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How To Stay Human As a Content Creator	How To Stay Human As a Content Creator Blogpost burnout? For digital marketers, producing a never-ending stream of clickable content can get tiring. Here are four tips for keeping afloat in a digital ocean and staying human when creating. Illustration by Bogdan Magenta from Icons8 #1 Play to your weaknesses A few months ago, conversations about the AI takeover resurfaced once again, when OpenAI released their new language tool. As one of the cleverest bots yet, it’s able to synthesize and summarize multiple sources of information, as well as produce readable content that (with a little human-editing) can appear shockingly authentic. While we don’t know how much of a role AI will play in future content generation, we do know that it’s becoming an increasingly useful tool. Tasks that involve sourcing and presenting preexisting info are looking more like the domain of intelligent software, leading some to worry about their careers. Most likely, AI tools will supplement rather than replace most content professionals, but if content bots do break out in a serious way, the message will be clear: the more uniquely you your work is, the more value it will retain. If you write like an automaton, the automaton will beat you. Why? Because you’re not a robot; you’re a human — which is much better. Humans have all sorts of weaknesses and fallibilities and peculiar fetishes and weird thoughts, all of which we love to read about. Communicate your human weirdness in your content, and you’ll be repaid in reader empathy. Write robotically, and you may do a decent job of communicating necessary information, but your content won’t stand out from an AI crowd. Methods of injecting personality into your content are endless, and the best ones will reflect your individual self. But some ideas include: sharing a relatable memory, admitting something embarrassing, going on a journey with a questionable belief, resolving a conflict, exposing a conspiracy, revealing a secret passion, laying your cards on the table, etc. etc. This is why today’s brands are increasingly reaching out to creators, artists, journalists, and generally interesting people to help develop content that could, and should, only have been made by them. Illustration from Icons8 vector creator #2 Accept that everything is content now What many people mean by ‘content creation’ is usually a good example of the job done badly. Marketing funnels, explainers, listicles, how-tos, and generic blog posts are all well and good, but most of the time, their purpose is to pad out company websites and spend internal budgets rather than actually hook and captivate readers. Getting stuck in a cycle of this kind of content generation can quickly sap your energy, making you feel like nothing more than a digital litterer, adding to the infinite trash pile of online content, which at this point has supposedly exceeded 1.2 million terabytes of data. Way more interesting — and more human — is to acknowledge that ‘content’ needn’t fall into strict genres or channels such as site blogs. Today, everything is fast falling under the content umbrella, whether it’s targeted news reports or Instagram stories. Real content is the front page of the NYT, it’s your social media profile, it’s anywhere that attracts eyes, because attention is the one constant KPI in an online world. If the internet’s economy runs on attention, then content is its currency (sorry, bitcoin). Yes, writing for the attention economy is harder to wrap your head around than answering a direct consumer question in a blog. Content may not directly convert into readers or leads. But if you commit to trying, failing, and experimenting with contemporary content rather than sticking to increasingly archaic formats, it will eventually pay off — and you’ll have a lot more fun while doing it. Illustration from Icons8 vector creator #3 Talk about qualitative experiences, not technical specs Content creators often find themselves in a strange space between journalism and entertainment, where artistic creativity is mixed with corporate aims. This can leave you uncertain about exactly how to present information. You likely have something you need to say, but there may be no restrictions or requirements on how you say it. This applies to both content format and narrative focus: should you tell an objective story through a long-form article, a personal story with a social media video, or present distilled facts in a graphic? When in doubt, always go for the qualitative angle. What does the information look and feel like — what does it sound and smell like? Leave the dry facts and impartiality to journalists and technical writers, and take advantage of the freedom of a content role to tell a subjective, human story: Instead of explaining what happened, explain how the experience felt. Instead of giving information, give a reason to care. Instead of describing a product, describe how it affects lives. Instead of zooming out to headlines, zoom into the small stuff (Ira Glass style). #4 Molds are for production lines and expired food Finally, staying human as a content creator means continually resisting strict templates and definitions. Clients will often have rigid requirements for their content: certain length, tone, word count, and SEO — and there can be good reasons for this (UX consistency, past successes.) Whatsmore, your next paycheck, or at least your next commission, may depend on how well clients or managers deem you to have met these criteria. These are challenges that content creators are always negotiating. But, you need to be pushing back against the status quo, demanding concrete reasons for any rule or requirement listed in a brief. This won’t just help your sanity, it’s also your responsibility as a content creator. Just as a marketing manager, editor, or account exec should be establishing and maintaining a framework, you should be challenging the relevancy of rules, and always offering original and creative perspectives. Those that accept briefs without question might get the job done more quickly and without professional conflict, but they also won’t be pushing their client’s platform forward. We know that Google and social media ranking is designed to weed out repetition. They, you, and your audience, all want real human stuff — no matter what marketing bods might say. Yes, you should listen to and learn from experts and clients (often the same person). But also acknowledge the amount of content that you create and consume on a daily basis, and don’t undervalue your instincts about what makes good, human, content.	https://medium.com/@joecontentwriter/how-to-stay-human-as-a-content-creator-8dfc9a89ec75	['Joe Hitchcock']	2020-12-10 10:40:48.063000+00:00	['Creativity', 'Blogging', 'Content Writing', 'AI', 'Content Marketing']
Hope Can’t Sing but Knows the Words	Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash A drag show can also be a miracle if it starts on time. Bring your dollars and your hollers. Tip your bartenders. On your way there listen to pop anthems, imagine those words mouthed by a dramatic lip and a flourish of claw-like manicure. Hope for a kiss on the cheek that leaves a mark. Make-up is a true novelty when your lover prefers oiling his beard to applying mascara.	https://medium.com/prismnpen/hope-cant-sing-but-knows-the-words-8a8f19b20a8e	['Presley Thomas']	2020-05-19 17:38:04.015000+00:00	['Free Verse', 'LGBTQ', 'Drag Queens', 'Poetry', 'Gay']
My journey to becoming a front end developer	Photo by Julien Lavallée on Unsplash Hello world. after struggling with myself for a long time, finally, I decided to write, write about many things but especially programming. what happened that I became a front-end developer. where do I come from and so on… I think it worth listening to my story. First of all, I should say that English is not my main tongue. so sorry if I write a little awkward. But I will learn and improve my skills after a period. I was born in 1999 at the end of the second millennium. in a very hot and far desert, in South Khorasan, Iran. far from any form of growing new technologies, playing under the beautiful blue sky, grown up with the old type of technologies. as the days passed and I became 12 years old, I should move to another city to study. That days everybody believes that the only way of salvation is to study, learn and then move away, to bigger cities, to better countries. nowadays they have the same opinion. So I studied hard and went to a school in another city, we went to school the first day of the week and then we come back home at the end of the week. 6 days far from family in the student dormitory. Then my first sparks of inspiration happened. I saw a computer. with a huge case and an unordinary monitor, a big one, with a huge tumor on the back. my friends were hiding CDs in their bags and installing them secretly on the computer and at the night they sneaky went to play. one night I participated in their criminal activities and went to watch a movie. The TERMINATOR, I drowned in every scene of that movie. at a glance I was in love with the computer. some weeks later I saw my friend with a laptop working on a presentation. I saw that he changed the angle of a slide title, at the time I didn't know that a computer can do that much. I found myself more in love with the computer. At the end of the week, I get back to my homelands. I had a cousin older than me, he was the only man in the family that was able to understand me, I talk to him about computers and my love to them. He said that in their university they have many computers and they are allowed to work with them and use something strange named the internet, an unlimited source of knowledge and entertainment. at the moment I was dying for the computers, suddenly he screamed at me that a professor in their classes teaches them to program the computers, he told me that he built a clock last weak. For the first time, I saw myself lost in strange feelings I was sad, I never experienced something like that. I knew if I say my father to buy me a computer he will refuse, in that era, the computer was a device that the devil developed to take us to hell with it. only God knows that how much I begged for a computer it took 2 years for my parents to buy me a computer. They bought a Sony Vaio. I can't remember the model but I know that the laptop had 128Mb of graphic/VGA. That was a beast. For the next year, I searched for the programming books and learning materials that my cousin brought for me. that wasn't enough, I asked for internet from my parents… There wasn’t internet, there was no internet provider. I was disappointed after a month or more, I saw my cousin again, he told me about a new thing, named dial-up. Once again I was filled with hope, I asked for a dial-up modem. They bought it for me, for about a hundred dollars, that was expensive, that money required too much begging. but finally, I had a computer, an internet modem and the best part, the internet connection. can you imagine how much I was happy? I will continue this journey in another post later. These days I cooperate with an NGO, to teach boys and girls who are locked in a far and poor zone, to help them catch their dreams and change their future. And that has a great feeling. I'm satisfied and proud. Good luck dear reader. wish you the best…	https://medium.com/@ammi1378/my-journey-to-becoming-a-front-end-developer-a12f49125c1d	['Amir Mohammadi']	2021-02-07 04:10:52.211000+00:00	['My Journey', 'Helping Others', 'Programming']
Love Your Life And Take Charge of Your Life	“Live Your Values, Love Your Life” You wish to be happy and love life. Loving your life is a high state of satisfaction and in it, you obtain more alternatives, are more healthy, and have a larger sense of connection to all these around you and to your Creator. You might also have instances of the place you’re discouraged or sad. It is a natural cycle of life. Nonetheless, by paying attention to your values and what you worth, you’ll be able to love your life on a regular basis, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances. I will present a shift from a conventional view of values similar to honesty, integrity, and duty to a view of values that may dramatically enhance your happiness and your perspective to loving your life. First, let us take a look at conventional values. What are values? Values are normally described as ideas, standards, and qualities that information you in your life decisions. Values are an essential part of society to maintain in relationships and in addition, keep your jobs and your community structure intact. Usually, an individual’s values are an inventory of qualities like honesty, integrity, spirituality, or duty. There are actually a whole lot of values you’ll be able to say are essential to you. Proudly owning and residing these qualities would not create happiness, per se, what they do, nevertheless, is offer you a framework by which to reside your life. You may decide an individual’s values by observing their behaviors during good instances and bad. You’ve got in all probability skilled a disconnect when you’ve seen somebody be respectful to a possible buyer after which turnaround and be disrespectful to the executive assistant of that individual. It simply would not work. How do you take charge of happiness? The way you deal with anyone is the way you deal with everyone. Improve your happiness in life by altering how you consider folks and the way you deal with folks, whether or not it’s your workers or co-workers, pals, or shoppers. If you wish to love your life, even more, ask yourself, “What do I value?” This may seem obvious or it might look like a difficult query to reply to, so let’s discover this. One of many aspects of loving your life is to reside congruently with what you worth. Such a worth typically displays behaviors or attitudes you wish to mannequin or transfer towards. With a purpose to be taught what you worth, discover what you’re feeling drawn towards over the following week or two. For instance, when you’ve all the time needed to take artwork or writing classes, you in all probability worth creativity and self-expression. Deal with what’s essential to you. Make an inventory of this stuff you worth, like spending time with households and being wholesome. When you begin to determine what’s essential to you and what you worth, you’ll want to have more of these folks and actions in your life. In case your internal voice has been nudging you to take writing courses, for instance, ask yourself why. Is it since you need an outlet to specific your creativity or a discussion board to jot down your opinions? Both approaches, by doing more of what you worth, you’ll love your life more. Read More: 5 Steps to Overcome Pain, Stress, and Depression 5 Ways to Take Charge of Your Happiness Stop Comparing Yourself to Others Less Complaining, More Gratitude Know and Be Yourself Simplify your To-Do list Focus on One What does it mean to take charge of your life? “Live your values, love your life” signifies that you make decisions that can be in alignment with what you worth. While you reside in alignment together with your private fact and mindfully incorporate what you worth into your life, you give your greatest in each scenario. You permit nothing on the desk. Loving your life comes from aligning your actions together with your goals, values, and beliefs. Going towards your goals, values, and beliefs causes stress and dissatisfaction. While you deal with what’s essential to you and what you do to like life, you can be extra profitable, appeal to more alternatives, be more healthy and keep an optimistic perspective. Take Charge of Your Life Nearly all of us are exhausted from climbing the company ladder, dressing for achievement, and making an attempt to stability our work and household lives. We reside as if we’re careening down a freeway at warp velocity. So many people reside by the mantra “I’ve to maintain up,” “I’m what I do,” “I’ve to push myself,” “I’ve to show my price,” “I’ve to maintain going.” So long as you proceed to subscribe to the philosophy that you’re what you do you will be pushed to show yourself, please different folks, and reside as much as another person’s requirements. In different phrases, your life will not be your personal. How can I change my life? Cease and take into account for a second what would occur when you took the following out there exit on the freeway of your life, pulled onto a quiet nation lane, slowed down, and mirrored in your life. What would occur when you requested your self, “Are you doing an excessive amount of” “ Are you pushed by societal and peer pressures?” You could discover that it’s essential to reassess your priorities based mostly on what you’ve got decided is most significant in your life. You could resolve that you just want extra stability, extra time for yourself. You could notice that you need to take the larger cost of the place you make investments your time and vitality. By clarifying your values you’ll be able to regulate your life so that you just make investments your time and vitality in this stuff you maintain sacred. But to be able to do that, you need to ask yourself what do I worth? What’s most essential to me? These sorts of questions won’t solely aid you to know yourself to a deeper degree however in the end to refocus your life around what’s really significant. As unusual as this will likely appear, it is really much less essential to know the that means of life itself than it’s to know the that means of your life. Take into consideration your core values and ideas. Ask your self the query, what issues? Listing the qualities and attributes that you just take into account important to residing your greatest life. These are the values you utilize to outline your self. As you learn over your checklist how do you’re feeling? What did you find out about yourself? Have been you stunned by something? Now ask yourself, how are these values mirrored in your present life? Which values are you neglecting? In what methods would your life be completely different when you honored these values? Evaluating your values is the inspiration for main a life you like. The following time you are confronted with a call ask yourself, “Is that this choice in line with my deepest self, with what’s most significant in my life? Use this query as your compass to maintain you true to your core beliefs.	https://medium.com/@r-prakash202/love-your-life-and-take-charge-of-your-life-e144b4a1bcb8	['Ddf Journal']	2021-02-16 04:20:02.561000+00:00	['Values', 'Life Energy', 'Life Lessons', 'Life']
C++ Basics: Understanding Lambda	C++ Basics: Understanding Lambda Photo by Tudor Baciu on Unsplash Introduction One of the new features introduced in Modern C++ starting from C++11 is Lambda Expression. It is a convenient way to define an anonymous function object or functor. It is convenient because we can define it locally where we want to call it or pass it to a function as an argument. Lambda is easy to read too because we can keep everything in the same place. In this post, we’ll look at what a lambda is, compare it with a function object (functor), and more importantly understand what it actually is and how to think about it when coding in C++. Lambda Expressions This is how we define a lambda in C++: Lambda Expression — Code by Author plus_one in this code is a functor under the hood. Let’s now first see what a functor is. Function Object or Functor According to Wikipedia, A function object or usually referred to as a functor is a construct that allows an object to be called as if it were an ordinary function. The keyword here is the “ordinary function”. In C++ we can overload operator () to implement a functor. Here is a functor that behaves the same as our lambda: A Functor for Plus One — Code by Author One example of the advantages of using a functor over an ordinary function is that it can access the internal member variables and functions of that object. It will be clearer when we want to create functions “plus one”, “plus two”, etc. By using a functor we don’t have to define multiple functions with unique names. Functor Advantage — Code by Author As you can see, at the caller side it looks like a call to an ordinary function. How does it look like at the machine level? Well, a functor is an object so it has member variables and member functions. The ordinary function is as follows: int plus_one(const int value) { return value + 1; } whereas a functor is as follows: int PlusOne::operator()(const PlusOne* this, const int value) { return value + this->data; } Lambdas vs. Functors If we already have a functor which in some scenarios is better than an ordinary function, why do we need lambda? Lambda offers a simpler way to write a functor. It is a syntactic sugar for an anonymous functor. It reduces the boilerplate that we need to write in a functor. To see how lambda simplifies a functor, we create a lambda for our Plus class above. Lambda for plus operation — Code by Author We can remove a lot of boilerplate code from our functor above. We know that our functor looks like this: int PlusOne::operator()(const PlusOne* this, const int value) { return value + this->data; } What about our lambda? By assuming we define our lambda inside our main function this is how it looks like: int main::lambda::operator()(const lambda* hidden, const int value) { return value + hidden->data; } It’s very much similar to our functor other than the name. So now we know that our lambda is just a functor, without a name and with a simplified form. Another thing that you may notice is the hidden pointer’s name isn’t called this because the this keyword is used for the outer scope’s object. Callback Function Both functors and lambdas are often used for writing callback functions. They are very useful when we deal with STL algorithms. For example when we want to transform our data stored in a std::vector. With a functor we can write it as follows: Functor used with Transform Algorithm— Code by Author After calling std::transform, we’ll get {2, 3, 4, 5}. With lambda this is how we write it: Transform Algorithm with Lambda — Code by Author We can see that it is much neater with a lambda where we can read the code without having to jump to another place to see what operation is done to transform our test_data. Capturing Variables to create/initialize member variables We should think about a lambda as an object, to create and initialize member variables we use the capture ‘[]’ mechanism. To create and initialize a variable we can simply write it in ‘[]’: auto return_one = [value=1](){ return value; }; We can also make a copy of another object in the scope: void func() { int a = 1; // by value auto return_one = [value=a](){ return value; }; } void func() { int a = 1; // by reference auto return_one = [&value=a](){ return value; }; } Some other details Some other things that are important to know about lambdas are: It can be converted to a raw function pointer if it doesn’t capture Error, non-convertible Lambda — Code by Author The code above won’t compile because the lambda is not convertible to a function pointer according to the standard, the most obvious reason is that there is a hidden parameter in the operator(). But it is convertible if it doesn’t capture, so the following compiles: Lambda is convertible to function pointer — Code by Author This is because there exists a user-defined conversion function for capture-less lambdas. int(GetValue)() = [](){return 1;} By default the overloaded operator() is const Can’t build — Code by Author This code won’t compile because we are trying to modify a member variable in a const function. Remember that it looks like this under the hood: int main::lambda::operator()(const lambda hidden) { return hidden->value++; } The hidden pointer points to a constant lambda object hence the error. To modify the captured variable, we add a mutable keyword as follows: Mutable Lambda — Code by Author Passing Lambdas as Arguments We have seen one way to pass a lambda as an argument above, via conversion to a raw function pointer. But that only works for capture-less lambdas. There are two ways to pass lambdas as arguments of functions: The STL way, with template Use the template to pass a lambda — Code by Author Use std::function Use std::function to pass a lambda — Code by Author Summary and References We have seen that lambda is just a convenient way to write a functor, therefore we should always think about it as a functor when coding in C++. We should use lambdas where we can improve the readability of and simplify our code such as when writing callback functions. I hope this post is useful for you because starting from the basics will help us in the long term. Here are some useful references:	https://towardsdatascience.com/c-basics-understanding-lambda-7df00705fa48	[]	2021-06-27 03:34:24.893000+00:00	['Cpp', 'Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Coding', 'Software Development']
The First Solstice	“I just don’t understand why we need to do this,” Phil moaned, heaving his giant load back onto his shoulders. “How can we need more stones?” I was too busy with my own stone to reply. Plus, it wasn’t our job to think — we were told we needed to get more stones, and more stones we had got. Tonight’s party is to be the biggest and best party the village has ever had, said the King. We need stones for everyone, he said to us before we set out to collect the stones and heave them up to the Big Stones. Midsummer was upon us, and as it had been a very quiet year with hardly any major battles or noteworthy pillaging, the King had decreed that a new festival was to take place. Attendance at the Stones for sunset was mandatory. Half an hour later we reached our destination and we hefted our haul down onto the ground. “I’m changing my name,” Phil said to me once he’d caught his breath, “from now on, I am Phil Stoneman.” “You can’t change your name again,” I replied, “you’ve only just changed it!” Phil sat down on his stone. “I know, I know. But Phil Broadshoulders was just so…last week. When I was building that house, it felt right. Now I feel like a Stoneman.” “Well what happens when you go back to building houses?” I replied. This made Phil Stoneman pause. He was good at building houses and carrying stones up hills, but logic and reasoning were not his fortes. He lounged back on his stone, stretching his arms above his head. “I’m worried I won’t know anyone coming tonight,” he said after a while. I turned on my stone to face him. “Sure you will! My friend John is coming, you know him.” “Who?” “John Swift,” I replied. “The guy who runs everywhere.” “Oh, that guy! Yeah, he was trying to start some sort of running competition. With different metals for prizes, but I told him it would never catch on.” “That’s him. Deluded. But very useful when you need a letter or two taking over to Castletown. Hot Emma’s coming too.” Phil Stoneman sat up. “And is she…?” “Is she what?” “And is she…hot?” “Oh. No. That’s her name because she spends the whole day cooking over her cauldron,” I replied. “She’s actually very unattractive.” Phil Stoneman sagged back down onto his stone. “I’m never going to find a wife,” he moaned. “All the good 14-year-olds are taken now and even some of the 13-year-olds have settled down and are having kids.” His pathetic reverie was interrupted by voices, coming up the hill. We soon saw it was the King and his two most trusted men — Steven Bigbeard and David Dragonslayer, coming towards us. They were deep in conversation: “I really think we need more to eat,” the King was saying. “We have plenty of food,” Steven Bigbeard replied. “Don’t worry about that.” “I just…I just still think, that maybe we need to do a sacrifice…” the King’s voice tailed off. Steven Bigbeard and David Dragonslayer rolled their eyes. “We’ve been over this,” Steven Bigbeard said, “the people just aren’t that…keen…on sacrifices any more. They just feel they’re a bit…outdated.” David Dragonslayer nodded. “I even heard a rumour that they were going to do a walk or something, through the village, to show opposition. With written signs.” “Yes, yes,” said Steven Bigbeard. “A committee was being formed to think of an actual word to describe the walky-sign thing. If it happens we’ll just stamp it out, chuck everyone in the jail for a day or two. They’ll thank us later.” “Fine, fine! No sacrifices,” said the King, his hand resting on one of the Big Stones. Only the King was allowed to touch the Stones. “You always try and stop my fun,” he said after a pause. “First it was the whole Emperor thing, now the sacrifices…” Steven Bigbeard and David Dragonslayer looked at each impatiently. “You are being ridiculous,” said Steven Bigbeard, the only person who could ever get away with talking to the King like this. “King is a great name! Emperor just sounds so…megalomaniacal. Do you not think?” “Do I think! Do I think?” huffed the King. “I don’t even know what megalo — meglaman — that that word even means! Did you make that up?” “I did,” said Steven Bigbeard proudly. “Listen, you’re stressed. It’s going to be great!” David Dragonslayer said, using his arms in a calming motion, even though the King had his back turned, now gently stroking the Stones. “There will be plenty of food, gallons of wine, everyone has got their own stone in case the ground gets dewy…” “And the women know to bring a blanket?” said the King. “For when it gets colder later?” “Yes.” “And the men are all leaving their swords at home in case someone drinks too much wine and wants a duel?” “Yes, we learnt our lessons that Harvest Festival debacle last year. They’re being searched on arrival by Big James and Big Tony.” “And all the kids are being looked after in the village?” “Yes, two of the girls from Castletown are coming over to watch them,” said David Dragonslayer. “Yep. Mary Singer and Fit Martha,” added Steven Bigbeard. The King turned round suddenly. “And is she…?” “Is she what?” “You know…fit?” “Oh yes. Apparently she can do 100 sit ups without stopping,” said Steven Bigbeard. “Although just turned 18 and no kids yet, so there must be something wrong with her.” **** People started to arrive just after the eighth bell, excited men and women trudging up the hill towards the Stones. Phil Stoneman and I were tasked with handing out goblets of wine, Steven Bigbeard supervising the whole operation while David Dragonslayer stood near the King with his favourite dragon-slaying sword by his side in case anyone tried anything. “Thank you for coming,” the King said, “welcome to my Midsummer Merrymaking,” he added. “We really need to think of a better name for all this,” he whispered to David Dragonslayer. The sun started to dip and the party was in full swing. People were drinking, dancing, singing. Phil Stoneman got distracted from wine servantry and started talking to Hot Emma. She was explaining how best to boil a rabbit and he looked faintly disgusted, but the four or five goblets of wine he’d snaffled in the last 90 minutes were having their desired effect. The King was preparing to make his big speech. He stood on a large stone near the Big Stones. David Dragonslayer tapped a large goblet with his sword and the crowd hushed. “Ladies and gentleman…” the King started, but he got no further, because just then a fight broke out. It was Phil Stoneman. And John Swift. They were rolling around on the dry grass grabbing at each other’s tunics. “I saw her first!” Phil Stoneman shouted. “Nay! I!” John Swift replied. “She doesn’t want to join your steeplechase team,” Phil Stoneman yelled. “No-one even knows what a steeplechase is!” Then from the bottom of the hill came an almighty racket. At least a hundred people were charging up the mound. I recognised a few of them — Castletown villagers. Right at the front was Fit Martha. “Who’s looking after the children?!” some of the mothers shrieked. The marauding interlopers rushed for the bread and wine. “Can’t believe you didn’t invite us!” they shouted at Steven Bigbeard and David Dragonslayer. The King was beside himself, barking instructions at his subordinates to restore order to his Midsummer Merrymaking. The invading villagers finished their goblets; the mothers rushed down the hill towards their children. Still Phil Stoneman and John Swift tussled, Hot Emma her defining shade of red as two men battled for her affection. The sun dipped below the horizon and the longest day of the year receded into darkness. Amongst the mayhem the King had managed to climb onto the Big Stones, and tucked under one arm was a bleating goat. “Hand me your sword David Dragonslayer,” he ordered. “Listen up everyone!” he shouted above the racket. “Who wants to see a sacrifice?”	https://medium.com/@mylo-wilkin/the-first-solstice-3a33e103cc2a	['Mylo Wilkin']	2021-01-12 13:02:24.792000+00:00	['Comedy Writing', 'Fiction', 'Humour', 'Fiction Writing', 'Humor']
Instagram Music Isn’t Available in Your Region: How to Fix It?	Instagram music is basically a story sticker that allows you to add music to an Instagram story. The Instagram music sticker is available on both iOS and Android devices but not in every country. While browsing Instagram, if you have come across stories with music and the notification that the ‘Instagram Music is not available in your region’, it is simply because the platform is yet to get the music license for your region. Instagram needs a license to play music due to copyright violation or piracy issues. The platform implemented this feature after Facebook did, worked out a deal with Sony Music, Universal Music and the Warner Music Group to add songs to videos. In the regions where the feature is not available, there are a number of legal procedures that have to be taken care of as there is no universal law for copyright and piracy. It may take some time for the feature to be available on a global scale. Currently, the feature is available only in seven countries: Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, UK and US. Fortunately, there is a loophole that not only lets you listen to other people’s musical stories but even create one. Let’s see how you can do it. Instagram Music Isn’t Available in Your Region: How to Fix It? Uninstall the Instagram App And Use VPN First, uninstall the Instagram app from your device before getting a VPN. This is crucial since the app ‘detects’ your current location when you run the app for the first time. After uninstalling the app, turn on the VPN on your phone. Once your VPN is up and running, go to the Google Play or the App Store and install Instagram again. After you finish the installation, log in to your Instagram account. Here’s a simple guide on how to download and use a VPN to fix the ‘Instagram Music Isn’t Available in Your Region’ error: Open the App Store or Google Play and search for a free VPN app. Install the app on your phone. Open the app and connect to a server of the US, UK, Canada or any other country where Instagram music is available. Close the Instagram app and then open it again with the VPN running. That’s it! You can now listen to Instagram music in other users’ stories and add it to your own stories regardless of your actual location. Third-Party Apps You can add music to your stories with third-party apps from Google Play and the App Store, such as Storybeat or Instories. These apps allow you to add musical stories regardless of your current locations. If you want to create a track yourself, you can use an online AI-powered audio remover Lalal.ai which helps you remove vocals and backtracks from any audio. How To Fix The Issue If You’re In The Right Location? It’s one thing to face the ‘Music isn’t available in your region’ bug if you’re located in a country Instagram doesn’t support the feature in. But that’s absolutely different if you’re in the US, UK, France, Germany or any other place supported by Instagram Music feature. What to do if that’s the case? Update the App If the Instagram app is not updated automatically on your smartphone, you should update it yourself to make sure you don’t miss new important features. App update might fix whatever’s causing your Instagram issues. Sign Out of the App, Then Sign In This might seem too obvious, but signing out your Instagram profile and then signing in again could be helpful. Uninstall and Then Reinstall Instagram If you keep encountering the ‘Instagram Music isn’t available in your region’ bug and the two options above couldn’t prove to be helpful, time to take desperate measures: try to uninstall Instagram from your mobile device and then install it again. You can also switch from Wi-Fi data to your mobile data or vice versa. How to Add Instagram Music to Your Story If you’re among those lucky ones whose country of residence allows for adding music tracks to Instagram stories or among those who managed to fix the issue, here’s a simple guide on how to add music to your story. Take a photo/video or pick an image or video from your smartphone library. Start making an Instagram story as you normally would. Head over to stickers and find the ‘Music’ sticker. Pick a song, then choose the part of the song and timing you want to play in your story. Choose if you want to see the music sticker in the story as lyrics, cover art, or just a small box with the name of the song. Tap ‘Done’ when you’re finished and post your story. That’s it!	https://medium.com/@klara-alexeeva/instagram-music-isnt-available-in-your-region-how-to-fix-9357d972daa5	['Klara Alexeeva']	2021-01-14 13:21:16.564000+00:00	['Social Media Marketing', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Instagram', 'Instagram Music']
Phantom Memories	Memories are the most fascinating tricksters. Don't get me wrong, I have been a faithful slave of this trickster as long as I can remember. In fact nothing makes me secure like wrapping myself in the warmth of some memories. However, these days I find myself questioning the veracity of these memories by juxtaposing my own experience with the experience of those who have been with me. It is an interesting experiment. What about those memories that we don't have any witness? We have drifted away from the people or we went through that experience all alone. How can we tell ourselves that we experienced that for sure? On days when my mind is not clouded by romanticism, days when I don't take any nonsense from myself or others, I can sense that there is something wrong with the way I conjure those memories. The point is when we sprinkle a lot of nostalgia on some plain memories, it looks like an exotic dessert which is still vanilla underneath. There is an instant deception which most of us do not seem to discern. When I feel lazy and do not want to dwell on the counter arguments inside my head, I ask myself "What is so wrong with such harmless phantom memories? It is just in my head and I am not taking any action based on them." It is an excuse to go back to them because such memories are comforting. When I am being rational, I know that it is still tricking me to stay in the past. I started questioning doesn't mean that I have decided to let go of those memories. It is a tug of war even now. May be some day the more rational part of myself will win or it may be the dreamy self. Nobody knows for sure. Until then, whenever I catch a whiff of nostalgia in the air, I might try not to look through my rose tinted glasses.	https://medium.com/@chembarathi/phantom-memories-3f8c5959cea3	[]	2020-12-20 11:10:05.794000+00:00	['Personal', 'Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Memories', 'Reflections']
Repeating Dream Sequences	deeper still you have the drive to toe the path mossed over a bramble ambushed perhaps by hooves looking out a potential clearing but light only deceives here is where you expect to find what holds the enchantment in this story what brilliance will you turn into what kind of wisdom will people seek you for alone, still seems right but you misstep and mistake the mist for a change in weather a light jacket a stolen roll in the pocket a slip of paper with numbers the tree will emerge they said you just have to keep going but it will emerge repeating dream sequences a waterfall, swimming hole a tunnel, a haunted room these settings are familiar still alone, you walk through them forward and back a haunted room on the fourth floor a tunnel under a touchable moon a swimming hole, a rope swing a waterfall, a path behind it still the tree remains hidden a waterfall, a tiny brook a swimming hole, a second place medal a tunnel, where lovers meet a haunted room, a slice in the wallpaper and still no number tree even in the circle you drop the pack and wait rest and hear what calls on the wind a bird of prey drips from rain something scatters and breaks your heart again	https://medium.com/the-pom/repeating-dream-sequences-5a5fae8c38c0	['Samantha Lazar']	2020-12-12 16:08:38.938000+00:00	['Magical Realism', 'Fantasy', 'Short Story', 'Poetry', 'Magic']
11 Signs You Are In A Toxic Relationship	Some of us stay much longer in a toxic relationship than anybody with half a brain should. But for some reason, we just keep going back for more, long after most others would have walked out the door. Maybe we have a twisted sense of love. Maybe through circumstances of our choosing, we linger out of some misguided sense of duty. The answer is not simple. For whatever reason, our partner is our Kryptonite. Does Kryptonite imply a weakness or an allergic reaction? There’s no clear answer to that question. All we know is that even Superman was brought to his knees by the green rock. The Psychology of Toxicity If you are in an unhealthy relationship and you keep repeating the same behaviors, thinking things will get better… guess what… you are being exposed to Kryptonite. Yep, that person who you just can’t seem to shake; who you know is not good for you; who makes you feel worthless, they are your Kryptonite. Call it toxic, weakness, or allergy, they are something you need to avoid like the plague and never come in contact with again. For whatever reason, you are susceptible to their ‘powers.’ Don’t blame the Kryptonite for being Kryptonite. It is what it is. If you are around them, you will be undone. GET AWAY from them. Lessons hard-won. We can come up with all kinds of reasons to continue in a relationship. We think we can’t live without that person. We think they are the one. If you are hurting and miserable… something needs to change. It’s you. The Addictive Nature of Toxic Relationships Let’s talk about toxic relationships here. You know the kind: the one that makes you crazy, keeps you confused, and makes you hate yourself. When someone is your Kryptonite, it is like an addiction. If you are not on down the road of separation from that person, you will crash and burn. You think you can’t live without them…that’s how addiction destroys. Ask any addict who has been clean for a period of time and they will tell you, they cannot even use one time. Addiction or a toxic relationship will take your life… month by month, year by year. You cannot begin to heal until you are away from toxicity. When you are with them you are wounded. When we are in the midst of the storm, all we can do is survive. Once you are away from them and in the calm, your sight will clear. Hindsight is always 20/20. We can gain perspective. Many people do not leave a destructive relationship because they are afraid of what comes next. Fear of the unknown is greater than fear of the known, no matter how it is tearing them apart. The fear of being alone can keep us in a perpetual cycle of one bad relationship after another. There is no time to figure out why we choose the toxic people we choose. If a person wants a healthy relationship, the decision must be made that being alone is preferable to being miserable. A person has to take responsibility and admit that something, somewhere in their psyche is broken. If we are making bad choices in our intimates, stop and figure it out. Rushing from relationship to relationship perpetuates the issue. Nobody wants to continue in that miserable cycle. Doing the same thing over and over, thinking the outcome will change is called INSANITY. 11 Symptoms of a Toxic Relationship You may have experienced all or some of these at one point: Insults: Making negative statements about their partner to make themselves feel good. A negative statement or comparison that makes their partner seem lesser than. It is defined as a disrespectful or scornfully abusive remark or action. Emotional Abuse: Any act including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, infantilization, or any other treatment which may diminish the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth. Selfishness: The act of lacking consideration for others; being concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure. Cheating: The partner’s sexual or emotional needs or wants are more important to them than the other’s feelings and/or being honest. Physical Abuse: Physical abuse is the use of physical force against someone in a way that endangers or injures that person. Dishonesty: Deceitfulness shown in someone’s character or behavior, such as being a liar. Blaming: Assigning the responsibility for your bad behavior to someone else. Blaming is verbal aggression. Fighting instead of communicating: Screaming, yelling, and sabotaging the relationship because one is afraid of speaking the truth like an adult. Pretense: Pretending to be someone you are not; covering up who you are, what you like, and what you dislike. A false display of feelings, attitudes, or intentions. Arrogance: An attitude of superiority. Looking down on your partner thinking that you are better than they are for any reason. Drama: In relationships, some form of manipulation of others so that one’s partner’s conflict can be acted out on a ‘larger stage.’ There is a continual emotional upheaval and usually an unexpected, unpleasant series of events playing out. How You Feel In A Toxic Relationship These are ways you may feel when you are in a toxic relationship or after you finally untangle yourself from its grasp. This is by no means an exhaustive list. These residual feelings are even more important than the symptoms. If you are in a relationship and it is not nourishing and uplifting to you, something is wrong. Self-hatred and unhappiness. An extreme dislike or hatred of oneself or being angry at or even prejudiced against oneself. Such as feeling ugly, not good enough, seeing the bad, and forgetting the good in yourself. Insecurity. You no longer feel safe in the relationship, being constantly aware that they may leave you at any time for someone else. Manipulation. When manipulation occurs, we often feel angry and disbelief. Then follows the self-degradation of “how stupid or gullible could I be.” Regret: Overwhelming feels of regret; the desire to go back in time; have a do-over. Remember, from this day forward you can learn from your past and build the life you want. The belief that you will be alone the rest of your life is a symptom of self-hatred and insecurity, caused by the toxic relationship. Manipulation will cause a person to doubt their ability to discern other’s intentions. When you begin to heal, these feelings will slowly leave as you learn to trust yourself again. Every human on this earth, if they live long enough, feels regret… the “what if” monster. Deal with it head-on and determine that you will not let it rule your entire life. If being miserable is not for you, actively seek a way to LET IT GO and move on. Final Thoughts During your time of healing, seek out a strong support group. Gather your true friend(s) and tell them the truth. Often, we try to hide our problems from others. We suffer alone. You need the support of your friends and family. If they are negative or blaming in any way, move on to the next person who can be supportive in a positive manner, truthful, but never blaming. A licensed therapist can help you discover the underlying reasons why you are attracted to toxic people if this is a pattern. Find a counselor that can help you dig deep. There is a reason(s) you are attracted to persons that are like Kryptonite to you. Learning to love yourself is a process. Part of this process is knowing your standards and determining to not compromise on the important issues.	https://medium.com/@ritabelle5650/11-signs-you-are-in-a-toxic-relationship-aadbd1ddf2d9	['Rita Richards']	2020-12-10 14:53:22.612000+00:00	['Relationships', 'Narcissistic Abuse', 'Toxic Relationships', 'Abuse', 'Domestic Abuse']
The Ultimate Guide to All Your Credit Line (Line of Credit) Questions \| Finance Strategists	Look no further for all your questions about credit lines. We’ve answered 121 of the most common credit line questions for you. Before getting into the specifics, here’s a helpful video animation on what a line of credit actually is: Line of Credit Animation Video from Finance Strategists A line of credit, or LOC, is money lent to an individual or business which the borrower pays interest on. Depending on the type of LOC, the client either receives a lump sum, or is allowed to “draw against” their line of credit to make purchases, until the credit limit is reached. Typically lines of credit are given by banks, such as when an individual is issued a credit card. 1. Bad Credit Line Of Credit Is it still possible to obtain a line of credit from most banks, even if you have a low credit score. However, the terms may not be as favorable. A bad credit line of credit may have you paying higher fees and interest, for example, or you may have to secure the LOC with physical assets. 2. Business Line Of Credit A business line of credit is like an unsecured credit card businesses get from banks; they have a spending limit, which the bank decides, and they can spend up to that limit per month. The funds accumulate interest until paid off. Businesses often use lines of credit for short term funding. 3. Business Line Of Credit Requirements The requirements for a business line of credit are different from lender to lender. In general, most lenders require having been in business for at least 6 months, at least $25,000 in annual revenue, and a credit score of around 500. However, some traditional lenders may have steeper requirements. 4. How To Get A Business Line Of Credit? To get a business line of credit, you must first compare your options and check their requirements. Once you find one you qualify for, you must gather certain financial documents, such as bank statements, financial statements, and some legal documents. One you have your documentation and a willing lender, you can apply. 5. No Doc Business Line Of Credit A no doc business line of credit is like a line of credit offered by banks but it requires less paperwork. These lines of credit are offered by alternative lenders that operate differently from traditional banks. These lenders also tend to offer a number of other short-term financing solutions for small businesses. 6. Stated Income Business Line Of Credit A stated income business line of credit is a revolving credit line for which there is no income check requirement. These lines of credit offer businesses with limited income history an opportunity to receive businesses financing. These lines of credit often come with higher interest rates and a collateral requirement. 7. How Does A Business Line Of Credit Work? A business line of credit is a revolving line of credit that is offered to businesses for financing purposes. A business has a credit limit, which is decided by the lender, and may spend up to that amount before needing to pay down the balance. They accrue interest on outstanding balances. 8. Is A Business Line Of Credit A Good Idea? A business line of credit can be a great idea for business with a need for short-term funding. With a business line of credit, you can borrow up to your credit limit before having to pay down the balance. Business lines of credit are offered both by banks and by alternative lenders. 9. Business Line Of Credit Rates The exact rate for a business line of credit will depend on your credit score and the lender you choose. As of 2020, SBA lines of credit offer interest rates as low as the Prime Rate plus 1.25%, traditional banks offer interest as low as 7%, and online lenders as low as 14% but up to 90%. 10. Business Equity Line Of Credit A business equity line of credit allows a business to leverage the equity of their commercial or residential real estate for a revolving line of credit. These lines of credit have terms ranging from 12 to 180 months, making them useful for both short and long-term financing. 11. Business Line Of Credit Vs Loan A business line of credit provides a pool of funds up to a specified credit limit that can be paid down and spent again, whereas a loan offers a lump sum. Lines of credit carry interest on the funds that are spent, and have a minimum monthly payment, whereas loans have a fixed monthly payment and a fixed interest rate. 12. Business Secured Line Of Credit A secured business line of credit is a line of credit that is secured by some form of collateral, such as real estate. Secured LOCs have the advantage of being safe for banks, so they often have higher credit limits and lower interest. They can be a good option for new businesses with limited credit history. 13. Small Business Line Of Credit A business line of credit is like a credit card that lenders provide to businesses. Small businesses can take advantage of them as well but may be charged more interest if they have a limited credit history. However, many lenders offer favorable rates even to very young businesses. 14. Line Of Credit For Small Business One option for a line of credit that is ideal for small businesses is a secured line of credit. If you have property or real estate that you would be willing to secure the LOC with, you may be able to get a higher credit limit and lower interest. Other options include online lenders, who typically have lower credit requirements. 15. Unsecured Business Line Of Credit An unsecured business line of credit is a line of credit offered to businesses that is not secured by collateral. An unsecured LOC is the most common form of business lines of credit. Unsecured lines of credit tend to be more expensive due to the comparatively higher risk. 16. Unsecured Business Line Of Credit For Startup It can be difficult to get an unsecured business line of credit as a startup. If you have limited credit history, banks may see you as too risky. However, there are many alternative lenders, such as online lenders, that have less strict credit requirements and can serve you as well as a bank. 17. Unsecured Business Line Of Credit No Doc A no doc business line of credit is like a regular line of credit, but without requiring as many documents. No doc lines of credit are often unsecured, meaning they are not backed up by physical assets. Usually, a no doc LOC will be supported by the personal credit of the business operator. 18. Business Line Of Credit Vs Credit Card There are a few differences between a business line of credit and a credit card. Business lines of credit typically have stricter requirements, but have a higher credit limit. Because of this, business lines of credit are often used for big purchases and credit cards for frequent everyday purchases. 19. What Is A Business Line Of Credit? A business line of credit is similar to a credit card. It is a revolving loan that has a credit limit, and businesses can spend up to that limit before needing to pay the balance down. Lines of credit have stricter requirements than actual business credit cards, but also offer a higher credit limit. 20. Commercial Line Of Credit A commercial line of credit, also called a business line of credit, is a revolving loan that works like a credit card. Businesses can borrow up to a credit limit, and they carry interest on outstanding funds.These lines of credit are often unsecured, but secured LOCs exist as well. 21. Commercial Real Estate Line Of Credit A commercial real estate line of credit is a commercial line of credit that is secured by some form of real estate. Often, businesses will leverage the equity in their property or building to secure this line of credit. Secured lines of credit often offer higher credit limits and lower interest. 22.Equity Line Of Credit An equity line of credit is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in a home or property. These are often Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) for personal loans, but businesses may take out equity lines of credit as well. 23. How To Get An Equity Line Of Credit? To qualify for an equity loan, you must have equity available in your property. This means that what you owe on the property must be less than its value. For Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC), you can typically borrow up to 85% of the equity in your property minus what you owe. 24. Equity Line Of Credit On Investment Property It is possible to take out an equity line of credit on an investment property, but the qualifications are more stringent. You will likely need a credit score of at least 680, a significant amount of cash at the ready, and a history of successful real estate investment. 25. Do You Need A Reason To Open An Equity Line Of Credit? You do not need a reason to open an equity line of credit, but there are strict requirements to qualify and opening one can have serious implications. Using a home or property as collateral for a line of credit puts the assets in needless risk. 26.Equity Line Of Credit With Bad Credit It is possible to qualify for an equity line of credit because you are securing it with the equity in your property. The purpose of a credit score is to quantify how likely and able someone is to pay back an outstanding balance; hence the term “credit.” But secured LOCs do not often have strict credit requirements. 27. Commercial Equity Line Of Credit A commercial equity line of credit is an equity line of credit that is used by businesses. An equity line of credit is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in a piece of property. Often, businesses will leverage the equity in their real estate or building to take out this LOC. 28. How Does An Equity Line Of Credit Work? An equity line of credit is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in real estate or property. A business will often leverage the equity in their property or building to take out the LOC. An individual may use a HELOC, or home equity line of credit, to take out an equity LOC. 29. Equity Loan Vs Line Of Credit An equity loan and equity line of credit are both financial vehicles secured by real estate; however, a loan is a lump sum and a line of credit is more like a credit card. A line of credit also only charges interest on funds spent, where a loan charges monthly payments and thus consistent interest. 30. Home Line Of Credit A HELOC, or a Home Equity Line of Credit, is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in your home. These loans often offer more favorable terms than traditional loans or LOCs because the lender has your house to seize as collateral in the event of default. 31. Home Line Of Credit Rate As of June 2020, the average rate for a HELOC, or Home Equity Line of Credit, is 5.34%. The exact rate, as well as the credit amount and time to repay, all depend on the individual borrower and the value of the equity in their home. 32. Current Interest Rates For Home Equity Line Of Credit As of June 2020, the average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.34%. Your particular interest rate will depend on many factors, including your credit history and the amount of equity in your home. Your home’s equity is its value minus any amount still owed. 33. What Are The Disadvantages Of A Home Equity Line Of Credit? The main disadvantage to opening a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is that you are putting your house up as collateral. If you cannot pay your outstanding balance, your home is liable to be seized and sold to pay back your creditors. 34. Home Equity Line Of Credit A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in your home. A line of credit is like a credit card, except that it usually has more stringent payment rules. A HELOC generally offers favorable terms in exchange for the added securitization. 35. Home Equity Line Of Credit Requirements Typical requirements for a home equity line of credit are: Equity in for of at least 15% to 20% of home’s total value Debt-to-income ratio between 40% and 50% Credit score of at least 620 Strong history of paying bills on time Individual requirements will vary by lender, but these are common qualifications. 36. How Do Home Equity Line Of Credit Work? A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in your home. The equity in your home is its value minus any amount owed. By securing the LOC with your home, you can generally get more favorable terms, but you risk losing your home if you default. 37. Home Equity Line Of Credit Tax Deductible Home equity line of credit (HELOC) interest is not tax deductible unless used for purposes that directly and substantially maintain or improve the borrower’s home that was borrowed against. Pure cosmetic changes are likely not tax deductible. This has been the case since 2017, since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed. 38. Do You Need An Appraisal For A Home Equity Line Of Credit? Yes, you will need an appraisal for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC. Your lender needs to know the true value of the equity in your home, as well as the amount still owed against it, in order to provide you with a line of credit. 39. Home Equity Line Of Credit Bad Credit You can still get a home equity line of credit (HELOC) even with bad credit. Because the line of credit is secured by the equity in your home, lenders are more willing to offer lines of credit to riskier borrowers at rates lower than those of traditional loans or lines of credit. 40. How Much Are Closing Costs On A Home Equity Line Of Credit? How much closing costs are on a home equity line of credit varies between lenders, but you can expect to pay 2% to 5% of the value of the loan. Some of the associates fees are an application fee, appraisal fees, processing fees, and a credit report fee. 41. Is A Home Equity Line Of Credit A Good Idea? A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, may be a good idea depending on your circumstances and purpose for applying. By taking out a HELOC, you are putting your home at risk if you default, so it is important to be sure you can pay. Generally speaking, home improvements are the best use of a HELOC. 42. Increase Home Equity Line Of Credit It is possible to increase the limit on your home equity line of credit, or HELOC, by refinancing the loan and restructuring the terms. It is possible to extend the length of a HELOC by applying for an extension. Both options carry some financial risk, so consider carefully. 43. How Does A Home Equity Line Of Credit Work? A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, works by allowing you to secure your line of credit with the equity in your home. The equity is the value of your home minus any money still owed. By using your home as collateral, you get better rates than a traditional loan or LOC. 44. Home Equity Line Of Credit Interest Rate As of June 2020, the average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35%. Your exact rate will vary depending on your particular circumstances and the amount of equity in your home. If you are using your HELOC for home renovation, the interest you pay may be tax deductible. 45. Is It Better To Get A Home Equity Loan Or Line Of Credit? It is better to get a home equity loan if you know exactly how much money you need, whereas a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is better if you will have a period of ongoing costs with no definite amount, such as during a home renovation. 46. Difference Between Home Equity Loan And Home Equity Line Of Credit The differences between a home equity loan and a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, are the same as the differences between a loan and a credit card; a loan is a lump sum, and an LOC is a revolving credit line. Both charge interest. 47. Home Equity Loan Vs Line Of Credit A home equity loan offers a lump sum, versus a line of credit (HELOC), which offers a revolving credit line. Home loans also have a fixed interest rate, where a HELOC has variable interest. Home loans charge interest on the whole amount of the loan, but HELOCs only charge on the money you spend. 48. Home Equity Loan Vs Line Of Credit Pros And Cons Home Equity Loan Pros: Fixed interest rate Easy to budget fixed payments Lump sum Cons: Interest charged on whole amount Rates are generally slightly higher Vs Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Pros: Revolving funds Interest only charged on what you spend Cons: Variable interest Easy to overspend 49.Home Equity Line Of Credit Vs Refinance A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a type of second mortgage, vs a refinancing where the terms of the existing debt are renegotiated. A refinancing pays off the existing mortgage and opens a new loan with new terms, whereas a HELOC leverages the equity in your home to open a line of credit. 50. Home Equity Line Of Credit Vs Cash Out Refinance A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a type of second mortgage, vs a cash out refinance which replaces your existing mortgage with a new loan of a greater amount. The proceeds from that loan pay off your existing mortgage and the remaining funds go to you. 51. What Is The Current Interest Rate On A Home Equity Line Of Credit? Currently, the average interest rate on a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35%. Your exact rate will vary depending on your circumstances and the amount of equity in your home. Interest rates for HELOCs may also fluctuate based on the prime rate for borrowing. 52. What Is A Home Equity Line Of Credit? A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a revolving line of credit secured by the equity in your home. Your home’s equity is its value minus any money still owed. Securing your line of credit with your home generally allows you better rates than traditional loans or LOCs. 53. What Is The Average Interest Rate On A Home Equity Line Of Credit? As of June 2020, the average interest rate on a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35%. Your exact interest rate may vary depending on your circumstances and the amount of equity in your home. However, HELOCs generally have more favorable rates than traditional loans. 54. How Does A Line Of Credit Work? A line of credit works by allowing you to borrow funds from a revolving pool. You can spend the funds continuously so long as you continue making minimum payments and paying down the balance. Unlike a loan, with a line of credit you only pay interest on funds that you spend. 55. How Does A Checking Line Of Credit Work? A checking, or overdraft, line of credit is a line of credit attached to your checking account to protect against overdraft charges. An overdraft LOC allows you to only be charged interest on the overdrawn amount, rather than the high overdraft fees you would normally incur. 56. How Long Does It Take To Get A Line Of Credit Approved? How long it takes to get approved for a line of credit depends on what kind of line of credit it is. Home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs,are usually approved within 4–6 weeks. Personal lines of credit are generally approved much more quickly. 57. How Much Of A Credit Line Increase Should I Ask For? How much of a credit line increase you should ask for depends on many factors. In general, it does not do your credit any favors to increase your limit unless the increase is definitely needed. You should be aware that increasing the limit on one card may impact your ability to increase your others. 58. How To Increase Your Line Of Credit? Generally you can increase your credit limit on a personal line of credit simply by requesting one. Depending on the increase requested, you may be granted one without heavy scrutiny. Some banks may also provide you a credit increase automatically if your credit habits are good. 59. Line Of Credit Interest Rate The average interest rate for a personal line of credit is 8% — 10%. The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit is around 5.35%. Your exact interest rate will vary depending on factors such as your credit score and whether or not your LOC is secured. 60. Line Of Credit Interest Rates Personal line of credit interest rates range from 8% — 10%. Home equity line of credit (HELOC) interest rates average around 5.35%. Your exact interest rate will depend on factors such as your credit score and whether or not the line of credit is secured. 61. Line Of Credit Home Loan A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a revolving line of credit that is secured by the equity in your home. It differs from a home loan by acting more like a credit card; it has a pool of funds that you can withdraw from, pay down over time, and then spend again. 62. Line Of Credit Loan Rates A personal line of credit typically has an interest rate of 8% — 10%. A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, has an average interest rate of 5.35% as of 2020. Credit cards, which are another type of unsecured line of credit, often have even higher interest rates. 63. Unsecured Line Of Credit Loans An unsecured line of credit is different from a loan in a few ways: Lines of credit offer a stream of funds that can be spent, paid back, and spent again, where a loan provides a lump sum Lines of credit have variable interest rates where a loan has a fixed rate 64. Line Of Credit Vs.Loan? Line of Credit Pros: Continuous funds Interest only charged on money spent Slightly lower average interest rate Cons: Variable interest Easy to overspend Vs. Loan Pros: Consistent payments Fixed interest Easy to budget for Cons: Interest charged on money even if not spent Slightly higher average interest rate 65. Line Of Credit Vs Loan Line of Credit Continuous funds Variable interest Interest accrued only on money spent Monthly minimum payment Generally for a shorter term Better for ongoing, hard to predict expenses Vs Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Interest accrued on whole amount Consistent monthly payments Generally for a longer term Better for single or fully known expenses 66. Overdraft Line Of Credit An overdraft line of credit is a line of credit that is attached to a checking account to prevent overdraft charges. An overdraft is when a transaction goes through on an account with $0, leading to a negative balance. The LOC absorbs the charges so the client can pay them back later. 67. Bad Credit Personal Line Of Credit Having bad credit can make it difficult to get a personal line of credit. What’s worse is that if you apply, your credit score may go down even further when your lender performs a “hard inquiry” into your credit status. Low APR credit cards tend to be cheaper and easier to get, making them a potential alternative. 68. Personal Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate on a personal line of credit ranges from 8% — 10%. Your exact rate will vary depending on your circumstances, your credit, and whether or not you secure your line of credit. Personal lines of credit generally have lower interest rates than credit cards. 69.How Does Personal Line Of Credit Work? A personal line of credit works by allowing a borrower access to a continuous stream of funds, up to a certain limit. Once the limit is reached, some amount of the funds must be paid back before they can be spent again. Interest is charged on outstanding balances that are carried. 70. Personal Line Of Credit Interest Rate The average interest rate for a personal line of credit is 8% — 10%. Your exact rate will vary depending on your credit and whether or not your line of credit is secured. Personal credit cards generally have a higher interest rate than lines of credit, but are also much easier to get. 71. Personal Line Of Credit Interest Rates The average interest rate for a personal line of credit ranges from 8% — 10%. These rates are less than those of a credit card, but personal LOCs generally require higher credit scores to get. There are a variety of alternative lenders, such as online lenders, that may be able to offer you a good rate even without an ideal credit score. 72. Personal Line Of Credit Loans A personal line of Credit is different from a loan in a few ways: It is a revolving line of credit instead of a lump sum It has a variable interest rate rather than fixed You pay interest on the money you spend rather than the whole amount 73. Personal Loan Versus Line Of Credit Personal loan has some differences versus a line of credit. For example, lines of credit offer continuous funds, whereas a loan provides a lump sum. Loans also have fixed interest where lines of credit have variable interest. Lines of credit are ideal for continuous but uncertain costs, and a loan is ideal for single or known costs. 74. What’S Easier To Get Personal Loan Or Line Of Credit? Personal loans and personal lines of credit are similarly difficult to get. Both require a healthy credit score, good credit history, and a certain demonstrable income. The bigger concern is how they should be used; lines of credit are ideal for continuous but uncertain costs, and a loan is ideal for single or known costs. 75. Personal Line Of Credit Vs Loan Personal Line of Credit Continuous funds Variable interest Minimum monthly payment Interest charged on money spent Ideal for ongoing but uncertain expenses Vs Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Regular payments of the same amount Interest charged on whole amount Ideal for single or known expenses 76. Personal Loan Vs Line Of Credit Personal Line of Credit Continuous funds Variable interest Minimum monthly payment Interest charged on money spent Ideal for ongoing but uncertain expenses Vs Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Regular payments of the same amount Interest charged on whole amount Ideal for single or known expenses 77. Personal Line Of Credit A personal line of credit is a revolving source of funds that acts like a credit card. Funds may be spent up to a certain limit, and can be spent again once paid back. You accumulate interest only on funds you spend, and have a minimum monthly balance to pay. 78. Does A Personal Line Of Credit Show On Your Credit Report? When you apply for a personal line of credit, your lender may wish to do a hard inquiry on you. This is an in depth look into your credit score and history, and it may impact your credit score. Generally, if your credit is poor, it is better to consider other options for access to cash. 79. Revolving Personal Line Of Credit A revolving personal line of credit is a source of continuous funds that works like a credit card. You can spend up to a certain limit, and the funds can be spent again once paid back (hence “revolving”). Interest is accrued on outstanding balances, and you have a minimum monthly payment. 80. Personal Secured Line Of Credit A secured personal line of credit is the same as a regular line of credit except that it is secured by some form of collateral, usually a car or a home. A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is an example. Because of the securitization, these LOCs generally offer more favorable terms. 81. Unsecured Personal Line Of Credit An unsecured personal line of credit is a line of credit that is not secured by collateral. Most lines of credit are unsecured, meaning that they are only backed up by your credit history and score. Secured LOCs, like a home equity line of credit (HELOC), are the alternative. 82. Personal Line Of Credit Vs Credit Card Personal Line of Credit May be secured or unsecured No rewards programs Generally much lower rates, but harder to qualify Ideal especially for large, ongoing, and uncertain expenses Vs Credit Card Almost always unsecured Often award rewards programs Easier to qualify, but often has higher rates Ideal for consumer spending and building credit 83. What Is A Personal Line Of Credit Loan? A personal line of credit is different from a loan. Some differences are: Line of Credit Continuous funds Variable interest Interest charged only on funds spent Ideal for ongoing, uncertain expenses Vs Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Interest charged on whole amount Ideal for single or known expenses 84. What Is The Difference Between A Personal Loan And A Line Of Credit? There are a few differences between a personal loan and line of credit: Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Ideal for single or known expenses (such as the purchase of a home) Line of Credit Continuous funds Variable interest Ideal for ongoing, uncertain expenses (such as home renovation) 85. What Is A Personal Line Of Credit? A personal line of credit is a source of continuous funds that works like a credit card; you have a limit that you can spend up to, and the funds can be spent again after being paid back. You incur interest on spent funds, and must make a minimum monthly payment. 86. Line Of Credit Interest Rates? The average interest rates for a personal line for credit range from 8% — 10%. The average rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35%. Credit cards generally have the highest rates of any line of credit. Securing an LOC may get you a lower rate, but may also be a greater financial risk. 87. Revolving Line Of Credit A revolving line of credit is a line of credit with funds that can be spent again once repaid. Most lines of credit, such as personal lines of credit, home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and credit cards are revolving. Interest is only accrued on the funds that you actually spend. 88. Non Revolving Line Of Credit A non revolving line of credit is essentially a loan. You get a specific amount of money, and you generally pay a fixed interest rate with regular monthly payments. Once the funds have been spent, the money is gone. Examples of non revolving lines of credit are student loans and mortgages. 89. Is A Credit Card A Revolving Line Of Credit? Yes, a credit card is a revolving line of credit. The term revolving means that once you have paid back the funds you spent, you can spend them again. Most lines of credit are revolving, including personal lines of credit and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). 90. Unsecured Revolving Line Of Credit A credit card is the most common example of an unsecured revolving line of credit. Revolving means that once the spent funds have been paid back, they can be spent again; unsecured means that the funds are not secured by collateral. The interest rates on these are generally higher than secured or non revolving loans. 91. Online Line Of Credit For Bad Credit An online line of credit can be a good option for those with bad credit. Typically, getting a secured line of credit doesn’t require an outstandingly high score; an unsecured LOC, however, can be difficult to get from a lender without good credit. Luckily, many online lenders don’t have strict credit requirements. 92. Business Line Of Credit Bad Credit Is it still possible to get a business line of credit even with bad credit. Many alternative lenders, such as online lenders, do not have credit requirements that are as strict as traditional banks, while still offering a worthwhile line of credit. If your business has a limited borrowing history, improving your personal credit may also help. 93. Business Line Of Credit Loan A business line of credit is different from a business loan. A loan is a lump sum, whereas a line of credit is an ongoing stream of funds, like a credit card. Lines of credit only charge interest on funds that are spent, rather than the whole amount. 94. Business Line Of Credit Loan Forms The forms needed for a business line of credit application vary from lender to lender, but you can expect to need some or all of the following: Driver’s license or another form of ID Bank statements Balance sheet Profit and loss statements Credit scores Business tax returns Personal tax returns 95. Traditional Line Of Credit Business Loan Description A business line of credit is an ongoing stream of funds granted to businesses by a lender, traditionally banks. The line of credit works like a credit card; businesses have a credit limit, are charged interest on the amount that they spend, and must pay back funds before they can be spent again. 96. Unsecured Business Line Of Credit Without Personal Guarantee An unsecured business line of credit can be difficult to get from a traditional lender without a personal guarantee; a promise to pay business debts without your own collateralized assets in the event of default. However, many alternative lenders, including online lenders, may not require one. If you don’t want to risk your assets, shop round for a lender that provides what you need. 97. Small Business Line Of Credit No Personal Guarantee Getting a small business line of credit with no personal guarantee is difficult to do with traditional lenders; however, many alternative lenders, such as online lenders, do not require a guarantee or any other collateralization. If you aren’t willing to risk your personal assets, an online lender may be the route to take. 98. Business Line Of Credit No Personal Guarantee It is possible to get a line of credit without a personal guarantee. A personal guarantee is a promise to pay back any debts with one’s personal assets in the event of default. While most traditional lenders require this, many alternative lenders, such as online enders, don’t have requirements that are as strict. 99. Small Business Line Of Credit Bad Credit It is still possible to get a small business line of credit even with bad credit. Many alternative lenders, such as online lenders, have less strict requirements than traditional lenders like banks. Under some circumstances, you may also be able to leverage a line of credit with your personal credit score, if your business has a limited credit history. 100. Business Unsecured Line Of Credit An unsecured business line of credit just means that your business LOC is not secured by collateral. If your credit score is sufficiently high, you may qualify for an unsecured line of credit. These typically have slightly higher rates than secured LOCs, but there’s no risk of losing any assets. 101. Start Up Business Line Of Credit Unsecured Getting an unsecured line of credit as a start up business may be difficult. With limited credit history, you may have to leverage your personal credit history or put up collateral to get the LOC you want. Alternative lenders may be more lenient, and many online lenders have less strict requirements. 102. Home Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will depend on factors such as your credit score and the amount of equity in your home. Generally, you can get the best rate by maintaining a good credit score, knowing the value of your home, and being willing to shop around. 103. Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit is 5.35% as of 2020. The average interest on a personal line of credit is between 8% and 10%. Credit card rates tend to be even higher, around 16%. Your particular interest rate will vary depending on factors like your credit score. 104. Unsecured Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate for an unsecured personal line of credit is 8% — 10%. Interest on unsecured lines of credit tend to be higher than on secured lines of credit, such as a HELOC (5.35%). Credit cards tend to have the highest rates, around 16% on average. 105. Equity Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact interest rate will depend on various factors, such as your credit score and the amount of equity in your home. You can get the best rates by maintaining a good score, paying off money owed on your home, and being willing to shop around. 106. Home Equity Line Of Credit Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will vary depending on factors such as your credit score and the amount of equity in your home. You can get the best rate by maintaining your credit score and paying back any money still owed on your home. 107. How Long Does It Take To Get A Home Equity Line Of Credit? It typically takes 2–4 weeks from application to get a home equity line of credit, or HELOC. It may take longer depending on the circumstances and complexity of the line of credit request. An easy way to keep things moving is to get your paperwork done quickly; for example, appraising your home on your own. 108. How Long Do I Have To Pay Off A Home Equity Line Of Credit? How long it takes to pay off a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, depends on your interest paid, the size of your monthly payments, and the purchases you make with it. A HELOC has both a draw phase and a repayment phase, which lasts 10–20 years. 109. Business Line Of Credit Interest Rate The interest rate for a business line of credit may be as low as the prime rate plus 1.25% for SBA lines of credit, as low as 7% at traditional banks, and from 14% all the way up to 90% for some online lenders. 110. Business Line Of Credit Interest Rates The interest rate for a business line of credit may be as low as the prime rate plus 1.25% for SBA lines of credit, as low as 7% at traditional banks, and from 14% all the way up to 90% for some online lenders. 111. Rates On Business Line Of Credit The interest rate for a business line of credit may be as low as the prime rate plus 1.25% for SBA lines of credit, as low as 7% at traditional banks, and from 14% all the way up to 90% for some online lenders. 112. Equity Line Of Credit Interest Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will depend on factors such as your credit score, the amount of equity in your home, and the lender you choose. 113. Equity Line Of Credit Loan A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is a line of credit that is secured by the equity in your home. In the event of default, your lenders will have a claim to your house, and may repossess and sell it to pay back the debt you owe. 114. Is A Line Of Credit A Good Idea? A line of credit may be a good idea, depending on what you want to use it for. Even though the debt on an LOC isn’t due immediately, it is still a good idea to only spend money that you can definitely pay. If you want more freedom to make discretionary purchases that you can still pay, then a line of credit may help you. 115. Rates For Home Equity Line Of Credit The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will depend on factors such as your credit score, the amount of equity in your home, and the lender you choose. 116. Home Equity Line Of Credit Fixed Rates Some banks offer a fixed interest rate on home equity line of credit, or HELOCs. These have some pros and cons; typically, the interest on a fixed rate HELOCis higher than an equivalent loan, and some lenders require monthly minimums. However, these LOCs are also resistant to inflation, and can be useful in a rising rate environment. 117. Home Equity Line Of Credit Interest Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will depend on factors such as your credit score, the amount of equity in your home, and any money still owed on your house. 118. Home Equity Line Of Credit Loan Rates The average interest rate for a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is 5.35% as of 2020. Your exact rate will depend on factors such as your credit score, the amount of equity in your home, and the lender you choose. 119. Home Equity Line Of Credit Vs Loan Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) Continuous stream of funds Variable interest Minimum monthly payments Interest charged on funds spent Generally smaller sized principal Vs Home Equity Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Mandatory monthly payments Interest charged on whole amount Generally larger principal 120. Home Equity Loan Vs. Line Of Credit Home Equity Loan Lump sum Fixed interest Mandatory monthly payments Interest charged on whole amount Generally larger principal Vs Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) Continuous stream of funds Variable interest Minimum monthly payments Interest charged on funds spent Generally smaller sized principal 121. Line Of Credit Loan A line of credit is a continuous stream of funds that can be accessed by writing specific checks. It works kind of like a credit card; you have a credit limit that you can spend up to and are charged interest on the outstanding funds. Once you pay the balance down you can spend the funds again. 122. What Is Better Home Equity Loan Or Line Of Credit? Whether a home equity loan or line of credit is better for you depends on a few factors: Do you know how much money you need or are you unsure? What are you using the money for? How long will you need the money for? How will you pay your debt back? 123. Line Of Credit Loans For Bad Credit If you have bad credit it can be difficult to get approved for a line of credit at a traditional lender. Some alternative lenders, such as online lenders, have less strict credit requirements and may be able to get you what you need. If you are set on a traditional lender, you may wish to either securitize the loan with collateral or improve your score to get a better rate.	https://medium.com/@info_80815/the-ultimate-guide-to-all-your-credit-line-line-of-credit-questions-finance-strategists-5290f1e74d0	['Finance Strategists']	2020-07-20 17:38:04.625000+00:00	['Animation', 'Helping Others', 'Money', 'Credit', 'Finance']
How To Get Your Baby To Sleep Without Crying It Out	How To Get Your Baby To Sleep Without Crying It Out Methods to teach a baby to sleep without letting him cry Can I teach my baby to sleep through the night, without letting him cry? If you don’t like the idea of letting your baby cry, or if you’ve tried teaching them to sleep by letting them cry and it doesn’t work, you may want to consider a more gradual approach that involves fewer tears. Like any method, what worked for other children may not work for your baby. You may have to try and ditch various methods until you find the one that works best for you. If you are not sure what to do, you can read books written by several experts on this topic or enter our forums to see what other moms and dads have been up to. Before starting, you can also read our article with basic steps to teach babies to sleep. Discover the breakthrough story of how a 31-year-old mother who finally found a trick to get her baby to sleep by using this simple method. What is the theory about the method of teaching sleep without crying? Experts and dads who support methods for teaching sleep without crying believe that bedtime offers an opportunity to connect with your child, develop a warm nighttime routine and respond quickly to your baby’s requests for food. and consolation. Some of these experts argue that the method of teaching sleep by letting the baby cry is not good for the child. William Sears is a pediatrician who defended the “attachment method” and dedicated an entire chapter of his book Your Child Will Sleep … And You Too: How To Help Your Baby To Sleep Peaceful Through The Night (The Baby Sleep Book), to criticize the method. to teach sleep let cry. Sears, along with other proponents of learning to sleep without crying, such as Elizabeth Pantley (author of Baby’s Sleep Without Tears, The No-Cry Sleep Solution) believe that crying techniques can cause your child to create negative associations with sleep and sleep times, which can persist. lifetime. Sleep experts who approve of the method of letting cry (as well as most pediatricians) disagree. They claim that it is not traumatic for the baby to cry alone for a short period of time with frequent visits from the mother or father and that the end result is a calmer and happier child. They believe that the strategy for sleeping without crying can make babies very dependent on parents’ comfort before bedtime and that this will make it more difficult for them to learn to calm down during sleep. What do experts say about sleeping without crying? There are sleep experts who have written books advocating the crying sleep method. Pediatrician William Sears, parental educator Elizabeth Pantley, and nurse Tracy Hogg are three of the most famous. Dr. method William Sears Pediatrician and Author Your Child Will Sleep … And You Too: How To Help Your Baby Sleep Well All Night (Baby Sleep Book) William Sears’ website is in English, but you can translate it with this Google tool. Sears emphasizes child-centered teaching sleep and advises parents to exercise caution in teaching advertised sleep styles for all children. Recommends patiently helping your baby learn to sleep at their own pace and encouraging parents to sleep with their baby and to hold and breastfeed until the baby is asleep, as well as other forms of close contact. to create positive associations before bed and healthy habits later in life. Elizabeth Pantley Method Parents, educators and authors of the dreams of babies without tears (The No-Cry Sleep Solution) Elizabeth Pantley’s website is in English, but you can translate it with this Google tool. Pantley offers gradual learning of all aspects of sleep, tailored to suit your baby’s needs. She recommends holding and feeding your baby until he is sleepy before putting him to sleep and responding immediately if he cries. He emphasized that parents keep a list of their sleeping hours at night, when they wake up and take their nap. Pantley describes a six-step process for teaching babies to sleep in their cribs. CHILDREN LEARNING READING — AMAZING LEARNING READING PROGRAM Tracy Hogg’s Method Licensed Practical Nurse and co-author of A Practical Guide to Be a Happy and Quiet Baby (Baby Whisperer’s Secret) Tracy Hogg agrees with Sears that the association with sleep time should be positive, but she disagrees with their technique. She advises that your baby does not rely on cues such as breastfeeding, patting gently on the back, or holding him to sleep. Instead, Hogg recommends holding your baby if he’s crying, calming him down, and putting him back to sleep as needed. He considers his technique to be halfway between attachment nurturing, as promoted by Dr. Sears, and the technique of teaching sleep by letting cry. Practical tips for finding solutions without crying • Create a regular nap schedule. A consistent sleep routine during the day can help regulate your sleep at night. • Put your baby in bed early, such as 6:30 or 7 pm. Don’t get caught up in keeping your baby awake to make him more tired. Babies who are too tired may take longer to fall asleep. Some experts say that babies who sleep earlier also sleep longer. • Make changes slowly. If your baby is sleeping late, don’t suddenly switch her bedtime from 9:30 to 7:00, for example. Increase sleep time a little each night until you reach the time that is most convenient for you and your baby. • Find a quiet and sticky bedtime routine. For example, take a shower, book, lullaby, and then go to sleep, at the same time every night. • Create a few “chord sounds” as Pantley calls them, to signal to your baby that it’s time for bed. Sounds can be as simple as “Shhhh” or softly saying the phrase “It’s time to sleep”. Repeat the sound or phrase as you soothe your baby to associate it with sleep. • Create a comfortable and tailored sleeping environment for your child. Some babies need more silence and darkness than others. Recorded soft music, nature sounds, or the sound of water in the aquarium can also be soothing. Make sure the sheets are warm (warm them with a hot water bottle or microwaveable cloth, for example before putting the baby to sleep) and make sure there are no wrinkles or buttons that irritate them. Smaller babies may sleep better wrapped in a tamale. Don’t put too many clothes on or make the room too hot. • Don’t respond to every little sound your baby makes. Learn to distinguish true crying from complaints of sleepiness. If you are not sure, it is okay to wait a little outside the room so you don’t wake your baby, if he is asleep. Does the method of sleeping without crying work? It’s important to remember that no single method works for all babies or even one baby all the time. You have to get to know your baby, be flexible, and see what works for you. Proponents of the crying sleep method admit that this approach takes time, perhaps longer than the crying sleep technique, but they say it is less traumatic for babies and parents in the long run. Elizabeth Pantley says that when it comes to teaching sleep, parents have a choice between timing and tears: “There’s really no way to turn a baby who wakes up multiple times at night into a baby who sleeps like little nymphs, without one of two things: water. eyes or time. Personally, I choose the second one ”. This strategy for teaching how to sleep without crying might work out well for you, but if it doesn’t, you may want to try the crying sleep method. Disclaimer: This article contains an affiliate link, If you made a purchase through this link we will earn a small commission.	https://medium.com/@millionaireminds/how-to-get-your-baby-to-sleep-without-crying-it-out-6c86f3dbe271	[]	2020-12-21 11:11:36.296000+00:00	['Baby', 'Sleep', 'How To', 'Without Crying']
Software Development Sans Project Manager	Software Development Sans Project Manager Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash For 2 years, I worked in a small startup with a team consisting mostly of business and development positions. Despite numerous requests, a project manager was (understandably) not within the budget. So the team had to make do without one, and it went surprisingly well! Contrary to what project managers might have you know, the show goes on. Here’s how we made it work. Take Ownership That is, be your own project manager. In the absence of a dedicated person to ensure you stay on track, you have to be at the top of your organizational game. That does mean trade-offs will have to be made — managing tickets and such requires time that can’t be spent programming. It helps to distribute responsibilities around the team to spread the additional mgmt load. If your team’s work is split up into several repositories, for example, each can be managed by a different person. Alternatively (or additionally), let different people be in charge of leading meetings such as daily stand ups or sprint planning / review meetings. In any case, you need to take ownership of your work (depending on your work environment, you should probably do that anyways), which, among other things, can manifest itself in the form of the followings points in this post. When you take responsibility, you become the go-to person / specialist for the area / product you’re managing. This will create clear lines of accountability and help you and your team stay organized. Expand Your Horizon When there’s nobody to plan features out from start to finish, that task will fall onto your plate. This holds true in more senses than the purely technical one. Think about additional perspectives beyond a ticket’s description: Usability, Performance, Cost, Tradeoffs, Use Cases… Question everything, including, if a feature makes sense for the company as a whole. In a competitive startup scene, there is rarely space for hierarchies to overwrite the greater good of a company, and you shouldn’t withhold questions or criticisms simply because they’re aimed at a more senior person. There are almost always many, many more parts to crafting a product or service than to just make something that’s technically functional. The more time you spend thinking and talking about these, the better your initial approach will be, and the less room for unexpected issues or follow-up requests you leave. Plan, Plan, Then Plan Some More As with other parts of this article, this applies to areas beyond software development: More upfront planning means less fixing after the fact. I’m talking flowcharts, UML diagrams, sequence diagrams, user stories, and talking about all of these with your coworkers. Don’t fall prey to the instinct of being too attached, though (try googling sunk cost fallacy). Everyone should be encouraged to ask questions and raise issues so that flaws are identified and designed around. If you need to redesign a feature from scratch, try to do it before it was released to production. And please don’t take criticism personal — you’re all working towards the same goal. You will not be doing yourself or your company any favors by being someone who can’t deal with negative feedback professionally. But you already knew that. The Devil Is In The Details This essentially just reiterates previous points, but you need to keep your tickets updated meticulously. Especially in small teams, there is less room for redundancy. If your tickets are out of date, you run the risk of someone else doing work they don’t need to, or worse, shouldn’t do. Go the extra mile to check that a ticket’s acceptance criteria match expectations — discuss them with your coworkers before booting up your IDE of choice. Patience And Speed Are The Key That might sound contradictory, but hear me out. Things won’t always work smoothly. Small teams in particular stand out not in their ability to accomplish tasks perfectly the first time around, but by being flexible and able to learn and pivot very quickly. If that feature you’ve spent a day / week / month implementing is not helpful for solving a problem your company cares about, then don’t be afraid to rework or scrap it completely. Since this is bound to happen at one point or another, you may want to invest some extra time modularizing your architecture so that, when you need to, you can easily switch out one part with a replacement without needing to make system-wide changes. There are a bunch of ways to achieve that such as using a microservice approach and favoring dependency injection over inheritance to decouple your codebase. Showcase Your Solutions Finally, there’s a good chance your coworkers are somewhat removed from the details of your solution. It doesn’t take a lot of time and effort to prepare a few slides highlighting your approach, implementation, and the ways in which your work helps solve a problem. Likewise, pay attention to what your coworkers are presenting. By reviewing the entire process with your coworkers, from design over development to release, your team will grow as a whole.	https://levelup.gitconnected.com/software-development-sans-project-manager-3924c43fdc6a	['Marc Fichtel']	2020-02-07 17:28:30.199000+00:00	['Startup', 'Software Development', 'Career Advice', 'Programming', 'Project Management']
Musical Theater Reviews by Donald J. Trump	Unbeknownst to most of America until the “Hamilton” dust-up this week, our President-Elect is a renowned theater critic. After careful research, I was able to locate a collection of some of his most memorable reviews. Unsurprisingly, he’s quite opinionated.	https://medium.com/the-haven/musical-theater-reviews-by-donald-j-trump-d98dfef179dc	['Page Barnes']	2016-11-21 17:10:10.592000+00:00	['Politics', 'Hamilton', 'Satire', 'Humor', 'Donald Trump']
Python Scikit-Learn Cheat Sheet for Machine Learning	Python Scikit Cheat Sheet — Edureka Are you a Python programmer looking for a powerful library for machine learning? If yes, then you must take scikit-learn into your consideration. Scikit learn in python plays an integral role in the concept of machine learning and is needed to earn your Python for Data Science Certification. This scikit-learn cheat sheet is designed for the one who has already started learning about the Python package but wants a handy reference sheet. Don’t worry if you are a beginner and have no idea about how scikit-learn works, this scikit-learn cheat sheet for machine learning will give you a quick reference of the basics that you must know to get started. Python Cheat Sheet for Scikit-learn Scikit-learn is an open source Python library used for machine learning, preprocessing, cross-validation and visualization algorithms. It provides a range of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms in Python. A Basic Example Let’s create a basic example using scikit-learn library which will be used to Load the data Divide the data into train and test, Train your data using the KNN Algorithm and, Predict the result >>> from sklearn import neighbors, datasets, preprocessing >>> from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split >>> from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score >>> iris = datasets.load_iris() >>> X, y = iris.data[:, :2], iris.target >>> X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, random_state=33) >>> scaler = preprocessing.StandardScaler().fit(X_train) >>> X_train = scaler.transform(X_train) >>> X_test = scaler.transform(X_test) >>> knn = neighbors.KNeighborsClassifier(n_neighbors=5) >>> knn.fit(X_train, y_train) >>> y_pred = knn.predict(X_test) >>> accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred) Loading the data You need to have a numeric data stored in NumPy arrays or SciPy sparse matrices. You can also use other numeric arrays, such as Pandas DataFrame. >>> import numpy as np >>> X = np.random.random((10,5)) >>> y = np.array(['M','M','F','F','M','F','M','M','F','F','F']) >>> X[X < 0.7] = 0 Train and Test Once the data is loaded, your next task would be split your dataset into training data and testing data. >>> from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split >>> X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, random_state=0) Data Preprocessing Standardization Data standardization is one of the data preprocessing step which is used for rescaling one or more attributes so that the attributes have a mean value of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. Standardization assumes that your data has a Gaussian (bell curve) distribution. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler >>> scaler = StandardScaler().fit(X_train) >>> standardized_X = scaler.transform(X_train) >>> standardized_X_test = scaler.transform(X_test) Normalization Normalization is a technique generally used for data preparation for machine learning. The main goal of normalization is to change the values of numeric columns in the dataset so that we can have a common scale, without losing the information or distorting the differences in the ranges of values. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer >>> scaler = Normalizer().fit(X_train) >>> normalized_X = scaler.transform(X_train) >>> normalized_X_test = scaler.transform(X_test) Binarization Binarization is a common operation performed on text count data. Using binarization the analyst can decide to consider the presence or absence of a feature rather than having a quantified number of occurrences for instance. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import Binarizer >>> binarizer = Binarizer(threshold=0.0).fit(X) >>> binary_X = binarizer.transform(X) Encoding Categorical Features The LabelEncoder is another class used in data-preprocessing for encoding class levels. It can also be used to transform non-numerical labels into numerical labels. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelEncoder >>> enc = LabelEncoder() >>> y = enc.fit_transform(y) Imputing missing values The Imputer class in python will provide you with the basic strategies for imputing/filling missing values. It does this by using the mean, median values or the most frequent value of the row or column in which the missing values are located. This class also allows for encoding different missing values. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import Imputer >>> imp = Imputer(missing_values=0, strategy='mean', axis=0) >>> imp.fit_transform(X_train) Generating Polynomial Features Polynomial Feature generates a new feature matrix which consists of all polynomial combinations of the features with degree less than or equal to the specified degree. For example, if an input sample is two dimensional and of the form [a, b], then the 2-degree polynomial features are [1, a, b, a², ab, b²]. >>> from sklearn.preprocessing import PolynomialFeatures >>> poly = PolynomialFeatures(5) >>> poly.fit_transform(X) Create Your Model Supervised Learning Estimator Supervised learning is a type of machine learning that enables the model to predict future outcomes after they are trained on labelled data. # Linear Regression Algorithm >>> from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression >>> lr = LinearRegression(normalize=True) # Naive Bayes Algorithm >>> from sklearn.naive_bayes import GaussianNB >>> gnb = GaussianNB() # KNN Algorithm >>> from sklearn import neighbors >>> knn = neighbors.KNeighborsClassifier(n_neighbors=5) # Support Vector Machines (SVM) >>> from sklearn.svm import SVC >>> svc = SVC(kernel='linear’) Unsupervised Learning Estimator Unsupervised learning is a type of machine learning that enables the model to predict future outcomes without being trained on the labelled data. # Principal Component Analysis (PCA) >>> from sklearn.decomposition import PCA >>> pca = PCA(n_components=0.95) # K Means Clustering Algorithm >>> from sklearn.cluster import KMeans >>> k_means = KMeans(n_clusters=3, random_state=0) Model Fitting Fitting is a measure of how well a machine learning model generalizes to similar data to that on which it was trained # For Supervised learning >>> lr.fit(X, y) #Fits data into the model >>> knn.fit(X_train, y_train) >>> svc.fit(X_train, y_train) # For Unsupervised Learning >>> k_means.fit(X_train)#Fits data into the model >>> pca_model = pca.fit_transform(X_train) #Fit to data, then transform it Prediction Fitting is a measure of how well a machine learning model generalizes to similar data to that on which it was trained # For Supervised learning >>> y_pred=svc.predict(np.random((2,5))) #predict label >>> y_pred=lr.predict(x_test) #predict label >>> y_pred=knn.predict_proba(x_test)#estimate probablity of a label # For Unsupervised Learning >>> y_pred=k_means.predict(x_test) #predict labels in clustering algorithm Evaluating the model’s performance Classification Metrics The sklearn.metrics module implements several loss, score, and utility functions to measure classification performance. # Mean Absolute Error >>> from sklearn.metrics import mean_absolute_error >>> y_true = [3, -0.5, 2] >>> mean_absolute_error(y_true, y_pred) # Mean Squared Error >>> from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error >>> mean_squared_error(y_test, y_pred) # R² Score >>> from sklearn.metrics import r2_score >>> r2_score(y_true, y_pred) Clustering Metrics # Adjusted Rand Index >>> from sklearn.metrics import adjusted_rand_score >>> adjusted_rand_score(y_true, y_pred) # Homogeneity >>> from sklearn.metrics import homogeneity_score >>> homogeneity_score(y_true, y_pred) # V-measure >>> from sklearn.metrics import v_measure_score >>> metrics.v_measure_score(y_true, y_pred) Regression Metrics The sklearn.metrics module implements several loss, score, and utility functions to measure regression performance. # Accuracy Score >>> knn.score(X_test, y_test) >>> from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score >>> accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred) # Classification Report >>> from sklearn.metrics import classification_report >>> print(classification_report(y_test, y_pred)) # Confusion Matrix >>> from sklearn.metrics import confusion_matrix >>> print(confusion_matrix(y_test, y_pred)) Cross Validation >>> from sklearn.cross_validation import cross_val_score >>> print(cross_val_score(knn, X_train, y_train, cv=4)) >>> print(cross_val_score(lr, X, y, cv=2)) Tune your model Grid Search GridSearchCV implements a “fit” and a “score” method. It also implements “predict”, “predict_proba”, “decision_function”, “transform” and “inverse_transform” if they are implemented in the estimator used. >>> from sklearn.grid_search import GridSearchCV >>> params = {"n_neighbors": np.arange(1,3), "metric": ["euclidean", "cityblock"]} >>> grid = GridSearchCV(estimator=knn, param_grid=params) >>> grid.fit(X_train, y_train) >>> print(grid.best_score_) >>> print(grid.best_estimator_.n_neighbors) Randomized Parameter Optimization RandomizedSearchCV performs the random search on hyper parameters. In contrast to GridSearchCV, not all parameter values are tried out, but rather a fixed number of parameter settings is sampled from the specified distributions. The number of parameter settings that are tried is given by n_iter. >>> from sklearn.grid_search import RandomizedSearchCV >>> params = {"n_neighbours": range(1,5), "weights":["uniform", "distance"]} >>>rserach = RandomizedSearchCV(estimator=knn,param_distribution=params, cv=4, n_iter=8, random_state=5) >>> rsearch.fit(X_train, Y_train) >>> print(rsearch.best_score) If you wish to check out more articles on the market’s most trending technologies like Artificial Intelligence, DevOps, Ethical Hacking, then you can refer to Edureka’s official site. Do look out for other articles in this series which will explain the various other aspects of Python and Data Science.	https://medium.com/edureka/python-scikit-learn-cheat-sheet-9786382be9f5	['Aayushi Johari']	2020-05-13 12:10:44.064000+00:00	['Python', 'Machine Learning', 'Scikit', 'Scikit Learn', 'Data Science']
ФИЛМ HD™-The Croods: A New Age] Круд 2 (2020) Пълни филм онлайн Безплатно бг аудио \| бг суб	From the daily application of high-tech lotions and potions to non-surgical procedures such as botox, fillers and peels, the beauty industry is booming like never before. With more products and treatments available there is also a growing pressure around how people feel they “should” or “shouldn’t” look. So whether it’s fake eyelashes, tattooed eyebrows, manicured nails, body waxing or lip fillers, the chances are we all know someone who has these — and often we view these types of treatments as “normal”. The sociologist Dana Berkowitz, has pointed out the increasing normalisation of botox. In her book Botox Nation she says: The fact that Botox injections are temporary, repetitive, addictive, and marketed as preventative has made it such that these injections are fast becoming regular body upkeep, just like teeth cleaning and haircuts. Sociologist Meredith Jones has also argued that cosmetic surgery is already normalised. She claims it will be “the absolute norm” for women by the middle of the 21st century. While it is still the case that only a small percentage of women — and an even smaller percentage of men go under the knife — many more would like to. And the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has reported a rise in what has been termed the “daddy makeover” in a recent report: There has been an epic rise of 20% in male liposuction and a 13% jump in “man boob” reductions. Growing old grey Growing old gracefully is increasingly seen as a failure to make the best of yourself — and even shows a lack of respect for the self and or for others. It is to “let yourself go”. In my book Perfect Me!, I track the increase in what is demanded to meet minimal standards of presentation. And I look at routine practices such as hair colouring. I argue that while women in their 60s and 70s may be grey, very few in their 30s, 40s, and 50s consider grey hair an option. In fact only the young can be grey — which is more of a fashion statement — and grey for young women is high maintenance because it requires near constant colouring. In my book Perfect Me!, I track the increase in what is demanded to meet minimal standards of presentation. And I look at routine practices such as hair colouring. I argue that while women in their 60s and 70s may be grey, very few in their 30s, 40s, and 50s consider grey hair an option. In fact only the young can be grey — which is more of a fashion statement — and grey for young women is high maintenance because it requires near constant colouring. Shame is also often cited by doctors as part of the reason why women are wanting a labiaplasty — surgery to reduce the size of the flaps of skin either side of the vaginal opening. According to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, labiaplasty procedures spiked 39% in 2016, with more than 12,000 procedures in the US alone. Never enough This shift in the way beauty is increasingly defining people means it is functioning as an ethical ideal — in that it is the standard we use to judge ourselves and others, whether good and bad. And all of this has a significant impact on how people feel about themselves. Recent studies, have revealed how much this is affecting people — particularly girls of a young age. The Girls’ Attitudes survey has shown how body image worries affect many aspects of young girls lives — stopping them wearing the clothes they like, having their pictures taken, taking part in sport and speaking up in class. The survey reports that 47% of girls aged 11 to 21 say the way they look “holds them back”, while 69% of girls age seven to 11 feel like they are not good enough. It is with this in mind that the Youth Select Committee’s recent consultation focused on this topic. This culture of beauty obsession is making young girls feel they are failures and that they don’t measure up. To many of these girls, this feels like a “moral failure” — they have “let themselves go” and are ashamed of their very selves. This is very different from past beauty ideals and recognising the depth and intensity of body shame — and understanding its moral nature — is vital. Because while the demands of what we have to do to be “normal” or “just good enough” continue to rise, there has also been a marked increase in anxiety and body shame in young women — which surely isn’t just a coincidence.	https://medium.com/@metillasni/%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BC-hd-the-croods-a-new-age-%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B4-2-2020-%D0%BF%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%B8-%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BC-%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BD-%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%B1%D0%B3-%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BE-%D0%B1%D0%B3-%D1%81%D1%83%D0%B1-ceac8f1f6cc8	['Metil Lasni']	2020-12-24 07:48:37.708000+00:00	['Online', 'Comedy', 'Film', 'Movies', '2020']
Why Politicians Should Stick to Politics (Most of the Time)	Why Politicians Should Stick to Politics (Most of the Time) Buried somewhere way down the list of things that ought to change once 2020 mercifully concludes, is the way that politicians deal with sports. Namely, to borrow a phrase, politicians should “stick to politics” whenever possible. Sports shaped Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns and presidency to an unprecedented degree. We have never seen a presidency so tightly intertwined with sports and may never see one again — unless perhaps a retired athlete is elected (I’d sign up for a Tim Tebow-versus-Jaylen Brown contest in 2044). Trump’s reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protests was one of the defining moments of his 2016 campaign. His response to subsequent athlete protests became one of the defining elements of his presidency and 2020 campaign. It is not hard to imagine that a President Joe Biden will have a much different relationship with sports than President Donald Trump has had. While The New York Times describes Biden as an ardent sports fan and accomplished ex-athlete, it also says to expect a “quieter sports advocate in the White House.” Will that change in approach feel refreshing? I would expect so. Is it hypocritical to urge pols to stick to politics while supporting athletes’ burgeoning political voices? I will explain why it is not. Even if you disagree with the stances many athletes have taken in recent protests, it would be tough to argue that any of these protests or social justice efforts are detracting from athlete job performance levels. In the case of college athletes, we are not even talking about a job; they are not employees. But I still would not expect to see any impact on their performance levels. Understandably, fans and alumni want to feel a genuine connection with their teams and schools. Differences of opinion between athletes and fans can cut into that connection. But ultimately, as long as an athlete is giving one hundred percent effort between the lines, and acting as an upstanding citizen outside the lines, I am not sure what else said athlete owes his or her fans. By definition, mayors, governors, congresspeople, senators, and the president, are all employed to serve “the people.” Vitriolic attacks on private citizens for exercising their rights to free speech aren’t serving anyone. Sports is an important aspect of American society, and by all means, if there are legitimate sports-related problems worth troubleshooting, our elected officials should be encouraged to help. That should apply whether you are hungry to see sports serve as a unifier, or prioritize the role sports plays as a change agent. Look no further than ongoing efforts to allow NCAA student-athletes to profit from their names, images, and likenesses. Very few recent legislative pushes have been more bipartisan. But beyond good-faith efforts to help when important issues arise, politicians should stick to politics.	https://medium.com/@sticktosports/why-politicians-should-stick-to-politics-most-of-the-time-779d3dead680	['Stick To Sports']	2020-12-17 21:28:59.782000+00:00	['Biden', 'Politics', 'Trump', 'Sports', 'Protest']
Tips to Keep Your Gorgeous Wreaths Alive Through the Holiday Season	Over centuries, ‘Wreaths’ have been used widely as a decorative item for X-mas and the holiday seasons. At your favourite time of the year, gorgeous wreaths are employed to adorn any (or every) part of your house- be it inside or outside! Being made of evergreens mostly of holly or pine branches, they can be decorated with different items, namely pine cones, fruits, holly berries and anything which comes to your imaginative mind. Symbolically speaking- Wreath denotes growth. Its circular shape denotes eternity or an unending circle of life. Some wreath uses holly branches and thorns, which symbolically indicate the thorn placed on Jesus’ crown during his crucifixion. The bright red holly berries denote Jesus’ blood which was shed for all his children. In modern times, everyone gets caught up in the festive mood of X-mas with the hype of Santa Claus and his arrival. The presence of wreath to X-mas decoration brings warmth to everyone’s heart and allows them to reflect upon the real meaning of this holy and auspicious day. So, it’s fair to say that wreaths are an integral part of your X-mas decor, not only for the visual charm but also because of a deeper symbolic meaning. And to ensure they continue looking vibrant and alive through the whole holiday season, here are some tips to keep them fresh and festive ready all-through! Maintenance Tips To Make Wreaths Last Longer:- Purchase as fresh as you can as it will help it last longer. Quality florists in Mentone, Cheltenham and other Melbourne suburbs will offer you a fresh mix of seasonal blooms, vibrant white blossoms and fresh-cut greenery to last beyond the X-mas celebration. But to make them last for longer, follow these other tips below. and other Melbourne suburbs will offer you a fresh mix of seasonal blooms, vibrant white blossoms and fresh-cut greenery to last beyond the X-mas celebration. But to make them last for longer, follow these other tips below. Look to rehydrate the stems and plants prior to using it for your decorative arrangements. Dip the wreaths in cool and clean fresh water. For best results, look to immerse them in freshwater for 24-hours. This will allow it to soak up as much water as it can and stay fresh and lively for a longer span. If you purchase your wreath a couple of days before the grand X-mas celebration, ensure proper misting to keep them constantly hydrated. If your home has a humidifier, use it close to where they are fitted to keep them moist. Also, if you look to include ribbons, faux accents or other decorative items to the wreath arrangement, then do the misting before attaching them. This will prevent any running colours from spoiling its appearance and your decoration. Avoid putting them in a room having an active fireplace. Also, avoid putting them in a room which gets direct sunlight. This will help them last longer. Also, before arranging them for the decor; you can use anti-desiccant or anti-transpirant sprays to prevent them from losing moisture and looking fresh. Shop Wreaths From A Notable Supplier:- To get quality wreaths for this year’s X-mas celebration; always trust florists operating in Cheltenham for years. They will offer fresh seasonable flowers and will even customise it as per your desired shape, style and colour.	https://medium.com/@sandringhamflowersseo/tips-to-keep-your-gorgeous-wreaths-alive-through-the-holiday-season-c05dd777ce5b	['Sandringham Flowers']	2019-11-15 09:35:25.381000+00:00	['Flowers', 'Florist']
HOW .NET PROGRAM EXECUTION WORKS. In order to understand .net program…	In order to understand .net program execution and benefits of it, it is better to take a look in to how pre .net execution worked before .net comes into play. Before .net introduced programmers developed programs with many programming languages like VB6 ,C++ etc. Lets see how they worked before .net introduced. Execution flow of a pre .net application When we developed an application with VB without .net framework we need to compile that application using a programming language specific compiler and then it will create a assembly. We called it also as machine code or native code which is the code machine can understand. According to the type of application we developed the assembly can be a dll or an exe. This machine code can be understand by the operating system which the compiler belongs to. That means if we compiled this application in a windows operating system it will runs successfully in a windows OS but not in a Linux OS.So this is the main problem we see when we program with pre .net and because of that reason those applications are not portable. Lets see how .net addresses above problem With .net framework you can use several programming languages like c#,VB,C++,J# and etc.That means if .net included relevant compiler for a programming language we can program with that programming language under .net. Lets see how .net programming execution works. Execution flow of a .net application When we developed a program under .net framework as shows in the above diagram we can program with many programming languages which are supported by .net. When we compile the solution it will compile by different compilers which are relevant to the programming language and it will create assembly that could be .dll or .exe according to the type of program we created.But the important thing happens here is this assembly can’t be understand by the operating system as this compiling process does not generate machine /native code like we discussed in pre .net execution. Instead of that it will generate assembly which are formatted in to intermediate langue we called it as (IL). If we try to run this IL formatted assembly directly on top of the OS it will fail. So then there should be some mechanism in between these assemblies with IL and operating system in order to make those assemblies can be run(understand by OS).The guy how is doing this job is called as CLR (Common Language Runtime).When .net installed on a machine it will install CLR on that machine that’s how it comes. By CLR it will compile IL formatted assemblies in to machine code by the JIT compiler called as (Just In Time compiler) and those machine codes can be understand by the OS and the app will run.The advantage of JIT is it will generate machine code from IL according to the OS.Because of that we can make an application in windows OS and run it top on a Linux OS.	https://medium.com/@sankhasumadhura/how-net-program-execution-works-e44db9f5fd61	['Sankha Sumadhura']	2021-01-21 02:33:55.264000+00:00	['Programming', 'Dotnet']
Fix a Pi-hole that is not blocking ads, or intermittently blocking, on a TP-Link router	If you find that your Pi-hole is blocking ads only intermittently over DNS or not at all, or only with DHCP running, here’s something to try: First, find your Pi-hole’s IP addresses in the System tab of the Settings page in Pi-hole’s admin panel: Second, on your Mac, open the Terminal app. At the prompt, type the following and hit Return: cat /etc/resolv.conf (If you’re on Windows, entering ipconfig /all in Command Prompt should give you the same info, but I cannot confirm) You should see something similar to the following appear: In my case, my Raspberry Pi is successfully attached to the IP 192.168.0.111 (the two nameservers at the bottom) and is blocking ads over IPv4. However, the two IPv6 nameservers above those (in red) do not match the Pi-hole’s IPv6 address listed in the Pi-hole’s control panel. As a result, the router is not using the Pi-hole for DNS over IPv6 and instead sending clients to Google’s DNS at 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4. To resolve this issue, log in to your router’s control panel. In my TP-Link router’s panel there is a tab called IPv6 Support. Under IPv6 Setup, there is an option for setting the IPv6 DNS manually: Add your Pi-hole’s IPv6 address to the primary field, and hit the Save button. Your Pi-hole should now run as expected without having to use the Pi-hole DHCP.	https://medium.com/@rdmcmurray/fix-a-pi-hole-that-is-not-blocking-ads-or-intermittently-blocking-on-a-tp-link-router-29c14b99ebe8	['Robert Mcmurray']	2020-12-24 21:32:51.760000+00:00	['Raspberry Pi', 'Tp Link', 'Pihole', 'Router', 'DNS']
The Basics of CIPP Repair	Broken, leaky pipes can slow down any business, especially during the winter. Even in places like Dallas and Waco, cold weather can damage pipes over time. Plenty of Texas businesses will need a pipe repair service at one point or another. The problem is that the pipe repair process can also slow down business. In fact, it can grind business to a halt. Between the digging, breaking up concrete, noise, and other factors, pipe repair doesn’t exactly create a welcoming environment for steady work or customers. That’s why a lot of property owners use CIPP repair instead. CIPP (cured in place pipelining) is a pipe repair method that minimizes disturbances. Unlike ordinary pipe repair options, this method requires little to no digging. CIPP starts with a long, flexible, and relatively thin tube. In spite of their thinness and flexibility, CIPP pipes are strong and durable. After a camera inspection of the pipe, a CIPP specialist will pull the tube through the existing pipe by using an access point such as a manhole. The CIPP tube, which is coated in resin, seals itself to the host pipe as it dries. In the process, it seals away cracks, holes, and other issues. A lot of Texas building owners prefer CIPP repair, but some find it especially helpful. For instance, many people who own multi-story buildings have found that CIPP is the best choice for repairing vertical pipes. When pipes run up the length of a building instead of running vertically underground, pipe repair can get tricky, but CIPP makes the process smoother. Hotel owners in particular often choose CIPP to avoid disturbing their guests. Apartment building owners may also choose CIPP out of courtesy to their tenants. Libraries and business centers, likewise, may use CIPP to keep their environments quiet. Ultimately, anyone who needs a pipe repair service but doesn’t want unnecessary disruptions can benefit from CIPP’s simplicity. We already mentioned that CIPP is quieter than other pipe repair methods, but what are some of the other benefits that CIPP has to offer? For one thing, it’s faster than regular pipe repair. Ordinary pipe repair methods can take weeks or longer. With CIPP, depending on the drying process, you can have fully-functioning pipes again in a matter of hours. Second, it’s often more cost-effective than traditional pipe repair. With regular pipe repair, you may have to pay to replace landscaping after the digging has ended. Furthermore, if employees can’t concentrate because of loud pipe repair noise, then your business could lose productivity. CIPP reduces the risk of lost productivity during the repair process. CIPP can also be used as a preventative measure to keep older pipes in shape, which isn’t always an option with ordinary repair methods. You may not have to replace your pipes entirely when CIPP is an option instead. The need for pipe repair can be frustrating, especially when you’re running a business. Because of this, if CIPP repair is an option for you, like it is for many Texas business owners, you might consider this option in place of traditional repair. Overall, it could save you some time and money.	https://medium.com/@brittany-beadle/the-basics-of-cipp-repair-b6c050b78950	['Brittany Beadle']	2020-12-23 15:51:42.213000+00:00	['Pipe Repair', 'Pipes', 'Pipeline', 'Cipp', 'Texas']
The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs [Part 8]	On attaching talent: “In my experience, it’s either the agent or the producer who approaches other elements. Almost always these attachments are made before the script goes out.” I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top manager and some Hollywood screenwriters about the ins and outs of what is involved in bringing a spec script to market. I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to do something with that inside information, so a few years back when Vanity Fair came out with this article — When the Spec Script was King — a decent piece, but pretty surface level, I figured it was a good time to dig into the subject in a comprehensive fashion. Note: Original posts updated to reflect current market. In Part 1, we looked at the genesis of the spec script in Hollywood from 1900–1942. In Part 2, we covered the emergence of the spec script market from 1942–1990. In Part 3: Boom, Bust, Back Again, But Now…?[1990–2019] In Part 4, we surveyed the buyers, both major studios and financiers. In Part 5, we examined the screenwriter-rep relationship in terms of developing a spec script. In Part 6, we explored rolling out a new writer’s spec script. In Part 7, we delved into the subject of attaching producers. Part 8: Attaching talent. James Dean reading a script. What about attaching actors and/or a director? Screenwriter Justin Rhodes weighs in on that: In my experience, it’s either the agent or the producer who approaches other elements. Almost always these attachments are made before the script goes out. For example, if you’re at one of the bigger agencies, they may have an internal conversation about the project to see if they represent actors or directors that they think might be right or could benefit from the screenplay. If so, your literary agent will pitch the project to the actor/director’s agent, and if they like it, they’ll take it to their client, who will, depending upon his/her reaction, decide whether or not he wants to read the material/hear the pitch. Oftentimes you’re also dealing with the actor or director’s business partner/manager/etc…, so there are a few hoops to jump through. In the agent scenario, though, you’re only going to be talking about actors and directors the agency represents. The other situation is that your producer has some existing relationships with talent. Oftentimes when this is the case, you’re also talking about the ability of one person to literally call the other on the phone, so you get to skip a lot of the go-betweens in terms of access. But your mileage varies, again, depending upon the reputation and abilities of the producer you’re working with. This goes to the heart of what is known as “packaging” a project. Let’s say screenwriter Alan Smithee is repped at the major agency EGO. This agency represents lots of actors and directors. Seeing as they get 10% from all the revenues generated by all their clients, it behooves them to get as many of them working as possible. So Smithee writes a hot spec script. Does EGO go out with the script as is? Probably not. Why not try to package the script with talent the agency represents? 10% of two, three or more elements is better than 10% of one element, i.e., just the screenwriter. If the talent attached are in-demand and perceived to bring value to the project (read: box office dollars), that can elevate the script’s marketability. On the other hand, waiting for actors and directors — their ‘people’ that is — to read, review and recommend (or not) scripts and agree to attach themselves to the project can turn out to be a long, drawn-out affair and ultimately a big fat waste of time. This is where your reps and producers play a huge role, assessing the temperature of your script as it gets read. The upside is your script gets packaged in such a way with a delicious combination of elements, it’s a no-brainer for a buyer. The downside is if your script starts gets a number of passes from talent, that can transform what was perceived to be a hot script into a not-hot script. This is all part of the magical mystery tour that is handling a spec script. Hopefully you end up with smart reps who know what they’re doing. But the single best thing you can do is write a great script. Yes, I keep harping on that, but it’s true. Another observation from Justin Rhodes: In the end, though, you’ve got to remember that people don’t sell your script. Your script sells your script. In the end, if the screenplay is all the town needs and wants it to be, your mom could probably get it set up. Next week: Another installment in this series — “Own all the tickets”. The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of GITS posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here. For more articles in The Business of Screenwriting series, go here.	https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-business-of-screenwriting-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-specs-part-8-25b27f2478b	['Scott Myers']	2019-11-21 12:31:01.170000+00:00	['Writing', 'Hollywood', 'Screenwriting', 'Business', 'Screenplay']
Opinions II	In my last obvious piece, I alluded to the idea that lots of people don’t have original opinions of their own. This is true from my point of view. However, in spite of this, most people seem to have one or two opinions about every and any thing. A very interesting paradox. The actual calamity in this is that most of these don’t end as opinions, they’re actually paraded as facts. Easy access to communication media makes it possible for anyone to put their thoughts out. Although amazing, it comes with an unfortunate side-effect of making people assume that they’re required to have a thought or two to put out about everything. This leads to misguided utterances and people getting the wrong education from many half-baked opinions being thrown around as facts. The concept of an expert seems lost in the social media age. It’s necessary for us to know that it’s OK to not have an opinion on a number of subjects, especially those that don’t affect us directly. It doesn’t make us intellectually inept. On the contrary, it lets us build more credence on ideas and subjects that we choose to build opinions around. However, when we actually decide to have an opinion about something, we need to be gracious enough to state that we’re only expressing opinions and to gladly defer to an expert for facts.	https://medium.com/sometimes-i-ponder/opinions-ii-93ba0f9d58b3	['Celestine Ezeokoye']	2017-02-19 09:01:47.851000+00:00	['Social Media', 'Opinion']
Proof of Work (PoW) VS Proof of Stake (PoS)	What is Proof of Work (PoW) ? The term “proof of work” was coined by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels in 1999. It’s relevant to bitcoin. Proof of work is a protocol which is designed for secure digital transactions without any interference of 3rd parties. This work is based on previous puzzle solutions. Proof of work may be a method of authenticating the current and past transitions. Basically this work is used in solving the puzzle generating rewards for whoever solves it called mining. Simply this is an algorithm that is designed to authenticate transactions and obtain new blocks added into blockchain. In Proof of work, miners are competing or fighting to solve a mathematical puzzle which will generate the new block then get the rewards as a bitcoins. Benefits of Proof of Work Proof of work reduces the risk of 51% attack because it is very difficult to do work. The whole bitcoin network cannot be controlled by single handedly based on the Hashcash Proof of work system. The miner needs to provide the proof that they have done some work before suggesting a new block. Each solution is easy to verify for the community at the same time. This makes it convenient to check all transactions for trustworthiness. Proof of work also sets a specific limit on how many new blocks of data can be produced. E.g, miners can only create Bitcoin blocks every 10 minutes. It doesn’t depend on a single third party transactor. This is based on a truthless and transparent network. Monopoly can increase time by time. Seemore	https://medium.com/@js9766501/proof-of-work-pow-vs-proof-of-stake-pos-85d20b1a7b96	['John Smith']	2021-04-06 11:09:28.102000+00:00	['Proof Of Work', 'Crypto', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Blokchcain']
The Why of Becoming a Freelancer	Many of us have heard about freelancing, but what benefits does it have? If you feel frustrated with your office life, here are some benefits about freelancing that a regular desk jobs don’t have. · Almost everyone can become a freelancer because nearly every type of service needed by businesses could be provided by a freelancer. It can go from accounting to teaching and graphic design. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/294234/POLITICAN-DIVERSITY.jpg · Be your own boss: you are in control of any decision-making. · Time flexibility: you operate on your own terms, no more being attached to the 9 to 5 schedule, unless you want to. You decide when to start working and for how long. As long as you meet the deadlines, everything is ok! · Location independent: become a digital nomad. It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you get the job done. https://www.worldtravelguide.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Think-Lone-Backpack-616890352-artoleshko-copy.jpg · Get paid what you’re worth: you control your earnings and adjust your rates according to your services, your experience and the quality of your service. · It is easy and affordable to get started: besides the tools you need to provide the service, you don’t have to deal with costs like a startup. · Pay less tax: depending on where you are, freelancers are considered independent contractors and these might be treated differently as the employees. · Freedom: you can choose the projects you want to work on and for whom you are doing the project. It is hard to constantly work on the perfect job, but it is always going to be your choice. This also helps you to get creative and show your talents. · Live your life the way you want: this doesn’t mean to neglect your responsibilities, but freelancing gives you the freedom to spend time with the people you love or to travel to any place you want to go. · It’s a learning process: everyday you are going to face new challenges and you can learn from each and every one of them. You will learn how to manage your business and your money. You will learn which projects fit you best, where your strengths and weaknesses are. Freelancing can also open up new career options. Freelancers are more willing to learn a new skill to broaden their services. Not only you can do what you love, but also adapt to your surroundings. https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/3840x2160/554451-Charlie-Munger-Quote-Those-who-keep-learning-will-keep-rising-in.jpg · Become a better version of yourself: dealing with different clients and with every day challenges is going to boost your confidence and help you become a better person.	https://medium.com/@iworku2018/the-why-of-becoming-a-freelancer-6c11a1dd5521	[]	2019-12-09 01:38:11.344000+00:00	['Freelancing', 'Work', 'Work Life Balance', 'Freelancers', 'Benefits']
DPX Single Staking Option Vaults	We are proud to formally announce that we will be adding a new feature to the Dopex architecture soon: Single-Staking Option Vaults (SSOV). Try SSOV on Testnet by following these instructions: https://blog.dopex.io/introducing-single-staking-option-vaults-ssov-b90bbb0a9ae5 Why SSOV? Single staking option vaults will be a catalyst to onboard >500m TVL into Dopex on just L1 by incentivizing non-$DPX farms with additional yield while utilizing our fair option pricing and white-labeled, easy to use and non-sophisticated UI to onboard more protocols and increase user adoption. What are SSOVs? Similar to single staking vaults, SSOVs allow users to lock up tokens for a specified period of time and earn yield on their staked assets. Users will be able to deposit assets into a contract which then sells your deposits as call options to buyers at fixed strikes that they select for end-of-month expiries. SSOV options are either at the money, out of the money, or far out of the money. How do they work? Prior to the beginning of a new epoch, strikes are set for the month-end. Users lock assets into this vault and select fixed strikes that you’d like to sell calls at. The contract deposits the users' tokens into a single staking pool for farming rewards and also earns a yield from selling covered calls. In essence, users will be selling covered calls at low risk with no need for intensive knowledge on option Greeks. Supported Assets Initially supported tokens will be $DPX while earning farming rewards at the same time. Other tokens will be able to utilize SSOV in the future and we will be providing pricing formulas and strikes at the beginning of every month. Purchasing Calls Buyers will be able to purchase calls from the vaults using $DPX. On the platform frontend, users will be able to use stablecoins or $ETH for purchases but they will be routed through Uniswap and swapped to $DPX. As it’s European options purchasers will have to wait until expiry to exercise Yield SSOV depositors will receive yield proportional to how close to ATM strikes are being locked into. Users don’t lose any USD notional value, however, they do have a chance of losing a % of staked assets. SSOV will appeal to USD denominated traders and will also give incentives for users to raise prices higher. More buy pressure + less sell pressure + “gm” = numba go up. Simple economics. Risk Assessment Upside? ATM (At The Money) options generate the most yield as they have the highest risk of losing upside and the highest theta. Whereas far OTM (out of the money) options get the least If SSOVs do not get enough usage for a token, close to expiry calls will be so cheap that it will incentivize large buy orders close to expiries. As a result, buyers will likely attempt to front-run each other by buying calls up beforehand at high premiums. Resulting in more yield generated for depositors. ATM: An option is ATM when the strike price and market price of the underlying asset are of the same value OTM: A call option is OTM if the current price of the underlying asset is lower than the strike price (For more on option moneyness check out this Dopex Essentials Article) Downside? SSOV depositors users will not be at risk of losing any notional USD value by staking their assets. However, in the case that the token increases rapidly they will lose potential upside. In the case that call buyers are in net profit at the end of the epoch, depositors will lose their staked tokens but will make a profit in USD notional. Think of it as a take profit at the strike price + premiums collected. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the Official Dopex Discord Server. FAQ Q: When can depositors unstake? A: Users can only unstake at the end of the monthly epoch. Q: What assets can buyers use to purchase the options? A: $DPX initially but on frontend, users can use ETH or stables which we will route through Uniswap. Q: How is yield calculated? A: Yield is calculated based on premiums collected vs TVL. Q: In the event that buyers are in net profit what happens? A: Depositors will lose their staked tokens but will make a profit in USD notional. About Dopex Dopex is a decentralized options protocol that aims to maximize liquidity, minimize losses for option writers and maximize gains for option buyers — all in a passive manner. Dopex uses option pools to allow anyone to earn a yield passively. Offering value to both option sellers and buyers by ensuring fair and optimized option prices across all strike prices and expiries. This is thanks to our own innovative and state-of-the-art option pricing model that replicates volatility smiles. 📱Stay Connected Follow our official social media accounts and visit our website to stay up to date with everything Dopex. Twitter \| Discord \| Website 🚨IMPORTANT Be careful of fake Telegram groups, Discord servers and Twitter accounts trying to impersonate Dopex. Always verify that you are on our official Discord server, Twitter page, or website.	https://blog.dopex.io/dpx-single-staking-option-vaults-2b2dbda540f9	['Team Dopex']	2021-09-07 18:17:54.218000+00:00	['Decentralized Finance', 'Decentralized Exchange', 'Dopex', 'Options Trading', 'Arbitrum']
A List Of The Best Keto-Friendly Alcohol Drinks	There’s actually quite a variety to choose from… Get your custom diet plan here Tequila has various medical advantages (and contains low calories as compared to Smirnoff vodka). Agavins, the characteristic sugar found in tequila, are non-absorbable (which means they act like fiber) and won’t increase your blood glucose levels. Additionally, the sugar is appeared to help lower cholesterol and could assist you with getting more fit by cutting your weight. Yes, believe it or not, tequila can fit in consummately with a weight-reduction plan whenever taken with some restraint. #Key Tip: The regular quantity of a glass of tequila is 1 ounce. At last, all wine changes over into sugar, which isn’t beneficial for you. Even so, red wine specifically has some fabulous medical advantages. The dynamic substances in red wine (polyphenols, resveratrol, and quercetin) have been demonstrated to enhance in general your heart’s wellbeing. Besides, study carries out at the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered that red wine hinders the procedure of glucose hitting the circulatory system, which prevents high spikes of insulin. #Key Tip: The regular quantity of a glass of wine is 5 ounces. Rum is definitely not a well known alcohol, however it ought to be (for its breathtaking medical advantages). Produced using molasses and other sugarcane side-products, rum has been demonstrated to improve psychological wellness from multiple points of view. With some restraint, a standard serving could help decrease tension, for instance. Do you think you have an awful memory? If so, celebrate with champagne all the more frequently. The bubbly alcohol drink could conceivably improve your memory activity. What’s more, champagne could assist enhance the nature of your skin. I don’t understand your views, and however, as for me, these are two perspectives I have an inclination that I could enhance.	https://medium.com/@ketoalerts/a-list-of-the-best-keto-friendly-alcohol-drinks-dbee054f44bd	['Mc Boguz']	2022-01-16 20:35:18.831000+00:00	['Weight Loss', 'Health', 'Mental Health', 'Keto', 'Alcohol']
Interview with Shaun Chong, Head of Bitcoin.com Pool Mining Operations on the Past, The Future, and Stress Test Day!	Shaun Chong at Bitcoin.com US partner datacenter During a recent dinner with the Bitcoin Cash Association and members of the Bitcoin.com team, we ended on the topic of block sizes, the scaling debate, and what we can expect to happen on the Stress Test Day. Will we hit a 32MB block on September 1st? Will Bitcoin Cash still be usable despite all of the low fee transactions? This lead to a great Q&A via Telegram with the Head of Pool Mining Operations for Bitcoin.com, Shaun Chong. He seemed like the logical person to help answer some of these questions as he’s been in the space for ages and truly understands what mining pools are likely to do. I first met Shaun in December 2017, he struck me as the quiet thinking type. He’s not afraid to voice his opinion when it counts, and he’s one of the most knowledgeable guys in the space. He literally grew up around Bitcoin mining equipment, and like all of us at Bitcoin.com, he lives and breathes for Bitcoin Cash. So without further ado, let’s get to the Q&A! Who are you and why are you into Bitcoin? I’m Shaun Chong, Bitcoin.com Head of Mining Operations. I manage Bitcoin.com Pool and cloud mining services. I love Bitcoin because it is one of the most powerful technologies to bring more economic freedom to the world. When did you get involved in Bitcoin? I started mining Bitcoin in 2011 with GPUs while I was in high school and university. Bitcoin excited me at first because it allows for permission innovation in developing software that deals with money. To develop any kind of online business prior to Bitcoin, you’re required to cooperate with banks, credit card companies, etc. If they didn’t like you or what you do, you can’t do business online. I was able to send, receive, and mine Bitcoin even before I was old enough to get a credit card. That’s unprecedented. Prefer to listen than read? Check out This Week In Bitcoin Podcast Special all about Mining! How did you get brought into bitcoin.com? Shortly after I graduated from university in Australia, I moved to Japan in search of a more exciting life. I met Roger Ver (CEO) and Emil Oldenburg (CTO) at one of the weekly Bitcoin meetups. They were looking for a software developer to build a mining pool, so I enthusiastically joined. I was especially excited because I knew we were going to be the very first mining pool in Bitcoin history to promote bigger blocks and mine with alternative full node software. We were the first pool to mine blocks with Bitcoin Unlimited instead of Bitcoin Core. What were your thoughts during the scaling debate? How did you get to Bitcoin Cash? I’ve been following the scaling debate on Reddit since the beginning. I felt disheartened that the mining pools of that time weren’t responding to such an urgent issue. We needed a mining pool to take the lead on scaling. That’s what Bitcoin.com Pool was and still all about. I saw the first announcement of Bitcoin Cash during the Future of Bitcoin conference in the Netherlands. Shortly after the conference, I was tasked with adding Bitcoin Cash support to our mining pool (only three weeks before the hard fork. Core supporters said it would take years to prepare for a hard fork. We showed it can be done in three weeks, although you’ll have very exhausted developer(s) by the end of it… Along with ViaBTC, we were one of the first mining pools to support mining Bitcoin Cash. What are the real scaling problems pools face today? The risk of bigger blocks are longer propagation and processing times for blocks. If it takes too long then blocks are more likely to be orphaned (rejected) by other pools. This occurs when other pools mine a new block during the time it took to download/validate the block. Although the block size limit is currently 32MB, almost all mining pools (including ours) are configured to generate blocks only up to 8MB. This is because we want to reduce the risk of our block getting orphaned. The fees are not worth it from a 32MB block compared to the increased orphan risk. The bottleneck is the use of HTTP RPC protocol to transfer data between the full node software and pool software. However, this is a software problem that can be solved. Bitcoin Unlimited has a beta feature on their software that should resolve this bottleneck. Our pool plans to try it out on testnet before increasing our generate limit. How will this effect Stress Test Day? What can users expect? As far as I know, all mining pools won’t generate blocks bigger than 8MB due to the reasons I described earlier. Don’t expect a 32MB block on Stress Test Day just because that is the consensus enforced limit. Miners are free to set their own max block size smaller than the consensus rules. Do you have any advice for beginners interested in getting into Bitcoin Mining, or Bitcoin in general? Read the whitepaper and watch this video, then dive right in!	https://medium.com/bitcoin-cash-development/interview-with-shaun-chong-head-of-bitcoin-com-b4d4a2c35437	['Corbin Fraser']	2018-10-18 10:05:31.095000+00:00	['Stress Testing', 'Technology', 'Bitcoin Mining', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Cash']
How to Use the Cannazon Market: A Complete Guide Buying Weed Online	Opening for business in the first quarter of 2018, Cannazon Market has quietly built up a steady and loyal following, happy to take in customers and vendors looking for new places to buy and sell cannabis-related products. It has a fair amount of positive reviews across different darknet market review sites and is considered to be relatively trustworthy compared to other such markets. In order to avoid potential interference from U.S.-based law enforcement agencies, it services non-U.S. customers only, which means that if you need items shipped to the U.S., you will have to look elsewhere (CannaHome is a worthy alternative in this regard). Cannazon is a bit different from other darknet markets as it allows you to browse the product listings before actually registering an account. This means you can get a good sense of what the market has to offer before actually registering an account. The layout of the market is quite easy to use, and it has a relatively advanced filtering options and a decent search function. This makes it simple to find not only the product you are looking for but a vendor willing to ship to your location as well. With only slightly more than 2,000 products currently being offered, Cannazon is a bit on the small side; however, many of their vendors are quite reputable and already have hundreds of trades conducted on the market. In addition to the customary acceptance of Bitcoin, Cannazon also accepts Monero, which is great for those who value their anonymity and want to pay with a coin that cannot be traced back to them via the blockchain. Cannazon takes the security of its customers very seriously, recommending users connect to it only using the privacy-based Tails OS and provide PGP encryption for all communications on the site. Cannazon was one of the first markets to employ a “wallet-less” system, meaning you never keep funds directly in a central wallet controlled by the market. Instead, it offers 2 payment options: Escrow or Finalize Early. This means that the risk of a hacking attempt or exit scam is cut down immensely, as there are no exchange-owned funds to be stolen. Escrowed funds can always be moved by the buyer and vendor and their transfer does not require action by their exchange. All-in-all, Cannazon seems to be a fairly dependable operation, with relatively little downtime and a wide selection of mirrors from which to choose. Quick Facts about Cannazon Market Link to Cannazon Market: tyiuqcmt4jvru4ojxvtcc6dv6grfxd4h5r24ijzqq562c6xcxa52zdyd.onion Founded: March 2018 Number of listings: 2,110 (as of February 2020) Listing categories: Weed, Hash, Concentrates, Edibles, Seeds, Other Coins accepted: Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR) Multisignature escrow: Yes Finalize Early (FE) Allowed: Yes Vendor bond: $250 Before Getting Started There are a few basic concepts which you need to be familiar with before attempting to get started using Cannazon Market or any other darknet market. First, you will need to download and install the Tor browser which will allow you to connect to websites on the darknet (of which Cannazon Market is one). While it is true that the Tor browser masks your connection to sites that you are visiting when using it, your IP provider can still be aware that you are accessing the Tor network, so if you value true anonymity when connecting to the darknet it is suggested that you purchase a VPN (virtual private network) service in order to remove the connection between your IP and Tor. If you’d like an extra sense of privacy, it would be a good idea to install the Tails OS, which forces all internet connectivity through TOR and can be installed on a USB drive. After Tails is shut down, all traces of activity disappear from its history. More information on how to install the Tails OS can be found here. The installation of Tails is not absolutely required as you can still access all features of Cannazon using a regular Tor browser, though Cannazon does recommend its usage. You will also obviously need to have some experience with buying and sending cryptocurrency. Learn the basics of sending Bitcoin from one address to another, how to identify and input Bitcoin addresses, how to assign transaction fees, and what a blockchain confirmation is as well. Sending BTC or any cryptocurrency to the wrong address can be a costly, irreparable error for which there is no recourse, so it’s good to have a handle on how to move it before attempting to do so for the first time. Beware of Phishing Sites One of the most important things you need to know before attempting to register an account at any darknet market is what the official URL(s) of the market website is (are). Many darknet markets are subject to phishing attempts in which a forged copy of the website is made and links to it are placed upon the web in an attempt to fool unsuspecting users into entering their user names and passwords into it. The phisher will then use your credentials to log in to the actual market website and drain whatever funds you may have available there. The best way to avoid phishing websites is to only copy/paste links that you have either previously stored for safe-keeping or those that can be found on the Cannazon section at DarkNetOnions. This website only hosts links verified by the markets themselves via signature from their PGP key, and it is considered to be one of the most trusted resources for darkweb links around. Bookmark http://cannak7ftxn4tkye.onion and save it for later user. How to Register an Account After locating a Cannazon Market URL on our working mirrors links, or on DarkNetOnions, copy it and paste it into your Tor browser. The landing page should look like this: After entering the captcha, press “Enter” to continue. You will be directed to the market home page, which looks like this: From this page, hover over the words My Account to bring up the “Register” option. Click on that to go to the account registration screen, which looks like this: Create a unique user name that is not associated with any of your online identities, enter a strong password of 8 or more characters (a random combination of lower- and upper-case letters and numbers is recommended), repeat entry of the password, then enter in a Password Reset code which can be used to recover your password if you should forget it (ideally something easier to remember than your password), and repeat its entry as well. Before proceeding, be sure you have saved your user name, password and password reset code in a safe place where you will remember where it is. After you have saved this information, press the green “Register” button. Your account will have been created, and you will be transported back to the market home page. At this point, there are a few more things you need to do before you can make purchases. First, hover over your user name to the right of the top search bar. You will notice that there is a red stop sign and an orange warning sign next to the Account Settings tab. Click that tab to be brought to your Account Settings page. Here, you will need to enter in a Bitcoin (BTC) address (or XMR address if you are using Monero) for refunds, and your PGP public key so vendors and other members can encrypt communications to you. Next, copy and paste your bitcoin master public key into the text box below, under the words Multisig configuration. The easiest way to generate a compressed public key is visit coinb.in/#newAddress and click “Generate” without changing any of the settings. This will generate a Bitcoin address, public key and private key; however you will only need the public key (the middle box): You will not need to remember the generated Bitcoin address and private key — but you will definitely need the public key to sign off on 2/3 multisignature transactions. After you have entered your refund address(es), Bitcoin public key and PGP public key, press the green “Update Settings” button. If everything was entered correctly, you will be transferred to the next screen, which will display a message encrypted with your PGP public key. After decrypting the message and entering the code provided in the message, it should look like this: Enter in your code from the decrypted message and press “Save PGP Key”. If the code was entered correctly, you will be returned to the Account Settings page and see a message that says Profile was successfully saved! at the top of the screen. You will notice that the red stop sign no longer appears next to the Account Settings tab, but the orange caution sign is still there. This is a reminder to activate Two-Factor Authentication (2-FA) for your account, which will require that you decrypt a message using your PGP key upon each login. If you consider yourself to be big on security and want to minimize your chances of being phished, check the Two-factor authentication box and once again click “Update Settings”. Browsing the Market Cannazon Market’s layout is quite user friendly and you are provided with multiple filter options to narrow your search for the product which you are searching. When first logging in, you are shown popular items by default in the main screen, which are then later replaced by items related to your previous searches. In addition to a general search bar at the top of the screen, you can browse by product category, which include the following: Weed (divided into Indica, Sativa, Hybrid, and Other) Hash (divided into Afghan, Morocco, Lebanese, and Other) Concentrates (capsules, sprays, vape cartridges, resin, wax, and others) Edibles (divided into Cookies, Sweets, and Other) Seeds (for home growing) Other (pre-rolls, hemp oil, cleansing products, etc.) Down below the product categories are the filter options, which include: Search term Price (min/max) Price per unit (min/max) Vendor (by name) Currency (Bitcoin or Monero) Shipping To / Shipping From (by country) You will of course want to narrow down the selection by the country which you reside, which will immediately eliminate at least some products, so don’t make your search too narrow or it may yield zero results. Each product listing will display the price (in euros, which can be changed to other currencies in your Account Settings), description, vendor name, positive vs. negative ratings, as well as Ships from and Ships to countries. Placing an Order After you’ve found a product you wish to purchase, click on it to bring up its details. Here you will find the basic information about the product: price in euros, payment method(s), currencies accepted, and price in accepted currencies. Before making a purchase, we recommend clicking on the vendor name to bring up pertinent details about the vendor, like their refund policy and user ratings. Cannazon operates using a thumbs up / thumbs down rating system, meaning you can see the total number of positive vs. negative ratings a vendor has received from their customers. You can also see their total number of completed orders, their account creation date, last login date, and rating totals received on other markets (if applicable). If you are satisfied with the vendor details, return to the product listing page and click the green “Add to Cart” button. You will then be transported to your cart page, which looks like this: Here you can adjust the shipping method to that which is desired, as well as the quantity, payment method, and currency of payment. For the purposes of this guide, we will only be making a payment in Bitcoin and using the Escrow payment option (for an explanation of the difference between Escrow and Finalize Early, you can read their respective sections below). If you are content that everything is to your satisfaction, press the “Proceed to Checkout” button. You will then be brought to the Checkout screen. Here you will enter your encrypted shipping details (name and address) for the vendor. While there is a “PGP Auto Encrypt” checkbox next to the shipping details field, it is recommended by Cannazon that you encrypt the details yourself, using your own PGP client. To find the vendor’s PGP public key, scroll down to the bottom of the screen. You will need to import the vendor’s PGP public key into your PGP client which can be done by saving it as a text file and using the client’s Import function. After this has been done, write your ship-to name and address in a text file, copy it to your clipboard, and close the text file without saving it. Then use your PGP client to encrypt the contents of your clipboard using the PGP key of the vendor as the recipient. Paste the encrypted contents into the encrypted message text field. It should look something like this when done correctly: Next, check the “I have read and agree to the vendor`s rules” box underneath, then scroll down a bit to find a small captcha-type problem where you are asked to enter a certain character displayed in your current URL. After entering in the requested letter, click “Place your order”. Next, you will be brought to the Order Details screen. Here you will be presented with a Bitcoin address to which you will make a payment for the exact amount shown above the payment address. You will have half an hour to complete the transaction before the order is re-priced and must be re-entered. Once payment has been detected, the order will be marked as paid. Once your Bitcoin transaction has been confirmed by the network, the order information will be passed along to the vendor, who will begin preparing your order. You will receive updates about the status of your order in the form of notifications. After it has been received, you will need to “Finalize” the order so that payment may be released to the vendor. If your order was not received after the time period promised by the vendor, or if you have a problem with the quality of your order, you can “Dispute” it. If the Cannazon staff decides in your favor, your funds will be returned to you. If they decide in the favor of the vendor, the funds will be sent to them. What does Escrow mean? Escrow is the default purchase option used by Cannazon Market. For each purchase made on the market, a new multisignature address is generated representing that particular transaction, which is what your bitcoin public key is used to sign. Unlike most other bitcoin addresses, a multisig address requires the signature of 2 out of 3 parties assigned control of the address (or 2 of 2 in the case of Finalize Early). This means that a combination of the vendor and exchange can initiate the transaction to move the funds to the vendor, or if the exchange is offline for some reason, the buyer and vendor can still perform the transaction without the involvement of the exchange. The reason why the Escrow option is default and recommended by Cannazon is because it means your funds can only be released to the vendor after you have received your product and are satisfied with it. If a dispute arises, and the market decides in your favor, your coins will be refunded back to the refund address you provided. If the market decides in the favor of the vendor, they will co-sign a transaction to release the funds to the vendor. Either way, this means that the funds are never held directly by Cannazon, meaning they cannot be stolen from them or by them in the event of a sudden closure. What does Finalize Early (FE) mean? Vendors who are somewhat established can earn and enable Finalize Early (FE) privileges, which means they are allowed to bypass the escrow holding period if the customer chooses to make a purchase using this method. FE is something of a rarity on Cannazon and only granted to vendors who are highly trusted, having completed several hundred orders, with a total rating of 90%+ positive feedback. Funds for FE listings are non-refundable by the market but can be refunded by the vendor at any time. Be sure to read the most recent user feedback of a vendor before deciding to purchase a product from such a vendor who has their listings set to FE. Cannazon’s support will likely be unable to help you if you should have a problem with a FE purchase, and your only recourse will be leaving the vendor a negative rating. How do I know if I am buying an Escrow or Direct Pay listing? Each listing for a product will say “Multisig Escrow” and/or “FE” in the product listing page. Keep in mind that just because a vendor is allowed FE privileges, it does not mean that all of their listings will be set with that option; some may be escrow-only. Also remember that just because a vendor has FE enabled, it does not guarantee that your transaction will go smoothly. Buyers usually have the option of purchase through Escrow, but some vendors will have the additional option of FE, and some will have FE only. Conclusion You are now ready to get started using the Cannazon Market. By practicing good security and privacy measures, as well as some basic common sense, you are likely to have a positive experience here so long as you implement the suggestions provided for you in this guide. Always remember that understanding what you are doing is essential before you get started doing it, especially when it comes to something as sensitive as cryptocurrency and darknet markets. While Cannazon Market is considered to be a well-respected operation among the community, keep in mind that safety and security are of the foremost importance when transacting on any darknet market. Therefore, don’t hesitate to seek out answers to questions about issues you may have before making a purchase. P.S. Currently, there are more darknets markest which offers a growing variety of Weed and Cannabis-related products, called CannaHome Market. We have also reviewd this market and wrote the CannaHome Market buying guide for anyone who might be interested to further explore and shop around. Another big emerging darknet market is Dark0de.	https://medium.com/@darkfailorg/how-to-use-the-cannazon-market-a-complete-guide-buying-weed-online-6cb4ccb71ea4	['Darknet Markets']	2021-04-17 06:32:06.897000+00:00	['Drugs', 'Onion', 'Darknet', 'Market', 'Weed']
Why Reputation Management Is An Essential Factor For A Strong Customer Base?	The internet is an excellent interface, but also it serves as a barrier. Your company gets negative feedback, and the canvas-colored words on the white screen can almost seem cold, disconnected. As a business owner, you expect to have a supportive SMO agency or the ability to turn the gloomy black-and-white terms on the feedback profile into a living color experience. You want to transform one-way messaging into the front porch interaction, with the opportunity for more information, critical learning, resolution, and a profoundly informal human link. Why Businesses Should Invest In Reputation Management: Reputation management is the method of tracking and influencing public views of your brand. It might sound easy, but the process of managing the credibility of an organization takes a lot of patience and work. Reputation management is not just about creating the reputation of your company. It also helps preserve the excellent credibility that you have made and recover correctly from a terrible situation or PR mess. Companies that fail to invest in reputation management suffer enormously from false facts, unfounded claims, and negative feedback. Add-ons Of Reputation Management: · Small businesses and start-ups benefit from reputation management techniques because they help build and sustain a professional business picture. · A reputation management plan should involve developing local profiles and listings to improve your company’s ranking on the Search Engine Results Pages ( SERPs). · Handling an online reputation is not easy, but a reliable service provider has the right resources and skills to dispel false information and vicious rumors about your business. · Reputation management helps improve the company’s profits by figuring out what consumers like or don’t like about the goods or services you sell. · Working with a reputation management professional is one of the best ways to promote a favorable online profile. Role Of ORM: Online Reputation Management (ORM) is about tracking and optimizing the way your company viewed online. It involves looking and evaluating what a potential buyer, reporter, or partner learns about your brand, your employees, or your product/service while they search on Google. Approximately 90% of customers read online reviews before a business visit. They will come up with different feelings about your business and what you sell, good or bad, only by looking for you on the internet. Work On Online Reputation Management: Step 1. Claim your business: List the results of the search with the related content. Claim your organization on Yahoo, Bing, Build a Facebook Business Page and LinkedIn business page. Step 2. Set reputation monitor: Set up Google Alerts for the name of your company, executive management, and goods and services. You may also use more sophisticated online credibility tools. Step 3. Empower your team: Work to build a strong social media presence for your creators, owners, executives, and other stakeholders. Many organizations are characterized by the people who work for them. Step 4. Improve search ranking: SEO service intends to help increase the search engine’s organic rating. Or you could need to have some content plan or help with blogging. If you don’t rank a lot for your name, it’s easy for unfavorable content to gain momentum quickly. Step 5. Coordinate PR events online: Plan some strategic online PR activities to put the company in a more positive light. This may involve activities like promoting non-profit groups, collaborating with another big brand name with better PR or email marketing service. Step 5. Work on social media: Social networking is a growing part of how companies are positioning themselves in a digital space. If you’re not engaging in and reacting to social media, you’re missing a huge opportunity to develop your company. Step 6. Hire some experienced: It is essential to look at an agency or partner who can help you navigate your online reviews to support your company with PPC service too. Too many negative reviews can ruin your company, while primarily positive reviews can keep potential subscribers knocking at your doorstep. Concluding Note: Business success determines several factors: quality of products or services, efficient customer support, good leadership, and successful marketing strategies. However, any of these affected or destroyed by one or more negative online reviews. Looking for perfect app development that ensures a strong user interface? Connect with Zazz, a leading mobile app development company in the USA, delivered thousands of successful applications. Let’s discuss your deals and receive a highly customized solution.	https://medium.com/@zazz/why-reputation-management-is-an-essential-factor-for-a-strong-customer-base-fcbc1a2e7352	['John Lewis']	2020-10-27 13:06:43.813000+00:00	['Reputation Management', 'SEO', 'Zazz', 'Smo', 'PPC Marketing']
Show Your .NET Code Effectively With Jupyter Notebook	You can show your .NET code as a presentation with Jupyter Notebook, .NET Interactive. The precious .NET 5 has finally arrived in our workspace, and I’m thrilled. .NET 5 is a unified and cross-platform supported runtime for C# and F# developers. Also, it has balanced cross-platform features across all environments, including existing your old familiar Windows desktop environment and Linux, Cloud-native, macOS, even machine learning, Apache Spark, and Web Assembly. I’m recently taking a series of the episode called the Azure Playlists project in cooperation with Microsoft Korea. I thought a lot about how to present my PowerShell code to viewers effectively. After many trials and errors, I got a neat but simple idea. With the release of .NET 5, Microsoft also launches many useful tools as open-source projects. .NET Interactive is one-of-them, and I found it. .NET Interactive provides three types of .NET kernels, C#, F#, and PowerShell. I used PowerShell to introduce Azure related tools. Because PowerShell works almost the same across all three OSes (including Windows, Linux, and macOS). With .NET Interactive, I can reuse my existing knowledge to Jupyter notebook without any hassle. C#, F#, and PowerShell supported! As you already know, the Jupyter notebook can contain the runnable code and its results to understand its meaning and how it works. This time, you can replace your code with C#, F#, or PowerShell.	https://medium.com/dataseries/show-your-net-code-effectively-with-jupyter-notebook-5467f5a972cf	['Jung-Hyun Nam']	2020-11-23 09:25:43.809000+00:00	['Csharp', 'Developer', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Powershell']
Facebook In Trouble Again With Recent A.I. Data Infringement Lawsuit	San Francisco, CALIFORNIA — Last Thursday, Facebook, Inc. and Princeton University were hit with a major lawsuit from home design company, Planner 5D, claiming the two Defendants were scraping over five gigabytes of data from more than 2,500 three-dimensional objects and 45,000 scenes vital to the development of the company’s computer vision technology. UAB “PLANNER5D,” a private Lithuanian company behind the Planner 5D website, sued Facebook and Princeton for copyright infringement and trade secret theft under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday. Representatives of Facebook and Princeton did not immediately respond to messages Thursday. Planner 5D’s lawyer, Marc Bernstein of The Business Litigation Group in San Francisco, said in a phone interview Thursday, that the company is considering adding more individual, university, and corporate defendants as it learns more about how the data was scraped and shared. “The company takes this seriously because they consider this a significant threat, and they think this data is a key ingredient for scene recognition research,” he said. Grit Daily reached out to Planner5D and was able to very briefly speak with Alexey Sheremetyev, the CEO and Founder of Planner5D about the ongoing lawsuit. Due to the active nature of the case,the conversation was very short-winded. WHAT’S THE LEGAL? We are starting to see more legal battles over the issue of copyright in today’s digital age. Back in March, the European Union passed its Copyright Directive, aimed at restructuring intellectual property law for its member nations. The heart of this lawsuit centers around the concept of “computer vision” — the ability of machines to recognize three-dimensional scenes. This is one of today’s leading research fields because whoever first masters this technology, will forever change humankind’s relationship with machines. It’s estimated that the computer vision market will reach $48 billion by 2023, and $60 billion by 2025. MEET THE PLAINTIFF, ‘PLANNER 5D’ The Plaintiff, Planner 5D, is a user-friendly home design tool, created in 2011, that allowed anyone to quickly and easily create their own home, office, or landscape designs. Complaint, 27, 10–12. With over 40 million users worldwide, Planner 5D allows its users to select from thousands of available objects, from structural features such as windows, arches, doors, and stairs, to furniture such as sofas, beds, tables, chairs, and rugs, to kitchen and bathroom appurtenances such as baths and sinks, to electrical appliances such as lights, video equipment, and computers, and to exterior features such as paths, lawns, trees, plants, barbecues, and swimming pools. Id. 27, 12–16. To create a design, users simply drag any of these objects onto or around a chosen floor plan. Id., 17–18. Once added to a design, these objects can be quickly and easily moved, rotated, tilted, re-sized, or otherwise manipulated to create the desired design. Id. 18–19. Users can easily toggle between two-and three-dimensional renderings of the design. Id. 19–20. In 3-D, a design can easily be rotated and tilted to any desired perspective. Id. 20–21. The company created its library of realistic, digitized objects over a span of more than seven years, at a cost of millions of dollars, continuing to add to this library. Currently, the library contains over 4,500 objects. The company owns a copyright in the data file underlying each object, an in the compilation of individual data files. These works were authored in Europe or Russia. WHAT DID THE DEFENDANTS’ ‘ALLEGEDLY’ DO? Outlined in the Complaint, Princeton researchers working in the computer vision field had identified a lack of data as a significant hurdle within the field. The document goes on to allege that researchers in turn, developed a data set, named SUNCG by Princeton researchers, was built from scraping Planner 5D’s library of object and scene files, a practice which is banned in the company’s user agreement. Facebook launched a worldwide scene-recognition competition called the SUMO Challenge (Scene Understanding and Modeling Challenge). SUMO Challenge entrants were encouraged to submit scene-recognition papers and algorithms. Facebook and its SUMO Challenge affiliates published their own copy of the SUNCG dataset and directed contestants to download and use it for their contest submissions. Consequently, the current number of SUNCG dataset holders is unknown. Facebook, allegedly, promised cash prizes and the opportunity to present submissions to a jury (consisting of Facebook, Princeton University, and others) in return for a “perpetual, royalty-free, no-cost license and right to use and otherwise exploit” the submitted materials, including Facebook’s right to use the contest submissions “in any merchandising, advertising, marketing, promotion or for any other commercial or non-commercial purpose”. WHAT’S ON FACEBOOK’S PLATE THIS TIME? #1 — COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT “The Congress shall have Power…To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” –U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8 In the U.S., copyright law is governed pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1976 (“Act)”. The Act prevents the unauthorized copying of a work of authorship. In order for a work to receive copyright protection, a work must be “original” and must be “fixed” in a tangible medium of expression. The Plaintiff alleges that it is the sole owner of all right, title, and interest in the copyrighted works, specifically the SUNCG dataset. In the Complaint, the company alleges that the Defendants, and each of them, directly infringed upon Plaintiff’s copyrights, in violation of U.S. Copyright law, including 17 U.S.C. $101 et seq. #2 — TRADE SECRET MISAPPROPRIATION UNDER THE DEFEND TRADE SECRETS ACT The Defend Trade Secret Act of 2016 (DTSA), was passed into law back in April 2016 during the Obama Administration. The DTSA, for the first time, provides a federal civil remedy for the misappropriation of trade secrets. Before the DTSA, only criminal charges for trade secret theft were available in federal court. All other civil actions were brought under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), which is adopted by 47 states, excluding New York, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. The DTSA provides a party with a cause of action if they “suffered damage by reason of a wrongful or excessive seizure.” This entitled the injured party to damages for lost profits, cost of materials, loss of good will, and punitive damages in instances where the seizure was sought in bad faith. The court may allow recovering reasonable attorney’s fees, unless the court finds extenuating circumstances. In the Complaint, Plaintiff brings a claim of trade secret misappropriation under the DTSA, asserting that that the data files defining the objects created by it, and those defining its vast compilation of scenes (i.e., object and data files), are trade secrets belonging to the Plaintiff. It further explains that it takes reasonable measures to preserve their secrecy, which are not generally known to, or readily ascertainable through proper means by, the public, and they derive independent economic value from their secrecy. The Plaintiff continues to assert that the Defendants acquired those object and scene files through improper means, by visiting thousands of Plaintiff’s web pages and scraping those files from tens of thousands of further addresses on the Plaintiff’s servers, leading to the acquisition, disclosure, and use of those trade secrets. #3 — TRADE SECRET MISAPPROPRIATION UNDER THE CALIFORNIA UNIFORM TRADE SECRETS ACT — AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS Unlike DTSA, the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA), applies to state-specific matters with companies looking to resolve intellectual property matters. DTSA specifically provides an employee with the ability to use or disclose the trade secret details to obtain employment or when working with another employer, as well as providing immunity to whistleblowers. However, under CUTSA, a plaintiff cannot request a direct court order to enforce the seizure of property to stop any further and continued misappropriation with the trade secrets. For an action to proceed under CUTSA, four elements must be met: The trade secret must exist as information, whether the data has a process, ingredient, or a method that applies to a product or service; The information must have economic value; Must stay secret; and Reasonable efforts were made to maintain its secrecy WHAT’S NEXT? Pursuant to the Complaint, Bernstein has demanded a jury trial on all issues pled in the Complaint. This will be a lawsuit to follow, which Grit Daily will be keeping tabs on. For more information, you can follow the case through the PACER system by entering the following information — Case No.: 3:190-cv-03132 This was originally published on Grit Daily News.	https://medium.com/hackernoon/facebook-in-trouble-again-with-recent-a-i-data-infringement-lawsuit-f89e324f69b8	['Drew Rossow']	2019-06-17 22:26:09.701000+00:00	['Facebook', 'Copyright', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Legal', 'Planner5d']
How to Buy $XP token on Uniswap V2	Hello PolkaFantasy Community! We’re very excited to announce that our $XP token will be live on Uniswap V2 on 10 September 2021 (9AM UTC). If you’re unfamiliar with this decentralized exchange, not worry! We have provided you with simple step-by-step instructions on how to safely purchase our token. Purchasing $XP on Uniswap V2 To purchase $XP you must first go to https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap?use=V2 Upon launching the app, you will see the exchange platform with the option to enter the token pairs you would like to swap. But before you can get your hands on some $XP, you will need to connect your wallet, which can be done by clicking the “Connect to a wallet” button in the top right-hand corner. Now you’ll have the opportunity to connect your DeFi wallet. Remember that Uniswap is only compatible with MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase, Fortmatic, and Portis. Ensure your wallet network is set to the Ethereum Network. After your wallet has been connected, the next step is to enter the currency pairs you wish to swap. We are going to launch on Uniswap V2, therefore make sure that you are trading on the right protocol (https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap?use=V2). Select USDT or ETH as the currency on the top of the swap, as this will be the purchasing currency. For the bottom of the swap, paste the $XP contract address (you can find it at https://polkafantasy.com/) and add it to the swap. DON’T just search with the token name ‘XP’ to prevent scams. And if you find that the liquidity is too low, check again if you are trading on Uniswap V2. We have not put out any official pools on V3, therefore make sure you double check. Once both tokens have been entered, select the amount of $XP you’d like to purchase in USDT or ETH, check your slippage by clicking the settings icon. Once comfortable with slippage, click swap- and that’s it! All that is left is to confirm the gas fees and before you know it, you’ll be a $XP holder.	https://medium.com/@polkafantasy/how-to-buy-the-xp-token-on-uniswap-ff1291aa17be	[]	2021-09-10 06:55:34.731000+00:00	['Nft', 'Uniswap', 'Gamefi', 'Ido', 'Blockchain Game']
Matching latch	Chalkboard challenge Matching Latch A response to the one-line poem prompt, Buckle Photo by Mike Lorusso on Unsplash Find the corresponding latch to attach - two become one- perfect match. Simone Maffescioni, 2020 Response to one-line poem prompt ‘buckle’ Thank you to Fierce Force 💃🏼and Chalkboard for the prompt:	https://medium.com/chalkboard/matching-latch-f5646c08c8f2	['Fresh Receptive']	2020-07-27 07:23:45.337000+00:00	['Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry', 'Chalkboard Espresso', 'Soulmates', 'Buckle']
Getting Closer to Mega Project	This report elaborates that due to human activities such as: Deforestation, Industrialization, and urbanisation has increased the world temperature. In 1951 to 1980 the increment in the temperature was one degree and till then 2020 the temperature increased by 1 more. Scientists reported that by 2050 the temperature of the Earth will be 1.5 centigrade higher than average.Consequently, the heat waves will come into existence and so many people will die, animals will be affected and our green areas will also be affected. All the countries in the world are now dependent on fuel consuming vehicles and industries. Day by day the ratio of greenhouse gasses has been increasing and this is also a great threat to the environment because rising in vehicles, industrialization and deforestation means the access of these gases and in the coming era these gases will not be able to maintain the temperature of environment. This report was taken in 2011 and it elaborates that as the deforestation and industrialization increases, the greenhouse effect will increase. As a result, these gases will be collected in the clouds and acid rain will occur, aquatic life as well as jungles, and crops will be affected.There will be drought for years and many people and animals will die. In Pakistan, It is expected that the climate change has wide-ranging impacts, for instance reduction in agricultural productivity, increased coastal erosion, increased variability of water availability, sea water incursion, and increased frequency of extreme climatic events. Serious initiatives are needed to be taken before it too late. Investing in new technology is not enough to stop climate change. We should fight this challenge with natural way. For coming challenge I have little plan to contribute in it and I will share it soon.	https://medium.com/@imran.khan210/getting-closer-to-mega-project-d313e087f0ab	['Imran Khan']	2021-08-20 06:54:04.005000+00:00	['Solutions', 'Amal Academy', 'Facts', 'Amal Totkay', 'Climate Change']
Best Places To Live As An Expat in South East Asia & Why!	Photo by Florian Hahn on Unsplash Having lived in all of these countries, it really depends on what you are looking for as an expat. You can have a bustling life in a big Asian city with plenty of infrastructure such as Bangkok, or you can take the more relaxed route, enjoy the beaches, the locals, and their amazing food! Either way, there is a place for everyone! Saigon — Best Prices I would say if you are looking for the best in terms of cost, Vietnam wins. A great place was Saigon, it is an absolute gem, the people are nice the food is great and the prices are very affordable. Cons are the traffic is manic, but safe if you get to know the unofficial rules. Philippines — Nicest People The Philippines, has some of the friendliest people in the world, and English is widely spoken and in Manila, malls are everywhere. It can be a great place however, the traffic is manic and one of the worst in the world and found poverty to be the highest in any of the other countries. Although, most of the countries (with the exception of Singapore) have low wages people are happy and not too much poverty while in Manila, it is very common and quite sad to see. It does have a cheap residency program and a good place to be based if you like beaches. Thailand — Well Developed Thailand has some of the better development along with Malaysia. It also has cheap flights. It is very easy to live a western lifestyle here and then go straight back to Thai in the next street, it has is a very dynamic place & people are nice. So of the cons are English is the least spoken of the countries mentioned, and Thai baht is presently strong so will make living more expensive than the other (except Singapore). Kualalumpur — Strong Residency KL is a the top of the list for an affordable and good quality residency program. Some of the great benefits to KL are the English quality of locals, cheap flights & good transportation systems. I have looked at living in Singapore but then questioned myself as to why? When you get 75% of Singapore in KL for a 1/3 of the price. Also, my opinion, but a bit more edge to it. Personally, this place gets over-looked due to things such as high alcohol price and not as fun as Bangkok but this should not be the case. For residency programs and expat life, the quality is high here. Singapore — Expat Heaven Singapore, it’s the place a lot of expats go! It is clean, sterile, very westernised, great transport links, good infrastructure, lots of activities and the people are great! The worlds best everything, a great place if you like that. I would also say the best place for an expat to work, salaries are good, houses are good, but they are expensive. If you have the money for a residency (at a cool 1.5 million U.S) it is the best option as an expat. Even though it is very developed, it is safe and has a lot of green space dotted around so that it isn’t all just buildings. The cons are it's very small, about 1/3 of the size of London, so it can feel a bit cramped and it is very easy to see the whole island in a weekend. Finally, living in Singapore is quite expensive, the salaries do match the living, however, considering some of the other options, you can get better value for money in other areas! Further Readings To Help You Best Places To Buy Property Without Any Tax Expats Property Guide To Asia Should UK Expats Pay National Insurance While Abroad How To Become Financially Independent	https://medium.com/@investments-for-expats/best-places-to-live-as-an-expat-in-south-east-asia-why-98917976c6cb	['Henry Temple-Baxter']	2020-05-18 09:31:42.867000+00:00	['Finance', 'Asia', 'Expat Life', 'Expat', 'Life']
A field	I found a tree behind a field. Under the tree was dewy grass. And past the grass was tender dirt And yet beneath, worms were feeding. The ants were marching all in order, For some unseen, instinct guides Their little bodies all in order. The treasures of their world They brought to the hill And through the hole. Past this world above and Into the world they built below. And there, a worm to bring me hope, An ant that lead to Mount Zion. The tree that stands casts A cross’s shadow on the altar Of dewy grass beneath my feet. The tender dirt, a narrow road. For what else are we except, maybe In the hands of Gentleness, Worms becoming sons and daughters, Bought with Loving, Living Blood.	https://medium.com/unpacking-my-life/a-field-e76d963cdb6c	['Cameron Robinson']	2019-03-02 13:03:08.493000+00:00	['Spirituality', 'Death', 'Christianity', 'Poetry', 'Mortality']
That Big Data problem — Thinking the Hadoop way	That Big Data problem — Thinking the Hadoop way What is the “big data problem”? “On the night of July 9, 1958 an earthquake along the Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle loosened about 40 million cubic yards (30.6 million cubic meters) of rock high above the northeastern shore of Lituya Bay. This mass of rock plunged from an altitude of approximately 3000 feet (914 meters) down into the waters of Gilbert Inlet (see map below). The impact generated a local tsunami that crashed against the southwest shoreline of Gilbert Inlet. The wave hit with such power that it swept completely over the spur of land that separates Gilbert Inlet from the main body of Lituya Bay. The wave then continued down the entire length of Lituya Bay, over La Chaussee Spit and into the Gulf of Alaska. The force of the wave removed all trees and vegetation from elevations as high as 1720 feet (524 meters) above sea level. Millions of trees were uprooted and swept away by the wave. This is the highest wave that has ever been known.“ (quoted from http://geology.com/records/biggest-tsunami.shtml) Now lets use our imagination a bit, and pretend we’re on a digital world, and that an even bigger wave can be seen on the horizon, only that the wave is made up of 1’s and 0’s. That’s the current status of information on the net right now. A huge wave of data is being generated every second, ranging from user generated information such as tweets, status updates, uploaded pictures, blog posts, comments, text messages, e-mails and so on to machine generated data, like server access logs, error logs, transaction logs, etc. And that’s not even the problem, the problem is that we need to start thinking in terms of TB or even PB of information, billions of rows instead of millions of them in order to be able to handle this big wave that’s coming. Normally, when you have to store information on your application you ask yourself one basic question: What do I need this information for? And from the answer you get, you plan your storage and you start saving that specific information. Lets look at an example, from two different perspectives: Traditional way of thinking: Say for example, you’re a web development company and you’re asked to create a basic web analytics app for your company site. So you ask yourself: What do I need the information for? As an answer, you might get something like: To get number of visits to each page. To get a list of referrer sites. To get the number of unique visits. To get a list of web browsers used on the site. It’s a short list, I know, but this is a basic example. Back to the problem: You have your answer, all that information can be fetched from the server’s access log, so you configure your log files to store that information, great! You’re done! Yes, you’re done, you got your system ready, it shows the information you were asked to show, but you also closed the door to other potential analytics that could come out of the information stored on those access logs (like request method used, response code given, size of the object returned and so on) and other sources of information. Thinking in “big data” terms: Thinking in “big data” terms means (at least to me), saving all the information you’re working with on your project and then finding out new and exiting ways to interpret that information and get results out of it. Back to the problem, with the “big data” way of thinking this time: This time around, you think in “big data” terms, so you already have lots of data being saved for every visit, such as: Access log information. Error log information. User input (if there is any) User behavior data (such as clicking patterns and smiliar) and so on. That’s because when you created your website, you asked yourself a different question: What is all the information I can get from my website? And since you changed your question, you significantly change the answer to your problem. You now have a vast amount of information to analyse and get insight from. This is great, but where do we store all this log information? It could potentially become too much for a single machine and we don’t want to loose any information by rotating logs and using other techniques. So another valid question would be: What kind of hardware do I need to store and process all that information in a timely manner? What kind of hardware do we need then? We need some kind of setup that will allow us to: Store vasts amounts of data Process this data in a timely manner Be able to grow as much as we want (storage and processing power wise) Be fault tolerant (storage and processing power wise) Affordable That is a lot to ask (specially if we consider the last point) of a single computer, isn’t it? So the answer will probably come in the form of a distributed system. Enter Hadoop What is Hadoop? In a nutshell, Hadoop is the solution to our problems, one of them (mind you), but a pretty powerful one at that. In more detail, Hadoop is an Open Source Apache project, dedicated to solve two major problems related to big data: Where to store all of the information? How to process that information at an affordable cost and in an reasonable amount of time? To answer these questions, Hadoop provides the following solutions: HDFS This is the Hadoop Distributed File System, it allows us to store in a reliable way all the information we need. This works by interconnecting commodity machines (affordable) and using the resulting shared storage (Store vasts amounts of data). The HDFS takes whatever we throw at it and splits the files into evenly sized chunks of data, and then spreads them throughout the cluster. In this stage, it also replicates the files, providing data redundancy and fault tolerance. Thanks to the HDFS we can have as much storage capacity as we need, by adding new machines to the cluster (Be able to grow as much as we want ). We also gain a very important asset, that is fault tolerance. Since we’re replicating the information into several nodes of the cluster, our commodity machines are free to fail and the only place where that will affect us is performance (no data loss or incomplete information). MapReduce This is the other “leg” of Hadoop, an implementation of the MapReduce algorithm proposed by Google in 2004. The MapReduce algorithm allows us to process large amounts of information (terabytes of information) in a distributed (thouthend of nodes) and fault tolerant manner (Process this data in a timely manner) . And if we consider that we already have a cluster of computers working for us with the HDFS, MapReduce is the perfect match to take advantage of that computational power sitting there on every node of the cluster. This algorithm has two basic steps: Map step: In this stage, the input data will be split into smaller chunks to be analyzed and transformed by processes called “mappers”. Thanks to the integration with the HDFS, the main node will effectively schedule map jobs to use the data that’s already on the nodes they’re running on, allowing the system to utilize very little bandwidth. The output of these mapper jobs will be a set of (key, value) tuples. Reduce step: The output of the mappers will be sent into the reduce jobs. These jobs will process the information with an added benefit of knowing that it’s input will be given in a sorted manner by the system. They’re main purpose is to aggregate the information given by the mappers and output only that which is needed. There is an implicit step between 1 and 2, that is the shuffle & sort step, done by the system automatically. In this step, the system will sort the output of all mapper nodes by the key of each tuple and it’ll send these sorted results into the reduce nodes, assuring that all tuples with the same key will go to the same reducer. Graphical representation of the MapReduce steps Thinking the Hadoop way So, we have our data, we have our questions to ask to that data, we have our needs and we have our solution. What now? Your following steps could include: Installing and configuring your Hadoop cluster: For this step, the company Cloudera has a standarized distribution of hadoop, which they call Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop(CDH). You can download it for free and it comes with serveral other projects from the Hadoop ecosystem (such as Pig, Hive, Hbase, and so on). And for managing your cluster, you could use their Cloudera Manager, which allows you to manage up to 50 nodes for free. Upload the information to your HDFS. Transform your information using a MapReduce job: I consider this step to be optional. I would use a “hand-written” MapReduce job if I had transform my data set in a specific way in order to query it later on. Query your data set: There are several ways to do this, tools like Pig or Hive, allow you write MapReduce jobs (for data transformation) on a higher level language (PigLatin or SQL). Others like HBase and Cassandra work better for quick queries to that data, they work directly over the HDFS ignoring the MapReduce framework, but you’re a bit limited on what you can do with the information. And finally, a pretty common question: Is Hadoop the best solution for big data analysis out there? Probably not, since “the best” is always relative to your needs, but it’s a pretty darn good one, so give it a try. Besides, all the cool kids are doing it: Facebook — 15 PB of information last time they revealed the number. Ebay — 5.3 PB of information on their clusters. LinkedIn Twitter And many others, check out the complete list here.	https://medium.com/moove-it/that-big-data-problem-thinking-the-hadoop-way-6fc0a617d954	['Blog Moove-It']	2016-08-04 12:14:19.985000+00:00	['Analytics', 'Big Data', 'Hadoop']
Next Level Data Visualization — Dashboard App with Bokeh & Flask	Visualization matters. Maybe not to you as a data analyst/scientist, you may feel confident looking at tabular data and drawing conclusions from there. But more often than not, you will need to present your work to your boss, and/or college professor (if you are still in college). Unlike you, they probably aren’t so acquainted with the data and will get confused if you throw a bunch of numbers at them. To avoid this, one approach is to generate charts via Matplotlib and/or Seaborn and show your superior charts directly in Jupyter Notebook or as a saved PNG file. While that is by no means a bad way to display your results, it surely won’t leave your superior stunned, and therefore, you won’t be able to stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, there exists a pretty cool library called Bokeh, and this post will cover the process of creating a simple Dashboard application which is more likely to leave your superiors surprised. Not only that, your superior will be able to manually filter or drill-down data, not just to look at the charts. One thing to note here, this is not a tutorial on how to use Bokeh or Flask. This post only covers how to do data visualization by combining those libraries. Before we begin, I assume that you have at least some knowledge of the following technologies: HTML CSS Flask (Python) Bokeh (I’m using version 1.2.0) and are fluent in: Python (loops and conditionals) Pandas/Numpy stack You can still follow along if your Python isn’t great, but I can’t guarantee that you will understand everything. Throughout this article, I won’t explain any of the HTML and CSS snippets and will be focusing mainly on Bokeh and Flask. I will be using the famous Titanic Dataset. If you get stuck during the process, you can get the code at my GitHub Repo. Here’s what you’ll be making. Notice the dropdown menu and how the value is changed. When reapplied, the charts are re-drawn for the relevant passenger class (my apologies for the terrible design skills though). Final Dashboard Okay, without further ado, let’s get started!	https://towardsdatascience.com/https-medium-com-radecicdario-next-level-data-visualization-dashboard-app-with-bokeh-flask-c588c9398f98	['Dario Radečić']	2019-08-26 12:00:20.983000+00:00	['Programming', 'Flask', 'Data Visualization', 'Bokeh', 'Python']
How to Add a Pop of Colour in Your Home — Without Getting the Paintbrush Out!	Does seeing colour make you smile? Personally, I love colour, if you read my last blog you will already know this. I love greens, blues, oranges, reds, purples and yellows and you can see this throughout mine and my girlfriends home (luckily she loves colour too) 😜. But i’m always surprised how many homes I visit that have no colour — why would you want a home with no colour? Colour is what brings a home alive, so why have dull beige, or neutral magnolia (colours which even sound a bit dull when you say them) when you have the choice of any colour your heart desires? I’m not suggesting we go back to the 70’s and have garish orange walls and green shaggy rugs, but instead of having lifeless neutral colours, why not be a bit more…. adventurous? Decorating sucks Okay, we all know it, decorating sucks. It’s a pig of a job and it can easily take up your whole weekend, and then you’re back in work on Monday morning with paint in your ears, hair and finger nails — not cool. So to prevent the embarrassment of walking into your Monday morning meeting looking like you’ve been attacked by a paint brush, lets see how we can add a pop of colour into your home without getting the dreaded paintbrush out. Go green 🌲 I LOVE a home which has plants and trees. They are a great way to add colour and a great way to incorporate the ever popular Boho look into your interior — then just throw a colourful Moroccan rug down, get yourself a floor settee and add lot of wicker and there you have it! The Boho look. Okay it may not be that easy but honestly, its easier than it looks. So you may be asking what kind of plants are good around the home, my three personal favourites are: all types of cactus, the rubber tree and the Banana tree. If you are interested in house plants, my next blog is going to go more into depth into the different types you can get and also how to care for them! Get fruity with it 🍉🍊🍋🍌 Okay you’re going to think I sound a bit crazy here, but fruit is a great way to add a splash of colour into your kitchen, whilst also keeping you healthy — not bad hey? Think about it, you’ve got the yellows, the greens, the purples, the reds and the oranges, so how about finding a big bowl and brighten up your kitchen using fruit! If your decor is more antique based, why not try a silver plated punch bowl? If you have a more contemporary interior, try a long narrow glass dish? Or if you have a vintage interior, get funky with it and go for an atomic bowl? You can pick any, but fruit is certainly an easy (and healthy!) way to add some colour into your kitchen. Coloured frames (and of course the prints in them!) Colourful frames are a great way to brighten up those walls. If you’re crafty yourself then the best way to do this, is to head out to the charity shops (or auctions if you need quite a few) and buy some 1980’s mahogany frames for £0.50p each. On the way back, drop by B & Q and pick up some sampler pots, be brave with the colours you pick as colours you may think look awful in the shop, may actually look amazing hung up and the most you’re going to lose is a couple of ££’s. My other half’s mum has taken this crafty option to the extreme and actually glues buttons to frames in order to spice up her walls! If you’re too busy for this then your best option is to search the web for the colour you think will look right, remember though, frames certainly aren’t cheap so be sure on the colour you pick! The best ones I’ve come across were by Polaroid (a cheeky little find in Homesense), the choice of colours is great and they have a few different shapes and sizes to choose from. Ornaments Every home should have a few ornaments, things bought from holidays, vases found from car boots or gifts from your great aunt which actually you hate, but feel obliged to put on display. I imagine you are looking around now at the ornaments you have dotted around and wondering why on earth you still have them, but we are not here to talk about de-cluttering — this article is about the joys of colour! If you want to add some colour using ornaments then choose wisely, try buying things which could be an investment for the future. For me, studio glassware is a great thing to be investing in at the minute, get yourself educated on different designers of the industry. Everyone knows the obvious manufacturers of glass like Whitefriars or Murano, so why not try the less well known manufacturers like Holmegaard or Loetz, two manufacturers who still command high prices, but are certainly less well known to the average dealer so you may always find a bargain! Scatter cushions and throws This is such an easy way to add a splash of colour to your living room. Both cushions and throws can up lift an otherwise dull sofa and completely change its appearance. When I was on the hunt for cushions for my flat, I was shocked by the price of them, until I took a trip to Homesense. This place is the king of cushions and they are all relatively cheap, yet excellent quality. If you want a particular pattern then you could always have a go at making them yourself, there’s plenty of video’s out there which can show you how within a few hours. Me and my girlfriend love a good throw, my personal favourite type is by far the welsh blanket, everything about it is perfect from the patterns to the colours. We have some corkers listed at intique.net sold by a good friend of ours who actually lives in Wales! Rugs Depending on the floor you have, a rug may be one of the best ways to brighten your room. Natural floors, like wood or stone can sometimes feel a little cold and make a room seem a bit dark. A great way to counteract this is by investing in an antique or vintage rug. Rugs have been fashionable for hundreds of years which means the choice is endless. Personally, I love an Afghan rug, or a 60’s Sunburst rug, two very different styles, yet offer the same thing — colour. The Sunburst rug certainly isn’t to everyone’s taste, they often have bold patterns, use warm colours like yellows and oranges and are quite small in size. The afghan rug is quite different and comes in a huge array of colours, sizes and patterns. If you do want to add a rug to your room then I’d 100% recommend buying buy vintage or antique, they hold their value over time but also, if they start to get a little tatty it adds to their character!	https://medium.com/intique/how-to-add-a-pop-of-colour-in-your-home-without-getting-the-paintbrush-out-24c342729cc7	[]	2019-05-07 19:25:59.606000+00:00	['Interior Design', 'Vintage', 'Home Improvement', 'Home Decor']
The Sexism of a Cup of Tea in the Workplace	The Sexism of a Cup of Tea in the Workplace It’s an insidious reminder of the expectations for women in the workplace Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash We have a fun tradition at our workplace, in common with lots of others I know of: when someone gets up to make themselves a drink, they ask the office if they want one, too. I live in England where the national pastime is drinking tea, so this little ritual happens quite a few times a day. It’s happened often enough that I started noticing an odd pattern. The men don’t offer. Seriously: I counted. In one day, the women in the office made 17 assorted hot beverages — instant coffee, decaf coffee, peppermint tea, regular tea, with sweeteners, with real sugar, soy milk, cow milk, just black. The men? Three. One developer got up to make himself a cup of coffee and I forcefully handed him my mug and said I’d like a peppermint tea, please. One of the finance team handed him her mug as well, requesting a decaf instant coffee. But that was it. Just three. Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash In a week, this tallied up to 53 hot drinks consumed by men, versus 11 drinks made by men. Now, you might say it’s a choice. The men just don’t want tea and coffee, they’re so busy coding that they forget they’re thirsty. They’d be fine if nobody offered, they’d simply not drink. They don’t get up and make only themselves drinks — if nobody offers, they go without. But I think it goes deeper. It’s revealing, to me, that there’s no implicit feeling of reciprocation. The men in the office have no problem accepting cup after cup after cup, without once feeling that they should offer, too. The men take, but they don’t offer. Here’s the thing: I can’t imagine taking without giving. I can’t imagine receiving without reciprocating. I feel guilty enough whenever someone does me a favor and I’m unable to do anything but say “thanks.” It’s foreign to me, to think of accepting anything, whether it’s a word of praise or a cup of tea, without wanting — no, needing to reciprocate as quickly as possible. These office workers have no problem accepting drink after drink after drink, the thought never once crossing their mind that they could offer to do the same — even if they weren’t thirsty! They don’t do it intentionally — there’s no malice in their inability to reciprocate, it’s simply a systemic lack of consideration for others. A lack of thought that others’ time is valuable, just as valuable as their own. Paired with the women in the office generously and dutifully offering hot drinks on a regular basis, there’s been no need to develop this sense — so radical to some men — of thinking of others. One man that I worked with actually set himself a reminder. At three pm every day, he’d get a little buzz — reminding him to get up and offer cups of tea, in exchange for the 3–4 he’d have made for him throughout the course of the day. And so many times, I watched him look at his phone when it buzzed, look up at his own work, and switch the alarm off without making the offer. Like clockwork. Sexism goes further than a cup of tea. I noticed this months ago and for months I resisted my conclusions, thinking I was reading too much into it. But see an instance of casual sexism happen often enough, and you have no choice but to admit it’s a pattern. Week after week, I watched the women get up, offer to make hot drinks. I watched the men thoughtlessly and thanklessly accept. I counted how often they reciprocated and the number was small. And it wasn’t just the tea. When the office lines were left unattended by the receptionists, women were asked to cover them, even though the men were closer. When the office manager asked people to clean up after themselves in the communal kitchen, the men most often neglected this task. Photo by The Honest Company on Unsplash It’s part of the same culture that expects women to do “office housework” — these unpromotable gruntwork tasks that somehow, someway, even in the most progressive companies, always seem to fall to women. My rebellion was to be more selfish. The advice given to women in these situations? Simply stop. So, I did. It’s possible this wasn’t the right choice. It felt selfish. But in an era where women are expected to do it all if they want to have it all, it seemed revolutionary to just make myself cups of tea, without offering others. And even then, men still passed me their cups on my way to the communal kitchen. Was my time worth so much less than theirs? Were my needs so much smaller? It’s just a cup of tea, at the end of the day. It’s only an extra few minutes. But add that all up, add all that extra housework up, count the number of times you clean dishes that aren’t yours, make teas that aren’t yours, organize office parties, bring in baked goods, or any other bits of work that you’re silently obliged to do? If you’re like me, the result means it’s worth your while to be a little more selfish in the office. I make myself my own hot drinks, and if the men want one? They can make their own like anyone else.	https://zulie.medium.com/the-sexism-of-a-cup-of-tea-in-the-workplace-1321a84da776	['Zulie Rane']	2019-08-19 16:23:00.290000+00:00	['Equality', 'Women', 'Work', 'Culture', 'Feminism']
HyperX Cloud Flight S Wireless Gaming Headset Review	GENERAL OVERVIEW The HyperX Cloud Flight S is a closed-back, wireless gaming headset that retails for $159. You can find its official product page here. It only connects by syncing to its wireless USB dongle, and it’s compatible with PC, PS4, or a docked Nintendo Switch. To get full surround sound input support, you’ll need to use them with a Windows 10 PC, and you’ll probably also want to install the new version of HyperX Ngenuity from the Windows 10 Store. That software allows you to customize the four control buttons on the left ear cup, and control all the settings without touching the headset. HyperX includes a detachable microphone and a USB charging cable in the box. Although the cable charges the headset adequately, wireless charging is one of my favorite new features here, and I’d personally recommend taking advantage of it if you’re spending the ~$20 price premium on this headset over the standard Flight. If you already own a wireless charger, odds are high that it supports Qi, the open charging standard that’s used by iPhones and many Android products. The Cloud Flight S should charge on any wireless pad that supports this standard, or if you feel like buying a HyperX-branded one, they offer the Chargeplay Base for $59 (official page). The base offers two charging pads with red lights, and a USB-C power adapter. Battery life is great, with a rating of up to 30 hours per charge thanks to the lack of lighting in the headset. This number seems about right to me, I got 28 hours on a full charge at fifty percent volume, and with some mic usage. The exposed cables of the older models are now hidden, and the sides of the cups are made of a thick rubber. In spite of that, these four buttons are easy to find and press. Photo taken by Alex Rowe. SOUND QUALITY Not much has changed with the Flight’s sound over its different iterations. I recently reviewed the Xbox-focused CloudX Flight, and the sound in this new S model is quite similar. That’s a good thing. The Flight has a balanced sound profile with a little fun right where it counts. The bass is nice and full of punch. The mids are accurate without sounding too veiled or sharp. And the treble is clean and free of fatiguing peaks or sibilance. It’s a wonderful sound profile for games, movies, or music. Casual listeners and audiophiles will both likely be pleased with the quality on offer. If you’re a fan of HyperX’s impressive bass and you want a wireless headset, I enjoyed the low end response on this new S model a touch more than on the CloudX Flight I reviewed recently. That’s probably thanks to the new thicker ear pads, which I’ll talk more about below. As far as the virtual surround goes, it’s only fully supported on PC, where the Flight S shows up in Windows 10 as a true 7.1 device as long as you configure it that way in your sound control panel. The surround mode has great virtual speaker placement, though turning it on also engages some additional EQ that brings more punch to the bass, extra bite to the treble, and more volume overall. This EQ profile isn’t as natural as the default stereo sound of the headset, and there’s no way to turn it off even in HyperX’s new Ngenuity software. I found myself lowering the volume by several notches with the virtual surround turned on due to the more-intense treble.	https://medium.com/@xander51/hyperx-cloud-flight-s-wireless-gaming-headset-review-5e336bdda6ee	['Alex Rowe']	2020-02-28 19:00:01.315000+00:00	['Gaming', 'Music', 'Gadgets', 'Headphones', 'Technology']
#TouchOfCare- Celebrities Honors Dr. Bhosale	The past year, the whole world witnessed a virus that made us stay at home. The whole year was a roller coaster where everybody needed support. We have witnessed the selfless services of our doctors and frontline workers all over India. We have experienced a new meaning of care. They tried hard and continues to save as much as they can. In the past year, we lost a lot of personalities. We lost someone who we never expected to, who had a lot of goals to achieve, who might be an inspiration to millions. Through The Campaign #TouchOfCare is gaining popularity across the country, by taking initiatives from celebrities from divergent movie industries. They have come forward to show their touch of care, and inspiration to hold the hands of the poor, the needy in this tough time. Sonam Kapoor, commenting on this Campaign, ‘In this pandemic period, everyone needs to be with the family with the loved ones. Dr. Bhosale tough us the important lesson, a valuable thought, that to help selflessly and to make sure that everybody is safe. I appreciate the effort by @ Vicks India to extend this campaign and for keeping alive Dr. Bhosale’s dream. We should pledge to extend our hand of care to help the needy. Bollywood Actor, Ranveer Singh Said, ‘the last year was tough for everyone. On this National Doctors Day, this Campaign is to remind us how important is our doctors to society and the services they are given and continues to do. Let’s take this opportunity to honor them’. Shraddha Kapoor — ‘Got tears after watching the video of Dr. Bhosale, showing the care he has given and how he is making everybody happy in every room he enters. It shows the tremendous efforts and sacrifices by our frontline workers for caring the nation’. ‘Thanks, @Vicks India for coming up with #TouchOfCare and for helping me to see the real side of the story and for taking me through the tremendous journey of Dr. Bhosale’, This Campaign is a huge support to the front line workers and on this Doctors Day, we can extend our hands in small ways to help them and their families. She added. Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter (This article was originally published in Passionate in Marketing)	https://medium.com/@maxed-blog/touchofcare-celebrities-honors-dr-bhosale-c56252822391	[]	2021-07-06 14:00:50.213000+00:00	['Services', 'Film', 'Campaign', 'Media', 'Promotion']
BABY sleep miracle program	link Below::::: This is worth taking a look at, because it’s not the same old stuff you typically find in books about how to get your toddler to sleep. This was full of “A-ha” moments for us. As an adult, sleep seems like the most natural and simple thing in the world. You’re tired, you sleep. And if you’re the parent of a toddler, you may be able to fall asleep standing up in a rainstorm! But did you know that a baby actually has to LEARN how to sleep? As weird as it sounds, sleep is actually a learned skill. And it can be challenging (and frustrating) to sleep train a child. What Is Baby Sleep Miracle? Will It Help My Child Sleep? Baby Sleep Miracle aims to debunk a lot of misconceptions, and plain myths, about this essential step of learning to sleep that’s a part of your child’s normal development. It lays out clinically proven truths for parents to read in a really simple, easy-to-understand format. The author, Mary-Ann Schuler, is both a trained psychologist and a mother of two children. So, she has the medical background to know the data, but also the real-world personal experience to teach that information in terms any parent can easily grasp and apply. In the opening chapters of the main book, Mary-Ann explains how important sleep is to a baby’s development, as well as the dangers of sleep deprivation for you and your child. Then, she goes on to deal with proven sleep training methods from birth through age 5. Every approach she recommends is tailored to the child’s corresponding developmental phase. Baby Sleep Miracle — Pros It’s Easy to Implement. It has so many helpful tips. This guide covers everything you need to know to successfully help your baby get to sleep. It has so many helpful tips. This guide covers everything you need to know to successfully help your baby get to sleep. It’s Excellent Value for Money: When you’re exhausted, you’d be willing to pay anything! But compared with some other baby sleep training programs — costing around $100 or more — the Baby Sleep Miracle is very affordably priced. (By the way, you can actually watch an introductory video for FREE in which Mary-Ann gives you 4 tips to get started.) When you’re exhausted, you’d be willing to pay anything! But compared with some other baby sleep training programs — costing around $100 or more — the Baby Sleep Miracle is very affordably priced. (By the way, you can actually watch an introductory video for FREE in which Mary-Ann gives you 4 tips to get started.) It Comes with a Money-back Guarantee If You Don’t Like It. You can get a full refund if you’re not completely satisfied. Baby Sleep Miracle — Cons It Does Require You to Invest Some Time: Like anything, if you don’t commit to following the advice you’re given, it won’t do you any good. Like anything, if you don’t commit to following the advice you’re given, it won’t do you any good. It’s Only Available Online in Digital Format: You won’t find the Baby Sleep Miracle at your local bookstore (or even on Amazon). So, if you’re the kind of person who likes the look and feel of a paper book, then your only option is to print it out. (But on the other hand, being a digital product is convenient, because it means you can actually download it instantly right now … even in the middle of the night!) You won’t find the Baby Sleep Miracle at your local bookstore (or even on Amazon). So, if you’re the kind of person who likes the look and feel of a paper book, then your only option is to print it out. (But on the other hand, being a digital product is convenient, because it means you can actually download it instantly right now … even in the middle of the night!) It’s Only Available in English. Our Conclusion I think you can probably tell that we’re impressed with this resource. We give it 4 and ½ stars! link here to \know about course ::::: http://prakashgupta.bbysleep.hop.clickbank.net?pagevar=vidtext&lang=en	https://medium.com/@guptaprakash0404/baby-sleep-miracle-program-b83443d2f6ff	['Affialte Prakash']	2021-06-14 16:44:51.537000+00:00	['Baby', 'Sleep', 'Mothers', 'Pregnancy', 'Baby Sleep']
How to Transfer Photos from PC to iPhone Without iTunes	itune Well, admittedly, iTunes is never the best choice to transfer data from PC to iPhone or iPad. Well, that’s mainly because it will cause the loss of the existing media files on the iOS device through syncing and using iTunes lacks flexibility. Luckily, there are a lot of other proven ways for you to transfer photos. Or many other types of content from PC to your iPhone (or iPad). In this article, we are going to talk about How to Transfer Photos from PC to iPhone Without iTunes. Let’s begin! Documents is a really famous iOS app that uses Wi-Fi to transfer data from computer to iPhone and vice versa. You can also transfer files, images, videos, and pretty much everything to your iPhone with this app. It even lets you transfer all of the movies to the iPhone and also watch it on your next road trip right from the Documents app. Let’s see how it actually work. Before we begin You guys are going to need A Windows Computer An iPhone A WiFi Hotspot or Access Point An Active Internet Connection How to Transfer Photos from PC to iPhone Without iTunes First, of all install the Documents app on your iPhone or iPad. After you download finishes, then run it. Press the ‘Services’ button on the bottom and choose ‘Wifi File Transfer’ . on the bottom and . Now, just open docstransfer.com on the web browser on your PC and scan the QR code along with the Documents App. on the web browser on your PC and along with the Documents App. The app also establishes a connection and starts the server within seconds. For security reasons, you guys would have to keep the app and the tab on the web browser. Open during the file transfer or the connection might break actually. You will also need active internet access in order to establish a connection for the first time. When you do that, all files will be transferred over Wi-Fi. Documents app has access to the Photos app and the iCloud which means you guys can access all the files from just one single app. In order to keep things organized, you can also create separate folders within the app. Transferring the files is pretty easy, just drag and drop the files to the webpage in order to transfer the files to the iPhone. The app transfers the files really quickly. Further After the files are transferred, the pictures remain within the Documents app. You guys can manually transfer the files to the Camera Roll. To do this, just head to the folder where all the transferred images are kept. Choose all the images and press the ‘Move’ button on the bottom. Now, you guys can choose the directory ‘Photos’ and tap the button on the bottom in order to move the files to the Camera Roll. and on the bottom. Now, you guys can in order to move the files to the Camera Roll. All of the selected files have been moved to the Camera Roll and deleted from the Documents app. Easy Right? Well, you guys can do much more than that. Documents can also play videos right from the app so that you can easily copy all of the movies to the App and watch those on your next road trip. Read MOre: How to Transfer Photos from PC to iPhone Without iTunes	https://medium.com/@techilife-99/how-to-transfer-photos-from-pc-to-iphone-without-itunes-56d2dd73ac28	['Tech I Life']	2020-12-23 05:45:24.173000+00:00	['iTunes', 'How To Transfer Photos', 'How To', 'iPhone', 'Transfer Photos']
Things you should know if you are JavaScript Programmer	JavaScript is the most used programming language for Web Development. Many people using JavaScript most often forget about the basics of JavaScript. In this post i will try to jog down your memory of JavaScript and some fundamental concepts in JavaScript. Primitive Data Types in JavaScript There are seven primitive data types in JavaScript :- Boolean: A boolean represent a logical entity and can have two values: true and false. Any variable or object which has a value are defined as true. ‘0’, ‘NaN’, ‘undefined’, empty string, null are treated as false. Number: A number in JavaScript contains both integer and decimals(floating point number). They are stored in double-precision 64-bit binary format IEEE 754. Integers are correct up to 15 digits. Floating points are not always accurate. Maximum number of decimals is up to 17 digits. BigInt: For values greater than 2⁵³-1 BitInt can be used.You can create bigInt by appending n at the end of the number. String: String data type is used to represent, store and manipulate textual data. JavaScript strings are immutable. This means that once a string is created, it is not possible to modify it. Null: Null is intentional absence of value. Null is an object type. Null is equal to undefined but not identical Undefined: When a value has not been assigned to the variable then it has the value undefined. Symbol: A value having the data type Symbol can be referred to as a “Symbol value”. In a JavaScript runtime environment, a symbol value is created by invoking the function Symbol, which dynamically produces an anonymous, unique value. A symbol may be used as an object property. Static Typing and Dynamic Typing JavaScript is dynamic type. It means that the interpreter assigns variable a type at the runtime based on the value of variable. Languages like C, C++, Java are Static type. Their variables need to be defined data type before execution of the program. Memory allocation for primitive type and Object type In JavaScript primitive data are stored in a memory space called stack. So they are quicker to access. While coping values of primitive type, new data is created. Object type are stored in Heap and takes a little time to access. Copies created are shallow copies(two object point towards the same data). To create deep copies we can use property Object.assign()	https://medium.com/@guptadivyanshu/things-you-should-know-if-you-are-javascript-programmer-af0f646e5fcd	[]	2020-12-10 22:53:32.387000+00:00	['Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript']
An Introduction to Redis for the Junior Developer	It is described as an “in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache and message broker.” Basically, you can think of Redis as a database. Unlike fancier databases, Redis’ claim to fame is its simplicity. It isn’t good at relational data or complex data structures, but it is blisteringly efficient and atomic. Fortunately, it is also simple to use. It can be difficult to determine where to begin with Redis. If you go to the website, it tells you to download a tarfile. It doesn’t say anything about package managers (like brew or apt), and it is unclear how to start. I wrote this guide with the junior developer in mind. I will talk about how to direct your learning, and give a brief overview: Downloading Redis Trying it out on the command line Using it in your backend code Why it is useful Downloading Redis You can skip the tarball on the website, and download it with a package manager: Mac: brew install redis . To have it run whenever your computer boots, call brew services start redis . Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install redis-server . To have it run whenever your computer boots, call sudo systemctl enable redis-server.service . Windows: may God have mercy on your soul. Try this, or you can also try it with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). After this, redis-server should already be running (although you can manually run it with redis-server ). You can test it by typing redis-cli ping , to which the output should be PONG . Redis runs on port 6379. Trying it on the Command Line We will run Redis on the command line to give you a bit of background on the tool. Open the command line with redis-cli . Create a value with SET <key> <value> : 127.0.0.1:6379> SET name Elliott OK As you type, it will show you the inputs to whatever you are typing. You can retrieve a value with GET <key> : 127.0.0.1:6379> GET name "Elliott" 127.0.0.1:6379> GET dne (nil) You can check existence with EXISTS <key> : 127.0.0.1:6379> EXISTS name (integer) 1 127.0.0.1:6379> EXISTS dne (integer) 0 You can print out all keys with KEYS * . Finally, you can delete a key with DEL <key> : 127.0.0.1:6379> DEL name (integer) 1 127.0.0.1:6379> DEL dne (integer) 0 You can quit with quit . Redis deals almost exclusively with string values. It might be worth glancing at the data types intro. There are a large number of commands you can learn, but I recommend just taking a look at the string commands for starters. Some interesting highlights: You can set expiration times on keys You can use the Keys command with patterns to filter command with patterns to filter You can increment/decrement numbers Using on the Backend If you have not used a database before (or have only used sqlite), you may need to familiarize yourself with the idea of running your database and program separately. Like PostgreSQL or MongoDB, Redis is run separately. Before you install a library for your programming language, make sure redis-server is running. Next, you want to download the appropriate library to interface with it. I didn’t find the client list very clear, so you may want to just Google <language> redis . For example, the NodeJS client is called “Redis” in the npm package manager, but the repository is called “node-redis.” The Redis client list has multiple suggestions for NodeJS. As an example, I will use the NodeJS and Ruby clients, but most of them are well documented. For NodeJS, you first initiate a connection between your app and Redis: const redis = require('redis'); const redisClient = redis.createClient(); The functions are similar to what you used on the CLI, except they are asynchronous: client.set("key", "value", console.log); client.get("key", console.log); You must pass a callback function to handle the asynchronous response. Alternatively with NodeJS, you can use the promisify utility to turn them into promises: const redis = require('redis'); const { promisify } = require("util"); const redisClient = redis.createClient() const redisGet = promisify(redisClient.get).bind(redisClient); const redisSetEx = promisify(redisClient.setex).bind(redisClient); redisGet.then(console.log).catch(console.error); For Ruby, the Redis calls are not asynchronous, which matches Ruby’s style better: require "redis" redis = Redis.new redis.set("mykey", "hello world") # => "OK" redis.get("mykey") # => "hello world" In production, you will often want Redis running on a different server. This will make your client connections more complicated. For example, on a simple Docker setup, you might have docker-compose set up a container just for Redis: services: backend: ... redis: image: 'redis:6' ports: - '6379' In which case, your client connection in NodeJS might look like this: const redisClient = redis.createClient('redis://redis'); Advantages of Redis Like any database, it persists even while your application is down or rebooting. The main advantage of Redis is efficiency. Because its datatypes are so simple, it can hold a great deal of information efficiently, and can process it quickly. If you want to store your most commonly accessed items in memory, Redis serves as an excellent cache. It also has built-in support for LRU (least-recently used) caching. Here are some common use cases, if you need some ideas.	https://medium.com/@eking-30347/an-introduction-to-redis-for-the-junior-developer-b4acf7902fb	['Elliott King']	2020-11-17 15:08:55.712000+00:00	['Ruby', 'Redis', 'Docker', 'NoSQL', 'JavaScript']
My reflections halfway through a coding bootcamp: the good, the bad and the ugly: UNCENSORED.	I already wrote about myself and my decision to start coding and also about the tools that I used to break the ice and get a first glimpse at the coding world. But how is it like to go from zero to start coding full projects in 12 weeks? Is it everything how I expected it to be? Let’s take a look at the things I love, the things I regret and some heads up in case you are about to jump into a coding bootcamp as a novice. Which bootcamp did I choose? I chose the Technigo bootcamp Why did I choose this bootcamp? Let’s start by saying that joining a bootcamp was both the hardest and one of the most fun things I’ve done in my life. It’s challenging yet enjoyable. I’ve never felt more vulnerable yet more empowered than how I feel nowadays that I already know how to code a little bit. I chose Technigo because their values resonate with mine. I feel represented by their aim to see more women in the tech industry and I like how they make everything look more approachable and fun. I feel represented by their aim to see more women in the tech industry and I like how they make everything look more approachable and fun. I talked to some former bootcampers and they were very happy with the overall experience in the bootcamp. and they were very happy with the overall experience in the bootcamp. I carefully took a look at the contents included in the programme and compared it to the requirements that I used to see in daily job offers . . The corporate colors and the logo, oh ❤ Just kidding hahaha (or maybe not). The challenge Going from zero to Frontend Dev in “just” 24 weeks. Coming out of the bootcamp with a well-fed portfolio and a strong professional network. This was the bootcamp’s proposal (and I said YES to the mess!). The structure It’s a fast-paced. part-time bootcamp divided into 6 sprints , each of those lasts for four weeks and revolves around one or two topics at a time (though you totally need to have incorporated and be able to use what you’ve studied in the former sprint to do good on the next one). bootcamp divided into , each of those lasts for four weeks and revolves around one or two topics at a time (though to do good on the next one). It’s 100% online . Not even one mandatory in-presence lesson or meeting. That was also a plus for me since I’m based in Denmark and the bootcamp, in Sweden. . Not even one mandatory in-presence lesson or meeting. That was also a plus for me since I’m based in Denmark and the bootcamp, in Sweden. Every week you have to study the prerecorded contents, some bibliography and virtually assist to 3 lectures and 2 team sessions . . All in all that makes at least 20 hours a week of coding, including projects, codealongs and studying. And if you are a beginner like me, it would probably take you longer than 20 hours a week. I’m spending at least 30 hours per week. A hard cookie, I know. The team We are divided into teams of 7 or 8 people each. The reason for doing this is that the actual job of a developer always implies team work. A lot of people have this random idea that developers are supposed to be isolated, coding in the shadows of their basements and talking to nobody for weeks. Well, while nowadays with remote work this can be half-true, the reality is that projects need the effort of several people to progress adequately and to be ready in time, that’s why it’s always great to learn how to function in a team and learn things like pair-programming and mob-programming. So below there’s a picture of the wonderful women I met in this bootcamp. I’ve learnt so much from them! “Team work makes the dream work” as our project manager says. :) My beautiful, dearest Foxes. I’m so thankful for going on this journey with you. ❤ Things I love I just love the pre-recorded lecture videos with all the nice background and how the coaches explain everything in such a detailed and pedagogic way. It’s a lot of fun to listen to them. They even make jokes. Cracking up AND learning how to code can actually go hand in hand! Damien Timewell, one of the coaches during the JavaScript Forms video I also love the permanent support that I perceive both from my fellow bootcampers and Technigo. Despite of being an online bootcamp I can still feel everybody close. We keep in touch through Slack , and several activities are organized from time to time: there was even a clay night and, in my team, we even got together for an afterwork (beers, wine and even champagne included). We keep in touch through , and several activities are organized from time to time: there was even a clay night and, in my team, (beers, wine and even champagne included). The bootcamp also includes an optative career coaching programme, which in my case is crucial because I’m a foreigner, so I need to get familiar with the way the things are done here. We even get a career mentor, which is somebody already working in an area of my interest, in a tech company. I already had my first meeting with her, we went through my resume and through my Linkedin account and she gave me lots of valuable tips! What I wish I’ve done before I started: I wish I had coded a little bit more . I actually focused too much on just reading and watching, but very little on actually trying to build something with code. There’s a whole world of difference between following a tutorial, solving exercises and actually building something by writing your code. If I had the chance to start again, I would code more and study less theory. . I actually focused too much on just reading and watching, but very little on There’s a whole world of difference between following a tutorial, solving exercises and actually building something by writing your code. If I had the chance to start again, I would code more and study less theory. I wish I had talked to more people in the industry and specifically JavaScript developers. It’s always great to know what to expect and get a word of advice beforehand. real people in casual chats will give you way more info than random videos you can find online. The ugly times when I felt really bad There were times when I thought I was not going to be able to handle everything , yes. How did I solve it? Planning became my best friend. Now I can’t live without having my bullet journal by my side and checking it several times every day. , yes. How did I solve it? Now I can’t live without having by my side and checking it several times every day. I’ve sometimes felt vulnerable and too old for this. The ghosts of “I should have started earlier” and “I’ll never code like somebody who started as a teen” still visit me often. But hey! I have a whole lot of acquired skills under my former employee skin: I can write material aimed to teach people stuff and people voluntarily buy it. And also: a company even trusted me to recruit and train their employees. So, I’m bringing all this hard and soft skills with me into the technology industry. Would I choose a bootcamp again? I most DEFINITELY would. I mean, I know there are other ways, but I this is certainly giving me a solid base where to start from, and it couldn’t have happened if not following this fast pace. I can always continue to grow and learn and practice on my own, but this general strong idea that I have about JavaScript, React, React Native, Redux and more gave me enough confidence to get my hands on the work and start building amazing sites and apps for people to use and enjoy. I can’t wait for what’s next to come on the second half of this journey!	https://medium.com/@estefaniaquevedolusby/my-reflections-halfway-through-a-coding-bootcamp-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-uncensored-ed66db7be369	['Estefanía Quevedo Lusby']	2021-04-09 07:18:12.289000+00:00	['Career Change Coders', 'Career Change', 'Codingbootcamp', 'Technigo']
Intermittent Fasting for Slackers	Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash I love to eat. I like the way food fills me, comforts me, grounds me. When I’m hungry, I feel lighter than air, and I can’t seem to focus. When full, I’m so grounded I sink into myself; I can finally be still and relax. I also don’t have much time. I work full-time, am a mom to two boys, and have significant community obligations. Plus, I spend time with my widowed mom, go to church, and keep the household running. I barely have time for a walk most days, and I plop into bed bleary-eyed around 10 pm or whenever I can peel my fingers from my smartphone. Given both these facts, I’ve given up on more diets than I can remember. Weight Watchers, veganism, plant-based, Paleo, calorie counting, intuitive eating, celebrity best-seller diets, no sugar, Overeaters Anonymous, nutrition coaching, health coaching, detoxing…none has made much dent against the encroaching weight gain that started accelerating in my mid 40s. In desperation, I tried 5:2 intermittent fasting, and I began to lose a little weight. But it was unsustainable for me. Two days per week, I was supposed to eat only 500 calories. That’s just not much food for an Italian food-lover! For the first week or two, I was fine, but then I began to dread Tuesdays and Fridays, the fasting days. I’d be grumpy with my kids and husband and short of attention at work. I finally gave up fasting altogether because I valued my family and well-being over losing a few more pounds. I bought larger clothes and tried to find peace with my larger-sized body. But when COVID-19 arrived, and I was cooped up on Zoom for 8–10 hours a day, the pounds started adding up faster on the scale. I didn’t want to buy more clothes, and I was feeling uncomfortable in my body, so I knew I had to do something. I had recently read about a mild version of Intermittent Fasting that Lesley Jane Seymour of CoveyClub posted about in her blog. She said that she began stopping eating after dinner and not eating again until she did some kind of movement in the morning. I don’t even think she called it intermittent fasting. She ate normally otherwise and didn’t give up any of her favorite foods. I do remember that she said it helped her shed some stubborn pounds. Well, this plan sounded simple enough to me — no complicated counting or schedules or apps or additional Zoom meetings, and I still got to eat as much as I wanted as long as I did some kind of morning movement. I resolved to stop eating after dinner and not eat again until after I took a short morning walk. Being me and trying to find the easy way to do this (hence the “slackers” in the title), I decided I only had to walk a few blocks to “earn” my breakfast. I wanted to find something so simple that I wouldn’t have an excuse not to do it. Otherwise, I kept my meals the same. Instead of eating a snack or dessert later in the evening, I just added it to my evening meal. When I felt like I was missing out at night, I’d have a cup of herbal tea. Not super satisfying, but it did allow me to give myself something when my husband was fixing a late night snack or the boys were eating popcorn with a Netflix movie. Within a few weeks, I noticed I had lost a pound. A month or so later, it was another pound. I hadn’t been able to consistently lose weight in years, so this was amazing progress to me. I kept at it, and after a few more pounds, my weight stabilized. I allowed myself breaks for holidays and weekends, and I didn’t restrict what I was eating. If I’m too strict about what I can and cannot eat, I get rebellious and then eat all the things. So far, this way of eating has been sustainable. It feels much less intense than “real” intermittent fasting as I can eat breakfast as soon as I do my morning walk. And I don’t have to give up dinner with my family. Nor do I have to do it every single day. I am more lax on the weekends, allowing a late night drink or snack and an early morning breakfast with the boys most Saturdays. By Sunday night, I’m back to stopping the eating train after dinner. This is working for me with much less pain and suffering than other programs, and it seems like something I can continue doing. Am I thin? Nope, but my BMI no longer teeters on the edge of being overweight. Could what I eat be improved? For sure. I still eat junk food and not enough veggies, but I’m doing what I can to survive working from home and parenting two boys during a pandemic. I know there are folks with a lot more serious issues than weight gain during the pandemic, but I’m a big believer in the serenity prayer — focusing on what I CAN do and letting go of that which is outside my control. I can control, to some degree, my food intake, and I’m a nicer person when I’m neither starving nor overfed. I’m grateful that I’ve lost some of my COVID-belly and am healthy enough to have energy to play with the kids at night after work. Losing weight hasn’t solved our problems, the pandemic still rages, work is still difficult, my kids are still struggling, but it’s nice to feel a bit better in my body, and so I’ll take the small win, and dessert too.	https://medium.com/@mggill/intermittent-fasting-for-slackers-2b860853f9c7	['Michele Gill']	2020-12-21 22:18:07.744000+00:00	['Work From Home', 'Weight Loss', 'Diet', 'Intermittent Fasting', 'Pandemic']
How Brand Experience is the Future of Marketing	Find out how brand experience delivers better engagement, builds loyalty and communicates more effectively to generate revenue. Every company comes to understand the importance of marketing. Whether through trial and error or the need to connect with their customers, marketing is the avenue all business must take. Marketing is not only about advertising and selling your product; it is also an essential business component for building customer relationships ie: brand experience. This includes creating an effective communication plan and delivering value to customers to maximize profit. Brand experience is a style of empirical marketing strategy that includes actions and policies that directly impact customers’ feelings regarding the company name. It is a way to allow personalized decision-making for buyers while subtly influencing them to think positively about the brand. It is the most common strategy to instill brand loyalty in customers. It focuses on enhancing their relationship and contact with the company. Companies are increasingly moving toward experiential marketing strategies, making the brand experience the future of marketing. Let’s have a look at how and why brand experience is the future or marketing: 1. Makes A Difference Marketing is all about influencing the customer’s mind in such a unique way that it leaves an impression, and companies use the brand experience of their customers to make a difference. Brands now have several opportunities to innovate and fit themselves in the daily life of their customers. For example, we saw many companies supporting the public during the global pandemic and creating a positive experience for their buyers. They came up with convenient ways to cater to the customers, such as doorstep deliveries, online shopping, and prompt customer services. These efforts create an excellent brand perception in customers’ minds and unintentionally start relying on this perception in their future choices. 2. Improves Conversion The future of marketing already looks very competitive, add to that the complexities of limited outdoor experiences. It makes it difficult for companies to implement their brand experience strategies. But, on the positive side, it can still happen online, and opportunely, it promises an even higher conversion rate. Suppose your website is interesting enough, featuring eye-catching content, and has accessible navigation features. In that case, your visitors always have a reason to come back. And if you maintain contact effectively, make them feel welcomed, and signify your best products online — it will provide them with an impactful brand experience. It will upsurge the conversion of interested buyers into actual buyers and convert leads to sales. 3. More Engagement Brands need to have an emotional and empathetic connection with the targeted audience; it is the primary step to making them loyal. And, it is not a singular effort; instead, brands need to remind customers of their presence and leave positive impressions persistently. Brand experiences allow your audience to feel essential, making your brand a large part of their story. You can create such an act by improving the engagement between your customers and your company. It enhances marketing strategies, as people keep talking about you and increases awareness. And at some point in your business cycle, this engagement due to brand experience becomes your core competency . It helps you survive, and succeed, in a cut-throat competition while allowing you the privilege of becoming a market leader. 4. Broader Influence The pandemic has brought several issues with it, but limiting customers’ exposure to the businesses they are buying remains one of the most crucial ones. It prevents buyers from analyzing the brand and making an informed decision. In such times, companies have realized the importance of representation other than visual factors like a logo. Brand experience allows you to explore potentials that make you stand out amongst your rivals in front of your customer base. It refines your policies and core values, making your brand more visible. Your customers start associating your brand to emotions, and they experience getting valued. It creates a successful stream of positive appraisals which expands the horizon of your marketing. Your targeted audience enlarges from your current and potential buyers to people emotionally attached to your company. Such inclusiveness brings your brand closer to a broader audience. 5. Immediate Feedback The scope of customer-centric marketing is undeniably promising, and brand experience allows your company to implement it. When, while providing brand experience, you contact on a one-to-one basis with your customers, you get immediate feedback. Moreover, you get to explore, analyze and assess that interaction in real-time. Gone is the time when you had to go door-to-door and ask your customers to fill feedback forms so that you can understand their buying behavior. Now, you allow them to directly tell you their concerns and urge you to fix them for them. Brands that listen to their customers make them feel important and valued, increasing customer loyalty and bringing the company closer to fulfilling its marketing objective. 6. Builds Brand Insight Brand experience allows customers to thoroughly understand the business’s services and appraise their core competencies. First, they get to know the company and then compare it with other options. Even though it increases competition, it also creates a great opportunity of winning the customer’s trust. The comparison helps you improve your product and services according to your buyer’s needs. And it gets people talking and discussing you, which brings your brand under the spotlight. Customers who build brand insight are more capable of making mature and informed decisions, increasing your chances of becoming their favorite brand. Conclusion Brand experience strategies encompass a great many ways to communicate and converse with customers effectively. It is a great way to understand their needs and let them know your core values. With strategies like these, the future of marketing looks pretty bright and favorable. About the Author: Moeez Ahmed Moeez Ahmed works as a SEO strategist at Orlando’s leading Web Development & Digital Marketing agency. He is passionate blogger and loves to analyze the Digital Marketing industry in his spare time. Follow @Iam_Moeez for more updates.	https://medium.com/@christopherlondon/how-brand-experience-is-the-future-of-marketing-4a789bc73b09	['Christopher London']	2021-07-02 16:16:35.251000+00:00	['Brand Experience', 'Brand', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Marketing']
Joan Didion and Susan Sontag documentaries	Briefs (1) Photograph by Thomas Leuthard I’ve recently seen two amazing documentaries about Joan Didion (2017) and Susan Sontag (2014). The first invites the viewer to reflect upon the importance of our own life, not in a sense of hyper-individualizing your bubble of thought and care but breaking the inner and captive feeling of sadness to overcome very difficult situations that weren’t meant to happen. Or at least you never asked nor envisioned them to happen so you weren’t in control. I admire both writers, as far as I know, they exerted with audacity the art of writing from an authentic non-binary perspective (maybe at some point they became blurred for some as part of the pop or New Wave American cultures) and championed messages not to forget about history or our vulnerabilities among so many others. After Didion’s documentary, I had a deep breath about the physical distance from the people I care about. In any way, we can’t compare losing someone forever with being far from them another year or so through this pandemic experience. Also, from a few years ago loneliness meaning has deeply changed for me as I am (or feel more) aware of most of my changes happening physically and psychologically. Beyond what most of the cinema evokes about the pain of being lonely, and taking into account that we are all social and political beings, beyond what motivates couples to take a step further but later found themselves signing divorce documents, there is a particular and sometimes unaware movement to forget about ourselves. Have we been invited to do so? Like a vague jump into the unknown for no reason (sometimes the reason is love but ends up being a contradiction). Not in a sense of forgetting about the others and concentrating upon oneself but rather the opposite channeled through the advocacy to help the people you can. That happened to Sontag during the Yom Kippur’s war or expressing herself about the outrageous Holocaust itself, knowing that she had the opportunity to help others by influencing them with words, even when some may find that irrelevant. What I was motivated to do was to start writing more, even when it is not scientific nor elaborated, because sometimes hiding into a position of “let’s wait 3–12 months until you have that article published” that may extend the distance between the object and the researcher to a further audience, instead of what we want to express now. I am not saying the research process to publish is useless (I love it and patiently wait for it) but there is also a time to open up our minds even to watch how ideas evolve in ourselves through time. This is another way to talk more, isn’t it? So I hope you may find intriguing ideas from those documentaries, write to me if you fancy it! and let see if we find time to read both authors soon. Until next time, Alain	https://medium.com/@alainzaragoza/didion-and-sontag-bf646211a6cf	['Ludwig Alain Zaragoza Alvarez']	2021-01-13 21:02:41.834000+00:00	['Documentary', 'Happiness', 'Sunday', 'Loneliness', 'Mental Health']
by Martino Pietropoli	First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus. Follow	https://medium.com/the-fluxus/saturday-dee08150342f	['Martino Pietropoli']	2017-07-08 08:41:45.352000+00:00	['Saturday', 'Illustration', 'Summer', 'Humor', 'Cartoon']
Why Optical Fiber Necessary for 5G network?	Nations like South Korea, China, Japan are good to go to carry 5G innovation to the individuals one year from now https://www.spinningknowledge.in.net/2020/12/why-optical-fiber-necessary-for-5g.html	https://medium.com/@ashramitespaper/why-optical-fiber-necessary-for-5g-network-f74c9bdeb752	[]	2020-12-26 11:03:12.667000+00:00	['5g', 'USA', 'India', 'Canada', 'Internet']
"Cypherpunks and Wall Street": The Security Token Revolution & Regulation	One of the talks from the latter category was by Bruce Fenton, a 20-year Wall Street veteran who has brought his knowledge of traditional finance to cryptocurrency. “At 21, I became a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, [but then] left and founded the first full-service investment firm to use the Internet.” In 2013, Bruce set his successful traditional finance business aside to take advantage of the great opportunity he saw in blockchain, moving to “a combination of my old career as stock broker and this new technology.” Now, Bruce directs Satoshi Roundtable — an invite-only retreat for top leaders in the space. He’s a board member at The Bitcoin Foundation and tZero, a security token exchange associated with Overstock.com, as well as at successful investment group Medici Ventures. In addition to being creator and/or CEO of a number of other projects. Yet Bruce found time to present at the World Blockchain Forum. His motivation was clear: as security tokens become more popular, he sees both naïveté and moderating influences in the revolution. In his session, “Cypherpunks and Wall Street,” Bruce explained securities, the drawbacks of the current system, and the revolution of cryptocurrency. 1. Securities are agreements “Securities under U.S. laws are basically agreements. As long as agreements exist … they will be considered securities.” Securities are a broader category than many people think. To use Bruce’s example, I could sign a piece of paper saying “whoever holds this paper owns 10% of my company” and then sell the paper on Twitter. That sale would be subject to securities laws. And agreements can reference a blockchain, even when that blockchain itself is unaware of the outside world. Many philosophical debates over security tokens miss these simple points, complicating the matter beyond its core: agreements are securities, agreements can reference blockchains, and agreements are regulated. For the foreseeable future, securities are here to stay, even as blockchain takes over. Now, contrary to recent belief in the cryptocurrency community, registered securities can be purchased by everyone. But sometimes securities issuers use exemptions, most commonly Regulation D, since registering a security is so involved. These exemptions require less on the company’s part, but they also limit which U.S. citizens can invest. ICOs are usually unable to fully register as securities at their current stage of development, so if they wish to be compliant with U.S. securities laws when they sell their tokens, they need to use one of these exemptions. So despite widespread ignorance to the contrary, securities are going to stick around for a long time, and they’re not as exclusive as people think. 2. But the current system is a mess Today, securities are managed by hundreds of separate parties who do not trust each other and have to rely on trusted third parties. “Try moving 100 trillion dollars in volume with 350 broker firms managing security ledgers who don’t even trust each other — and they don’t even trust the issuer!” Securities are tracked on a haphazard archipelago of ledgers, all related and in some sense interdependent but in another sense all completely isolated. The controllers of each ledger are unwilling to share with each other, for good reason. Their incentives are at odds. For reasons of competition, Goldman Sachs doesn’t want Merrill Lynch to know its ledger. And neither of them wants Apple to know who owns Apple shares, especially since their contact at Apple — or someone at Apple who manages to access the ledger should it be shared with Apple — might be a bad actor. The result is a complex system of secret ledgers that is phenomenally difficult to manage, to audit, to regulate, and to trust. 3. Security tokens promise to fix the system	https://medium.com/ico-alert/bruce-fenton-on-cypherpunks-and-wall-street-security-token-regulation-and-revolution-7f88080802b	['Peter Keay']	2018-06-17 17:53:26.338000+00:00	['Decentralization', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Philosophy', 'News']
Meross Smart WiFi Plug review: This simplistic indoor smart plug is too rough around the edges to recommend	Meross Smart WiFi Plug review: This simplistic indoor smart plug is too rough around the edges to recommend Jamal Dec 24, 2020·3 min read In my recent review, I found Meross’ outdoor Wi-Fi smart plug to be an affordable and quite capable addition to your smart home. The indoor version of that plug, however, leaves much to be desired. Mentioned in this article Meross Outdoor Smart Plug (model MSS620B US) See it The two devices are relatively similar in function on paper. They both support a wide range of third-party smart home hubs, including HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, and IFTTT. The interior model of the plug is fairly wide (4.5 inches across), but that’s out of necessity, as it offers two three-prong outlets, with a 10-amp maximum load rating per outlet. The plugs are independently operable, both via the hardware buttons situated in between the two outlets and via the app on your mobile device. This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart plugs, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.iOS users who attempt to set up this Wi-Fi plug (2.4GHz only) in Meross’ mobile app are quickly diverted to the iOS Home app and HomeKit to complete the process. (A sizeable HomeKit sticker appears on the top of the plug, perhaps not the most elegant placement.) I had no trouble with setup, and after a quick minute I was able to assign the plugs to rooms, scenes, and automation schedules, and could manually turn each outlet on or off with a quick swipe. Christopher Null / IDG The dual outlets on the Meross MSS120HK smart plug outlets appear individually within iOS Home after just a couple of minutes of setup. If you only want to work with the plug in the iOS Home app, this might all sound fine. But if you want to use the official Meross app (which is necessary for things like firmware updates, disabling the onboard LEDs, and connecting to voice assistants), things get a bit tricky. Meross’ protocol requires you to complete setup in iOS Home, then return to the Meross app to add the device there as well. When I went back to the Meross app, the plug was nowhere to be found, and even a factory reset—followed by running through the entire setup process again—didn’t resolve the issue. Meross sent a two-pack for this review, which sells for about $32 on Amazon; they’re also available singly for about $19 each. Since I had two, I tried the process another two times with the second plug, again with no luck getting it to show up in the Meross app (though it also worked in iOS Home). [ Further reading: The best smart switches and dimmers ]I spoke with the company via email about the issue, and its suggestion involved a complex series of steps including rebooting everything, logging out and back in to iCloud, and trying to reduce the number of devices on the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi channel. I tried all of this, spending another couple of days working with the plug to try to get it to show up, and just as I was about to give up, suddenly the plug appeared in the Meross app as it was supposed to. Meross If you like the Meross Smart WiFi Plug (model MSS120HK) despite its flaws—or perhaps because you’ve learned they’ve been fixed—you can buy a two-pack at a discount over a single purchase. The final few steps of the setup process proved to be a bit buggy—involving a configuration screen that froze—but eventually everything came through and I was able to control the plug through the Meross app and connect it to Alexa. What was the fix that finally got all of these systems to start working together? I couldn’t hazard a guess. Meross’ indoor smart plug is a bit pricier than other generic two-outlet smart plugs on the market (some of which even include energy monitoring), but it’s less expensive than many of the bigger name brands in this spice. HomeKit support is a nice addition, but the company needs to work on smoothing out its setup process if it wants to earn a broad recommendation. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.	https://medium.com/@jamal19255449/meross-smart-wifi-plug-review-this-simplistic-indoor-smart-plug-is-too-rough-around-the-edges-to-a8ec73f0894e	[]	2020-12-24 23:23:39.125000+00:00	['Home Tech', 'Mobile', 'Streaming', 'Lighting']
Your first Web Scraping script with Python and Beautiful Soup	Getting our first album We have a list of 10 (or less, depending of the band) albums. Let’s get one and see how we can extract the desired data. Then, following the same process, we will get the rest of them. Remove the previous prints and type this: After selecting all CDs, we store the first one into ‘cd’ and we print it: You can view the same structure on the website too: Let’s grab the information of this CD! Following the same technique as before, we search for an ‘img‘ tag with the class ‘ProductImage’. Now the method is ‘find’ as we want only the first instance, not every Hm, we have the element, indeed. But we only need that image’s URL, that it is stored in the ‘src’ property. As a Python element, we can extract it as a normal property, using [‘src’] Nice, we extracted the image. Let’s keep going: Cool! With a few lines we have everything! We keep extracting the values we need. If the element is a property of the tag as the ‘src’ or ‘href’, we use [‘href’] to extract it. If it is the text between the starting and ending tag, we use ‘.text’. As not every album has the same properties, we try to fetch the value first and then, if it exists, we try to find the value. If not, we just return an empty string: Some values have extra text we don’t need, as format_album or release_date. We remove that extra text with the ‘replace’ function, replacing that text with an empty string. This was the most complicated thing of the code, but I’m sure you crushed it.	https://medium.com/quick-code/your-first-web-scraping-with-beautiful-soup-fae32e53edb6	[]	2019-08-28 14:31:30.512000+00:00	['Beautifulsoup', 'Dataset', 'Python', 'Programming', 'Web Scraping']
EOS — Dan Larimer — TBC	In the past 24 hours Bitshares price has exploded, alongside with EOS announcement. There are many voices in the discussion: https://steemit.com/trending/eos And their smart contract ICO sale: https://github.com/eosio/eos-token-sale I will be buying in the middle of the period between the initial ICO launch and when the platform actually launches. What I am trying to do is wait for the hype to die down and listen for the crickets to then buy my EOS for what should be cheaper than the initial week. My purchases will be spread out over several days during this lull period.	https://medium.com/ico-fomo/eos-dan-larimer-tbc-cc31d1acad9b	['Mars Robertson']	2017-06-11 11:06:38.362000+00:00	['ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Crowdfunding', 'Steemit', 'Bitcoin']
Network Graphs for Dependency Resolution	The diagram below shows a directed graph. However, it is not acyclic because if you were to step around the graph's nodes following the edges' directions, you would end up passing the starting point an infinite amount of times, nor would you even reach a final node to stop on. A Cyclic Directed Graph (Image by Author) Instead, a DAG enforces that you cannot loop like this, hence the Acyclic part of its name. Because of this inherent property of DAGs, they make great candidates for expressing concepts like dependencies in processes. See below a modified version of the graph above, which is indeed a valid DAG. A Directed Acyclic Graph representing the flow of data in a processing pipeline (Image by Author) Using DAGs to express dependencies in a process, let's imagine that the DAG edges shown above represent steps in a processing pipeline, A feeds into B, and B feeds into C. In this setup, we can resolve dependencies by walking back along the edges. Each node we encounter like this is a dependency of the initial node we started on. Another way to think about this is shown below. We can reverse the relationship expressed by each edge and walk along them. If a forward edge represents the flow of data, then a reverse edge represents a data dependency. A DAG representing the data dependencies of a processing pipeline (Image by Author) Now that we understand the concept, we can start exploring the algorithms we might use to resolve our data dependencies dynamically. As part of my job, I have been working on a processing engine that creates and runs sets of rules into SQL. This SQL operates on raw data to produce something akin to a presentation layer in a data warehouse. The issue here is that sometimes the SQL can depend on tables and columns created by other SQL scripts, and I need a nice way to handle these dependencies. What if I only want to run one rule? I need a way to find all of the rules that this rule depends on, then to run them in an appropriate order so that all of the dependencies are created before each SQL script tries to access them. Let's build a toy example of what I'm talking about. Since I work in the health care realm, I will use that as the context, but the concepts apply to any process. Imagine we have some raw data explaining clients interactions with a set of health services. We first start by cleaning the demographic data and the health service locality data. This clean demographic and locality data are then used as part of the PCD Risk data processing stage. In turn, this PCD Risk processing data is used by two more stages, the Care Plan stage and the Event information stage. Finally, some of the data produced in the Event information stage is used as part of the Billing stage. This is laid out in the diagram below. In this case, the arrows' directions in the Acyclic graph show the flow of data and not the data dependencies. A DAG showing data flow in the healthcare setting (Image by Author) Since I am a python programmer, I chose to use the NetworkX library for prototyping some algorithms for walking these dependency Graphs. NetworkX has a DAG class which raises an exception if the graph I attempt to initialise is not Acyclic, and it treats all edges in the initial edge list as directed. Using the situation described above, let's set up an edge list describing this graph and build the DAG using NetworkX. Notice in the code above that we defined each node's relationships as the arrow facing the data flow direction, not the data dependencies' direction. To walk the graph getting nodes which we are dependant on, we will be walking “backwards” or towards the nodes “predecessors”. Next, we need to define a function that will take the graph, and a starting node, walk the graph covering each node the starting node depends on, then return a list representing the execution order. To allow parallelisation, we will allow numbers in the execution order to be used more than once if there are nodes not dependent on each other. In the diagram above, I actually encoded this using the colours of the nodes. The Yellow nodes need to be run first, but as they don't depend on each other, there is no reason why one has to be run before the other, or if the database supports it, there is no reason we cannot run these processing stages in parallel. Using get_node_dependancies(graph, start_nodes) we can walk backwards along the graph build a list of nodes and the depth from the start node that we encounter them. We can calculate the execution order with these depth variables as nodes at the same depth can be run together! There is an issue with this code, though. If we use multiple start nodes, as the flow of data branches and merges, nodes can appear in this list twice and even at different depths! We need a way to clean this and return us a list of nodes and their execution order. I opted for a model where we will run nodes as late as possible in the processing engine's execution flow. This means that if a node appears more than once in the list, the minimum depth will be used (as these depths are negative, and at execution time, the “start nodes” are actually the last things to run since we are walking backwards. Now we have all the pieces required to implement our dependency resolution algorithm, let's test it on the graph we created. If we were to run the PCD job, we would first need to run the Demographics and Locality jobs. we would expect to see something like “Demographics (0), Locality (0), PCD (1)”, where the number in brackets is the execution order. Because the Demographics and Locality jobs don't depend on each other, they should get the same “execution order” value. The PCD should be run next and therefore have an execution order of 1 higher. There is one thing to note here. I made the decision to run jobs as late as possible; this means assigning them the highest valid number for execution order. You might notice in the diagram above that this would mean that the care plans node is actually blue when using this dependency walker. This was to do as little work as possible early if something failed. This isn't necessarily appropriate all the time, and I would like to look into spreading execution evenly across stages. So if there were 4 things that needed to run at stage two or three, and 4 things that needed to run at stage three or four, I would load balance them so that there are 2 in stage two, 3 in stage three, 3 in stage four, however, at this stage that's conveniently left as an exercise for the reader. If you do implement it, please let me know!	https://towardsdatascience.com/network-graphs-for-dependency-resolution-5327cffe650f	['Patrick Coffey']	2021-04-11 23:22:38.774000+00:00	['Dependency Graph', 'Network', 'Directed Acyclic Graph', 'Python', 'Execution']
The Rainbow Startup Culture	Years ago, I came across a salon in the city of Pune, India that was run by a group of Transgender women. This salon was special because it catered exclusively to the needs of other transwomen. It was in the news in 2011, but if you google it today, you won’t find any sign of it. This is because the demand for such services in the transgender clientele was low in those days. This was also before Section 377 was scrapped by the Supreme Court of India, a regressive law that made consensual sex between two homosexuals punishable by law with a prison term of up to 10 years. Ever since the law was scrapped, the LGBTQIA+ community in India has found its voice and people have started exploring new business opportunities. There is such a vast untapped potential in the form of the Pink Economy. A Government survey conducted in 2012 estimated that there were about 2.5 Million Gay people in India. This value did not include Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender individuals. According to a 2017 poll, around 4.5% Adult Americans identified as LGBTQIA+. If the same percentage is assumed for the Indian population, the number comes up to around 60 Million. 60 Million! That equals the populations of entire countries in Europe. This is a massive market that remains untapped in India. Imagine LGBTQIA+ individuals coming together and forming business ventures exclusively for their community. This is something huge that would create a lot of revenue. I would love to call this power that the Queer community holds. “The Rainbow Power.” I wonder whether the term would stick? The gears have already been set in motion. LGBT+ inclusive nightclubs are popping up all over the country. Keshav Suri, one of the leading hoteliers in India, has been at the forefront of this movement. He himself identifies as Gay and has done wonders for the community. His brand of night clubs, called Kitty Su has captured the majority of the share in this market in the country. Photo by Sarthak Navjivan on Unsplash There is still a huge possibility for growth. If things go right and if there is no intervention from the Government, I could see India becoming the hottest LGBTQIA+ destination in the world. And this isn’t just profitable for the LGBTQIA+ communities — even entrepreneurs and businesses not connected to the queer community can benefit. They can do that by making their markets LGBTQIA+ inclusive, because right now they are missing a big chunk of the pie by being stubborn.	https://medium.com/th-ink/the-rainbow-startup-culture-d1c4c2af6c89	['Soon To Be Deleted']	2019-11-21 16:59:40.335000+00:00	['LGBT', 'LGBTQ', 'Life', 'Business', 'Startup']
Why I Love Lesbian Porn (Even Though I Am A “Straight” Male!)	I know it’s probably not a “politically correct” thing to say, but, being a “straight” man (well, mostly!), I really love lesbian porn. Now I know men getting off on women, shall we say, canoodling with each other isn’t what you’d call an earth-shattering revelation. But it seems like women can do more with each other in the boudoir than men and women can. The very first dirty book I remember writing was a lesbian porno called “The Gay Girls”. (And I won’t bother telling you how young I was when I wrote it!) Having not yet seen women-again, shall we say!-canoodling, I had to guess what they did. As I recall, the characters in my dirty literary lesbian opus mostly kissed and hugged and rubbed up against each other. (Though, as I recall, it was still pretty damn hot!) The very first time I did actually watch women canoodle was in a porno-of course!-starring former Playboy Playmate Teri Weigel-back when she was known in the Porn World as The Screamer (and with good reason!)-and another porn actress named Mona Lisa, if memory serves. And I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread (or “scissoring” bread, if there even is such a thing!)! Teri Weigel a.k.a. The Screamer There are a few “adult” movie companies that produce only lesbian-or “girl/girl” as it’s known in the Porn World-content. Perhaps the most notable of these “adult” companies is Girlsway. Girlsway puts out (pardon the pun!) a number of “girl/girl” imprints, including Web Young, All Girl Massage and the more “controversial” Mommy’s Girl (which some would no doubt find more than a little creepy). As you’ve probably already guessed, I very much, uh-hum, enjoy the videos put out (again, pardon the pun!) by Girlsway (although I think sometimes the actresses in the scenes seem to be phoning it in). To see how hot their scenes can be, check out the scene with Riley Reid-who’s one of my all-time favorite porn stars-and Ivy Wolfe. (Holy frickin’ shirt!) “Hey, you wanna Netflix & chill?” So why do I love watching two (or more!) women canoodling? Well, for one, I think it’s the “taboo” aspect of watching two (or more!) women canoodle. Plus lesbian lovemaking seems to be far more sensual than lovemaking between a man and a woman. which can be rather repetitive. From what I’ve seen, women can do far more with and to each other sexually than a man and a woman can do in the boudoir with one another. And women, of course, seem far more skilled at cunnilingus than men are (for, I think, obvious reasons!). And then there’s, of course, the foreplay, which, as some-or most-women would agree, some-or most-men would much rather do without! Going back to the lesbian book I wrote when I was younger (though, again, I won’t say how much younger!), I’ve since written another lesbian romance novel under my pen name of Angel Ray titled Mother Figure published by Extasy Books. Here is the book synopsis: “Cassie never knew her real mother who left the family when she was very young. Then her father began seeing Julia. Cassie wasn’t happy about her dad seeing someone new, especially when Julia moved in with them. At first, Cassie did everything she could to make her feel very unwelcome. But then, with Julia’s patience and understanding, Cassie eventually warmed up to Julia. Even though Julia never married her father, in time Cassie began to look upon her as a sort of mother figure. Then Julia and her father split up, and Cassie was devastated. Cassie’s relationship with Julia was strained for a time, but then they eventually patched things up. Julia invited Cassie to come stay with her and work as her intern at her business after she graduated from high school. Cassie jumped at the chance to be with Julia again. However, after catching Julia in bed with another woman, Cassie begins to question not only her own sexuality but her true feelings toward Julia and whether or not she looks upon her as more than a mere mother figure.” This is actually my favorite book I’ve published thus far. And here’s the Amazon book link for my-or rather Angel’s!-book Mother Figure (yeah, I know, shameless plug!): https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Figure-Angel-Ray-ebook/dp/B0777LM8KV Again, I know there’d be those in the “woke” world who would no doubt take “offense” to a “straight” guy saying how much he gets off on lesbian porn. But, in my defense, I would say I’ve also gotten off from time to time on gay male porn (although I have to be in a certain “mood” for that!). Hey, I did say I was “mostly” straight! But, there again, for anyone who would take “offense” to what I’ve said here, especiallly those in the “woke” crowd, well, I believe I’ll just let the Joker handle THIS one!	https://medium.com/@tbanarchy/why-i-love-lesbian-porn-b086bb8461d7	['Tony Banks']	2020-02-21 04:30:10.897000+00:00	['Lesbian', 'Pornography', 'Love', 'Porn', 'Sex']
Launching an EC2 Instance Using AWS CLI	I am going to assume you already have some insight into the services AWS offers and most importantly, the EC2 instance. If you don't, here's a quick recap/summary: AWS offers EC2 as a server, more like what you would run in your physical data center.It’ll have access to storage, memory, and a network interface, and its primary drive will come with a fresh and clean operating system running. Follow this link to learn more about EC2 instances. Now that we know what EC2 is( did you open the link? No seriously, open it . ill wait). AWS allows us to launch EC2 instances in regions. You can checkout your region by clicking the right top corner of the console. Follow this link to learn a bit more about AWS regions. AWS offers two ways of launching instances: using the AWS console using the AWS CLI(which is why we are here right?) okay enough talk, let's get right into it. To launch an instance, we need to follow the following steps which will be treated in detail: install AWS CLI. configure AWS CLI. generate key pair. create a security group for instance. create/launch an instance. Install AWS CLI Installing the AWS CLI should be a very simple process. The latest version at the time of this writing is 2.0.54. You can check your CLIversion by running this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws --version This gives the following output: aws-cli/2.0.54 Python/3.7.3 Linux/4.15.0-118-generic exe/x86_64.ubuntu.18 On Linux, you can install the latest version of the CLI by running the following command. unzip the package and install. zeus-of-python@eli:~$ unzip awscliv2.zip zeus-of-python@eli:~$ sudo ./aws/install verify installation. zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws --version For Windows and Mac, follow this link to install the CLI. Configure AWS CLI Next, we need to configure the CLI to be able to use it. To do this we will need to make sure we have the following: Access key secret key Don’t use your AWS account root user credentials to access AWS, and don’t give your credentials to anyone else. Instead, create individual users for anyone who needs access to your AWS account. Create an IAM user for yourself as well, give that user administrative permissions, and use that IAM user for all your work AWS recommends using created IAM users other than the root user to access your AWS account or services. To create an access key and secret key, login into your AWS console. select IAM from services. select users and create a user as well as group. click on add user Enter user name and check the programmatic access box Enter a group name and select AmazonEC2FullAccess from list Click on create user download or store the access and secret key(This is an important step. You won't be able to retrieve this again once you go past this page). Now, let's configure our CLI. In your terminal, run and follow the prompt . zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws configure AWS Access Key ID [None]: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx AWS Secret Access Key [None]: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Default region name [None]:eu-west-3 Default output format[None]: json Don't panic if nothing happens after this. In fact, that is a confirmation our configuration worked! Let's break down what we did up there. For the access key id and secret key, we entered the generated keys given to us by AWS. For the default region, we selected the eu-west-3(Paris) region. For a complete list of AWS regions, follow this link. supported output formats are JSON, table, YAML, YAML stream output, and text. We will stick with JSON for now. Generate Key Pair Next, we will generate a key pair to use with our ec2 instances. A key pair, consisting of a private key and a public key, is a set of security credentials that you use to prove your identity when connecting to an instance This is basically what we would need to connect to our instance securely over ssh. To do that, run this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name example-user-key --query 'KeyMaterial' --output text > example-user.pem This will create the example-user.pem file, which contains the ssh private key, in the same directory. Run the following command to protect against accidental overwriting of the file: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ chmod 400 example-user.pem Create a Security Group Next, we need to create a security group to allow us to access our instance. A security group works much the same way a firewall works. It contains a set of rules that filter traffic coming into and out of an EC2 instance. By default, AWS blocks all traffic coming into an instance. To connect to our instance, we need to create a security group and allow port 22 to allow us to connect to the instance via ssh. To do this, run this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name example-group --description "security goup for our ec2 instance" Running the above command returns a JSON containing the group id which we will require later. { "GroupId": "sg-0442ea108147ea0c4" } To view security groups under EC2 service, run the following in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 describe-security-groups Next, we will have to allow ssh(port 22) by adding it to the created security group. To do this, run this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-name example-group --protocol tcp --port 22 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 For the CIDR argument, we want to allow all IP addresses by specifying 0.0.0.0/0 as our IP address range. Creating Instance Using an EC2 instance or virtual machine requires an image (more like the operating system to run on it). Amazon provides a variety of AMIs(Amazon Machine Images) for EC2 instances. They provide 4 different types: Amazon Quick Start AMIs — These type of images are popular choices that appear at the top of the list in your console when you start the process of launching a new instance AWS Marketplace AMIs — These are official,production-ready images provided and supported by industry vendors like CISCO and Oracle Community AMIs — These are images created and maintained by independent vendors usually built to meet specific needs Private AMIs — These are images that are created from your own instance deployments. In this article, we’re interested in the Amazon Quickstart AMIs. we will be launching a ubuntu 18.04 instance. To launch our instance, we need the image id of the instance type we want to launch. To get that run this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 describe-images --owners 099720109477 --filters 'Name=name,Values=ubuntu/images/hvm-ssd/ubuntu-bionic-18.04-amd64-server-????????' 'Name=state,Values=available' --query 'reverse(sort_by(Images, &CreationDate))[:1].ImageId' --output text This gives the following output : ami-02d718951aa75291a Follow the link to get the command for retrieving the image id of the latest AMI for a specific distribution. Alternatively, you can find an image id by heading to the Ubuntu Amazon EC2 AMI Locator. Next, let's launch the instance by running the following in the terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-02d718951aa75291a --count 1 --security-group-ids sg-0442ea108147ea0c4 --instance-type t2.micro --key-name example-user-key Let's break down what is going on. image-id — The image id of the instance type we want to launch. count — Number of instances to launch. security-group-ids — Id of security group we created earlier on. instance-type — Type of instance we want to run. t2.micro is a free tier instance provided by AWS. This means we won't be charged for using this instance(assuming we are using the 12-month free version). Follow this link to learn more about AWS instance types. key-name — the name of key-pair we generated earlier on. This gives an output similar to what is shown below: ... "Instances": [ { "AmiLaunchIndex": 0, "ImageId": "ami-02d718951aa75291a", "InstanceId": "i-0f2e0a9956f68e3ad", "InstanceType": "t2.micro", "KeyName": "example-user-key", "LaunchTime": "2020-10-08T23:32:10+00:00", "Monitoring": { "State": "disabled" }, "Placement": { "AvailabilityZone": "eu-west-3b", "GroupName": "", "Tenancy": "default" }, "PrivateDnsName": "ip-172-31-24-130.eu-west-3.compute.internal", "PrivateIpAddress": "172.31.24.130", "ProductCodes": [], "PublicDnsName": "", "State": { "Code": 0, "Name": "pending" }, ... That's it, we have successfully launched our ec2 instance. You can list all your instances by running aws ec2 describe-instances in your terminal. To connect to our instance via ssh, we need to obtain the public IP of our newly created instance. To do this, run this in your terminal: zeus-of-python@eli:~$ aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-0f2e0a9956f68e3ad --query 'Reservations[0].Instances[0].PublicIpAddress' This returns the public IP of the instance: "35.180.137.149" Now we can log in . zeus-of-python@eli:~$ ssh -i example-user.pem [email protected] Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.3.0-1035-aws x86_64) * Management: * Support: * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage System information as of Fri Oct 9 12:46:53 UTC 2020 System load: 0.0 Processes: 91 Usage of /: 15.9% of 7.69GB Users logged in: 0 Memory usage: 21% IP address for eth0: 172.31.24.130 Swap usage: 0% - Reduce system reboots and improve kernel security. Activate at: https://ubuntu.com/livepatch * Canonical Livepatch is available for installation.- Reduce system reboots and improve kernel security. Activate at: 0 packages can be updated. 0 updates are security updates. The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>". See "man sudo_root" for details. ubuntu@ip-172-31-24-130:~$ And that is how you launch an instance using the AWS CLI.	https://medium.com/swlh/launching-an-ec2-instance-using-aws-cli-dee4b7aabe19	['Elijah Ahianyo']	2020-10-11 21:37:40.449000+00:00	['Aws Cli', 'Aws Free Tier', 'Aws Ec2']
Don’t Go To College If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur	Don’t Go To College If You Want To Be An Entrepreneur Photo by MORAN on Unsplash I never wanted to go to university. I’ve always wanted to do my own things and live life my own way. But because of our family “tradition” of everyone getting a degree, I have to go. I have to go to university, or else my parents will lose face and be embarrassed about their child. If there’s one thing I’m going to do in life, it’s going to be dropping out of school. To save my parents some of their pride, however, I’ll drop out only after proving that I can be a successful entrepreneur without a degree. But man, after this first semester, I think I’m going to drop out even if I’m not successful. In fact, I am already committed to dropping out by September 2021, and here’s why.	https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/dont-go-to-college-if-you-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur-c8648314590	['Kevin Shan']	2020-12-18 02:45:34.553000+00:00	['College', 'University', 'Self', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Education']
What makes a great sales rep?	The best salespeople are always looking to improve their game, never satisfied with their performance. Great sales reps embody empathy and competitiveness in equal measure. Recruiting great salespeople is a surprisingly difficult task, considering how popular and attractive sales roles can be. Why? Because great salespeople have a sought after mix of characteristics that contribute to their natural success in the role. Here is a list of qualities that makes a salesperson great at his/her job: Pro-activeness: Sales reps who need to wait until they get back to the office, sit down at their desk, and go through everything on their computer will sell less than those who can respond more proactively. It’s important to keep up with the pace in today’s technological world. Always show the eagerness and proactiveness to close a deal. It’s important that you never make the customer wait for long. Confidence: The best and most charismatic salespeople believe in themselves, their company, and their product or service. Confident salespeople act fearlessly and are willing to take risks without worrying about hearing a “no” from a customer or losing out on a potential opportunity. Multi-tasking: An outstanding salesperson knows how to juggle deals they are trying to close with promising leads. They can even respond to queries through emails and on the phone at the same time. Great multitaskers make excellent additions to any sales team. Critical thinking: The sales reps should have the ability to think outside the box in challenging their existing sales pitches and processes to reach higher levels. Reps who consistently try to put themselves in the shoes of their target market become better able to have a conversation that comes across as insight. Empathetic: Being able to understand the customer’s wants and needs on a much deeper level is a rare and important talent in sales. In order to demonstrate respect and gain the customer’s trust, the salesperson needs to be able to show they have a genuine understanding of the problem and want to find a solution for the customer’s benefit, not just to hit another sales target. Persistent and competitive: Without being rude or pushy, good salespeople know how to get the job done. They know many people face the most challenging obstacle just before they reach their goal. Sales reps must doggedly chase prospects and be willing to approach them from different angles. Follow Futwork for more learnings and content on sales and running your sales teams.	https://medium.com/futwork/what-makes-a-great-sales-rep-9e7188e45d08	[]	2020-12-17 05:39:20.631000+00:00	['Sales', 'Sales Reps', 'Future Of Work']
Will human-centered design leave the human designers behind?	A.I. is sort of a peanut butter you can spread across [multiple industries]. With a precise idea of the conditions this thing I’m designing will see in real life, I can design it better. — Maurice Conti DESIGN THINKING IN THE MACHINE AGE Thanks to design thinking advocates, designers have emerged to be taking over all sorts of founding and managerial roles in quite a few Big Tech players over the last couple of decades. At the same time, the advent of machine learning didn’t succeed in challenging the design trade per se. Or did it? When artificial intelligence is taking over every other industry at this sweeping pace, there is an array of lingering questions arising in design and tech communities alike. How do we tame the machines to produce compelling graphics inducing human emotion and thought? How do we restrain from feeding AI with biased data by amateur non-designers? Will the exquisite Adobe software finally evolve into robotic tools taking over a human hand? Feelings and thought are very mixed, so let me reserve a piece of personal stance in this blog. Ai-Da: the first ever robot artist who can draw without any human input. DITCHING HUMAN DESIGNERS? In the mid last century, probably the most celebrated commercial designer of the time, Paul Rand, noticed that the majority of ‘professionals’ in ads business ‘…not even discriminating enough to distinguish between good and bad, between trendy and original, nor can they always recognize talent or specialized skills. In the field of design theirs is the dichotomy of being privileged but not necessarily being qualified — after all, design is not their business’. Some fifty years in, and the situation has aggravated immensely. The abundance of tools and design assets available online is striking giving everyone having some basic Photoshop skills a chance to create graphics of dubious quality. Ditch the years of design training / self-learning — all you need is a Macbook and Adobe Suite (side note — you’d better get a Wacom too). Now, with robot-designers this design education gap will get completely out of control. On the flip-side though, machines have to be heavily trained, and preferably by top-notch designers to make sure the output is adequate. Sounds like a pricey endeavour to me, however, could be another alternate career pathway for graphic design graduates, and consolation to those thinking that humans will be kicked out of the profession entirely. I do believe that this sort of facilitator / teacher role can prove to be most viable, if not exciting, for evolving artistic trades. Collaborating and sharing knowledge while building #ML tools — I’m down for that. AI TOOLS — DESIGNERS’ LITTLE HELPERS In the wake of the recent news of the world’s first machine-artist, a reasonable angle to look at AI is like another tool for artists, like the camera, or the drum machine. Creators are adept to playing with devices and all sorts of collaboration, which is a great way to get those juices flowing, ain’t it so? More so, with AI extensively taking over the niche of affordable freebee design-tools, it seems logical to exploit the ‘little helper’ further to speed up the flow and automate some tedious tasks like preparing, sorting or unifying design assets. Because no one likes to spend hours cropping / retouching hundreds of jpegs. From creating instant pattern variations and legit UI tools to pretty basic logo generators; to more exquisite design tools like Adobe Sensei and Intelligent Alerts — all these are great time savers loved by designers and businesses. Robotic intelligence is also a great way to help making design decisions bringing complex data analysis to the table to iterate faster and consider multiple options otherwise not available to a human eye. WHAT’S INHERENTLY WRONG WITH AI DESIGN-GENERATORS? Well, to my mind, they’re entirely missing the ‘metaphor-behind-the-design point. And if the task of exerting any meaningful emotion resonating with the human audience seems plausible for further robo-generations, that of designing a poster in a way to provoke human brain to ‘close the Gestalt’ will hardly ever be. And of course there is barely a machine (at least, for now) capable of constructing a logo that would satisfy this timeless criterion by Sir Paul Rand: ‘A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like’. Another danger inferred by placing human bias and design illiteracy into machine brain. Design amateurs should steer clear, and it’s responsibility of forward-thinking design community to rely on high-class design educators when feeding artistic data to robobrain. ‘Lack of humility and originality … the absence of restraint, the equation of simplicity with shallowness, complexity with depth of understanding, and obscurity with innovation, distinguishes the quality of work of these times’, — applied to our new realia means ‘do not let engineers with bad taste ever approach the machine. Cam robodesigners be that exquisite? More complex AI solutions are still pricey, so the majority design newbies hoping to get some exceptional result with the help of ‘advanced tech’ still have access only to the elementary online generators like. My fellow designers, have you noticed how basic and shallow are Logobank’s graphics? You throw in some yellows and bananas, and it spits out a perfectly aligned ‘Juice Bar’ in a yellow circle-container logo. Come on, we all know that first-level associations never work in design! FANCY THE AIRBNB LOGO REDESIGNED BY A MACHINE Sounds dodgy, no? It is human talent that will be in charge of designing machines and machine learning applications, while others will make use of advanced Photoshop and Illustrator tools to cut down the tiresome work. Over the time machines will surely learn design principles and techniques, but can they learn human emotion? According to A.I. Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, one thing the machines can’t do is ‘building empathy, compassion, and trust — all of which require human-to-human connection’. Only humans can truly make a product that serves its customer in a meaningful way. As Paul Rand aptly puts it:	https://medium.com/hackernoon/will-human-centered-design-leave-the-human-designers-behind-1e8d778b52d9	['Olya Green']	2019-06-07 11:26:01.119000+00:00	['Design Thinking', 'Design', 'Human Centered Design', 'AI', 'Human Design']
What I learned from 2 years with JavaScript and React	I’m a software engineer. I come from a Java world. So when I was bored, I hacked some side projects. The problem was, that I had to chose a language plus library/framework as a building block. I know that I also worked with python a bit, but that was nothing I would use to make frontend stuff. Especially because I’ve been working a lot on mobile apps, I decided to give React Native a try. Since that was in the beginning/mid of 2017, the library was relatively young. And I never really worked with JavaScript before, except one small ‘integrate bar charts’ site thing. The good thing about React in general is, that the learning curve is great — it is very easy to learn. In this article I will roughly describe the experience I made with focus on React in the last years, also some small code snippets to make it a code article. React I come from a model view controller kind of development world. This also includes, that the development style was very object oriented. So completely different than JavaScript and React. I would describe React as a simple, easily to learn and extendible library for building User Interfaces in JavaScript. Very important to add here is that since React is not a framework, you may have to include additional modules for your use case. For example, adding navigation or state management to your project, or simply just a component library to have nice-looking buttons. Usually, when you create software, you use an architectural pattern to have a common structure and solve your problem. Furthermore, I would also add the term design patterns to that, which help you solve problems for a specific context of your architecture. A very common architectural pattern is the Model View Controller (MVC). In short, this separates the view part from the control (user input) and model part (main logic), so that these three decoupled components can take the benefits of code reusing and parallel development. Angular, for example has an MVC-like structure. React does not have a strict architectural pattern. This is the point where it got interested. If you don’t have any pattern to follow as a software engineer, what do you do? You simply chose whatever you want. If you want to build a small website one-pager thing, you usually don’t wan to think about separating your components and stuff. With React, you have a simple library that provides you with basic instructions for building a User Interface. Another very cool thing about React is its wide-spread alternatives. You learn the concept of props, state, lifecycle / rendering once, and you can basically build any major web app you can think of. For building native mobile apps there is React Native and Electron could be used for desktop apps (that’s how Slack is built). Thus, the learned concepts can be reused, or even code shared between projects. You could now think that React is a glue-together kind of library. That is not completely true (or not necessarily bad). React uses the JavaScript and XML (JSX) style. In short, this means your HTML code will live alongside the JavaScript code (same file). That sounds strange first, but is kind of awesome when you got used to it. So that would basically mean that your view, controller and model may be in one file/component. If your application stays small, everything might be fine using this approach. But if it gets bigger and bigger and more people start working on the same codebase, things get interesting. Project Setup Before you do any project that should make it to a real product or you work with more than just yourself on it — set up your project correctly. This involves finding the right toolchain that has what you need. This could include a process for executing tests, building production/development builds and optimally also linter integration. Setup Linter before you start in a team That is something I definitely learned when I worked with multiple people in a JavaScript project. Besides proper documentation, a good setup for preventing access to undefined variables is a must in my opinion. If you use TypeScript rather than JavaScript, most of these things should already be setup. Linters assure that the code you’ve written always looks the way you want it. Eslint is a very popular linting utility for JavaScript, that you configure for your project’s needs. The great thing is that once you have set that up, you may use IDE plugins that automatically checks your code and gives you hints/errors/warnings if the code does not apply to a rule. Also fix linter errors on file save is a good idea. If you combine the linting processes with git-hooks, you can assure that the project’s source code has a certain quality standard. Use Types when you work in a team Even if you don’t work in a team, coming back to your code after months of not looking into it — do you still know what you did? Especially in JavaScript, I mostly don’t. That’s where Types may be very helpful. In JavaScript, there are things like Flow, that function as a static type checker for your project. Static type checking means that errors are found while coding, but it could theoretically still miss errors that you don’t know about (in deep nested objects for example). In addition to that, there are runtime type checkers like PropTypes for React that will catch some more errors on runtime (but only for props!), which is interesting for testing. TypeScript has, compared to Flow, a lot of things already configured upfront. That does not necessarily mean Flow is better or worse than TypeScript, but I made better experience with TypeScript. It ‘forced’ me to write Type definition for most things, which was not the case for Flow (maybe I configured it wrong). Also, Flow sometimes consumed a lot of battery life on my MacBook, which completely concurs with this great article. Code Reviews > TypeScript In general, adding types to JavaScript is a good thing, especially since it catches some errors upfront and does most of the documentation for your code (see typedoc). Interestingly, if you read the study about ‘To Type or Not to Type: Quantifying Detectable Bugs in JavaScript”, which I found in this awesome article, around 80% of bugs are not detectable by TypeScript. Type errors make up around 20% of bugs in your project (on average), the rest is mostly related to specification errors! So in conclusion, TypeScript (or other JavaScript type additions) will not be enough to catch all errors (or even half) in your code. Code reviews and test driven development (TDD, write test before you code) and event pair programming, may resolve up to 80% of common bugs. Another interesting statement of that article that I recommend to read is, that an hour of code review saves 33 hours of maintenance on average. I made similar experience that by reviewing (your own) code together with a college lead to a huge amount of bug-findings. Project structure It is really important that you decide how your project structure should look before you start the project (makes sense). Especially when you work in a team. In my opinion best practices for that should be documented somewhere, even if it’s just in the readme file. There are more things that I’ve questioned myself some time: Naming the file Dashboard.js or index.js and just place it in a components/Dashboard folder? Have a logical file structuring like src/components src/container src/config or more behavioural, like src/usercontrols src/adminelements src/utils When writing tests: E2E tests are usually placed in the projects root/e2e folder or similar. But what about unit- and integration test? Put them into a __test__ folder under src/ or in the hierarchy of the tested element? In general, boilerplate code or example projects can help with choosing a project structure. I personally like naming the files as its component name, similar to Java. Testing environment In general, more testing gives you more confident that your system has less bugs. There are different levels of testing, starting from unit- and integration tests, up until End-To-End (E2E) and acceptance tests. I wrote an article about E2E testing in React Native. I would like to share some of my testing experience here anyway. In general, unit tests are helpful for having confidence that your recent changes did not break a part of your app. User Interface testing is often difficult, since they require a lot of work to configure and maintain. Also, they just don’t work really well. But having them is always a good thing. One of the most common bugs in my last projects was trying to access undefined variables. This could have been prevented by using any kind of type addition, or correctly setup linters. Most of the bugs are not preventable of course. Let’s say you decrease the minSDK build version for your Android app, since a new library requires/recommends that. But what you forgot is that your app must have a specific minSDK version, leading to a build that will not run on every device. This could been prevented by letting your changes be reviewed by a different person, or even together (peer reviews). Pull requests are a very common technique here. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery Most of the time, developers have to do recurring tasks for a release. This often includes things like running tests/linters, bundling, acceptance tests and uploading. Without question this takes times and nerves, but can be minimized by using external CI/CD services. For sure you can get a DevOps Engineer who sets that up to you, but often this requires a lot of time and experience. An exception would be that you handle privacy sensitive data (your customers trust you) and thus must do it on your own. Redux When the project gets bigger, you could (should) add a library that enables unidirectional data flow for your application. One very famous pattern for that is Flux. Since it is just a pattern, you can chose from different library implementations like Redux or MobX. I personally only worked with Redux in the past and it is really great after you got used to the core concepts. The most important concept of redux is its one-way (unidirectional) data flow. This is very interesting, since you will not have any duplicate states in your application, but rather a single source of truth. You could now think that this can be done by binding the data to the function that need it, or whatever. This is for sure a very good point, so in relation you could also build a house without an architect. If it is a small house like a garden thing, everything might be okay — but the bigger it gets, the harder it is to maintain. Also, testing will become easier with redux compared to managing state on your own. This is because there are defined processes for where the state changes, in the sense that only specific methods (actions) can mutate the state. The state is part of your redux store and can be separated into different parts. Let’s say you want to have app/settings and app/userProfile separated. This makes sense, especially since one reducer only has access to that particular sub-state. Redux middleware Redux middlewares are configured ‘between’ your app and the redux store to do things. One thing could be to persist parts of your store so that your app is capable for offline usage. Another thing, which definitely makes sense is a logger middleware (redux-logger). With that you can see which action has which impact on your store, including timestamps and state differences before/after the action was dispatched. Now that managing the app state is handled, what about handling side effects, like simply fetching the user profile after they got successfully authenticated with the server? This can be done by using a redux middleware like redux-saga or redux-thunk. In short, in gives you a way of fetching data, view data of the redux store and firing redux actions to change the store/state of your app. All that could also be done in the app components of course, but sooner or later your code will become a mess and not testable anymore. To conclude that: you can not (and should not) make calls to a server or similar in a redux reducer. A redux action is dispatched by a redux reducer, which then does changes to its store without waiting seconds for a server request to be resolved. That’s what a middleware is for. Async/await One thing many JavaScript developers like is the async/await syntax that highly improves readability of Promise.then() statements. Especially when you have nested then() statements, it can be quite helpful to use async/await. I don’t want to explain how async/await works, there are many great article out there that does that. const fetchFood = new Promise((resolve, reject) => { setTimeout(() => resolve('food'), 1000); }); const fetchWater = new Promise((resolve, reject) => { setTimeout(() => resolve('water'), 300); }); const fetchBread = new Promise((resolve, reject) => { setTimeout(() => resolve('bread'), 500); }); const main = async () => { console.time('time'); const food = await fetchFood; const water = await fetchWater; const bread = await fetchBread; console.timeEnd('time'); // ~1000ms // equivalent // const [food, water, bread] = await Promise.all([fetchFood, fetchWater, fetchBread]); } main(); The interesting thing here is that the resolving of these three promises only take about 1 second, its highest timeout. Sure, this is not related to async/await but Promises. What I learned recently is that you can use Promise.all, which resolves when all passed promises have resolved. Rest Spread Operator The rest spread operator let you extend objects and arrays or simpler: concat them. The operation will create a new object or array: const one = [1, 2]; const two = [3, 4]; console.log([...one, ...two]); // [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ] console.log([...one, ...two, 5, 6]); // [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ] console.log([...one] === one); // false Another example is extending objects. The important thing here is, that you don’t forget about deep nested objects, otherwise they will be overridden: const someObject = { magicValue: 42, }; const hugeObject = { ...someObject, someValue: 37, deepObject: { foo: [42, 43], } } const overridenObject = { ...hugeObject, someValue: 24, deepObject: { someArray: [91, 21], // foo[] will be overridden } } const notOverridenObject = { ...hugeObject, anotherValue: 37, deepObject: { ...hugeObject.deepObject, // extend nested object someArray: [42, 43], } } This should not be confused with rest parameters, that have the purpose of collecting all remaining parameters passed to a function into an array: const someSumFunction = (...args) => { return args.reduce((sum, value) => sum + value) } console.log(someSumFunction(1, 2, 3)); This method simply takes parameters, that will be transformed to an array and returns the sum of its values. React Performance React has a component lifecycle, which is very important to understand if you want to get the maximum performance out of your application. React native has some special things to consider, because it obviously needs to communicate with the native side (iOS or Android) via a message-bridge, so everything is kind-of serialized from JavaScript into JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and interpreted by the native side. But I’m not going into detail here. The react component lifecycle is very well documented here and describe the different events that happen around the DOM and a component. The most important method is render() which does exactly what is says. It is called when the props or state have changed. So it only evaluates (not changes) the values of this.props and this.state and returns an element to be used in the DOM. This article describes many must-known things about React (and Redux) performance. One of the most common things that I also ran into was binding methods. React uses shallowCompare (in its render() method). This means every key is checked for strict equality. If you follow that, if even just the ref of an object changes, the objects are not equal. This is the case for functions and array, so they create new refs every time: const oneFunction = someInput => { return someInput; } const theSameFunction = theSameInput => { return theSameInput; } console.log(oneFunction === theSameFunction); // false console.log([42, 43] === [42, 43]); // false What you can see is that functions and arrays are never ‘equal’, since there is always gonna be a new one created, so the ‘internal reference’ differs. And here it does not matter if you do a strict equality check as I did or the weak one (==). That is because we do not ‘downgrade’ any type as we would do if we would check for example (42 == ’42’). Immutable.js can be very useful in these cases. Actually the reason behind this ‘creates a new object’ is, that you have to be careful when you do this. If you create new functions every time the render() method is invoked (which I think could potentially happen 60 times per second), this might kill performance. That is why you bind functions to the class/component in the constructor, so that will not happen. If you try to access state or props from a function that is not bound to this, it will result in an error (obviously because this is unknown). This also counts for subscriptions / observations to state changes when using redux. Let’s say every time the state of your app changes, you filter, map and reduce an array of this state. Each time you do that, you create a new array. Especially if this array has not changed, you create unnecessary work, leading to work for the garbage collector, leading to eventual memory leaks, bad performance and so on. In addition to prevent the creation of new objects or function calls in the render() method, you can also prevent that method to be invoked, using shouldComponentUpdate. Another big thing is the understanding of the setState method. Most important is that it does not immediately change the state of the component, but rather gives a request to it — which can be delayed, batched or whatever by React. You can still react to changes of your state by using the setState callback or componentDidUpdate. React Native and Performance As I already mentioned, I will not go too detailed into React Native in this article. React Native in general is great and I’ve built many apps with it already. Many people complain about its errors that pop up when working with integrated modules or upgrading something. I’ve experienced that too, but after some time you know how to work with it and it gets easier. It helps when you’ve worked on multiple different native modules in react native. Another thing people may complain about is the performance in react native. Apps like games or just computationally intensive ones may not be the most performant ones. The reason for that is react native has a message queueing bridge that is used for all kind of interaction between the native- and JavaScript side. It is also recommended to develop your App for Android first, since iOS is mostly easier in terms of integration of modules and performance. There are many different reasons why your react native app is slow and also many ways to debug that. I guess most of the times the app uses the bridge too extensively. With what I mean that rendering is triggered too often, too much data is passed over the bridge, too many listeners in the background or whatever.	https://reime005.medium.com/what-i-learned-from-2-years-with-javascript-and-react-754d2dc6f1e1	['Marius Reimer']	2019-03-10 17:57:41.255000+00:00	['JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Lessons Learned', 'React', 'React Native']
ASEAN countries prepared for a travel ASEAN balloon?	Indonesia has the highest number of infections with COVID-19 in ASEAN, but it remains the only country in the region to avoid the general lockdown. However, as with other ASEAN nations, air travel remains highly restrictive. The wait may be over for the vaccine, but before opening the borders, Indonesia or ASEAN can not afford to wait for it to function. We should begin working towards an ASEAN-wide travel bubble before we achieve herd immunity by extending, updating and consolidating the myriad of unilateral and bilateral travel agreements that currently exist in the area. In ASEAN, travel corridors or ‘green lanes’ are the most common, which allow reciprocal travel under strict conditions, such as pre-arranged itineraries, with testing but without quarantine for select groups such as businessmen. Air travel passes, however, arbitrarily extend these terms to all passengers in order to have a big effect on the economy. Singapore has been leading the effort in ASEAN to seek air travel passes with partners, such as Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam, that have regulated group transmission. More is required. If the partner reciprocates to build a two-way quarantine-free travel bubble, the economic advantages of travel passes may be improved. Perceptions of health threats associated with opening borders need to converge across countries in order for this to happen. Harmonization of COVID-19 screening and quarantine protocols should be included in the strategy to maintain the integrity of country-wide risk mitigation controls while enabling smooth movement to reap full benefits from the rise in size. When set up, the institutional framework will help to deal on a consistent basis with emerging problems, such as vaccinations. Although countries which vary in terms of how and when they want to accept vaccinations, let alone various vaccines, these issues need to be resolved in a way that does not discourage short-term travel, while harmonization is sought in the longer term to narrow differences. A travel balloon that is properly built might do that. ASEAN Leaders acknowledged at the recently concluded ASEAN Summit in Hanoi the ability of travel bubbles to securely open borders to facilitate regional economic recovery. In moving towards an ASEAN travel balloon, a prudent and gradual approach will give economic growth a fillip, but have ample safeguards that will kick in if infections move north again.	https://medium.com/@tasianaffairs/asean-countries-prepared-for-a-travel-asean-balloon-80b816b85db8	['The Asian Affairs']	2020-12-22 16:22:28.609000+00:00	['Asean', 'Singapore', 'Travel', 'Flight', 'Economy']
Advance Planning, Stoic Style	Photo by Renáta-Adrienn on Unsplash The eighth saying in the Enchiridion (Greek for “handbook”) by the Stoic Epictetus goes like this: Realize how little you control what happens; learn to wish that everything that happens happens as it happens. Then all will go exactly as planned. (8) I suspect that Epictetus had his tongue firmly in his cheek with those words, but the over-the-top sentiment holds a real truth central to contemplative traditions such as Stoicism, Daoism, and Buddhism— our attachment to our expectations are a source of pain and confusion. The COVID-19 pandemic has interfered with a good many assumptions, expectations, and attachments. For example — except for those of us who have lived in hurricane zones — most Americans have not experienced empty store shelves. Now, that’s a reality. Assumption shattered. In some rural areas, grocery stores have closed because shipments are going to cities. Many Americans had an expectation about our supply chains. That expectation is shattered.As Epictetus reminds us, “realize how little you control what happens.” Many of the 3.3 million Americans who filed for unemployment last week were attached to the idea that some kind of job would always be available. Others, with reduced hours, working from home, or suddenly working in mortal danger, had expected something very different. Many of us assumed we could always, and any time, hop into an automobile or buy a bus, train, or plane ticket in order to see our loved ones. Another shattered attachment. As our social order creaks like an old shed in the wind, for our own mental health, it is time to embrace the ancient wisdom of realizing “how little you control what happens.” The wisdom of Stoicism, Daoism, Buddhism, and a few other traditions, teach us how to deal with the extremities that the pandemic have brought. Human beings have been down this road many, many times before. Many who have not delved deeply into these traditions consider advice such as, “learn to wish that everything that happens happens as it happens” as an invitation to passivity. This is far from the case. Rather, the practice of letting go of assumptions, expectations, and attachments gives us the strength to think outside of unexpected boxes. Try it. At least in baby steps.	https://medium.com/humanism-now/advance-planning-stoic-style-1fbe277a2164	['David Breeden']	2020-03-26 17:20:12.512000+00:00	['Covid 19', 'Humanism', 'Expectations', 'Stoicism', 'Unitarian Universalist']
Want To Be A Content Writer? [ A Step By Step Guide To Dive In]	Assalam-O-Alaikum! Welcome to my blog.I hope you all are safe and sound. Before I get start with my discussion about what dos and donts A BEGINNER should keep in mind while starting or diving into CONTENT WRITING-AKA Freelancing , let me ask you something.[are you taking precautionary measures from ongoing COVID19’s second wave?] Now lets move to our today’s discussion topic. So Content Writing, as it is clear from its name, it is related to writing.And Content Writing is one of the multifarious skills, you offer in freelancing, to earn money.A question arises, what are the basic guidelines that a beginner should follow while diving into this field? Here you go! I have come up with a series of some basic guidelines, that a beginner must know. Mark my words, you would get to know something beneficial even if you are not starting content writing.But you can guide your loved ones, right?Dont mind please ! I am a chatter box. [giggle] Without wasting time, lets get into our First part of the series i,e; Step 1 In the First Step, I would like to suggest that, when you have decided to start content writing and you need some guidance to start up. Kudos! you are at the right post.So here we go! 1: To begin Content Writing, first thing, One must have, is your PORTFOLIO- your profile, which you can show to your client, when he/she asks you to show some samples of your work. 2: You do not need to be worried, why am I here? Obviously just to help you people out.So here is a good news.You can start your blog on Medium.com, as I did. Problem solved? Thank me later. 3: The reason I am recommending to choose Medium.com is obvious.You can make your profile for free on this paltform. And as you are a beginner, you would prefer some sort of free platform to take a start .After you start content writing, there are plenty of opportunities to grow here.Let me count some of them- there is more data traffic, if you get more views on your post, you get paid by Medium.com. Moreover, it increases your visibilty etc. 4: There are so many people, who earn by writing on Medium.com as well. At the end of this post, lets just get this straight. If you want to be a Content Writer, you have to become a blogger first. I hope you enjoyed the first part of my guideline series for the beginners, and got to know something useful.ALLAH HAFIZ till I again appear with my next post. STAY SAFE AND KEEP YOUR LOVED ONES SAFE. Regards, KIRAN BUTT	https://medium.com/@kiranbutt-27627/a-step-by-step-guide-for-the-beginners-in-content-writing-dos-and-donts-aff466a2c26f	['Kiran Butt']	2020-12-12 22:28:05.967000+00:00	['Content Writing']
Happy New Year, Hillary.	Dear Hillary Clinton, Everyone seems to have a strong opinion about what you should or should not be doing these days. I don’t. It is not my place to give advice to one of the most admired, informed, and accomplished humans on the planet. You do not need anyone to tell you how to live. In fact, you show me how I should strive to live every day of my life: with love, kindness, and a bit of snarky sass that comes with being an intelligent woman in a world full of overconfident men. Instead of telling you to have a seat, be quiet, or take up knitting, I thought I would tell you about my year and how you remained a constant reminder of this country’s potential. I woke up on January 1, 2017 still in a grieving period from the 2016 election. New Year’s Day is always one of my favorite days, but this one was difficult to maneuver. Everything was upside down. Barack Obama was still president, but we were just weeks away from the unthinkable. I was newly engaged and should have been on cloud nine, but I felt guilty for being so happy when I knew what the future would bring for this country. For weeks, my emotions ranged from deep sadness to total anger to complete apathy. This wretched cycle was only subdued by the beginning stages of wedding planning and a Great British Baking Show marathon. The night before Donald Trump’s inauguration, I walked home from work. Normally, I take the metro but on this particular evening I need to blow off some steam. I walked past parade stands, secret service barricades, and crowds of people donning formal wear and Make American Great Again hats. This wasn’t right, I thought. He can’t be sworn in. I was grasping for hope, trying to justify any reason why he wouldn’t make it to that podium. I was being foolish and disingenuous. He won. This is how our country works. A peaceful transition of power is what makes the United States a beacon of light to the rest of the world. As I walked the streets of Capitol Hill to my house, I was stopped in my tracks by chalk drawings in Lincoln Park. Under the statue of civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune were touching words of hope written on the pavement. “Black Lives Matter” “Love is Love is Love” and “An Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere”. I felt a little better, and the knots in my stomach started to ease. I was not alone in my sadness. I kept walking and eventually stepped right over the words you bravely said on the world stage in 1995: “Women’s Rights are Human Rights.” In that moment of despair, you gave me exactly what I needed. On the morning of the Women’s March, I shot out of bed, put on my pink hat and headed toward the Capitol. I am lucky enough to work for NARAL Pro-Choice America and we were putting on a breakfast for our supporters before the march. The first few weeks after the election were rough for us at NARAL, as you can imagine. A self-admitted sexual assaulter and misogynist won the presidency. Our worst fears were more tangible than ever. However, on the morning of January 21, 2017, something felt different. Our collective hope and determination overshadowed any lingering sadness from the previous day. I was ready to march for the kind of world you fought for your entire adult life. The day was a joyous blur. I felt renewed, but not for reasons many people may think. The Women’s March was not the echo chamber I thought I needed. It broke me. Every idea of what I thought it means to be a feminist was challenged. What started out as an angry response to grabbing women by the pussy evolved into a rallying cry for complete and total justice. This was not about me. If I am not protecting my transgender sisters or Muslim sisters, what am I doing? If I am not demanding clean drinking water in Flint or prison reform, what am I doing? If I am not doing everything I can to keep immigrant families together, what am I doing? If I am wearing the words “pro-choice” on my shirt but not fighting like hell for equal and affordable access to abortion care for low-income women then how can I call myself a feminist? Realization after realization that day brought me clarity, but also confusion. How was I supposed to channel all of this into action? I was overwhelmed. After every glimmer of hope that came from the powerful words of different speakers, there was a slight wave of despair brought on by the reality of the world around us. In the distance, another marcher held up a life-size cardboard cutout of you, Hillary. There you were, in your glorious white pantsuit, high above the sea of pink hats. In the midst of feeling helpless, guilty, and too insignificant to make a difference, I was reminded of your life’s trajectory. You spent your career fighting all sorts of injustices, big and small. You admitted when you made mistakes and tried harder. Instantly I felt calm, focused, and determined. Again, you appeared when I needed you most. Over the next few months, two things became apparent. First, this administration was just as bad, if not worse, than we expected. From a Muslim ban to our withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement to an anti-choice Supreme Court Justice and everything in between, we were in deep trouble. The second thing that became clear to me was the strong antipathy toward you and your supporters by so many people in the country. Trump voters continued to chant, “lock her up” and Republicans called for more baseless investigations. From some on the left, it was nothing but “I told you so” and needless finger pointing. I was livid. Nevertheless, as always, you took it in stride and got to work. You supported amazing organizations doing good work across the country and used your platform to call out injustice as you saw it. Unlike the petulant child who sits in the Oval Office, you put out thoughtful words of encouragement. You did not have to do anything. You could have heeded the unsolicited words of advice from every political operative and journalist under the sun who said you should stay away from public life. However, that is not who you are. Even after a devastating loss, Hillary, you were compassionate, informed, and determined. Fast forward to November 7. What a great day for the Democratic Party. Good candidates won up and down the ballot in red and blue states. While it’s easy to attribute these victories to a swinging political pendulum, I saw something different. The year that started with women marching in the streets for a better country ended with real results. Women, specifically women of color, took charge and made a difference. Women organized our communities, ran for office, and went to the polls. We refused to see your loss as finite, Hillary. You helped women realize how powerful we can be as a force. Most importantly, we realized that if one woman fails or one group of women falls behind, it is our collective responsibility to correct the injustice and lift each other up. Thank you, Hillary Clinton, for being there for me this year. Please don’t take up knitting, unless that’s what you want to do. Stay in public life, speak out, and continue to work hard as you have your entire life. Knowing the type of woman you are, I have a feeling you can do it all. In love and kindness, Emily	https://medium.com/@epomeranz/happy-new-year-hillary-afd5c821eba	['Emily Pomeranz Keith']	2017-12-30 18:37:58.909000+00:00	['2017', 'Hillary Clinton']
The New Modern Backend: Node, GraphQL, Prisma & Docker	Node Server & GraphQL Alrighty so, we have put together a base scaffolding for Prisma. Now we need to create the necessary config for using Node and graphql-yoga to launch our local GraphQL server. Let’s start by creating a new /src directory in the root of the project, and adding an index.js file. In src/index.js begin by adding our dependencies. We are going to import GraphQLServer from graphql-yoga, and prisma from the Prisma resources we generated. After that we need to build the server, so create a server variable from graphql-yoga , and set it up as follows: Here, we are using context to receive a function that returns the merged object of anything contained in the GraphQL response withPrisma. Lastly, we cap the file by starting the server. But if we started the server right now, it would fail.😕 This is because the server requires two more important pieces: resolvers & type definitions. When we generated our Prisma scaffolding, out-of-the-box it supports a User model. In the follow up to this article we will expand upon this and create additional models, but for now let’s use the Prisma User definition in the default generated prisma schema to round out our setup and get this server up and running. Create a file called ./src/schema.graphql and add the User type definition: // src/schema.graphql type User { id: ID! name: String! } This defines the User type, which has a required( ! ) ID and name. Now let’s import this type definition into our server config: TypeDefs down. Now for resolvers. Resolvers are functions that allow GraphQL to populate the data for a single field in our schema. Here we will simply write a resolver called users that returns all users in the database. Create a new directory for resolvers and a file called Query.js . Then use the following code for our users resolver. Any resolver can take the arguments of parent, args, context, and info. We’ll leave the details of this for the next article. All we really need to know is that we are accessing the context object within our server. This allows us to access the action to return all users from the generated Prisma schema. Let’s update our schema.graphql to have a Query type for retrieving users from this query. // src/schema.graphql type Query { users: [User!]! } type User { id: ID! name: String! } And lastly, import our resolvers and add them to our server variable: Well, I don’t know about you, but as a Front End engineer, I’d really like to see some visual result of the work we’ve done so far. Let’s add a script to package.json to launch this app. Now from the root of our project folder, run that script! > npm start This will start the server on localhost:4000. In your browser you’ll now have a GraphQL playground courtesy of Prisma. If you open up the sidebar by clicking on Docs, you will see that Prisma has populated Queries with our users query. Similarly, if you open Schema from the sidebar, you will see our typeDefs reflected here. What do you say we query for users? In the left pane, add the following... query { users { id name } } … and click the play button to execute it! Ah shoot, it failed… but I guess that makes sense. We created the infrastructure, but we have not yet connected our app to a database! I would be doing us a disservice were I to end the tutorial here. Let’s set up a remote database together in Heroku, and use Docker as the glue between Heroku and our local app. Onwards! 🐳	https://medium.com/swlh/the-new-modern-backend-node-graphql-prisma-docker-7e7f098b3b2d	['Marshal Murphy']	2020-05-26 16:32:28.622000+00:00	['Prisma', 'Backend Development', 'GraphQL', 'Docker', 'Nodejs']
These Hateful Bones	A Stream of Consciousness on ED I want to scream. Lodged in my lungs are spores of hate. I’d like to believe that if I can scream, loud enough, long enough, with enough force I can expel the spores. I know this is not true. The hate is no spore, no visiting toxin. No it is homegrown, native to my body. It is in my bones, my muscles, my organs, and stitched across my skin. I am a hateful thing. The hate feels like fire incinerating me from the inside out. It feels like being eaten alive by shame and guilt, by disgust. There is a shackle around my heart and a weight in my stomach, preventing me from escaping the disgusting weight of my body. I am drowning. Nose burning, eyes stinging. The thoughts are swimming. They are so loud, a chorus of waves crashing into me. I cannot catch my breath. I am going to die. I am going to die in this prison, my body. My worst enemy, myself, will kill me because I did not do more, could not rise to the challenge of being perfect, so I must be punished. What use am I if I am not perfect? I don’t want to die, but I cannot bear the weight of my failure. It gnaws at me, eroding me. Soon there will be nothing left but these hateful bones. I wonder will I find a way to love then. When there is no excess flesh and fat to burn, can I love these thin hateful bones Or is my wish to be smaller a wish to be nothing at all? At night, I cannot tell the difference.	https://medium.com/@liyah-allen/these-hateful-bones-87e4b3ebe1d6	['Aaliyah Allen-Coleman']	2020-12-14 19:39:27.584000+00:00	['Eating Disorders', 'Body Image', 'Black Women Writers', 'Poetry', 'Mental Health']
Silencing the Empowered Woman	It always saddens me to discover new examples from history of smart, strong women who were not afraid to follow their own path and speak their truth — being burned, beaten, hung, committed to asylums, tortured, and more. Men in power doing almost anything to quiet their voices; which is still happening today, perhaps without the public hangings or burnings — at least here in the United States. Recently I learned the word “Mediomania” created in the mid-1800’s — new to you too, huh? It was used to discredit women, as it was something only women could have as it related to them having a uterus. “Symptoms of this “mediumistic hysteria” often were a woman’s determination to leave traditional roles and her propensity to overuse her mind.” Yep, a direct quote from the quack doctor who created this diagnosis. By the mid-1800s Spiritualist women had platforms, many of them large ones. They were also using the said platforms to share ideas about equality that men did not agree with. Many were vocal supporters of the suffragettes and abolitionists — they were also women who made their own money, something almost unheard of at that time. Because spiritualists, who were mostly women, were popular the men who felt threatened by change needed an “expert” to help them shut the women down. They got some quack doctor who came up with Mediomania — who said that if women over-exerted their brains, they would suffer gynecological problems. You can read more here – The Pathology and Treatment of Medio Mania or Mediomania Spiritualism Crisis and Mediumistic Hysteria of the 19th Century This is just another example of a witch hunt — making it impossible for those women who had a voice, and perhaps even a unique gift, be able to continue their work. And while those who “suffered from Mediomania” were not killed, their livelihood, reputation and even their freedom was taken from them. This feels like such an important part of women’s history and at 50, I’m just learning about this. You don’t have to believe in spiritualism or mediumship to feel angry that yet another time in our history, empowered women were silenced and shut down by fearful men. As women, I believe that we must come together to prevent these things from happening. We must rise above the patriarchal society and create community, not competition — the latter of which only breeds fear amongst us. Come together in celebration of each one’s accomplishments, even the little ones — stop putting other women down or shaming them. We must take a holistic approach to business. We must be the change we want to see in the world — one conversation, one client, and one day at a time. Empowerment is not about pushing, grinding, or hustling to achieve a goal — instead, it’s about becoming a stronger version of ourselves. I believe our world needs empowered women and men who are not afraid of them. Connection, collaboration, and community — not the fear and greed that rules our world. I know this is a BIG wish, and some see me as crazy for thinking this, but I do believe too that I am not alone, and the more of us who speak up, even when we’re scared, the easier it will be to effect a positive change. We must stop silencing the empowered women and instead celebrate and learn from her.	https://medium.com/@michellespalding/silencing-the-empowered-woman-dfb42654ba0a	['Michelle Spalding', 'Business Alchemist']	2020-12-01 17:30:20.678000+00:00	['Female Entrepreneurs', 'Empowerment', 'Empowered Women', 'Womens History', 'Women In Business']
Epigenetics and Intergenerational Healing Practices	Some time ago, a friend of mine and I had lunch. During our time together, she asked if I had ever heard of epigenetics. I had not. She described that she was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and she was exhibiting behaviors indicative of post traumatic stress disorder. However, she had never experienced trauma first hand. She wondered if it could be a result of epigenetics — the idea that trauma can change the expression of the DNA in our cells, and these changes can be passed from parent to child. Epigentics, I learned after some searching, is the study of inheritable changes in gene expression, and it has changed the ways in which scientists view genomes. I had already gotten hooked on genealogy in my own life. I used a software package that is now defunct (and I had to recreate the whole dang thing in Ancestry.com). Before both of my grandmothers passed, I had the chance to spend hours with them, gathering notes on all the photos they had in boxes and listening to their stories. I learned about generations of addiction, workaholism, perfectionism, and a long line of angry men. I also learned about how courageous, entrepreneurial and resilient my people were. I could definitely see how the patterns had been passed down, and I had received lots of therapy about many of them. But I wondered if the patterns were a result of trauma. Had I actually inherited them genetically? Was there something I needed to do somatically (physically) to release those burdens, because workaholism seemed to be pernicious in my life. (The book The Body Keeps the Score was part of my awareness about how trauma stays in our bodies.) Almost seven years later, the topic of epigenetics surfaced for me again. Do you know how something comes into your awareness, and then it seems to be everywhere? I read two books, and both referred to a study that was published by Rachel Yehuda and her colleagues entitled, “Holocaust Exposure Induced Intergenerational Effects on FKBP5 Methylation” (Biological Psychiatry 80, no. 5, September, 2016: 372–80). The study showed that damaged genes in the bodies of Jewish Holocaust survivors, resulting from the trauma they suffered under Nazism, were passed on to their children. Further research confirms Yehuda’s conclusions. Earlier research on mice confirmed the same results, and those studies demonstrated how memories connected to painful events get transmitted not just to children but also grandchildren. My friend had been on to something. By the way, the two books I read were: Wounded into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma by Rabbi Tirzah Firestone My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem Rabbi Firestone says, in chapter two of her book, “Knowing what our forebears went through helps us to better understand and have compassion for our family legacies and our own selves. … Once we are cognizant of our history, we can better choose positive responses to our trauma legacies.” Resma Menakem reminds us that we don’t just inherit trauma, we also inherit resilience. It is built into the very cells of our bodies. “Like trauma, resilience can ripple outward, changing the lives of people, families, neighborhoods, and communities in positive ways,” he says (page 50). Menakem’s powerful work shines a light not just on personal and intergenerational trauma but also on historical and institutionalized trauma. He says that when we heal our own trauma, individually and collectively, we don’t just heal our bodies. It helps us refuse to pass on the trauma we inherited, and in turn, we help heal the world. I am involved in various social and climate justice movements, and I began to notice that my friends and leaders were talking about ancestors and how the ancient ones can help us personally and collectively. That got me curious. And sure enough, my practice of Celtic spirituality led to working with ancestors. All around the world, people have cultivated relationships with the wise ancestral guides in their lines to help heal turbulence within their families. In most modern societies, however, we’ve lost touch with the healing power of ancestor work, and with our deep spiritual connection to those in our lineages who can have a strong impact on our personal and cultural wellbeing. All of these these things converged, and I began to do this intergenerational healing for myself and my family. Those experiences have been powerful and continue. (Future blog posts to come about those experiences.) I have been working with others, leading them in intergenerational healing practices. Meditation, visualization and ritual allows us to honor healthy wise ancestors and ask them for healing help. Somatic practices like breathing, movement, chanting and singing help us move trauma from our bodies and embrace a settled way of being. If any of this sounds interesting to you, read more about the practices here.	https://medium.com/kelly-dignan/epigenetics-and-intergenerational-healing-practices-71fb7b9d8d02	['Kelly Dignan']	2020-01-15 01:30:20.834000+00:00	['Intergenerational', 'Trauma', 'Epigenetics', 'Spirituality', 'Ancestry']
April Update: Product Releases Focused on Customers	As we move into the middle of the year, our focus at Quadrant continues to be on building the products our customers need to meet their business goals. Last month we released our AI Models layer, and this month we’ve continued to develop our platform so that it provides the best solutions in the industry. We are preparing the launch of our Data Quality Dashboard, another microservice layer intended to boost the capabilities and user-friendliness of the Quadrant Platform, and we are building toward additional announcements in the middle of the year. As always, our team was active in the community, speaking at events around Singapore. Here are a few highlights: Quadrant team active at industry events Quadrant hosted its monthly community event, focused on luxury travel, on Thursday, 25th April 2019. Luxury travel is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the tourism industry, and some of the fastest growth is seen coming from countries in the Asia-Pacific. Quadrant decided to study the patterns exhibited by these affluent travellers with mobile location data to uncover insights into their behaviour and preferences. The findings and insights were shared at the event by members of our team. The event was well attended and feedback from the audience has been very positive. You can read a summary of the event here, and find the full presentation materials here. Sneak peak: Data Quality Dashboard Quadrant’s Data Quality Dashboard, scheduled to release next month, is the second piece of the microservices layer we launched with our AI Models. It is designed to help location data evaluators gain more insights into the data feeds prior to executing expensive evaluation job batches. The first version of the dashboard consists of data quality control metrics as follows: Global DAU and MAU Data Completeness Events per Device per Day Horizontal Accuracy Days Seen Per Month Hours Seen Per Day The Data Quality Dashboard will help save data buyers time and reduce data processing costs by eliminating non-qualifying data for ingestion. It will be a big step toward eliminating bad data from business processes, and we’re proud that Quadrant is the first to offer it. Stay tuned for the official launch announcement in the coming weeks. Major announcements coming soon We are proud of the progress we have made thus far in 2019 and the progress we have made in less than a year. But our team is working hard to deliver even bigger achievements in the coming months. These will come on both the product and the business side, so stay tuned to our blog for the latest updates. As always, we are grateful to our customers and the members of our community for your continued support. We have already achieved a great deal, and have strong momentum toward our longer-term organisational goals. The support of the community is an integral part of this success. Best Regards, The Quadrant Team	https://medium.com/quadrantprotocol/april-update-product-releases-focused-on-customers-610cc3c6810a	['Nikos', 'Quadrant Protocol']	2019-05-16 10:58:38.249000+00:00	['Big Data', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Startup Lessons', 'AI']
Gentle Love (I)	I don’t have a lot to give But, if it means I’ll spend my life Most life, this lifetime with you? Take all theses nights, all these days Ones that are spend with laughter, Joy, car rides, coffee, night walks. Even, those nights where crying Is our way of know we’re getting there There together. I don’t have a lot to give But, i know you have me to smithereens And that here, this is everything to have To give, to hold me. I don’t want perfect, i want something To fight for, something ever so gentle Yet, fueling of this fire. I have so much to give, I have so much to give. But, are you ready? Are you going to be there. -m.j.h. Medium Staff Medium The Writing Cooperative	https://medium.com/@millerrlitee/gentle-love-i-5accc6fdd350	['Millie Hernandez']	2020-11-25 16:29:49.009000+00:00	['Creative Writing', 'Writers On Medium', 'Lovetomorrow', 'Poetry On Medium']
PC Restart VS Shutdown — So what’s the difference?	When you restart a PC, it does not shut down completely. Before going into technical details let’s use a metaphor for a chef to understand better. Shutting down completely would be like if the chef cleaned up and went home. Holding the power button down to shut down faster would be like if the chef didn’t clean up and just left a mess and went home. Restarting the computer is telling the chef to clean up everything and then set everything back up without him leaving the building. So, it’s not totally “shut off” in that sense because the chef is still there to set things back up, and he knew that was the plan in advance! There is additional story on software side of things. For shutdown, Windows, for example, uses hibernation (save to disk) for a lot of kernel code instead of tearing it down, to speed-up next startup. But for restart Windows makes complete tear-down and rebuild of all kernel structures, because you usually request restart for updates and configurations, it’s not a part of normal operation. Restart and shutdown are different and there are separate power level commands implemented by each. When restarting your computer doesn’t shut down first. When the computer is shutdown, the OS will send a shutdown command to the BIOS using the appropriate driver, the BIOS will then send a command to attached devices to place them in a safe working mode, hard drives will park their read write heads to avoid damage. Once the devices report ready and everything is made safe the BIOS will send a signal to the power supply to terminate power to most attached devices and enter standby power mode. Even when shutdown ATX and above will maintain a standby power to the motherboard when plugged in. This allows external devices to power on the machine. Flicking the switch or removing the power cord will remove all power but the power supply itself remains charged with residual current so never open it up. During a restart devices such as the hard drive will not park and will continue to be active, certain POST operations may be skipped. There is a special ATX power signal used to move from standby to full power. The cases switch is wired into a molex connector onto the motherboard, when you press the switch it operates the pins that generate this power signal.	https://medium.com/@vakrio/pc-restart-vs-shutdown-so-whats-the-difference-ca7f4ab5b4a9	['Vakrio Technologies']	2020-12-19 19:08:10.049000+00:00	['Windows', 'Power', 'PC', 'Electronics', 'Computers']
Maha Shivratree : From a Modern Yogic Perspective by Meghna Raghoobar	Greetings everyone! I can’t believe that we are already ending February 2020. This year is going really fast, or may be, it’s just me doing a lot of things even though I feel I have paused a bit with life at the moment. Talking about pausing, I still have my last and final paper left for my Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Exams 200 HR this Saturday, and felt like jotting you few words on Mahashivratree as we are the eve of it today. Before getting into the gist of the festival, my concept of prayer is a non-conventional one. I am not the kind of person whom you will find in front of an idol praying. We have quite few idols at home, and I look at them with deep respect ,but I am not attached to them and I don’t pray them(that does not mean that they don’t have energy powers). The very fact that my parents lovingly pray them, I believe that they have a certain amount of energy powers poured into them from the source (after all, the world is made of energy), and as humans we do have the capabilities to put our positive and/or negative energy in whatever objects we want to. So yes, Shivalingum and idols have energy powers because as humans we have given them that energy to connect with us and guide us through. When the priest comes at your place, take your idol and do certain ritual with it, it give it some energy powers from the source. And it’s a reality whether you believe in them or you feel disconnected to them. However, my deeper understanding of life, existence, universe, God, Supreme Energy, Brahma, The Father, Allah (whatever you may name it), made me come to one conclusion; religion was man made, and each era had it’s own saints, sages, god messengers that had to come at that point in time to create the transformational change before the world collapse. I don’t think one religion is better than the other, I think each one had a purpose to fulfilled at a specific place and time and it had followers. If you ask me what is my religion today, my answer is none, but for sure culturally I feel very close to the Hindu Culture as I was brought up in this culture. And the fact that I was brought up in this culture, made question things, understand things deeper, and not abide to every single thing that it says. That said what is Mahashivratree in simple word for me : a) The cosmos down-pouring a lot of energy on Planet Earth for Humanity b) An elevation of consciousness bound to happen on Planet Earth c) More Love and Compassion How I would have celebrated that if I had no exams ? 18.00–19.00 : Sunset Yoga at the Beach 07.00–08.00 : Sea Bath if you are in Mauritius or Bath in Ganges River if you are in India to cleanse all your chakras 08.00–10.00 : Bath, Diner and Bonding 08.00- 09.00 : Reading a book 09.00 -10.00 : Triambakam Mantra 10.00–11.00 : Dancing to activate my Kundalini 11.00–1.00 : Silent Meditation 1.00–2.00 : Preparing for Hiking 2.00–3.00 : Hiking to connect with the source 3.00–4.00 : Hiking to connect with the source 4.00–5.00 : Breathing Techniques and Sun Salutation 5.00–6.00 : Sharing love Bonding, Tea and Snacks Let’s do that next year in Mauritius with HolistiZen. Have a great MahaShivratree! #MeghnaRaghoobar	https://medium.com/@meghna-raghoobar/maha-shivratree-from-a-modern-yogic-perspective-by-meghna-raghoobar-f2e72c852b30	['Meghna Raghoobar']	2020-02-20 15:27:10.600000+00:00	['Sea', 'Love', 'Hiking', 'Mahashivtatri', 'Yoga']
The Community Playbook Cheat Sheet	This week, The Community Fund’s LP, Flybridge Capital, released The Community Playbook, a guide to help founders set up their communities and leverage community as their differentiation moat. It’s an awesome playbook (Jesse and I edited it 😉). You can check it out here. To complement the playbook, in this The Community Playbook Cheat Sheet post, I share a short Q&A + a check-list + my notes to get you started on building your company’s community. Q&A Before you launch a community you need to answer a few questions. Why — Why do you want to build a community? Do you see the community as your product or does the community add to your product development and your company’s growth? What? — What mission/values will bring your community together? Who — Who is the target persona for your community? In other words, what kinds of people will it bring together? Where? — Where will your community come together? Are you planning to leverage a proprietary platform, Slack, Facebook groups, WhatsApp? Check-list After you answer the questions above, make sure you check off the check-list below for a smooth sailing community. A solid community has: 1) A community foundation that includes… a clear purpose + values members align with + members align with a community that’s easily accessible to members to members incentives and rewards for participation 2) A community manager with the following skills… Customer support Content generation Social media marketing PR and branding Internal navigation 3) A community manager that works with her/his principal to… be intentional about building community (see Q&A section above) looks for opportunities to leverage and integrate community into product/service with feedback loops designs a self-sustaining community that supports itself and where members can create/share value with one another 4) A community manager that measures community return on investment (CROI) Why do it? To justify spend and lean into the community efforts that are working (and lean out of those that are not) To justify spend and lean into the community efforts that are working (and lean out of those that are not) What are the community benefits to expect? Increase in sales pipeline + deal size, increase in product adoption, product improvement, lowering CAC, developing a differentiation moat, and more Increase in sales pipeline + deal size, increase in product adoption, product improvement, lowering CAC, developing a differentiation moat, and more How to measure Community Return On Investment (CROI)? Use this formula: CROI = (value gained — cost) / cost. For details and examples of how to use this formula, visit The Community Playbook, Chapter 4. CROI = (value gained — cost) / cost Notes on Community Dynamics	https://medium.com/the-community-fund/the-community-playbook-cheat-sheet-31ae9ae77f3c	['Lolita Taub']	2021-02-08 16:17:08.620000+00:00	['Tech', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Startup', 'Community', 'Venture Capital']
About the brand names of globally rolled-out products and services	When launching new products across the globe, a significant amount of time and money goes into legal work like trade mark registration and patenting. A product gets its name after research shows that a certain name is, firstly, untaken and free; and secondly has some sort of a meaning that fits the product. Hard enough, a name can have double meaning in different markets, but more often is a meaning something that refers not to the consumer but the company. A good example are companies that name their product lines following a particular pattern, like alphabethic or numeric — something that makes sense foremost to them. This results in cryptic names that often don’t speak for themselves. Think of products like the BMW X1, an Audi A4, a Canon D300 or the Nokia N8. Through advertising, of course, we know and relate to these names. But imagine three friends talk about these products. Let’s say one is from Switzerland (to be neutral), one is Italian and one French — neighbouring countries — and they do not mention the product in a web chat or mail (the problem doesn’t lie in the written name) but pronounce it in a conversation in their own languages. The Italian says »a quattro«, the French »a katre« and the one from Switzerland in German »a vier«, compared to the English »ay four«. The BMW they call »ex uno«, »ex un« and »ix eins«, in English »ex one«. Finally, the Nokia product is pronounced »en otto«, »en wuit« and »en acht«, being »en eight« in English. Go further with Nintendo’s »tre de es«, »troi de es«, »drei de es« or »three di es« — and you’ve got four different sounding names without even thinking of all the other European languages or Russian or Chinese. So, who did a great job naming a product with consistent pronunciation in most languages? Microsoft with their operating system Windows, for example. Or Apple with iPhone (only the prototypes have Nokia-like names, only mystery is the ‘S’), iPod, iPad and iMac. Both of them however weaken this approach using numbers and cryptic letter combinations to distinct updates to the product (Windows 95, Windows CE, Windows 7, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 2). Apple certainly didn’t value consistent pronunciation of Mac OS X (Steve Jobs’ idol Sony did — see #41 here). BMW have a hard time with their whole brand name, respectively. So, why could this be important? To find out someone is talking about your phone in a foreign radio show you can not understand — this won’t be the use case. But as it is with a global product launch, you want your product name to be in everybody’s mouth. You want thriving word of mouth. You want everybody to talk about your product, to tell everyone. You want them to learn how to spell it.	https://medium.com/digital-brand-architecture/about-the-naming-of-globally-rolled-out-products-9dc28b326a9a	['Michael Schmidt']	2018-02-03 15:04:35.463000+00:00	['Marketing Strategies', 'Digital Marketing', 'Apple', 'Branding', 'Brand Architecture']
Why do all coders use MacBooks? Are they just cooler?	In short, from a completely objective standpoint, yes. Walk into any tech company or startup and you’d are hard pressed to find people using anything but Macs. But the real question is why the obsession? Most coding bootcamps, if not all, go so far as to make them a requirement. For the up and coming programmer, this can be an expensive investment. But since when has being cool been mandatory? Here’s what we know so far: The History: Steve Jobs founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Their first move towards modern computing as we’re familiar with was the release of the Lisa computer in 1983, the first computer sold to the public with a Graphical User Interface. Jobs always had a knack for understanding what makes for an aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable user experience. Through the successive release of computers through the 80’s and 90’s, the company fluctuated in profitability. Apple had many hits, as well as many hard, hard misses. That all changed in 2001 with Apple’s release of the iPod. With pockets full of cash, Apple transitioned over the coming years to becoming a global icon in the consumer tech world. Apple computers became known for their sleek design, reliability, and fast performance, not to mention their expensive price tags. The Hardware: Because Apple directly sub-contracts the production of its hardware to external OEM companies (original equipment manufacturer), a high degree of control is maintained over the end product. This allows for a more optimized relationship between Apple’s software and their hardware. This ability to be able to design both the hardware and the software with the other in mind is one of Apple’s core philosophies. While Microsoft has started producing their own line of computers, most machines running Windows have been built and organized by other companies. This does not always lead to a high level of efficiency between hardware and software. More recently, Apple has just released their own CPU chip, the M1, for the MacBook. Apple MacBooks had been running on Intel chips since 2006. Its speeds are exponentially more fast, as reported across the online tech reviewing sphere. It is a powerful demonstration of how effective Apple’s design philosophy really is. As Apple transitions to using their own chips for their entire product line, Apple devices are only going to get faster and faster. The Software: Macs run on MacOS, a Unix based operating system, which essentially means it’s capable of running all the main operating systems. If you’re a programmer this is a huge benefit. To do the reverse on Windows requires finding a hacked system of MacOS and is not a simple or easy process. Being Unix-based also lends the advantage of being able to run programs in almost any language from the command line. In addition, Macs are packed with quite a bunch of pretty nifty applications. There’s no need to purchase Microsoft Office, as you’ll already be starting off with a word processor, a spreadsheet editor, Garage Band to create production quality music, iMovie to edit video and a host many more of useful apps. The Security: Unlike Windows, MacOS can only be run on a Mac computer. This decreases the chances of any vulnerabilities that are hardware-based, lending Apple the credit of being more secure. On the flip side, being that MacOS is a closed source platform (users cannot see or modify the software), there’s no telling how much info Apple has on you, so you’re really putting your faith in the company. Most companies, in fact, collect and sell data of their customers. Apple is said to do this less than its competitors, but nonetheless it’s hands are not completely “blood-free”. Some have made the case that if Apple holds a more secure grip on its users information, then they have a greater responsibility to withhold that information from scheming corporations. Still, as far as security goes, things could be a lot worse. Windows, for instance, is known for its default privacy settings to be far more lax and intrusive than Apple’s. The Design: Apples products have an unparalleled reputation for being sleek, high quality machines. Shelves have been filled with books documenting the aesthetics of all the products that Apple has produced. The minimal and sleek design has set an industry standard that most of Apple’s competitors try to imitate. This aesthetic can be seen in all of Apple’s stores and offices throughout the world. The Experience: MacOS provides an interface and layout that is intuitive, aesthetically appealing, and purposeful. Multitouch keypad gestures make switching between programs quicker and more natural. If you use an iPhone or other Apple products, your Mac will handle switching between devices seamless and simple. Use Hand-off to pick up work on your Mac where you left off on your phone, or vice versa. You’ll be able to sync your messages, notes, calendar appointments, photos, reminders, and more. Conclusion: While it was meant tongue-in-cheek to say MacBooks are “cooler”, it is clear that whatever kind of superior image Apple has acquired over the years, it is not at least completely without credit. Sources	https://medium.com/@escohen115/why-do-all-coders-use-macbooks-are-they-just-cooler-336e8bf2691c	['Simon Cohen']	2020-12-08 15:02:42.295000+00:00	['Flatiron School', 'Apple', 'Coding', 'Mac']
In Your Expedition…	Kritika Grover shares her insights regarding the perseverance and ambition that are necessary for success in any field, particularly in the context of her newfound interests in neurological research and advocacy. Photo by Kritika Grover Where are you from, what do you study, where are you currently based? I am from India, the land which has witnessed great surgeons like Sushruta and Charka, who are inspirations for the generation of today even after centuries and yes, I am currently based in India. Why neuroscience? Neuroscience is as infinitude as the universe. It is the science that deals with the universe inside us, made up of billions of cells, which are peculiar in all senses. This intrigues me to study neurosciene even more. Don’t you think it would be interesting to find out the centre of conscious or to build a brain through epigenesis? What first sparked your curiosity about neuroscience, and how did your interest inspire what you are currently doing? Well, my journey of deciding my future career and majors was no less than a roller coaster ride, and I always wanted to pursue my career in a field that was endlessly fascinating and had a lot that could be explored. This is exactly what drove me toward neuroscience. My interest in neuroscience developed gradually throughout my high school years by reading stuff, attending conferences, and working with like-minded people. What sort of experience do you carry in your field of interest? I am neither the know-it-all of neuroscience nor a big researcher who has some big achievements, but I am working towards my goal by completing small scale projects, one of which focused on biohacking with special emphasis on the human sleep cycle. I have also been working with International Youth Neuroscience Organization as the Indian NCN Officer. Additionally, Simply Neuroscience, a 501(c), has given me the opportunity to work with them in putting together their Pre-Synaptic Project (a project that focuses on creating content for the underprivileged youth). What do you hope to accomplish in the future? I want to become an accomplished neurosurgeon and researcher. I also wish to work with United Nations in the field of healthcare one day. Do you find that your age hinders you in any way toward advancing in the field of STEM? I assume that if I was asked this question 2–3 years ago, my answer would have been a definite yes! However, now lots and lots of opportunities are coming up for the people of our age group, but I still think that these opportunities are more accessible to youth from the developed countries. Learners from the developing countries still remain underrepresented. Nevertheless, improvement is there! Do you think that there is more of an expectation from young scientists? A greater need to establish yourself? Yes, but this because of the fact that we have more resources than the previous generations. Nowadays, knowledge is just one click away, you can access any book or any resource in just a few seconds. Research opportunities come handy provided you have the right connections as well as the required calibre. Despite all of these benefits and encouragement, higher expectations from young scientists bring an inevitable sense of anxiety to them that could be taxing in terms of both mental and physical health. So, here is where adults come into picture. Teachers and parents should train young buds on how to be resilient and have healthy competition with their peers to prevent burnout. Have you encountered any obstacles throughout your time in this field? Kind of! You will meet people in this field who are super supportive. However, there are people who are always ready to pull you down. This is actually true with every field and career, but neuroscience is very complex, and that is the reason why some people instead of taking the sane route, take the other one that sometimes leads you to challenge your own credibility. Neuroscience takes a lot of devotion so you have to prioritize things; this requires good management skills. This is what we often forget in the race of improving our scientific skills and academic literacy. Do you think that young scientists receive the credit that they are due? Yes, they do if they have done something worth appreciating. What is your take on interdisciplinary science, neuroscience in particular? I fanatically love this concept! It is important for me to apply my previously acquired knowledge and skills in other areas. It is lovely to learn how microgravity and zero gravity affect our brain differently and how various schools of thought shape the brain. This integration helps us understand deeper concepts of life and science. Are you open to or keen on approaching neuroscience via an interdisciplinary lens? I recently learned about synesthesia, which is a neurological condition in which a person has a very unusual response to particular stimuli. For example the people with this disorder might hear colours or sing art. You might have also heard that children with dyslexia often express their emotions in the form of art. So, evidently neuroscience and all types of art forms are intertwined, and the more we see neuroscience through an interdisciplinary lens, the more the human race will benefit from it. What advice would you give to other young scientists who plan on entering or seek to establish themselves in STEM? I might not be the right person to advise others on this, but from the little I know, I can say that this field requires patience. You are not going to see the results the very next day you start working. So, have patience and be perseverant, because that is what will help you in this expedition! Interviewed by Hritika Chaturvedi	https://medium.com/youth-of-neuroscience/in-your-expedition-a70c284cec1e	['Hritika Chaturvedi']	2020-12-24 19:37:19.348000+00:00	['STEM', 'Neuroscience', 'Youth', 'Research', 'Interview']
Democratic donors, Trump critics fund president’s Republican primary challengers	By Yue Stella Yu Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is one of a handful of challengers to President Trump in the 2020 Republican primary (Sean Rayford/Getty Images) For the three Republican primary challengers seeking to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020, the future ahead may be grim. The Republican National Committee has pledged “undivided support” for Trump’s re-election bid, and the candidates cannot compete against the president’s record-breaking cash reserve. Trump entered the final quarter of 2019 with $83 million on hand, compared to a combined $1.7 million total for his primary opponents. But the candidates are getting support from some unlikely allies. More than two dozen donors who maxed out to one or more of the three candidates have a recent history of giving to Democrats, an OpenSecrets analysis found. Some of Trump’s most outspoken conservative critics, as well as donors to Trump’s 2016 primary opponents, are also aiding the Republicans seeking to upset the president’s re-election bid. Unlike the fierce horse race in a crowded Democratic field, Republican challengers’ voices are largely diminished by Trump’s unwavering base and a powerful fundraising machine backed by his own party. Lacking momentum, all are struggling to build up serious campaign efforts to battle the incumbent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, the first Republican to challenge Trump in 2020, has raised $1.3 million since his announcement in April, including personal loans totaling $180,800. Some of his campaign’s biggest donors, however, are also betting on Democratic frontrunners to bid against the president. Ted Dintersmith, a Massachusetts education philanthropist, gave $2,800 to Weld’s campaign, hitting the contribution limit for the primary under the law. But the businessman also maxed out to two Democratic presidential hopefuls at the same time: entrepreneur Andrew Yang and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. In April, Dintersmith promoted a Boston-area breakfast fundraiser with Buttigieg on his LinkedIn page. Jonathan Davis, a Boston-area real estate executive, maxed out to Weld’s campaign as well. Like Dintersmith, Davis is also investing in several Democratic contenders, giving $2,800 to former vice president Joe Biden and $1,000 each to Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Weld also garnered max contributions from documentary filmmaker Susan Rockefeller and her husband, David Rockefeller Jr., who maxed out to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. He also gave $2,000 to Booker’s campaign and $1,000 to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who dropped out of the race in August. Apart from the Rockefellers, other former Clinton donors are also giving to Republican presidential candidates this cycle. Ann Gund, wife of architect Graham Gund, maxed out to Weld’s campaign. She gave $2,700 to Clinton in 2015, and gave former president Barack Obama $4,600 in 2008. Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who launched his primary challenge against Trump in late August, also received several maximum contributions from Democratic donors. The Illinois Republican has raised $234,746, including a personal loan of $100,000 to kickstart the campaign. Thomas Barron, a Colorado-based author, donated $2,800 to Walsh’s campaign. He gave Democratic Party committees $135,500 to aid candidates in congressional races this year. Barron also gave $5,000 each to Booker and presidential contender Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Also maxing out to Walsh is Steven Markoff, CEO of a Santa Monica-based financial services firm. Markoff gave Harris $2,700 this cycle and gave $2,800 to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee handling the impeachment probe into the president over the recent Trump-Ukraine controversy. Democratic donors are not alone in investing in the triangle of Republican primary challengers to weaken Trump’s foothold. Outspoken Trump critics, along with some who supported Trump’s primary challengers in 2016, are now giving to the GOP contenders to upset Trump’s re-election. George Conway, husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, gave Walsh’s campaign $5,600. In 2016, Conway gave $5,275 to Trump’s campaign and $22,300 to the Republican National Committee. The New-Jersey based attorney also made multiple contributions to Trump’s primary opponent Ted Cruz, almost all of which were returned to him. After the inauguration, the former Trump supporter flipped. Conway rejected a potential job at the Justice Department in 2017 and then grew vocal on Twitter, publicly criticizing the president’s allies and his political decisions. In an Atlantic op-ed titled “Unfit for Office,” he questioned the president’s mental stability, calling him “volatile and erratic” and “incapable of consistently telling the truth.” Another vocal Trump critic, Bill Kristol, gave $1,000 each to Walsh, Weld and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who has raised a little more than $60,000. Kristol, director of the conservative advocacy group Defending Democracy Together, has long been working to replace Trump with another Republican candidate. The group backed a $1 million TV and digital ad campaign in September, accusing Trump of abusing his presidential power and asking Republicans to hold him accountable. The “Never Trumper” talked to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in August, seeking competent candidates to put on the GOP ticket. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Kristol called for Republicans to run against the president. “Win or lose, you will go down in the history books as a man or woman of honor,” he wrote. Andy Zwick, who sits on the board of the Foundation of Constitutional Government with Kristol, also spread his fortune by giving $1,000 each to the three candidates. Some GOP donors who backed Trump’s 2016 Republican primary opponents are now doing the same. Mike Murphy, who managed former presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise USA, gave $1,000 to Sanford. Murphy reportedly pocketed $14 million from the $100 million the super PAC raised to boost Bush’s campaign. Another former Bush supporter, Quan Zhou, managing partner at the IDG Capital, gave Weld $1,000. Ahead of the 2016 primary, he gave Jeb Bush’s campaign $2,700 and $15,000 to his affiliated political committees. Jack Biddle, founder of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, gave $2,500 to aid Marco Rubio’s campaign in 2016. The venture capitalist and his wife, Foree Biddle, gave a total of $5,600 to Sanford’s campaign this cycle.	https://medium.com/@OpenSecretsDC/democratic-donors-trump-critics-fund-presidents-republican-primary-challengers-858b1157e29b	[]	2019-10-24 18:46:35.557000+00:00	['Republicans', '2016 Election', 'Trump', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Fundraising']
Ford’s Marketing Disaster in India	Ford’s Marketing Disaster in India Poor timing and cultural insensitivity landed the automative company in hot water Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash Even large, successful companies can make marketing errors. In 2013, as movements against sexual harassment were gaining traction and spreading around the globe, Ford found themselves in hot water. The automative company — well-known for their advertisements involving trucks, sedans, and sports cars — committed an unforgivable breach. To celebrate the release of the Ford Figo in India, a creative advertising team released a cartoon advertisement on Ford’s behalf. The content was as bizarre as it is terrible: a drawing of three bound and gagged women in the trunk of the car. It seems hard to believe that such an advertisement would be released, right? But it was released, and it’s as bad as it sounds. One of the images depicted the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, who was then facing charges (and later convicted) of paying for sex with a minor. The women pictured in the ad included two women who had made sexual assault claims against Berlusconi. The advertisement, which I won’t show here, can be found in this article from USA Today. If the image makes you shudder, the Ford Figo’s motto makes the advertisement even worse: “Leave your worries behind.” And it doesn’t stop there. The marketing team released another cartoon advertisement, similarly drawn and with equally-poor taste. There is no need to show another crude image, as you likely understand now how bad the advertisements were. These images aren’t meant to attract page views, and I don’t post the image sheerly for shock value. It’s important to understand, however, just how important safeguards are when running a marketing agency.	https://medium.com/the-intelligence-of-everything/fords-marketing-disaster-in-india-c3cee0cfe9b0	['Aaron Schnoor']	2020-12-17 13:01:15.972000+00:00	['Advertising', 'Business', 'Marketing', 'Money', 'Social Media']
Residual Leaning：認識ResNet與他的冠名後繼者ResNeXt、ResNeSt	這邊單純地補充一下關於ResNeSt論文中的一些數據討論。 ResNeSt論文開頭給出了這個數據：比當代最快的EfficientNet [10]快，又刷新了其他題目的SOTA。看起來似乎很神，不過這個速度的計算上其實有些小秘密。首先，回頭看一下EfficientNet論文中，ResNet與EfficientNet的FLOPs數：對比ResNeSt論文中ResNeSt與ResNet的FLOPs數：可以看到兩篇論文在ResNet-50的GFLOPs都約為4.14，而ResNeSt-50的GFLOPs為5.39，對比EffiecentNet-B2的1.0，然而在ResNeSt論文裡的latency卻是ResNeSt壓著EffiecentNet打？這點雖然矛盾，卻不是錯誤的。關於這個速度的計算，論文作者是這樣說的：In this benchmark, all inference speeds are measured using a mini-batch of 16 using the implementation from the original author on a single NVIDIA V100 GPU。	https://medium.com/%E8%BB%9F%E9%AB%94%E4%B9%8B%E5%BF%83/deep-learning-residual-leaning-%E8%AA%8D%E8%AD%98resnet%E8%88%87%E4%BB%96%E7%9A%84%E5%86%A0%E5%90%8D%E5%BE%8C%E7%B9%BC%E8%80%85resnext-resnest-6bedf9389ce	['Jia-Yau Shiau']	2020-09-06 10:27:40.447000+00:00	['Research', 'Machine Learning', 'Computer Vision', 'Data Science', 'Deep Learning']
Café Life in Paris	Café Life in Paris Le Pré aux Clercs had been a favorite haunt of Hemingway, along with others of the Lost Generation and writers ever since who search for inspiration, or maybe just a strong drink. I imagine they went there to take a break from the grind and frustration of writing, or to find company in their misery. Maybe they critiqued each other’s work, or encouraged one another through the inevitable slumps and blocks. I’d hoped to capture a little of that magic by meeting my new friend and fellow writer David there for writing sessions. He’s a hopeless romantic about Paris like me. Le Pré aux Clercs serves the basic Parisian breakfast of coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a choice of buttery croissant or pain au chocolat. I always choose the pain au chocolat, which isn’t as fresh as the one I usually get from the bakery around the corner from my apartment. A mediocre pain au chocolat in Paris is still pretty good, though. The coffee in France isn’t great, however, but I usually order a second cappuccino anyway because I feel guilty about lingering there for so long. Once we approach the third hour, the lunch crowd starts filling in every table and more people hover nearby waiting to be seated. I can’t drink more coffee so we order large glasses of Sancerre. David had only just returned to Paris and was still adjusting to the time difference, so I arrived at the café before him. I staked out a small table with two seats facing the sidewalk and warmed up my writing muscles by scribbling thoughts and details of the previous day in my journal. I have noticed that writers often obsess over specific pens and notebooks and any deviation will upset the precarious balance of inspired writing versus wretched despair. I’d brought a box of Pilot Precise V7 rolling ball pens from home, which glide perfectly across the smooth surface of the Moleskine notebooks I prefer. David and I sat elbow-to-elbow in wicker chairs at a small round bistro table crammed between more wicker chairs and small bistro tables filled with diners. We chatted about the writing habits of writers for a while. One of my favorite authors, Graham Greene, would write 500 words per day before he would allow himself to do anything else. He said that so much of the writer’s work happens in the subconscious. This is how I justify the amount of time I spend staring into space while walking around the city, or while sitting at the café. After a while, we realized we’d been talking about writing more than we had actually been writing. We turned to our laptops and tapped at the keys until one of us would ask something like, why do you like Paris so much, or have you read this book or that book, and then launch into another conversation, procrastinating in the great tradition of writers everywhere. The lunch crowd started filling up the tables around us again. David announced that he’d written the introduction to his book. I sheepishly turned my laptop screen away from him so he couldn’t see that I’d spent an hour organizing the headings on the pages I’d written earlier in the week. We decided to switch things up and meet one morning at Les Deux Magots, where the literary and intellectual élite of the city once rendezvoused in the heart of Saint Germain des Prés. Every time I have visited Paris, even when I had only a long layover on my way to Provence two years ago, I have visited the Deux Magots. A historical marker in front of the establishment says Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre drank there, and so would I. This time, I cringed when I arrived. All I could hear was American English. Being surrounded by cafe chatter doesn’t bother me when I can’t understand the language. I can tune people out when I’m working in a coffee shop back home. My ear zeroes in on American when I am abroad, though, and it throws me off. I couldn’t concentrate. I never thought I could be annoyed at Les Deux Magots, but this time in Paris is different from every other time I’ve been here when I never stayed longer than a week. I feel like I live here now, and I don’t think real Parisians actually go to the Deux Magots anymore. I walked back toward my apartment to another classic Parisian cafe, Les Antiquaires, where I’ve been trying to become a regular. It’s farther away from the more touristy parts of St. Germain and feels a little more like a neighborhood place. After splurging on a big lunch there on my first day in Paris, I returned for the reasonably-priced Parisian breakfast several times to establish my local cred. George works there every morning and no longer asks to see my vaccination card so I think I’m making progress. Everyone around me was speaking French and I imagined they were my neighbors. A woman of a certain age wearing a chic gray dress embroidered subtly with large gray dots and a perfect chignon at the nape of her neck sits at a table nearby with her attentive silver fox husband. A younger woman wearing a beret and fitted pink dress with a subtle flower pattern sits at another table with a man wearing a blue and white striped t-shirt and white pants. They all look like extras in a movie set in Paris. A group of people smoking endless cigarettes were sitting at the table in front of me debating something. They’d arrived about the same time as me and were still there when I left nearly two hours later. The French are really good at the art of conversation. I’ve spent time with three different French friends since I’ve been here, so I admit that my sample size is small. In the conversations I’ve had with these Parisians, though, I have noticed a few common characteristics that made them great conversationalists. They didn’t interrupt with little clarifying and non-pertinent questions that interrupted my thoughts, nor did they disrupt the flow with excessive verbal cues and head nodding. They asked follow up questions and shared impressions on what they’d heard me say rather than skipping to something they wanted to talk about. They offered opinions and critiques that didn’t feel like attacks when we disagreed. Maybe these skills have been honed over thousands of hours of café conversations. Les Antiquaires was bigger than Le Pré aux Clercs so we could spread out our laptops and notebooks over two tables. It had been a quiet place to work when I first arrived in Paris, when everyone was still on vacation and the city had been empty and quiet. Last week, I started noticing more traffic and the restaurants becoming fuller. The Rue de Bac, though narrow, is a major thoroughfare. City buses and construction trucks roared down the little road, their side mirrors precariously close to the pedestrians walking along the narrow sidewalk. Drivers blasted their horns and motorcycles as they raced to the stop light. I’d forgotten my preferred pen at home that morning and couldn’t bring myself to borrow a different pen. I couldn’t write a thing. I left there feeling dejected and frustrated at having written so little.	https://artisfear.com/caf%C3%A9-life-in-paris-23b894ef332e	['Philippa Hughes']	2021-09-13 15:33:49.272000+00:00	['Travel Writing', 'Identity', 'Conversations', 'Paris', 'Travel']
Propaganda Inquiries	I was excited to take this class, as the changing world of propaganda is something I have always wanted to explore, and most classes that have touched upon it in the class were history classes. I learned so much critically analyzing propaganda in our world as it was happening and was particularly interested in how the world of comedy and meme culture have become political tools for propaganda. It often feels like we are in a state of turmoil lately, and social media has had a huge influence on our pandemic country and world as people spend time at home. Memes have influenced the election, activism movements, and pop culture. I have enjoyed exploring the powers of propaganda through social media. Creators and distributors of memes are often anonymous so there is no author to dispute the message with. Influencers and political controllers have had a major effect on the weaponization of memes. In my essay, I explore the dangers of propaganda in our modern world including conspiracy theories as well as the importance of intention in propaganda creation and explore the impacts on our current world and changing regulations. My career goals involve filmmaking and media entertainment, so I explored topics that felt close to my career interests. I have learned so much through this class not only about how to look at propaganda, but about myself as a creator and the type of content and people I want to align myself with. I hope you enjoy my paper. You can read my essay here.	https://medium.com/mindovermedia/propaganda-inquiries-fd8b17217997	['Frankie Watson']	2020-12-14 01:57:58.653000+00:00	['Leap 3', '2020', 'Propaganda', 'Insights', 'Memes']
Republicans and Rainbow Land	Roach, J. 2012. The Campaign. Warner Bros Pictures. Film. In the 2012 comedy, The Campaign, a candidate played by Zach Galifianakis runs against an incumbent Member of Congress portrayed by Will Farrell. Galifianakis’ character berates his opponent during a debate, calling him a “communist” who wants to make everyone live in “Rainbow Land,” where “everything is free.” “Rainbow Land” was a coloring book Farrell’s character did when he was eight years old. However, this misleading name-calling and characterization of “Rainbow Land” as a 13 page communist manifesto proves effective and results in Galiafinakis’ fictional supporters being galvanized. Washington Republicans are deploying the same tactics caricatured in the film — and they’re backed up by an echo chamber apparatus that is more disciplined when it comes to message than any political candidate. Republicans have orchestrated a side show “Rainbow Land” culture war to distract America from Democrats’ successes and minimize former President Trump’s coup attempt on January 6th. Unfortunately, as our poll results make clear, it’s working. If Democrats want to buck historical trends in a midterm election and keep their majority, they need to respond to this battery of attacks. Under President Biden and the Democrats’ leadership, America has created more than 3 million jobs, delivered a life-saving vaccine at unprecedented speed, and brought our economy back from the brink with the historic American Rescue Plan. Democrats are also on the verge of passing a bipartisan infrastructure plan to invest in American workers and are helping working people get back on the job with the Child Care Tax Credits. They need to use every tool available to them to make sure voters know they have delivered on these promises. But, because the Republicans were unable to break up the Democrats’ voting coalition in 2020, we have “Rainbow Land” scandals, starting with Critical Race Theory. Just a few months ago almost no-one had heard of critical race theory, a 40-year-old concept that racism is embedded in legal systems and policies. Instead of championing the efforts that generations of Americans, including many Republican leaders, have made to begin to right our past wrongs, Trump called it a “poisonous left-wing doctrine.” Fox News mentioned “critical race theory” 132 times in 2020. In 2021, it’s more than 2,000 times and counting. Unfortunately, now 34% percent of independents in the 37 battleground swing congressional districts named critical race theory as the issue they are worried most about, according to Future Majority’s voter surveys. Let’s also not forget about “Defund the Police.” 90% of voters say they feel safe in their own communities, according to our polls. Despite that, 53% are worried Democrats in their community will defund the police. If you watch Fox News, you’d think crime is skyrocketing. Last week alone, multiple Fox News personalities painted America as a country of rampant lawlessness and claimed examples of a “coast-to-coast crime crisis” despite little concrete evidence in public data available to back up their narrative. What about socialism? Most labeled by the GOP as “socialists” aren’t socialists and none of them are the leader of the Democratic Party. But that didn’t stop the Republicans from using it to try to scare up votes, because 61% of voters in swing congressional districts would consider or definitely vote for someone else if they support socialism. Instead of stepping up with solutions to our country’s challenges, Republicans are focused on riling up their now radicalized base. When Republicans lose, they make up a crisis or just lie. It is a pattern that works because they have a misinformation machine accountable to virtually no one, made up of Fox News, and the newer kids on the block once favored by Trump, One American News Network (OANN) and Newsmax. So, how can Democrats, and Americans of conscience across the political spectrum, fight back? First, President Biden, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and every major organization focused on winning must be crystal clear that the Democrats’ platform does not include defunding the police, socialism, or the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 schools. If this doesn’t happen, we will read a lot of post-mortem stories on why Democrats lost in 2022 — beyond GOP efforts to suppress the vote. Second, Democrats need to talk about their economic record of creating jobs. The right is using fears of inflation against Democrats and 62% of voters in swing districts say their incomes are falling behind the cost of living. The last three Democratic presidents have created 33.8 million jobs. Compare that to the last three Republican presidents, who collectively created 1.9 million jobs. Democratic economic policy is good for jobs and good for growth. Third, since we do not have a 24/7 media microphone like the Republicans do, Democrats will need unprecedented message discipline. Democrats must make the “D” on the ballot beside a candidate’s name stand for DELIVER. It’s crucial that Democrats define themselves to voters as public servants delivering for the people. Democrats have built American jobs, invested in our families and America’s infrastructure, and stood up to defend democracy and our freedoms. Democrats already have a strong track record of success through the American Rescue Plan, Buy American executive orders, the Endless Frontier Act focused on protecting and investing in American innovation, and more. Equally as important is defining Republicans as “for Q and not for you.” Republicans are for Trump, for corruption, and apparently, for QAnon. Instead of living up to the standards of their party, Republicans have cowered to Trump and the conspiracy theorists in Congress. The Republicans lost the U.S. Senate, Congress, and the White House under Trump. Instead of facing this hard truth, they are doubling down on the Big Lie. Instead of condemning the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, they’re pretending they were tourists. Instead of categorically condemning dangerous conspiracies like QAnon, they rally around lunatics like Marjorie Taylor Green. Former President Trump put our country in a real ditch. People are struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet because of the mess Trump left us. Let’s stop allowing the Republican “Rainbow Land” campaign to define our story. We must fight back with the truth.	https://medium.com/@futuremajority/republicans-and-rainbow-land-bb9bcc1be8fc	['Future Majority']	2021-08-23 19:48:42.624000+00:00	['Progressive', 'Democrats', 'GOP', 'Republicans']
Super Saturday	The following, about the endlessness of Brexit, was written in 2019. It’s about things that happened on Saturday 19 October of that year, so it’s out of date but also not. It was billed as “Super Saturday,” the day when parliament would cross the finish line and, you know, get Brexit done. Everything in the House of Commons was set. The parties were all on their marks, “Ready for Brexit.” Some ten thousand euro-partisans had made the trip to Westminster to cheer their side on, EU flags in hand. After weeks of rain, even the sun made an appearance, an ersatz spotlight. Pundits predicted that debate over Boris Johnson’s “New Deal” would stretch into the evening, making for a marathon sitting and not a sprint. The papers prepared their puns accordingly. “Saturday Night Leaver,” foretold one tabloid. Alas, history does not follow the pulp headlines that editors write for it. Having vowed “New Deal or No Deal, but no delay,” Johnson delivered another false start. Theresa May registered our collective déjà vu when she took to the House of Commons floor for the first time since resigning as Prime Minister. The Guardian, predicting a predictable debate, offered a Brexit-themed drinking game to help us through the morning (“Get Brexit Done.” Drink. “Chlorinated chicken.” Drink. “Customs border in the Irish Sea.” Drink.). Even Johnson’s New Deal seemed like something we’d seen before, its novelty hinging on a swap of the Irish backstop for what some call Schrödinger’s backstop (it’s that easy to explain). And so, by lunchtime, Super Saturday had become just another Saturday in the perpetual autumn that is Brexit. Leading the charge to dash Johnson’s day was a pair of chivalrous eyebrows named Sir Oliver Letwin. A whip-less Tory with an axe to grind, Letwin cut his teeth in service to Thatcherism, rendering up the spirit that kept the Poll Tax alive and the brains behind a memo denying that the 1985 riots had their roots in social deprivation and racism. On Saturday morning he arrived to Westminster brandishing a double-edged amendment to withhold any “meaningful” vote on Johnson’s deal until the full legislation to withdraw was passed. Remainers heralded the knight as their best hope for escaping the day unscathed. Brexit makes the strangest bedfellows. No sooner had MPs voted for his amendment than Letwin himself braved the house floor and smugly announced how much he looked forward to leaving the EU. Unfazed by their hero becoming a heel, the anti-Brexit crowds outside cheered at the news they had won another fool’s gold trophy to add to their overstuffed mantle. If history remembers Super Saturday at all it will be as a footnote full of petty manoeuvres, such as parliament forcing Johnson request a Brexit extension by post. Breaking his promise to break the law instead of asking to extend, the Prime Minister complied in the most begrudging way he could devise: he refused to add his signature to the required letter, and slipped into the same envelope a second letter (this one signed) telling the EU to disregard the contents of the first. Only time will tell whether Johnson intends to keep his other vow of dying in a ditch when Brexit is delayed beyond October 31. I am writing this on Sunday, a day I’m calling, for reasons both personal and political, Hangover Sunday. By the time you read my letter, events will certainly have passed me by. But the arc of history will take longer to show itself. Whatever comes to pass — this could be any number of things, from newer deals and renewed delays to a snap election and shock resignations — none of it will be the end of Brexit. We’ve been running this race for years, and we have many more to go before the bell rings for the final lap. Had Saturday actually turned out to be “Super,” no actual departure would have happened before the end of 2020. And even this remains an ambitious end date, probably taking the form of a failed “transition” paving the way for the No Deal coveted by the archest of Eurosceptics. The very prospect that Brexit is more than likely to accompany us well into the next decade is no doubt depressing for everyone. But rather than exhaust us, recognising this reality for what it is should be enough to keep us from joining in every sprint. The sooner we can settle into a steadier pace with regard to Brexit events the more energy we’ll have to give to everything else we need to get done. “Super Saturday” was a billing meant to confuse a drawn-out process for a single day of glory or horror. Historically, Saturday sittings of Parliament are exceedingly rare, reserved for only the most signal moments of the British Empire’s decay. Since September 2, 1939, the Saturday that Neville Chamberlain announced his change of heart towards Hitler to kick off World War II, parliament has only convened on the weekend a handful of times. The last was some 40 forty years ago, April 3, 1982, just after Argentina seized the British Falkland Islands. Calling the aggression “the first time for many years, British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power,” Margaret Thatcher used the sitting to urge parliamentary flexion of Britain’s atrophied imperial muscles. 1,000 deaths later, the South Atlantic islands with a population of 1,800 (not counting its 400,000 sheep) were restored to Her Majesty’s dominion, and Thatcher’s faltering government received a new lease on life. Almost overnight Thatcherism became a thing, with the “Falklands Spirit” summoned whenever a foe presented itself, be they miners or welfare provisions. Ahead of Super Saturday, the media made the most of the Falklands precedent; it would be another extraordinary day when the Prime Minister mobilized parliament to fend off a foreign threat to the realm. Super Saturday was supposed to be Boris Johnson’s Falklands moment. Such analogies, of course, get Brexit backwards. Nigel Farage might stir the dead embers of Rule Britannia to drum up support for No Deal, but no one is promising that Brexit will rekindle the fires of empire. Instead, the Brexit pitch always reverses the UK’s colonial role, casting it as the enslaved colony liberating itself from Europe’s imperial rule. Tragedy to farce. We all know the bit. Another occasion for a Saturday session makes for a more revealing analogy. On November 3, 1956, parliament was called to order to tackle Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, a lost jewel in the British crown. The British invasion that followed, done with France and Israel, resulted in a swift victory. But military triumph transformed into a chastening geopolitical defeat when the combined superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union forced the Anglo-French forces to withdraw, a definitive sign that the glory days of European imperial adventures belonged to the past. While the similarities should not be overstated, surely the historical shape of Brexit will more resemble the Suez Crisis than the Falklands: a technical victory lurching into a humiliating loss. And perhaps we can find another lesson in the Suez analogy. Upon their defeat, Nasser’s forces did not toothlessly protest the result; they turned instantly to scuttling their ships to blockade the entire canal, rendering the infrastructure entirely useless for British capital for years.	https://medium.com/@brechtfast/super-saturday-a27780cb5886	['Shane Boyle']	2020-12-17 12:19:21.092000+00:00	['Brexit', 'Brexit Negotiations']
My Pronouns are Fluid and My Identity is Solid	“This is actually the purpose of language — to give meaning to concepts as they evolve.” — Alok Vaid-Menon For some people, using pronouns that are familiar to everyone they meet (he/him and she/her) feels best. Others use the third personal singular “they,” which still isn’t necessarily accepted by dominant society, but it is catching on as a gender neutral alternative. Neopronouns are the least understood and most opposed by others, including fellow queer and/or trans people, with options like ze/zir, ve/ver, xe/xyr, ey/eir and more. For me, nothing feels quite right. Like many, my gender identity and expression are not captured accurately in grammatical ways. For that reason, my pronouns are quite fluid. Internally, I move between “he” and “they” from situation to situation, context to context. I don’t even try to use neopronouns because I could not stomach the intense opposition I would face just to use words that, for me, would not be much more “correct” than those that are generally accepted. I am one of the most privileged people in the transgender pyramid. I am a white, nonbinary, transmasculine person, and I’ve had complicated feelings about my gender identity for years. I changed my name, began to socially transition, and started hormone replacement therapy (HRT) all in the summer of 2017. I then had to take a short break from HRT after I had my first psychiatric hospitalization. I live in a pretty progressive city that is famously safe and supportive for trans people, compared to the rest of the country — if they are white, at least. We still have a lot of work to do to uplift and support our BIPOC trans and nonbinary siblings. Despite the fact that I’ve been lucky enough to have multiple employers ask my pronouns, join a nonbinary support group where I made wonderful friends, and find gender neutral restrooms and changing rooms throughout my city, a lot of the time, I still want to hide. Most are at a total loss about my gender when they meet me. If we were to use binary terms where 0% represents total masculinity, and 100% represents total femininity, I would hover damn near 50%. People often use “they/them” pronouns for me, less out of respect than out of confusion. One of my goals at the beginning of my journey with HRT was to make it as difficult to gender me as possible. Now, I inwardly squirm when I go out in public. I love to be flamboyant and wear my leopard print jacket, and throw on some lipstick sometimes. But I’m not a very big person (5'6.5" and 140 pounds) and I worry about the violence enacted toward gay men that I’ve heard about all of my life. I know so many nonbinary people in my city who are “out and proud” about their atypical pronouns, confidently correcting people when they get it wrong and seemingly never suppressing their need to be recognized and seen for whom they are. So what’s my deal? Sometimes, I want to be called “he,” but I fear telling my friends — friends who have always supported me — to make this change. As for the people who do immediately use “he/him” pronouns for me? I never correct them, and I spend most of our interactions holding my breath. Because I haven’t had top surgery, I hope they won’t notice my chest. I don’t want to laugh, because it still sounds high pitched to me. And it’s difficult to comfort clients at my therapy agency job because I don’t want to raise the pitch of my voice too much and sound feminine. If there’s one thing society has taught us not to appreciate, it’s fluidity. Bisexuality is hated. Biracial identities are stereotyped and invalidated. Nonbinary people are told we aren’t real. Religious converts are not seen as “real” Jewish people, Catholics, or Buddhists. This intolerance has been so deeply embedded and instilled within me that I have a hard time stating how I feel about my gender to even my closest friends, many of whom are transgender themselves. It may not help that some of my friends pretty consistently direct the same microaggressions toward me. Interestingly, it also bothers me sometimes when random people who have never asked for my pronouns calls me “they.” “Are they clocking me?” I wonder. “Can they tell what sex I was assigned? Do I look like a total fool, trying to trick people into seeing me a certain way?” I continue. “Will I ever be seen as a man if I swing toward the binary end of identity on a more regular basis?” I know some people will read this and think I hate women, or femininity. I don’t. In fact, I love presenting as feminine sometimes. What I do hate is that people automatically assume femininity means being a woman, and that men can’t be feminine. I don’t move towards masculinity to reject the construct of being “female” as much as I move away from it to establish that I am not what I was assigned. Being called “she” makes my skin crawl because it invalidates all that I’ve done to be represent my gender identity outwardly. To represent something that cannot be stated, because it comes out so clumsy and stilted when expressed in words. I don’t speak my gender. I feel it. When I’m around cisgender, heterosexual people, I usually want to be called “he.” I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t let “they/them” distract them from my humanity. And when I’m around queer people, I often long to be called “he.” In both contexts, I don’t want to be held to a static standard of trying to be a man, or trying to be a nonbinary person. I want my identity to go unchallenged and to not try to live up to a specific set of expectations. We’d like to think there are no stereotypes or gatekeeping with being nonbinary, but that’s just not true. And I don’t want any of it. Just like my gender expression, my pronouns are fluid. I assess for comfort, safety, and space to explore. I don’t want to be under a microscope. Being trans is a process of constantly coming out. It’s not that I want to be in the closet — I just want to have the conversation on my own terms. Reclaim the inherent power in this interpersonal discourse.	https://medium.com/prismnpen/my-pronouns-are-fluid-and-my-identity-is-solid-2fb77d3b95ac	['The Transgender Therapist']	2020-12-12 09:03:30.989000+00:00	['Expression', 'Identity', 'Friendship', 'Transgender', 'Creative Non Fiction']
Yes, Kavanaugh, We’re Living In ‘The Twilight Zone’	by Imran Siddiquee Like those on Maple Street, the men in power in Hollywood and D.C. choose to ignore the systemic issue at hand, and instead focus on preserving their own position — regardless of how it might harm their neighbors. A few days before his final confirmation hearings, during a nationally televised interview with FOX News, soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was asked about Julie Swetnick’s allegation that he attended parties in high school where he touched girls “without their consent” and played a role in facilitating gang rape. Kavanaugh dismissed Swetnick’s memory by describing it as “ridiculous and like something from The Twilight Zone,” Rod Sterling’s classic science fiction series which, according to its opening sequence, took place in a “fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man.” Kavanaugh’s comparison was unfortunately apt for how he and other men in power reacted to the recollections of Swetnick, Deborah Ramirez, and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford over the past few weeks. This was especially the case during those final hearings, when Senators on all sides of the political spectrum joined the then-nominee in suggesting that Dr. Ford’s sexual assault did not take place in the realm of normal American life — the wholesome world they all apparently live in — but rather an alternate dimension of the United States in which men violently dominate women with regularity. This sort of illogical thinking was common on The Twilight Zone, which despite its surreal set-up was very much about the human condition. It depicted extreme scenarios like alien invasions and dystopian futures to illuminate the terror lurking in our cookie-cutter American neighborhoods; the propensity of people to bury their insecurities beneath the desire for power — with little regard for its impact on others. Or what Serling himself once described as “man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.” On the Republican side, this self-righteous perspective was maintained by bolstering Kavanaugh’s claim to being an all-American Christian kid at 16; a boy living universes away from the kind of parties where drunken teens force themselves onto classmates. In his testimony Kavanaugh painted his drinking and partying as completely normal for a young man, and Republican Senators were eager to accept and celebrate this (very) limited picture of normative white masculinity in 1982. Meanwhile, the Democrats created their own image of Kavanaugh as an abnormallyaggressive man. Men like Richard Blumenthal asked him about excessive partying, lewd yearbook quotes, and how often he drank to the point of forgetting parts of the night before, but each time Kavanaugh simply denied he did anything excessively at all. He angrily maintained that he did not live in that other dimension, but only the one where top-of-their-class young men occasionally have some beers with their bros. Kavanaugh went to great lengths to emphasize this American manliness, making sure to mention details like “Roger Clemens was pitching for the Red Sox” when asked about a booze-filled baseball trip he organized in law school. The Senators failed to name then — even as they commended Dr. Ford’s bravery and spoke at length about what her message might mean for other survivors nationwide — the reality that “normal” American men not only like beer and baseball, but also regularly hurt women. Senators suggested Dr. Ford’s sexual assault did not take place in the realm of normal American life, but rather an alternate dimension of the United States in which men violently dominate women with regularity. In fact, only 10% of American men list baseball as their favorite sport today, but a 2017 study found that 32% of college-aged men would have “intentions to force a woman to sexual intercourse” if they could get away with it. And though beer is the drink of choice for 41% of Americans, a staggering 81% of women in this country report being sexually harassed. 1 in 6 American women have survived an attempted or completed rape, the perpetrators of which are overwhelmingly men (and mostly white). All of which is to say, misogyny is at the very least as American as beer and baseball. Yet, as Kavanaugh performed his exasperation at being linked to sexual violence, the men in the room never admitted that the scene Ford described was very familiar to them as well. When Kavanaugh posed a threatening question back to Amy Klobuchar about her drinking habits, none of the other men chimed in to affirm that yes, they too have silently listened to, witnessed, or participated in the dehumanization of women. Men like Sen. Dick Durbin never countered the narrative that the multiple accusations against someone like Kavanaugh were “absurd,” but rather set out to prove that this straight white man, who attended elite schools and has remained in positions of power his entire life, would be unique in his behavior if he once used that power to hurt a person of another gender. Misogyny is at the very least as American as beer and baseball. That is the lie — the binary of “good” and “bad” masculinity — that men so often hide behind. The same illusion, compounded and mirrored by the lie of white innocence, which carried a racist misogynist to the presidency two years ago even after he admitted to sexual assault. It’s no surprise then that President Trump himself has openly attacked the credibility of the Democratic men since the hearing, saying “I watch those senators on the Democrat side and I thought it was a disgrace. Partially because I know them…They are not angels.” The fear men have to speak the truth about power in this country, who has it and how they got it, ultimately bolstered Kavanaugh’s “twilight zone” case for the Supreme Court. He knew it and Trump knew it. Kavanaugh’s faux-shock at being among the accused worked in the same way as Trump’s claim to “locker room talk” before it, because the other men in the room insisted on maintaining their own facade of innocence — afraid that if they spoke about patriarchy, they too might get kicked out of the club. That is the lie — the binary of good and bad masculinity — that men so often hide behind. In one of the more famous episodes of The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” a seemingly perfect community is whipped into frenzied paranoia by a series of strange occurrences — beginning with a power outage and a little boy’s story about shape-shifting creatures — which ultimately leads them to turn on each other in search of the monster amongst them. The episode ends with a bloody brawl on Maple Street that exposes who these people really are. Though many powerful men have reacted to the #MeToo movement by expressing fears of a “witch hunt,” the reality is that they themselves maintain the perception that some men are monsters worth stoning, while the rest are innocent bystanders. For instance, Matt Damon — who played Kavanaugh in a Saturday Night Live skit recently — once publicly worried about the “culture of outrage” targeting his friends in power, saying “there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation.” Which, just like Trump’s worrying for “young men in America,” expresses a desire for a hierarchy of masculinity rather than a willingness to look in the mirror. Like those on Maple Street, the men in power in Hollywood and D.C. choose to ignore the systemic issue at hand, and instead focus on preserving their own position — regardless of how it might harm their neighbors. The Democratic men of the Senate, glad to use their five minutes during the hearing to perform their “decent” masculinity, were playing the same game as Kavanaugh: a game of avoidance and imagination. It’s not that many didn’t declare that they believed Dr. Ford, but that nearly all of them were unwilling to state that they have contributed to the culture which allows such violent acts to persist. What patriarchy promises these men in exchange for this deflection, especially the white men, is the chance to play the hero on TV again (just like “good” Will Hunting). Meanwhile, Trump and his friends can confidently call survivors liars, knowing that the men around them will never expose the actual lie of masculinity. But what might change if we weren’t afraid to connect sexual assault to that celebrated culture of drinking “brewskis” and playing football? What if we admitted on the largest stages that Brett Kavanaugh’s allegiance to American manhood is precisely why we should be terrified of giving him more power? Among the most harrowing moments of Dr. Ford’s testimony was when she described Mark Judge’s actions — and inaction — while Kavanaugh was assaulting her in 1982. According to her account, Judge alternatively stood by laughing, encouraging his friend, and half-heartedly asking him to stop while Kavanaugh attempted to rip off her clothes. Dr. Ford even spoke of making eye contact with Judge at one point, hoping he might intervene. Yet he did nothing. What if we admitted on the largest stages that Brett Kavanaugh’s allegiance to American manhood is precisely why we should be terrified of giving him more power? As long as men are unwilling to risk being as vulnerable in front of men as Ford and Anita Hill have been, the Kavanaughs and Trumps of the world cannot truly be challenged. They can yell and demand respect, because they know that we will adhere to the rules of the game. To look on as someone is sexually assaulted, or to remain quiet as people are dismissed for sharing their stories of assault, is a dehumanizing way of being. Yet the illusion of normalcy, and the burying of empathy, is precisely how men have long cemented their power in this country. As the narrator says at the end of that episode on Maple Street, “the tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions.” Men are well-practiced and well-rewarded in maintaining our illusions.	https://medium.com/the-establishment/yes-kavanaugh-were-living-in-the-twilight-zone-c6898b2d41f9	['The Establishment']	2018-10-22 05:16:02.289000+00:00	['Sexual Assault', 'Brett Kavanaugh', 'Misogyny']
In ‘Barry,’ tragedy masquerades as comedy	In ‘Barry,’ tragedy masquerades as comedy Genre-bending show shines when it commits to its premise In Barry, HBO’s newest comedy series, Bill Hader plays a hitman. What’s the twist? Shouldn’t it just be that Bill Hader, SNL alumnus and rising film & TV star, is playing an assassin? Nah. The twist is that Hader’s character is a hitman who wants to be an actor. Okay, there’s more to it than that: After stumbling into an acting class while on an assignment to kill one of its students, Barry (Bill Hader), an ex-marine, finds himself fascinated with acting. He also finds himself fascinated with aspiring actress Sally (Sarah Goldberg). And as he gets more involved with the acting class and his erstwhile love interest, the violent collision between his hobby and profession becomes inevitable. But still—it’s a show about an assassin who wants to act. It’s The Bourne Identity meets La La Land. When you put it that way, it really seems like the show shouldn’t work. At all. The seemingly preposterous premise is just that—preposterous. And while Barry takes pains to explore its twin worlds of lighthearted crime parody and the–struggle–to–make–it–in–Hollywood genre, it also turns both genres on their head, and not just through their juxtaposition. Showrunners Alec Berg and Bill Hader frame these two disparate genres within a story structure that audiences will be familiar with, whether they recognize it or not. Tragedy. Yes, HBO’s newest comedy is actually a tragedy. Surprisingly, it works really well—especially when it sprinkles in some classic elements of film noir. Spoilers for Season One of Barry follow. Trailer for Season 1 of Barry. Parody as subterfuge For the most part, Barry’s plot traverses two disparate worlds. There’s the world of assassins and drug warfare—and then there’s the acting class full of wannabe Hollywood stars. The two settings serve as vehicles to parody crime films and the empty dreams of hopelessly mediocre actors. Initially, such a juxtaposition doesn’t make much sense. But the genius of Barry is that the two genres eventually cohere to form the classic elements of a tragedy. First—the criminal element. Early on in the show, Barry’s dark profession is played for laughs. For a hired gun, he’s remarkably nonchalant. He kills his targets — not with the cool, calculating menace of a Bourne assassin — but with the exasperated frustration of a contractor who continually finds that the expectations of his clients are confusing and confused. The Chechen gangsters he works for are grounded in how normal they are, an immigrant family that just happens to be involved in violent crime. A significant plot point in Barry revolves around how the members of the Bolivian gang (the rivals of the Chechens) — just happen to be way nicer than the Chechens expected. Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan), the Chechen gang’s cheery oddball consiglieri, is easily the funniest character of the bunch for being a total eccentric in a hyper–masculine group. Toward the front end of the show, the crimes are smaller. Barry fulfills a few ‘contracts’ but they don’t have much impact. This is signaled as a crime parody—at the beginning. On the other end of the spectrum—there’s the world of aspiring actors. Rather than the archetypal talented but luckless aspirants, the majority of acting students are just stereotypical high school ‘theater’ kids—except in Barry, they’ve all grown up. It’s clear that very few of them have a shot at ‘making it in Hollywood.’ Not even their revered teacher, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) can land a gig. (In one scene, he’s shown auditioning to be an insignificant extra—and fails to land it). Sally, the most ‘successful’ student, tragically loses her agent after he tries to pull a Harvey Weinstein on her. Sally’s character is a brutal parody of the archetype Emma Stone played in La La Land. Sally has the passion to want to be an actress, but her abilities don’t match up with her desires (and the misogynistic culture that still pervades Hollywood doesn’t help). The wannabe actors are just that — wannabes. Barry’s daydreams of success in the acting world are also lampooned for being ridiculous. He dreams of hanging out with Jon Hamm at a barbecue. He dreams his future kids can teleport to school. He dreams of shopping at Whole Foods with Sally. (Okay, that last one seems a little more realistic, given our Amazon–based future). The audience knows that his dreams are painfully unrealistic. Most films about Hollywood indulge in one character’s final success in the film world as proof of the film industry’s magic. There’s a reason why these types of films often do well at the Oscars—La La Land, The Artist—they reinforce the myth that “anyone can become a star” that Hollywood loves to perpetuate. Both the Hollywood and crime genres, though, are the ‘sheep’s clothing’ for the ‘wolf’ plotline of the show: Barry’s transformation, which we anticipated; and the cost, which we did not. Story beats from the ‘Scottish Play’ It seemed evident, from the get-go, that Barry’s character arc would involve choosing to leave the assassin profession, and by association, breaking with his handler Fuches (Stephen Root). When Berg and Hader introduce the acting class’ production of Macbeth, they signal that the twin parodies are not all that they seem, and maybe Barry’s arc is less positive than we expected. (Macbeth, of course, is Shakespeare’s classic play about ambition gone awry. Short synopsis: When the warrior and feudal lord Macbeth listens to a prophesy that he will become the king of Scotland, his wife helps convince him to seize his destiny by secretly killing the current king. The crime, while fulfilling the prophesy, eats away at them psychologically, especially when Macbeth realizes he must murder more and more people, including his best friend—to preserve his secret and quell rebellion. In the end, all is lost, and Macbeth contemplates the pointlessness of existence.) There’s a lot in this allusion, and Berg and Hader fully deploy Macbeth as a model for the direction of the show, featuring several key scenes from the ‘Scottish Play’ over the course of the series. Like the warrior Macbeth, Barry has killed before, but it’s either been on the battlefield—or justified because he’s been told his target is “bad.” When Barry’s acting life pulls him into reconnecting with his old Marine pal Chris (Chris Marquette), he suddenly has a lot to lose. As the acting class world is brought into the crime world and Barry’s only preexisting friend, Chris—one false step leads to another. Before Barry knows it, he has joined forces in his ‘business’ with his new Marine friend, the lunkhead Taylor. After rejecting Fuches’ idea of killing off Taylor to protect the operation, Barry finds that perhaps his desire to stop killing threats was a mistake. For it is Taylor who then unnecessarily involves yet another Marine, Vaughn (Marcus Brown)—and Chris. That’s when the consequences of Barry’s dual lives are revealed. At the end of Episode 6, the Bolivian cartel guns down Taylor and Vaughn. Barry and Chris survive, but Chris can’t take it. He confides in Barry that he’s going to come clean to the cops. Like the case of Macbeth and Banquo (Macbeth’s friend)—Barry does the unthinkable. To preserve his freedom, he kills his old friend. From then on, the show takes on the flavor of a tragedy. One seemingly innocuous act, enrolling in an acting class—spirals out of control. Though we want and expect it to be, Barry’s acting class isn’t his salvation. It’s leading him more quickly to hell. The Postman Always Rings Twice As in Macbeth, the consequences of the original murder follow the protagonist. To neutralize perceived threats, Macbeth must kill more and more people. Barry follows this thread pretty well—but it adds on some elements from classic film noir and hardboiled fiction. Principally, it’s the getting–away–with–murder story. As explored in the classic James M. Cain novels and movie adaptations Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, a plot to make the “perfect crime”—i.e., a murder in which there seems to be no chance of getting caught—inevitably falls apart. Growing paranoia, gnawing guilt, and justice’s relentless pursuit eventually combine to result in the antihero’s defeat. Often, that defeat is self-imposed, the murderer coming to terms with their damnation and surrendering to the police—or death. The decision to set Barry’s harrowing conclusion in a cabin in the woods adds to the noir vibe. Fittingly, like ‘Sunny California,’ the place where “nothing can go wrong” is where everything does. Having followed Detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome) through the entire story—through her investigation of the Chechens, through her unlikely romance with acting coach Cousineau—her discovery that Barry is the killer raises the stakes. The audience cares about Moss, and now she’s in danger. Barry’s initial sidestepping of her passive-aggressive questioning at the cabin belies what he knows he has to do to bail himself out yet again. It’s a set-up straight from a film noir confrontation between detective and killer, just like Edward G. Robinson’s character confronting Fred MacMurray’s in Double Indemnity. Barry has to kill the detective—his acting coach’s lover. With it, his dreams of acting and a stable life with Sally are shattered—all because he got into acting in the first place. That’s tragedy in its purest form. The law of unintended consequences caught up with Macbeth—the most surprising thing is that now, in an HBO comedy, it catches up to a guy named Barry. Barry has been renewed for a second season, due out sometime in 2019.	https://harrisonblackman.medium.com/in-barry-tragedy-masquerades-as-comedy-be07ce1e6a17	['Harrison Blackman']	2018-05-16 20:01:01.095000+00:00	['Movies', 'Writing', 'Culture', 'Television', 'Film']
Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News\|25.12.2020	Decentralized exchange 1inch.exchange announced its own governance token, $1INCH. To take advantage of the airdrop, you had to use the platform before September 15, or have made a minimum of 4 swaps or a min $ 20 swap transaction. Users who met even 1 of these conditions were given different amounts of airdrop and $ 1INCH tokens. If you have never used it and will use it for the first time now, you cannot benefit from Airdrop. Trading operations have begun on the Binance & FTX stock exchange. 2 million ETH staked for Ethereum 2.0 process. Bitcoin price hits $24,681, reaching an all-time high. $USDT staking was introduced on Waves.exchange. You can find the details and current rates here.	https://medium.com/@alpisik/cryptocurrency-blockchain-news-25-12-2020-2d004089cbd1	['Alp Işık']	2020-12-25 15:29:58.460000+00:00	['1inch Token', 'Airdrop', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', '1inchexchange']
How to Improve Productivity in Customer Support With A.I.	Figure 1: Sources of customer support queries Companies receive support inquiries from various channels. This may include emails, support tickets, tweets, chat conversations with customer support representatives (CSRs), chatbot conversations and more. This is a lot of data that you are dealing with and it’s mostly unstructured and scattered in nature, making it that much harder to manage. The question becomes, how can you leverage all this text data to improve speed in responding to customer support inquiries or reducing the number of tickets that are being opened? This can partly be done with automation using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence in general. This article will give you an overview of 5 areas in the customer service workflow that can benefit from A.I. / NLP based automation. This is not an exhaustive list, but a list that applies to most customer support teams at medium to large organizations. #1 Recommend best answers When CSRs try to respond to a customer problem, they can be overwhelmed with identifying the best answer from the pool of possible answers. What they need is one answer that will address the customer problem. Some companies maintain an exhaustive list of problems and corresponding answers which the CSR has to search through, sometimes even manually. This can be painfully slow and draining if you have to perform a search for each and every question. NLP can be really useful here by recommending the best answers given a support inquiry. It becomes even better when the answers have an associated “score” that indicates the likelihood of a particular answer solving the customer problem. Using this approach, instead of explicitly performing a search, the CSR is now having information pushed to them automatically, preventing a break in their workflow. With this, the response time can be much faster, which also means, CSRs will be able to handle a larger volume of support issues. What’s even nicer is that the CSRs will not be overwhelmed by the end of the day due to the number of searches they have to perform. #2 Suggest historical threads While some support questions can be easily answered with the recommended best answers, others can be complex, requiring extended research. One way for CSRs to solve complex issues is by looking into related historical threads (which have been successfully resolved), and understanding how those issues were resolved. With this, the CSR will be able to better resolve the issue at hand or form a more complete answer to the support question. With NLP and Text Mining technologies we can automate this process by recommending related historical threads for any given support inquiry. This saves CSRs from having to conduct various searches, contact peers and their manager for help on an issue. The benefit of surfacing related historical threads is (a) the potential decrease in response time and (b) reducing follow-up support questions as complex issues are resolved in fewer interactions. #3 Group questions to limit context switching As we all know, context switching can be hard. Going from resolving issues related to signups to billing and then back to signups can be a productivity killer. According to Bud Roth, author of Be More Productive: Slow Down, distributing your energy over a wide variety of tasks can dilute your effectiveness the same way interruptions do. By grouping similar support questions, CSRs can address similar problems in chunks, where the knowledge bank that they’ll have to tap into and the pool of potential answers are related. Figure 2: Grouped customer support questions With the use of clustering techniques in Natural Language Processing and Text Mining, we can automatically group similar questions as shown in the example in Figure 2. Notice that the first group of questions is all about adding a profile picture. The benefit of doing this is that it maintains the same train of thought in resolving issues. In some cases, the solutions may be identical, while in others the CSRs will know what steps to take to resolve an issue while everything is still fresh in memory. By limiting context switching you can expect to see a reduction in response times. #4 Auto-route Questions Based on Expertise Support questions come in all shapes and form and customers may express the very same question, quite differently. For example, the questions in figure 3, are all related to adding a picture to the customer’s profile, with a slight difference in how it’s structured. Figure 3: Similar questions, different expression By classifying each incoming question to a predefined set of categories with text classification methods (e.g. profile, picture, attachment), you can use these categories to route the questions to agents who are best at handling those topics. Some CSRs may be highly qualified at handling certain topics more than others. By intelligently routing questions to relevant expertise, you’ll be increasing the productivity of CSRs as they are not spending time learning how to address support issues that are out of their wheelhouse. #5 Auto-prioritize support threads A few companies that I’ve worked with have mentioned addressing support threads in the First in First Out order (FIFO), meaning the oldest support threads get addressed first. Other companies, manually assign priority based on the severity level of the issue. Don’t forget, that not all customers are equal and not all problems deserve the same level of attention. By addressing threads in the FIFO order or assigning priority based on severity alone, you are missing out on the opportunity to retain your highest-valued customers. If you are spending your time solving 100 low priority problems for low-value customers before serving your most valuable ones — it’s time to think about making changes. While you can start serving your VIP customers first, with A.I. based automation, you can combine various factors into prioritization. For example, you can develop a model that combines the priority of historical support threads with the value that each customer brings (e.g. customer lifetime value) to assign priority to new support questions. This will ensure that your highest value customers with high priority issues get served promptly and by your best CSRs. How to Get Started? If you are a leader in customer support or a product manager, you may be wondering where and how to get started? I recommend that you start by listing down your most inefficient processes. What’s taking you the most time? Is it that the search for answers or question routing has gone bad? Once you know what’s hurting, the next step is to determine if the inefficiency can benefit from Machine Learning, Text Mining and NLP automation. Trying to solve all problems at once will set you up for failure as there’ll be too many changes in your workflow. In addition, some of the automation can be at odds with each other. For example, by auto-prioritizing threads, grouping questions may or may not be effective. Optimizing all at once also prevents your ability to measure success. You’ll not know if the reduction in response times was due to the recommendation of the best answers or if it was due to the auto-prioritization of threads. Despite the hype, not all problems benefit from A.I. and can be resolved with other standard solutions or simple changes to how your software works. In cases of uncertainty, you can always get in touch with me for a recommendation.	https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-improve-productivity-in-customer-support-with-a-i-2ce19eaf77aa	['Kavita Ganesan']	2020-04-02 01:26:56.457000+00:00	['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'UX', 'Productivity', 'Business']
Fountain House Community	Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore	https://medium.com/psychwardgreetingcards/fountain-house-626dca021ea9	[]	2021-03-20 20:00:18.740000+00:00	['Mental Illness', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Mental Illness Awareness', 'Mental Health', 'Peer To Peer']
Transforming HR Operations Through Transparent Network With Blockchain	Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash Blockchain technology, as a foundation stone for the cryptocurrency in 2008, is a head-turner even outside the payments industry to which it has been restricted in the past. Blockchain will create $3.1 trillion in business value by 2030. — Gartner Forecast This statistic shows how enterprises are striving to discover ways of embracing blockchain to revolutionize their business operations and exchange values in this digital world. While blockchain has disrupted fashion, logistics, finance, healthcare, and other sectors, it is ready to shake talent management, HR, and skill development industry too. What does it mean to the recruitment industry? Human resource professionals manage volumes of workload, such as determine the staffing needs, screen resumes, perform background checks, recruit professionals, handle their training, and much more. For the seamless execution of these tasks, businesses hire expensive recruitment management agencies. But they are oblivious that Blockchain-enabled business models will present a seismic shift to how HR operations are conducted in the future. The questions that businesses struggle with- What implications does Blockchain have for the future of HR? How the HR specialists can leverage opportunities that blockchain offers? What are the related risks? A glimpse into the blockchain capabilities can help in gaining an understanding to align recruitment operations with this evolving technology. Employee Background inspection Short term contacts, freelance, and on-demand talent acquisitions have changed the way people work. This further restricts tracking and verifying the background of employees. With blockchain, it is easier to record, verify, track, and manage the candidates’ addresses, employment history, education documents, and much more. The employee records can thus be stored on the digital ledger by tokenizing the candidate’s identity along with reducing the risks of fraudulent applications. Smart contracts for agreements The global smart contracts market is expected to reach approximately 300 USD Million by the end of 2023 with 32% CAGR during the forecasted period from 2017–2023.- Market research future. Time intensive manual contract and agreement generation restricts the recruiters to focus on high-value activities like employer branding and enhancing communication. Blockchain-powered smart contracts generate immutable rights and obligations verified by all the participants on the network. Smart contracts help manage information like employment contracts, digital signatures, and performance reports, among others. Payroll and settlements When employees operate remotely, payment management becomes a lengthy process. Handling payments that involve travel expenses, tax liabilities, currency exchange, etc., make the process highly complicated. Blockchain comes to the rescue by enabling seamless cross-border payments along with reducing risks and errors in the process. The decentralized and secure ledger verifies and validates the data more securely and efficiently. Besides, blockchain restrains the involvement of banks and third parties making the overseas payroll process less time consuming and cost-effective. Regulatory compliance Many times, the legal frameworks of certain countries favor the restriction or removal of confidential information of an entity from the virtual platforms, for instance, EU’s GDPR. In such cases, blockchain ensures that candidates of such countries can leverage the entitlements just by erasing the encryption key, making the information undiscoverable for the entities. Employee Attendance Tracking the attendance of candidates becomes a monotonous task that eventually affects the wages and claim processes. With Blockchain technology, it gets easier for the HR specialists to store biometric data such as fingerprint or iris scan, ID scan, etc., in real-time. Record accuracy and increased visibility reduce errors and disputes and increase the efficiency of the operations like payments and necessary settlements, decreasing the frustration of the HR officials.	https://medium.com/the-capital/transforming-hr-operations-through-transparent-network-with-blockchain-cd9e41feeea5	[]	2020-12-19 03:07:19.319000+00:00	['Blockchain', 'Technology', 'HR', 'Management', 'Bitcoin']
Never Before Seen “Profit Funnel” Creates	FREE Traffic Instantly & Generates You a 100% “HANDS-FREE” BUSINESS… The ONLY Difference Between Top Marketers And Those Struggling To Make a Dime Many beginners & struggling marketers think there’s this MASSIVE GAP between what they do, and how top-earners make their money. The reality is this “gap” is tiny … it’s simply having POWERFUL funnels that automatically generate traffic & profits. Getting traffic today is hard enough … people resort to “social media” desperation to get any traction at all… But turning that traffic into actual DOLLARS is even worse … unless you are a member of BEAST FUNNELS… Which solves both TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS! The “good old days” of converting your traffic into profits with traditional email or social media marketing are gone:	https://medium.com/@sumonl3bt/never-before-seen-profit-funnel-creates-456b3db97be0	['Md. Hasan']	2020-12-26 07:30:22.291000+00:00	['Profit', 'Successful Marketers', 'Income', 'Make Money Online', 'Free Traffic']
Get to know about Terry Withers	Terry Withers Terry Withers is a long-time improv comedy teacher & performer who got his start at the famed UCB Theatre in NYC. There he immersed me into the art and business of improv comedy for almost a decade. Terry Withers did this by trying out a multitude of roles, including that of student, performer, booking agent, teacher, senior manager, corporate instructor, touring show producer, and more. More recently he created a bunch of fun shows which had wildly unprofitable runs in NYC. He didn’t lose a lot of money, it’s just that there was no chance he would ever make any money. Terry Withers even kicked off the first serious attempt at improv over video conferencing in 2014, way before the pandemic made it fashionable, with a website called E-MPROV. After that, he took some shows on the road to colleges and regional theaters and managed to make some money! He also traveled to teach workshops and classes, worked as a consultant to regional improv theaters, and worked at corporations leading improv-based professional development workshops and events. Terry Withers is a passionate believer in the power and beauty of improv comedy. He deeply believes the world would be a better place if everyone had done a little improv.	https://medium.com/@terrywithers/get-to-know-about-terry-withers-3b35eb2995c3	['Terry Withers']	2021-01-17 16:32:05.838000+00:00	['Biography', 'About', 'Terry Withers']
Why we need to stop shaming remote workers and people with disabilities for taking time off	The last time I was a guest on a podcast, I was a first for that show in two different ways: I was the first remote worker (guest) And the first formally diagnosed Dyspraxic to come on the show and talk about their Dyspraxia. The host also happened to have a disability themselves, something that doesn’t happen often when I make guest appearances on podcasts. That alone was freeing. I didn’t have to mask my neurodiversity to keep up with someone else’s idea of “normal”. So I was as transparent as I possibly could be, even when discussing heavy topics, like stigma and bullying, for example. Although what I remember the most about that conversation is the first ten minutes. The host said: “How are you?” Then I surprised even myself with my response: “I’m good thanks. Just woke up from a nap, so I feel great! “ He laughed, I laughed, and we had a very relatable conversation about our preferences around napping. Turns out he’s not a fan of napping during the day, but I love it. Discussing when I nap, why I nap, and how I nap was the perfect segway into me explaining how my brain works. Because the first thing we talked about was how rest benefits me from a productivity and creativity perspective. At the time, unapologetically admitting I take nap breaks felt important I’m a millennial, and to me, one of the most damaging features of my generation is our relationship with technology. Everything from weddings, engagements, and pregnancies, to other important milestones, are seen through Instagram and Facebook filters. You hardly ever see the difficult parts of all these things. When people are vulnerable, it’s often a troubling cry for help. Because of this, I know so many women my age who feel like they need to apologize when they can’t work harder, or need to take some time off. How this relates to the need to nap Keeping in touch with people without having to worry about long-distance fees or other barriers is wonderful. But seeing that your peers are one step ahead of you at a significant milestone of “adulting” can do terrible things to your mental health. Meanwhile, the cost of living, housing, and other expenses is going up, and the average wage doesn’t properly reflect those costs. No matter how hard we work, we often can’t access many of the things that our parents did at our age. To make things even worse, the media paints my generation as an easy target. It doesn’t matter if we have zero jobs or ten jobs. Not being able to afford or access certain things leads to unproven claims that we’re all lazy, entitled, or irresponsible with money. Proving other people wrong can make working even harder extremely tempting. Then you work so hard that the gut feelings that protect you from being taken advantage of are less reliable. Not having a 9-to-5 schedule taught me that the only thing that actually matters is the results of what you do. If I have to nap for an hour to do a good job at a freelance project that is due in a few days, I’ll do it. No one is counting how many hours I worked because that’s not what they’re paying for. Although I totally realize that not everyone has that privilege. However, from a broad workforce perspective, we put too much emphasis on how many hours someone worked. Then too little meaning is placed on what happened during those hours, and time is wasted on office politics. When I was writing an article on workforce accessibility for people with disabilities, I learned that disability unemployment rates are way too high But honestly, I’m not surprised. All types of breaks are often a source of shame and judgement, and environment-based accommodations aren’t always taken seriously. Not to mention, getting a job in the first place relies on tactics that can be really tough for people with non-neurotypical brains or chronic illnesses. For example, neurodiverse folks are less likely to pick up on the verbal and non-verbal cues you have to pick up on to thrive in a job interview or networking event. Then, there is the interview process, where you have to “prove” that you’re a worthwhile candidate with your words. The pressure to prove your worth without preparation can be a source of stress and anxiety; because you have to be the cleverest and loudest voice, rather than the most dedicated worker. From a chronic illness point of view, 8 hours of work, and multiple hours of schmoozing can be hard. Because that’s a long time to have to worry about everything from how you look to what you say while also managing your chronic condition. But don’t get me wrong. People with disabilities can and often are an amazing contribution to the workforce. When they’re not, it is often, but not always, the fault of people who have the power to change how people work. That, however, is easier said than done. The people who will probably disagree with me in the comments section will disagree because the system has worked for them. So for the sake of the naysayers let me put things into perspective. Right now, so many different people are looking in the mirror and asking themselves: Why do the characters of the books I read, and the movies I watch, along with the people I work with all look like me? And for those who don’t feel represented enough the question is something much heavier and more complicated than that: Why don’t they look like me? Meanwhile, COVID is forcing our lives on Zoom, and people who would have never thought they would be isolated are isolated from their communities. Most importantly though, it is changing how we socialize, how we build and maintain relationships, and how we work. The COVID era, so far, is proof of something I assumed all along: We don’t have to use centuries-old work and social practices to connect and work with each other. Nothing excites me more than the idea that we could use the tools at our disposal to provide accessible options for those who have felt left out all along. I want to believe that this will lead to the changes I was hoping for all along, but I’m also a realist who maintains my sanity with a pinch of optimism. How we work is causing huge levels of inequality and inaccessibility for so many people. It took a nasty virus for this unresolved issue to rise to the surface, and that’s progress. But we also need to find a resolution to these issues.	https://rosierichings.medium.com/why-we-need-to-stop-shaming-remote-workers-and-people-with-disabilities-for-taking-time-off-80ea5c07f1e1	['Rosemary Richings']	2020-12-29 22:21:36.377000+00:00	['Remote Working', 'Disability', 'Millennials', 'Mental Health']
2021 — The Resolution For A Better Future.	Out with the old and in with the new. Image Credit: Pineapples Supply Co New Years Resolutions. Self-Improvement Books. Taking a chance with someone whos not your type. Dropping the ball in Times Square while a song usually from the genre of bubblegum pop played in the background and although you weren’t a fan — still enjoyed because its the New Year! You awoke the next morning feeling hyped putting on your usual morning jazz while getting ready for a brunch appointment. You then proceed to pick out an outfit that you don’t usually wear because — New Year, New You. We were so optimistic, so full of hope. How do we move forward? Do we stick to our usual ways — Setting a financial, ambitious and body goal for 2021? Albert Einstein once said that the definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The road ahead is steep and is filled with unfamiliar territory centered around climate change, consumerism, work-life balance and mental health. 2021 is about laying the foundation for a better future for everyone. 1. Climate Change Climate change is real. We’ve seen so much evidence over the past few years from natural disasters like tsunamis, bush fires, hurricanes and earthquakes. There’s been so much death, sadness and mourning — We’ve been through too much. So, how can we pivot to a more sustainable way of living? (1) Reduce your carbon footprint — Walk wherever you can and consider carpooling with your colleagues. (2) Avoid plastic. (3) Vote for politicians that champion for sustainable policies. (4) Avoid flying. (5) Cook with Gas. 2. The Smart Consumer Buying an excessive amount of food, clothing, jewelry, paper and other goods is first, unhealthy, second, wasteful and third, impacting the planet’s climate. Any consumer culture that advocates for “more is better” is simply, not sustainable. There’s also a much more convenient way of shopping now — retailers have gone online. Fun fact: Did you know consumers you shop online tend to buy more than traditional retail customers? I’ve been there — I’ve seen a cute dress in H&M or Forever21 and was compelled to consume, sometimes I did, other times I didn’t. So, where do we start? (1) Portion size — only eat what you can. (2) Avoid indulging. (3) Save > Spend. (4) Practice moderation. (5) Purchase goods from corporations that support the sustainable development agenda. 3. Work-Life Balance and Mental Health So, you work around the clock, All-Day, Err-Day. You do this because you’re scared of becoming one of those millions of people who’ve just lost their jobs. What was a passion for your work has not turned into a labor intensive mind-numbing task. You do this because you have commitments, a house, a car, student loans, that one time you took out a personal loan for your new business but it didn’t quite work out. With each passing day, all you want to do is scream on top of your lungs at your impossible manager for setting unreasonable KPIs to meet in this climate. There needs to be a new technique to life, don’t you think. You deserve to be happy, to be at peace. Here are a couple ways that you can do it for yourself. (1) Stay Connected to Your Loved Ones. (2) Download a Fitness App to Get Physical. (3) Only Listen To The News Twice A Day. (4) Keep Busy — Try A New Hobby. I would recommend adult coloring books. (5) Breathe. As much as scientists, politicians and doctors say that they have an understanding Covid-19, they don’t. No one does. They might know more now than they did before but they aren’t close to the finishing line — even with a vaccine. As citizens of this gentle planet, it is our duty to serve and protect this planet and everything it has provided us with all this years. We shall continue our path of optimism and hope. For we are creatures of emotion. For we are comforted with knowing. New tides are upon us, do we perish or do we move forward?	https://medium.com/@tivssie/2021-the-resolution-for-a-better-future-571e6572f98d	[]	2020-12-13 00:55:18.252000+00:00	['Consumerism', 'Resolution', '2021', 'Mentalhealth', 'Globalwarming']
Finally Having That Talk With Dad	Dad, You were always my hero growing up. You taught brothers and me how to read and ride our bikes, how to conquer the ocean waves, and how to make the perfect toast with cinnamon and sugar. You built us a triple bunk bed out of two-by-fours and came in every night to pray with us and sing us to sleep. You came to every soccer game, swim meet, karate practice and music recital. You were home every night for family dinner, and you never drank alcohol. You challenged us to be the very best at everything, and you never asked us to do anything you weren’t willing to do yourself. Things changed a bit when I turned 14 — when I started transitioning from a boy to a young man. I still loved that you came to all my track and cross-country meets. I still loved that you made time for family dinner. I still loved that you always put us first. But as I got older, your physical presence alone wasn’t enough. As a kid, it made me feel safe having you there to tuck me in bed, to teach me how to swim, to be there at sports practice. But as I became a young man, I craved more. More than your physical presence, I wanted your emotional presence. I wanted to hear you say that you loved me. I wanted you to give me a hug and hear you say that you were proud of me. I wanted you to talk to me about my changing body, about girls, and how to navigate becoming a young man. I wanted you to tell me it was ok for boys to cry — actually that it was more than ok to cry — it was healthy. I wanted you to show me how to talk about my feelings, and for you to ask me about them. I went off to West Point, and those 4 years were the hardest of my life. It didn’t seem like you understood just how hard and lonely it was. As I entered the Army and my mid-20s, it felt like we were growing more and more apart. We only connected on surface level things. You never asked me about the important things in my life when I was a young man, and so I never learned how to tell you about them. My mid 20s turned into my late 20s, and then my early 30s. I opened up to you about my depression, and you didn’t seem to know how to respond. That made me decide to not invite you into the important parts of my life anymore. I stopped telling you about my relationships, and my depression, and my career. You came up every nearly week in therapy. Every week I told my therapist I needed to have that talk with you. To tell you what I needed. To tell you I needed to hear you say, “I love you.” That I needed you to just listen sometimes and tell me you were proud of me for opening up. That I needed you to not tell me that my depression was just something to pray about. I finally built up the courage to have that talk with you, and you responded much better than I thought you would. I poured out what was on my heart and soul, things I’d been holding inside for all those years. The way you responded gave me hope for the future, hope that this would change our relationship, hope that this would bring our family closer together, and hope that we’d be able to have more tough but honest conversations down the road. You slowly started to come around. You started ending your emails with, “Love, Dad.” You started saying, “I love you,” at the end of our Facetime calls. You started listening more and asking me more about how I was doing. My girlfriend got pregnant and it wasn’t planned. Growing up, you’d always told us you shouldn’t have sex before marriage. So I was nervous about telling you that you were going to be a grandpa. But the conversation we had last year gave me courage. We took a walk, and I told you she was pregnant, and you responded with love and support. And it filled my heart with joy that I could invite you into this, and instead of responding with judgement, you responded with love and kindness. And then we lost our baby Gabriel. And you showed up for us with love and support again. You told me how much you loved me, how sorry you were for what I was going through, you asked me how my head and heart were doing. And when it was time to go you said you wanted to spend more time with me 1:1, that you wanted more time to talk. And that’s the first time you ever said that to me. Feeling grateful for you and hopeful for what lies ahead. Love Always, Ange	https://medium.com/@andrewahutch/finally-having-that-talk-with-dad-a26b50334778	['Andrew Hutchinson']	2020-10-25 18:14:31.671000+00:00	['Family', 'Self', 'Love', 'Dads']

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