a crypto exchange account to the list of overseas financial accounts, once it is reported. However, if you decide to go the other dark way, you might get caught for not reporting your account, and for that, you will have to pay additional taxes and fines. In fact, you will be charged 20% for non-reporting and 40% for cheating (60% for out-of-regional transactions).
Can I use the OTC market to avoid taxation?
Once the revised Specific Financial Information Act takes effect in March next year, OTC companies operating in Korea will be defined as Virtual Asset Operators (VASP) and will be required to directly report to the financial authorities. However, it is not clear whether OTC companies will be required to report to the National Tax Service, as the enforcement ordinance of the tax law has not been issued yet.
Will it be possible to pay less taxes, if the numbers in the capital gains will be small? We can transfer the assets to our personal wallet before the tax is enforced and sell it as soon as we deposit it on the exchange after the tax is enforced?
Taxpayers will have to prove the acquisition value of the crypto they had even before the tax was enforced. Therefore, if you do not prove it before, it will be determined by September 30, 2021. If you acquire it after tax enforcement and fail to prove it, the acquisition price will be 0 KRW, so sales excluding 2% of local taxes will have to pay 20% of the total tax.
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https://medium.com/misbloc/cryptocurrency-tax-rules-6e9006164925
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[]
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2020-12-07 03:06:49.050000+00:00
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['Medicine', 'Taxes', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Projects']
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Builder Pattern — Creating complex objects step-by-step
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When building a house, there are many things to consider. For example, you need to lay out the foundation for the house, construct multiple walls for multiple rooms, electrical wiring for every room, a swimming pool, gym room, you get the idea…
Similarly, when building a codebase, your object constructors can get fairly complex when you are trying to fit everything into a single constructor. It would make more sense to separate out the complex object so that the same construction process can create different representations.
For example, if you try to fit gym rooms in every house that you construct, where only a handful of house owners want gym rooms in their house, the parameter “gym room” would be unused most of the time.
How to solve this problem?
The Builder pattern enforces a step-by-step process to construct a complex object as a finished product. It separates the construction of a complex object from its representation into objects called “builders” so that the same construction can be used to create different representations.
To put into more context, you are able to separate the construction of including a gym room when you want to build a house because some people might want a swimming pool instead. So the process of constructing gym rooms can be reserved for those that need it.
Even within a gym room, you can have multiple variations of it. Some gym rooms can have the choice to build with soundproof walls, mirrored walls or glass walls. You can create several different builder classes that can implement the same building steps but in a different representation. You can then use the same construction process for different materials. Instead of mirrored walls, you can include soundproof walls so you can blast music while you work out.
Because building a house has the same process, constructing code has a similar process as well. This would only work if the client has code that calls the building steps is able to interact with builders using a common interface.
How to visualise?
Typically, the participants of the Builder pattern includes:
Product — Class that represents the product to create Builder — An interface to build parts of a product ConcreteBuilder — Concrete classes that implement Builder to construct and assemble parts of the product and return the finished product. Director — Class that directs a Builder to perform steps in the order required to build the Product.
You can think of Product as the house you want to build, Builder as an interface for your workers that ConcreteBuilder will implement and a Director to manage the steps to the building of your house.
Additionally, having a Director class helps you to hide the details of a product construction from the client code. The client only needs to liaise a builder with a director, execute the construction with the director and get the finished product from the builder.
In this sequence diagram, when a client wants to build a product, it will initialize aConcreteBuilder class which implements from Builder class and aDirector with aConcreteBuilder as a parameter. Then when the client is ready to construct the product, it will call the method Construct() on aDirector class which would instruct the building process by calling BuildPartA(), BuildPartB(), BuildPartC() on aConcreteBuilder. When the construction process is finished, the client can get their finished product by calling GetResult() .
aConcreteBuilder is flexible in a sense where it can implement builders to build particular representations of a product. aDirector class will then guide and gives the order of the construction.
Advantages
Able to construct objects step-by-step Able to reuse same construction code when building different representations of products. Able to isolate the complex construction of code from the business logic of the product.
Disadvantages
Increases overall complexity of code as builder pattern would require creating multiple new classes.
|
https://medium.com/@harrychengly/builder-pattern-creating-complex-objects-step-by-step-c525eda4996e
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['Harry Cheng']
|
2020-11-15 08:57:49.731000+00:00
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['Complex Systems', 'Object Oriented', 'Builder Pattern', 'Software Engineering', 'Gof']
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How to choose best cyber security company
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Cyber security company
In the advanced world, cybersecurity is similarly as imperative — if not progressively critical — than physical security. On the off chance that your business isn’t verified on the advanced front, you will dependably be only one hack far from a genuine debacle. While there is no real way to totally ‘hack confirmation’ your business, you can surely make strides the correct way by working with an accomplished cybersecurity supplier.
Lamentably, the risk of cybercrime does not have all the earmarks of being left at any point in the near future. As opposed to underestimating this subject and thinking twice about it one day sooner rather than later, the better choice is to be proactive and make the same number of strides as important to verify your own data, and the data of your clients. Before employing a cybersecurity firm to help secure the advanced side of your business, make certain to think about the accompanying inquiries.
1. Organize execution
2. Be careful the one-trap horse
3. Get top specialized help
4. Check for channel center
5. Keep in mind your showcasing
However not with standing assessing these suppliers and choosing the most suitable supplier for an association’s novel needs, displays its own arrangement of difficulties, as MDR suppliers come in a wide range of sizes, and offer differing administration portfolios.
To help associations hoping to choose the ideal security supplier to meet their new location and reaction security destinations. Abandoning a cybersecurity accomplice is basically requested inconvenience. It truly doesn’t involve if your business will be focused for a computerized assault — it is just a matter of when. Do your best to prepare for harm from such an assault by working with a cybersecurity group that has extraordinary responses to every one of the three of the inquiries above. Read more about Cyber security company, Click on Link.
Source: https://maxcybersec967.livejournal.com/929.html
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https://medium.com/@mikeecholss967/how-to-choose-best-cyber-security-company-90a63acea56b
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['Mike Echols']
|
2019-03-07 23:56:21.312000+00:00
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['Internet', 'Tech', 'Computers', 'Cybersecurity', 'News']
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HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
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15 MILLION TONS OF USED TEXTILE WASTE IS GENERATED EACH YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES
CREATING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY MEANS RETHINKING CONSUMERISM IN ORDER TO SAVE EARTH.
As you browse through Ocean Junkies’ website, you will see reference to recycling, upcycling, and a circular economy. In one Ocean Junkies story, I shared the great work Olive Wilde is doing with her Conscious Commerce movement and the collaboration with the online thrift giant, ThredUp.
I wrote a recent blog post about our recycling crisis stemming from the fact that China will no longer buy our recycling. Then there is the disturbing fact that 91% of used plastic is not even being recycled.
The Ocean Junkies eco-shop sells only plastic-free products with an exception given to products that are upcycled from plastic bottles. Upcycling plays an important role in what is becoming a vital concept in our society: circular economy.
WHAT IS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY?
A circular economy is changing human mindset to design products and materials made to be sustainable and reusable with an end goal to design out waste and pollution. The idea is by keeping products and materials in use we can begin regenerating natural systems.
Did you know that every second the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned? The current trend in human consumerism it to make products in factories, which we use, and when we no longer want them, we throw them away. Take-make-waste. This is a linear economy.
ELIMINATE POLLUTION BEFORE IT BEGINS
If we can change the entire linear economy system we have in place and replace it with a system where all made items can be reused or composted, then we will have a circular economy.
We need to design products and their components so they remain in use, can be repaired, or remanufactured so they last forever.
HOW DO WE CHANGE OUR DESIGN HABITS TO BECOME SUSTAINABLE?
A good example of changing our design habits to create a sustainable planet and circular economy has come to us in the form of a mushroom. Did you know the root of a mushroom can be transformed into a product that mimics plastic?
Ecovative is a company that produces fully compostable packaging as an alternative to synthetic materials. This packaging is made of mycelium — the ‘roots’ of mushrooms — grown in and around agricultural by-products with low economic value, acting as a glue that can take any shape needed. At the end of use, the packaging can be composted at home.
Using compostable mushroom packaging instead of single use plastic packaging would eliminate the 8 millions tonnes of plastic that enters our oceans every year, and then stays there for 500 years.
Ecovative compostable packaging made from mushroom roots
CIRCULAR ECONOMY & FASHION
The average American throws away about 80 pounds of clothing every year. Clothing consumption has risen sharply between 2001 and 2009 in large part because of “fast fashion” or “cheap fashion” from retailers like H&M and Forever 21.
I like to call it Trendgate: trendy inexpensive clothing that lasts only a season and is then discarded.
15 MILLION TONS OF USED TEXTILE WASTE IS GENERATED EACH YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES
16 MILLION TONS OF TEXTILE WASTE GENERATED IN 2014
2.6 MILLION TONS OF THE 16 MILLION PRODUCED WERE RECYCLED
3.14 MILLION TONS WERE COMBUSTED FOR ENERGY RECOVERY
10.46 MILLION TONS WERE SENT TO THE LANDFILL
80 POUNDS USED CLOTHING AN AVERAGE AMERICAN THROWS AWAY EACH YEAR
FASHION DESIGNER ANYA HINDMARCH’S CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Anya Hindmarch’s “I Am A Plastic Bag” campaign uses used plastic waste to turn into designer handbags.
Instead of doing a big launch for London Fashion Week, fashion designer Anya Hindmarch closed all five of her London shops and filled them with more than 90,000 plastic bottles to make a big statement against plastic pollution.
Anya Hindmarch wants everyone to know that her mission has changed from awareness to circularity. Her previous campaign was “I am Not a Plastic Bag” and is now “I am a Plastic Bag” in her shift toward education about circular economy.
Each of her bags in the “I Am A Plastic Bag” collection are made from plastic bottles coated with recycled windscreens that provide an innovative cotton canvas-feel.
And each piece is designed to never be thrown away.
HOW CAN WE BE A PART OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY?
I’m not going to tell you what to do with your life or what to buy, but I’m going to gently suggest that you stop buying so many clothes and stop throwing them in the garbage. Didn’t your mom ever tell you that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure?
If you don’t want your clothes anymore, recycle them. Give them away to women’s shelters, veteran’s charities, Goodwill, your neighbor. Just please don’t throw your clothes away.
Try something new that will save you money: shop at thrift stores like ThredUp and Depop who carry all those amazing trendy clothes you like at half the cost, and you will be contributing to a circular economy. Win-win!
Purchase upcycled clothes that are made from plastic bottles — if the plastic is already produced and used, it should be reused rather than landing in landfills or the oceans.
Have a clothing swapping party! You know how you just can’t get your kid to eat their broccoli but then they go to a friend’s house and try the broccoli and now they love broccoli? The same is true for clothes. Just because you are tired of seeing that same old rag in your closet for the third consecutive year doesn’t mean your friend won’t love it.
Let’s start thinking outside of the box. Once we get in the habit of consuming and living in a more sustainably circular way, we won’t have to think so hard about it.
|
https://medium.com/@megantraubwoolsey/how-you-can-contribute-to-a-circular-economy-72b7909cc061
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['Ocean Junkies']
|
2020-03-10 20:45:54.797000+00:00
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['Upcycling', 'Recycling', 'Consumerism', 'Plastic Pollution', 'Circulareconomy']
|
Take Your Digital Marketing Agency to New Heights with White Label SEO Services
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Take Your Digital Marketing Agency to New Heights with White Label SEO Services
Google, as a search engine has changed significantly. With its various algorithm updates and increasing competition in the online market, SEO is no longer an easy task. Using keywords randomly and publishing multiple articles isn’t enough to rank your website on the SERP page.
But one cannot ignore the growth the online world provides to the business. SEO enhances your visibility and helps generate better leads, which turns into increased ROI. Companies reach out to digital marketing agencies to handle their SEO to focus on their core activities.
Need for White label SEO Services
SEO has opened new avenues for digital marketing agencies worldwide. But not every agency has SEO services in their arsenal and must think of a way to provide these services or lose the opportunity. The agency can create an in-house SEO team to handle the clients or hire a white label SEO provider agency.
What is a White Label SEO Service?
Before you decide whether you need a white label SEO service, let’s understand what the term entails. A white label SEO agency is a digital marketing agency that provides SEO services to other agencies without using their brand name. It means you can resell the SEO services as your own.
Benefits of Hiring a White Label SEO Service:
Increased revenue: Providing SEO services is like adding a feather to your cap as everyone these days is opting for it. It will lead to an expanded client base, which will bring more revenue with time.
Providing SEO services is like adding a feather to your cap as everyone these days is opting for it. It will lead to an expanded client base, which will bring more revenue with time. Cost-saving : The main reason outsourcing is so prevalent in the business world is it saves money. The same rule applies here. When measured against the cost of maintaining an in-house SEO team and hiring a white label agency, most of the time, it is cheaper to hire one.
: The main reason outsourcing is so prevalent in the business world is it saves money. The same rule applies here. When measured against the cost of maintaining an in-house SEO team and hiring a white label agency, most of the time, it is cheaper to hire one. Benefits of specialization: A white label SEO service will have a team of expert individuals at their disposal. They will have the resources and tools required to get better and faster results. You can use their resources to enhance the quality of your services.
A white label SEO service will have a team of expert individuals at their disposal. They will have the resources and tools required to get better and faster results. You can use their resources to enhance the quality of your services. Brand visibility: Providing quality services to your clientele will help you create a reputation for yourself in the market. This will help you outshine your competition and grow your business in the long run.
Providing quality services to your clientele will help you create a reputation for yourself in the market. This will help you outshine your competition and grow your business in the long run. Business insights: Working with a white label SEO service can help you gain valuable insights into how the SEO industry works. It will help you grow in the market, and you can use the knowledge to rank yourself on the SERP page.
Are you Searching for a White Label Agency?
Hopefully, knowing the benefits of hiring a white label SEO service and becoming an SEO reseller sounding like the right decision now. Not sure whom to reach out to for white label SEO services? Well, you can checkout DashClicks, an excellent white label SEO service provider with a team of SEO experts at your service.
|
https://medium.com/@sean-d/take-your-digital-marketing-agency-to-new-heights-with-white-label-seo-services-5ee79c2429b0
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['Sean Davis']
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2020-10-29 05:27:03.795000+00:00
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['Digital Marketing Agency', 'SEO', 'Search Engine Marketing']
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It's an anxiety.
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It's an anxiety. I must continue to impress this person and show them all of who I am. But I'm worried, I'm worried they'll get bored, find out everything there is to know and leave anyway. So I act, I act - act out - I need more and more attention and I'll do anything to get it. Because if they're looking at me, at least they're not looking away.
There is an excitement to this unveiling and I get excited. I'm my most secure and comfortable self, the one you've got to see to believe. I act. The one that hopelessly draws them in. I frame my story for them in the way that I've had to inside, to cope with the painful memories. This is what makes me special. This is where I derive my strength, inspiration, and eccentricity. This is what will help me change the world.
And, they feel it, they really do. The words just roll off my tongue. I get high from myself. I'm enticing, powerful. I feel that I can do more with this new person by my side than I can ever do before. But who is it? This person I don't know strengthens me to such an extent. They're from many of the same and one common denominator - me.
Am I using these men as mirrors? Finding my worth through the reflection in their eyes? and I see that look in their eyes, they get big and glassy! Like the universe intended us, then it's only been a week. I feel it too, well they're telling me they feel it but who feels what first?
I know I'm in bits. I put myself out there so much, so dramatically. The words and the feelings that they catch and project back to me are absolutely vital. I must ensure that they stay and I have to hear it straight away. Once the words have left their mouth and I've absorbed them. With my hold on my hand and their heart, it does comfort for me - it's 'the' relationship.
Then reality sets in - I am real - I wasn't sent from heaven, the stories are painful and I suffer from the real-life repercussions of those events. Emotionally unregulated, up and down, anxious and upset, preoccupied with negative thoughts, reactive, agitated. All of a sudden I'm not so inspiring and celestial and precious and the god-given butterflies that filled their hearts before aren't comfortable - birthed too soon.
Those emotions weren't organic, weren't fulfilled truly and naturally over time. They held my love!! My passion!! My need and wish for belonging in a world that has let me down before. When I try to take some of it back, second-guess those sweet words they spewed before that sound so strange on paper now. I panic, betrayed!!! "You didn't mean any of it at all... what's wrong with you?! How could you say something like that if you didn't feel it?!!"
I'm puzzled because I saw their eyes, they were genuine and hopeful. I was a dream materialised. So what happened?? What did I do wrong? What part of me was so fucking intolerable, and unloveable as to negate every positive quality I know they saw and felt!?? I was building, building, building myself up again and in an instant of uncertainty, my walls came crumbling down.
This is how I survived abuse and neglect. By making people 'feel'. "Hello! I'm here!! I need love and affection! I need a mentor a friend! Take interest in me - you know you want to. I'm the most inspirational person you've ever known - just look!"
And it's worked. Self-proclaimed heedless parents, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, support workers, relatives, and friends have noticed and responded. "You're strong - you'll get through this. I'm here for you. I'll help you" and it feels good. And I'm safe. And when our paths guide us apart, I begin the search again. I need that constant reassurance.
That external voice whispering in my ear because really... I'm not strong enough. My mind goes and goes and goes. I hold onto the memory of the last one for as long as possible and I long for their return. It's an obsession and with each birthday wish I will for the next one to come along and save me and like clockwork here comes another one...
|
https://medium.com/@chasedelaney/its-an-anxiety-60b46decd6c3
|
[]
|
2020-06-03 18:01:21.405000+00:00
|
['Relationships', 'Anxiety', 'Narcissism', 'PTSD', 'Schizophrenia']
|
Update on Facebook Page
|
As most of you are aware, this past week someone took over our Official Facebook Page in a hostile takeover. We believe that it was carried out by someone with admin access on our page. They either took over the page themselves or gave access to someone who then proceeded to kick out current admins and brand it with XPChain’s logo and information.
At this time, we are still doing investigations internally to see if we can find a way to regain access. We have accumulated a significant amount of evidence and have been in communication with Facebook support. We have also opened a new Facebook page (linked below) to act as a new place to receive news and have conversations.
This blog post is to reassure the community that we were not hacked. You can be assured that we have very tight security measures setup. Unfortunately, in this instance, we put our trust with a member of our team and they completely broke it. As a team, we are using this malicious series of events as a learning opportunity to help build our team’s trust and continue progress on our project.
This attack will not impede our team’s ability to move forward! We are very excited for the future and thank you all for your continued support as we build XP.
Please be sure to follow us on our social media pages for more updates!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBigXP
Facebook: https://goo.gl/hwb8Xo
Discord: https://discord.gg/Q4XAUD
|
https://medium.com/experience-points-official-xp/update-on-facebook-page-160a44f9ef5
|
['Experience Points', 'Xp']
|
2018-05-27 17:09:13.560000+00:00
|
['Social Media']
|
Reflecting on the 5 Amal Totkay
|
5 tips of amal totkay are:
1) Self talk
2) Get out of your comfort zone
3) Create new habits
4)Ask people help
5) Fake it till you make it
I believe these 5 tips are necessary for any individual to grow and succeed in his professional life. One can only act on these principles if one has reached the level of self reflection and growth mindset. These 5 tips are pertinent for achieving your desired goals.
My favorite tip is getting out of comfort zone and faking it till you make it. They way “get out of your comfort zone works” is you put yourself in a difficult situation that you cannot get out of. Now to survive and progress, you have no choice but to overcome your barriers and reach a new level. Like an animated character once said “Plus Ultra”. Similarly, “fake it till you make it” also works in the same way. In order to inculcate a change or a new habit, you tell yourself that you already have within you what you want achieve. This gives you a sense of confidence and gives you the opportunity to perform to the best of your ability.
As for me, personally I have implemented getting out of your comfort zone and I am trying to apply “fake it till you make it”. By working with different people in different activities for amal session tasks for extremely short amounts of time, I believe I will be able to implement all 5 amal totkay.
I believe what remains now is it show consistency, resilience and a positive attitude to achieve my goals and move further in life while trying to inculcate these 5 totkays.
|
https://medium.com/@muhammad.ahson207/reflecting-on-the-5-amal-totkay-52b54b2a1b6e
|
['Muhammad Ahson']
|
2021-08-23 15:23:59.646000+00:00
|
['Amal Fellowship', 'Amal Totkay', 'Amal Academy']
|
Take care of your privacy and create your own virtual private network
|
Do you like to access the Internet safely and securely from your smartphone or laptop when connected to an untrusted network such as the WiFi of a hotel, coffee shop or a Library? A Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows you to traverse untrusted networks privately and securely as if you were on a private network. The traffic emerges from the VPN server and continues its journey to the destination.
OpenVPN is a full-featured, open-source Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPN solution that accommodates a wide range of configurations. In this tutorial of two parts, we will set up an OpenVPN server on an Ubuntu server using digital ocean then configure access to it from Android. This tutorial will keep the installation and configuration steps as simple as possible for each of these setups.Let’s start with the first part which includes the first five steps of installation and configuration.
Step One: Installing OpenVPN and EasyRSA
This step for both machines the VPN server and the CA machine. We start off, updating our package index and install OpenVPN. OpenVPN is available in Ubuntu’s default repositories, so we can use apt for the installation
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install openvpn
OpenVPN is a TLS/SSL VPN. This means that it uses certificates in order to encrypt traffic between the server and clients. To issue trusted certificates, we will set up our simple certificate authority (CA). To do this, we will download the latest version of EasyRSA, which we will deploy to build our CA public key infrastructure (PKI), from the project’s official GitHub repository.
We will build the CA on a standalone server. The reason for this approach is that, if an attacker were able to infiltrate our server, they would be able to access our CA private key and use it to sign new certificates, giving them access to our VPN. Accordingly, managing the CA from a standalone machine helps to prevent unauthorized users from accessing our VPN. Note, as well, that it’s recommended that we keep the CA server turned off when not being used to sign keys as a further precautionary measure.
To begin building the CA and PKI infrastructure, we use wget to download the latest version of EasyRSA on both our CA machine and our OpenVPN server. To get the latest version, go to the Releases page on the official EasyRSA GitHub project, copy the download link for the file ending in .tgz , and then paste it into the following command:
Then extract the tarball:
$ cd ~
$ tar xvf EasyRSA-3.0.4.tgz
We have successfully installed all the required software on our server and CA machine. Continue on to configure the variables used by EasyRSA and to set up a CA directory, from which we will generate the keys and certificates needed for our server and clients to access the VPN.
Step Two: Configuring the EasyRSA variables and building the CA certificates
We will follow these instructions only on the CA machine. EasyRSA comes installed with a configuration file which we can edit to define a number of variables for our CA. On our CA machine, navigate to the EasyRSA directory:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
Inside this directory is a file named vars.example . We make a copy of this file, and name the copy vars without a file extension:
$ cp vars.example vars
We open this new file using our preferred text editor which vim we can use another one for example nano editor:
$ vim vars
Find the settings that set field defaults for new certificates. It will look something like this:~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/vars
. . . #set_var EASYRSA_REQ_COUNTRY "US"
#set_var EASYRSA_REQ_PROVINCE "California"
#set_var EASYRSA_REQ_CITY "San Francisco"
#set_var EASYRSA_REQ_ORG "Copyleft Certificate Co"
#set_var EASYRSA_REQ_EMAIL "[email protected]"
#set_var EASYRSA_REQ_OU "My Organizational Unit" . . .
Uncomment these lines and update the highlighted values to whatever we’d prefer, but we do not leave them blank:~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/vars
. . . set_var EASYRSA_REQ_COUNTRY "US"
set_var EASYRSA_REQ_PROVINCE "NewYork"
set_var EASYRSA_REQ_CITY "New York City"
set_var EASYRSA_REQ_ORG "DigitalOcean"
set_var EASYRSA_REQ_EMAIL "[email protected]"
set_var EASYRSA_REQ_OU "Community" . . .
When we are finished, save and close the file. Within the EasyRSA directory is a script called easyrsa which is called to perform a variety of tasks involved with building and managing the CA. We run this script with the init-pki option to initiate the public key infrastructure on the CA server:
$ ./easyrsa init-pki
After this point, we call the easyrsa script again, following it with the build-ca option. This will build the CA and create two important files ca.crt and ca.key which make up the public and private sides of an SSL certificate.
ca.crt is the CA’s public certificate file which, in the context of OpenVPN, the server and the client use to inform one another that they are part of the same web of trust and not someone performing a man-in-the-middle attack. For this reason, our server and all of our clients will need a copy of the ca.crt file.
is the CA’s public certificate file which, in the context of OpenVPN, the server and the client use to inform one another that they are part of the same web of trust and not someone performing a man-in-the-middle attack. For this reason, our server and all of our clients will need a copy of the file. ca.key is the private key which the CA machine uses to sign keys and certificates for servers and clients. If an attacker gains access to our CA and, in turn, our file, they will be able to sign certificate requests and gain access to our VPN, impeding its security. This is why our file should only be on our CA machine and that, ideally, our CA machine should be kept offline when not signing certificate requests as an extra security measure.
If we don’t want to be prompted for a password every time we interact with our CA, we can run the build-ca command with the nopass option, like this:
$ ./easyrsa build-ca nopass
In the output, we’ll be asked to confirm the common name for our CA:
The common name is the name used to refer to this machine in the context of the certificate authority. We can enter any string of characters for the CA’s common name but, for simplicity’s sake, press ENTER to accept the default name. With that, our CA is in place and it’s ready to start signing certificate requests.
Step Three: Creating the server certificate, key, and encryption files
We will follow these instructions only on the server machine. Now that we have a CA ready to go, we can generate a private key and certificate request from our server and then transfer the request over to our CA to be signed, creating the required certificate. we’re also free to create some additional files used during the encryption process. Start by navigating to the EasyRSA directory on our OpenVPN server:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
From there, run the easyrsa script with the init-pki option. Although we already ran this command on the CA machine, it’s necessary to run it here because our server and CA will have separate PKI directories:
$ ./easyrsa init-pki
Then call the easyrsa script again, this time with the gen-req option followed by a common name for the machine. Again, this could be anything we like but it can be helpful to make it something descriptive. Throughout this tutorial, the OpenVPN server’s common name will simply be server. Be sure to include the nopass option as well. Failing to do so will password-protect the request file which could lead to permissions issues later on:
$ ./easyrsa gen-req server nopass
This will create a private key for the server and a certificate request file called server.req . Copy the server key to the /etc/openvpn/ directory:
$ sudo cp ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/pki/private/server.key /etc/openvpn/
We will follow these instructions only on the CA machine. Using a secure method (like SCP, in our example below), transfer the server.req file to our CA machine:
$ scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_do zaid@my_server_ip:~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/pki/reqs/server.req .
Next, on our CA machine, navigate to the EasyRSA directory:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
Using the easyrsa script again, import the server.req file, following the file path with its common name:
$ ./easyrsa import-req /tmp/server.req server
Then we sign the request by running the easyrsa script with the sign-req option, followed by the request type and the common name. The request type can either be client or server , so for the OpenVPN server’s certificate request, be sure to use the server request type:
$ ./easyrsa sign-req server server
In the output, we’ll be asked to verify that the request comes from a trusted source. Type yes then press ENTER to confirm this:
If we encrypted our CA key, we’ll be prompted for our password at this point. Next, transfer the signed certificate back to our VPN server using a secure method:
$ scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_do pki/issued/server.crt zaid@my_server_ip:/tmp
Before logging out of our CA machine, we transfer the ca.crt file to our server as well:
$ scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_do pki/ca.crt zaid@my_server_ip:/tmp
We will follow these instructions only on the server machine. Next, log back into our OpenVPN server and copy the server.crt and ca.crt files into our /etc/openvpn/ directory:
$ sudo cp /tmp/{server.crt,ca.crt} /etc/openvpn/
Then navigate to our EasyRSA directory:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
From there, create a strong Diffie-Hellman key to use during key exchange by typing:
$ ./easyrsa gen-dh
This may take a few minutes to complete, so if you are here my dear reader you can take a cup of tea and enjoy yourself. Once it does, generate an HMAC signature to strengthen the server’s TLS integrity verification capabilities:
$ openvpn --genkey --secret ta.key
When the command finishes, we copy the two new files to our /etc/openvpn/ directory:
$ sudo cp ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/ta.key /etc/openvpn/
$ sudo cp ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/pki/dh.pem /etc/openvpn/
With that, all the certificate and key files needed by our server have been generated. We are ready to create the corresponding certificates and keys which our client machine will use to access our OpenVPN server.
Step Four: Generating a client certificate and key files
We will follow these instructions only on the server machine. Although we can generate a private key and certificate request on our client machine and then send it to the CA to be signed, this guide outlines a process for generating the certificate request on the server.
The benefit of this is that we can create a script which will automatically generate client configuration files that contain all of the required keys and certificates. This let us avoid having to transfer keys, certificates, and configuration files to clients and streamlines the process of joining the VPN. best practices
We will generate a single client key and certificate pair for this guide. If we have more than one client, we can repeat this process for each one. Please note, though, that we will need to pass a unique name value to the script for every client. Throughout this tutorial, the first certificate/key pair is referred to as client1 .
Get started by creating a directory structure within our home directory to store the client certificate and key files:
$ mkdir -p ~/client-configs/keys
Since we will store our clients’ certificate/key pairs and configuration files in this directory, we should lock down its permissions now as a security measure:
$ chmod -R 700 ~/client-configs
Next, navigate back to our EasyRSA directory and run the easyrsa script with the gen-req and nopass options, along with the common name for the client:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
$ ./easyrsa gen-req client1 nopass
Press ENTER to confirm the common name. Then, copy the client1.key file to the /client-configs/keys/ directory we created earlier:
$ cp pki/private/client1.key ~/client-configs/keys/
Next, transfer the client1.req file to our CA machine using a secure method. We will follow these instructions only on the CA machine.
$ sudo scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_do zaid@my_server_ip:~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/pki/reqs/client1.req .
We navigate to the EasyRSA directory, and import the certificate request:
$ cd ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/
$ sudo ./easyrsa import-req /tmp/client1.req client1
Then sign the request as we did for the server in the previous step. This time, though, be sure to specify the client request type:
$ cd pki/reqs
$ sudo chown zeyd:zeyd client1.req
$ ./easyrsa sign-req client client1
At the prompt, enter yes to confirm that we intend to sign the certificate request and that it came from a trusted source. Again, if we encrypted our CA key, we’ll be prompted for our password here. This will create a client certificate file named client1.crt . Transfer this file back to the server:
$ scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_do pki/issued/client1.crt zaid@my_server_ip:~/client-configs/keys/
We will follow these instructions only on the server machine. Next, we copy the ca.crt and ta.key files to the /client-configs/keys/ directory as well:
$ cp ~/Documents/EasyRSA-3.0.4/ta.key ~/client-configs/keys/
$ sudo cp /etc/openvpn/ca.crt ~/client-configs/keys/
With that, our server and client’s certificates and keys have all been generated and are stored in the appropriate directories on our server. There are still a few actions that need to be performed with these files, but those will come in a later step. For now, we can move on to configuring OpenVPN on our server.
Step Five: Configuring the OpenVPN service
We will follow these instructions only on the server machine. Now that both our client and server’s certificates and keys have been generated, we can begin configuring the OpenVPN service to use these credentials. Start by copying a sample OpenVPN configuration file into the configuration directory and then extract it in order to use it as a basis for our setup:
$ sudo cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf.gz /etc/openvpn/
$ sudo gzip -d /etc/openvpn/server.conf.gz
Open the server configuration file in our preferred text editor:
$ sudo vim /etc/openvpn/server.conf
Find the HMAC section by looking for the tls-auth directive. This line should already be uncommented, but if isn’t then remove the ";" to uncomment it. Below this line, add the key-direction parameter, set to "0":/etc/openvpn/server.conf
tls-auth ta.key 0 # This file is secret
key-direction 0
Next, find the section on cryptographic ciphers by looking for the commented out cipher lines. The AES-256-CBC cipher offers a good level of encryption and is well supported. Again, this line should already be uncommented, but if it isn’t then just remove the ";" preceding it:/etc/openvpn/server.conf
cipher AES-256-CBC
Below this, add an auth directive to select the HMAC message digest algorithm. For this, SHA256 is a good choice:/etc/openvpn/server.conf
auth SHA256
Next, find the line containing a dh directive which defines the Diffie-Hellman parameters. Because of some recent changes made to EasyRSA, the filename for the Diffie-Hellman key may be different than what is listed in the example server configuration file. If necessary, change the file name listed here by removing the 2048 so it aligns with the key we generated in the previous step:/etc/openvpn/server.conf
dh dh.pem
Finally, find the user and group settings and remove the ";" at the beginning of each to uncomment these lines:/etc/openvpn/server.conf
user nobody
group nogroup
The changes we’ve made to the sample server.conf file up to this point are necessary in order for OpenVPN to function. The changes outlined below are optional, though they too are needed for many common use cases.
Check our free course on Udemy.
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Note from Towards Data Science’s editors: While we allow independent authors to publish articles in accordance with our rules and guidelines, we do not endorse each author’s contribution. You should not rely on an author’s works without seeking professional advice. See our Reader Terms for details.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/new-story-a6420a1f097
|
['Zaid Alissa Almaliki']
|
2020-10-01 15:48:44.759000+00:00
|
['Data Science', 'Security']
|
Data quality dimensions in IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog
|
Data quality dimensions in IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog
Understand the standard data quality dimensions used by IBM Cloud Pak for Data and IBM Infosphere Information Server.
Image by saulhm from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/users/saulhm-31267/)
In a previous article, I explained in details how IBM Cloud Pak for Data and IBM Infosphere Information Analyzer compute a unified data quality score for each analyzed dataset:
In short, the data quality score of a data set is computed by applying algorithms which look for different types of data quality issues. A data quality issue is identified, whenever data do not fulfil a given expectation. Such issues can be reported for individual cells of the data set or for complete rows or for columns or for the data set as a whole. The type of data quality issue is what is shown in the user interface as “Data Quality Dimension”
Data Quality Dimensions results in Watson Knowledge Catalog
The IBM ships a list of standard data quality dimensions with its products. These out of the box dimensions are automatically applied when data sets are analyzed in Watson Knowledge catalog or in Information Server. This can be done either in a data quality project looking in depth at the data quality of selected data assets or as part of a data discovery and ingestion process — look at my previous article “Unlock Your Data With IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog” to see how such a discovery process works.
In this new article I am going to explain each of these standard data quality dimension in details, what they are measuring and how expensive they are to execute.
The cost of a data quality dimension
Not all data quality dimensions are equally expensive. Some kind of data quality problems are rather easy to identify on a row by row basis, some other may require more work and multiple passes over the data and may have therefore a non neglictable impact on the time of the analysis.
The cost — in term of performance — of a data quality dimension is primary dependent on the number of passes over the data which are necessary to identify the searched data quality problems. Some data quality dimensions do not need to read the data because they can reuse statistics which are precomputed by data profiling before the data quality analysis happens. Most data quality dimensions require a single pass over the data. Some require to read the whole data set to compute some statistics and then do a second pass over all the records again in order to identify the problem.
The scope of a data quality dimension
As explained in my previous article, data quality problems can be reported for an individual value, a complete row, a complete column or the data set as a whole. This is what I will call in this article the scope of the data quality dimension.
The finer the scope of a dimension, the most accurate the data quality score can be computed, because double counting of problem can be avoided.
To illustrate this, imagine that in the same column you have 10% data class violations and 10% format violations. If these 2 data quality dimensions had a scope at column level — meaning if the problems were reported for the column as a whole — , it would be impossible to determine how many of the 10% data class violations are the same values as the ones with the format violations. That would mean that the data quality score of the column would be computed as 90% * 90% = 89%.
In reality those 2 dimensions can determine the problem at value level. Most likely when a value doesn’t have the expected data class, it will also not have the expected format, so that many values with the data class violations may be the same as the values with the format violations.
In that case, since a bad value is a bad value, no matter how many problems it has, the data quality score would be computed as 90%, indicating that 10% of the values are problematic.
This example shows that data quality dimensions of scope value are the most accurate. However for some problems it is not feasible or too expensive to identify the exact values having the problem. For this reason, some data quality dimensions only report their problem at column level.
Let’s now have a look at each individual data quality dimension.
Dimensions without any pass over the data
Duplicated values — scope: column
This dimension is looking for duplicate values in column which are expected to contain only unique values — for instance in primary key columns. Since searching for duplicate would be too expensive as part of the data quality analysis, because it would require to sort all column, this dimension reuses the statistics which are precomputed during data profiling (column analysis). This has the advantage that the dimension doesn’t need to look at the data again, but it can only report the frequency of the problem for the column as a whole and cannot tell which row exactly is affected by the problem. Because of this, it cannot be excluded that multiple problems affecting the same values are double counted.
In order to find out the exact rows containing a duplicate, you can use a data rule.
Dimensions requiring a single pass over the data
Data class violations — scope: value
This data quality dimension reports any value which doesn’t match the inferred or selected data class of its column.
But you need to know that not all data classes can be used to identify domain violations at value level. Like for data quality issues, data classes have a scope to indicate if they are applicable at value level, or only at column level.
Data classes working at value level — for instance all data classes based on a regular expression or a list of values — can return a clean match or no match decision for each tested values and can therefore be used to validate the values during the data quality analysis.
Data classes working at column level — for instance data classes like person name — only compute a confidence that the column as a whole is of a given class, but cannot test any individual value.
For this reason, if the data class assigned to a column is of scope column, the data quality analysis will ignore the data class and no data class violations will be searched on that particular column.
You can check the scope of a data class by looking at its definition Watson Knowledge Catalog:
Looking at the scope of a data class in Watson Knowledge Catalog
Data type violations — scope: value
This dimension counts the values of a column which are incompatible with its inferred or selected data type:
During the data profiling, the column analysis determines the inferred data type of each column. The inferred data type is independent from the data type as defined in the source and represents the most specific data type which could contain all values of a column.
To illustrate this notion, let’s imagine column defined in a table in a SQL data base with a data type VARCHAR(255). This data type is the defined data type on the source, but in reality the values of the column may contain dates encoded as a string. In that case the inferred data type may be DATE or TIMESTAMP, depending on the format of the values.
In another example, if the same column contains strings, but the longest string is only 40 characters long. Then the inferred type would be VARCHAR(40).
If the column contains a mix of different types — for instance dates and strings and numbers — then the inferred data type will be the most specific type which can represent all these values — in this example it would be VARCHAR(n), n being the length of the longest value.
The inferred data type can be overwritten by the user, to indicate which data type should be expected. If the selected data type is set to DATE for instance, then any value which is not a native date value or is not a string or a number which can be parsed as a date will be considered as a violation.
Format violations — scope: value
This dimension counts the values of a column with a format that has been marked as invalid for this column by a user.
This means that this dimension is only going to find issues for columns where identified formats have been declared as invalid by a user. To do so, you need to open the analysis results of the column in a data quality project and go to the tab “Formats” to see the list of all identified formats. Then you can enter the edit mode and mark the unwanted formats as invalid.
Edit the list of valid formats for a column
By doing this you add a constraint on the column indicating which formats are valid or not. This invalidates the current data quality score, which, when recomputed, will reflect the findings based on the new constraint.
Inconsistent capitalization — Scope: value
This dimension checks first if the majority of the values of a column follow any convention in regard to the usage of upper and lower case in strings. The capitalization rule of a column can be one of the following:
Upper case : the values are written in upper case only. For example:
“THIS IS A VALUE”
: the values are written in upper case only. For example: “THIS IS A VALUE” Lower case : the values are written in lower case only. For example:
“this is a value”
: the values are written in lower case only. For example: “this is a value” Name case : The first letter of each word within the value is written in upper case, the rest of the words are in lower case. For example:
“This Is A Value”
: The first letter of each word within the value is written in upper case, the rest of the words are in lower case. For example: “This Is A Value” Sentence case : The first letter of each value is in upper case, the rest is in lower case. For example:
“This is a value”
: The first letter of each value is in upper case, the rest is in lower case. For example: “This is a value” Any case: Upper case and lower case are mixed and no rule can be recognized. For example:
“This IS A value”
If the majority of the values in a column use one of these capitalization rules, the values which do not follow the same capitalization rule are considered as data quality issue.
If the data don’t show any strong pattern in the capitalization rule being used, then the analysis will assume that the capitalization is not constrained and will not search for any issue of that type.
Inconsistent representation of missing values — scope: value
This dimension reports a problem if both null and empty values or values containing only spaces are found within the same column.
Missing values — scope: value
This dimension searches for values which are either null or empty in columns which are not expected to contain missing values.
You can set in the “Column properties” tab of the column analysis results the flag indicating whether missing values are acceptable or not for a given column.
Specify if missing values are allowed or not in a column
Note that contrary to what the UI suggests, this is not only about NULL values, but missing values in general, which also include values containing an empty string or only spaces.
If no constraint has been specified, then the analysis will try to infer the nullability flag of the column by looking at the number of missing values in the column. If the number of missing values (null and empty values) is below the nullability threshold, then the column is considered as non nullable and any missing or empty value will be considered as a data quality issue. If the column contains more missing values than what the threshold allows, then the analysis will assume that missing values are expected in this column and won’t report an issue by default.
The default nullability threshold is 1%, meaning that only columns containing less than 1% missing values are considered as non nullable. You can set this threshold in the data quality settings of the project.
Values out of range — scope: value
This dimensions is only used if a range constraint specifying the minimum and/or maximum allowed value for a column has been specified.
You can define such a constraint by opening the profiling results of a column and entering the edit mode in the “Column Properties” tab as shown in the next screenshot. You can set either a minimum value or a maximum or both. Any value outside the specified range will be reported as having a data quality issue.
Specifying a minium and/or maximum allowed value for a column
Rule violations — scope: value
Data rules and quality rules are the easiest way to define custom dimensions.
The data quality analysis will consider all data rules or quality rules which are bound to columns of the analyzed data set and do not require any join operation with other data sets. If a rule match these criteria, its logic will be evaluated on the analyzed rows during the data quality analysis.
Whenever a row of the data set does not pass the rule, a data quality issue will be reported for each column bound to the rule for the given row. Each rule is reported under its own data quality dimension.
Note that it is not necessary to run data rules by themselves to get their logic evaluated as part of the data quality analysis. The inclusion of the logic of the rule as a constraint on the data set will be automatic.
Dimensions requiring two passes over the data
Suspect values — scope: value
This data quality dimension is less easy to explain, but at the same time it is quite a powerful dimension.
Basically this dimension searches for values which do not look like they would belong to the same domain as the other values of the same column. In some sense it is similar to searching for outliers, but the notion of outlier is extended to not only the value itself, but also its format and properties.
To best explain how this work, imagine that you see a list of printed phone numbers. Without looking at the individual values, the chance are good that you are going to recognize at the first glance that the values are phone numbers, because they just look like phone numbers.
The human brain doesn’t evaluate each individual value, but extracts some patterns regarding the format, the fact that they are mostly made of digits, the length of the values, etc… and matches that to what we have learned from the past how phone numbers typically look like.
At the same time, if in the middle of a long list of phone numbers, one of the values is not a phone number but maybe an email address, the human brain would immediately see that one of the values is obviously wrong, without having to read any individual values.
The suspect values dimension tries to simulate what the brain is doing in this simple example. To do so, it first computes for a column a domain fingerprint which contains identified patterns which seem to characterize the domain of the values. Once the fingerprint is computed, it makes a second pass over the data to try to identify which individual value seems to deviate a lot from these identified patterns.
The properties of the values which are considered in that decision are various and different depending on the nature of the data. It can consider the format of the values, the more frequent recurring tokens within the values, diverse statistics regarding the length, number of tokens, type of characters found in the values, the bigram distribution of the values, etc…
In the following example, the highlighted value in the first column would be detected as suspect, because its bigram distribution and number of tokens doesn’t is not consistent with the other values. In the second column, the value would be marked as suspect because it is a number in a column containing strings otherwise. In the third column, the highlighted value would be marked as suspect because it is a numeric outlier.
Example of suspect values
This dimension can be useful to detect non obvious data quality problems that a human would be able to see if pointed to them, but that may be hidden in the middle of many rows, so that they may be hard to recognize.
The drawback of this dimension is that it is more expensive because it requires one pass to learn what should be considered as expected and one pass to detect the suspect values.
What you should also understand is that this dimension doesn’t provide a deterministic rule when a value is considered as suspect and when not. It is based on probabilistic and comparison of values with what the majority of values look like. This may of course produce false positives or miss wrong values, just like the human brain may make mistakes.
Suspect values in correlated columns — scope: value
This dimension is complementary to the previous dimension. While the “Suspect values” dimension only looks if values of a same column are homogenous within their column, this dimension looks if combination of values in a single row are plausible when taken together.
For this, it first searches in a first pass if there are any correlation between columns. Two columns are correlated if the value of one column can be determined from the value of another column. If could be the case if for instance one column contains the result of an operation combining one or multiple other columns. It could also be the case if one column has an inclusion dependency on another column.
As a concrete example, imagine that you have a data set with a column containing city names and another column containing state names. For any given city there is normally only one state. This means that there is a correlation between these columns. The analysis can learn correlation rules from the records of the data set and identify data quality issues where city and state don’t seem to fit together because their combination would violate a correlation rule.
In simpler words: if a majority of the rows having San-Francisco as a city also have California as a State, then a row {San-Francisco; Arizona} will be reported as suspect, because this is a combination of values which breaks the correlation rules detected between the two columns when looking at all rows.
Like with the previous dimension, this approach is based on statistics and not on boolean rules and may produce false positives. Computing this dimension is also more memory hungry than the other dimensions — especially on data sets with a large number of columns — because the correlation tables between each pair of columns needs to be computed and kept in memory during the analysis.
On the other side, enabling this dimension allows to detect non trivial problem which would not be visible when looking at one column at a time. This is a data quality dimension which you may want to enable when doing a deep data quality analysis of chosen data sets and may be better disabled for large data discovery job where it is important to keep the jobs fast.
Summary
We have seen that not all data quality dimensions are equally expensive. Some are fairly simple and don’t make the analysis much slower. Some require multiple passes over the data and may double the analysis time but may help to identify non obvious problems. Different scenarios may require to enable different type of dimensions.
We have also seen some details about each of the standard data quality dimensions.
Finally we have seen that custom data quality dimensions can be added by using data rules.
Information Analyzer also allows you to program and deploy your own data quality dimensions by implementing them in Java. This capability is not yet available in Cloud Pak for Data in the current version (3.5 at the time of this writing). But maybe this is an extension point which will be ported to Cloud Pak for Data in the future…
What new data quality dimension do you think should be added to the list of standard dimensions? Let me know by adding some comment to this article.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/data-quality-dimensions-in-ibm-watson-knowledge-catalog-79cd0aaf0af2
|
['Yannick Saillet']
|
2020-11-26 00:43:19.646000+00:00
|
['Cloud Pak For Data', 'Getting Started', 'Data Quality', 'Data Science', 'Editors Pick']
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KILL THE TRUST INSIDE
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Anyone can kill when emotions start to fill, Every thought of never to harm goes downhill, Only the intended target in mind stands still, The courage to dive in action already a swallowed pill, Locating the victim creating maps drawn by the ill, The killer in motion searching heart pounding like drill, the tiny bit of fear often later turns to thrill, Inspired by the accomplished mission of a life planned to steal, Bodies without life reminds the suspect of escape’s reveal, Being caught and punished causing the want to conceal, Depending on the scene adds up the time remaining to cover like seal, Suspects of evil rarely caring of this ordeal, Leaving the innocent’s remains exposed purposely without a shield, Hoping to see the story on the news by dinner during meal, Making them proud of giving unknown viewers fear and chills. These type that murder named serial but the kind that doesn’t spill, I’m not talking about those, I mean the ones with normal appeal, This group certainly worse because they blend with normality surreal, How do you protect all from those trusted painting plans soon to peel, Always the one nobody imagines or even thinks they’d ever yield, Every time they find out after yellow tape surrounds a field, The only person no one thought to be front page news by murder mill, Second thoughts and disbelief come’s instantly then later brings until, You’ve pondered all the facts and habits formerly seen as usual strikes unreal, Automatically your instinct to trust all others so easily stack like bills, Enabling you to height your senses this process drives your second thoughts uphill, The heart beat inside you pounds every beat you feel, Not everyone gets a second chance before the will, More of us need to keep the thought “I could be next” on refill, since there is no clock showing us our death is a quarter till, Most importantly every humans deck’s not playing with cards that give us deal, Being alert and observant can save our loved ones from a cemetery kneel, too nice too often the path down a barrel pointing a light too real, held by the known who pulls and off goes alive, as they roll away on wheels.
|
https://medium.com/@poetta-iretta/kill-the-trust-inside-8cb661049d84
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['Mrz Bernal']
|
2020-11-24 17:07:27.292000+00:00
|
['Trust', 'Unexpected', 'Protection', 'Forgiveness', 'Intentions']
|
2020’s Best Wireless Gaming Headset
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2020’s Best Wireless Gaming Headset
Photo taken by the author.
The wireless sector is where most of the action and excitement is in gaming headsets today. Gamers and peripheral companies are both engaged in an aggressive campaign to get rid of all wires without sacrificing performance, and with the launch of new consoles this year, there’s no sign of that trend slowing down.
Numerous brands released completely new wireless headsets in 2020 to try and win this lucrative market…but for me, the clear winner in this field is the HyperX Cloud II Wireless.
When the headset was first announced, I was skeptical. Was HyperX really going to jam wireless parts into an older model and call it good? After testing it out, my fears were unfounded and silly. This is nowhere near a hasty refresh. In fact, it’s a truly new headset, sharing only a name and a few small details with its predecessor. It has a new industrial design with an improved sound signature, and its comfort, battery life, and performance rival the premium offerings from any other company.
Photo taken by the author.
The HyperX Cloud II Wireless sells for $149.99 (official site here). That’s not an affiliate link, because I think those have no place in reviews. It comes in the classic HyperX red and black color scheme, and it is mainly targeted at PC gamers, though it also works with PlayStation and Nintendo Switch consoles. On PC, you’ll get access to HyperX’s latest 7.1 surround virtualization system with full support for 7.1 audio input from games, and you can use the Ngenuity software to tweak your settings and see your remaining battery. The headset comes with a detachable noise canceling microphone, and features a USB-C charge port with the necessary cable.
With a 30-hour battery life and light 300g weight combined with HyperX’s famous memory foam cushions, it’s a perfect choice for marathon gaming, working, or listening sessions. It’s lighter than many of the wired headsets I reviewed this year, and although it lacks RGB lighting, its long battery life more than makes up for that.
Wireless performance is also surprisingly good. I test wireless signal strength by connecting to the PC in my home office at one end of my apartment, then walking around the building. The Cloud II Wireless is one of the few models I’ve tried where I had essentially full coverage across the run of my apartment, even with multiple walls in the way.
Photo taken by the author.
Sound quality is nigh-on peerless for the gaming space, with my favorite sound signature I’ve ever heard in a HyperX product. It’s clean, balanced, accurate, and powerful. The sound rivals flagship audio products that cost twice as much, and like its wired predecessor it once again proves that you don’t have to spend ludicrous amounts of money to get good audio. The sound is tuned to hit a sweet spot of performance that should please just about everyone. The internal amplifier is more than capable of driving the headset to high volumes, and the sound doesn’t have any obvious digital noise issues.
The lack of a wired backup connection or Bluetooth support means this doesn’t work with Xbox consoles or mobile phones, though HyperX has a history of supporting those platforms and I wouldn’t be shocked if new revisions of this design come out in the future.
If you’d like to read more of my thoughts on this headset, check out my full review. I spent a couple of weeks throwing every test I could think of at this headset, and trying to think of things about it I didn’t like…and all I could come up with is the lack of a wired backup connection, and that it doesn’t come with a carrying bag like some other HyperX models. It continued to impress me no matter what I tried, and in the last two months of continued regular use, I still have no genuine complaints. It’s rare that I can say that about a headset.
Photo taken by the author.
This is easily the best wireless headset I’ve tried this year, and one of the best gaming headsets I’ve ever used. It’s the new standard by which I’ll measure $150 gaming audio products going forward, and it’s a great choice for general listening, gaming, working from home, and any other audio needs you might have as long as you own a compatible platform.
I hope that this is a sign of things to come from HyperX, because this is an exceptional headset that delivers everything you could ask for at this price point. It’s a true return to form, and a standout product in the company’s large product lineup. I feel silly for ever being skeptical about it, and I can’t wait to see what more comes from this newly designed platform going forward.
|
https://medium.com/@xander51/2020s-best-wireless-gaming-headset-8055277de87
|
['Alex Rowe']
|
2020-12-03 17:58:11.128000+00:00
|
['Gadgets', 'Tech', 'Gaming', 'Music', 'Technology']
|
The Anonymous Bitcoin Hard Fork
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In the vast glossary of the blockchain industry, there’s one word widely used and yet unknown to the average enthusiast — “hard fork”
Fret-not!
What sounds like a very technical term, is actully a pretty simple concept pertaining to a coin’s underlying blockchain.
A Hard Fork is more of a developmental action.
To fully understand the concept — and appreciate the act of a “hard fork”, imagine a developer team working remotely, on a particular coin, say XCoin.
The team promises military grade security, instantaneous transactions, and multiple exchange support.
However, somewhere down the line, the team abjectly fails on various fronts, and ends up creating a product that takes 5 minutes to transfer, is not as secure as promised, as doesn’t feature on more than 2 crypto-exchanges.
A classic case of overpromised, under-delivered !
One fine day, an unrelated team of developers — or some disillusioned members of the aforementioned coin — decide to fix the flaws, and create a coin (on the same blockchain) that actually delivers what’s promised.
And because the fundamental concept of a blockchain is decentralized, open source software, practically any apt, experienced developer team can come together and create a better offering — without ANY permission or consensus of the previous developers !
What more — after the hack on ETH’s DAO, the Ethereum community almost unanimously voted in favor of a hard fork in order to roll back transactions that siphoned off tens of millions of dollars worth of digital currency by an anonymous hacker. The hard fork also allowed DAO token holders to get their ether funds returned to them.
And then, XCoin is “hard forked”, giving birth to the superior — let’s call it — Anonymous XCoin.
Here’s how the hard fork occurs –
In technical terms, the hard fork is “a radical change to the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid (or vice-versa).”
Put differently, a hard fork is a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, and nodes running previous versions will no longer be accepted by the newest version.
Hence — all running nodes of the XCoin blockchain, are required to update, or migrate to Anonymous XCoin’s blockchain. And with strong fundamentals, there’s would be little reason for miners to not support the upgraded coin.
Essentially, a fork is created in the XCoin blockchain: one path following previous nodes, transactions, and blockchain, and the other with a new, improved blockchain.
To make things more clear — let’s move to a real example of a hard fork, and one that deals with improvement on all fronts.
On 29 April, 2018, a developer team from Florida annouced the hard fork of Zclassic and Bitcoin — to create Anonymous Bitcoin.
As per the annoucement, the hard fork swiftly aims to merge bitcoin’s transaction prowess, with the secure features of Zclassic.
The Dev team of Anonymous Bitcoin has it clear — correct crucial security risks found in BTC and ZCL, and add new, improved functions.
In short — to create a BETTER, more trustworthy, consumer-centric cryptocurrency.
To make this possible, the Anonymous bitcoin team would split the path of ZCL’s, and BTC’s blockchain by invalidating transactions confirmed by nodes that have not been upgraded to the new version of the protocol software.
Unlike the ethereum DAO, this hard fork would not unwind the network’s transaction history.
Some features of the Anonymous Bitcoin include –
Real Decentralization — Anonymous Bitcoin uses equihash, a Proof-of-Work algorithm.
True Anonymity — Uses MIT’s tested zkSNARK’s, the most secure privacy protocol to date.
Community Drive — Social channels allow ideas crafted by the community to be taken into consideration.
Masternodes — We provide the ability to stake coins, incentivizing long term hodlers and allowing for dividend style returns over time.
Transparency — Although your spending habits should be kept private, the forking process should not. The team will be providing video updates and regular Q&A sessions, we are prepared to show the world what a legitimate fork entails.
Exchange Support — Through our elaborate network, Anonymous Bitcoin is in discussions with top volume exchanges.
In my next post, I shall explore the coin in a much detailed, deeper manner, dissecting the site, team members, and coin tech — in order to more effectively study and provide technical advice for all cryptocurrency enthusiasts, about summer’s most awaited bitcoin fork.
|
https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-anonymous-bitcoin-hard-fork-dda0af9f272d
|
['Shaurya Malwa']
|
2018-05-02 10:03:26.576000+00:00
|
['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain']
|
Designing a chatbot with IBM Watson Assistant
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Chatbot, also known as “conversational agent”, is a trending technology. Chatbots are changing the business landscape. Its emergence in the enterprise has several implications that require some thought. Building a bot is not a hard task; with the rise of many platforms, it’s now easier than ever to develop and deploy one. The challenge with chatbots lies in delivering a good user experience, and they only present opportunities if done right. But, designing a conversation that meets consumer needs and returns real business value requires a nuanced strategy and in-depth considerations. The experience you are creating for your clients is paramount. Before moving quickly to development, figure out the problem areas that you, your users, and your employees are struggling with, and if a chatbot is the best fit to meet everyone’s needs. *
Deploying chatbots in the enterprise raises a host of potential issues that inevitably affect the deployment of enterprise software, including performance, scalability, and especially security. Enterprise chatbots may require access to user credentials, profile information, and enterprise data to perform useful functions. Any chatbot initiative must comply with enterprise cybersecurity standards. *
In this post, we’ll be taking a look at addressing some of these concerns and show how to design a chatbot using IBM Watson Assistant.
Figure 1: IBM Watson Assistant meet IBM Enterprise Design Thinking
What is exactly a chatbot?
In general terms, a chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agent, which conducts conversations via text or voice commands in a natural language conversation. It communicates and performs basic tasks such as answering questions or placing product orders. Chatbots’ primary purpose is to streamline interactions between people and services through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps, or through the telephone and interactive voice response (IVR). Other options include:
Used for service or as a marketing tool for engagement
Provide content, facilitate a purchase, or connect with consumers
Combine the ability to scale and personalization
Provide support
Suggest product recommendations
Leveraged for conversational marketing campaigns
The goal is to have chatbots written in a way to mimic spoken human speech to simulate a conversation with a real person performing any task. Chatbots can learn. Should you feed it a large number of conversation logs, the bot could be trained in a way to understand what type of question needed and what kind of answers to answer. Eventually the bot can be trained enough where you could not tell it is a bot.
“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was a human” — Alan Turing
These conversational bots are getting smarter. They are less prone to errors based on how they are trained. Hence, they can provide better customer experience and can help establish a better brand. There are tons of services to help you build chatbots, each with varying degrees of control, and these services have also become increasingly sophisticated. Unlike as seen in countless movies with “science fiction” depicted as awkward speech with robotic cadence, chatbots have come a long way! It’s safe to say that chatbots are still growing. Bots are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and are capable of answering customers’ questions much quicker than human agents can.
Is chatbot the right solution?
Don’t build a conversation for building’s sake. Stall the idea of a conversation agent as a solution before clearly identifying what is it that you’re trying to achieve. First, ask yourself a few of these questions:
What is the focus area of the business that needs improvement now?
Who are all the users and stakeholders involved in this area, and how are they interacting with each other?
What’s not working for them? Why are they struggling?
What is the desired business outcome if we can change that?
If you already have a chatbot/conversation agent operating today, ask yourself:
Are they performing up to expectations? Are they meeting your KPIs?
Are users getting helpful answers?
Is the conversation designed well to serve the users needs?
Also think about potential pitfalls of chatbot:
Can bots put people at risk?
How are the bots trained and do they contain biased information?
Align together towards the vision
Once you have a clear business fit for a chatbot, then invite the stakeholders and sponsor users to a design thinking workshop. In this workshop, have the participants go through convergent and divergent activities to understand, explore, and define how chatbot fits into improving user experience. Use activities like Empathy Map and As-Is Scenario to understand the pain points experienced today. Identify areas where a conversational agent can help to improve the experience; look for areas where the user is asking the most questions and are the most confused and frustrated. These areas will be good candidates for where a chatbot can help. Then, prioritize with the team on which of the identified pain points will be the most important and feasible. Using the prioritized pain points as a guide, discuss and identify content, information, questions, and answers that could alleviate the pain points. Identify top priority areas that are the most import to your personas.
Dialogue design
In this blog, we will use IBM Watson Assistant to design a conversation. The archetypal chatbot consists of 3 specific concepts: intents, entities, dialog, as described in detail below. Let’s design a chatbot for your business and understand what it takes to create a purpose-built one that also delivers a superior conversational experience.
Figure 2: A typical approach used when deploying Watson Assistant
Intents
An intent is a purpose or goal expressed in a customer’s input, such as answering a question or a pressing a bill payment. By recognizing the intent expressed in a customer’s input, the Assistance service chooses the correct dialog flow for responding to it.
An intent is a category that defines a user’s goal or purpose
or These categories are trained using representative examples
Recognizing the intents does not require knowing the specifics of the user request — it is a way to guide the dialog flow in the appropriate direction
Entities
An entity represents a class of object or a data type that is relevant to a user’s purpose. By recognizing the entities that are mentioned in the user’s input, the Assistance service can choose the specific actions to take to fulfill an intent. It’s also Watson’s way of handling significant parts of an input that should be used to alter the way it responds to the intent.
Entities are the subjects of intents
Entities are specific values that clarify user intent and trigger fine-tuned actions and responses
and trigger fine-tuned actions and responses For each value, you can include a list of synonyms to capture the possible varieties in user expression
to capture the possible varieties in user expression Entities represent information in the user input that is relevant to the user’s purpose.
System entities
System entities are common entities created by IBM that could be used across any use case. They are ready to be used as soon as you add them, such as:
@sys-date
@sys-time
@sys-number
Dialog
The dialog component of the Assistance service uses the intents and entities that are identified in the user’s input, plus context from the application, to interact with the user and ultimately provide a useful response. The dialog is represented graphically as a tree, so create a branch to process each intent that you define.
The dialog node is made of a trigger and a response, where the trigger is the condition
Dialog matches intents (what users say) to responses (what the bot says back)
Each dialog node contains, at a minimum, a condition and a response
The dialog response defines how to reply to the user
Figure 3: Depiction of a simple dialog
Slots
Add slots to a dialog node to gather multiple pieces of information from a user within that node. Slots collect data at the user’s pace. Details the user provides upfront are saved, and the service asks only for the details they do not. Slots…
Reduce development time
Get the information you need before you can respond accurately to the user
Answer follow-up questions without having to reestablish the user’s goal
Identify the type of information you want to extract from the user’s response
Our experience designing a chatbot
For a delightful user experience, you can’t run away from asking these core questions at the heart of your design, and each question needs to be carefully and meticulously considered with the different facets:
Is my product well-suited to be a bot?
How to design a meaningful conversation?
Will the chatbot understand the messages it receives?
How to create a simple design for an immediate and direct solution to a person’s problem?
Will the design solve the problem reliably?
What are the logical conversation path(s) for users to follow?
What are the integration points?
Can the bot handle more complex queries and tasks?
What user pain point does it solve?
What type of friction will it remove from the current process?
How to prevent the chatbot from asking the wrong questions and collecting unnecessary information?
When to override the bot (and allow for a graceful failover)?
Figure 4: Steve Jobs’ quote
Chatbot conversational flow
A chatbot conversational flow works like a decision tree, which gives you a comprehensive list of decisions, events, and outcomes as depicted below:
Figure 5: Basic transactions for a banking use case.
Prerequisites
To follow along, you are required to have these accounts and tools in place:
Start with an account on IBM Cloud. It’s free of cost to start with.
Setup Watson Assistance
If you want to follow along, the full solution can be found at the link: Create a banking chatbot with FAQ discovery, anger detection, and natural language understanding.
Figure 6: Watson banking chatbot
Steps to creating successful chatbots
Identify the problem to be solved and use case
Choose the channel for your bot (e.g. Facebook Messenger, Skype, Slack)
Choose the right use case for your bot
Choose the services you will use to build your chatbot (in this case we are planning to use IBM Watson)
Emulate conversations to train and retrain bot.
Test
Launch and learn
Included components:
IBM Watson Assistant: Build, test, and deploy a bot or virtual agent across mobile devices, messaging platforms, or even on a physical robot
IBM Watson Discovery: A cognitive search and content analytics engine for applications to identify patterns, trends, and actionable insights
IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding: Analyze text to extract meta-data from content such as concepts, entities, keywords, categories, sentiment, emotion, relations, and semantic roles, using natural language understanding
IBM Watson Tone Analyzer: Uses linguistic analysis to detect communication tones in written text
Node.js: An asynchronous event driven JavaScript runtime, designed to build scalable applications
Conclusion
In recent years, AI and machine learning have changed the way we go about our day-to-day business. Chatbots have conquered the market. No longer a nascent technology, chatbots are now mainstream. Its business impacts include breakthrough across different industries, such as financial services, retail, oilfield services, hospitals, and insurance companies. The chatbots market was worth USD 1274.428 million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 7591.82 million by 2024, registering a CAGR of 34.75% over the period (2019–2024). According to IBM in 2017, 265 billion customer requests are recorded per year and businesses spend nearly $1.3 trillion to service these requests. Using chatbots can help them save up to 30% of this.
On a closing note, if you asked me the question, “Are chatbots a must-have?”, you can extrapolate and figure out on which side of the track that I’m seating! Chatbots are here to stay!
Food for thought: Intelligence of Chatbot
Can bots communicate intelligent insights?
Is Human Intelligence underrated? Is Artificial Intelligence overrated, an actual breakthrough, or still in its infancy?
Will bots eventually be equipped to deal with complex issues such as geoeconomic and geopolitical problems?
Attribution
Special thank you to the IBM Garage Singapore team: Oliver Senti, Practice Manager; Eunice Shin, Sr UX Designer; Ma Li, Architect / Data Scientist; Iris Tan, UX Designer and Thanh Son Le from the Cognitive Solutions Engineer, IBM Watson and Cloud Platform Expert & Delivery Services.
References
For more details on designing and building chatbots, please refer to the links below where you can find many read up on AI-powered chatbots:
|
https://medium.com/ibm-garage/designing-a-chatbot-with-ibm-watson-assistant-7e11b94c2b3d
|
['Ernese Norelus']
|
2019-09-30 22:58:06.041000+00:00
|
['Design Thinking', 'Design', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Chatbots', 'Bots']
|
Four Sexy Lingerie Looks He Doesn’t Deserve
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Four Sexy Lingerie Looks He Doesn’t Deserve Stav Follow Oct 24 · 3 min read
30 dollar tights he will rip off and destroy even though they will rip on their own anyways the second time you wear them
By Stav
@your__crush__
We love lingerie, a kind of clothing a very select portion of the population will likely ever see you wear! Good thing this very select portion of the population that gets to see your lingerie absolutely doesn’t deserve it!
In any case, if you’re looking for the next look that will wow the complete asswipe you shouldn’t be fucking but are, look no further than this carefully constructed list of lingerie looks he doesn’t deserve!
Victoria’s Secret V-String Panty: This deluxe V-String Panty ($29.99 USD even though you’ll still see the outlines of these panties stick out when you wear leggings) from Victoria’s Secret provides a confidence that’s truly sexy, a sexiness that no man deserves access to!
Wear this next time you see him even though there’s a 70 percent chance he’s going to cancel a half-hour before (i.e. after you have already done your makeup) because “something came up” or “oops, I forgot lol.”
Available in multiple colors and patterns, which he thinks are all stupid because there’s definitely some internalized misogyny permanently clogged up in that guy’s brain matter. Anyways, do you want some dick or not?
[ONLINE EXCLUSIVE] La Senza Push Up Lace Merrywidow:
He ignored your texts for days on end and definitely subtweeted you last week, yet you’re still going to wear this $59.95 Push Up Lace Merrywidow by La Senza for him the next time he invites himself over.
With a combination lace and mesh body that’s going to get fucked up in the washing machine anyways, a built-in push-up bra that almost fits you, and a flirty criss-cross detail to-boot, this beautiful piece will ensure that you’re absolutely doing way too much for someone who doesn’t give a shit about you!
(Hopefully your room is clean and your roommate won’t be home as he says he’s coming over in a half-hour.)
Metallic Lace Teddy By Savage X Fenty: Sure, you should dump him, but if you do, who’s going to see you in this expensive $84 ass set from Savage X Fenty? At least you’ll still look hot fucking someone Rihanna would never approve of (he’s won’t even go down on you, this is pathetic) with this sexy Metallic Lace Teddy!
Temperance Contour Set by Adore Me: If we’re being honest, he’s not even going to notice this beautiful two-piece lingerie set by Adore Me. If he somehow does notice it, it’s because he plans to ask if he can physically rip it off as if it wasn’t $59.95 and something you may care a lot about!
Oh wait, he didn’t ask and just decided to go ahead and rip it without asking “because he thought it would be hot,” which means that this lingerie set was just ruined by someone who’s going to cum in two minutes. See, he doesn’t deserve it! What are you even doing?
This set is available in black, red, or blue, all of which will show from underneath the outfit you were hoping to wear tonight.
No man on earth should ever be allowed to see the light of day of any of these looks. As someone who ordered and is wearing the Victoria’s V-String Panty right now, however, I am confident you’re going to buy them all anyways!
(FYI these panties are pretty comfy, but I’m still concerned they’re going to give me a yeast infection. I can keep you posted on what happens with these if you want before you buy them.)
|
https://medium.com/the-haven/four-sexy-lingerie-looks-he-doesnt-deserve-508629ad3ae0
|
[]
|
2020-10-24 21:15:18.356000+00:00
|
['Satire', 'Humor', 'Sex', 'Feminism', 'Comedy']
|
What No One Will Tell You About How to Manage Your World
|
To one person, two ideas can seem disparate. To another, those two ideas are profoundly woven and intertwined. So, like our fellow human-centred designers, firms like IDEO and frog, we create mind maps. We use post-it notes and whiteboards. We write down concepts and connect the dots in our minds and onto paper.
The nature of information is inherently hard to control. For example, Davenport notes that the very reason why information architecture has failed is because it will never be able to capture the reality of human behaviour. Therefore, a human-centred approach to knowledge, information collection and management assumes that “information is complex, ever-expanding, and impossible to control completely” (Davenport 1994).
The reason for its complexity is because information takes on diverse meanings and particularities between and amongst individuals, small groups, entire organisations, and beyond. Again, to one person, two ideas can seem disparate. To another person, the same two ideas can be deeply intertwined. How we make meaning and sense of information is subjective.
Why does understanding ecology matter?
How people understand the knowledge and use information needs to inform how we create systems–systems that store, analyse, and summarise information.
To quote Davenport:
“Information managers must begin by thinking about how people use information, not how people use machines” (Davenport 1994).
If we simply create systems that overlook the very behaviours of information users and providers, we’ll continue creating computer models that don’t translate. We’ll be working for our computers, rather than making them work for us.
To this degree, knowledge management looks more like an aquarium than an excel spreadsheet. Schools of fish can be identified, interspersed with slivers of raw data, swimming over corals of information assets from one region of a global organisation to another.
The historically-rich term Knowledge Management now spans topics, concepts, industries, and communities. From any of the following names:
Enterprise-Wide Information Analysis (coined by IBM)
Data-Driven System Design,
Decision Analysis,
Intellectual Capital,
Enterprise Content Management (ECM),
Supply Chain Management (SCM) and, even,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)…
Knowledge management is actually a lot less complicated than it seems. We’re trying to make it more accessible here at Weavit — by constructing a more intuitive way of understanding your own knowledge through your networks.
|
https://medium.com/weavit/what-no-one-will-tell-you-about-how-to-manage-your-world-174dc6d4bcbf
|
['Joy Lee']
|
2020-12-07 03:00:14.237000+00:00
|
['Productivity', 'Organization', 'Management', 'Psychology', 'Data']
|
Fun & Frolic on Youtube
|
[This is an old post written in 2013. The post is unedited with today’s world view]
I have been exposed to such mind boggling and hilarious videos, that you would like to watch them again and again for the sheer pleasure and spontaneity it provides all through. Here is a collection of seven videos from youtube which are my favourite too !
Statutory warning : Finding them hilarious depends on one taste, region, country and personality :D
The Fantabulous Couple
Watch Govinda as Superman and Kimi Katkaar as spider-women (For novices, she is the ‘chumma girl’ from Hum, featured along with Amitabh Bachhan). This is what i call as “out of box” thinking, this can only happen in Bollywood, and this is what happens only in India. Extremely funny and frivilous, there is still no one better with the most innovative combination of clothes and dance steps together than apna ‘Raja babu’.I had a jaw-dropping experience thinking about the functioning of the brain cells of the Director/choreographer of this movie to come up with such an idea. But on the hindsight, you should look at the ‘true’ intentions of people in love. (pun intended). Honestly, after watching this, I can’t stop singing in my conscience..Mein hoon tera Superman ! :D
Translation Faux-Pas
Originally a video in Tamil language, featuring Prabhu deva — the dancing king, this has been given the english translations by a US citizen based NOT on the meaning of the words, but on their sounding rhymes. End result, disaster for the song; but extremely ribald and mirthful lyrics such as ‘I put a papaya in there’ , ‘I see the nuns as gay’ and ‘ I’ll like to pee on you’. I was laughing on my splits out on watching this. Enjoy !!
Retarded Choreography
I found this song when i was searching for videos on Evolution of Movies, and i land up on this video which was classified under Evolution of dance. I clicked it, and ever since i haven’t sit straight. Probably, the worse choreographed song ever in a Z-grade bollywood movie, but you can’t stop laughing seeing the expressions of the guy in the video. He Plays hide and seek in the bush, he writes love letters and he rolls in the garden. Only saving grace is the song is not that bad (Or, I have dropped my standards considerably after watching this video :D). Watch this ‘LMAO video’ from the movie Pyaasi Raat.
Mimicry Intermixed with Singing
Sonu Nigam is probably the most versatile and talented singer in the Hindi filmy Industry. Watch him mimic almost all the top playback singers of the last 20 years in this video. This is a part of the Johnny lever’s comedy show on Zee TV telecasted couple of years back. My favourite one in this video is when he copies Suresh Wadekar, probably the most toughest to copy among all singers. Let me know your favourite too in this video. Have Fun !
Lodi Dynasty Reinvented
Ok, this one is from KBC-3 with Shah Rukh Khan telecasted on star Plus. An ultimate confused participant, he mixes up the options, he mixes up the year, he mixes up while talking on ‘Phone-a-friend’. The video is eminently watchable due to SRK’s one liners and to-die-all expressions and emotions. And what makes it more interesting is what happens in the end, when the participant chooses to freeze the answer. An rib-tickling video which makes even SRK pull his hairs out. Cheers for this one !
Patriotism at its Best
Bollywood movies can at times gives go over board, and create some extremely impractical but melodramatic scenes. This video encompasses such a scene, interspersed with a beautiful patriotic song sung by Mahendra Kapoor. Watch the bed ridden Ashok Kumar, hit back with a venegance, the hamming Manoj Kumar at its best. This is one of the reasons why films still holds utter significant means of entertainment in India, they give us Hope, they give us laughter and they make us live another day here ! Jai Hind !
A Teenage Love Ballad
How can i end any post without some mush :D. Ok, so this one is for all those people who have always had fantasy of having that ‘little more’ independence during the school days. Originally in Bhojpuri Language, it takes you down the memory lane of those hay days when you were not caught in the intricacies and whirl wind of this materialistic world. A pretty girl, a dancing teenage lad ‘Manoj’, and loads of love, it makes a perfect recipe for a mushy teenage Love song.
|
https://medium.com/@amitgupta0310/fun-frolic-on-youtube-470289e23935
|
['Amit Kumar Gupta']
|
2020-12-14 15:50:10.625000+00:00
|
['Frolic', 'Fun', 'YouTube', 'Romance']
|
#WarnerMedia Reign In Your Perv Stepchild #HBO
|
#WarnerMedia Reign In Your Perv Stepchild #HBO
Game Of Thrones Nudity
MAY 2020 GIANTFREAKINROBOT.COM
During its run on HBO the original Game of Thrones series became infamous for the amount of nudity the show was willing to air, both male and female. Don’t expect that to continue on House of the Dragon. The world has changed and things like the #MeToo movement have made it more politically correct for people to be ashamed of their bodies.
Many of the actresses who revealed themselves on the show (like Emilia Clarke) now regret it. For instance, most recently Carice Van Houten (who played Melisandre on Game of Thrones) came out and admitted she now has second thoughts about agreeing to being naked on the series.
Carice tells Insider, “When the #MeToo movement started, that’s when it started sinking in for me… And it did sort of change my perspective on my whole career, not just Game of Thrones. In retrospect, I thought, ‘Why did that scene have to be nude? Why was that normal?’ I did question things and it was not so much that I was blaming anyone, but that’s just how we evolved, and just how the movement affected me.”
Attitudes like that are sure to guarantee that even if the production has a valid artistic reason for a nude scene on House of the Dragon, future actresses are likely to refuse to do it.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN’S SISTER FEELS A BIT CONCERNED ABOUT LEVEL OF INCEST IN “GAME OF THRONES” BOOKS
RUTGERSTHEMEDIUM
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love Jaime. I mean he’s a great character. And his arc is fantastic.But did he have to have sex with his sister so many times?” asked Mrs. Martin.
Mr. R. R. Martin has said that when he was writing the books, he drew inspiration from his own life experiences.”
SLATE
How Bad Is Aunt Incest, Really? It’s worse than cousin marriage, but cousin marriage isn’t that bad.
https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/jon-snow-daenerys-targaryen-game-of-thrones-aunt-nephew-marriage-genetic-risks.html
COSMOPOLITIAN
5 Times Targaryens Banged Each Other and Bad Stuff Happened
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a12121485/5-times-targaryens-banged-each-other-and-bad-stuff-happened/
THE INTERCEPT
“But there was always something unsettling about the show: its unremitting thirst for cruelty. Incest, decapitation, tongues torn out, pregnant women stabbed in the stomach, castration, people having their skin peeled off, rape, crucifixion, children thrown from windows, children jumping from windows, children being burned at the stake, people eaten alive by dogs, more incest. Then it culminated in actual genocide. Its enormous conglomeration of talent was harnessed to exquisitely depict ever more baroque barbarism.”
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/20/the-rise-of-game-of-thrones-was-part-of-the-fall-of-america/
MENS HEALTH
6 Times Game of Thrones Got Real Creepy With Incest
Hey, Jon and Dany! You guys are related.
BY PAUL SCHRODT
FEB 13, 2019
https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/g26315485/game-of-thrones-incest/
SLATE
“…and the Targaryen family’s love of incestuous marriages (which didn’t help much with the hereditary madness), so there’s a lot of potential here.
The series was co-created by Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal, who will both serve as showrunners.”
https://slate.com/culture/2019/10/game-thrones-house-dragons-targaryen-prequel-hbo-sapochnik-condal.html
CNET
House of the Dragon: Everything we know about the Game of Thrones prequel
The incestuous, dragon-riding Targaryens are the focus of the upcoming HBO show.
https://www.cnet.com/news/house-of-the-dragon-everything-we-know-about-the-game-of-thrones-prequel/
DECIDER
Dear TV Writers: Enough With The Incest Already!!!
By Meghan O’Keefe @megsokay
“The entire plot of Game Of Thrones is sparked into action when little Bran finds Jaime plowing his twin sister Cersei…”
https://decider.com/2016/01/14/dear-tv-writers-enough-with-the-incest-already/
NEW YORK TIMES
“…some HBO aficionados may have realized that this premium cable network now has three original series, including the fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” and the comedy “Bored to Death,” that feature narratives about incest.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/arts/television/incest-as-plot-point-on-3-hbo-series-just-by-chance.html
VULTURE | ALL IN THE FAMILY APR. 22, 2019
It’s Pretty Creepy to Root for Incest on Game of Thrones, Right?
By Hillary Kelly
https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/game-of-thrones-incest-jon-dany-creepy.html
The Atlantic | Game of Thrones: About That Hookup
“Game of Thrones is a show that has depicted slaughtered children, and sexual violence, and martial violence, and torture both psychological and physical;”
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/game-of-thrones-and-the-long-tradition-of-incest-in-literature/538170/
“PAY FOR DINNER?” “I INCEST” THE SOPRANO’S MEDIEVAL HEART
http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/gameofthrones/cersei/anne-boleyn-incest
THE WEEK
Dexter and TV’s ‘troubling’ incest trend — The Week
theweek.com › articles › dexter-tvs-troubling-incest-trend
Dec 20, 2011 — That makes Dexter the fourth cable series to unveil a divisive incest storyline this year, following HBO’s trio of Bored to Death, Game of Thrones, …
THRILLIST
True Blood on HBO — Eric and Nora Coupling — Incest isn’t Best …
www.thrillist.com › entertainment › nation › on-hbo-true-blood-incest…
Jun 30, 2013 — On HBO’s True Blood, incest isn’t best … All of which begs the question: in this world of incest-happy TV, are hyper-sexual vampires cool with …
GQ | Is Incest Boring? | GQ
www.gq.com › story › is-incest-boring
Jan 26, 2017 — HBO’s series Rome was the first time I saw incest on TV. We catch Octavia and her brother Octavian canoodling early on in the show, and in 2005
Rome, Season One: History Makes Television
books.google.com › books
Monica Silveira Cyrino — 2009 — Literary Criticism
Incest was even more popular among minor characters and shorter story arcs in … HBO’s Six Feet Under (2001–2005), the character Brenda had an incestuous …
|
https://medium.com/@soyracha/warnermedia-reign-in-your-perv-stepchild-hbo-fa6989ed7201
|
['Dailey Pike Aka Soyracha']
|
2020-07-04 04:35:28.302000+00:00
|
['HBO', 'Movies', 'Entertainment', 'Television', 'Game of Thrones']
|
The truth about the new SpaceX ‘Mini-Bakery’
|
Yes, you heard that right! SpaceX has a new mini-bakery! But it’s not feeding all the hungry SpaceX engineers working on the Starship at their Boca-Chica site. Instead, they make their heat shield tiles here.
SpaceX Van outside of the mini-bakery in Florida
As Starship prepares for its first orbital flight, the thermal protection system will play a crucial part in making the mission a success.
The SpaceX factory which makes the tiles have been widely rumored around on the internet for many years. But in 2019 we started seeing some SpaceX vans outside, something that looked more like a warehouse in Cape Canaveral, Florida. But oh boy, was it a normal warehouse, in May 2020 there was a site inspection that gave us a much closer look at the new SpaceX facility.
It’s said to have 20 employees at the time of inspection, they run 24 hours a day and they work 7-days a week, in 3 shifts. The facility is said to be about 40,000 Sq.ft in size. The number of employees at the time of writing this blog must have surly gone up as the SpaceX Starship prepares for its first orbital test flight.
Space Shuttle heat shield tiles
So now that we know where they are made, let’s talk about how they are made. The new SpaceX heat shield tiles are very similar to that of NASA’s Space Shuttle’s thermal protection system. They need to be able to withstand very high temperatures during the re-entry. For this, they need to have low thermal conductivity and high specific heat capacity and melting point. Elon Musk has mentioned that the tiles are made out of Silicon and Aluminum Oxide. The tiles are 90% air and 10% Silica and they are a bit like hard form. That’s because Air has a low thermal conductivity and high specific heat capacity. This is very similar to those of the Space Shuttle.
1/2 of the new SN20 is covered with these tiles.
SpaceX SN20 Covered in the new heat shield tiles
If we take a closer look at these tiles, we can see that they are labeled with red and green stickers.
Red and green labels on SN20
Closer look at labeled tiles
The tiles with red ones are found to have been broken or damaged somehow during the inspection. The ones labeled in green are found to be misaligned during the fitting.
Now, this might be one of the very first and very important problems for SpaceX to solve. It’s not as simple as baking a few foams like tiles and sticking them on the Starship. For the Starship to be fully reusable, it needs to avoid such inspections. To understand this better, SpaceX plans on reusing the Starship at least three times a day. NASA’s Space Shuttle had a similar technology and it took literal months for inspection and maintenance between launches. The main reason for this is that the Space Shuttle had a much more complex shape than the SpaceX Starship.
NASA’s Space Shuttle
Thermal protection system(heat shield tiles) on the Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle had many different shapes of tiles, and during the launch ice would fall from the main tank hit these tiles thus, damaging them. SpaceX has about 15,000 tiles compared to 20,000 of the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttles tiles were glued in place, but SpaceX uses a red robot to weld the mounting pins onto the body of the Starship and a person just comes along and gives it a nice push into place. The reason they choose the hexagon shape is that if they were to go with for example a square shape. then the heat would go between the tiles and the body of the Starship would be exposed to the Starship. The thermal protection on Starship is much more simpler and efficient than compared to that of the Space Shuttle.
On June 7th 2021 a Boca Chica watcher and Twitter user @StarshipGazer took some really good photos of a few shipments from the so-called “mini-bakery”.
One of them was a wooden crate and was labeled incoming mini-bakery. This could mean that they are moving the mini-bakery, near the production site. Again this cannot be confirmed yet, since it could be some more tiles from Florida as well.
What do you think about new SpaceX ‘mini-bakery’? Let me know in the comment section below!
|
https://medium.com/@adityakm24/the-truth-about-the-new-spacex-mini-bakery-19b7dd55bc3b
|
['Aditya Krishnan Mohan']
|
2021-09-05 18:02:10.750000+00:00
|
['Spacex', 'Space', 'Mars', 'Space Exploration', 'Technology']
|
Your Grandma’s Not Crazy — Food DID Used to Be More Nutritious
|
Every generation has a tendency to decry the ignorance of the generations that came before it, and lament the progress of the generations that come after it.
But in some cases… we really would benefit from believing in the stories and lived experiences of our predecessors.
Now, there are myriad compoundable factors that have contributed to the rise of chronic diseases, mental illness, and lowered immunity. When we remember that our agrarian ancestors faced very few documented cases of diseases we’ve now come to expect as simply a product of our corporeal wear-and-tear…
It becomes pretty simple to connect the dots.
The food we grow today just doesn’t pack the same nutritional punch as it used to.
An apple, it turns out, is not always an apple.
Not only that, but our lifestyles have changed so quickly and on such a drastic scale that our ability to absorb nutrients is much lower than it used to be.
Practices that help you absorb nutrients include eating healthy fats, maintaining robust gut health so that the small intestine can take in what’s been broken down, moderating alcohol consumption, ensuring present and active digestive enzymes, and diversifying gut bacteria.
And we tend to struggle in those areas — it’s connected to our broader issues as a society, yes, but it also has to do with our own personal lack of focus and inability to weed out distractions. (I offer a free course on getting that back, by the way, right here.)
However, staying on our best behavior will only go so far if the food we’re eating contains less nutrition than it should.
Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture.
The Maelstrom of Nutritional Depletion
According to a study that tracked the nutritional value of 43 crops from 1950 to 1999, at least six nutrients showed marked, consistent declines in presence at up to 38%. The other seven nutrients they tested for also showed declines, but with less continuous results.
Those six were protein, Ca, P, Fe, riboflavin and ascorbic acid.
Some other important things have happened since 1950 — the industrialization of agriculture, the shift to monoculture farming, and production on a timeline inconceivable to human beings even 100 years ago.
Yes, you can get a carrot any time, and it’ll be resistant to pesticides, a bigger size, and quickly grown.
But in the categories of calcium, iron, phosphorus, protein, B12, and ascorbic acid, it falls short of its grandpa carrot.
The study suggests that the reason for this change is that all of the advancements made to the carrot (or any of the other 42 crops) happened at so great a rate that its nutritional abilities couldn’t catch up to it.
Activists have other theories as well, namely soil depletion. Through erosion, poison, and anti-regenerative farming — whereby we don’t replenish the soil’s health after each harvest by planting crops that supply the nutrients the soil had just lost through the last crop’s roots — we have made our soil largely unable to meet its former standards.
There are certainly scientists who disagree, citing errors in study findings regarding duplicating the conditions of the 1950 and 1999 test subjects.
However, it’s not the only study of its kind. The Kushi Institute produced similar results, as did the British Food Journal, and several other publicans.
And given what we know about soil depletion… it doesn’t stretch the limits of our imagination to believe that our food simply isn’t as nutritious.
So what can we do about it?
We Don’t Need Nutrients Any Less
In fact, we probably need them more.
And just because vegetables and fruits are less nutritious than they once were doesn’t mean you needn’t bother eating them.
You just need to eat more of them.
We can’t all harvest and grow our own food — although creative solutions like square foot gardening, soil testing, and roto-tilling power tools to make better use of your lawn certainly make it easier — but that solution is certainly elegant.
In fact, experts often recommend alternating plots to give freshly-used soil a chance to regenerate its microbes while you feed it manure and other organic fertilizers.
Otherwise, you’ve got a few options:
Knowing that you’re not getting the same nutritional value from your fruits and vegetables as you should be, get lab work done and test to find out where your deficiencies are! That way, you can target your vitamin supplementation specifically instead of eating a bunch in the form of a multivitamin and hoping they all stick.
Simply eat more fruits and vegetables. Puree them in soups, roast them in huge batches, make vegetable and fruit smoothies, forego a traditional starch side at dinner for double-veggies, include fruits in your dessert craving repertoire more often, etc.
Petition the USDA relentlessly, your senators, the federal government, and any other legislative bodies you can move (it’s always best if you can start locally) to move towards regenerative farming. Start a CSA in your neighborhood! Rail against pesticides and soil erosion to everyone who will listen.
Although our vitamin and nutrient intake is surely declining, we have the agency and the resources to take matters from the soil and into our own hands.
And when our vegetables and fruits have the nutritional profile they SHOULD have, that’s the best medicine in the world.
|
https://medium.com/@pedramshojai/your-grandmas-not-crazy-food-did-used-to-be-more-nutritious-d7f3e1a52a6d
|
['Pedram Shojai']
|
2020-12-23 19:11:43.419000+00:00
|
['Health', 'Supplements', 'Gardening', 'Nutrition', 'Climate Change']
|
How Spread and Rest work in JavaScript
|
Have you ever seen three dots (…) in any modern JavaScript code? Do you know that this syntax is used for spread and rest, two different features of JavaScript? In this article, you’ll learn the multiple usages of both features and discover how they can make your code more succinct, readable and elegant.
One syntax, two features
Spread and rest are two different features that were included in EcmaScript 2015.
As we’re gonna see below, we could say that these features behave in opposite ways and, often, can be used as a complement to each other.
Now, let’s check what each one does.
Spread
Before explaining the spread operator, let’s check out an example where it could come in handy:
const config = {
height: 200,
width: 400,
backgroundColor: 'white',
title: 'Just an ordinary window',
content: 'something nice...'
}; showModalWindow(config); function showModalWindow(config) {
const windowConfig = {
modal: true,
showBackdrop: true,
height: config.height,
width: config.width,
backgroundColor: config.backgroundColor,
title: config.title,
content: config.content
}; // The remaining logic is not relevant for the purpose of this article
}
The above piece of code contains a function that shows a modal window. This function receives a configuration object with the available options to render this modal. It also composes a new configuration object that could, hypothetically, be passed to a more generic function that knows how to show different kinds of windows.
As you may have noticed, in order to copy the values from the config object supplied as an argument to the new object that’s being composed inside the function, each option was explicitly assigned. This is too verbose and could be even worse if we had more options.
There are different ways of making this code more succinct:
Iterating over the config object properties in order to copy each option from one object to the other.
Using Object.assign
The most concise, idiomatic and — IMO — elegant option: using the spread operator
Using the spread operator with objects
Now, look at this new version of the function from our previous example:
function showModalWindow(config) {
const windowConfig = {
modal: true,
showBackdrop: true,
...config
}; // The remaining logic is not relevant for the purpose of this article
}
After this change, our function will spread the own properties of the config parameter into the windowConfig object. This version is flexible enough to deal with any possible combination of options used.
One important point of attention here is that occasionally it might be important to implement some filtering logic on objects that will be spread, in case only a restricted set of properties should be allowed.
const config = {
height: 200,
width: 400,
backgroundColor: 'white',
title: 'Just an ordinary window',
unwantedConfig: 'this should not be allowed to pass'
}; showModalWindow(config); function showModalWindow(config) {
const filteredConfig = // implement some filtering logic here... const windowConfig = {
modal: true,
showBackdrop: true,
...filteredConfig
};
}
Using the spread operator with arrays
You can use the spread operator with arrays as well. In fact, when first released in ES2015, spread only worked with arrays (the support for objects was introduced in ES2018).
The usage is equally simple and self-explanatory:
const n1 = [99, 88, 77];
const n3 = [33, 22, 11];
const n2 = [...n1, 66, 55, 44, ...n3]; console.log(n2); //=> [99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, 11]
The items of the n1 and n3 arrays are spread at the beginning and end of n2, respectively. These values are combined with others — 66, 55 and 44 — that we explicitly declared when initializing this array.
Here’s another example, combining three arrays into a new one:
const signUpStatuses = ['SIGNUP_BASIC_INFO', 'SIGNUP_PAYMENT_INFO', 'SIGNUP_CONTACT_INFO'];
const analysisStatuses = ['PENDING_ANALYSIS', 'REJECTED', 'PENDING_DOCUMENTATION'];
const postApprovalStatuses = ['ACTIVE', 'SUSPENDED', 'BLACKLIST'];
const statuses = [...signUpStatuses, ...analysisStatuses, ...postApprovalStatuses];
As a curiosity, it’s even possible to spread an array into an object. By doing so, the array items will be the values and their indexes become the keys:
const monthsArr = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April'];
const monthsObj = { ...monthsArr }; console.log(monthsObj); //=> { 0: "January", 1: "February", 2: "March", 3: "April" }
Even though it’s a bit hard to find a real-life usage for this kind of “trick” (I myself have never used it), I like to know that it’s possible.
Using the spread operator in function calls
Another way of using the spread operator is on function calls. It can spread the items of an array in a sequence of arguments when calling a function. Let’s check out some simple examples to illustrate this feature:
const ids = [11, 12, 13, 14, 15];
retrieveItemsByIds(...ids);
The above example invokes a function and passes the 5 numbers from the ids array as arguments. It is equivalent to:
retrieveItemsByIds(11, 12, 13, 14, 15);
If you want to play a bit more, you could open your browser’s console and spread this array into console.log:
console.log(...ids);
Now, take a look at this example:
const pixels = [
[10, 25, '#DDD'],
[11, 26, '#CCC'],
[12, 27, '#BBB'],
[13, 28, '#AAA'],
[14, 29, '#999'],
]; pixels.forEach(pixel => drawPixel(...pixel)); function drawPixel(x, y, color) {
// pixel drawing logic comes here
}
This time, we’re creating a bidimensional array; then, we iterate over it to get each sub-array at a time; finally, we call the drawPixel function on every iteration and spread the items of our sub-arrays as arguments for this call.
Note that, in order to have the arguments correctly supplied, the sub-arrays values adhere to the drawPixel function’s signature order (x coordinate, y coordinate and color).
Rest
We can safely say that even sharing the same syntax, spread and rest do opposite things. As we saw, you can use the spread operator to break up objects and arrays, spreading them into other objects, arrays and function calls. Rest, in turn, groups array items into a new array, or object properties into a new object.
Using rest in destructuring assignment
Even though explaining destructuring assignment is not the focus of this article, here’s a very simple snippet to exemplify how it works:
// Destructuring assignment for arrays
const ipOctets = [192, 168, 0, 1];
const [octet1, octet2, octet3, octet4] = ipOctets; console.log('First octet:', octet1); //=> First octet: 192
console.log('Second octet:', octet2); //=> Second octet: 168
console.log('Third octet:', octet3); //=> Third octet: 0
console.log('Fourth octet:', octet4); //=> Fourth octet: 1 // Destructuring assignment for objects
const person = { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Doe', age: 42 };
const { firstName, lastName, age } = person; console.log('First name: ', firstName); //=> John
console.log('Last name: ', lastName); //=> Doe
console.log('Age: ', age); //=> 42
In a nutshell, this feature allows you to assign the items of an array or the properties of an object to individual variables.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of destructuring, I recommend you to read this article.
We can use rest with destructuring assignment either for objects or arrays. Let’s check out an example with objects first:
const user = {
name: 'Frederick Charles Krueger',
motherName: 'Amanda Krueger',
age: 80,
address: '1428 Elm Street'
}; const { address, ...personalInfo } = user; console.log('Address:', address); //=> 1428 Elm Street
console.log(personalInfo); /*
=> {
age: 80,
motherName: "Amanda Krueger",
name: "Frederick Charles Krueger"
}
*/
In the above example, we extract one property of the user object to a variable (address) and, by using rest, we group the remaining properties into a new object (personalInfo), that doesn’t contain the address property.
Now, look at this example with arrays:
const ranking = ['ALC', 'QUE', 'JNS', 'BMX', 'TAK', 'SHI', 'BAT', 'CFO', 'ACE', 'CAT'];
const [first, second, third, ...others] = ranking; console.log('1st place:', first); //=> "1st place: ALC"
console.log('2nd place:', second); //=> "2nd place: QUE"
console.log('3rd place:', third); //=> "3rd place: JNS"
console.log('Honorable mentions:', others.join(', ')); //=> "Honorable mentions: BMX, TAK, SHI, BAT, CFO, ACE, CAT"
The logic here is the same. We explicitly assigned the first three items of the ranking array to separate variables, grouping the remaining ones into the others array.
Maybe you have noticed, but it’s important to stress that the rest syntax can only be used at the end of a destructuring assignment. Hence, this example will result in an error:
const codes = [11, 22, 33, 44, 55];
const [first, ...others, last] = codes;
Using rest in a function signature
You can specify multiple variables as the first parameters in a function signature and use rest to group the remaining ones into a single array. Under the hood, it behaves exactly as destructuring for arrays:
function printRanking(first, second, third, ...others) {
console.log('1st place:', first);
console.log('2nd place:', second);
console.log('3rd place:', third);
console.log('Honorable mentions:', others.join(', '));
} printRanking('ALC', 'QUE', 'JNS', 'BMX', 'TAK', 'SHI', 'BAT', 'CFO', 'ACE', 'CAT'); /*
=> "1st place: ALC"
=> "2nd place: QUE"
=> "3rd place: JNS"
=> "Honorable mentions: BMX, TAK, SHI, BAT, CFO, ACE, CAT"
*/
And in case you have your arguments in an array, you could even use spread in your function call:
const ranking = ['ALC', 'QUE', 'JNS', 'BMX', 'TAK', 'SHI', 'BAT', 'CFO', 'ACE', 'CAT'];
printRanking(...ranking);
This way, you can use spread and rest as a complement to each other.
Another possibility is to group all passed arguments:
retrieveItems(111, 222, 333, 444, 555); function retrieveItems(...ids) {}
The above approach is better than using the arguments object, since arguments is not a real array.
Conclusion
The … syntax in JavaScript is used for two features which were introduced in ES2015: spread and rest.
The spread operator copies the properties from an object to another object. It also copies the items from an array into another array or even object (using the original indexes as keys). Last, but not least, it can spread the items from an array into a function call, using each item sequentially as arguments.
The destructuring assignment allows you to assign the values of properties from an object to separate variables in a very succinct syntax. It also works with arrays, making it possible to extract values from a given array sequentially into separate variables, all by using a one-liner syntax.
You can use the rest syntax to group function parameters into an array. By using rest, it’s possible to declare some normal parameters at the beginning of a function’s signature and collect the remaining passed arguments into an array variable. It’s even possible to group all of the arguments passed to a function and manipulate them inside the function as a single array. You can combine rest with destructuring assignment as well.
Do you want to become a JavaScript master? I highly recommend Mosh’s JavaScript courses.
And if you liked this article, share it with others as well!
|
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-spread-and-rest-9271b3dc688c
|
['Mosh Hamedani']
|
2020-09-25 00:56:51.928000+00:00
|
['JavaScript', 'Javascript Essentials', 'Javascript Es6', 'Javascript Development', 'Javascript Tips']
|
A Head is Just A Head
|
Written by
Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
|
https://marcialiss17.medium.com/a-head-is-just-a-head-a0b6032c69d7
|
[]
|
2020-05-19 14:37:28.137000+00:00
|
['Comics', 'Humor', 'Self Love', 'Cartoon', 'Politics']
|
“Why haven’t you hired more people in 2 years?”
|
I love it when potential hires ask me such thoughtful questions. It gives me a peek into how they evaluate a new job opportunity, especially with an early-stage startup. It also allows me to tell them more about my own thinking and explain the company’s mission slightly better. Questions about hiring are my favorite because it involves a certain kind of meta-thinking when you’re having this conversation in the hiring process.
Post-mortem of a bad hire
My co-founder and I have made our fair share of hiring mistakes in the past six years of our startup life, including, for the most part, the first startup which I had started right after college. Every time we’ve had to let someone go, we’ve sat down and introspected why we had to come to that stage. I am a strong believer in the notion that there are no bad employees, only bad hiring managers. So if I’ve had to let someone go, it was because of my fault and mine alone. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but you know what I mean.
We concluded that most of the bad hires we’d made fell into one of these buckets.
They were hired out of desperation. We had bitten off more than what we could chew and got overwhelmed with deadlines, which led us to conclude that we need more people, and we need them soon. So we said yes to hiring without too much diligence or everyone saying a strong yes for them. They were hired for something that we hadn’t figured out how to do ourselves first. There was a pattern for this one and something that we repeatedly did. As tech founders, marketing and sales didn’t come naturally to us. It was easy to think that this one person can come in and do things magically. Well, guess what? It rarely works. Hired without having a repeatable process in place. This is a corollary to the previous point. But even if you’ve figured out how to do something, it isn’t easy for a new hire to perform well if you haven’t systemized the process.
Our hiring principles
If you think hiring is difficult, try asking someone to leave.
We realized that the best way to optimize for good hires, especially in the early stages of a startup, is to hire deliberately. Of course, there would be situations when you can’t afford this — but beware that it comes with a trade-off of the possibilities of making a bad hire being greater.
We’ve come to put some principles in place that help us we’re not making the same mistakes again:
Hire only after writing the exact job description and getting it reviewed internally. Don’t hire for a position if you expect them to deliver or take accountability for critical projects or KPIs within 3 months from joining. All of the founders should be on the hiring panel. So should at least 2 team members they are supposed to work with, in addition to the person they’d be reporting directly to. Only hire someone when there’s a strong yes from everyone on the hiring panel. No exceptions. Trust your gut.
These are some very general principles that would apply to all early-stage startups — with some exceptions, of course. As more people get involved in your team’s hiring process, it is worth reiterating to them these principles. After all, explicit is better than implicit. Hiring is too important to be left to individual preferences.
|
https://sanketsaurav.com/why-havent-you-hired-more-people-in-2-years-e45b5a24b84
|
['Sanket Saurav']
|
2020-12-11 17:39:57.202000+00:00
|
['Hiring', 'Company Building', 'Startup', 'Company Culture']
|
一片難求的口罩
|
一片難求的口罩
struct Mask:Codable { var id:String var name:String var address:String var tel:String var adult:String var child:String var time:Date enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey { case id = "醫事機構代碼" case name = "醫事機構名稱" case address = "醫事機構地址" case tel = "醫事機構電話" case adult = "成人口罩剩餘數" case child = "兒童口罩剩餘數" case time = "來源資料時間" } }
接下來是解析口罩分布的地點
@objc func getData() -> () { let urlStr = "https://quality.data.gov.tw/dq_download_json.php?nid=116285&md5_url=2150b333756e64325bdbc4a5fd45fad1" print("GOT URL") if let url = URL(string: urlStr){ URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { (data, response, error) in let decoder = JSONDecoder() //存時間所要的格式 let formatter = DateFormatter() formatter.dateFormat = "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss" decoder.dateDecodingStrategy = .formatted(formatter) do{ try decoder.decode([Mask].self, from: data!) }catch{ print(error) } if let data = data, let masks = try? decoder.decode([Mask].self, from: data){ self.masks = masks print("get Result") DispatchQueue.main.async { print("viewDidLoad") self.activityIndicatorView.removeFromSuperview() self.tableView.reloadData() self.refreshControl!.endRefreshing() } } }.resume() }else{ print("error") } }
顯示在地圖上
import UIKit import MapKit import CoreLocation class MaskAnnotationViewController: UIViewController { @IBOutlet weak var mapView: MKMapView!
let locationManager = CLLocationManager()
override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad()
locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyHundredMeters locationManager.requestWhenInUseAuthorization() mapView.delegate = self mapView.register(MKMarkerAnnotationView.self, forAnnotationViewWithReuseIdentifier: "\(MaskAnnotation.self)") //這邊要解析地圖，需import MapKit guard let url = URL(string: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiang/pharmacies/master/json/points.json") else{ return } URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { (data, response, error) in guard let data = data else {return} let decoder = MKGeoJSONDecoder() if let features = try? decoder.decode(data) as? [MKGeoJSONFeature]{ let maskAnnotations = features.map { MaskAnnotation(feature: $0) } DispatchQueue.main.async { self.mapView.addAnnotations(maskAnnotations) } } }.resume() } } extension MaskAnnotationViewController:MKMapViewDelegate{ func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, didUpdate userLocation: MKUserLocation) { print("didUpdate") //定位 需import CoreLocation let region = MKCoordinateRegion(center: userLocation.coordinate, latitudinalMeters: 23.5, longitudinalMeters: 121) mapView.setRegion(region, animated: true) print(region) } func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, viewFor annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView? { guard let annotation = annotation as? MaskAnnotation else{ return nil } let annotationView = mapView.dequeueReusableAnnotationView(withIdentifier: "\(MaskAnnotation.self)", for: annotation) as? MKMarkerAnnotationView annotationView!.canShowCallout = true let infoButton = UIButton(type:.detailDisclosure) annotationView?.rightCalloutAccessoryView = infoButton if let count = annotation.mask?.maskAdult, count == 0 { annotationView?.markerTintColor = .green }else{ annotationView?.markerTintColor = .blue } return annotationView } func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, didSelect view: MKAnnotationView) { let annotation = view.annotation as? MaskAnnotation print(annotation) } func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, annotationView view: MKAnnotationView, calloutAccessoryControlTapped control: UIControl) { let annotation = view.annotation as? MaskAnnotation print(annotation) }
以上是做API解析的練習參考的網站
github
|
https://medium.com/%E5%BD%BC%E5%BE%97%E6%BD%98%E7%9A%84-swift-ios-app-%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BC%E6%95%99%E5%AE%A4/%E4%B8%80%E7%89%87%E9%9B%A3%E6%B1%82%E7%9A%84%E5%8F%A3%E7%BD%A9-ec57a52e662f
|
[]
|
2020-02-19 08:08:39.860000+00:00
|
['iOS', 'Json', 'Xcode']
|
How to value your Stocks & Crypto Portfolio on Google Sheets
|
At first, when I created CRYPTOTOOLS, I wanted to have a private flexible way to analyze whale moves on the blockchain, value trades I had made, find arbitrage opportunities and compute statistics in Google Sheets. Then friends got interested, so I made it more efficient and made the code public for everyone. I hope you can benefit from my work. And for developers who wish to directly connect to my API, let me know. I will do the necessary to create an API documentation.
The objective of this article is to show how anyone can automatically retrieve stock & cryptocurrency prices, crypto balances from public blockchain addresses, lending and farming rates from different lending platforms, and stacking and rewards from Proof of Stake blockchains.
Custom Built-In Crypto Functions in Google Sheets
These are custom built-in functions that I have created on my own. You can use and replicate the code in any Google Sheets. Duplicate the following Open Sourced Google Sheet and make it your own. Or go to the Github repo, and upload the following codes CryptoTools + GeckoPrices into your script editor in Google Sheets. At the end of this Medium, I’ve referenced a “How to upload javascript code in Google Sheets”.
You can edit the template, just make sure you don’t override it and destroy the formulas. If you want to make the sheet your own, you will need to go in Files and make a copy.
I will be describing each of the functions, as well as their purpose and how to use them. To make it easier for users to get acquainted with formulas, I created a Google Sheet Template for testing:
CrypoTools Google Template for hands on learning.
Once you want to modify a cell on the GoogleSheet, you will get a notification message, like the one you can see above. Click on Ok to modify, please make sure not to override the formulas. If you want to make it your own, you will need to go in Files and click on copy with your Gmail account.
How to value your cryptocurrencies?
Get CoinGecko Cryptocurrency Prices
Coingecko is a real-time cryptocurrency price provider like CoinMarketCap.
The GECKOPRICE custom built-in function imports CoinGecko’s cryptocurrency prices into Google spreadsheets. The code is completely Open Source and connects directly to the API provided by CoinGecko. For those of you interested in getting the VBA code for Excel, here you go.
The price feed is received in a cell. By default, the data gets transformed into a float number so it looks more like a normal price feed.
GECKOPRICE Function
Syntax: GECKOPRICE(ticker, currency,[optional refresh attribute])
Example: GECKOPRICE(“BTC”, “USD”)
1st parameter: the cryptocurrency ticker you want the price from, example BTC. 2nd parameter: the fiat currency ex: USD, EUR, GPB etc… 3rd parameter an optional fixed cell for automatic refresh of the data, this parameter
|
https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-to-value-your-stocks-crypto-portfolio-in-google-sheets-22bb7b42c39d
|
[]
|
2020-12-28 15:26:35.598000+00:00
|
['Cryptocurrency', 'Valuation', 'Data Science', 'Google Sheets', 'Stocks']
|
Two Renegades Speak Truth To Europe
|
The expected completion of the joint Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline project later this year, despite US sanctions intended to derail it, is a case in point. That the Germans, the French and others across Europe will benefit greatly from the pipeline, is indicative of the fact that economic cooperation that transcends ostensibly opposing ideologies can be the catalyst for the sharing of common goals. While Russia (and China) proffer a multipolar vision for the world, the EU and the US continue to resist it.
Imperialism
Wallace argues that US imperialism is the key underlying cause of the discord. Last year the American’s spent 740 billion dollars on ‘defence’ against their ‘enemies’ Russia and China, while denying their citizens universal Medicare.
US imperialism is a colonialist project that from the beginning was responsible for wiping out the native indigenous people in America itself. The ‘Great Game‘ of world domination of countries was likened in the late 19th century by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to pieces on a chess board.
Half a century later, US strategic planner, George Kennan said:
“We [the United States] have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity.”
The above geopolitical strategies have largely remained unchanged. But “Europeans are waking up to the fact that all is not good.”, says Wallace.
Clare Daly concurs:
“I think they’re incredibly well informed. The response to my speech right across Europe of people who can see through the Russophobia narrative was massive. Russia and China may be economic rivals, but they’re certainly not security threats.”
A recent indication of the economic rivalry between the major powers emerged in 2017 during the build up to Nord Stream 2. At that time Trump used the threat of a trade war against Europe as a bargaining chip in order to push American liquid natural gas in addition to building 13 fracking plants in Europe. This was despite the fact that Trump’s strategy was far less rational than the Nord Stream option. One of the plants, Shannon LNG, is located in Shannon, Ireland, which Daly and Wallace have been opposed to from the outset.
Jumping the fence
The Shannon story dovetails beautifully into the activists’ intervention at the local airport. For over two decades successive Irish governments have turned a blind eye and allowed the airport to be used as a US military base to facilitate its endless imperialist wars, which have destroyed the lives of millions throughout the world.
On the morning of 22 July 2014, Daly and Wallace, who were both members of the Irish parliament, attempted to search a US warplane for evidence of any breach of international law. They hurled a rope ladder over the perimeter fence of Shannon airport, were arrested for trespass and put on trial the following year at Ennis District Court.
In their book, Coalition of the Unwilling, the activists tell the story of their subsequent three days in court and how they managed to turn the tables around by putting Irish foreign policy on trial. “It brought light to the fact that the Americans have been engaged in wars of this nature for hundreds of years since the formation of their state. And we were bringing light to the fact that the [‘neutral’] Irish government were complicit in helping them do that”, says Wallace.
Daly continues the story:
“It [the Irish state] bent the knee to US imperialism largely because of the foreign direct investment, which is pretty reprehensible. We spent 800 years trying to fight British imperialism and then roll over and become basically vassals of the United States, afraid to take any independent stance for fear that we lose this investment. And we prostitute ourselves as a tax haven, actually really as well, to come in on that basis, which I think is crazy. But that’s kind of where it sadly comes from.”
Ultimately, Daly and Wallace were convicted and given a 30 day sentence in lieu of a fine which they refused to pay. A year later the authorities came looking to arrest them. The activists ended up spending just two hours behind bars.
The legacy of the Daly/Wallace trial is that it has exposed the notion that ‘neutral’ Ireland is a complicit actor in the United States mindless imperialist war machine.
“These crimes that are being done in our name are not being done with our support. One of the things that we built into the book was we reproduced, for the first time, all the WikiLeaks cables in relation to Ireland. And information is power. So people need to hear what’s going on. They need to educate themselves and that can then hold power to account”, says Daly.
In conclusion, the activist says:
“I think the key area where change has to come about is from the United States itself. And we’ve seen huge changes their below the surface. But unfortunately, I think experience will tell us that Joe Biden is going to make no difference whatsoever in terms of US militarism. He will carry on the same Democrat tradition, which is exactly the same as the Republicans. But it’s out of that disaster, I think, that the American people themselves will have to challenge those in power.”
Watch the full episode now
|
https://medium.com/@renegadeinc/two-renegades-speak-truth-to-europe-ca6ec329396f
|
['Renegade Inc.']
|
2021-03-12 09:02:31.513000+00:00
|
['Propaganda', 'Demonstration', 'Russian', 'Imperialism', 'Ireland']
|
Five Business Maxims for 2021. The human misery, economic destruction…
|
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
The human misery, economic destruction, and societal shocks of COVID-19 are irreparable, irrevocable, immeasurable and they just keep coming. Let’s face it, 2020 has been a tough year for everyone.
Amidst this brutal backdrop, many hunger for a return to the mythical yesteryear of ‘normal’ … that pre-pandemic time where everything was, well, umm, meh, you know, kinda’, oh what’s the word, er, like — normal. Yet, the chaos of COVID and its aftermath that continues to play out before us has rendered ‘normal’ obsolete. Let’s go further: ‘normal’ is officially obliterated.
This should come as no surprise for leaders in business, government, academia, or the NGO sector. For years we’ve been told don’t get too comfortable, change is the only constant, skills are out of date in five years or less, and techno whizkids can shred today’s business model over tomorrow’s breakfast.
So for 2021, I proffer this mantra to survive and thrive: normal is dead; renewal lies ahead; onward we tread.
Normal is dead. Renewal lies ahead. Onward we tread.
But just before we ring in the New Year, let’s look in the rear-view mirror for a minute. Harken back to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a global pandemic on March 11. It may well become one of those “where were you?” questions we will ask ourselves in the years ahead.
For me, I was sitting in my home office winding up several weeks of files and transition documents. I was being restructured out of my senior, public affairs-communications-government relations, position exactly two weeks later, March 25th.
This involuntary career sabbatical over the past nine months has given me plenty (read: way too much) of time to reflect, write and re-write various resumés, finish what seems like every course on Linked-In, and sit in on several hundred Zoom-Teams-and-WebEx calls and conference sessions. I’ve also ploughed through a few dozen books, journals and scientific-medical papers when not binge-watching Netflix, Prime or Apple TV.
The upside of all this is five business maxims that, I believe, will shape people and organizations in 2021, if not beyond.
Maxim #1: WORK IS WHERE YOU ARE
Knowledge workers (artists, writers, programmers, engineers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, scientists, interpreters, policy analysts, social media managers … pick a profession, almost any profession) are the dominant cohort of post-industrial economies.
Our job security resides in the collective grey matter between our ears and the intellectual property of our output can easily and endlessly be replicated and regurgitated by us day after day, over a career of decades, that often spans continents and workplaces. Thirty years after Robert Reich’s seminal book, The Work of Nations (1991), symbolic analysts are everywhere.
The massive exodus from downtown office towers and exurban industrial parks to work-from-home settings courtesy of the coronavirus changes will be the new norm for many organizations. Yes, work may still be a place to go to from time to time, but increasingly, the beach, a coffeeshop, cruiseship on a transatlantic crossing and/or your backyard-basement-or roof is where you will (or already do) create, innovate, contribute and add value.
When someone asks where you work, the answer is simple, where you are.
Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash
Maxim #2: COLLABORATION IS KING
With all due respect to the fans of content is king, your time has come and likely gone. Sure content still matters, but content is continually shaped, eternally evolves and is often discarded in the process of creative destruction across so many fields from media to science to manufacturing and almost everything in between. Meanwhile, collaboration (which is edging out competition in many ways) took centre stage in 2020.
Consider the unprecedented sharing of COVID-19 information from sequencing the virus to healthcare professionals sharing best practices to global pharma giants and academic institutions working together. It’s fascinating to think that information that saved a factory worker in Wuhan one morning was posted on-line and in turn, helped a grandmother in Milan a day later. Then, doctors in Houston tweaked the drug cocktail used in China and Italy later that same week to save a bus driver in his mid-30s.
In many countries, elected representatives across the proverbial aisle worked together to create and improve economic and wage(s) subsidy programs. In communities across the world, restauranteurs, retailers and manufacturers cooperated and established new models of locally sourced materials as their traditional supply chains were disrupted by border closures and country lockdowns. And charitable organizations worked together on joint virtual events to raise money to provide necessary services for their clientele.
For the last decade, consumers have been driving the sharing economy. 2020 is the year that many organizations got religion to learn that collaboration is king and the ultimate competitive advantage.
Maxim #3: BUSINESS IS BUSINESS (LABELS ARE IRRELEVANT)
As government lockdowns were imposed then relaxed then tightened again, business owners were (and remain) frustrated by the inconsistency and idiocy of some local government and public health dictates,
Big box retail can stay open but the shoe-store a block away can’t?
The neighborhood pizza joint can only do take-out but the state-run casino 10 minutes away is still open (with limited visitors) serving slices and beer? Construction is an essential service in one place but not another?
We’ve all seen the Facebook posts or local TV and radio spots urging us to shop “local” and support “small” business because lockdowns unfairly favour the global giants like Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, Home Depot etc.
I love and support nearby businesses like Sylvie’s hair salon/barbershop, Vito and Victor’s family-run Italian restaurant, Ray’s amazing Lebanese food, Doug’s French Bistro and Bar, and Sean’s hardware store, to name just a few.
They’re run by great people (some even employed my son).
They took risks, bet it all, and built their businesses.
They generously give back to the community each year with food bank donations, gift cards for silent auctions, fundraising drives and sponsorship of local sports teams and groups.
But Big Box chains give back too.
And they employ dozens, if not hundreds, of neighbours and friends.
Yet, unlike the nearby businesses, these larger entities often did not qualify for the alphabet soup of business benefit, tax support and rent relief program offered by federal, state/provincial and local governments.
Global giants, national chains and entrepreneur enterprises are all part of our commercial and industrial ecosystem. Employing 5 people, 500 or 500,000 adds value to the economy, gives people the dignity of work, and all are essential to our economy and our communities.
Bottom line: A business is a business — it creates value, employs people and delivers for its customer base.
Labelling it small or big, corporate or local, is irrelevant and only helps to sow division that governments and anti-capitalists alike are all too happy to exploit (but this is a column for another day).
Maxim #4: SPEED = SURVIVAL = SUCCESS (It’s NOW or NEVER)
It’s 2020 and everything is faster: our computers, our iPhones, traffic on the highway, delivery from your favourite store on Main Street or your latest order from Amazon.
Consider how vaccine makers shattered the paradigm of the decade-long journey from concept to clinical trials to manufacturing to distribution and mass vaccination; it’s now 12- to 18-months.
By the same token, governments reduced their age-old process of a white paper to public consultation to program design to implementation of new initiatives from years to mere months.
Stoic (if not Luddite-like) main street businesses took the one- to three-month process of web design, product photography, back-end e-commerce setup and delivery arrangements (local or global) and condensed it to five- or ten-days, max, to get on-line and change their business model.
The common thread across these examples is the urgency of now, because if stuff didn’t happen in the NOW, it was NEVER EVER going to happen. As customers and citizens, we no longer accept or tolerate such delays.
Pedantic planning and methodical project management will be consigned to the dustbin of history. New standards have been set in project scoping, design, raw materials sourcing, supply chain redundancy and parallel manufacturing processes. As a result, project execution across so many industries has broken the warp speed barrier and it’s only going to get faster.
Indeed, Speed = Survival = Success.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Maxim #5: STRATEGIC PLANING IS OUT, SCENARIO PLANNING IS IN
Before every MBA grad, business-guru turned author and global consulting firms question my sanity, let me explain. Strategy still rules and is critical for advancing a business, public policy or charitable drive.
However, COVD-19 has taught everyone that a strategic plan (not to mention a business continuity plan) is a worthless document or binder if it is not adaptable or as flexible as Gumby.
As we learned more from science about the virus, public health dictates and advice evolved, and government programs were over or undersubscribed, and communities were asymmetrically impacted, strategic plans were shelved and scenario planning became the norm.
“Don’t bring me one solution, let’s produce five scenarios” was the refrain from leaders across many organizations and sectors. Situation X demanded a response in the form of Scenario Y, but the evolving environment meant that Y could be quickly discarded for Scenario Z, and Scenario AB-2.18 or Scenario-SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS would need to be deployed.
To reiterate, strategic objectives are, and remain, critical for organizational success so disciples of Drucker, Mintzberg and Porter can rest easy. However, strategic planning is out … and is as dated as a fax machine.
Scenario planning is in, it is the 5G scalable approach. And this is especially true in our work is where you are, collaboration is king, business is business, and speed=survival = success world.
The ongoing global health emergency and consequent global economic morass has birthed (or cemented) these five business maxims: embrace them, live them, and please use them to make better decisions in business, government, the NGO sector … and in life.
|
https://medium.com/@walter-j-robinson/five-business-maxims-for-2021-and-beyond-fd42bcc570a6
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['Walter Robinson']
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2021-04-02 00:00:00
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['Business Strategy', 'Innovation', 'Collaboration', 'Business', 'Organizational Culture']
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Three Little Words
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Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently working on and talking about Personal Brand. It is something I have written about before. For those that have heard me speak on the topic, you know I have a real love-hate thing happening in that space.
And this idea — of personal brand — is not going away.
Ever.
I’ve seen various iterations of it over the course of my relatively short and uneventful career. Hell — I’ve participated in it in loads of ways from personality assessments to team feedback tools to séances and Ouija boards.
I’ve used the KOLBE index and Myers-Brigg tools. Completed the DISC and Strength Finder assessments. I’ve read Multipliers and Good to Great and dozens — maybe even hundreds — of other leadership and personal/professional development books.
I have taken courses, gotten certifications and attended residential workshops.
And every one of them — each book, course, personality assessment and feedback tool — has taught me something.
But none of them really explained what this Personal Brand idea is.
Not one.
And for something that we talk a hella-lot about, it strikes me as odd that we haven’t cracked the code and developed a definition. That there isn’t a formula or an unequivocal source of truth on this much-discussed topic.
Or at least not a consistent one.
Over the same period, I have watched the “done thing” go from a one-page resume with no colour to a snappy PR-type slide show with your photo, community interests and hobbies.
I have developed, practiced and even pitched my 10-second-elevator-pitch.
I have done and re-done the me-in-six-words over and over and over again.
Never getting it quite right.
So I’ve thought on it. A lot. As I do.
And here is what I have figured out…
While I have learned a lot from the books and the courses and the exercises around brand and self-awareness, I would not be the leader I am today — and I think I’m a pretty good one and so does my mum and a bunch of other people — without one common thing.
It all comes down to three little words.
Not always the same, but always three.
Each of these three-word-statements have been spoken aloud to me by various leaders over my lifetime. Each one — in three words — taught me more than any single book or course or certification.
Here is the list so far:
I’m not sure. Thank you to the leader who first said this to me and showed me that you didn’t have to know it all to lead. That acknowledging and owning the reality — and it is everyone’s reality — that we simply cannot know all the things.
You gave me permission to stop applying for the job I already had. You taught me I didn’t need to prove that I was the smartest person in the room.
In fact, you showed me how much that actually held me back as a leader.
I don’t care. Thank you to the leader showed me what it is like to be on a team where the leader does not care. Whether it was about me or the initiative or the team or the corporate direction.
You taught me — whether you meant to or not — to be cognizant of my own perspective. From you I learned how to monitor and watch for the warning sides of ambivalence and disengagement.
Thanks to you, I know how to avoid it.
Tell me more. Thank you to the leader who showed me that curiosity and a genuine interest in people and problems and situations is foundational to success. In business, in life and in relationships.
You taught me that listening is the better half of communication. Because of you, I learned that when I work alone, my growth is logarithmic and when I work with others, my growth is exponential.
I’ll show you. Thank you to the leader who leaned in, rolled-up their sleeves and invested the time to teach me. Who showed me how to do it, didn’t give up on me when I failed or fumbled and then let me have a go on my own when before I felt confident but when you knew I was ready.
You were my first real coach. You showed me that real leaders are actually first among equals on every team they lead. You imprinted on me the power of persistence and deliberate practice and I am better everyday for that lesson.
You can’t speak. Thank you to the leader who told me to be seen and not heard. You let me feel what it is to be muzzled. To be asked to dim your light. To feel cast out. To be outside the circle.
You taught me that Inclusion & Diversity are more than words on a corporate poster. You helped me see Inclusion & Diversity as more than just values that yield real and tangible benefit in a multitude of ways.
You helped me learn that they are my values.
Thank you for bringing me a few steps closer to finding my purpose. You helped me amplify my values and use my voice well and with clarity of purpose. I am grateful.
I am sorry. Thank you to the leader who gave me my first genuine, unequivocal, acceptance of all harm caused, honest to goodness, not a ‘but’ in site apology. You showed me your vulnerability and started me on a path towards the kind of self-discovery that has literally changed who I am and how I operate.
You showed me yours and gave me permission to show everybody mine.
Do not message HR and get your minds out of the gutter. This is supposed to be inspirational…
I need help. Thank you to the leader who in uttering those three words showed me that no one ever stops learning or growing or needing others. This classic ‘no-person-is-an-island’ concept was probably something I should have figured out by then. But I hadn’t.
You and the I am sorry leader would have loved each other. I am only sad you never got to meet. Besides the direct lesson, you also taught me to never miss or wait on an opportunity to connect powerful and important leaders with other powerful leaders.
I’ll do better on this going forward.
Every single one of these leaders, in speaking some combination of three-words, helped make me who I am today.
While some people might say that the three sweetest words are I love you — or if you are being a sarcastic smart ass like me, you might suggest they are You are right — we are all wrong.
While the words might be different, we are all right about one thing.
The number.
Always three.
Three little words.
|
https://medium.com/@itsleahhunt/three-little-words-cb295f95e9e9
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['Leah Hunt']
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2020-10-17 17:38:13.063000+00:00
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['Leadership', 'Personal Branding', 'Personal Development', 'Business Development', 'Growth']
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Y’all don’t wanna hear me, you just want to dance
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Becky sweeps across the floor to indulgent smiles. They all want to be near her, seen by her. Claps, cheers as she moves to the beat. The old people look up, eyes narrowed in search of the source of the noise, but knowing really it’s the young people’s time now. Music thuds, ties and tongues loosen. Formalities are over, speeches done, the cake cut, the endless summer haze of the afternoon is finally turning into night. Time is speeding up.
Emboldened, Becky spins, forgetting the shoes she’s wearing for the first and probably last time. She hadn’t really thought about dancing that day in Selfridges, Alison with her, fizz in the restaurant; a treat piled upon a treat but the only fitting way to accompany the afterglow — part calm, part thrill — that came with buying them. Now, as she wobbles before catching herself, five alert arms all try to do the same, nearly knocking her further off balance. Arms that earlier had tried to avoid being noticed as they competed just a little too keenly for the bouquet. Tangled, no you, really you, OK if you insist, sure, no problem.
Becky gets back to the beat and grins.
One, Two, Three, Uh!
Glances all around, arms raised in celebration, victory — I love this one. Faces hot with sweat beneath hair do’s and inhibitions both starting to come undone. The song is infectious. Everyone knows it. Everyone loves it. Everyone joins in. More claps, more cheers.
Becky goes cold.
My baby don’t mess around cause she loves me so
I know this for sure
Tom is sweaty-proud in his waistcoat, grinning. He’s at the centre of the day, no need to prove anything to anyone, taking it all in — the friends, the family, the tunes, the dancing. Becky too, of course, though he doesn’t see – can’t see – what it feels like on the inside when your throat is gripped by panic and fear and you want desperately for no one to know.
But does she really wanna, but can’t stand to see me, walk out the door
It’s kryptonite. She feels weakened, her certainty pierced. The cling of her dress starts to suffocate her. Dread starts to climb up from the floor, scaling her like a zombie mountaineer. No one notices. The horror remains hidden from view, just as the awful truth of this song is still concealed beneath its garish clothes and the shake it shake it shake like a polaroid picture jauntiness.
And it’s everywhere, still. Zumba, the pub, the radio at work, friends’ kitchens, cabs. It has followed her around her life like the eyes of a creepy painting. When she’d bought a new car a few years ago, a red Golf, it was weird how she’d started seeing red Golfs everywhere, despite having never noticed them before, as if they’d all been held in captivity and released back into the wild to keep her car company. Ever since Tom had proposed, something similar had happened with this song, its sense of doubt trailing and amplifying her own.
Becky steels herself, as she always did, to push the feelings back down again. Not today, she thinks. Please not today.
Don’t try to fight the feeling cos the thought alone is killing me right now Thank God for Mom and Dad for sticking two together cos we don’t know how
Previously the dread would take the form of questions. Whenever she rationalised one, another came in its place, then another, and another, and then those she’d knocked back would re-appear, and all would ricochet and cluster until individual questions merged to become a general, murky, claustrophobic fear. Now, on the dance floor, that fear leapfrogs all questions and plants itself in front of her. The unwelcome witch angry at not being invited, now here, unmistakeably, with a vengeance.
Does she really want this?
You think you’ve got it, oh, you think you’ve got it
But “got it” just don’t get it ’til there’s nothing at all.
It’s the question Becky has wrestled with for more than a year. Does she love Tom? No idea anymore. Her feelings are desiccated — labelled, second-guessed, subjected to so much examination that they have become the pages of an ancient book, to be turned only with white gloves, no longer a story with meaning, just a document to be observed. At the same time the relationship has become an edifice, part of the landscape of her life, impossible to tear down, her feelings sacrificed at the permanence everyone she knows assumes it to have.
And so the relationship lived on while the feelings became history, artefacts behind protective glass.
We’ve been together, oh, we’ve been together
But separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved
It wasn’t Tom’s fault. He’s a lawyer. You only ask questions you know the answer to and back then a yes was inevitable. She’d meant it then; she was in love. If she was put on the stand, under oath, her testimony was sound. It was the truth. But — the whole truth? Nothing but the truth? Over time, her yes struggled to contain that much, started to blur at the edges. What did that yes leave out? It felt too soon to know. Untethered by something that seemed so simple and fixed to everyone else, she felt confused and wronged, as if confronted by an exam question she hadn’t studied for. She knew a nothing but answer should stand proudly against paths not yet taken and doors not opened. It would withstand the someone still not met, the feelings not yet squashed. It wouldn’t recognise the implications of a glance deliberately not seen.
Her yes didn’t feel big enough for that.
On the stand now she’d feel, if not a liar, then certainly a fraud. She’d got used to the cold dread, inoculated herself against it, which made it easier to ignore, harder to detect, a frog in boiling water. But something about this song tonight shocks her. A shower run cold, its concealed truth suddenly an accusation. It is there in the questions, repeated over and over, as if the singer can barely bring himself to say the unsayable either.
If what they say is ‘nothing is forever’,
Then what makes,
Then what makes,
Then what makes,
Then what makes,
What makes,
What makes,
Love the exception?
A logic she didn’t want to hear, had denied for months now, is forcing itself on her. She knows what’s coming — the other half of the equation and its even more dangerous question, the singer stumbling again, incredulous perhaps that it even needs asking.
So why oh why oh,
why oh why oh why oh,
Are we so in denial
That half rhyme at the half line makes for a double whammy, a question that answers itself (why are we so in denial?) and turns Becky on the stand from witness to defendant. It’s an open and shut case, but still the prosecution pushes the point.
When we know we’re not happy here?
If. Then. So. When.
The equation is complete, the logic inexorable.
The music stops, leaving the final clause suspended, a real courtroom cliffhanger, the void heavy as a two-minute silence, sucking in everything. Feelings with no name. A bride’s silent scream. A hundred pairs of oblivious eyes. A bet on forever and a life lived on held breath and the hope things turn out OK. A yes not big enough for the life it creates and the lives it will one day shatter.
The song starts again. The void closes. Everything is locked away again. A time capsule that may never be opened, least of all by Becky, who for the first time today is unseen and ignored as everyone else claps their hands again and I am your neighbour and just want to make you cumma and shake it shake it shake it shake it like a polaroid fucking picture.
Claps, cheers.
There, hidden still, tucked away beneath the Hey Yas now sung deliriously by all around her, is the line that no one ever hears, that Becky wants to scream, scream into the faces of her family, her friends, of Tom, but hasn’t today and doesn’t know when she ever will.
|
https://medium.com/a-longing-look/yall-don-t-wanna-hear-me-you-just-want-to-dance-ef5e897d870
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['James Caig']
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2017-09-05 21:44:08.629000+00:00
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['Music', 'Stories', 'Outkast', 'Song Lyrics', 'Lyrics']
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Suddenly Single and Not Looking to Mingle
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Suddenly Single and Not Looking to Mingle
I didn’t plan to be alone in midlife — or expect to flourish on my own
Photo by Lizzie Finn
I was part of a couple for my entire adult life. I married the boy I fell in love with at nineteen, raised a family, and was preparing for the next phase of life when he walked out to start his new life without me.
Needless to say, I was shocked and grief-stricken. I knew we had problems. I never dreamed it was over, especially as he pretended as if he was still working on our marriage and not plotting his escape.
My immediate response to being single at 52? I believed I’d want to date ASAP because being alone and focusing solely on myself sounded very unappealing.
It’s not that I needed someone to take care of me — quite the opposite. I couldn’t imagine a life where I wasn’t the caretaker and nurturer — I believed it was my job to put the needs of someone else before my own.
A year later, with space and time, I see my immediate reaction was pure fear-based. I was afraid of the unknown.
I didn’t know how to be alone because I’d never been alone.
Plus, I assumed being married and coupled up was preferable to being single because 1) that’s what society tells us, and 2) being married was all I knew.
Institutionalized
I never lived alone as an adult. This meant I skipped an essential developmental stage of taking care of my own needs and learning about myself and my daily rituals, habits, and routines. Instead, I learned how to be part of a couple first, and that required compromise and sacrifice before I even really knew myself or my core values. I traded in freedom and independence for security, support, and love.
It turns out, to quote one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption — I was “institutionalized.” I had been part of the institution of marriage for so long that I didn’t know any other way of life. And I was deathly afraid I wouldn’t survive life as a single person.
I honestly didn’t know how single people lived or spent their time. I couldn’t imagine not checking in with someone daily. I didn’t know my wants and needs. I didn’t know how to put myself first.
According to the article below, only 15% of divorced or widowed women say they want to remarry (compared to 29% of men who say the same).
In the article, Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a psychoanalyst, and author of The Power of Different says, “If a single person has designed their life as they want it and filled it with things that reliably make them happy, they are really only looking to pair up with someone who truly enriches their life.”
My mantra is ‘never say never.’ But I am definitely in a phase of life where I am okay with being single. I’m enjoying getting to know myself and following my passions without compromise.
While I am grieving the loss of my old life and the future I imagined, I am not looking for a partner right now, because I feel fulfilled and whole, and quite happy.
Many single middle-aged women I know came out of long-term marriages feeling depleted and unappreciated. We give so much and often get much less in return. We think we are in equal partnerships, but in reality, because men aren’t socialized to nurture, we still do the bulk of the mental, emotional, and spiritual heavy-lifting.
There was a New Yorker cartoon circulating recently that spoke to the role women play in men’s lives and vice versa.
And it’s telling that the women I sent it to, sent it to me too.
This remains the dirty little secret about marriage that we don’t discuss with our mothers and daughters or in public, but something we all know too well — even in the year 2020.
Women are exhausted from marriage and family. And things are so much worse during this pandemic when once again, women are carrying the bulk of the burden of childcare and schooling — while also working, and caring for the home and elderly, aging parents.
Why does modern marriage continue to work against women or exploit our natural inclinations to nurture? Why does it require us to give up parts of ourselves, while men gain an entire mental, emotional, and spiritual support team?
Falling into place
It wasn’t until I moved into my empty nest and began to pour all my energy and resources into myself instead of my husband and our family — that I started to flourish in ways I couldn’t imagine.
Everything is falling into place for me now with very little resistance.
Despite the separation, moving, grief, depression, and a global pandemic — I am thriving. In the last year, I’ve cultivated over 1000 followers on Medium, and I launched an entire Screenwriting Academy. At the same time, I immersed myself in a ten-month course in Happiness Studies, and I’ve taken several workshops in psychedelic therapy. I’m working on a Young Adult novel and revising several of my screenplays.
Things are flowing for me.
Being single has perks. I can meditate, walk, dance, nap, read, write, and work when inspiration strikes and commit as much time and energy as I want to launch my passion projects. For years, my family came first, and that’s not something I would change. But I’ve learned putting myself last did take a toll on my health and happiness. It would have been nice if someone taught me how to have balance.
Now, without distractions and competing demands on my time, I can say yes to the things that feed my soul and say no to those things that deplete my energy — without feeling an ounce of guilt.
Relationships and happiness
According to research, relationships are a crucial indicator and predictor of happiness. We are social animals, and love fulfills us in ways few things can.
However, subpar relationships that place undue demands on us — do not make us happy. Nor do they make for happy, healthy, functioning families.
I think too many of us put our eggs into one basket. We believe it’s our partner’s job to complete us or make us happy. But happiness is an inside job. Happy people thrive and create happy relationships. Unhappy people who wait for others to fulfill them will never find the happiness they desperately seek.
I may not have a man in my life, but I am not alone. I have other relationships that are flourishing now that I can invest more of my time and energy into them.
Ultimately, I believe the relationship we have with ourselves is the most important. Getting to know your wants and needs is an essential stage of development that we often skip when we are young and in love. For those who find ourselves suddenly single, it’s not a bad thing to spend time on our own figuring stuff out.
To me, this unexpected unraveling of my life has provided a great gift. In midlife, I am finding my true self. Sadly, I see so many people doing the opposite. They choose to lose themselves even more.
As to whether or not I’ll ever remarry, who is to say?
I do know at this point in my journey, I’d rather remain single than compromise on my core values and needs going forward.
I’m also enjoying this single ride, and not yet looking to get off of it.
|
https://medium.com/narrative/suddenly-single-and-not-looking-to-mingle-33c931468d32
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['Lizzie Finn']
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2020-09-17 15:40:55.467000+00:00
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['Self', 'Life Lessons', 'Love', 'Marriage', 'Self Improvement']
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My Best Friend Did More For Kevin Than Anyone Else In His Whole Life
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My Best Friend Did More For Kevin Than Anyone Else In His Whole Life
Me, Toby
We went for a walk along the old railway line. My best friend and me. It’s tarred now, the path. Plenty of things to see and smell. Mostly, we’re happy to walk in silence.
Sometimes we have to move into the side to let people whizz by on their metal frame with spinning wheels.
“No problem,” he calls to them, even if they don’t say “thank you”.
It’s nice walking the old railway line. There is a plastic milk container hanging from a tree. It has sides cut out. It spins in the wind, but there must be a kind person who fills it up with seeds. We stop and watch the birds feed — when it’s not spinning.
After a while, it drizzled. Up went the umbrella. I don’t bother. I don’t mind the rain.
We came to a bench. Wooden, in need of paint. Near a big bin, people don’t know it is there, judging by the things I see lying on the ground. A man sat on the bench, head in his hands.
I stood back, wary. No-one sits on this bench next to a smelly bucket. My best friend stopped. Keeping his distance.
“Are you okay?” “… No,” the man said without looking up. “Are you feeling unwell?”
This time he looked up, a boy not a man, nearly, but not quite. His eyes red, cheeks puffy. He took a moment to focus.
“No man. I’m just nothing.” “Do you need an ambulance?” “No.” “This rain is getting heavier, you’ll get soaked sitting there, maybe you better head home.”
He was already wet through. I think he’d been there for a while.
“There’s nothing to go home for.” He sunk his head back into his hands. “I’m just concerned about you, you know.” “Nobody cares about me.” “I’m going around the loop, then I’ll be back to check on you. If you are still here.”
We walked around the loop, back onto the path back the way we came. Twenty-minutes at most.
He was still there, the boy on the bench. The rain was heavier now — but not as heavy as his head. My best friend went close to him, his umbrella stopped the rain falling on the boy. I felt sad for him. He smelled like burnt dead leaves.
“What’s your name?” “I can’t tell you my name, I’m just a nobody.” “Look, you are wet and cold. It’s time you went home, I think.” “There’s no-one there who cares, they think I’m a waste of space.” “If you are heading this way, you can walk with me under my umbrella.” “What’s your name?” He asked.
My best friend told him.
The boy said,
“I’m Kevin, you have done more for me today than anyone else in my whole life,” he stretched his hand towards him.
We shouldn’t touch anyone what with this virus thingy going about, but my best friend took his hand. I let the boy touch me too. He still didn’t want to come under the umbrella. After a while, we left.
We’ve passed Kevin on the old railway line a few times since. He sometimes has a bottle in his pocket. My best friend always says,
“Hello Kevin, how are you today.”
But I don’t think Kevin remembers him.
|
https://medium.com/dog-tales/my-best-friend-did-more-for-kevin-than-anyone-else-in-his-whole-life-13d273a589c1
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['Malky Mcewan']
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2020-12-17 20:50:21.490000+00:00
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['Friendship', 'People', 'Storytelling', 'Dogs', 'Sadness']
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Millennial Generation in Astrology explained
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When we talk about generational astrology, the planets that we have to keep in mind are the generational planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, as well as the outer planet Saturn. The three generational planets are the farthest from the earth and the slowest to rotate where Uranus takes about 84 years to complete its orbit staying in one zodiac sign for 7 years. Neptune takes about 164 years to complete its orbit staying in one zodiac sign for 14 years. Pluto takes about 248 years to complete its orbit staying for an average of 21 years in just one sign. Saturn is also worth mentioning here because it represents our limitations, responsibility, discipline, success in the material plane. It is the farthest planet we can see with our naked eyes. Saturn takes 28 years to complete its orbit (aka Saturn Return) staying in one sign for 2.5 years. They are not our inner planets which directly affects us but it affects us as a group and more so if it makes an aspect to our personal planets. Personally I have many of these aspects to my inner planets such as Moon conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius, Sagittarius Moon square Virgo Saturn, Aries Sun opposite Libra Pluto, Aries Sun trine Sagittarius Neptune, Pisces Mercury opposite Virgo Saturn, Pisces Mercury trine Scorpio Uranus, Gemini Venus square Virgo Saturn (also squares Virgo Jupiter though Jupiter isn’t an outer planet), Leo Mars square Scorpio Uranus. This means that the planetary transits happened from the time I was born greatly influenced my personality and I’m constantly carrying the energies of these outer planets in my everyday life. Therefore it makes sense that we consider these planets when determining generations.
Millennials are generally infamous for being entitled, sensitive and job hopping adult kids who refuse to grow up. Although upbringing and environment play major factors but their shared astrological placements also played a huge part of their shared collective traits. Now there are varying definitions of birth year range for Millennials although the most commonly used is 1981–1996 which I agree based on numerous factors including astrology.
My analysis on the Millennial generation is it began when both Neptune & Uranus were in Sagittarius and both Saturn & Pluto were in Libra. Uranus entered Sagittarius in 1981, the year the oldest Millennials were born. It first entered the archer sign in February 1981 then retrograded into Scorpio a month later and again reentered Sagittarius for good on November 1981. The Uranus shift in Sagittarius in early 1981 coincided with the beginning of the digital age with the rise of modern technology (Uranus) such as atari, personal computers, arcade games, VCRs on a global scale (Sagittarius) as well as the overall optimism (Sagittarius) of the new Reagan administration that promised huge changes (Uranus). Uranus retrograde in Scorpio coincided with the increasing rates of a rare cancer found in gay men in 1981 which later on became known as AIDS changing the way we view sex and the early 80s recession that began in mid 1981 caused by Reagan’s federal budget cuts that resulted in massive loss of employment (Scorpio) and the overall mood was gloomy. Meanwhile Saturn entered Libra on late September 1980 which coincided at the time when people were looking for a change in system (Saturn) in order to create a balance (Libra) between the society and government (Saturn) in the form of the One Child Policy law in China, South Korean revolution, Reagan’s election paving the way for the beginning of the new age. Saturn and Pluto both entered Scorpio in 1983 just in time when Reaganomics was starting to transform the lives of many Americans and the US regained its status as the global superpower resulting in its massive influence on various social revolutions in many parts the world that transformed (Pluto in Scorpio) its societies from dictatorial/communist to democratic. Afterwards Saturn entered Sagittarius in late 1985 and stayed there until 1988. It was during this time when dictatorships in many countries were failing, the American society was experiencing its economic growth and the overall mood was optimistic and jovial (Sagittarius). Neptune entered Capricorn in 1984 just in time when the Neptunian ideals and dreams were being brought out into the concrete world (Capricorn). This coincided with the mid 80s being known as the golden age of 80s music and movies (Neptune), it was in this period when MTV became popular with 80s icons Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Culture Club, Duran Duran, George Michael etc becoming superstars. Classic 80s films like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Goonies, Gremlins and teen-oriented movies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club were released. Saturn and Uranus joined Neptune in 1988 where the Neptunian dreams and ideals combined with the Uranian need to change the status quo and Saturn in its home sign Capricorn materializing it in the real world resulted in the end of communism in Europe, fall of Berlin Wall, the Tianamen Square massacre and the dissolution of the Soviet Union symbolizing the end of the Cold War. It ended in 1995 when Uranus entered Aquarius and Pluto entered Sagittarius coincided with the beginning of the tech bubble in the mid 90s ushering in the age of globalization. So the 1981–1995 definition of Millennial/Gen Y does makes sense from both astrological and historical sense.
As a result of all these events, the Millennials born with these planetary combinations were influenced by all these energies carrying it into their lifetime. Overall most Millennials have Sagittarius-Capricorn Uranus, Sagittarius-Capricorn Neptune and Scorpio Pluto placements in their natal chart which collectively incline them towards realizing their idealism out in the real world and breaking existing status quo. However members of this generation don’t have the same approach to change as a result of different placements of the older and younger cohort. Older Millennials (1981–1988) have strong Libra and Sagittarius placements which makes this leading edge Gen Yers idealistic (preferring passion over salary/job stability), collaborative and seeking equality in work and at home. They generally are the ones who prefer to work in a low paying job they are passionate about versus a high paying job they don’t like. They have shared planetary placements with younger Gen Xers notably Uranus retrograde in Scorpio (March-Nov 1981), Neptune in Sagittarius (1970–1984) and Pluto in Libra (1972–1984) which explains why most of them feel they relate more to Gen X. However what sets them apart from late Gen Xers aside from reaching adulthood in the new millennium is their Saturn placements are in interpersonal signs (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces) versus Gen X’s Saturn placements in personal signs (Aries to Virgo) based on the 12 houses the signs each rule. Saturn in signs is all about working with that energy in concrete ways which explains why Millennials as a whole resist the status quo (Saturn) looking to change and transform it (Scorpio) by creating balance (Libra) thru work-life integration, strives fairness & collaboration at work (Libra) thru flat organizational structures, equality to all gender & races (Sagittarius) as opposed to Gen X’s more individualistic approach.
Younger Millennials (1988–1995) have strong Capricorn placements which is the reason the younger half of Gen Y are more practical, prefer job stability over passion. These younger Gen Yers have triple planetary conjunction in Capricorn (Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) but the bad thing is although Saturn is in its domicile in Capricorn but with the combination of Uranus and Neptune there, it greatly offset Saturn’s qualities thus making Saturn more elusive and delusional. As a result, you get a sub-generation of overachieving young professionals that are confident, optimistic, ambitious and driven yet hate to do the hard work which irritates the older generations. They constantly on the lookout for something better which results to their job hopping. However that is not to say that this combination is doomed to fail. If used correctly thru a creative outlet, this triple conjunction can work very well with them. Since younger Millennials were children during the rise of the internet so this generation have an advantage of being tech savvy and knowing how to utilize (Capricorn) internet/technology (Uranus) as a tool to materialize (Saturn/Capricorn) their dreams & ideals (Neptune) out in the real world (Saturn/Capricorn). Many vloggers and Youtube influencers were born under this triple conjunction as well as many celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Jennifer Lawrence, Justin Bieber.
|
https://medium.com/@jmdortega/millennial-generation-in-astrology-explained-9d3fc8815102
|
['Jaclyn Michelle Ortega']
|
2020-12-27 08:06:50.226000+00:00
|
['Generations Y', 'Astrology', 'Generation', 'Planets', 'Millennials']
|
Why Is Finding Our Purpose Such a Struggle?
|
Finding our purpose in life is a struggle for many people. We often spend years agonizing over it, questioning if we’ve made the right life choices, and wondering if we’d done something else would our life be better.
When we grow old, we will look back over the years of our lives, and we’ll ask ourselves, “What if I’d done this instead of that? Would my life have been different? Would I have been happier?”
“If only” and “What if” becomes our life statements.
Why do we struggle with finding our purpose?
“Finding our purpose” is huge. It answers the question of why are we here. It defines what our lives are supposed to be about. It’s a philosophical question that gets tossed around at a dinner party or discussed on a campus quad. We laugh and joke with friends and family about what we would be if we had it to do over again.
But it’s a question that haunts our thoughts when we are alone.
When we are children, our concern is playing and having fun. We don’t dig deep into our person. We don’t worry about adult issues. Eat, drink, and be merry is a child's world.
Eventually, children grow up, and this is the question that we ask ourselves when we finally reach adulthood:
“Why am I here?”
This isn’t a question reserved for any generation. Thousands of years ago, people were asking it. In response, Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
|
https://medium.com/our-thoughts/why-is-finding-our-purpose-such-a-struggle-11263bdf4f4e
|
['Dayton Parks']
|
2020-12-28 03:48:18.311000+00:00
|
['Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Personal Development', 'Life']
|
LeetCode — Decoded String at Index
|
Problem Link: https://leetcode.com/problems/decoded-string-at-index/
Problem Description: An encoded string S is given. To find and write the decoded string to a tape, the encoded string is read one character at a time and the following steps are taken:
If the character read is a letter, that letter is written onto the tape.
If the character read is a digit (say d ), the entire current tape is repeatedly written d-1 more times in total.
Now for some encoded string S , and an index K , find and return the K -th letter (1 indexed) in the decoded string.
Constraints:
2 <= S.length <= 100
S will only contain lowercase letters and digits 2 through 9 .
will only contain lowercase letters and digits through . S starts with a letter.
starts with a letter. 1 <= K <= 10^9
It’s guaranteed that K is less than or equal to the length of the decoded string.
is less than or equal to the length of the decoded string. The decoded string is guaranteed to have less than 2^63 letters.
Approach Used: Mathematical and String
Explanation: In general if a string s consist of a word w of length l_w repeated n times implying total length of s, l_s = l_w*n. If we want to find the kth letter in s, we can find (k % l_w)th character in l_w. For e.g., if s = “helloworldhelloworldhelloworld” then l_s = 30, as we can clearly see the repeated word so w = “helloworld” with l_w=10 and repeated n=3 times. This means that for e.g. finding 26th character in s is same as finding (26%10)th => 6th character in w, which will come to be ‘w’.
Using this logic we can find the Kth character without having to build the actual string. So for this first, we need to find the length of the complete string or l_s. For this, we will iterate through the input string and increase the size or l_s by 1 if we find an alphabet and multiply l_s by the digit if we encounter a digit.
Now once we get the total_length, we will use a reverse of logic explained above to get kth character. It is important to understand that in this case the whole string will not be exactly contained of one repeated string but several strings repeated in different frequencies. So we cannot simply do k%l_w and get it. We will have to constantly update our k and l_s based on the fact if the last character encountered is a digit or an alphabet.
Code: (Java)
public String decodeAtIndex(String S, int K) {
//Note: this cannot be int as last constraint say that length of string can go up 2⁶³, but int can hold only till 2³¹
long size_of_resultant_string=0;
for(int i=0; i<S.length(); i++){
if(Character.isDigit(S.charAt(i))==true){
size_of_resultant_string*=(S.charAt(i)-’0');
}
else{
size_of_resultant_string++;
}
}
for(int i=S.length()-1; i>=0; i — ){
// find new k for original string based on length of final string
K%=size_of_resultant_string;
//if k is 0 then we need to return this character itself. But only if it is not a number
if(K==0 && Character.isAlphabetic(S.charAt(i)))
return “”+S.charAt(i);
//if k is not 0 and it is a characted then we reduce length of final string by 1
if(Character.isAlphabetic(S.charAt(i)))
size_of_resultant_string — ;
//if k is not 0 and it is a digit then we reduce length of final string by
//number of characters added (reverse of logic to find length of resultant string)
else
size_of_resultant_string/=(S.charAt(i)-’0');
}
return null;
}
Complexity:
Space Complexity: O(1). Constant space used for size_of_resultant_string.
Time Complexity: O(n). Linear time as we only traverse all characters of string twice linearly.
|
https://medium.com/@siddhantjain-sid/leetcode-decoded-string-at-index-db2af89a920f
|
['Siddhant Jain']
|
2020-12-22 09:34:00.385000+00:00
|
['Competitive Programming', 'Leetcode', 'Data Structures', 'String Theory', 'Algorithms']
|
The Wanderer
|
Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash
“It’s that time of year again: the Yuletide,
A time of ends and beginnings,
Death and new life,
When Nature brings forth darkness and quiet chaos,
And man erects radiant bulbs to strike back,
But still the black melancholy remains,
Lingering forever in the background,
Ready to ensnare us at our moments most vulnerable!
Alas, we are but men!
Who are we to understand the mysterious workings of our own nature?
But look! Over yonder, he comes!
The Wanderer, treading the snow with his slow and steady gait;
His eyes look ever forward, toward the future lights,
While beneath his feet crunch the bones of the past.
His whims are ever-changing like the tides;
His dreams and desires remain unknown, perhaps even to himself;
He is neither man nor beast, he stands apart;
But perchance he is the wisest of us all,
For it is only those who stand without who can truly see what lies within.
Home for the holidays.
But what does home mean to one such as him?
Is it a particular place that so esoterically draws him near?
Or is it the people to which he possess a mysterious affinity?
Or perhaps it is merely a warm fire and good company,
For tis the season when none would dare to lie and cheat and steal.
It is one thing to ask such questions,
But it is another to pursue the answers.
So few are we with true courage and determination;
The warriors of old all retired to their final rest,
Never to awaken.
Nay, modern man is a different breed;
Most would rather be sheep,
So long as they still get fed,
And their wool is bright and glossy.
Ah, do not despair!
I am old.
I think too much,
And do too little.
Perchance this is my curse,
Or perhaps it is my blessing.
Like Father Time himself,
I drift by,
Undeterred,
Until my final rest.
Look dear, at last, he alights at our doorstep;
This eternal nomad, traveler of the ages,
Builder of cities,
And destroyer of many more;
Come, let us greet him with open arms!”
“Hello again. I have returned. Perhaps I’ll stay for a little while.”
“Good, good. Welcome home, my son. And Merry Christmas!”
|
https://medium.com/the-reluctant-protagonist/the-wanderer-5242e1f86aaa
|
['Kevin Strauss']
|
2020-12-20 16:20:47.666000+00:00
|
['Philosophy', 'Satire', 'Time', 'Holidays', 'Poetry']
|
Outshine the rest by being a relatable and relevant freelancer. Here’s how
|
Pixabay from Pexels
If there is anything we have learnt from the rise of influencer culture, it’s that being relevant and relatable can pay the bills. And this doesn’t only apply to digital content creators, but to freelancers (and most working people, TBH) as well.
So how do you make sure that you stay in the know and on top of your game? Here are four ways to stay relevant and relatable as a freelancer.
1. Stay in the know
You don’t have to be one of the cool kids, but you do need to stay on top of trends, especially ones that fall into your specific niche. Knowing what’s cooking in your industry is crucial if you want to stay on top of your game, and on top of every client’s freelancer list. Follow some social media pages related to your industry and sign up to PR mailing lists so that you are the first to know of breaking news or innovations in your field.
2. Hone your skills
Technology changes at such a crazy-fast pace that it can be hard to keep up. But if you want to stay on top of your game as an independent professional, it’s advisable that you not only keep abreast of these updates but to also hone and freshen-up your skillset — regularly. Using outdated software or implementing old-school methods when creating work for clients could have them doubting your abilities and strategies, so keep your finger on the pulse of what’s hip-and-happening in your field.
3. Get social
We all know the power of networking and, whether you do it online or face-to-face at events and meet-ups, it gives you the opportunity to build connections and forge relationships in your field with prospective clients and peers alike. Whether you join an online freelancing community or attend the occasional industry launch, getting your name out there (for all the right reasons) can keep you front-of-mind when someone is looking to hire or collaborate.
4. Seek out opportunities
Good things might come to those who wait, but not those who lie in their beds binging series and not being proactive. There are always opportunities out there, and it’s up to you to be able to identify them and reach out to the right people to let them know what you could do for their business. It might take more guts and more effort than watching every season of Friends for the millionth time, but the reward could be a lot more lucrative.
|
https://medium.com/guildapp/outshine-the-rest-by-being-a-relatable-and-relevant-freelancer-heres-how-5b36c79428b6
|
['Helen Wallace']
|
2020-09-22 07:32:05.881000+00:00
|
['Freelancing', 'Freelancers', 'Solopreneur', 'Freelance Tips', 'Freelance']
|
Salesforce Health Cloud — The next Big Thing in Healthcare World
|
Being world’s largest CRM solution and cloud computing giant, Salesforce specializes in providing cloud solutions for various industry verticals. These solutions are tailored to meet the customer relationship needs of specific industries like finance, retail, manufacturing, media, government and education. Recently expanding into Healthcare industry, Salesforce has introduced its first patient management system known as Salesforce Health Cloud. Below are some of the key features of this product:
Patient Relationships not Records
The way Salesforce puts it , Salesforce Health Could manages patient relationships not records. As evident from the statement, this solution is primarily focused on engaging and empowering patients. It is the upcoming evolution in healthcare world that allows patients to be an integral part of care process through providing them access to a broad health ecosystem.
Health Literacy
Not only can patients find vital information regarding symptoms, patterns, diagnosis or treatments, the real time communication with professionals as well as access to care plans and recovery tracks improves their health literacy. This improvement lets them achieve better health outcomes which eventually leads to lower number of hospitalized patients.
Care Teams Collaboration
Along with empowering patients, Salesforce Health Cloud provides care teams and health businesses with a holistic view of care world where they can collaborate and monitor patient data in a much smarter way. The system takes care of patient acquisition, clinical check up appointments, hospital enrollments, access to treatment devices and medicines and much more, so that professional teams can focus on patients.
Rolustech is an official Salesforce partner. Contact our team of experts if you want consultancy regarding any app integration with Salesforce and we would be delighted to assist and guide you.
|
https://medium.com/business-startup-development-and-more/salesforce-health-cloud-the-next-big-thing-in-healthcare-world-e0b0662ea723
|
['Phillips Campbell']
|
2017-03-16 09:49:49.968000+00:00
|
['Health Technology', 'Tech', 'Business', 'Healthcare', 'Salesforce']
|
Review of a change plan prior to implementation is critical
|
Why is change management needed?
Change is the only constant in this world. Every organization undergoes some changes over time, be it a change in technology, change in business processes or change in product design. It is important for the survival of an organization to change, but it is equally important to maintain stability during the change. In regulated industries and certified organizations, it also becomes imperative to document all the changes that the organization has gone through.
As the digital age transforms the world, the rate of change is increasing and it is becoming more and more difficult to prevent chaos and maintain stability during the change. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for change management software. Organizations need to continuously improve their change management process to synchronize with the type and frequency of change being implemented. Any change management process should be able to meet three conditions:
1. Provide ability to change services and processes rapidly to meet business requirement
2. Provide stability, reliability, and predictability of services and processes during the change
3. Ensure maximum productivity of resources involved in the execution of change
Before starting the implementation, it is critical to review the change management plan and ensure that it meets the above three objectives.
A successful change management plan should incorporate the following factors:
• Define the purpose of change: It should be clear why a certain change is important and how it is going to benefit the process or the product.
• Engage stakeholders: All the key stakeholders should be engaged, especially the senior management and leadership. A change that is supported top-down is found to be more successful than a bottom-up approach. Each stakeholder must be clear on their role and responsibilities in the entire process.
• Clear communication: Along with the reason for the change, it is also important to communicate when the change will be implemented, how long will it take to implement and since when will it be officially effective.
• Infrastructure to support change: The change should be supported by proper documentation of the entire change management process. Proper documentation and change control is important as it helps in tracking the change history and reversing the change in case of error.
• Back-out procedure: What should be done in case the change does not perform as expected or there is adverse effect on the system
• Measuring the success: The success of a change should be measured to ensure that the change has been effective in delivering the objective for which it was implemented. The success of an overall change management process should also be continuously monitored based on the metrics mentioned below.
When reviewing the change plan it must be evaluated based on below metrics that predict whether the change management process needs any modifications:
• Successful changes: Number of changes that have been implemented successfully compared to the total number of changes implemented.
• The backlog of changes: The number of changes that are pending. Does this number grow over time?
• Emergency changes: The number of emergency changes completed. Does this number grow over time?
• Backed out changes: The number of changes that are being backed out. High numbers indicate trouble.
• System availability: Change management should ensure that the system availability either improves or does not get affected due to a change. Are the changes reducing the system availability?
The above metrics or KPIs indicate how successful your change management process is. In case any of the above KPIs indicate a red flag, all the stakeholders should get together to review that change management plan, and investigate and fix the problem areas. Change management does not end once the change management plan is implemented. It is an ongoing process and keeps evolving with time. Since there are numerous change processes to manage, such as design specifications, SOPs, material changes, supplier changes, process changes, etc., companies need to have automation tools to successfully manage these changes in a consistent fashion. Not only can software for change management assure compliance, it can also greatly enhance a company’s productivity.
Facing trouble with managing change across your organization?
Contact us now! Our CQ Change solution provides a comprehensive platform for change management across your departments and functions including supply chain. Our solution allows organizations to establish and follow best practice workflows to address the entire change management life-cycle.
Visit www.compliancequest.com to schedule a demo or speak with an expert.
|
https://medium.com/@compliancequesteqms/review-of-a-change-plan-prior-to-implementation-is-critical-8f14d60ceb68
|
[]
|
2020-12-19 13:30:21.595000+00:00
|
['Change Management', 'Change', 'Kpi', 'Review']
|
Finding Inspiration in The New Normal
|
The new normal has savaged many of us with hopelessness and doubt. Before the pandemic, it was a lot easier to find inspiration. If you lost a job or broke up with your ex, you could travel the world, move to a new state, find a new job, join a club, or pursue whatever captured your interest to rediscover yourself. Nowadays, with COVID-19 spikes and lockdowns, people have become apprehensive about the notion of socializing. Without a change of scenery and human connections, we’ve had to strongly adjust to this new lifestyle and finding inspiration in a safe, socially distanced way. Like many of us, we are left pondering how to go about this, and I have developed a couple of ideas based on my experiences in 2020 thus far.
|
https://medium.com/@kmoonho/finding-inspiration-in-the-new-normal-94b87ce3b276
|
['Moon Ho Kim']
|
2020-12-09 04:28:54.953000+00:00
|
['Gratitude', 'Inspiration', 'Covid Diaries', 'Pandemic Diaries', 'Career Development']
|
Traveling of tomorrow starts today.
|
A new deal for the Travel industry
For many of us, travelling is a way to preserve both physical and mental well-being. 83% of respondents declared that planning a trip works as a stimulus for looking into the future with optimism. Undoubtedly, the Travel industry is one of those which experiences consecutive lockdowns very severely. By ‘Travel’ I mean the numerous entities, starting from hotels, restaurants, carriers, car rentals, and ending with local guides and all the tourist services staff. There are, however, premises to be positive about the future. Nearly 80% of us want to go away this year to pay ourselves back for the stress connected to the pandemic. For the industry, this means a new deal coming which will emphasize even more the meaning of travel experience and everything surrounding it.
Over a half of the respondents admit they miss vacation so much that they are willing to plan a trip, even if it means cancelling it later. This makes the flexibility of hotels and carriers especially appreciated. The new reality has also redefined the perception of luxury. The most desired conveniences are privacy and maintaining perfect cleanliness, which give us a feeling of safety.
The pandemic reality has spurred the emergence of a completely new customer segment — the digital nomads. The fact that many of us work remotely means we can do our job from anywhere. In reality, 54% of respondents claim that the possibility of working and traveling around the world at the same time is now more attractive than before the pandemic. It does not mean, however, that the destination of our trips has become less important. 59% of respondents admit they would be willing to choose a destination based on possibilities to support local communities.
|
https://medium.com/@tgth/traveling-of-tomorrow-starts-today-877bcfc89b36
|
[]
|
2021-03-22 12:36:52.819000+00:00
|
['Digital Nomads', 'Travel', 'Covid 19', 'Experience', 'Trends']
|
Emerging VC Fund Managers: 6 Things LPs Don’t Want To See
|
“In VC investing, there is no “passive” approach, and
manager selection is the key to capturing attractive returns.”
— Cambridge Associates.
The need for high-performing, emerging VC fund managers will only grow with time. As large pools of wealth move from one generation to another, the new stewards will require the help of emerging fund managers to deploy their capital in a way that:
Reflects their unique value systems.
their unique value systems. Generates returns that are commensurate with their unique profiles.
returns that are commensurate with their unique profiles. Respects the core operating principles and beliefs of their ancestors (i.e., the older generation).
Furthermore, venture capital — as an asset class — has matured thanks to a more sophisticated approach to fund formation, governance, and network intelligence. What was once considered a high-risk unproven asset-class, is now a rigorous, risk-managed approach to funding innovation.
Therefore, talented emerging fund managers have a tremendous opportunity to position themselves to prosper from one of the most significant wealth transfers that will occur in human history. Especially if you are an emerging fund manager who is:
Intrinsically motivated to be the best steward of capital.
motivated to be the best steward of capital. Patient and possess a long-term view of their growth and development.
and possess a long-term view of their growth and development. Understands relationships and enjoys building trust with key stakeholders over time.
and enjoys building trust with key stakeholders over time. Values capital and the power it possesses to stimulate innovation and economic growth.
If you have read our previous post on Limited Partner (LP) outreach, you understand the realistic expectations to raise your first fund:
Outreach to over 500 LPs to secure your first fund.
From a cold start, it can take anywhere between 3–6 months to secure a meeting with a specific LP.
It takes between 12–18 months to raise (+/- depending on unforeseen economic shocks and events).
This is predicated on:
Activating your 1st-degree and 2nd-degree networks to get introductions to LPs. Communicating your value proposition to LPs so they will want to take a meeting and get to know you.
However, since most LPs will want to get to know you over time before committing capital, there are a few ‘watch-its’ when engaging with LPs. In the early days, your goal for LP meetings is to secure the next meeting to continue building the relationship. Therefore, you do not want unnecessarily and unintentionally trigger alarm bells, which will close the door on the relationship.
LPs, especially experienced ones, have a keen eye for negative indicators — just like an experienced civil engineer can look at a building structure and identify potential single points of failure.
In this post, we share six things LPs don’t want to see in emerging fund managers — we also share what they would prefer to see instead. LPs range in shapes and sizes too, and can include:
Founders and CEOs of existing companies.
Institutional investors, domestic and foreign.
Foundations and endowments.
If you are an emerging fund manager, most of your LPs are typically going to be family offices. For this post, we will focus specifically on LPs who have a long-term outlook on capital — increments of 10 years, for example — and manage 1B+ at a minimum. We focus on these LPs because once they do commit, they typically commit for three to four funds — making future fundraising easier over time (contingent on how well you perform as a fund manager).
The advantage: these LPs can continue to stay engaged with your fund over multiple economic cycles rather than respond skittishly to press and media over the short-term.
1: OVER-HYPED TRACK RECORD & ASSOCIATIONS
Hype, track-record, and associations are essential for quickly establishing credibility and relevance. Being transparent about successful investments is also important for demonstrating you have experience in the venture space, you spotted an opportunity, and you invested. However, over-hype is a negative indicator for multiple reasons:
A truly great track record doesn’t need to be overemphasized — just communicated transparently and professionally. Top LPs, while being emotional, are also strong rational thinkers who don’t enjoy playing ‘status’ games — they are about growing lasting, intergenerational wealth that reflects their unique value systems. Future success isn’t always a function of past success — past success teaches a lot. However, past success is typically a function of multiple variables, such as the people you collaborated with (team) and the specific market conditions during that period. Minimize your legal risk — inappropriate attribution to your fund thesis can be perceived as providing false/misleading statements. If in doubt, check your positioning with a VC lawyer.
Therefore, in demonstrating your track record and associations, be thoughtful:
Identify investments that are relevant to your thesis. The applicability of your track record is more important than big logos. For example, if you are investing in the Future of Work (FoW) and positioning a freight-tech investment as a point of credibility — the relevance isn’t obvious at all, even if your tech is about automating repetitive tasks and enabling human brokers to perform at new peaks. However, if you have led successful FoW investments and your fund strategy is to lead — great!
(Note: personal, sporadic, investing, and angel investing doesn’t count. It only counts if you have done that for some time, in some structured fashion, and have demonstrated performance consistently — one or two deals is not enough. Of course, we never say never, as there are always star performers such as Pejman Nozad who ‘“WOW”’ the ecosystem with sheer effort, patience, and collaboration.)
Communicate your structured decision-making process in investing and why you thought it would perform. Can you explain why you decided to invest in the past? Can you be transparent about the upside you saw and the risks? Can you tell why you accepted taking those risks? How did you compensate for bias in the investment decision-making process?
Can you explain why you decided to invest in the past? Can you be transparent about the upside you saw and the risks? Can you tell why you accepted taking those risks? How did you compensate for bias in the investment decision-making process? Strong emerging fund managers need some financial experience, whether running a P&L, being an investment banker, or, of course, working as a partner at a prior venture fund. If you don’t have financial experience, don’t lie about it. Maybe your founding partner does — demonstrate how you have compensated for individual voids and capitalized on talent synergies between team members.
Remember: you don’t want to come across as trying to ‘flex’ and artificially create ‘credibility.’ It is better to be transparent about your strengths and weaknesses, and, over time, demonstrate how you have grown.
2: HAPHAZARD PARTNERSHIPS WITH POOR SYNERGY
High-performing teams outperform individuals. However, this is predicated on several things (but not limited to):
Stability of the team, in particular, values-alignment and incentive-alignment.
Combined network reach, density, and diversity — not just a single network.
Talent chemistry and synergy (1+1 > 2).
Demonstrated experience working together.
Stitching together a team based on informal commitment just to appear more prominent on your marketing collateral — website, social media, pitch deck — is a negative signal. Furthermore, doing so without those individual’s formal consent can erode trust and critical relationships. People do this to demonstrate they have access to deal flow and to strengthen their’ status.’ Again, that can only get you so far. It is better to go back to first-principles:
Articulate what skills, experience, and resources your fund needs to succeed.
what skills, experience, and resources your fund needs to succeed. Identify what unique strengths and experience you need in the team.
what unique strengths and experience you need in the team. Define the value-systems that will bond the team together so different perspectives improve decision-making (decrease bias) rather than causing unnecessary conflict.
the value-systems that will bond the team together so different perspectives improve decision-making (decrease bias) rather than causing unnecessary conflict. Respect differences in belief but identify the core belief that every team member must-have. For example, I look for people who believe life is a chance to do your best work and express more of your potential. However, not at the cost of anyone or anything — they are positive-sum players.
If you don’t have the team out the gate — that’s fine. But you need to clarify a path to having support structures in place for everything from reporting, due diligence, accounting, legal, and marketing — are you leveraging advisory relationships such as Aduro? Are you leveraging technologies to help you?
If you and your co-founder (GP) haven’t worked together in the past, then you have to be very clear about your values and responsibilities, and why the cohesion exists — then let time and patience prove your hypothesis right (or wrong).
Summing it up: there are many accelerants for networking and team-building. However, solid relationships need time to be built. I’m an advocate for what Naval Ravikant refers to as ‘playing long-term games with long-term people.’
“In a long-term game, it’s positive sum. We’re all baking the pie together. We’re trying to make it as big as possible. And in a short term game, we’re cutting up the pie.”
— Naval Ravikant
3: IMBALANCED PRESENTATION BETWEEN BIG ‘VISION’ AND IMPORTANT DETAIL’
Top emerging fund managers have the gift of ‘drone-level’ vision and ‘on-the-ground’ visibility. That means they can provide high-level overviews, see trends, and devise a strategy that makes sense. However, they also can serialize that strategy into a set of actions, priorities, and processes:
What needs to be done.
needs to be done. Why it needs to be done.
it needs to be done. Who needs to do it.
needs to do it. When it needs to be done.
it needs to be done. How they need to go about doing it.
Generally speaking, information is considered more detailed if it is more sensory-specific (behaviorally specific). For example:
“We will hire a marketing leader with ten years of enterprise experience. To recruit the marketing lead, we will run LinkedIn job advertisements and ping our 1st-degree networks to source applicants. The applicants will be vetted via a 3-tier screening process, including — questionnaire, introductory interview, and an in-person interview at our offices.”
A more high-level description would be more ambiguous — you would find it hard to film a movie-script using the information. For example:
“We will hire top talent and have a reputable brand in the ecosystem.”
In summary: when positioning your fund proposition, do your best to communicate vision and strategy and always reinforce it with more detailed action plans and processes. An LP should be able to stop you at any point and feel confident that you can unpack more details or provide an overview.
4: CONFUSED LP VALUE-ADD
Don’t mix your distinct value propositions to founders and LPs. Emerging fund managers must communicate their differentiated thesis differently to founders and LPs because they have different criteria for what they want to see in venture funds.
For example, some things LPs will want to know:
How will this fund attract and secure quality deal flow?
Will I have the opportunity to co-invest in high-performing portfolio companies?
Are the fund terms LP friendly?
What’s the opportunity cost of delaying a commitment to this fund?
How would investing in this fund impact the risk and return profile of my portfolio?
In comparison, founders might want to know:
How can you help me with sales and go-to-market?
Have you built a startup yourself?
How do you treat founders when times are tough?
How can you help me optimize and scale my efforts?
Let’s suppose you have a 30-day program that can scan founder brains, identify areas that are under-optimized, and provide 30-min daily practices that can activate more of their superhuman potential. Let’s also suppose that the program can be scaled to their executive and employee teams at very attractive unit economics.
While this unique value-add may very well maximize the chances, your portfolio founders build winning businesses — who is this most important to? Founders and their teams. For LPs to consider this a value-add, you might have to frame it differently:
Amplifies deal flow.
Tech-enabled quality governance.
— choose the frame that speaks to your audience.
The converse is true, too — suppose you have a data-engine that can help you identify and secure pre-seed investments very early on, monitor those investments carefully, and track the big winners. Suppose your fund economics allows you access to invest larger amounts in those winners at a later stage of financing, and you extend that opportunity to your LPs to co-invest. That’s a great value add for LPs — they can maximize their gains! However, is it essential to founders? Yes, yet, it has to be framed differently:
Follow-on investment.
Access to later-stage investors to make your fundraising efforts easier over-time.
In summary: when communicating your unique value proposition, understand who you are communicating it to and what is important to them. Everything about your fund might be fantastic, however, if you don’t frame and communicate it effectively — no one will know!
5: CHANGING FUNDRAISING AMOUNT MID-RAISE
Imagine you are an LP responsible for a multibillion-dollar pool of capital, and you are always on the lookout to meet with promising emerging fund manager talent. Let’s suppose a trusted contact provides those introductions and correctly vouches for that emerging fund manager, his/her track record, credibility, and core values.
You meet the emerging fund manager, and he/she communicates the fund strategy and process clearly, and answers your questions transparently and with respect. Then, after the meeting, you receive an email from them saying that they have decided to change the amount they are raising — what does that signal to you?
Likely, a lack of clarity and discipline. While this might not be the case — remember, LPs will err on the side of caution. Broken trust and unintended negative signals can limit access to pools of capital.
6: UNCLEAR RATIONALE BEHIND A SPIN-OUT
It has become challenging for LPs to differentiate one venture fund from another. While GP spin-outs can be positive signals because of experience and time working together, you must also communicate:
What is unique about the proposed new fund?
How does that unique point of difference deliver value to LPs?
Why couldn’t you have delivered that unique value in the pre-existing fund?
These questions are easier to answer if your new fund comprises two partners spinning out together from different pre-existing funds. However, if the partners come from the existing fund, you must have a strong, transparent, respectful rationale for why the spin-out makes sense.
SUMMING THINGS UP
To gain the trust and confidence of LPs, especially institutional investors who are typically more risk-averse — be transparent, patient, and disciplined. While everyone has a different risk-profile, everyone agrees that it is a good idea to maximize rewards and minimize risks. If you find yourself in doubt, I suggest going back to first principles:
Demonstrate the potential upside to founders, LPs, and key ecosystem players.
Address key risks and explain how you (team, process, strategy, technology) de-risk those items to key stakeholders.
Demonstrate your team’s capability to execute on the opportunity.
Create a compelling reason for stakeholders to act immediately.
Build relationships and pay-it-forward whenever you can — you never know how it will come back to you.
Care for your overall well-being — mental, emotional, and physical.
Be transparent about your fund’s short-comings, personal past failures, and, more importantly, your plan to correct/compensate for areas of weakness over time.
Being a proper steward of capital is a long-term game you play with trusted, long-term people — if you are aligned with this ethos, I am confident you will enjoy this exciting journey!
|
https://medium.com/@arjundarora/emerging-vc-fund-managers-6-things-lps-dont-want-to-see-a75ae0f398cb
|
['Arjun Dev Arora']
|
2020-04-23 17:40:42.243000+00:00
|
['Entrepreneurship', 'Market', 'Capitalism', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital']
|
Much Ado About Pronouns: Pronouns, Peggy Noonan, and the worry that today’s hashtag movements will be tomorrow’s Trivial Pursuit answers.
|
If you told me years ago that in 2019 people would freak out over the subject of pronouns, I wouldn’t have believed you. But it’s true: Sen. Elizabeth Warren displays her pronouns in her Twitter bio, and people get upset. Reactions from Twitter range from those begging to have Warren’s iPad taken away to jokes about her supposed Native American heritage. Columnist Meghan Daum-who got red-pilled by the Intellectual Dark Web last year-wrote that Warren displaying her pronouns on Twitter is another example of performative wokeness.
“If Warren got the nomination and found herself in the position of having to tamp down the lefty virtue signaling in order to appeal to would-be Trump voters,” she said, “I suspect those pronouns would be gone from that bio overnight. At least I hope they would. Because trans and nonbinary people need allies in elected office, not just on Twitter.”
Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal went a step further and compared the current discourse over pronouns to the French Revolution. “We are being asked to memorize all this,” she wrote, “to change hundreds of years of grammar and usage, to accommodate the needs or demands of a group that perceives itself as beleaguered.” This new way of thinking about language, according to Noonan, is how Robespierre rose to power. I must be out-of-touch with the transgender rights movement because this is the first time I heard about any secret plot to guillotine people who refuse to use our pronouns.
What Daum and Noonan don’t realize is that displaying pronouns is useful. Involvement in the trans community has taught me that I can’t automatically assume people’s pronouns based on looks alone. I’ve met closted trans people who still present as their assigned gender at birth, as well as non-binary people who don’g present as androgynous. Also, on more than one occasion I’ve gone into fast food restaurants wearing makeup, eyeshadow, lipstick, and painted nails, only to have the cashier greet me with, “How can I help you, sir?”
There are two suggestions on how to avoid accidentally misgendering people. The first is to automatically refer to strangers by they/them pronouns, as I recently wrote for The Horizontal, but that can lead to even more unintentional misgendering. The second is for cis people to include their pronouns in their email signatures. “If someone is transitioning at work and only a few people know about it,” Jay Bendett of the Argo Collective blog writes, “sharing pronouns may out them before they’re ready. For a nonbinary person, sharing they/them pronouns often only sparks a lengthier conversation… rather than simply inform people.” Therefore, if more cis people include their pronouns in email signatures and Twitter bios, it makes it easier for trans and non-binary people to share their pronouns.
Daum does bring up a valid concern, as much as I hate to admit it. What if Warren’s pronouns are just for show? What if the current mainstream media discourse on transphobia, racism, and privilege is just Radical Chic 2.0? Trans journalist Katelyn Burns recently wrote for Vox about how many Democratic presidential candidates supported FOSTA-SESTA, which sparked more violence towards sex workers-many of whom are black trans women-than before. “Black trans women and other trans women of color deserve real policy proposals while they’re still alive,” she said, “rather than their deaths being used as stump speech applause lines and candidate hashtags.”
Also, if fellow Splice Today contributor Oliver Bateman is right, most journalists and influencers who talk about social justice are only in it for the money. Social justice is too important to be just another fad, but since political movements come and go and corporations love to cash in on human rights struggles, I worry that today’s hashtag movements will be tomorrow’s Trivial Pursuit answers.
I doubt Noonan’s prediction of a new transgender proletariat uprising against the cis bourgeoisie is going to happen, but Daum’s prediction might come true. I hope Warren will continue to support the trans community if she wins next year’s Democratic nomination. The current roster of contenders are talking about trans issues more than those in the past, but they could be just trying to garner votes. It won’t be the first time politicians played lip service to marginalized groups.
|
https://tmamone.medium.com/much-ado-about-pronouns-pronouns-peggy-noonan-and-the-worry-that-todays-hashtag-movements-will-1007257dc52c
|
['Tris Mamone']
|
2019-07-30 14:16:35.276000+00:00
|
['Peggy Noonan', 'LGBTQ', 'Pronouns', 'Meghan Daum', 'Transgender']
|
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