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Introducing Nefertiti, a simple crypto trading bot.
|
What are the bot’s most important commands?
While the bot supports many commands, the two most important ones are buy and sell . These commands are designed to be running in tandem.
You will need to start one instance of sell per exchange, regardless of how many market pairs you are trading in, for example:
sell --exchange=GDAX
The sell command listens for buy orders to get filled, and then automatically opens new limit sell orders for them. In essence, this command will auto-sell your trades. By default, the bot will try and sell them at a 5% profit.
You will then need to start an instance of buy for every market pair you want the bot to be trading in, for example:
buy --exchange=GDAX --market=BTC-EUR
and
|
https://medium.com/nefertiticryptobot/introducing-nefertiti-a-simple-crypto-trading-bot-b078898fa164
|
[]
|
2020-10-08 19:32:30.107000+00:00
|
['Telegram', 'Bitcoin', 'Bots', 'Golang', 'Cryptocurrency']
|
Kong Plugin: Easy Functional testing
|
Iraty, Pyrenees — Navarre France — Véronique
We have seen on the two first articles how to set your env and how to deal with schema. Time to jump on the main part of this articles series, how to test the functional part. For some readers, this part can be seen as the only needed part.
If you start directly by this article you just need to have installed pongo (Kong is not needed at all), and you can checkout the repository.
Test the handler logic
The power of pongo will be seen in this part, instantiating kong with the right plugin configuration and kong configuration. We will also use a the mock server provided by kong spec/fixtures/custom_nginx.template and take a look on all the feature offered by this mock.
After the 01-schema_spec.lua , we will create a 02-handler_spec.lua file.
This file is starting with classic stuff, requiring the helpers, and defining the plugin name:
local helpers = require "spec.helpers"
local PLUGIN_NAME = "medium-test"
Then we will do a loop on the DB strategy, this will iterate on the default {“postgres", “cassandra"}
for _, strategy in helpers.each_strategy() do
You can have the temptation to only use one DB, the one you are using in production. But this is very easy to have both set and avoid bad surprise if you have to change your storage.
Then we will define classic busted functions:
lazy_setup to set up all the components,
to set up all the components, lazy_teardown to shutdown all the components,
to shutdown all the components, before_each and after_each that will be execute before and after each test.
Setup
First we need to get the database utility helpers and prepare the database for a test run:
local bp = helpers.get_db_utils(strategy, nil, { PLUGIN_NAME })
Then we have to configure kong, we will setup two routes for our tests:
local route1 = bp.routes:insert({
hosts = { "test1.com" },
})
local route2 = bp.routes:insert({
hosts = { "test2.com" },
})
And the core part of the configuration the plugin configuration with bp.plugins:insert
route1 will reject the queries when deny filters are matched, mark if a allow rule is matched. route2 will mark all action deny and allow.
Finally we have to start kong, with the strategy, the mock server and our plugin:
Mockup server
Lets have a look on the available endpoints of the mockup server. From spec/fictures/custom_nginx.template we can see:
/ws
Websocket echo server
Websocket echo server /get
Accepts a GET request and returns it in JSON format
Accepts a GET request and returns it in JSON format /xml
Returns a simple XML document
Returns a simple XML document /post
Accepts a POST request and returns it in JSON format
Accepts a POST request and returns it in JSON format /response-headers?:key=:val
Returns given response headers
Returns given response headers /cache/:n
Sets a Cache-Control header for n seconds
Sets a Cache-Control header for n seconds /anything
Accepts any request and returns it in JSON format
Accepts any request and returns it in JSON format /request
Alias to /anything
Alias to /anything /delay/:duration
Delay the response for <duration> seconds
Delay the response for <duration> seconds /basic-auth/:user/:pass
Performs HTTP basic authentication with the given credentials
Performs HTTP basic authentication with the given credentials /status/:code
Returns a response with the specified <status code>, accepts any request and returns it in JSON format
Returns a response with the specified <status code>, accepts any request and returns it in JSON format /stream/:num
Stream <num> chunks of JSON data via chunked Transfer Encoding
This endpoint helps a lot to write simple tesst, the interesting part is to get back in the response a json what was received by the mock server.
Teardown part is quite simple, just stop kong:
lazy_teardown(function()
helpers.stop_kong(nil, true)
end)
We need a http client, we define it as a global
local client
And we create it before the test and close it after (see below to get more information about this client)
before_each(function()
client = helpers.proxy_client()
end) after_each(function()
if client then client:close() end
end)
The strategy loop should look like this now:
We have every thing ready to do our tests. It is time to start our topic after all those preliminaries.
Bordeaux — France — Véronique
First functional test
We will use /status/200 path and targeting the route1 linked with the host test1.com with a simple GET query.
Our request should not be marked or rejected.
To do the request we are using the client previously set up:
client:send {
method = "GET",
path = "/status/200",
headers = {
["Host"] = "test1.com",
}
}
We add an assert to check if the client:send was successful and we retrieve the response:
local res = assert(client:send {
method = "GET",
path = "/status/200",
headers = {
["Host"] = "test1.com",
}
})
Then we need to check if the response status is a 200, and we have to retrieve the body of the answer. Good luck for us, once again, there is an helper for this assert.res_status
local body = assert.res_status(200, res)
And last check, we should not have an x-limit header. (To decode the Json we are using cjson)
assert.equal(nil, json.headers["x-limit"])
All this combined give:
First test with success
🎉 2 successes one for Cassandra one for PostgreSQL. \o/
Success — pixabay
To continue we will test with the x-source header set to different values:
We launch the test and:
Failure — pixabay
All our new tests are failing, this is normal as we have still not write anything into the handler.lua file. It is time to implement the code and have everything in green.
To test the behavior for the ip it is the same logic. You can find a full example of this plugins https://github.com/ManoManoTech/kong-plugin-mm-rate-limiting
95 tests in 9s
This way to do test allows to cover a lot of usage, and if you take a look a lot of plugins test are using this pattern.
But we can need more specific http mock server, responding something else than the query received.
Custom HTTP mock
When you want to test routing feature you want to check witch upstream server was hit, for that you want to configure different servers.
To illustrate that we will use the plugin kong-plugin-route-by-cookie made by Muhammad Redho Ayassa
Overview This Kong plugin allows you to route client request based on user cookies. It is inspired by Route By Header.
We have to test cookies and routing, quite interesting.
CookieMonster, Meme from Reddit
We have to use the fixtures option of the Kong start helper
--
--
--
-- -- @function start_kong-- @param env table with Kong configuration parameters (and values)-- @param tables list of database tables to truncate before starting-- @param preserve_prefix (boolean) if truthy, the prefix will not be cleaned before starting-- @param fixtures tables with fixtures, dns, http and stream mocks.
Fixtures allow us to create http mocks using nginx syntax, you can check nginx documentation if needed:
2 http Mock servers
Then we just start kong with this fixtures configuration, thanks to the helper:
assert(helpers.start_kong({
database = strategy,
nginx_conf = "spec/fixtures/custom_nginx.template",
plugins = "bundled," .. PLUGIN_NAME,
},nil, nil, fixtures))
And now we have two servers listening on port 16798 and 16799.
We add the plugin to route when the cookie foo is set to bar:
bp.plugins:insert {
name = PLUGIN_NAME,
route = { id = mainroute.id },
config = {
target_upstream = upstream1.name,
cookie_name="foo",
cookie_val="bar",
},
}
We have to be able to set the cookie value, and again it is quite easy. We can set the headers value of the request using options param of the client:get function:
http_client:get("path", [options])
To avoid to duplicate always the same code doing a query, checking of the return we can create a function.
This function set the targeted host,
local headers = {
host = host
}
set the cookie if a value is set,
if cookie then
headers.cookie = cookie
end
do the query, check the 200 status and retrieve the body of the response
local res = assert(client:get("/", { headers = headers }))
local body = assert.res_status(200, res)
And finally check if the receive answer is the expected one.
assert.equal(target, body)
With this function the test are very easy to write:
Coral Sea — Australia — Aurélien
Http client
We have used the helpers.proxy_client, this gives us a pre-configured http client for the Kong proxy port. It takes an optional param to set the timeout to use.
There is other pre-configured http clients quite useful:
proxy_ssl_client , a http client pre-configured for the Kong SSL proxy port
, a http client pre-configured for the Kong SSL proxy port admin_client , a pre-configured http client for the Kong admin port
, a pre-configured http client for the Kong admin port admin_ssl_client, a pre-configured http client for the Kong admin SSL port
The admin clients allow to test the Kong API, in a case of a plugins this is used to test the plugins configuration using the API for example, on the Kong proxy-cache plugin to test the admin API there is this test:
The http client offers nice methods to have more compact call, instead of using send and specifying the method there is the methods: “get”, “post”, “put”, “patch” and “delete”, with a first param the path and an optional param to set some options. To have a full description of available options please check the lua-resty-http documentation.
Conclusion
Writing tests for Kong plugins is at the end quite easy thanks to the good helpers provided by Kong. The helpers have good documentation into the source, not on the website. Adding on this Pongo you can easily run your test.
So no more excuse to not do TDD on your Kong plugins.
|
https://medium.com/manomano-tech/kong-plugin-easy-functional-testing-67949957527b
|
['Aurélien Lajoie']
|
2021-07-12 12:02:38.861000+00:00
|
['API', 'Backend', 'DevOps', 'Tdd']
|
A new mother stumbles into the art of letting go
|
Twenty-eight people had shown up to our Baby Meet & Greet, and one mama asked me that afternoon, “So how is it going, juggling a six-month old and so much of us to entertain?”
I paused and millions of answers ran through my head. I selected one that felt weighty to me. “It teaches me about letting go.”
Many to-do’s were awaiting my attention that afternoon, being the obsessive-compulsive host that I was — light the candles, offer everyone meat for the barbecue, bring down milk for someone’s coffee, greet people arriving, get baby’s napping and nursing done on schedule.
I needed to be kind to baby — how was I going to manage everything else?
After the initial excitement of inviting everyone on a Doodle two months earlier, some thoughts began to dawn on me as weeks passed. Why had I signed up for this party voluntarily? No one had asked to come. I had invited them!
Realizing how overwhelmed I would be as the day loomed closer, I enlisted help. I asked one of baby’s godmothers to show up an hour early so we could at least unfurl tablecloths and put up signs leading to the backyard.
More help came in unexpected ways.
Our neighbor from across the hallway asked if we needed help moving the tables and benches onto the yard. We did! While I cared for baby and sorted out smaller items to bring to the garden, he and hubby hauled heavy furniture out onto the grass.
They call it “bayanihan” in Filipino: people coming together to contribute to build something bigger than themselves. Like this barbecue we had!
Later, one couple reported that our Grill Master, that very same neighbor, had taken care of everyone, always with something fresh off the barbecue for anyone. And when sausages disappeared off of plates, he went around asking if anyone wanted a cup of coffee. He brought down a steaming thermos of the fragrant, black stuff to the yard and poured out some for the women I had written a book with several years ago. I hadn’t asked, but this man who lived across from us had gone above and beyond for hubby, baby, and I. The garden furniture was his.
Photo Credit goes to Julia and Michal for this one
Much of hubby’s and my planned summer skewers remained unprepared, the ingredients (olives, bread and cheese; melon and ham) languishing in the kitchen. Between baby’s naps on my lap that morning and everyone arriving, all I had managed to put together was one plate of antipasti-on-a-stick.
I had asked everyone to bring food instead of gifts. They brought both instead!
By the time baby and I had come back down to the yard, everyone had eaten. I then realized, to my dismay, that shelves of marinated meat we had bought for the grill were wasting away in the fridge, untouched.
Getting this barbecue to happen was teaching me about letting go. As a new mother, I could not attend to everyone. I could not make eleven perfect dishes or refill everyone’s glasses the way I used to as a host, before baby.
I suppose I should just enjoy all of it — a party of twenty-eight people in the age of CoVid was a feat unto itself, yet still within bounds of virus safety restrictions. We had a backyard, every guest could enjoy the summer weather. Hubby and I were celebrating turning forty — albeit belated, due to the outbreak. Best of all, we had gathered together in thanksgiving for the son for whom we had waited nearly a decade.
I probably won’t invite as many people for baby’s first birthday. This barbecue had me retreating up to our bedroom to strip off a pretty but non-breastfeeding-friendly dress whenever I had to nurse baby and get him down for his naps. Never again.
Everyone had been kind and had lent me understanding when it came to baby’s needs. But I had to let go of the citronella candles I couldn’t light myself, let go of the self that wanted to refill every guest’s glass with more champagne or beer or soda.
As I pondered how to conclude this article, I hit upon another mama lesson. With baby at six months, this was only the beginning. Letting go as a mother will be a journey, with various depths and difficulties. There will be releasing him off to school. Accepting him getting used to his friends and academic life. Letting him make mistakes so that he can learn with gravity. Allowing him to fall, on occasion, so that one day, he can fly.
Having a baby is an ever-changing river, every moment filled with lessons, every event asking me to choose the top three priorities and let go of the small stuff.
What about you? What have you had to learn to let go?
|
https://medium.com/@lilycfen/a-new-mother-stumbles-into-the-art-of-letting-go-7295565a5682
|
['Lily C. Fen']
|
2020-08-07 10:32:17.282000+00:00
|
['Summer', 'Barbecue', 'New Mothers', 'Motherhood', 'Letting Go']
|
Stop Cursing Your Body
|
“The present scenario of health and shape is pretty complicated…”
There are millions of thought-provoking fitness blogs that are making thousands of people extra cautious about their health. In other words, people are stressing themselves over their health. Well, it is necessary to maintain a healthy life and everyone should do it. But, overthinking about such issues can induce negative effects on both psychological and physiological levels.
We all possess different body types, some people may grow up with some extra weight and some others may grow to look like a Greek God. Many reasons add up to the possibilities of various body types. The most common reasons are genes and lifestyle.
Reasoning
You must be thinking these can’t be the only reasons that contribute to the body type. But logically these are the best reasons to describe a person's shape, size, and health. You can take the example of physicians “why do you think they can diagnose any disease just by listening to the symptoms?”
The answer to this question is they do not concern and stress over thousands of parameters. If they do so, then the process of diagnosis will become complicated and lengthy. Similarly, when it comes to your shape or concerns related to health, then you should stick to certain parameters.
Present Scenario
Presently every other person wants to have a chiseled jawline, well-carved obliques, strong calves, abs, and whatnot. These are some of the bodily attributes that are found attractive to the majority of people across the globe. This is why you will seldom find a plus-size model on Instagram, magazine covers, and various advertisements. No matter wherever you go, you will find a slim and well-maintained model flaunting a pair of skin-tight jeans or a denim shirt.
This culture of appreciating only the well-built people is slowly intoxicating the thoughts of people. Nowadays you will find numerous posts about fat-shamming. Why do you think it is becoming more relevant day by day?
The best reason is that many people are brought up with a negative mindset about over-weight people. They will not bother to know the reason behind a person’s obesity. Rather, they will directly taunt a person for being obese. Obesity is indeed bad, but most of the time over-eating is not the only reason to gain weight.
The Consequences
Now, many people who are obese, and get constantly fat-shammed are becoming more insecure. Such, insecurity leads them to try numerous procedures. And unfortunately, many others curse themselves and wish to die.
What should you do?
If you are fat and want to get lean, then you can surely do that, but do not get influenced by others. Start doing some exercises and remember do not push yourself too much. Take baby steps and then build your core stronger enough to do gain your momentum and goal.
Never Fall for the Short Cuts
You may have been through a lot of videos claiming “weight loss in a month” or so. In reality, losing weight is like running a marathon not, it is a long journey. And if you want to achieve your goal then never limit your mind and do not let anyone do the same. It takes at least 8 months for the body to breakdown the fat and increases metabolism. So, just do it and think later.
Conclusion
The human body acts gradually, so you should understand your body first. So, instead of cursing your body, just try to listen to your body.
|
https://medium.com/@cappedbaldy11/stop-cursing-your-body-7638ed8c4e14
|
['Asad Modassir']
|
2021-01-16 18:54:20.898000+00:00
|
['Body Positive', 'Awareness', 'Mental Health', 'Health', 'Fat Shaming']
|
Life Is Full of Excuses Not To Live
|
Life Is Full of Excuses Not To Live
Stop feeding your demons
‘The trick is not how much pain you feel — but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.’ — How To Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong
As a teenager, I always figured I would grow up to self-destruct.
It seemed like the logical progression.
I was fascinated by notions of addiction, annihilation, intoxication, obliteration, by dark smoky bars and running through city streets at night, bodies hurtling into pockets of empty air, cars skidding down long roads, red lips and smudged black eyes, by noise and movement, by fury and fear.
I wanted to find something that would eat me up. Something that would consume me and ultimately destroy me.
It is the natural step when you are old enough to hate yourself but not old enough to have the means to tear yourself to shreds.
You dream of it. You dream of how you’re going to destroy the self you haven’t even formed yet. The idea of growing into something good seems too overwhelming, too exhausting. You’d much rather opt out altogether. Life seems like a terribly long time to try hard for.
But not really. What I truly wanted was something to write about, something other than the torturous drip-drip of words onto my notebook pages without anything much to back them up. The same few crushes, same few annoying teachers, same few streets. The same aching dissatisfaction.
Self-destruction appeared to be a good option. Plenty of material there.
Judging from, well, the entirety of literary history, there seemed to be no limit to how much you would write about red wine and waking up in strange places and peeling back the layers of self until you lost your links to anything and floating unmoored through the world without the conventional rules to tether you and finding alternate places where the usual logic crumbles.
Why bother trying when self-destruction is much more alluring?
|
https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/life-is-full-of-excuses-not-to-live-bf26424d50e6
|
['Rosie L']
|
2020-04-12 19:00:00.690000+00:00
|
['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Depression', 'Books', 'Mental Health']
|
Sexing My Way Around The World.
|
Sexing My Way Around The World.
Is it just as cringe-y if a woman does it?
Photo by T.H. Chia on Unsplash
I had a kind of sexual reawakening about four months ago, not long after I moved to China.
I also started sleeping with men again for the first time in seven years.
Realising how easy it was to find available men in a populated city like Shanghai has definitely boosted my sexual confidence.
This has sent me on a bit of a casual sex bender.
I’ve loved the new freedom, joy, and desire that this has brought. I feel like a sexy, powerful goddess (which is incidentally what I make some of my lovers call me).
I come from Australia, which is a multicultural nation but mostly in metropolitan areas (which I rarely lived in).
Moving to Shanghai I was delighted to find a smorgasbord of international delights, just waiting to be…. tasted.
A close friend of mine, who loves to hear all the down and dirty details of my sex life, noticed the new global trends in my sexual selections, and made a joke about buying one of those scratch-off world maps so I could “see where I had gone”.
I thought it was a brilliant idea! Sexing one’s way around the world, comparing and contrasting lovers, enjoying the dishes on offer at the inter-continental buffet… what an undertaking.
I don’t have room in my apartment for a map, but someone had told me about an app you can use for tracking the countries you’ve traveled to called ‘been’.
I downloaded it and immediately started tagging all the countries I had ‘been’ to sexually. Disappointingly it was not as many as I thought. But it meant I had a way to track my mission to ‘conquer the world’.
And then I stopped and thought:
If I heard of a guy doing this, I’d probably be a bit disgusted. A dude, trying to bang his way around the world, sleeping with people to put pins on a map. Isn’t that kind of gross?
I’m a liberated woman who thoroughly enjoys casual sex, and genuinely appreciates meeting people from all different cultures.
Sometimes when I’m browsing on Tinder I am super attracted to someone, and other times I look at where they’re from and think ‘well, they’re just okay, but they would tick another country off the list’.
I’m still sleeping with people I like, even if they are from a country that I have already hit. But I am definitely on the lookout for new cultures to take for a spin.
I am curious to know how sexual habits and bodies change from continent to continent. Are the clichés true? Are Latin lovers more passionate? Would an Indian partner know how to kama my sutra? Once you go black, do you ever go back? (I have indeed gone back quite a few times since first going black, because, well — it’s great; however I am a little too curious and adventurous to be exclusive.)
And the most important question of all: does this international expedition make me a bad person or an intrepid sexual explorer?
And, if I were a man, would that change the answer?
|
https://medium.com/sexography/sexing-my-way-around-the-world-61fee165c5a2
|
['Ava Starr']
|
2020-03-05 00:05:18.791000+00:00
|
['Sexuality', 'Gender Equality', 'Travel', 'Tinder', 'Sex']
|
5 Useful Commands that you can plug in your next PostgreSQL Query
|
1. Merging records using Union & Union All
We all know how ‘union’ works. The concept is similar to how it’s in set theory. Adding a union between two queries will result in a distinct set of records.
UNION will remove all duplicates that exists in the result of both queries whereas UNION ALL merges the records from the queries
Union All is faster than Union since no extra time is spent in processing duplicates.
2. Transforming rows into columns using FILTER
More often than not we run into a situation where row values need to be used as column names.
To transform data and display it in several columns, FILTER can be used. Let’s see the below example.
Item Qty Type
------------ ---------- -------------
desk 5 domestic
bat 10 imported
table 15 domestic
table 25 imported
desk domestic
In order to show the total quantity by ‘item’ and ‘type’ from the table, use FILTER!
Query:
Result:
desk_from_domestic bat_from_domestic
------------------------- -------------------------
5 10
3. Returning non-null values using COALESCE
In order to return non-null values from PostgreSQL functions even when the data in tables actually contain null values, use COALESCE function — it returns the first non-null argument passed to it.
Normal Query
SELECT qty * 10 from purchases
Result:
Result
----------
50
100
150
250
null
The same query with COALESCE:
SELECT COALESCE(qty,0) * 10 as result from purchases
Values in the qty field containing null values will now be zeroes. Performing mathematical operations on these values are now possible!
Result:
Result
----------
50
100
150
250
0
4. Debugging functions using RAISE NOTICE
Are you one of those developers who rely on console.log or print for debugging functions?
If yes, RAISE NOTICE will do just the same for you in PostgreSQL and it’s pretty handy!
raise notice 'quantity: %', quantity;
5. Working with dates using EXTRACT
Wondering how to perform regex-like operations on dates?
EXTRACT can be used to get the day, month, year, hour, etc. from a field containing timestamp or date.
SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM TO_DATE(final_date, 'YYYY-MM-DD')) INTO final_day;
Final Notes
All of these commands except for RAISE NOTICE works in SQL as well. Working on complex SQL queries and functions can be daunting but knowing these commands will make you feel like coding in SQL is not so hard after all :)
|
https://codeburst.io/5-useful-commands-that-you-can-plug-in-your-next-postgresql-query-68bf22524228
|
['Shahnaz Shariff']
|
2020-06-15 14:18:49.099000+00:00
|
['Postgres', 'Database', 'Sql', 'Backend Development', 'Programming']
|
mind field
|
pixabay.com
I
matter.
did you catch that?
I. MATTER.
in all of the ways that you aren’t convinced
in all of the ways that they say I don’t.
you believed it.
You believe it.
I guess,
sometimes,
it’s easier
to go
with
the flow..
isn’t it?
Sure it is.
That’s where you’ve resided your entire life.
It’s externally reaffirmed
every second of every day.
cursing mantra flowing through
your oxygen deprived cells
How can you breathe like that?
Soar like that?
Of course, it’s simple.
Of course,
it’s comfortably
destructive.
What does it matter?
What does it matter?
It matters.
Because YOU MATTER!
Let’s try this again.
But this time, with feeling.
Now….
get out
of bed!
|
https://medium.com/written-tales/mind-field-fa59e27b99ea
|
['Cindy Letic']
|
2017-07-24 20:06:01.061000+00:00
|
['Life Lessons', 'Creative Writing', 'Self Love', 'Poetry', 'Self-awareness']
|
Explore the Era of Smart TV App Development
|
What is Smart TV?
A smart TV is a digital television that connected to the internet in a computer specialized for entertainment, smart-tv is a stand-alone product compare to regular TV its a different one but made Smart by using Set-top boxes with advanced options.
First Introduces of Smart TV: in the early 1980’s “intelligence” television receivers introduce in Japan. And the patent was published in 1994 linked in the digital network. The acceptance is higher in the late 2000s and early 2010s and very improved smart tv in the market. At the start of 2016 Nielsen says that 29% of that income by smart tv over $75,000.
List of Company introduces Smart TV:
Here are some list of company that uses smart TV technology for all this company uses different technology
Asus
Sony
Xiaomi
Philips
Panasonic
LG
TCL
Samsung
Mediatek
Haier
Insignia
Roku
Toshiba
Alibaba
Smart TV Framework/TV OS :
Talking about technology uses in smart tv or framework uses in smart tv.
Apple tvOS
Google Android TV
WebOS
Amazon Fire TV
Opera TV
Roku TV
Open TV
Shiju TV
Firefox OS for TV
Detail Information of Operating System That uses in various devices :
1. tvOS
tvOS is an Operating System develop by Apple for the fourth-generation and then digital media player for apple. tvOS was firstly announced in 2015 on September 9 written in C, C++, Swift, and Objective-C.
tvOS
History of tvOS: On October 30, 2015, 4th generation of Apple TV was available in the market with tvOS 9.0. tvOS 9.1 was released on December 8, 2015, with OS x 10.11.2 and watchOS 2.1 along with the update, Apple also update with Remote apps on ios as well as watchOS for 4th generation Apple TV.
Features TVOS:
Provides the ability to move through the interface with the new touchpad remote using multi-touch gestures
Users can download or install updated Applications and games from developers that use to develop applications for tvOS and Apple TV.
tvOS 9 support in Siri That users do a multitude of things such as cross-application for movie and tv with different updated features like fast-forwarding, name of actor-director in the movie, skip the video, rewind it.
tvOS added support for an app switcher on apple TV, control the TV using Siri remote with support of HDMI-CEC in tvOS.
Using Remote app Bluetooth keyboard aid to the user experience of typing
Development:
tvOS adds support for an all-new SDK for developers to build apps for the TV including all the APIs included in iOS 9 such as Metal and also add tvOS App store which allows the user to browse, download, install many new apps. Apple provides Xcode to all register apple developers to develop new Apple TV. Apple provides a Parallax exporter and previewer in the development tools for the Apple TV.
Development Tool: Generally Developer uses a different type of tool for development.
Metal
UIKit
ClouKit
tvOS App Design Tool:
Sketch
Marvel
AdobeXD
Photoshop
Popular Apps on tvOS:
Netflix
Zova yoga workout
Amazon prime video
Plex
Youtube
Carrot weather
TV player
Earthplace
2. WebOS
WebOS is also known as an LG webOS previously known as Open WebOS, HP webOS, Palm WebOS. It is a Linux kernel-based OS for smart tv and used as mobile os also.
WebOS
History of WebOS: in 2009 January Palm launches WebOS then known as a palm WebOS. In between 2010–2013 acquire by HP and develop the WebOS platform for uses in tablets, smartphones, printers. LG expands various devices as a starting point, LG showcased an LG Wearable Platform OS(WebOS) smartwatch in early 2015. On March 19 LG offers an open-source edition of WebOS so developers can download source code for free and uses it very well.
Features of WebOS for Mobile platform:
Air update
Open-Source
Gesture interface
Multitasking interface
Services discovery
Software Development tool:
WebOS TV v4.0.0 support webOS TV 4.0 is released the new component manager are provided for managing webOS SDK
Webos TV.js library provides a set of APIs for the app to use in webOS TV 4.0, allows you to access tv feature and different functionality for WebOS TV
SDK:
NetCast SDK v3.0.1 and NetCash SDK v2.4.0
Smart TV Feature:
Redesign of the user interface of WebOS
Maintaining the card UI as a Simple switching
Simple to connecting
Easy to discover
Platform: Webos is much common in mainstream Linux version 1.0 to 2.1, in 2011 Enyo replaced Mojo, released in June 2009 as an SDK. Envy is an open-source javascript framework for cross-platform mobile, desktop, and TV later acquired by HP.
LG WebOS App list:
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Youtube
Hulu Plus
3. Tizen
Tizen is a mobile operating system developed by Samsung that runs in multiple Samsung devices include Smartphones, Tablet, Smart TV, Smart Watches, Robotic Vacuum Cleaners written in HTML5, C, and C++. Tizen associates with major sectors e.g. Panasonic, Samsung, NEC Casio, Vodafone, and also targeted in Smart TV.
History of Tizen: on January 1, 2012, the limo foundation was renamed Tizen association and working with Linux which support the Tizen open-source projects. In April 30 2012 1.0 release, February 18, 2013 Tizen released 2.0 in may 20, 2017 Tizen 3.0 released. while Tizen initial release on January 5 in 2012.
Tizen — Connect Everything | (source:tizen website) | Widle Studio
Software Development and Design Tool:
Tizen Studio
VSCode
Features Tizen:
It is Open Source
Supported with intel
Supported in HTML5
Touch gesture
Multiple window display option
Supporting in top automotive brands.
Tizen Smart TV Apps:
Netflix
Amazon prime video
Iplayer (Uk only)
Hulu
All 4
HBO Go
Youtube
4. Android TV
Android TV a version of android OS specially designed for Digital media players this is also the replacement of Google TV. the platform firstly announces in June 2014. The platform has also been adopted as smart TV by a number of companies display e.g. Sharp, VU TVs, Sony.
Android TV
History of Android TV: Android TV firstly announces on Google I/O in June 2014. For uses in Google play store, video games, google gamepads, Android Wear. Google unveiled the first Android TV devices, the Nexus Player developed by Asus.
Smart TV with Android: In 2014 Google I/O announce Sharp, Sony and TP Vision would release smart TV with Android TV in 2015 and noted as support for handling TV-specific function e.g. tuning and input switching, Sony Bravia is the famous example of AndroidTV.
Development Tool:
Android Studio
Android TV App Design Tool:
Sketch
Marvel
AdobeXD
Photoshop
Android Studio
Android TV Apps:
Spotify
Netflix
VLC
Google News
YouTube
Hulu
Plex and many more other apps that support in Android TV.
5. Amazon Fire TV
Amazon fire tv is a digital media player and Micro Console remote developed by Amazon, the player also allows the user to play video games with the included remote via mobile app or game controller. Fire TV functionality also available as the Amazon fire tv stick, fire TV refers to the set-top box fire tv stick known as plugin stick.
Amazon Fire TV
History FireTV: Fire TV developed by Amazon and release on April 12, 2014, in the USA and uses the Operating system Fire OS 5.
Amazon Fire TV Apps:
Hulu
Crossy Road
Road Sling
Spotify
VLC
Youtube
Feature of FireTV:
Find the show in Netflix and iPlayer with Voice Control
Make a better game with a gamepad
Adding voice support to non-mic TV stick
Use your phone as a Fire TV remote.
Development Tool:
Fire app builder
Leanback library
Web app starter kit
Design Tool:
|
https://medium.com/@limanibhavik/explore-era-of-smart-tv-app-development-widle-studio-4f88db0a99ae
|
[]
|
2020-09-14 08:40:58.212000+00:00
|
['Google', 'Smart Tv', 'Apple', 'Amazon', 'TV']
|
Real Time Data Streaming From MySQL to Elasticsearch using Kafka
|
This article is about how to implement a pipeline to stream data from MySQL database to Elasticsearch in the form of JSON using Confluent Kafka, Kafka JDBC Connector and Kafka Connector for Elasticsearch. So you should be familiar with these tools/applications before you implement such model.
Model/Pipeline Overview
We are going to implement the model in two phases.
1. Pulling data from MySQL to Kafka Topic using Kafka JDBC Connector.
2. Pushing data from Kafka Topic to Elasticsearch using Kafka Elasticsearch Connector.
Phase 1 can also be achieved using Debezium Kafka Connector. However, this connector uses Change Data Capture(CDC) and it has to be enabled from source(MySQL) by Database Administrator(DBA). This approach might degrade the performance of databases. However, it doesn’t matter if the volume of data is not huge. Another side, if we are using JDBC approach, our source table must have either a primary key or a timestamp column in order to ingest data incremental basis.
Now let’s implement the phase 1. It is believed that MySQL, Confluent Kafka and Elasticsearch are already installed on your machine or setup with docker.
Let’s create a table Student in MySQL database under a test database testdb with following code where ID is the primary key.
create database testdb;
USE testdb;
Create Table Student
(
ID int primary key,
Name varchar(255),
Subject varchar(255),
Mark varchar(255)
)
Now insert 2–3 records/rows to the newly created table just to verify whether our table is ready for streaming or not ;)
Insert into Student values (101, ‘Bhavik’, ‘Science’, 73);
Insert into Student values (102, ‘Drashti’, ‘Physics’, 89);
Select * from Student;
Now if everything what you have done so far is correct, then you probably would be seeing a screen like this.
MySQL Table Implementation
Now MySQL part is done. Let’s move to Kafka part. If you haven’t downloaded Confluent version Kafka, you can download it from here.
I am using Mac OS. If you are using Ubuntu or other OS, then commands might be little different for your case. Let’s start our confluent Kafka with start command. If your Confluent started successfully, you would see a screen like below.
Confluent Start Page
I believe you have already installed the Kafka JDBC Connector. If not, you simply run this confluent hub command to install it.
confluent-hub install confluentinc/kafka-connect-jdbc:latest
For JDBC connection establishment, we need to put database specific JDBC driver in the plugin path of Kafka node. As we are using MySQL databases here, I have downloaded mysql-connector-java-8.0.18.jar and placed at CONFLUENT_HOME/share/confluent-hub-components/confluentinc-kafka-connect-jdbc/lib
Now the next part is very important i.e. configuration of the connector. I have created a configuration file in JSON format i.e. MySQL_Config.json. Here we have to put details of both MySQL and Kafka Topic. You can refer to my file as shown below.
MySQL_Config.json
Most people make typos in the above file. So I request you to pay special attention while configuring your connector. I have kept my MySQL_Config.json under CONFLUENT_HOME/bin so that I can easily run the command from here only. Now please run the following command from your bin folder.
Running Kafka JDBC Connector
After this, you would probably get screen like below.
Connector Start Screen
Just to confirm whether our connector is running or not, try the below command as shown.
Connector Running Status
So our connector is running perfectly. Now let’s check the list of topics in Kafka and verify our topic is created or not. Just check the below image.
Kafka List Topic
You can also check the same using any web browser by hitting http://localhost:9021/.
Kafka List Topic(UI)
So everything is good so far and our data is getting streamed from MySQL to Kafka topic. To check our MySQL data in Kafka, you can run kafka-producer command for that topic from beginning as shown below.
Kafka Topic Data
Now let’s insert a row to MySQL Student table to verify the real time streaming capability. Let’s fire some SQL queries.
Insert into Student values (103, ‘Nishant’, ‘Chemistry’, 62);
Select * from Student;
So by now, our tables looks like below.
Updated Student Table in MySQL
As soon as you insert a record to your MySQL table, the same(newly inserted) record is getting streamed to Kafka. Your previous Kafka Topic Data or Kafka-producer screen is now showing the new record in JSON format. You don’t need to type anything, just check the terminal only.
Kafka Topic Data(Updated)
Cool…You have successfully implemented the Phase 1 of the whole model and we have completed almost 70% of implementation. Now let’s go for Phase 2(Stream the Kafka topic to Elasticsearch).
The primary task you need to perform is to install the Kafka Elasticsearch Connector to your Confluent Hub Components. You can try the below command from your terminal.
confluent-hub install confluentinc/kafka-connect-elasticsearch:latest
Let’s create a Configuration file for this connector similar MySQL_Config.json.
Here is my ElasticSearch_Config.json. Again, please pay a special attention to this as well. You need to put details Elasticsearch as per your configuration. In my case, Elasticsearch is running on port number 32769.
Elasticsearch_Config.json
Now let’s run the Kafka Elasticsearch connector using the config file just you had created. Please refer the attached image below.
Running Elasticsearch Connector
After this, if you want to check the status of the connector whether it is running or not, fire the status query for the connector as shown below.
I am using Kibana Dashboard to work on Elasticsearch. I believe you are familiar with this as well. Let’s click the developer mode and fire the query for the topic we have mentioned in the config file. Your screen probably should look like this.
Kibana Dashboards Screen
If you observe the right side panel, you will get to see your MySQL Student table data or Kafka_Connect topic data is present in JSON format. Now let’s insert a to MySQL table with the following sql query and re-run the GET command in Kibana.
Insert into Student values (104, ‘Pratiksha’, ‘Mathematics’, 91);
Kibana Dashboard Updated
As soon as you insert the record in MySQL, that record data got streamed to Elasticsearch which is visible in Kibana as shown above.
BINGO!, With this you have successfully implemented the pipeline/model i.e. Real Time Data Streaming from MySQL to Elasticsearch using Kafka. Mostly, I have attached the images of my screen here. I wanted to attach the codes and config files as well. But I want you to code yourself and create your own config files. CTRL+C and CTRL+V are not gonna help you for learn.
I wish you implement this pipeline end to end without any ERROR or issues. If you face such, please go through the code and config files where you have put details. Possible issues(typos) could be present there only. All The Best :) !!!
|
https://medium.com/@SrinivasChoudhury/real-time-data-streaming-from-mysql-to-elasticsearch-using-kafka-3881657c06d6
|
['Srinivas Choudhury']
|
2019-11-28 13:17:59.128000+00:00
|
['Elasticsearch', 'Kibana', 'MySQL', 'Kafka', 'Kafka Connect']
|
Trump may have Violated the Ku Klux Klan Act
|
The day after President Donald Trump invited three Michigan Republicans to the White House to discuss not certifying the state’s election results, a civil rights organization filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia’s Circuit Court alleging the president and his campaign violated a post-Civil War law meant to bar disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), who filed the lawsuit alongside four Black voters who cast ballots for Trump, said in the document that the president’s “repeating [of] false claims of voter fraud” and “pressuring [of] state and local officials in Michigan not to count votes from Wayne County, Michigan (where Detroit is the county seat)” would essentially “disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters,” many of whom are Black.
“Defendants’ tactics repeat the worst abuses in our nation’s history, as Black Americans were denied a voice in American democracy for most of the first two centuries of the Republic,” the 12-page document reads.
The judge assigned to this case? None other than Judge Emmitt Sullivan, who you may recall from the infamous Michael Flynn prosecution.
While Sullivan’s presence is sure to bring enough fireworks for lay observers, it is important to understand the historical gravity of the charge against President Trump and members of his campaign.
What the KKK Act Is and Isn’t
Trump and his campaign are accused of violating 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1983 — AKA Section 1 of the Ku Klux Klan Act — which was created to help enforce the provisions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
Known as the Third Enforcement Act, the law was passed in 1871 during a period known as Reconstruction. It was meant to directly respond to widespread violence and voter intimidation against Black communities by white people and members of law enforcement.
It protects “any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof [from] the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws.” It also holds that parties found to violate the law “shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity.”
At the time of its passage, the US was still reeling from the Civil War and in the midst of monumental change. For the first time in history, two Black men were seated in the Senate — Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, both of whom were from Mississippi. Similarly, the first public school systems in the south opened and, according to the Smithsonian, there was broad support for “guaranteeing full citizenship rights to all Americans, regardless of race.” Leading the charge was a former Confederate officer named Amos T. Akerman, the US Attorney General from 1870 to 1871.
President Ulysses Grant appointed Akerman to handle the onslaught of postwar legislation flowing through the newly minted Department of Justice because he respected Ackerman’s sense of honor. When he was appointed, Akerman was said to have defected from the Democrats to the Party of Lincoln because “Some of us who had adhered to the Confederacy felt it to be our duty when we were to participate in the politics of the Union, to let Confederate ideas rule us no longer….Regarding the subjugation of one race by the other as an appurtenance of slavery, we were content that it should go to the grave in which slavery had been buried,” according to the Smithsonian.
Yet, while these “emancipationist” policies were enacted, outside forces worked to grow the chasm between White and Black America.
As historian Ron Chernow detailed in his biography of Grant, Mississippi enacted laws that prohibited Blacks from enjoying recreations like hunting or fishing while white militias under auspicious names like the Jefferson Davis Guards sprung up across the nation.
This created a situation where racial terrorism ran rampant in Mississippi. During the first three months of 1870, Chernow found over 63 Black people were murdered, and the guilty parties spent a total of zero nights in jail. The US Attorney for the state was said to have remarked that “if it weren’t for the presence of the US army, the Klan would have overrun north Mississippi entirely.”
However, these atrocious acts were not only committed by private citizens. Many members of law enforcement participated as well, which is exactly what the KKK Act is designed to address. Section 2 of the Act makes it illegal to “conspire to deprive people of their equal protection under the law.” Sections 3 and 4 authorize redress against state officials who are complicit in such acts.
However, the effectiveness of the law has waned since its passage. The year it was enacted, over 3,800 convictions were secured in its name. Since then, few outside the Klan have been prosecuted under the Act. Most of the time, Section 1 is invoked in cases against law enforcement officers. But, the law has proven to be an ineffective tool, at best.
Rendering of Judge Carlton Reeves. Credit: CNN
The KKK Act Today
In the modern era, the KKK Act has been primarily cited in qualified immunity cases — a legal theory that posits a civil servant can’t be held accountable for crimes in which there is a discrepancy between the facts and the Constitutional provisions in question.
Qualified immunity is an incredibly potent defense. Several constitutional scholars agree the theory protects all but the “plainly incompetent or those who knowingly broke the law,” according to an article in the Yale Law Journal. To this end, the KKK Act is a toothless shark.
Judge Carlton Reeves, who occupies a federal bench seat in the Southern District of Mississippi, took the Act to task in his opinion in Jamison v. McClendon, a case where a white police officer dismembered a Black man’s rental car over suspicions the driver was carrying drugs.
According to the opinion, Officer McClendon subjected Jamison to over two hours of “badgering…pestering…and lying…” before conducting a top-to-bottom search of his car for drugs. McClendon left Jamison’s car in pieces, totaling over $4,000 in damages. As Judge Reeves succinctly said, “Nothing was found. Jamison isn’t a drug courier. He’s a welder.”
However, because there is no settled law concerning the actions law enforcement officers must take during traffic stops, his request for qualified immunity — which Judge Reeves said reeked of absolute immunity — was granted.
“But, let us not be fooled by legal jargon,” Judge Reeves wrote in his opinion. “Immunity is not exoneration. And the harm in this case to one man sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine.”
Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash
On the Future
It should be noted that this lawsuit has little chance of success. If US 42 1983 can’t be used to prosecute police officers, there is no way it will touch a sitting President.
However, the unflattering weakness of the law’s enforcement is already shaping the future of American politics — namely, it underpins the GOP’s attack on voting rights for Blacks, Indigenous, and other people of color.
“[Trump’s] systematic efforts — violations of… the Ku Klux Klan Act — have largely been directed at major metropolitan areas with large Black voter populations. These include Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and others. Defendants have not directed these efforts at predominantly white areas,” MWRO’s lawsuit says.
The truism Republicans tend to rely on in these efforts goes like this: smaller turnouts favor the Right while large turnouts favor Democrats. 2020 was a perfect example.
The Brennan Center for Justice has been tallying the numerous post-election lawsuits attempting to roll back voting rights across the country. While the sheer volume itself is overwhelming, a few through lines appear.
One of the most damning narratives is that Trump and his campaign are diligently working to redefine “eligible voters” and “eligible votes” as those who regularly participate in elections and come from predominantly white cities and counties.
Sen. Rand Paul (R — KY) made a similar argument on Fox Business when he said he was “very, very concerned that when [officials] solicit votes from typical non-voters, that [the voters] will affect the outcome [of an election].” By non-voters, Paul obviously means “non-whites.”
These arguments are already starting to have an impact on the first election of 2021, the runoff for both of Georgia’s senate seats. The Center for Public Integrity recently labeled the state a “hot bed of voter suppression tactics.” Even though the state rid itself of the Jim Crow-era poll taxes, the state is one of 19 that still requires voters to show ID to vote.
Georgia also has an aggressive method for purging voters from registers. Many believe these tactics are what delivered the state governorship to Brian Kemp over Stacy Abrams in 2018.
Since the 2020 election ended, NBC News found 40% of Georgia’s most populous counties have reduced polling places ahead of the senate runoff. Each county mentioned has a sizeable BIPOC population. Similarly, a recent lawsuit alleges over 200,000 voters were illegally purged from voting rolls ahead of the 2020 election.
What may be more damaging is that Trump’s repeated lies about the scale of fraudulent votes cast in 2020 are being used as justification to reverse key voting rights policies.
In Wayne County, Michigan, election canvassers signaled their support for such measures when one canvasser said she would be “open to certifying the rest of Wayne County (which is predominately white) but not Detroit (which is predominately Black), even though those other areas of Wayne County had similar discrepancies and in at least one predominantly white city, Livonia, the discrepancies were more significant than those in Detroit,” according to the lawsuit.
One way to combat these GOP efforts is to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to its original condition. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down an important provision of the law, which opened the door for local jurisdictions to make it more difficult to vote. Recently the American Civil Liberties Union recommended President-elect Joe Biden issue an Executive Order to restore the Act to its former prominence.
Congress could also pass legislation to strengthen federal enforcement of voting laws. However, this will be a pipedream if the GOP manages to retain control of the Senate.
Still, it is tough to imagine a more un-American act by a sitting president. Even Mitt Romney had to break with his party in defense of voting rights for all Americans.
“Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President,” he said.
|
https://medium.com/the-national-discussion/trump-may-have-violated-the-ku-klux-klan-act-ce413f51c89a
|
['Robert Davis']
|
2021-01-02 19:00:02.796000+00:00
|
['Racism', 'Law', 'Elections', 'Trump', 'Politics']
|
10 Sustainability Movements Driving Us into the Future and the New Regenerative Economy
|
Image Source: Shutterstock
Despite the imminent threat of climate change and the converging environmental tribulations, there is reason to be optimistic about our future. The broad sustainability movement has gained significant traction due to the ingenuity and leadership in smaller sub-movements. While the sustainability movement, as a whole, still needs to grow and accelerate, there have been clear and noteworthy advances that can be attributed to the concentrated efforts of various sustainability factions. Here are 10 focused movements that are making a big difference in the transition to a sustainable future.
1. Cradle to Cradle Design, The Upcycle, and the Circular Economy: Architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart disrupted the way we make things with their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle that was memorably not printed on trees. And, their 2013 book The Upcycle reinforced the notion that waste does not occur in natural systems. The duo articulate a clear vision for society — “a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy, and just world with clean air, water, soil, and power, economically, equitably, ecologically, and elegantly enjoyed.” Their vision continues to spread with the creation of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute founded in 2010 and conversations around the circular economy have blossomed all over the world. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, also launched in 2010, is on a mission to accelerate the transition to a circular economy that 1) designs out waste and pollution, 2) keeps products and materials in use, and 3) regenerates natural systems. Think about the impact this will have on the next generation of designers. Imagine how beautiful and elegant our products, architecture, and systems will be as we begin to see these designs implemented.
2. Biomimicry: Janine Benyus has also inspired the next generation of designers by exploring nature’s best ideas. She has developed and led a growing segment of the broader sustainability movement that emulates nature’s designs and processes to create a healthier more harmonious relationship between humans and the environment. The Biomimicry Institute and the Global Biomimicry Network have mobilized tens of thousands of students and practitioners to solve the world’s most complex design challenges. The International Living Future Institute also hosts a Living Product Challenge encouraging manufacturers to create products that are healthy, inspirational, and give back to the environment. The solutions that have emerged from biomimicry are brilliant, elegant, and often the result of interdisciplinary teams driven by curiosity and the creative pursuit of imitating nature.
3. Green Buildings: According to the Alliance to Save Energy, “Buildings — including offices, homes, and stores — use 40% of our energy and 70% of our electricity. Buildings also emit over one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than any other sector of the economy.” So, it makes sense that so many have decided to focus on our built environment. The built environment is also ideal as there are many building owners and stakeholders that can pursue the low-hanging fruit of energy conservation projects in many ways. When it comes to the design of new buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council has lead the way with their industry-defining LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications. The U.S. Green Building Council was founded in 1993, and has led the transformation of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry over the past three decades. And now, the industry is advancing further with attempts to raise the bar on building performance. The International WELL Building Institute is “the leading global rating system and the first to be focused exclusively on the ways that buildings, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness.” This rating system, similar to LEED, is articulating a vision at the intersection of buildings and public health. Combine this with the goal of Net Zero Energy, and we get a very high performing and beautiful building stock. The next 20 years of architecture will be invigorating and high performing.
4. Plant-based Diets — The World Resources Institute (WRI) has focused significantly on the impact of animal agriculture on global emissions. The WRI website states, “the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that total annual emissions from animal agriculture (production emissions plus land-use change) were about 14.5 percent of all human emissions, of which beef contributed 41 percent.” So, there is a significant need for us to reduce the amount of meat we eat. If we were to get to 100% electricity produced by renewables and found a way to achieve a neutral carbon footprint in every sector but agriculture, we’d still be 14.5% away from having a completely greenhouse gas neutral economy. Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, two companies that Bill Gates has invested in, are just two of what will likely be many plant-based meat alternative companies that carve into the GHG emissions of animal agriculture.
5. New Happiness and Wellness Metrics: More countries are now starting to focus on the health and happiness of their populations instead of just their economic productivity. There is a trend to prioritize human value over economic value. 2020 U.S. Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang has suggested creating an American Scorecard and deprioritizing GDP as a measure of economic success and societal wellbeing. New Zealand’s Happiness Index is another example of a national level effort to prioritize humanity over the all-mighty dollar. As more countries shift away from GDP as the singular measure of success, environmental sustainability and public health will continue to climb the ladder of societal concerns that policy makers prioritize.
6. Reforestation — In 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first African woman and the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for her “contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.” Her Greenbelt movement is credited for planting millions of trees in Africa. She has undoubtedly inspired a generation of environmentalists in Africa and globally that are committed to planting trees on a massive scale. There has also been a growing body of research and experimentation around the use of drones to plant trees. The notion of trees being planted by dropping seedlings from the sky seems a little bit ridiculous at first. But, drones also have capabilities other that flying. Drones can identify ideal locations for reforestation with sensors and simply by getting to places that are not easily accessible. So, it is conceivable that we could see the largest reforestation initiative in the next decade enabled by drones and inspired by Wangari Maathai.
7. Conscious Consumerism: It has never been more important to buy local. As the online commerce giants of the world destroy local main street economies, the role of the customer becomes more significant. The Conscious Consumerism movement goes beyond buying local though, really diving into the supply chain and being critical of companies that are not intentional about how they source, maker, and sell. Certified B Corporations have a emerged as leaders in this sub-movement. These are companies that have self-identified as organizations that care about social and environmental performance. “Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.” We can expect that this type of credential will have the same impact in some industries as LEED has had on the architecture, engineering, and construction industries, effectively raising the bar of performance.
8. Electric Vehicles and the American Charging Network: While Elon Musk has certainly been at the forefront of the Electric Vehicle industry over the past decade; the exciting news is that most other car manufacturers are getting in the game now too. Moreover, various state governments are providing funds for building out a robust American Charging Network. In the short run, this will decrease range anxiety, and in the long run, this will accelerate the transition to an all-electric passenger vehicle fleet. This is matched with an overwhelming majority of Presidential candidates supporting eventual zero-emissions standards and additional funding for electrifying the transportation sector.
9. The Anti-Plastic Movement: While there was some initial push back to the anti-straw effort made by environmentalists, there seems to be steady progress on multiple fronts of reducing single-use plastic. There has been steady behavior change that has been slowly happening for a long time, but the introduction of new alternatives to single-use plastic has enabled more people to buy-in to changing their habits. Likewise, there are a growing number of initiatives to clean up plastic waste in the ocean. At the very least, we should expect this sub-movement to continue to gain momentum and start to see measurable results in the next decade.
10. Climate Entrepreneurship: In his book Creating Climate Wealth, Jigar Shah argues that climate change — the biggest challenge of our time — can be turned into a $10 trillion dollar wealth-creating opportunity. Jigar Shah is the Co-Founder of Generate Capital, a company that is financing large sustainable infrastructure projects. And, there are startup incubators across the country focusing on sustainability now. Boston’s Greentown Labs touts itself as “The best place in the world to build a cleantech hardware company.” Techstars now has a Sustainability Accelerator developed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. This is a unique collaboration “seeking for-profit entrepreneurs with commercially viable technologies that can rapidly scale to help sustainably provide food and water and address global issues like climate change.” We can expect a new wave of sustainability entrepreneurs over the next decade that will disrupt the status quo and have a big impact.
All of these movements should give us reason to be hopeful about our future. Environmentalists should communicate an enduring optimism as we continue to build a new regenerative economy.
|
https://medium.com/environmental-intelligence/10-sustainability-movements-driving-us-into-the-future-and-the-new-regenerative-economy-c673731081d7
|
['Carbon Radio']
|
2019-12-11 07:12:52.321000+00:00
|
['Future', 'Sustainability', 'Leadership', 'Climate Change', 'Environment']
|
Is The Great Gatsby Problematic from a Historical Perspective? by Frank Marcopolos, ARM-E
|
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay “Jimmy Gatz” Gatsby.
When examining a canonical novel, one that is generally thought to be among the pantheon of greats in American literature, it is appropriate to view the novel from today’s standards in order to determine if the story has any “problematic” elements. This is to say that we should be concerned about whether or not time has revealed any flaws with regard to the perspectives, prejudices, or opinions of the time and era and culture of when it was written.
At first glance, it seems that The Great Gatsby may have some problematic elements. Let us examine each in turn to determine their validity.
1) Anti-Semitism.
In the novel, Meyer Wolfsheim is a Jewish gambler, businessman, and shady associate of Jay Gatsby. He is definitely portrayed in a negative light. Fitzgerald uses descriptions of him that could be seen as anti-semitic. For example, he describes Wolfsheim by mentioning his nose an inordinate number of times — an unusual way of describing a character’s actions and appearance. Unusual perhaps, until you realize that a traditional slur and stereotyping against Jewish people is that they have large “hook-shaped” noses.(1)
In addition to this, Tom Buchanon also calls Wolfsheim a “kike,” which is a slur against Jewish people. However, Tom Buchanon is the villain of the novel, so this could be excused as a way for Fitzgerald to show that Buchanon is a detestable character.
2) Racism.
In addition to being anti-Semitic, Tom Buchanon also appears to be racist against Black people. In a more famous passage from the novel, he asks whether Nick Carraway has read “The Rise of the Coloured Empires” by a man named Goddard. This is generally thought to be a parallel to a real book entitled, “The Rising Tide of Colour Against White World-Supremacy” by a man named Lothrop Stoddard. Tom claims that the book proves scientifically that the “Nordic race” is superior and must prevent other races from rising up lest they “take over.”
This is obviously problematic. However, because Tom is portrayed as a villain, it is unlikely that Fitzgerald is using him as a mouthpiece for his own opinions on race relations. Instead, these reprehensible attitudes can be seen as a vehicle for Fitzgerald to get the reader to dislike Tom.
3) Classism.
The Great Gatsby portrays the upper class of the United States as partying, dancing, deal-making, and generally having a great time during the “roaring ‘20s.” Meanwhile, the lower classes are seen toiling and living in the “valley of ashes,” a place of squalor and decay. A virtual army of servants attend to every need that Jay Gatsby and the Buchanons have. Meanwhile, the Wilsons live above their place of greasy employment while surrounded by ashes and ghosts. The escape Myrtle Wilson attempts to make is thwarted by the speeding and careless Daisy Buchanon — who suffers exactly zero consequences from the tragedy.
This is generally thought of to be one of the themes of the novel, so it was certainly an intentional juxtaposition by Fitzgerald intended to make the reader think about and consider the different circumstances of these classes.
4) Feminism.
Fitzgerald portrays his leading-role women as objects for men to acquire rather than as human beings with agency of their own. While it could be argued that this may have been an accurate portrayal of the plight of women, more or less, in the 1920s, it certainly does not ring true for a modern audience. This is especially the case for Daisy (Fay) Buchanon, as she is the “green light” object of Jay Gatsby’s desire. She also feels that the best thing that a girl can be in the world is a “pretty little fool.”
Jordan Baker is a professional golfer and something of a celebrity, but even she seems to be waiting for Nick Carraway to “make his move,” to use modern-day parlance.
Myrtle Wilson appears to be the stereotypical “trapped” woman who, despite being able to attract the likes of Tom Buchanon, can nonetheless not figure out a way to escape from her miserable existence married to a flaccid gas station owner in the middle of the valley of ashes (modern-day Astoria, Queens.)
At the same time, the novel depicts the female sexual liberation happening during this period of American history as portrayed by the “risque” fashion of women, the explosion of dancing to a new kind of wild music called “jazz,” and the free-flowing alcohol.
None of this is shown in the novel to be of any tangible benefit to women, however. Myrtle ends up dead in a ditch by the side of the road, Daisy is an inconsolable mess who has to flee town with her husband, and Jordan is rebuffed by Nick and fades into oblivion.
So, it does seem that The Great Gatsby has some historical issues, particularly with the descriptions of Meyer Wolfsheim and the depictions of women in the story. However, these can easily be understood within the context of its historical era, and as Fitzgerald attempting to write in a heightened, flowery, descriptive style.
Footnotes:
1 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_nose // Accessed August 2, 2020.
|
https://medium.com/@thebookquarium/is-the-great-gatsby-problematic-from-a-historical-perspective-by-frank-marcopolos-arm-e-2811893215b2
|
['The Bookquarium']
|
2020-12-26 18:31:47.902000+00:00
|
['America', 'Novel', 'Novel Writing', 'Gatsby', 'American']
|
Post — Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Medical Personnel.
|
Post — Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Medical Personnel.
Several doctors have been actively involved in treating COVID 19 patients for over a period of four months or even more without a break. They have watched some of their patients get well, others improve due to care but all of a sudden, relapse into very critical conditions and eventually die. These exposures to life threatening situations tend to affect these first responders emotionally and even worse psychologically. These experiences after a while tend to manifest as post-traumatic stress disorders — PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include eating disorder, panic attacks, nightmares, loss of interest in life and daily activities, emotionally numbness and detached from people and so many more.
A few days ago, I watched a female medical doctor who works in Abuja, Nigeria on television and she said she has not been home to see her family for about 8 weeks. She only talks to her children and her husband on the phone. She said she cannot imagine how her children are coping without her though she knows that the husband will cope somehow.
This story caught my attention regarding the experiences of medical personnel in taking care of COVID patients as daily first responders. These ones have risked their lives for the sake of helping someone get well.
Certain activities can help doctors recover from PTSD. Some of these are: support and encouragement from spouses and other family members, meditation and prayers, exercise and taking part in activities they love beyond their profession to take their mind off these stressors.
Doctors and other medical personnel also need emotionally and psychological therapies to remain secure, optimistic and happy to live and be able to treat COVID-19 and other patients. This probably explains why a family friend who is a nurse, who in recent times increased her activity on Facebook sharing hilarious moments, pictures and comments with friends. These conversations on her timeline often crack up anyone that reads her posts.
This is a tribute to all medical personnel who take care of COVID-19 and other ill patients. We love you and will always remember the risks you take to ensure your patients get well.
|
https://medium.com/@chimditagbo/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-among-medical-personnel-a290384c9744
|
['Onyema Tagbo']
|
2020-08-13 09:32:20.722000+00:00
|
['Covid 19', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Medicine', 'Nurse', 'Doctors']
|
The Brexit Party.
|
The Brexit Party.
Today saw the brainchild of Nigel Farage come to fruition as the Brexit Party was officially launched. As a protest against the leading parties and an attempt to push through Brexit, Farage has launched a war against the elites from a factory in Coventry.
The group joining Farage include business people, educators and a journalist who happens to be the sister of Jacob Rees-Mogg. In total six candidates were announced today who will run in the European Parliament elections next month.
The aims of this party seem straight forward. A swift end to the Brexit delay and an overhaul of British politics, hence the party slogan of ‘change politics for good’. With Farage back as a party leader, it means that he is back in the big time. Not that he ever really went away, his musings whilst in his seat at the European Parliament were always just around the corner.
Farage has come under fire from his old party for comparing TBP to UKIP. The current leader of UKIP, Gerard Batten, criticised Farage saying that the parties are not the same as:
“UKIP has a manifesto and policies. Farage’s party is just a vehicle for him.”
He said the Brexit Party’s “only purpose is to re-elect him (Mr Farage)” and was a “Tory/Establishment safety valve”.
If the Brexit Party could be taken seriously, they might be a genuine threat. However, just hours after the launch event, it was revealed that the domain for the party website was in fact owned by a group called ‘Led by Donkeys’ which is firmly anti-Brexit. This sort of unawareness and lack of common sense has made sure it’s a comical start to life for Farage's new party.
Farage himself isn’t exactly a successful politician. Other than being an MEP and leader of UKIP, he has run for a seat in Parliament on seven occasions and is yet to be successful.
Having an entire party dedicated to Brexit does produce a lot of questions. The idea of creating a party for a cause which could be irrelevant in 6 months leaves a lot to be desired. Any of the candidates put forward might have their political careers cut woefully short, with only the upcoming European Parliament elections to focus on in terms of gaining support.
There is plenty of support for the party. Delay after delay to the Brexit process has created fertile ground for a party of this kind to come in and take support away from both the Conservatives and Labour. Whether the support on social media manifests into anything more concrete remains to be seen, but as of this moment in time they are nothing more than a drop in the ocean and a great distance away from ‘revolutionising politics’. The European elections next month could, however, tell a different story.
|
https://medium.com/@pjhollis123/the-brexit-party-why-their-revolution-of-politics-is-light-years-away-46bca5972ae8
|
['Patrick Hollis']
|
2019-04-19 15:38:29.407000+00:00
|
['Politics', 'UK Politics', 'Brexit', 'World']
|
did you know these all ?
|
in 1998, Sony had to recall 700,000 video cameras after customers realised that the product inadvertently boasted ‘X-ray’ capabities. They were not actually camcorders. They were the devices with which people could actually see through clothes. Sony still has this tech but will never release it.
2. The entire 1985 Super Mario Bros. game was only 32 kilobytes in size. The above image was 87 kilobytes at the time of upload!
3. If you are not sure whether you are dreaming or not, try reading some book. The majority of people are incapable of reading in their dreams. This is because reading and dreaming are the functions of different parts of the brain. The same goes for time. Each time you look at a clock, it’ll tell a different time and the hands on the clock won’t appear to be moving. And may be that’s why Inception don’t have any reading scene.
4. Japanese death row inmates are not told their date of execution. They wake each day wondering if today may be their last.
5. here is a company named TrueMirror® that makes non-reversible mirrors. Instead of ‘mirroring’ you (your left is the mirror’s left), it shows you how you actually appear to others.
|
https://medium.com/@bishanpatel123/did-you-know-these-all-bf46c09ab276
|
['Bishan Patel']
|
2019-09-23 07:44:10.522000+00:00
|
['Unbelievable', 'Facts', 'Amazing Facts', 'Nintendo', 'Facts And Myths']
|
Unmasked by a Pandemic — Why Being Yourself is the Hardest Thing These Days.
|
The air is heavy with droplets of infection but its clearly not the only thing that is making us sick during the time of the Corona Virus. There are also the droplets of apathy , self obsession , hypocrisy and a smugness that makes itself evident at this time. And it is sickening the very fabric of our society. In these troubled times, there is a burning need to stay relevant at any cost and combat Quarantines and Lockdowns with an over zealous presence on Social media . Perhaps this is the only way one can stay sane and be heard .
Why is everyone trying harder than ever to make their presence felt?
Clearly, the masks we wear are not only to combat a virus but perhaps to combat anonymity and a sense of abandonment as well.
I watched a quiet cousin , I had known all my life as a quiet ,reserved and intensely private individual suddenly get his act together and begin to share a plethora of posts from music to food to books to every other interest of his. There were photographs of everything from a new jacket that he had just pulled out of his closet , to the Creme Brulee he’d tried his hand at making . Songs , recipes , books read ,critiques of Govt policy …they were all par for the course. And then began the slow and painful journey of waiting to see how folks would react and the cringe worthy feeling of being ignored when they didn’t.
There are no clear rulebooks on how to play this game and ambiguity and uncertainty are bound to shadow an action which is in clear contrast to your otherwise reticent personality once the mask has dropped.
For a society that greatly values perception over reality thanks to the allure of digital media, the current pandemic is the final nail in the coffin of authenticity . Maintaining a seemingly robust public persona has become a heady and addictive drug for confident as well as socially awkward folks alike. And the new norms of maintaining social distance also dictate that getting noticed and staying relevant is all that matters as our social landscape is altered beyond our imagination and at breakneck speed.
The pain of being ignored at these times almost outstrips the ill effects of the Virus itself that has forced us to go underground. If you have nothing to say , dont say it . But in the Digital age , this is perceived to be suicidal .
If you DO NOT say something , DO NOT have an opinion and DO NOT share it , you have ceased to exist.
I began to look closer at the few brave souls who still stayed offline , regardless of fading into oblivion. My 96 year old grandmother is one. To her the best part of her day is still the phone call or visit from a loved one. Conversations that happen in real time and not through Facetime or Zoom or any other app. Conversations that are still peppered with loud laughter and end with a physical hug…and even if one isnt able to hug anymore , its the deep comfort in knowing that someone still really cares by the gleam in their eyes and the warmth of their smile.
Is it possible that many of us are welcoming the social distance then to hide our true selves behind the masks of social media? This way noone has to be subjected to the true anxieties and insecurities that plague you everyday. You are always prepped and primed for perfection. Who cares if its isnt real.
Ofcourse the internet has rewarded those who truly want isolation with a perfectly legitimate way to stay distant and yet connected. But its also strangely morphing the way in which we connect and forcing us to project a persona and a situation that is artificial and contrived.
This is not helping us combat our feelings of social isolation . .its just forcing us further apart. After all there’s nothing that makes you feel more alone than the need to pretend to be somebody else all the time.
So it is ok to go offline at times , just doing what you love best — gardening , reading or making that favourite recipe. There’s no burning need to share the times you spend actually doing the things you love and no necessity to constantly seek ratification through sharing .
Infact it could help you to ignore and be ignored by the internet at large whenever you feel the need to connect with noone but yourself. That world will still be there for you when you get back. And in the meantime , think of all the glorious things you will finally pay attention to …the smell of freshly brewed coffee , walks with your dog , painting the fence you never thought you’d get round to , planting a new avocado sapling in your garden. Do it for yourself and know that nobody is watching .
Perhaps someday soon you’ll realize that was the best part.
Divyata Rajaram
|
https://medium.com/@divyata-rajaram/unmasked-by-a-pandemic-why-being-yourself-is-the-hardest-thing-these-days-a29821f89eca
|
['Divyata Rajaram']
|
2020-05-20 03:32:15.730000+00:00
|
['Isolation', 'Human Behavior', 'Society And Culture', 'Psychology', 'Social Media']
|
The C-word
|
I have been thinking about death lately. Not wanting to die. Just the fact that I will one day die.
And who I wanna be when I die.
It came part and parcel with this obsessive search for purpose. The WHY we live question. It confronted me with a related question — what will really matter when I die?
You can dwell too long on these thoughts and then realize it can very quickly turn morbid and make you just want to do nothing from that point on — or just hit that delete button on the million photos you need to sort ……since none of it will really matter anyway when you’re gone.
So I decided that I want to plan my “day of death”.
Everybody has a choice about the day they die.
Not the date.
Not the way you will die.
Not the time nor the place.
But the WHO you want to be on the day you die.
We all want a happy ending, right ? But what will this happy ending be for me? Would I want…..
Lots of Money? No.
Lots of Legacy? Perhaps.
Lots of Love? For sure.
Fights? No. Hate? No. Regrets? No. Conflict? No. Critical? No.
Be remembered as the Judgemental One? Heck No.
It helped to decide what I didn’t want to be when I die. But I was doing so many little things that would exactly lead me to where I did not want to be in the end.
I was so busy living that I forgot who I wanted to be and become.
Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash
So I decided to start with the END in mind and make it back to where I am right now. I came up with a list of the things/ traits I want to have. For me, it seems to be the C-word.
No. Not that one. All the good ones you can think of.
C- ompassionate.
C-aring
C-haracter ( a person with “soul” or somebody who is remembered after they leave a room)
C-haracter-building -helping others to be that person
C-alm
C-reative
C-aretaker
C-onsiderate
C-arefree — this would be a big plus… but a big challenge especially if you reach a high age
C-ool would be nice
C-lassy — I hope.
C-ollective
C-onnected
C-ertain — of myself, my values, my beliefs
C-onscientious
C-onsistent
C-lose to my loved ones….. a real challenge in today’s world
C-omfortable
A good C-ompanion
C-ompass for my kids and grandkids
C-urated — with life experiences
C-urious — about life, things, people.
C-areful — health, words, impact.
It didn’t help for me to figure out who I want to be and think that tomorrow I will just be that person. Because there is a reality of who I am today. And from today to my dying day, I have room and time to improve and become the person I choose today to become. But it will require a lot of work.
Since I have decided the WHO I wanna be when I die, I have thougth a lot more about my actions before I take them. I must have stopped myself from 20 Facebook comments or shares, simply because it took away my “Calm”. I pushed myself to connect more with people, when I have to consider whether or not I will go out or stay home. I try now to take every step in the direction of where I want to be eventually. And surprisingly it has made me stop in my tracks several times to re-direct my next move.
Why would it matter who you are when you die? Because this is how you will be remembered. Money won’t matter. Things won’t matter. Knowing that who you are, who you touched, what impression you made, who you impacted or inspire, how my kids will think of me….. those things will matter. And I want to every day rub out the steps in the sand that I took that day that did not bring me closer to who I want to be when I die. And then put my foot in the right direction to connect where I am today, to where I want to be tomorrow — it might be my dying day. But I will be closer to who I wanted to be than I was today.
For every person the WHO you want to be will be different — I want you to think — which letter is the one you hope to be on your day of death.
And how will this impact you very next , and every after, decision.
|
https://medium.com/@byilze/the-c-word-1c40fbd20e5f
|
['Ilze Oosthuizen']
|
2019-04-12 04:37:28.508000+00:00
|
['Lifehacks', 'Life Journey', 'C Word', 'Death', 'Purpose']
|
Use This One Simple Technique to Kill Procrastination
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How to Kill Procrastination
If your goal is to climb a mountain and you know the why and how of it; and what will be the path,” you will be confident. If you know someone has done it before, you will be even more hopeful, which will drive you further.
This level of clarity is useful, but not enough to keep you moving in your day-to-day actions. So ask yourself these two questions:
1. How can not doing something bring you more “pain” than doing it?
In my case, I wasn’t taking any step to grow myself, and my pain got severe over time, which forced me to take action. However, if there is no pain and you are in a comfort zone, you can induce it. For instance:
How ugly will I appear in the next two years if I don’t exercise daily?
How badly will competitors swipe the market share if I don’t adapt to a new business model?
How will I pay the EMI for a newly bought land-rover defender if I don’t upgrade my skills or change my job?
This technique will work if the pain of no action is more than the pain of action.
You can make it effective with the power of visualization. Like when you “vividly see yourself as fatso” or see something scary. Excessive pain may also trigger fear and that might kill your desire, so use it prudently.
2. How can doing something bring you more “pleasure” than not doing it?
After the painful kickoff, I aimed to work on a few projects, and one of them was to explore non-fictional writing. Initially, I was checking the responses to my published articles every hour.
How engaging was my article?
How many readers liked it?
It wasn’t much different from people addicted to social media. But I wanted to quit this endless cycle to check.
I discovered an activity, (in one of my journal sessions), that made me happier. I created a visual report for my published articles, and looked forward to reading those who performed better. By analyzing article reading data and comparing between them, I gained more pleasure than watching several hits. This cycle of feedback gave me joy, visible progress, and hope to reach my goal.
A few other examples to understand it better.
What if I use my Netflix watching time to lose my fat, train my muscles, and look leaner?
What if I use a new business model and have a monopoly on the market?
What if I do a part-time MBA and get promoted to be an area sales manager in my company?
Find out what you can relate to with pleasure and visualize it. “Look at the lean and fit version of you, sweating on the beats with the routine at the gym.” This will pull you like a magnet and help you get rid of less pleasurable tasks.
|
https://medium.com/illumination/use-this-one-simple-technique-to-kill-procrastination-b6338bc95b87
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['Kapil Goel']
|
2020-12-26 07:04:25.374000+00:00
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['Goals', 'Self-awareness', 'Self', 'Procrastination', 'Advice']
|
A simple yet profound truth.
|
Wherever you are in your journey, you know things others don’t. As best-selling author Derek Sivers once said, “What’s obvious to you is amazing to others.” You can get a lot of clients and teach them what you know, if you know how to sell your services.
|
https://medium.com/@ricakeenum/a-simple-yet-profound-truth-e7b9b53ec184
|
['Rica Keenum']
|
2020-12-18 18:24:49.874000+00:00
|
['Writing Tips', 'Business Development', 'Freelancing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business Strategy']
|
User research for an e-commerce start-up
|
1. Challenges
Our challenges were to understand the resellers—
a. Why the New Resellers on the Zeeto platform are dropping off in the early stages after installing the app by placing 0–3 orders.
b. How we can help them at the initial stages and also to validate some assumptions about the New Resellers which leads to them not being able to Resell well enough leading them to quit reselling.
Another challenge which we added to the list later on was to enable the partners to get involved into reselling with the Users so that the Users get a boost in their reselling specially when they are new to reselling. This we realized was a necessary thing to do based on the insights from the first Descriptive research with the resellers.
2. Aspirations
Our aspirations are —
a. To make the life of New Resellers on the app a little easier so that they don’t drop off.
b. By the end of this research we would like to build a strategy which would significantly boost New Resellers performance on the app and increase Orders Per Reseller.
3. Focus Areas
Our focus areas will be primarily on the —
a. General resellers behaviors and motivations on and off the app while reselling.
b. New Users behavior, motivation, attitude towards reselling, their pain points while reselling, Journey maps, Empathy maps, personas and their Archetypes.
c. We will also focus on Partner’s involvement areas with the New Users, their Journeys with the users, Empathy maps.
A deeper dive into these areas would give us some direction towards a solution to help the New Users in reselling and henceforth retain them on the app,
4. . Guiding Principles
a. Descriptive Research on the Resellers — Behavior Maps, Reseller Insights — Product, Design, Customer Experience, Strategies towards reselling, etc.
b. Directional research on the New User Resellers — Assumption Validations, Personas, Archetypes, Empathy Maps, Journey Maps, Usability Testing.
c. Directional research on the Partner Users — User-Partner Journey Maps, Empathy Maps, E-mail Survey.
5. Activities To Perform
The activities we will perform to reach our goals are:
a. Secondary Research about the Resellers and the company’s Business Model.
b. 1 on 1 interviews — Sampling, mobilizing the users, questionnaire building, telephonic interviews, transcribing, documenting the insights.
c. Surveys — English and Hindi
d. Data Analysis.
e. Usability Testing.
f. Presenting the insights to the — Product Team, Design Team, Customer Experience Team and Marketing & Sales Team(Aligning all the teams)
g. Iterations to the App Design, Marketing Strategies, etc.
h. Ideating Solutions — product strategy building.
6. Measurements
a. Increase in order per reseller.
b. Decrease in frequency of New Reseller drop offs.
c. Increased apps ease of use.
d. Post Product iteration reseller feedbacks.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
So that we don’t deviate from our mission we kept this blueprint with us all the time.
To know more about UX Strategy and how to create UX Blueprints and effectively use it you guys can also go through this great article by Jim Kalbach by clicking on this link. https://articles.uie.com/ux_strategy_blueprint/ It helped me a lot.
Now since we already know the problem statement and our missions and objectives are clear we start with our work. We started off with the Descriptive research on the resellers.
Descriptive Research On The Resellers
Our user assessing criteria — App optimization skills, Customer Base expansion skills, Skill & Market intelligence, Order Placing Potential.
Aim:
To understand the Zeeto Resellers behaviors, journeys, motivations, problems, attitudes when it comes to placing orders, sharing products with customers. By this understanding our aim is to increase order per reseller and help the resellers to earn more money.
Our Approach
We planned to do a Design Sprint which would take us 7 weeks to complete.
We started by building the team — Designers, Product managers, Researchers, Data Analysts, Marketing people, Business people. We tried to get at least one member from each team to be present during the entire sprint. This was necessary to keep everyone aligned towards the same common goal. Every team will have their own perspective of things and working in a company we have to keep not of everyone’s perspectives. Most of the heavy loads were on the Product and the Design team.
In some other article I will talk about User Researchers key role of uniting teams across an organization.
a. First Week — Day 1–3:
a. Secondary Research using previous research material
b. Building the problem statement, the research approach and presenting it to various teams across Zeeto on a PPT format.
To save time we emailed the PPT’s ahead so that members from respective teams can come prepared with their feedbacks and suggestions for us to take notes of.
b. First week — Day 4–5:
Building the questions for the 1 on 1 interviews with the users and discussing them with the Design and Product Team and getting their feedbacks, cluster sampling of users and mobilizing the users for interviews which starts on next week, working on interview guidelines — do’s and don’ts and logistics.
The Sample —Number of Users : 16 female participants, Region : Urban, Semi- Urban and Rural.
We clustered our users based on their regions from where they belong to Urban, Semi-Urban and Rural so that our insights have some variety as Zeeto Resellers are from all over the country from various backgrounds. Customer Experience(CX) team gave us the list of 16 highly motivated users by looking at their reselling stats like — earnings, orders, etc. They called them up, took their permission and lined up the interviews from Monday to Thursday.
c. 2nd Week — Day 1–4:
1 on 1 Telephonic Interviews
a. During the interviews one of us focuses only on asking questions, others take notes and interrupt either at the end or in between only if it is very important and record the interviews on our phones as we keep it on loudspeaker so that everyone can keep taking some notes to discuss them later. We later on listened to the recordings and transcribed and documented them word by word, extracted insights and showed them to teams across Zeeto at the end of every day so that they also stay on track and also get to know from them if there is anything we can find out next from the users as the research proceeds.
d. 2nd Week: Day 5(Friday)
The last day of the week was completely dedicated into documenting, making Powerpoint slides. We had to decide what insights to show to each team — Product,Design, Marketing, Sales, Customer Experience. We wanted each team to get something out of this research to work on so our focus was on filtering at least some actionable insights for each team to work on towards our common goal. Although we tried to finish as much work as possible in our office hours, we ended up doing some transcribing of the recorded user interviews and other remaining work on the documents and the PPT Presentation over the weekend as we had to present it in front of the company’s CEO on Monday.
Results & Observations
d. 3rd Week: Day 1:
a. On Monday we Presented the Insights in front of all the different team members. Notes were taken down, feedbacks and suggestions shared and discussed. We had a Product Working Session where we discussed actionable insights for the product.
b. The insights were categorized into these categories — Product & technology, Product Category, Design, Customer & Reselling Experience, Reseller Behavior and Strategic approach to reselling.
e. Third Week: Day 1- 3
a. From here on the Design and the Product team started working on the actionable insights to make minor changes to the Product and Design.
b. Changes were made to the Search function, Filter function and Category Sections on the app which the users said were not very easy to use and discoverable.
c. The Design team took 2 days to make a quick prototype to do a Remote Usability Test with our users which was planned for the 4th day of the week.
d. I got involved into developing the script for the Remote Usability test, mobilizing the participants and deciding on the metrics for the usability test on whose basis we will try to understand our users — time taken to perform the tasks, success(whether user can perform the task or not), users subjective satisfaction and error rate.
e. The Sample — We did a cluster sampling of the users where we divided them according to the number of orders placed by them and time spent on the app. We divided the participants into three categories — New Users, Active Users and Pro Users.
f. Third Week: Day 4
On the fourth day of the third week of the sprint we started of with the Remote Usability Testing. We formed two teams for the test — each team had a User Researcher whose. We kept taking notes by asking the participants questions when they get stuck and also after they finish their tasks.
The tasks given to the participants were:
Task 1
To search for an item under a sub-category which comes under a category.
Aim — a. To check whether the new way in which sub categories were organized under categories were discoverable and easily understood by the users and also to check the path taken by them to accomplish the task.
b. To see whether the names given to the new sub-categories were easy to understand.
Observations:
Only the New Users were struggling to perform the tasks, they were not able to use the filter option as well as add margin while placing the order. Users used 3 types of path to reach to the product under the sub categories
a. Using the search function to directly find the product under the sub category.
b. Browsing and clicking on the category until they found the sub category to find the product using search function again.
c. Clicking on the category and browsed for the product inside it without going to the sub-categories. It took them longer to find the product in this manner.
Task 2
To use filter option for applying price range, material and color and place the order for a Saree from the Clothing Category.
Aim — a. To see if users can discover the new filter option on the app.
b. To see if they can use it easily to find the product of their choice and apply price range, material, color, etc.
Observations:
Most reseller’s were able to use the filter option to customize the products they are searching for except the New Users.
2. Resellers had to be guided towards the new Filter option. It was not discoverable. So intuitively they ended up using the old filter option which they are used to using.
“Nobody cares about the thing you’ve designed, unless you can get them past the beginning.” — Julie Zhuo, Product Design VP @ Facebook
Our Scope:
a. To make the user flow more intuitive for the New Users keeping in mind of the Next Billion Users.
b. To announce the feature during the onboarding.
c. To communicate relevant value with context — at the right time, with the right messaging when the new feature is introduced.
User Research Insights:
Some of these resellers said that they take their partners help during all the stages of reselling and others took some help initial stages when they are new to the platform.
Pro and Active Resellers were easily able to finish their tasks.
New Resellers were the ones who struggles the most to perform the tasks. They lacked app optimization skills.
Interestingly very few Pro resellers were also not able to perform the tasks very properly. When asked how they did it otherwise while placing orders they said that their husbands helped them all the time.
3rd Week : Day 5
a. On the last day of 3rd week the Insights were presented across all the teams and planning for the next research started.
b. Since we got some insights which indicated that our New Users are facing some problems in using the app and backed up by some more New User assumptions related to reselling from the Product and Marketing Team we decided to do a Directional Research to validate or invalidate these assumptions and also try and understand how the partners were helping them in their journey.
Research Scope: To find out how can we enable partners to be more involved with the New Users so that their overall reselling experience improves hence more orders placed by the resellers.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
4th Week : Day 1–2
The first two days of the fourth week was dedicated to :
a. Building the Research Approach —
A background research about the New User Resellers — orders placed, time spent on the app, their feedbacks. Get the list of assumptions to validate. Building the Questions for the 1 on 1 telephonic interview which would be in the direction of validating those assumptions. Deciding on the User Sample — 30 female participants from all over India. We categorized the resellers into two categories:
a. O-1 Category — The resellers in this category has recently downloaded the app but not yet done more than 1 order.
b. 1–8 Category — The resellers in this category has not done more than 8 orders since last 6 months.
5. Mobilizing the users — The CX Team randomly called up the users. 15 from the 0–1 category and 15 from the 1–8 category. This time we gave the CX Team a participant screening script to make sure we have the right willing to participate participants with us. There were few who were not interested for interviewing, and since we had to know the reasons behind their demotivation we requested them to give us their time and also offered them some reward.
Directional Research On The New Resellers
Problem Statement-
New users drop off at the initial stages after placing 0–3 orders using the app.
Aim —
a. To identify motivations, behaviors, attitudes of New Resellers on an off the app in the area of placing orders and understanding reselling overall.
b. To understand the partners involvement in the New Users journey of reselling. To understand the partners motivations, behaviors, attitudes while helping or being involved with the New Reseller during reselling.(For this we did a separate Directional Research ).
c. To validate some of our assumptions for the New Users which we found out during our previous research with the resellers.
|
https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/user-research-for-an-e-commerce-start-up-f97b35b35598
|
['Biswajeet Das']
|
2020-12-29 20:16:22.993000+00:00
|
['User Research', 'Design', 'User Experience Research', 'User Experience', 'Strategic Planning']
|
Building Yuki, A Level 3 Conversational AI Using Rasa 1.0 And Python For Beginners
|
Building Yuki, A Level 3 Conversational AI Using Rasa 1.0 And Python For Beginners
Part 1: Setting up the base to program complex chatbots
Fascinated by artificial intelligence powered chatbots or natural language understanding and processing but not sure where to start at and how to build stuff in this domain?
You are at the right place. I have got you covered. Just read on and together let us unravel the simplicity of complex topics in our journey to build something marvelous. I would recommend you to have a quick read through the article once to get the overall idea, bookmark the link to this article, and then come back later to follow along with me in doing all the tasks I mention here. I have simplified the details to that extent that even if you are a middle school student, you can follow along well and learn all the aspects of bot design. All you need is the zeal and passion to build something and some basic understanding of how computers work and a little bit about programming!
But yes, this tutorial is not only for beginners. Those with considerable experience might also find it helpful to kick start their development process.
Before getting started I want you to know the main motivation in writing this one.
To give a different perspective to what building something means
To enable self-learners alien to this subject feel the ease at which something can be learned
and finally to highlight what the future holds, it’s gonna be bots everywhere.
Please note that I am writing this tutorial for a Windows 10 PC. However, a similar approach should work in Linux with very few modifications. If at any point in the article, any keyword, step, or technical term appears unclear, feel free to ask in the responses/comments and I will clarify it. With that being said, let us get started, keeping our end goal in mind.
“Can you create an AI as complex as Jarvis, if not better?”
Jarvis from Iron Man
✔️ Checkpoint 1: Understand What You Are Building
A level 3 conversational AI is basically a computer program that can understand human language along with the intent of the speaker, the context of the conversation, and can talk like one. We, humans, assimilate natural language through years of schooling and experience. Interestingly, that’s exactly what we are going to do here, build a bot, parallelling how a human baby learns to converse. At the end of this project, here are the objectives we want to achieve, to create a bot that-
can chitchat with you
can understand basic human phrases
can perform special actions
can autonomously complete a general conversation with a human
can store and retrieve information to and from a database (equivalent to its memory)
is deployed on Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Google Assistant, and Alexa, etc.
✔️ Checkpoint 2: Setting Up Your Development Environment
To build something incredible and quick, you will need great tools and easy to use frameworks. Here is my setup-
Download and install the latest versions of these in your system. It is preferred to install them with default paths and settings.
After installation, go to your search bar in desktop and type ‘Anaconda Prompt’ (terminal). Open it and create a new virtual environment for our project by typing the following command:
conda create -n bots python=3.6
This will create a virtual environment called ‘bots’ (you can create an env with whatever name you want) where you can install all the dependencies of your project without conflicting with the base. It is a good practice to use virtual environments for projects with a lot of dependencies.
Next, activate this virtual environment by typing (always ensure you activate it while makes any changes or running the program)-
activate bots
Now, install the rasa stack by typing the following command-
pip install rasa
It may take a few minutes to download all the packages and dependencies. There is a chance that you may encounter some error or warning. When you are stuck up somewhere, remember that Google has all the answers you want. Search your error message and you’ll find a solution in sites like StackOverflow.
In a similar way, you can install any Python package in your activated environment. We will be using a library called Spacy in the future. Install it now. ( -u is used to install only for the current user without admin privileges)
pip install -U spacy
Then run the following command in terminal to download a spacy model.
python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm
✔️ Checkpoint 3: Creating The Skeleton Of Our Bot
We are using the open-source rasa-stack which a very powerful, easy to understand, and highly customizable framework for creating conversation AIs (hence the choice). Before we finalize the functionalities of the bot, let us do some magic with a single line of command.
Create a new folder on your desktop and name it for your reference. I named mine as ‘Yuki’, the name I gave to my bot.
the name I gave to my bot. Now, go back to the anaconda prompt terminal and reach your project directory by typing the following command:
cd desktop\yuki
Note that the syntax is cd followed the path to YOUR folder .
followed . Next type the following command:
rasa init
You will see a prompt asking to enter the path to the project. Since we are already in the project folder (Yuki), you can just press ‘Enter’. Just follow along with the terminal. You will see that a core and an NLU model getting trained after which you should get a prompt to talk to the bot in the command line. Boom! you have just now built a bot! Talk to the bot, say a ‘hi’ maybe!
So what the hell happened just now? You basically created a rasa project with the above command which initialized a default bot in your project folder. We will be working on top of this to build our bot.
✔️ Checkpoint 4: Understanding The Structure Of Your Bot
Now, open the new folder you created before. You will see so many new files in it. This is your project structure. Here is a brief on each of them:
Data Folder: Here lies your training data. You will find two files, nlu.md (training data to make the bot understand the human language) and stories.md (data to help the bot understand how to reply and what actions to take in a conversation).
Here lies your training data. You will find two files, (training data to make the bot understand the human language) and (data to help the bot understand how to reply and what actions to take in a conversation). Models Folder: Your trained models are saved in this folder.
Your trained models are saved in this folder. actions.py: This is a python file where we will define all the custom functions that will help the bot achieve its tasks.
This is a python file where we will define all the custom functions that will help the bot achieve its tasks. config.yml: We mention the details of a few configuration parameters in this file. I’ll get back to this later.
We mention the details of a few configuration parameters in this file. I’ll get back to this later. credentials.yml: To deploy the bot on platforms like Telegram or Facebook Messenger , you will need some access tokens and keys. All of them are stored in this file.
To deploy the bot on platforms like or , you will need some access tokens and keys. All of them are stored in this file. domain.yml: One of the most important files, this is like an index containing details of everything the bot is capable of. We will see more about it later.
One of the most important files, this is like an index containing details of everything the bot is capable of. We will see more about it later. endpoints.yml: Here, we have the URL to the place where the actions file is running.
Once you are clear with the file structure, read ahead.
So, how exactly does it work?
Rasa has many inbuilt features that take care of a lot of miscellaneous things allowing you to focus more on the practical design of the bot from an application point of view. Don’t think too much about the inherent technical aspect at this moment. Follow along carefully, and you will find yourself building a complex AI at the end of this tutorial.
✔️ Checkpoint 5: Designing The User Experience (UX)
Before you go any further, you need to decide the purpose of your bot. What will your bot be used for? Here are some generic ideas:
Weather bot that can tell the user about various weather parameters in the required area.
A Wikipedia based bot that can answer to any kind of general knowledge-based questions.
A Twitter-based bot, that can update the user with what’s trending right now in the location of interest.
A generic search bot that can search about something (Eg: Jobs) based on user’s queries.
From a commercial standpoint, an ordering/booking bot using which the users can purchase goods like clothes, order food, or book tickets to movies, travel tickets, schedule appointments with professionals like doctors, lawyers, etc.
In short, the possibilities are limited by your own imagination. Think of JARVIS or EDITH from the MCU. It is even possible to build something like that. Too many choices? I will design my bot here, which you can try to replicate, but I hope you can be a little more creative to build upon your own ideas. Whatever idea you have, the steps will be similar.
As for Yuki, I will be demonstrating almost everything that is possible, with the end goal of creating an all-purpose conversational AI in a series of tutorials.
In my first design, I want to demonstrate these two things:
How to use APIs (this stuff is like magic, super useful and easy to use)
Playing with custom functions
Here’s what I want my bot to be capable of for now:
Fetch the latest news or articles on the internet based on users topic of interest or search query
Capability to handle the simple general conversations
Now I will list down all the functions/actions that the bot needs, to achieve its capabilities;
utter_hello
handle_out_of_scope
utter_end
get_news (and so on…)
Make a brief list like this for your bot. Next, I made a list of human intents the bot will have to detect from the messages users send it.
Intents
greet
bye
getNews
affirm
deny
thank_you
out_of_scope (Everything else for which the bot is not programmed yet for must be detected as out of scope)
All this data goes into the domain.yml file. So, here’s how I expect my ideal user to interact with Yuki:
User : Hi!
: Hi! Yuki : Hola! I am Yuki. What’s up?
: Hola! I am Yuki. What’s up? User : Get me the latest news updates
: Get me the latest news updates Yuki : Give me a topic/keyword on which you would like to know the latest updates.
: Give me a topic/keyword on which you would like to know the latest updates. User : <enters the topic name>
: <enters the topic name> Yuki: Here’s something I found.
<Links to news articles fetched>
Yuki : Hope, you found what you were looking for.
: Hope, you found what you were looking for. User : Thanks!
: Thanks! Yuki: You're welcome.
This is generally referred to as a ‘Happy Path’, the ideal expected scenario that happens when a user interacts with the bot. Whatever bot you want to design, have an idea of the basic conversational flow it is expected to handle, like this. Write down multiple flows with different possibilities for your reference. The above flow (along with any minor variations to it)is the basic expectation we want to achieve.
Apart from this, we are going to teach Yuki how to respond to chitchat questions like ‘how are you?’, ‘what’s up’, ‘who made you?’, etc.
Once you are ready, move to the next checkpoint.
✔️ Checkpoint 6: Building Your NLU Model
First, let us teach our bot some human language, to identify the intents. Start Visual Studio Code, click ‘File->Open Folder’ and choose the project folder (in my case, Yuki).
Open the data/nlu.md file in your code editor. You will already see some default intents in it. This is the place where you add data about every intent the bot is expected to understand and the text messages that correspond to that intent. Update this file with all the required intents in the same format. My finished nlu.md file will look like this:
## intent:affirm
- yes
- indeed
- of course
- that sounds good
- correct
- alright
- true
## intent:bye
- bye
- goodbye
- see you around
- see you later
- ttyl
- bye then
- let us end this
## intent:chitchat_general
- whats up?
- how you doing?
- what you doing now?
- you bored?
## intent:chitchat_identity
- what are you?
- who are you?
- tell me more about yourself
- you human?
- you are an AI?
- why do you exist?
- why are you yuki?
## intent:deny
- no
- never
- I don't think so
- don't like that
- no way
- not really
- nope
- not this
- False
## intent:getNews
- Send me latest news updates
- I want to read some news
- give me current affairs
- some current affairs pls
- Find some interesting news
- News please
- Get me latest updates in [science](topic_news)
- latest updates in [sports](topic_news)
- whats the latest news in [business](topic_news)
- send news updates
- Fetch some news
- get news
- whats happening in this world
- tell me something about whats happening around
- interesting news pls
- latest updates in [blockchain](topic_news)
- get me latest updates in [astronomy](topic_news)
- any interesting updates in [physics](topic_news)
- I want to read something interesting
- I want to read news
- latest news about [machine learning](topic_news)
- latest updates about [Taylor Swift](topic_news)
## intent:greet
- hey
- hello
- hi
- good morning
- good evening
- hey there
- hola
- hi there
- hi hi
- good afternoon
- hey
- hi
## intent:thank_you
- thanks!
- thank you
As it is directly evident here, you are basically giving your bot the data to make it understand what words imply which intent of the user. These are some fundamental human intents. You can add more if you want. Also, notice how I divided the chitchat intent into chitchat_general and chitchat_identity for more specificity. To create a robust bot, be as specific as you can with your intents.
Also, notice how I have placed some words in [] followed by () . These are the entities or the keywords with some significance in users’ text. To help the bot understand the same, this general syntax is used.
And it’s as simple as that. You are done with NLU! Rasa will take care of the training part for you. Let’s now move on to the next checkpoint.
✔️ Checkpoint 7: Updating The Domain File
The domain.yml file must contain the list of all the following stuff:
Actions: These include the names of all the custom functions we implement in actions.py as well as the ‘utter actions’
These include the names of all the custom functions we implement in as well as the Entities: These are specific keywords present in user input which the bot can extract and save it to its memory for future use. For now, my bot requires only one entity which I named ‘ topic_news ’. This basically refers to whatever topic the user seeks the news.
These are specific keywords present in user input which the bot can extract and save it to its memory for future use. For now, my bot requires only one entity which I named ‘ ’. This basically refers to whatever topic the user seeks the news. Decide upon what entities you need to extract based on your use case . For example, the Name of a person if you want to create a user profile internally, a geographical location, if you want to give the weather update, food items if your bot can order food online, email ids to subscribe the user to something, etc.
. For example, the of a person if you want to create a user profile internally, a geographical location, if you want to give the weather update, food items if your bot can order food online, email ids to subscribe the user to something, etc. Intents: We have already discussed intents. In the domain file, you’ll have to include the list of the same.
We have already discussed intents. In the domain file, you’ll have to include the list of the same. Forms: The form action is a special feature provided by rasa stack to help the bot handle situations where it needs to ask the user multiple questions to acquire some information easily. For example, if your bot has the ability to book movie tickets, it must first know details like the name of the movie, the showtime, etc. While you can program the bot to react according to user context, using forms is highly efficient in such situations. In my case, I have a getNews form action which we will explore further on how it can be implemented. The names of all the form actions you implement must be put up in the domain file.
The is a special feature provided by rasa stack to help the bot handle situations where it needs to ask the user multiple questions to acquire some information easily. For example, if your bot has the ability to book movie tickets, it must first know details like the name of the movie, the showtime, etc. While you can program the bot to react according to user context, using forms is highly efficient in such situations. In my case, I have a which we will explore further on how it can be implemented. The names of all the form actions you implement must be put up in the domain file. Slots: In short, the entities and other internal variables that the Bot needs are stored in its memory as slots.
In short, the entities and other internal variables that the Bot needs are stored in its memory as slots. Templates: These are like the blueprints of all utter actions. Utter actions need not be implemented anywhere else separately. But remember, they must be named in utter_<sample> format. You are essentially teaching the bot, the language, the text that it must use when it wants to send some message. You can have multiple text templates for each utter action.
These are like the blueprints of all utter actions. Utter actions need not be implemented anywhere else separately. But remember, they must be named in format. You are essentially teaching the bot, the language, the text that it must use when it wants to send some message. You can have multiple text templates for each utter action. Check out my domain.yml file for reference, to understand how you should update your domain file with respect to your bot design.
domain.yml
There are so many customizations and variations possible. The format you see here is given by Rasa, and includes keywords that make use of its features like ‘buttons’. As you can see, your domain file contains a summary of everything the bot can do.
Up to this point, we have hardly written a line of proper code, and we are about halfway done with the project! Notice how much ideation and brainstorming would go into building a high-level application even before you start coding. That’s the important part, the use case, and design. Anyone can write lines of code, but only a few can create brilliant products.
Remember that a good programmer isn’t always a great product developer and a great product developer isn’t always required to be a good programmer.
Highly functional AIs can have 100s of actions, intents, entities and be connected to huge databases. We are now taking the first steps towards this direction.
|
https://medium.com/the-research-nest/building-yuki-a-level-3-conversational-ai-using-rasa-1-0-and-python-493e163c7911
|
[]
|
2019-11-18 21:16:59.152000+00:00
|
['Technology', 'Chatbots', 'AI', 'Tutorial', 'Bots']
|
d3.csv(): Reading in Data via D3
|
Loading and accessing the data
Download the data set to follow along.
If you’re not familiar with asynchronous programming, these next parts might feel a bit confusing to you. We’re going to have to work on the honor system though, as I’m not about to explain it in this post.
Alright — so first thing is first: we need to access the data. Here’s a simple script (and common pattern) to do so:
// Load Data
d3.csv("datasources/Sample-Superstore.csv")
.then(res => {
console.log(res)
})
In an oversimplified explanation, we’re waiting for the data source to be read (as the “res” variable) and then calling our next function(s). This prevents the functions from trying to execute before the data is available. If you’re wondering what the arrow-looking thing is, don’t worry — I’ll cover that in a bit.
Now, look at your console. You should see an array of objects. By expanding one of those objects, you will find all of the properties associated. Looks correct, right?
However, notice that every value was ingested as a string. This obviously will make any further math virtually impossible (or at least a major pain in your ass).
Let’s create a function called “type” that converts all of the necessary fields into numeric values.
// 1. Helper functions
const dateParser = d3.timeParse(“%m/%d/%Y”); // 2. Type Conversion
function type(d) {
return {
RowId: +d[“Row ID”],
OrderId: d[“Order ID”],
CustomerId: d[“Customer ID”],
ProductId: d[“Product ID”],
CustomerName: d[“Customer Name”],
City: d.City,
State: d.State,
PostalCode: +d[“Postal Code”],
Region: d.Region,
Category: d.Category,
SubCategory: d[“Sub-Category”],
Product: d[“Product Name”],
Sales: +d.Sales,
Quantity: d.Quantity,
Profit: +d.Profit,
Discount: +d.Discount,
OrderDate: dateParser(d[“Order Date”]),
ShipDate: dateParser(d[“Ship Date”])
}
} // 3. Load Data
d3.csv(“datasources/Sample — Superstore.csv”, type)
.then(res => {
console.log(res)
})
Let’s break this code into three chunks:
Helper functions: This is where you place functions that will help you do small tasks, such as parse dates, format numbers, remove characters, etc. Type Conversion: To the main point, this function explicitly casts the data point of interest to their respective type. Columns not specified will not be returned. Loading Data: Notice right next to the file directory, we’re invoking the type function we’ve just created.
Now, look at your console. You should see an array of objects. By expanding one of those objects, you will find all of the properties associated. Looks correct, right?
Awesome! Now we’re ready to start playing with our data.
|
https://medium.com/d3-for-the-javascript-illiterate/d3-csv-reading-in-data-via-d3-3a04dd6ac5c8
|
['Tim Lafferty']
|
2020-04-26 20:01:16.412000+00:00
|
['Beginner', 'D3js', 'JavaScript']
|
8 Rules for optimal use of color in data visualization
|
8 Rules for optimal use of color in data visualization
The objective of data visualization is to communicate key results from the data analysis workflow. And while a chart must look aesthetically appealing, its primary objective is not to ‘look pretty’.
Use of color in a visualisation should be to help disseminate key findings instead of being part of some sort of artistic endeavor
Rule 1 : Use color when you should, not when you can
Use of color should be carefully strategized to communicate key findings and this decision, therefore, cannot be left for automated algorithms to make. Most data should be in neutral colors like grey with bright colors reserved for directing attention to significant or atypical data points.
Sales in million USD from 1991–1996. Red colour is used to draw attention to unusually low sales in 1995. Nearly uniform sales in other years are all rendered in grey. [made by author]
Rule 2: Utilize color to group related data points
Color can be used to group data points of similar value and to render the extent of this similarity using the following two color palettes :
A sequential color palettes is composed of varying intensities of a single hue of color at uniform saturation. Variability in luminance of adjacent colors corresponds to the variation in data values that they are used to render.
A divergent color palettes is made of two sequential color palettes (each of a different hue) stacked next to each other with an inflection point in the middle. These become helpful when visualizing data with variations in two different directions.
The chart below on the left uses a sequential color palette made of a single hue (green) for values ranging from -0.25 to +0.25 while chart on the right uses a divergent color scheme with different hues for positive (blue) and negative (red) values.
Percentage change in population in the USA from 2010–2019. The divergent color scheme made of two hues (red and blue) with an inflection point at zero is more suitable than a sequential color scheme. [made by author]. Source of data.
In the map on the right, positive and negative values can be identified immediately based on color alone. We can immediately conclude that the population of mid-western and southern towns had declined and that in the east and west coast has increased. This key insight into the data is not immediately obvious in the chart on the left where not color itself, but the intensity of color green must be used to read the map.
Rule 3: Use categorical colors for unrelated data
Categorical color palettes are derived from colors of different hues but uniform saturation and intensity and can be used to visualize unrelated data points of completely dissimilar origin or unrelated values. Check out this visualisation of different ethnicities in New York City. There is no correlation between the data for different ethnicities and a categorical palette is therefore used here.
Sequential and divergent color palettes should be used to render changes in magnitude by encoding qualitative values while categorical color palettes should be used to render unrelated data categories by encoding quantitative values.
Rule 4: Categorical colors have few easily discernible bins
While the use of different colors can help distinguish between different data points, a chart should at most comprise of 6–8 distinct color categories for each of those to be readily distinguishable.
Number of satellites in service of top 15 nations. [made by author]. Source of data
Use of a separate colour for each of the 15 countries makes the chart on the left difficult to read, especially for countries with fewer satellites. The one on the right is much more readable at the cost of losing information on countries with fewer satellites, all of which is grouped in the “others” bin.
Note that we have used a categorical color scheme here as the data for each country is completely uncorrelated. The number of India satellites, for instance, is completely independent of those of say France.
Rule 5: Change in chart type can often reduce the need for colors
A pie chart probably is not the best option in the previous example. The resulting loss of categories may not always be acceptable. Plotting a bar chart instead, we can use a single color and retain all 15 data categories.
Number of satellites in service of top 15 nations. [made by author]. Source of data
If there is a need for more than 6–8 different colours (hues) in a visualization, either merge some of the categories or explore other charts types
Rule 6: When not to use sequential color scheme
For the subtle difference in color of a sequential palette to be readily apparent, these colors must be places right next to each other like in the chart on the left below. When place away from each other like in a scatter plot, the subtle differences become difficult to grasp.
Sequential color schemes are difficult to interpret when the data points are not located immediately next to each other as in the scatter plot on the right. These colors may only be used to visualize relative values as in the chart on the left. [made by author]
Best use of a sequential color scheme is to render relative difference in values. It is not suitable for plotting absolute values which are best rendered with a categorical color scheme.
Rule 7: Choose appropriate background
Check out this animation by Akiyoshi Kitaoka that demonstrates how our perception of color of the moving square changes with changes in its background. The human perception of colors is not absolute. It is made relative to the surroundings.
Perceived colour of an object is dependent not only on the colour of the object itself but also of its background. This leads us to conclude the following with respect to use of background colors in charts :
Different objects grouped by same colour should also have same background. This in general means that variations in the background colour must be minimised.
Rule 8: Not everyone can see all colors
Roughly 10% of the world population is colour blind and to make coloured infographics accessible to everyone, avoid use of combinations of red and green. Shown below are how people with three different kinds of color blindness view the same map.
How colour blindness affects perception of colours. [made by author]
Conclusion
The impetus of visualisation is to tell the story behind data. Only a thoughtful use of colour can help strengthen key arguments in this story.
Tools for selecting colour combinations.
Summarised below are some resources that I have found helpful in my work on the use of colours in data analysis and visualization.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/8-rules-for-optimal-use-of-color-in-data-visualization-b283ae1fc1e2
|
['Aseem Kashyap']
|
2020-12-28 14:51:03.614000+00:00
|
['Data Analysis', 'Colors', 'Data Visualization']
|
5 Reasons Why You Need To Exercise The Right Way
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Regular exercise can lower your risk of heart and circulatory disease by 35%, but the real question here is that; are you doing it the right way?. As the song says “it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it”. Exercise is a skill and like any skill it requires practice and understanding of technique. Beginners and even the so-called professionals make some mistakes going about some routines in the wrong way.
proper exercise
The good news is that we can now start to change. You need to take some time to learn the proper procedure and actually learn how to become more coordinated. Quality over quantity every time. Here are 5 reasons why you need to do exercise the right way:
To achieve the best result — Inconsistency will yield a low result. Ten real reps are better for your body than 100 not so good attempts. Don’t go for speed over power. Focus on good form rather than trying to quickly crank out reps.
Ripped
To prevent injury — Doing certain exercises wrong isn’t just useless, it can even injure you. Always do 10 mins warm up, don’t go heavy for a couple of weeks and focus more on your form than weight. Make sure you master the basics before you try the fancy workouts that you see on social media.
Keep ego outside the gym. If you cannot do more than 6 reps with a weight, then drop it and go for a lighter one. Form is greater than weight. The faster you understand that the lesser the chance of injury.
To fully integrate multiples muscle groups: You learn a lot of things by training with a full range of motion. One of the things that happen by training through full range of motion is, you learn how to integrate multiples muscle groups. The ones that are all responsible for performing those compound lifts, to get them to execute the movement properly. You do that through more and more strength as you build it up, and coordination. So, a full range of motion is great for that.
More efficient fat-burner — Your body will never change significantly until you change how your metabolism works. Most people are wasting their time dieting and exercising because they’re not targeting the one thing actually controls their metabolism. By targeting your hormones you’ll become a more efficient fat-burner, have more energy, and lose unwanted weight fast.
Changes the composition of microbes in the body — Yeah, you heard that right! Proper exercise can change the composition of microbes in the body. Researchers have found evidence that exercise when done the right way can change the intestinal microbiota independent of diet. This benefits people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease.
The final point is that you should avoid wasting time; by writing down what you do when you train. How much weight for how many reps, instead of wandering aimlessly and guessing if you’re making progress.
|
https://medium.com/@fran6jy/5-reasons-why-you-need-to-exercise-the-right-way-aa11d2058698
|
['Francis Babatunde']
|
2020-12-20 21:23:38.382000+00:00
|
['Workout Routines', 'Fitness Tips', 'Exercise', 'Fitness', 'Workout']
|
BDSM for the Curious but Terrified
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BDSM for the Curious but Terrified
There’s a reason we call it ‘play’: you experiment until you find what feels right
Photo: Levi Midnight/Unsplash
Have you ever asked your partner to hold you down during sex? What about a spank? Have you ever barked or purred in the middle of fooling around? Or maybe you’ve had more than a sideways glance at the floggers, paddles, and nipple clamps at a sex shop.
Whatever you want to call it — BDSM, fetish, S&M, kink — venturing beyond your standard sex repertoire can be damn intimidating. I know that’s how it felt for me. One way or another, I carried a persistent fear that if I picked up a flogger or squeezed myself into some rubber thigh highs that I’d be pulled into a world that seemed altogether frightening. I wasn’t ready and was sure I’d be hurt, or inadvertently hurt someone else.
The reputation of mass media like Fifty Shades of Grey (blech) didn’t help any. I didn’t want to be mean. I didn’t want to demean anyone. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I thought I didn’t have a dominant bone in my body, but the thought of giving myself over to someone’s kinky imagination caused almost as much anxiety. I approached the subject as if it were a hot pan on the stove, and I’d quickly be burned if I touched it.
What I didn’t see were all the ways I was already playing around with BDSM concepts. For a time, I described myself as “vanilla with sprinkles.” Dildos and vibrators were fun, and the thought of my girlfriend with a strap-on got my motor running, but kink was just a little something extra for special occasions or when I was just the right kind of tipsy. It took me a while to question what vanilla even is, and how it’s a relative term that has no objective marker.
I’m kinkier than I thought. And the more I learned, the less I had to fear.
That’s what I want to share with you.
My introduction to the scene was somewhat abrupt, from occasional indulgences at home to dropping right into a busy play party. It was over a year before I participated in anything. My friends in the community were deep in — organizing events and classes, running parties, and influencing the local scene — but I didn’t share that goal, and everyone else at the events seemed like they already knew each other. For the first time since high school, I felt like a bit of a wallflower.
Often, I still am. I’ve done a little scene or two at play parties, but most of my experience has been with my partner. And that’s a totally legitimate way to explore. Community is a wonderful thing and often provides opportunities to learn you’ll never get from a book. Classes, workshops, and more are excellent—especially in upholding community standards and expectations about how to play safely and responsibly.
But if the thought of huddling into a stranger’s living room to learn the finer tips of safely trampling someone, tying them up, or delivering a good flogging makes you tense up with worry, there are still some ways you can safely start to explore without feeling like you need to save a couple hundred bucks for a new, all-black outfit.
Be willing to learn
Maybe you already have some idea of what you like. Something that just happened during a roll-around or a moment in a movie that made you feel a little funny. That’s good! But before you start grabbing for the rope and dog collar, you’ve got some learning to do.
Almost any BDSM activity can be dangerous. So are many of the things we do every day, be it hammering a nail or driving a car. And that’s to say nothing of emotional safety and the responsibility we have to the people we wish to play with, whether that involves sex or not. Don’t assume you know anything.
Doing a bit of reading about how to say what you want, listen to the other person, and get on the same page is something just as important as learning to roll a condom over a banana.
The New Bottoming Book and The New Topping Book by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy are great places to start. Ideally, you should read both. Aside from maybe finding virtues on both sides of the spectrum — I, like many, am a switch — the fact is that the better you can empathize with your play partners, the better chance you have of having a pleasant time. The books are very much versed in the scene, and contain some examples that make you go “I’d never do that,” but they’re not so much about prompts and techniques as about communication, consent, and safety. You really need those basics down, and if you don’t know what FRIES stands for, definitely question yourself on what you understand about consent.
Learning to speak for ourselves, communicate effectively, and, in particular, respond well when something goes sideways are more important than your skill with a whip or magic wand. It’s the core stuff you need to know whether you’re in your own bedroom or in a room full of leather-clad people, and it’ll bring benefits even if you never so much as tie another knot in your life. So many of us are afraid to share our fantasies; face shame and recrimination when sex doesn’t go how we expected; and otherwise feel like we can’t communicate freely about the stickier parts of existence. Doing a bit of reading about how to say what you want, listen to the other person, and get on the same page is something just as important as learning to roll a condom over a banana.
Make a menu
Lucky you, alive in the 21st century. Kinky expertise doesn’t have to be passed down from person to person. There are videos, websites, books, and all sorts of other media to get instruction, pick up tips, and connect with people. If you really want to be an expert rigger—master of rope suspensions—then, yes, it’s a good idea if you look up your local kink community and start getting a feel for who you can learn from, but many of us pick a more laid-back path.
But once you’ve got your communication skills down, what do you do?
You make a menu.
Maybe you’ve already heard of a Yes/No/Maybe list. You create those three columns in a document or on a piece of paper and think of every risqué thing you’ve ever heard of, putting it in the Yes, No, or Maybe columns. It can act as a rough guide for places to start by pinpointing things you already have some interest in.
You can even turn it into a menu. Not all the items exist in isolation. Anal might be on your list, for example, but maybe some spanks or a flogging might help you relax. If you’re up for it, you can pick some items to make a menu of Appetizers, Mains, and Desserts, planning out a sequence that will make you relaxed, provide the thrill you’re after, and then shift into aftercare. (Do not forget the aftercare.) This way you’ve got some context for what you want to do. I couldn’t say for anyone else, but I know I wouldn’t like to be spanked or slapped abruptly. It needs to be part of a flow and within a context that allows it to be sexy instead of annoying. And if you’re exploring with a partner, you can always present them with a menu of possible activities to choose from. Lots of kink activities easily combine with each other and become intertwined on your BDSM skill tree.
Now, learn more
So let’s say you’re excited at the idea of being tied up, and, while you’re not sure about impact play, those floggers sure do look interesting… Now’s the time to do a bit more research.
At this point, almost every kind of play has some sort of book or resource guide devoted to it. Books like The New Topping/Bottoming Book or even Girl Sex 101 might go over some common activities in light detail. Books like BARK! and The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage involve more specific tips.
And this is important.
It doesn’t matter how much you spent on that new flogger. If you strike too hard, in the wrong place, or both, you can do permanent damage. Even a simple rope tie can make limbs go numb and constrict blood flow to a dangerous degree if done improperly. Even words — dirty talk that gets a little too nasty — can cause pain and have terrible consequences. Don’t assume you’re the world’s greatest Top because you bought some shiny pants and some nipple clamps from Lovehoney, any more than you’d think yourself a chef ready to nail that steak au poivre on the first try because you bought an apron. For anything you’re going to use — from implements to something as simple as touch and what you say — learn to use them responsibly first, working with care even as you do something devilish.
Speed limits
So you’ve done your homework, picked up something fun to play with, and want to get started. Good. Now go slow.
Many of us are never encouraged to explore our bodies and sensations. We aren’t familiar with what’s going to feel good or bad, intense or mild. Where and how we like sensations takes time and practice that most of us never put in despite how essential it is for sexual health.
So, do it yourself.
This is part of why we call it play — it’s a way to be curious, experiment, and learn, open to exploration and discovery.
Whether you’re planning on being a Top or Bottom or something undefined, take plenty of time to touch and think about sensation. What do you like? What’s okay? What will drop you right out of your happy place? If you’ve got a partner, touch with them — no judgment, no goal of sex, just curiosity (at least until you can’t take it anymore and have to jump each other, if it’s going well).
Then you can start bringing in the implements. If you’re tying your Bottom with rope, start loose and find the right tightness. If you’re flogging, start light and then work up. (That flows back into context, raising excitement and anticipation, as well as working with physiology instead of against it.) If you’re trying pet play, make sounds and roll around but don’t criticize yourself if you need words or to talk something out.
This is how you learn more. You might find that you prefer scratchy, natural fiber rope to smooth synthetics. You could discover that a stingy flogger hurts but a thuddy one is divine. Perhaps dirty talk from your partner is a turnoff but you like saying those things instead. This is part of why we call it play — it’s a way to be curious, experiment, and learn, open to exploration and discovery.
Drop, stop, and roll
You’ve done your homework, gotten some gear, learned how to use it, and, beautifully, you’ve had a lovely time.
That doesn’t mean you’re done.
BDSM play can be intense. Sometimes it brings memories or feelings up that were suppressed, or might otherwise surprise us. Even the sensations themselves can be a lot to handle: crackly energy, or a kind of calm that we never want to leave. Even if all parties are happily grinning in a puddle of their own endorphins at the end, you might find yourself feeling unsure or even depressed the next day. “How could I have done that?” “Was that really okay?” “If it was so much fun, why do I feel bad?”
There’s no single reason for these feelings, but there is a word for it — drop. Maybe you’ve felt the same thing on a Sunday after a great weekend party, or the day after you’ve spent a lovely time with a friend. All the good we felt seems to… drop, and it’s easy to turn that inward as if something’s wrong with us.
Nothing’s wrong with you. The phenomenon is common, and you can be ready for it. Before you even start anything with your partner, you can talk about what’s important after. Have some water nearby, and even a little candy for a sugar boost. You might want a bath, sex, alone time, to be cuddled close, or something else comforting. Maybe you’ll find yourself ravenous and want to eat soon after or the next morning. A shift in feelings or a strong desire for something comforting is normal, and being prepared for it means that you can offer the reassurance, support, and care in the way that best suits you.
Maybe you’ll try a few things out and find that, well, they’re just okay. Or maybe they’ll open new worlds of experience and sensation that you’ll be hungry for. Maybe you’ll plug into the local scene, or perhaps you’ll keep things confined to your own bedroom. There’s no right path other than the one you decide for yourself. If you are committed to safe, responsible, consensual play, then you can chart any course you like. You’re likely to learn much more than how to throw a set of tails against your partner’s backside.
Now go have fun.
|
https://humanparts.medium.com/bdsm-for-the-curious-but-terrified-5058a2aabcfa
|
['Riley Black']
|
2020-06-25 20:41:54.706000+00:00
|
['Kink', 'Sex', 'Sexuality', 'BDSM', 'Relationships']
|
Real-time Security Insights: Apache Pinot at Confluera
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Data brings in an intentional, methodical, and systematic way to make decisions.
At Confluera, we are continually identifying and collecting signals from customers’ environments to protect them from potential threats. We wanted to create Security Insights and provide Observability into the customers infrastructure surfacing novel patterns, allowing them to tighten their security poster.
To enable this feature we went looking for a datastore that can power such insights in a timely manner, which eventually led us to the Apache Pinot project. This blog post will talk a bit about the architectural needs that led us to select Pinot and how it helped us build our product’s required capabilities.
Bit on Confluera’s Graph Building
To give a high-level overview, Confluera offers a threat-detection and response platform. It maps activities happening in an infrastructure environment into graphs by consuming system-level events from hosts that are part of the infrastructure.The graph is further partitioned into subgraphs based on individual intents, which is then fed into our detection engine for finding malicious activities.
This proactive real-time graph building helps our detection engine in a couple of ways:
The behavior that the threat engine is analyzing is put into a context.
Unit of detection is an intent-partitioned sub-graph instead of a singular event.
The above capabilities help reduce noise and save time by pre-building the attack narrative and providing a surgical response
See below blog post to understand more about how we do this.
Threat investigations, Analytics & Security Insights
Once Confluera identifies a threat, we wanted to aid the investigation by providing a platform to search through all the events and at the same time provide a way to answer a query through slicing/dicing over the events through this threat-hunting platform.
Below is a screenshot of our product summarizing a multi-stage attack into a coherent storyline. In addition to this suspicious behavior, there’s a lot of benign activity that is not flagged. We wanted to close the gap by giving users the ability to dig through the entirety of potential attack activity.
In addition to the above threat-hunting feature that is mainly suited for “war-time,” we wanted to build a view into the infrastructure’s “peace-time” behavior by surfacing interesting security insights through analytics. Example insights are infrastructure wide behaviors such as dns requests happening, programs connecting from outside, login failures etc.
Requirements
With the above product goals in mind we wanted a datastore which supports following features:
Real-time: Graph building and threat detection work in real-time — so we needed a datastore to be real-time too so that it integrates well with the rest of the product.
Graph building and threat detection work in real-time — so we needed a datastore to be real-time too so that it integrates well with the rest of the product. Low latency analytical queries: Most queries to the datastore would be over a subset of columns, and most queries are analytical queries.
Most queries to the datastore would be over a subset of columns, and most queries are analytical queries. Time-series: We needed a time-aware database since the queries we have would very much be bound to a time period.
We needed a time-aware database since the queries we have would very much be bound to a time period. Scalable: We are a write-heavy workload, and the event ingestion rate should scale with the size of the infrastructure.
We are a write-heavy workload, and the event ingestion rate should scale with the size of the infrastructure. Pre-defined queries: Since most of the queries are pre-defined, the underlying datastore must support executing these queries with a strict low latency SLA.
Since most of the queries are pre-defined, the underlying datastore must support executing these queries with a strict low latency SLA. Data correction: We don’t expect data modifications in the streaming data to be inserted, but in any corrections or backfilling, the datastore should support the backfilling of the data.
Based on this high-level understanding of our requirements, we found OLAP datastores to satisfy most of the above requirements. We spent time comparing Apache Druid and Apache Pinot for our use case.
We chose Apache Pinot primarily because of the availability of star-tree index, low latency over a set of queries we were interested in, and a very responsive and active community.
Benchmarks
In this section we present benchmarks done to compare Apache Pinot and Apache Druid in terms of latency and throughput. Apache Druid was set up with 2 data nodes (historicals and MiddleManagers), 1 query node and a master node (Coordinator and Overlord) with historical and broker caches disabled. Apache Pinot was set up on 3 nodes, with 2 server nodes and 1 Node containing Broker & Controller. Each node is of aws instance type m5a.2xlarge (8vCPUs and 32GB of RAM). We loaded both the systems with the same dataset which has 700 million rows, enabling similar indices.
Below is a latency comparison on some of the queries we tried on Apache Pinot vs. Druid. Latency numbers shown below are obtained from the query metadata reported by both the systems as part of their dashboard. Results were captured once the latency stabilized for both the systems to avoid cold data or indices.
As shown above, Apache Pinot was able to support lower latencies for all these queries.
Throughput test is done using python clients of pinot (pinotdb) and druid(pydruid). The following graph displays the throughput observed on pinot vs druid with basic setup (i.e. no tuning). The query used for this throughput test is as follows: “Select count(*) from table where col_A = X”
As seen in the graph, Pinot is able to sustain a higher throughput albeit with increased p99 latencies.
Apache Pinot’s Star-tree index and how it sped up our analytics queries
Star-tree index provides a way to trade off storage for latency by doing smart pre-aggregation over a set of columns of interest. On top of that, enabling this index is just a config change away and reloading the table makes the index available for older segments.
Queries that are part of our security insights and analytics queries are pre-defined, and by using this index, we were able to optimize the latency into the levels we desired. The below chart shows the speedups we achieved on one such aggregate query over data corresponding to different periods.
Query latencies with star-tree index are ~60x times faster compared to inverted index. Query is of the format “Select col_A, count(*) from table where <time period> and col_B filter group by col_A order by count(*)” with col_A, col_B part of star-tree index.
Please note : the latencies shown above are in log scale.
Star-tree index has been handy for us in introducing new aggregate queries into the product in a relatively short period of time — since the amount of time required to tweak the latency to reach our requirements is just a config change away, provided the data is already consumed by and is in Pinot.
Set up with Pinot
Currently, Pinot’s setup consumes data from the graph-building engine through Apache Kafka, and we use S3 as a deep store. Data correction or backfilling of the data is done using an offline spark job. We use a TTL on the data stored in Pinot, which leads to an auto clean-up of older data while checking on the resources we need. If Pinot requires additional resources (for example, a new server), we introduce a new server, tag it with the appropriate tenant, and trigger a rebalance that would distribute the consuming and rolled out segments among the new servers.
With this setup, we closed gaps in our data infrastructure and helped enable following capabilities into our product and our team:
Real time security insights & threat hunting platform : Our forensic capabilities match the speed of the attackers.
: Our forensic capabilities match the speed of the attackers. Query Speed : Engineers have seen complex API calls achieved within double digit milliseconds.
: Engineers have seen complex API calls achieved within double digit milliseconds. Deep Visualization : Designers were able to achieve a deep level of inspection and visualization of data.
: Designers were able to achieve a deep level of inspection and visualization of data. Scalable and Manageable: Pinot segment management provided our DevOps team with a horizontally scalable system that can meet customer needs fast.
Conclusion
We started actively using Pinot a few months ago, and in this relatively short period, it has been part of multiple feature rollouts. Our experience so far has been great. We have found Pinot to be operationally simple to manage, scaling to our event ingestion rate. Indices made available by Pinot have been useful for us in experimenting and rolling out new features relatively quickly and at the same time meeting our latency needs. We just started using Pinot in our infrastructure and are excited about expanding usage in our product and inside Confluera.
We (Confluera) are passionate about security & infrastructure, if you would like to learn more about the product or see what Apache Pinot has enabled us to build into our system or just want to talk about cybersecurity, shoot out an email to [email protected]
|
https://medium.com/confluera-engineering/real-time-security-insights-apache-pinot-at-confluera-a6e5f401ff02
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[]
|
2020-12-12 23:59:40.073000+00:00
|
['Security', 'Olap', 'Pinot', 'Realtime', 'Insights']
|
Isn’t that just a theory?
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One way to dismiss an idea is to insist that it “is just a theory.” However, the point of calling something a theory is that it is a proven explanation. This doesn’t mean it cannot be changed, improved upon, surpassed by another theory that explains more and in better ways. When a concept is a theory, however, it sets the terms and relations necessary to improve or even overturn it.
Three examples of theories changing
The first is phlogiston. First introduced in the 17th century, this theory attempted to explain how things burn, and why they stop burning as well. Things which are liable to burn have a substance, the theory went, that escapes during the burning that it causes, until the air around it becomes full of this “phlogiston” (meaning “burning up”), thus stopping the fire. When this process happened slowly, it explained how rust formed. As a theoretical explanation, however, it got people thinking about how to prove it, or improve it. One fact that it could not explain was that, for instance, magnesium when burned weighs more than it did before being burned. Eventually Antoine Lavoisier proved that fire (and rust) are actually caused by oxygen, a substance not in the object being burned or rusting, but in the air. Rust is “oxygenation”, and fire is very rapid oxygenation.
Without the theoretical explanation, though it was wrong, chemistry as a whole would be significantly less advanced than it is today. The phlogiston theory did explain some things, for instance, the connection between rust and fire. In this way, it set up the terms of its own overturn.
A second example is the theory of relativity, first proposed by Albert Einstein in 1905 (“special relativity”) and completed in 1916 (“general relativity”). In fact, general relativity is a model worked out mathematically from the premises of special relativity. Those premises in turn were a magisterial summary of previous work by a number of scientists and mathematicians throughout the nineteenth century. “Relativity” refers to the fact that we cannot locate ourselves in space other than in relation to other bodies: there is no fixed center. The theory supplanted Isaac Newton’s theory of mechanics by introducing a corrective: for very large objects, their gravitational pull deforms space and time, a little like a cannonball placed on a trampoline.
In order to prove the theory, which as a model had made a set of predictions, experiments and observations had to be devised. Einstein’s theory predicted that light from distant stars would be distorted by nearer stars’ gravitational pull on space. This so-called “gravitational lensing” is now a constant of astronomy. Relativity equations predicted perfectly how to compensate for measurements that hitherto had been imprecise: the exact orbit of Mercury, the exact diameter of the Moon’s shadow on the Earth during an eclipse, and others. One aspect of this “backing into” reality through modeling is that, should any single prediction of the theory be proven false, the whole theory is false. So far, it has held up, although it does not explain quantum physics.
Darwin vs. Wallace
The third example of theory is, as you might have guessed, the theory of evolution.
Evolution is the brainchild of more than one person. Although Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of the Species is the classic text, Alfred Wallace had proposed it before he did. Based on zoological observations, both men concluded that the vast variety of life-forms on Earth is the result of changes or mutations of species as time progresses.[1] From the simplest one-celled animals 3 billion years ago to a blue whale today is a jagged line of progression, in which species come in and out of existence as they adapt or fail to adapt to changing environmental conditions — by “natural selection”. This progression explains how, among other animals, human beings came to be.
The fossil record insofar as it goes backs the theory. One can trace the differentiation of animals and plants as time goes on and conditions change. The dinosaurs evolved into a huge diversity of reptiles, from as small as a rat to the largest creatures ever, the titanosaurs. The small mammals that managed to survive a hypothetical extinct event some 65 million years ago became dominant through evolution, finally producing the most dangerous and adaptable predator ever, namely, Me and You.
None of these is “just a theory.” The point of calling something a theory is that it is an explanation whose proof you can point to. This doesn’t mean it cannot be changed, improved upon, surpassed by another theory that explains more and in better ways. When a concept is a theory, however, it sets the terms and relations necessary to improve or even overturn it.
Doubting evolution?
Wallace, toward the end of his life, began to have doubts that evolution was as explanatory as then believed. While the theory does seem to explain the variations of the fossil record, and varieties of species and how that variety comes about, Wallace claimed it does not explain human consciousness, in particular the linguistic and cultural fruits of humanity’s self-awareness. This has been increasingly criticized even by Wallace’s admirers, as he seemed to add a spiritual dimension to otherwise fine scientific work.[2]
However, Wallace did not conclude that human intelligence, moral and ethical considerations, artistic creation, or the symbolic communication common only to human beings, and so forth, come from a divine intervention. He thought these were manifestations — facts — that natural selection did not cause but that other unknown factors were responsible for.
For example, I argued elsewhere that language did not evolve physically, but is rather a development of human culture over time. Wallace’s other considerations may or may not fit that explanation. One aspect that is overlooked far too often is the overall direction or arrow of evolution, which produces brains that project minds that theorize:
So far from consciousness or human intelligence being a somewhat embarrassing excrescence on the surface of rational material processes, it would appear to say that intelligence is literally the only phenomenon in the universe that makes sense of the overall direction of material existence towards coherent, sustainable, innovative adaptable forms.[3]
And there is still a great deal to be learned, not only about that “direction” but also about the intellect we each possess, and the consciousness that allows us, for time to time, to be able to “catch the mind in the act” of thinking.
For from that work to develop and prove theories that are not “just” theories, but pointers to what is, in fact, Real.
[This story, along with “Just what is common sense?”, “Just what is meaning?”, “Just what is truth?”, “Just what is language?”, and “Just the facts, Ms. AI”, are excerpts from my unpublished book, Set You Free: Know Your Own Mind. Write me for more information…]
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https://medium.com/@pierrewhalon/isnt-that-just-a-theory-d6f2a64f1be1
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['Pierre Whalon']
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2020-12-17 16:23:32.754000+00:00
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['Relativity', 'Alfred Wallace', 'Theory', 'Evolution']
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EU Imposes Global Law Against Human Rights Violation
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The European Union has now become one of the most powerful bloc in the world that has taken human rights violation very seriously. The bloc of 27 countries has come out with a law that gives them the power to ban travel and freeze assets of individuals and entities involved or associated with violating human rights, including genocide, slavery, extrajudicial arrests and killings, gender-based violence, human trafficking, and other abuses that are ‘widespread, systematic, or are otherwise of serious concern.’
Human rights violations have not been taken as seriously as EU bloc is going to take it now. Most countries have ignored violations that have been highlighted by non-profit organizations. The EU bloc has vehemently spoken out against violations in countries like Russia, Middle East and many other countries.
After having passed by the EU Council, this global human rights sanctions regime sets into motion a framework to target individuals, entities, bodies- acting directly or indirectly. Practically, this gives the EU a lot more flexibility in whom and what it can target for rights violations. Previously, the EU was mostly limited to applying sanctions in country-specific situations, like a conflict, as in Syria, or issues like terrorism or cyberattacks.
This also gives more muscle to the EU bloc, which can now sanction even countries that have been indirectly funding and encouraging terrorist sleeper cells in various parts of Europe. Those that top the list are Qatar, Iran and Russia in some cases as well.
The EU bloc has taken inspiration from the famous Global Magnitsky Act adopted in 2012 after the then President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, which was later adopted in 2016 as a global act by America to give them the right to sanction anyone who was in violation of human rights. Other countries, like the United Kingdom and Canada, have also passed versions of the law.
Terrorism and related crimes against humanity have risen exponentially in the last two decades. Such laws and acts are therefore becoming of paramount importance to safeguard the rights of common people worldwide.
https://www.theworkersrights.com/eu-imposes-global-law-against-human-rights-violation/
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https://medium.com/@theworkersright/eu-imposes-global-law-against-human-rights-violation-bf445b723c5d
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['The Workers Rights']
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2020-12-11 13:57:46.164000+00:00
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['Human Rights', 'European Union']
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16 Ways To Make The Job Hunt Less Brutal
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Join the crowd. We’re part of the hundreds of millions who are currently unemployed in what has been one of the toughest years of our lives. Unfortunately, I don’t really have much reassuring advice. Finding employment again will be a matter of luck, perseverance, and an economy that’s bouncing back. From the latter the only thing you can control is perseverance.
So how do we persevere after sending out hundreds of applications and scoring a few interviews that lead nowhere? Here’s how I’ve been dealing. So far I haven’t found a job either, I’ve just managed to make the hunt much more bearable. Hopefully, you can make use of these 16 tips to set yourself apart from other candidates while drowning out all the self-doubt, self-judgment, and fear that’s probably coming up. We’re in this together. Even though luck is out of our control, I wish you the best of luck.
Start A Pet Project
Find a hobby or turn your upskilling into a side project. Whatever you do, be sure to keep your mind busy. Beat anxiety by nurturing other parts of yourself that are unrelated to the job hunt. Be very careful not to bring all of that self-doubt and frustration into this space. Your creative project is meant to serve as an outlet for all of that.
Take Breaks
Spending all of your time job hunting is tempting. To some degree, it’s a numbers game. The more you put yourself out there, the greater the chances the right person will see you. That’s not necessarily true, and it’s definitely not healthy. The job hunt is draining and brutal. Don’t become obsessive. Set aside time for it and give yourself limits.
Share Positions With Others
I think this is a nice thing to do. If you find something that reminds you of a friend who’s struggling to find work, share the job post. Perhaps it’ll bring you good karma and that friend might return the favor. Plus it’ll remind you that you’re not alone in this battle.
Revamp Your Resume
Granted this tip works better if you work in a creative industry, but even if you don’t, a nicely designed resume can grab the attention of a potential employer. You can easily design one for free on Canva using one of the many resume templates they offer. No need to make it look arty, just give some zhuzh. While you’re at it, make sure you update your LinkedIn profile too. This will also serve as a reminder of what you’ve accomplished.
Upskill For Cheap
Not to sound annoying, but now really is the perfect time to learn something new. You probably don’t want to overspend, so go for affordable options. Test LinkedIn Learning or Skillshare with a free trial. Sign up to audit Coursera classes. Watch YouTube tutorials. Volunteer your time to help friends or family with their business. Or just kickstart something new and learn on the go. I’m playing around with WordPress and have spent $0 on it. *Adds web dev to resume.*
Join Subreddits
You can find anything on Reddit, including gigs. Join /forhire /freelance_forhire /jobopenings /jobs /slavelabour /beermoney for a chance to find odd gigs here and there. You should also check to see if there are any subreddits within your industry. You might not find a job, but maybe you’ll find networks that’ll connect you to the right people.
Organize Your Cover Letters
After a handful of applications, you probably won’t be starting your cover letters from scratch. I keep all of my cover letters in one document. So with each new application, I can just mix and match from what I’ve previously written. On most websites, you can just paste your cover letter. No need to save it in a new file and clutter your drive with 50 separate documents.
Grammarly Knows Best
When we’re doing the same thing over and over again, our work can get sloppy. Make sure any written communication between you and a potential employer is free of spelling mistakes. Grammarly will alert you to the more dire mistakes. It’s free. Don’t miss an opportunity because of something like dis.
Talk Feelings
This one’s big. We often feel like a failure when we’re unemployed. You are not a failure, the world has failed you. There’s no shame in being jobless, especially during a pandemic. So many of us are going through the same thing. Talk it out and you’ll notice that we’re all on the same aimless, unpredictable boat. It feels a little less awful that way.
Don’t Act Bitter
Let’s say the interviews went well and you seem to be the perfect person for the job. They say they’ll be in touch in a few days, then they ghost you even after you ask for an update. It happened to me. You’ll be tempted to call them out on their behavior-don’t. Don’t burn any bridges, you never know what the future might hold. Maybe their first choice rejects the offer, you’ll wanna be there for sloppy seconds.
Subscribe To Email Notifications
Most job sites will give you the option to get notified via email for fitting positions. Sign up for those so that they can do the filtering work for you. If getting these reminders in your inbox makes you feel anxious then cancel that subscription and do your thing manually.
Tap Into Your Network
Connect with past coworkers, acquaintances, people you follow on social media. Ask around to see if they have any advice, need some help, know of someone who’s hiring. You probably already know that 70% of all jobs are not published publicly on jobs sites and as much as 80% of jobs are filled through connections.
Look Everywhere
Companies share job posts in so many places, you have to keep your eyes open. Besides job sites (many of which have different jobs available), look at social media from brands you like as well as #hiring hashtags, search company websites, and check newsletters. Jobs are kinda the hot thing right.
Feel Your Feelings
Give yourself time to feel depressed, anxious, angry, whatever comes up for you. It’s not fair, it’s not okay and it’s not small. Also be wise enough to know when to end the pity party. Take as long as you need, but don’t drown yourself in your negative emotions cause you’ll end up hurting even more.
Interview Prep
When you get an interview, make sure you’re ready for it. That means you should research the business, have questions, and practice responses. Do this even if the job doesn’t excite you. It’ll help prepare you for when a more fitting job comes along. Plus, after getting to know the company and potential coworkers you might even change your mind. And don’t ever forget that you’re interviewing them too. The position, pay, and culture need to fit your needs.
Family Time
Remember that once you do find another job you won’t be able to spend as much time with your friends and family. Share your love and appreciation following regulations and common sense. If you can’t physically spend time with them then get used to zoom calls. Their support will help you during this tough time.
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https://medium.com/@marianasuchodolski/16-ways-to-make-the-job-hunt-less-brutal-cbdc0e871dbe
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['Mariana Suchodolski']
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2020-12-23 12:27:25.069000+00:00
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['Self Care', 'Job Search', 'Jobless', 'Unemployment', 'Job Hunting']
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Morning Moonlight
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Morning Moonlight
photo by William J Spirdione
The sun was chasing the moon this morning,
Silvery sliver of a crescent moon.
The rising sun, colors clouds, adorning,
The moons brilliance, not yet dimming, but soon.
Transfixed mid-step while quickly walking down,
Front stairs. Some force causes movement to freeze.
Moon chalice mirrors the sun’s golden crown.
Our star hides amongst the hills and trees.
Time was not moving while framing the shot.
Watching nature’s beauty is a great gift.
Given by existence, it can’t be bought.
Better look now, this is going too quick.
In just a few seconds, all was over.
Image, sonnet, increases exposure.
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https://medium.com/@wjspirdione/morning-moonlight-3be96d6381a5
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['William J Spirdione']
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2020-12-12 14:48:00.853000+00:00
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['Sonnet', 'Poetry', 'Moon', 'Sunrise', 'Moonlight']
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Certified translation agency in Berlin — Linguidoor
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Linguidoor is a certified translation agency in Berlin, Germany and offers you professional translations by domain-specific native language experts and deliver you quickly and reliable Translation Services. Whether you need a translation of your website or a certified translation of your Birth certificate or Marriage Certificate, our team consists of certified and professional translators and interpreters who know how to render the content of your texts authentically. The text will appear as if it had been written in the translation language.
You can choose from over 100 languages. We at Linguidoor (certified translation agency in Berlin) have high standards for ourselves and therefore always pay attention to good quality. This is the only way we have managed to set ourselves apart from other translation agencies in Berlin and expand internationally. In addition to the certified translation agency in Berlin-Mitte, we also have a further location in Noida, in northern India.
What does the translation process look like?
The process at Linguidoor is simple and easy to understand. First, please send us the text you want to translate by e-mail or attach it to the contact form on our website. If you need subtitles for a video in a specific language, please also send us the video or a link.
Of course, we treat all contents confidentially. We offer tailor-made translations for both companies and private customers. Each project is tailored to your individual needs. Please let us know by sending us an e-mail or using the contact form. You will find a price list with three different price categories on our website. After we have discussed all the details, our team will process your translation as quickly as possible. You will then receive the finished translation.
Advice and processing by a certified, friendly and experienced translation agency in Berlin
Consulting and processing by a certified, friendly and experienced translation agency in Berlin
Even if you have a lot of questions about a translation: we look forward to hearing from you. Our professional and friendly team will gladly answer all your questions and discuss the necessary details with you. We know that you want to receive your translation quickly and reliably, so we make sure that you receive excellent service. For example, we will process the certified translation of your birth certificate carefully, quickly and discreetly by a court sworn translator, so that you can have it at hand immediately.
We provide documents Translation, certified translations and we can also translate your website or create content in 50+ Languages. Our certified translation agency in Berlin also offers SEO translations and the translation of games, software and apps. We add subtitles or a dubbing voice to your videos, transcribe, interpret and much more. Feel free to contact us to learn more at www.linguidoor.com
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https://medium.com/linguidoor-language-services/certified-translation-agency-in-berlin-linguidoor-ad978fe1422b
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['Rishi Anand - Founder', 'Ceo Of Linguidoor']
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2020-04-06 08:46:10.420000+00:00
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['Translation', 'Startup', 'Localization', 'Language']
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What does an Omnichannel Manufacturing Experience Look Like?
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Putting the customer at the heart of the sales process sounds like an easy thing to do right?
Many companies have different ways to reach their buyers but still fail to make successful impressions on them. This is a common occurrence in the manufacturing industry where complex products are sold daily in a mostly in-person setting with a sales executive.
Now that B2B buyers do most of the research (57% according to Accenture) and purchasing online it’s important to offer them the products where they are buying them and quickly. But offering them products quickly isn’t the most important part of an omnichannel experience. Customers want self-service, they want all the relevant information on hand before they even think about purchasing your products. Your buyers want to see the full range of your offering by using a configurator and visualization technology to see the product they want.
For all the worried salespeople reading this, don’t worry your job is still critical to manufacturing products, but it’s important for your company to offer ways to eliminate the tedious processes that impede sales.
In-person selling is a proven way to sell directly to a customer, but with B2B buyers taking more time than ever to weigh their purchases it’s important to find a new way to reach them. This is where manufacturing could take a page out of the retail marketing playbook.
Once eCommerce became the main way customers bought products many retailers made products available via a website and mobile apps. Now more than ever manufacturing companies need to use an omnichannel experience to reach these customers, something that manufacturers who want to be more B2B based need to do to digitize their company.
What is an omnichannel experience?
An omnichannel experience offers your customers a seamless way to interact and buy your products across multiple channels at any time, this allows for your business to be in touch with them throughout the buying journey.
What does an omnichannel manufacturing experience look like?
This is an important way to sell products in the manufacturing industry but how can it be done with products that are complex and difficult to configure?
To truly have an omnichannel experience it is necessary to simplify the sales process. As products have become more complex to build the longer the sales cycle has become. From the back and forth between sales and engineering to get orders right to building a unique item it can take a lot of man hours to sell a product. This slow process needs to change to sell faster and enhance the customer experience.
The first step before a buyer contacts your sales team is researching your product offering. If you don’t have a place to showcase your unique products you will lose business to a company that can.
This is where it is important to offer items such as a configurator and visualization right on your website. Buyers don’t want to have meetings in their initial stages of buying, they want to see how the product would look and feel. Selling can be easier when you understand the tendencies of your buyer, an omnichannel selling experience allows for you to be with them at every touchpoint along their journey. Adding something like a built-in configurator will be another reason why they’d choose your business over the competition who can’t show them their product on their phone or the comfort of their own home.
An omnichannel experience for your customers can also help align the goals of your sales and marketing teams. Having a harmonious omnichannel presence can bring marketing and sales closer by leveraging the data from your customers into tangible results. Using visualization right on your website is a perfect way to drive interest in your products, but more importantly, generate high-quality leads for your sales team to engage with.
Allowing your customers to reach out to a sales team member at any point is important for several reasons. Understanding which channel, the customer has come from can help your sales and marketing teams engage them with similar content or messaging as the channel they came from. This allows your sales rep to have all the information about the customer before they even walk into the sales meeting, helping them prepare the perfect pitch.
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https://medium.com/@michael.brassea/what-does-an-omnichannel-manufacturing-experience-look-like-662a5c1bc0e
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[]
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2019-11-15 14:01:50.719000+00:00
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['Sales', 'Manufacturing Processes', 'Manufacturers', 'Manufacturing', 'Cpq']
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Climate Equity
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Climate Equity
We continue to battle over climate change as reality and determinant of our future. The United Nations Framework for Climate Change was a first aggregation of scientific evidence that had been building for decades, a collective response that though various reports, research, and policy iterations brought the global community to Paris to make a first international commitment of a strategy for reduction of emissions from the burning of fossil fuels to a level defined as necessary simply to break a pattern of increase and consequence that was optimistic at best, not altogether equitable in its impact on the developing world, but nonetheless a significant collaboration among nations taking the problem seriously at last.
Until it began to erode around the edges, first, and most tragically, by the withdrawal of the United States in 2017 by the newly elected President Donald J. Trump in response to pressure by the oil and gas industry, its political enablers, and the minority opposition by climate deniers indifferent to the science and unsympathetic to the impacts on the economy and public health of the American population, Europeans, and those in other nations most victimized by a worldwide distribution of consequence. What seems like a necessary and most welcome international collaboration was fractured, partially stalled, and left to those nations most aware of the challenge and most progressive in response. Europe remained committed, and even China, the other major world economy, was paying attention, reducing its massive reliance on burned coal, building hydro-electric generators and nuclear facilities and other energy options, while the United States descended into a regressive position that, ironically, even the major industry players had begun to acknowledge as uneconomical stranded assets, and to explore alternatives.
As if this was not dangerous enough, the Coronavirus, possibly a function of climate factors, emerged as a global pandemic with devastating impact on production and globalization of trade, both manufactured goods and agricultural products, a system that lay at the heart of world exchange and economy. The overlap of indifference and inadequate reaction to rampant disease stood the world order on end, again with the United States as the most egregious agent of failed reaction and governance. No nation has been subsequently immune and the political and social outcomes have become more and more evident and measurable in death, pandemic infection, unemployment, market instability, and decline of the industrial and political institutions on which any equitable structure for world security is built.
So, suddenly, unexpected forces were released with unpredictable outcomes that put into question not only historical premises but also conventional reactions. We had feasted on a banquet of sour grapes, and now our teeth were set on edge. Economists had envisioned such events as “black swans,” an aberration of circumstance that created a new challenge beyond historical performance, an extreme, novel extension of a known phenomenon. But this was something new, something beyond theoretical prediction, a “green swan” event, previously unimaginable and entirely outside any parameter of prediction or considered response. Climate change, compounded by disease, at a scale heretofore unknown in both degree and distribution, was beyond the experience and capacity of governance, and the old tools for economic adjustment and social response, the prior application of stimulus and compartmentalization, were surpassed by extension and inexplicability.
Are there moments in time when the world stands still? Is our globalized planet now so integrated as a socio-political-economic space that there is now no meaning to nationality and ideology that can withstand these new hyper-phenomenal forces? Have we passed the tipping point when the balance of our experience and knowledge is not just challenged, but upset and inundated by pandemic change and we are paralyzed by ignorance and inaction, poised on the verge of collapse and descent into caterwauling chaos? Paradoxically, there is equity in this condition, in that regardless of origin, rich or poor, north or south, east or west, we are all equally in this disconnected elemental mix, joined psychologically in angst and apprehension.
How do we understand this? Do we need a metaphor to encompass the idea? If so, consider the ocean as just such a space in time, where order and disorder mix, known and unknown combine, and all things are equal and unequal simultaneously, and subject to infinite dimensions, consummate forces, lightless dark and nurturing light.
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https://medium.com/@thew2o/climate-equity-f54c84f82fa6
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['World Ocean Observatory']
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2020-09-21 20:41:19.115000+00:00
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['Oceans', 'Climate Change', 'Solutions', 'Environment', 'Equity']
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Supply Chain management in Healthcare
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Supply Chain management in Healthcare
1. Growing a Holistic View Of The Supply Chain
Hospitals can employ IoT to enable cloud-based data analytics with their cloud-based, system-wide inventory management. The approach helps connect processes and products with their actual cost. Experts observe that now the healthcare supply chain is not only about manufacturing, shipping, and distributing products. To accurately assess the value chain, it has to be examined holistically and cover the direct as well as the indirect expenses. The type of system-wide valuation demands a lot of information that can be collected, visualized, aggregated, and acted upon.
2.Improve the Competence of Clinical Staff
According to a survey that included responses of over 600,000 medical professionals, 42% of professionals think that supply chain work takes time off from patient care.
About 45% of frontline providers also said that the physical supply chain tasks even have a slight or large negative impact on patient care. IoT’s connectivity and data-sharing aptitude can be used to free the frontline employees from inventory-related burdens. Experts advise employing advanced product-tracking technologies along with the automated systems to help alleviate the tension of supply chain tasks and get the physicians back to their patients.
3. IoT To Develop Accuracy, Speed, and Spend
Specialists consider the healthcare supply chain as a strategic benefit, which has the potential to yield significant financial savings. They believe that IoT is vital to propel change. Doctors, surgeons, and nurses have a substantial stake in enhancing supply chain operations. Most medical professionals recognize the correlation between financial success and supply chain management.
Data generated from IoT connectivity offers visibility across the organization facilitating proper management of delivery, workflow and product standardization, and precise clinical documentation across the entire enterprise.
Can AI Help The Pharma Supply Chain Development?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proved itself as a game-changing technology, for every industry, and not just pharmaceuticals. In the past few years, people have witnessed the potential of AI, which can benefit the healthcare industry. AI is reinterpreting how scientists developed new drugs and discovered cures, along with how they diagnosed, and how drug adherence was dealt with.
Nevertheless, AI in the pharma supply chain has mainly been ignored in spite of having enormous technological and commercial opportunities in the industry. The time has come to make more investments in AI solutions, primarily targeting the established challenges with the pharma supply chain.
Big pharma is aware of the technological arms race carried out in the worldwide healthcare industry. Recently, people have witnessed an acquisition spree with a few large pharmaceutical companies grabbing biotech start-ups, devoting in state-of-the-art AI solutions, and hiring domestic data scientists to perform together with scientists. Moreover, technology in the pharma supply chain that links the lab to the market is holding up. With the globalization of the pharma industry and the demand growing for new product types, supply chains should also turn smarter.
An ideal supply chain for today and tomorrow is considered as one of the most reactive ones, but proactive as well.
It has the potential to anticipate, as well as accommodate the present and future trends, steering the forces and challenges. Multiple stress factors force the pharma industry to settle in a while developing new and quality medicines at a very affordable price. Numerous stress factors are increasing each year and adding up to the present, the real challenge, especially for the supply chain management.
When it comes to ecological pressures, regulators are forcing stricter environmental controls throughout the design, manufacture, and transportation of the pharma products to help limit the carbon emissions, as well as lessen plastic and water wastes. Multifaceted biologic drugs and gene therapies are growing increasingly famous, but also release enormous challenges for manufacturing and distribution networks, because of their sensitivity and mini life-cycle.
Besides, populations all around the world are growing old, along with the occurrence of associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. The criminal marketplace that sells falsified medicine is now worth more than $200 billion each year, making the safety of medicine quality a priority, including the progress of tamper-proof packaging technologies.
Check This Out:
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https://medium.com/@chrishtopher-henry-38679/supply-chain-management-in-healthcare-3141c9d6b056
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[]
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2020-12-24 12:15:54.029000+00:00
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['Solutions', 'Supply Chain', 'Pharma', 'Healthcare', 'IoT']
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Activate Exposure Notifications to Help Fight Covid-19 and Protect You and Your Family
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A friend of mine serves on a government task force to source private company solutions to help address the many challenges our state (CA) faces from Covid-19. One of the solutions available here in CA is also available in many other states — Exposure Notifications. Exposure Notifications uses your phone’s Bluetooth to connect with other nearby phones (available on iPhone and Android). If you have been exposed to someone who has Covid-19, Exposure Notifications will notify you so that you can take preventative action. If you have concerns about privacy, you can read more below. In summary, I have zero worries and I am happily sharing my information in order to help fight Covid-19 and protect me and my family.
Here’s a hypothetical scenario to help you understand the process (from How-To Geek):
Let’s say Jack went to the park and sat next to Jill (a couple of feet apart, of course). They both have a health app that uses the Exposure Tracking API.
As both Jack and Jill stayed in the same place for more than 10 minutes, their smartphones exchanged Bluetooth beacons with unique keys.
A week or so later, Jill is diagnosed with COVID-19. She opens her health app, and using documents from her healthcare provider, submits the proof that she has tested positive for COVID-19.
Later in the day, Jack’s iPhone downloads a list of all the recent beacons for people who have tested positive for COVID-19. Jack receives a notification that he was in contact with someone who has COVID-19 because of his interaction with Jill at the park.
All this happens privately; Jack doesn’t know who Jill is or when he crossed paths with someone with the virus. It will only tell Jack when the beacons were exchanged.
Jack can then follow the app’s guidance on what to do next.
If Jack then tests positive with COVID-19, he can follow the same steps to alert the people he might have been in contact with.
To activate Exposure Notifications, visit this Washington Post article for specifics in your state. It is widely available today. If it is not currently available in your area, check back frequently because many states will be activating it very soon. Note that you will need to be running the newest version of iOS or Android on your phone for this feature to work. Here is some additional information on Exposure Notifications on an iPhone and on Android.
In general, for the iPhone go to Settings>Exposure Notifications. If you don’t see it there, try Settings>Health>Exposure Notifications.
Exposure Notifications is a great example of how technology can be used for the common good. It also shows how people, working together, in times of crisis can do amazing things!
Privacy
Exposure Notifications does not collect device location to detect exposures and does not share your identity with other users. The random keys are exchanged using Bluetooth and are not linked to your identity or location. The keys change every 15 minutes to protect privacy. The identifiers exchanged with other phones and the keys shared with the system when you are positive are randomly generated numbers that don’t contain any personal identifiable information. The identifiers exchanged with other phones are stored securely on your phone by the operating system in a way that no other software application can access them, nor do they ever leave the phone.
Follow @iFrankTech on Twitter
#techtips #technology #productivity #iphone #Apple #Mac #computertips #covid #covid-19 #exposurenotifications
|
https://medium.com/@fgerber/activate-exposure-notifications-to-help-fight-covid-19-and-protect-you-and-your-family-e600c79933bd
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['Frank Gerber']
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2020-12-10 19:02:11.501000+00:00
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['Covid 19', 'Health', 'iPhone', 'Tech Tips', 'Productivity']
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2021 Through Music
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2021 Through Music
With 2020 is coming to an end, Let’s take a look at how 2021 music industry might look like. Trystan Follow Dec 25, 2020 · 5 min read
2020 has been a disastrous year. A lot of things went south, mainly due to COVID and an endless period of lockdown. There’s plenty of sectors directly affected by this pandemic and forced everyone to take the bumpy road for survival and the music business is no exception. Music is a thing where the crowd and masses are heavily involved in keeping the game alive. Those two factors are something that people avoid and it made the music world took a big hit.
However, every storm has a silver lining. Although everyone involved in music has seen some unforeseeable event, this year sparked something to carry on next year. As we near the year’s end, we’re trying to envision what’s next for this industry based on what happened during this entire year. This pandemic shaped a whole new way of listening to music, and there’s a fair amount of chance that new habits could shape what’s going to happen next year.
P.S: This is simply a prediction and writer isn’t an expert either. So if this doesn’t age well, don’t @ me people :).
PLATFORMS
2020 marks the decline of live music as a common platform. With the COVID forcing people to spend most of their daily lives inside, music streaming services have become the leading platform for listeners and musicians to express themselves. This phenomenon also become musician primary income while the live concerts are entirely banned.
Let’s take a look at Spotify for example. There are 130 million premium users alone in Q1 of 2020, according to the company. This is up from 124 premium users in Q4 of 2019. This increasing number sign a significant change of music world that caused by the pandemic.
With the pandemic didn’t seem to find the end of the road near time, 2021 could be another victorious year for streaming services. The online music services will continue their dominance even after the COVID period end. Accessibility and personalization are why people switched to digital service, leaving conventional platforms such as CD for a more convenient reason.
GENRE & MUSIC STYLES
This year has been an interesting one in terms of music genre & style. They’re not afraid to be more adventurous and creating sounds that we’ve never heard before. People became more open-minded to the music and expected an entirely new thing whenever they explored something new to hear. Those two things are a match made in heaven for a new sound in years to come.
With the adventurous listener and evolving sounds, this could make the new tune more diverse and indefinite between every genre. It might distinguish how the genre should sound. Lil Nas X and Tyler the Creator are examples of genre-crossing with a good reception from public opinion. Their success opens up the way for other artists to be more playful and ingenious without being afraid to cross the ‘genre’ line. It wouldn’t be a surprise if next year a lot of music is heading this way.
80s style will also dominate next year, or we could say every year? People never seem tired of the heavily synthed sound and grainy aesthetic of the 80s. ‘Future Nostalgia’ by Dua Lipa and ‘After Hours’ by The Weeknd are albums that define how obsessed we are to the 80s-esque tune. Every year has been a great tribute to the 80s, and next year wouldn’t be an exception either!
‘After Hours’ album artwork. Property of Abel Tesfaye/The Weeknd
LIVE MUSIC
2017 Coldplay Concert in SG. Property of @trysstann
This is the hardest pill to swallow among things that might happen next year. Even with the COVID end, there’s must be some concern for people to gather in a large number again. Festival and concert organizer must change their way to keep the show going with maintaining the health protocol properly. It takes time to recover completely, but with many shows rescheduled to next year, we’re sure everyone involved in the show will do a great job to provide us a great experience with high safety.
On the other hand, this year also proves that a digital concert isn’t bad either. Perhaps it feels weird earlier when 10.000 people are watching you and your room still…..silent. As time goes by, everyone recognized it as an everyday thing. It’s understandable why both listeners and musicians are into this. The musician can hold a global event without hopping from place to place but still have spectators worldwide. They also could spend minimum money and getting a fair amount of revenue by only performing at home.
From the listener’s point of view, they can enjoy their favorites music live and interact with them from their bed. They only need a proper internet connection to experience something that seems to be an impossible thing in normal times. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this trend will keep going in 2021.
THE PEAK OF INDIE/SELF-MADE MUSICIAN?
2020 has been a rising of self-made musicians. The perception of ‘you have to be supported by the big label to produce music’ is a past thing. Many artists today have access to their studio where usually placed in their bedroom. They can record their stuff with a lower budget and distribute it quickly without approval from the label. Sure the coverage wouldn’t be as comprehensive as the professional label, but the internet is a vast place where promoting something isn’t hard.
A lot of company provides a service to publish someone’s music to streaming services and, of course, the internet. The number of self-made artists who make their way up next year will increase, and we’re not surprised if one of them becomes a talk of the town.
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https://medium.com/wood-desk/2021-through-music-38101190a34c
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[]
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2020-12-30 04:00:26.103000+00:00
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['Music', 'Pop Culture', 'Opinion', 'Music Blog']
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Gun Control Policies Are Rooted in Racism
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“To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow. … For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding.”[i] ~ Jeffrey R. Snyder
History provides convincing evidence that racism is at the core of gun control laws and activism. This I believe carries over into the modern-day. Over and over again throughout American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping free or enslaved blacks from obtaining firearms.
Laws in the original colony of Virginia in 1640 declared slaves and free blacks were barred from owning firearms. The Act for the Better Ordering of Negroes and Slaves enacted by South Carolina in 1712, included significant no firearms provisions for blacks.[ii]
After the Civil War, night riders or Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups, were created by Democrats in late 1865, to generate the correct level of terror in black victims.[iii] The passage of the 14th amendment by Republicans, while intended to offer the protection for blacks from the Democrats KKK raids, did not stop such intimidation or racist gun control laws as planned. Gun control shifted from outright bans to discretionary permitting. Discretionary permitting allows local law enforcement to determine who is suitable to carry a firearm. Some states and local governments required blacks to obtain permits, requiring hefty licensing fees, thereby allowing local police or licensing boards to keep whom they deemed “undesirable” from legally accessing firearms.[iv] These requirements were done to make it significantly more difficult for blacks to defend themselves against night riders or KKK lynch mobs. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a southern preacher in the mid-1950s, applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama, after the firebombing of his home in 1956. The local police, using discretionary licensing policies, denied Dr. King a permit, claiming he was unsuitable.[v]
Clear evidence concerning this discriminatory intent of gun control permitting laws can be found in the 1941 Florida Supreme Court case of Watson v. Stone involving a gun violation under an 1893 Act. Justice Buford wrote
“The original Act of 1893 was passed when there was a great influx of negro laborers in this State drawn here for the purpose of working in turpentine and lumber camps. The same condition existed when the Act was amended in 1901, and the Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers and to thereby reduce the unlawful homicides that were prevalent in turpentine and sawmill camps and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied.”[vi]
Now the question becomes, has the modern era changed these discriminatory tactics? According to a 1986 Assembly Office of Research report, in liberal California, a discretionary ‘may issue’ firearms permit state, where the police chiefs or sheriffs have complete discretion in granting an applicant a license, most permits are issued to white males.[vii] The report stated “In most cases, the permit holder is personally known to the local sheriff or chief of police…[with] the overwhelming majority of permit holders are white males.” In Los Angeles County California with some 7.6 million people out of the state’s 39+ million, there were only 173 permits issued as of 2013 and only 59,808 permits issued statewide.[viii]
In the liberal State of Illinois, another discretionary ‘may issue’ firearms permit state, where the state police and county sheriffs have total discretion in granting an applicant a permit, as of 2014 only 73,714 permits were issued statewide. Only 8 percent had been issued to blacks, while 90 percent issued to whites.[ix] An examination at a county level, I.E. Cook County, where Chicago is located, we can see a glaring disparity. The suburbs, which have a lower overall crime rate, comprised of 96 percent white residents with average incomes of $121,000, have a higher rate of registered concealed carry permit holders. In contrast, to the south Chicago with an overall high crime rate and the most violent neighborhoods, comprised of 98 percent black residents with average incomes of $48,000, have significantly lower rates of registered concealed carry permit holders. The 2014 article confirmed that the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Chicago’s Englewood and West Englewood and West Garfield Park, have only 193 concealed carry license holders out of a total population of 114,933 residents.[x]
In Illinois, the cost of a concealed carry licenses can run as high as $600, which does not include the firearms training cost at a state-approved range. Proponents of gun control continue to make it difficult for minorities to obtain firearms. Chicago Democrat Rep. Luis Gutierrez continually authors legislation to ban the production of inexpensive guns useful for self-defense.[xi] These firearms are the preferred choice of more impoverished potential victims who cannot afford more expensive firearms. Moreover, In 2013, the Obama administration lobbied the Colorado state legislature to pass a bill that would impose both a tax and a background check on the private transfers of all guns.[xii] These background checks again would disproportionately affect the lower-income population adversely. In 2013, Maryland Democrats passed legislation requiring the licensing and registration of handguns, which can cost upwards of $230. Maryland Republicans tried to exempt poor individuals from paying the government fees, but the Democrat-controlled state legislature did not allow the amendment to come up for a vote.[xiii]
Not only is gun control discriminatory, but it is also hypocritical. If we look back to the case of Temia Hariston, the mother of a black robbery suspect that died from a gunshot wound he suffered while robbing a Pizza Hut, we can plainly see the hypocrisy of identity politics within her comments.
“If there was to be a death, it was not the place of the employee at Pizza Hut. That is the place of law enforcement. It was an act of desperation, but I do not believe that Michael would have hurt anyone. Why in the hell did this guy have a gun?”[xiv]
It is obvious from her comments she believed that only the police should be allowed to use deadly force, “If there was to be a death, it was not the place of the employee at Pizza Hut. That is the place of law enforcement.” This comment epitomizes the conflicts between identity groups that delegitimizes the scope and activism of each group. Mrs. Hariston statement that only the police should have used deadly force for her black son is in direct contradiction to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) advocacy, which believes all police officers are racist and should not be allowed to use deadly force against blacks. Further, BLM believes the police are the “new slave catchers and are only out to kill blacks.”[xv]
It is undoubtedly evident that gun control in the United States is based on a history of racism and discrimination by liberal democrats. It is also apparent that those same liberal democrats currently appear to display the same discriminatory tactics on minorities today.
“The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man.” ~ Malcolm X. “… I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing I’ve ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it’s time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle.”[xvi] ~ Malcolm X.
[i] Jeffrey R. Snyder, “Who’s Under Assault in the ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban?”, American Rifleman, October 1994, p. 53;
[ii] Markus T. Funk, “Gun Control and Economic Discrimination: The Melting-Point Case-in-Point,” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1995.
[iii] Clayton E. Cramer, “The Racist Roots of Gun Control”, 1993
[iv] David Babat, “The Discriminatory History of Gun Control”, University of Rhode Island, 2009
[v] Adam Winkler, “ Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America”, W. W. Norton & Company, 2011
[vi] Watson v. Stone, 4So,2d 700, 703 (Fla. 1941)
[vii]Assembly Office of Research, “Smoking Gun: The Case For Concealed Weapon Permit Reform”, Sacramento, State of California, 1986
[viii] John R. Lott, “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States:, Crime Prevention Research Center, 2016
[ix] Kelly Riddell, “Data divulges racial disparity in Chicago’s issuance of gun permits”, The Washington Times, September 29, 2014
[x] Kelly Riddell, “Data divulges racial disparity in Chicago’s issuance of gun permits”, The Washington Times, September 29, 2014
[xi] Mike Lillis, “Democrat’s bill targets ‘junk’ handguns,” The Hill, March 4, 2013,
[xii] Staff, “From Veep to Lobbyist: Biden Pressures CO Democratic Lawmakers to Pass Gun Control,” Colorado Peak Politics, February 15, 2013 / Lott, John R.. The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies (Kindle Locations 3091–3092). Regnery Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[xiii] Lott, John R.. The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies (Kindle Location 194). Regnery Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[xiv] Dave Urbanski, “Even a criminal has rights’: Dead robbery suspect’s parents angry that store worker shot their son”, The Blaze, November 4, 2016
[xv] Dave Urbanski, “Black Lives Matter leader: Police officers ‘evolved’ from ‘slave catchers”, The Blaze, March 22, 2017
[xvi] Malcolm X Speaks, Merit Publishers, 1965
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https://medium.com/parker-press/gun-control-policies-are-rooted-in-racism-4ccc7848ba6
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['Professor Gregory Parker']
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2020-02-20 17:46:55.201000+00:00
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['Gun Rights', 'Conservatives', 'Gun Control', 'Racial Justice', 'Racism']
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From Stoned to “Schizophrenic”:
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My Mental Healthcare Journey
By Michael H. Kim
I live in Sydney, Australia and I’ve been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I don’t believe I really have such an illness, but now I’m stuck in the mental health system and not sure how to get out. It all began with an experiment.
During my teenage years, I was on the fence about whether “mental illness” was real. I used to have fluctuating moods, but nothing out of the ordinary; they all seemed a part of life. It seemed possible that some extreme emotions could be classified as mental illness. But due to my comfortable youth, I couldn’t imagine what could possibly trigger people into such debilitating thoughts.
At university, I developed an interest in the concept of mental illnesses. I didn’t understand what was meant by “normal” and how mental health professionals defined this term. At the time, I was studying engineering, and in STEM, all critical terms are well-defined. Yet in psychology, there was no formal definition of “normal.” I soon started to spend more time researching mental illnesses than doing my homework. At the same time (2008), I started to smoke a lot of weed. Smoking weed would fixate my concentration on mental illness. After about two semesters of researching mental illness and smoking weed, my grades slumped; I failed a lot of classes. My weed-smoking became even more frequent, and I knew I had a problem.
At first, I thought about giving myself a semester off to gather myself and then finish my degree. But by that point, I was also starting to get depressive symptoms. The feeling started with one random negative thought. Then these thoughts became more frequent. It got to the point where I was sad most of the time. I knew I had to stop smoking weed and take a time-out to get myself together. But I didn’t. Instead, I wanted to explore how deep my sadness could go. The formal accounts of depression and mental illnesses I’d read were too vague, and I wanted more detail. So, I decided to keep smoking weed and keep reading up on mental illnesses to see if I could briefly trigger the more severe symptoms of mental illness so I could better understand it. To my way of thinking at the time, I might someday use this knowledge to help people, so it seemed worth the risk.
Depression, then Psychosis
The first step into depression was changing my perspective on my past. Weed allows users to rationalize different points of view. In high school, I was frequently called a loser. I used to tell myself I was just learning, and it was OK not to fit in. With weed, I was now able to understand the bullies’ perspective. At first, this POV was interesting because it was new to me. I’d keep smoking weed to find other insights I might have missed. But then the negative thoughts became obsessive, and I stopped working out. This is when my mood started to drop.
As my mood dropped lower, the usual “high” and interesting perspectives from weed became fewer and the negative thoughts became more frequent. As my weed smoking became more compulsive, I cut down on eating to be able to afford to keep buying the drug. This is when withdrawal symptoms started to manifest. The anxiety they caused was debilitating because it heightened whatever emotions I felt. My negative thoughts became more negative still. It didn’t take too long before I was engulfed in negative interpretations of everything, past and future. I was now convinced that depression is real. I finally understood how sadness could become disabling.
As negative thoughts were now the only thoughts I had, I couldn’t seem to form opinions anymore. I thought, “What’s the point? I’m going to be wrong anyway.” I then became cognitively sluggish. And as weed-smoking became an all-day, everyday habit, my memory was no longer what it used to be. There was a point where I couldn’t tell the difference between objective material I read and my interpretation of it. I had to constantly pause to gather myself because of my mental confusion.
Was this psychosis? It depends on which psychiatrist you ask. Confusion is one criterion, but it’s on a spectrum. At what point does confusion become psychosis? The boundaries of sanity and insanity aren’t so clear. This was shown in the 1970s by the Rosenhan experiment.
For those unfamiliar, David Rosenhan was an American psychologist who conducted an experiment to test whether psychiatrists could tell the difference between “normal” and “abnormal” people. The researchers sent pseudo-patients with no record of mental illness into mental wards and told them to say they heard voices. Most of the participants were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The researchers’ report highlighted the fact that the hospital’s nurses framed their observations of the pseudo-patients’ normal behavior as symptoms, and that other patients were able to spot some of these pseudo-patients as fakes.
Early Psychosis Intervention (2009)
During this period of self-doubt, I voluntarily started to see a psychiatrist because I was engulfed in negative thoughts, and I just couldn’t find a direction in life. The slightest joys came only when I was high, and this made me feel “normal.” By this point, I had forgotten that my weed addiction was likely causing all of my mental and emotional symptoms.
My psychiatrist’s response was to put me on antipsychotic medication. They offered drug counseling, but I declined. They offered therapy but I declined it as well. I made no effort to place myself in any other form of treatment because while they did offer it, they did the bare minimum to explain the benefits. I was very lethargic from my depression and lacked motivation. You would think the mental health profession would consider the apathy of depressed patients and make a better effort to communicate their options.
Other incidents made me question the wisdom of psychiatry. Once I was in a mall, and I thought I heard my mom call my name. I looked around and didn’t see her. I knew that I must have heard something else; it was a very windy day. Wanting to know what psychiatrists write in their note pads, I told the psychiatrist I heard voices. So she wrote it down. But I knew I had actually misheard something, and at the next session, I corrected myself. But she didn’t write anything then. I concluded that they only write down information that can be used for a diagnosis. They don’t try to understand the context of their patients’ experiences.
First Involuntary Admission (2015)
I never did stop smoking weed and finally, my psychiatrist just ended the “psychosis intervention.” One day, my dealer cut me off and I also lost my job. So I started drinking alcohol. My habit got worse. I stopped eating because I thought I could fit more alcohol in my stomach that way. About a week later, my mom confronted me about the drinking, but I continued. Then she pulled a knife on me. I threw her off her wheelchair, took the knife from her, and called the police. I was shaken and drunk, acting in an “odd” manner. A few days later, I was still drinking but I told myself I was going to stop and came up with a plan to do something with my life. Then the police showed up with a medical crew. They told me I must go with them. I asked where they were taking me, but they didn’t answer.
I got stuck in a mental ward, with no explanation of what was going on and without their knowing I was withdrawing from alcohol and weed. Days later, they handed me a contract. The lady told me to trust her and just sign it. They locked me up against my will with no reason given; why would I trust her? Then, when I asked for more information, she told me she didn’t have time to tell me about my rights. I insisted and got my rights in writing. I read them and signed the document. Turns out I was supposed to see a doctor within 24 hours of arriving on the ward. It took a few more days before I did.
I also had a right to a hearing, but this tribunal was biased by design, involving one psychiatrist convincing another psychiatrist that I was mentally ill. That’s like a policeman trying to convince another police officer the accused is guilty; they both have the same incentive: to prosecute. A few days before the hearing, I was assigned a lawyer. He didn’t have time for me and barely made my case. Of course, they don’t give patients their files to help them defend themselves because of stigma. Basically, there’s no defense; these lawyers have about half a dozen or so patients to look after per day, while each patient’s files would take days to read.
They also medicated me before I had seen a doctor. How did they make the decision to medicate, and which drug to prescribe? All along there was still no explanation of what was happening to me. My suspicion of “mental health professionals” was growing. After a few days, the medications had taken full effect. And I started to feel zoned out. Then, they took me to the sub-acute (less severe) section of the mental ward. There I met other patients and befriended a few of them to track their situations alongside my own.
I was assigned the same doctor I’d seen at my earlier psychosis intervention. Just before I was discharged six weeks later, she told me the medications were working because I looked better, like the times I’d said I’d felt better during the psychosis intervention. This was bullshit! I’d been stoned all the way through my sessions with her. Sometimes I got stoned just outside the building and walked in baked. What she meant by “better” or normal was the stoned version of me she’d come to know.
Just before my admission, I’d been feeling optimistic about my plans and felt more energetic. I just had a drinking problem. After I got discharged, I was trying to implement the same plan I was going to pursue before admission. But I felt sluggish because of the medication. Medications lower serotonin; what do you expect? I tried to get some type of service job, but failed. I could get a tryout, but I just couldn’t keep my energy levels up. It took four cups of coffee within an hour to wake up every day and a cup every 45 to 60 minutes to stay alert. And I still got less done than before. I couldn’t read more than a chapter of a book a time.
The Schizophrenia Diagnosis (2015)
I kept drinking because I got no enjoyment out of life. When I completed a task towards my goal (financial trading), I didn’t feel good because the drugs I was on block dopamine receptors. When I could string together some sort of progress in spite of my low motivation, I didn’t feel anything. My heart felt like it was jamming, my body felt weak, and my mind was numb. I was still trying to find a real job. Back then, I was required to work to get welfare payments. Then one day, I was asked to come in and see a doctor, so I couldn’t make it to my welfare job. There I was handed a medical certificate by my psychiatrist. The note read: “SCHIZOPHRENIA.” This is how I found out about my diagnosis. There was no formal meeting to sit down and discuss my symptoms and diagnosis. By this point, it had become clear to me that the level of professionalism expected from most doctors is not required in psychiatry.
He couldn’t have been the one who’d made that diagnosis. At no point in my life could I not distinguish reality from fantasy. Proving someone has delusions based on their behavior ultimately requires mind reading. Plus, the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia specify that I can’t be under the influence of drugs nor having withdrawal symptoms. Meanwhile, I was hungover every time I saw him, just as I’d been stoned all the way through my psychosis intervention. The psychiatrist I saw specializes in mood and anxiety disorders, psychosis, and bipolar disorder. He didn’t specialize in substance abuse; expertise in this area is required to diagnose any kind of substance-related psychosis.
I am convinced that I’ve been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia for all the reasons I’ve just described. In doing further research on mental illness I’ve learned that this preventable mistake is all too common. A recent report by Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center noted that over 50% of recently diagnosed schizophrenics were found not to have the disorder. Of those, over 40% didn’t have a “mental illness” at all. The researchers blamed faulty electronic medical records for these misdiagnoses, calling it “checklist psychiatry.” Apparently, this problem was never fixed after the Rosenhan experiment. But now that I have that label, I am treated as if that diagnosis is true.
Second Involuntary Admission
At my tribunal during my second involuntary admission, the reasons my psychiatrist listed for admitting me were that I had:
Thought disorder. What did this mean? I argued against my psychiatrist. He argued in favor of the neurotransmitter hypothesis of mental illness and he called it a theory. All I said to him was that he needed proof for such claims, or the idea remained just a hypothesis rather than a verified scientific theory. Apparently, disagreement with a psychiatrist about one’s treatment plan or psychiatric thinking is a delusion or a form of abnormal thought, because it is psychiatrists who get to define “normal.” Grandiose delusions. At the time, I was writing a book. They asked me about my book, and I told them it was going to be “revolutionary.” Was I serious? No, I just gave them a hyperbolic statement, because I thought that might help me to get my hands on my medical records to see what they were writing in their notes. I got them, but there was nothing in there but blood tests and useless reports and nothing about my symptoms. Afterward, the psychiatrist asked to see a draft of my book, but I declined. Without evidence, they decided my hyperbolic statement was a delusional symptom. Paranoia. I did say “Nurses are drugging the food to make patients drowsy.” But, here’s the context: the day before I made this comment, I was talking to another patient and he told me he thought the nurses were putting something in the food because it made him drowsy. I told him it’s probably the gravy because it contains refined carbohydrates which can affect blood sugar levels. The next day, I also felt tired after eating. I saw him in the common area and just started a conversation about the food, which led me to the comment about the food being drugged. A nurse walked by as I was saying it. The psychiatrists took my comment out of context as paranoia. Rejection of diagnosis. Misdiagnosis cases are littered throughout history. But psychiatrists note a patient’s concerns about their diagnosis as a symptom, not as something to investigate.
After what I’ve experienced and witnessed, I consider the so-called symptoms of schizophrenia highly questionable. For example, to measure the severity of a patient’s symptoms, psychiatrists use the positive, agitation, and negative symptom scale (PANSS). The DSM characterizes the positive symptoms of schizophrenia as delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech. “Agitation” is aggressive behavior, and “negative symptoms” refers to apathy.
The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system characterizes positive symptoms as distortions in thinking and perception. How do they measure distortions in perception? There’s no objective method. A man spent 20 years in a psych hospital because psychiatrists wouldn’t believe his version of events regarding a crime which turned out to be true. Post-traumatic stress reactions are also sometimes misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, because psychiatrists don’t want to believe the patients’ stories of trauma, claiming they are delusions. Delusions are disagreements. But as psychiatrist R.E. Kendell once wrote, “Disagreement is not an illness.”
Observations from the Mental Ward
It doesn’t require a professional evaluation to be declared mad. Patients are involuntarily institutionalized on the claims of others. These claims aren’t investigated. Psychiatry has no due process and mental health workers often don’t explain their reasons for locking patients up.
Unlike what the public imagines, questioning reality isn’t needed to prove someone’s insanity; the assessment is all based on behaviors. Psychiatrists do ask questions, but even if patients are aware of where they are and what’s happening, they can still be locked up. I observed this happening in intensive care; as patients came in, they showed a clear pattern of behaviors. It’s just the grief process that occurs when they realize they’ve been involuntarily admitted. They go through most of the phases: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. These behaviors are taken to be the symptoms of schizophrenia.
I believe the anger phase of grief is the origin of the stereotype of the violent schizophrenic. Turns out most people diagnosed as schizophrenic are more likely to be the victims of violent crimes. Psychiatrists are working to reduce this violence stigma. But who started this stereotype? Psychiatrists! They have had exclusive access to mental asylums since the late 19 thcentury. All cases of schizophrenia in early modern psychiatry were involuntarily hospitalized, and so are most cases today. As there are no reasons given to take away an individuals’ rights and lock them up indefinitely, such patients tend to get confrontational. I believe psychiatrists created this ‘violent’ stereotype by manipulating the patients’ environment to trigger their agitation and justify their incarceration. Schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients in the hospitals I’ve stayed in who were classified as violent weren’t confrontational to me — only to psychiatrists.
The bargaining phase of grief is interpreted as delusion, which psychiatry proves using a logic that’s the opposite of a police interrogation. In police interrogations, they question the suspect to see if they can get a specific answer that links the accused to the crime. What psychiatrists do is to make patients look clueless by not giving them any information about why they are locked up. The mental health professionals assume that they’re trying to help the person, but patients don’t understand this. This set-up creates two different interpretations of what is happening. Patients then try to bargain their way out of mental wards, guessing the reasons for their involuntary admission. In the process, patients list many possible different reasons and are unlikely to guess the psychiatrist’s reasoning. The process is constructed to confirm delusionality in anyone.
The depression phase is what psychiatrists call the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. After a while, involuntary patients give up hope for change and just sit there and watch television. Schizophrenia is only described as a lifelong illness because psychiatrists created an alienating ward environment that triggers the symptoms they are looking for, and once the symptoms are diagnosed, can’t help their patients because they are treating them for unproven biological causes.
While on the wards, it became obvious to me who was actually experiencing psychosis and who had been misdiagnosed. Obviously psychotic patients don’t go through the grief process, because they have nothing to grieve — some don’t even know where they are. Classically “schizophrenic” patients have no direction in life, thus they’re indifferent about their involuntary admission. To not recognize that their dignity has been taken away is, for me, the true sign of insanity.
As for patients who do go through the grief process, they know where they are and they’re not agreeing with their treatment. Generally, they have some vectors to their lives, and they have reasons to want to get out of the ward. These patients have been misdiagnosed. This is the critical problem of clinical psychiatry: the context behind patients’ behavior is too often disguised. In front of psychiatrists, everyone shows disagreeableness, which is seen as a behavioral trait of schizophrenics. But their reasons for disagreeing differ, which can only be found by engaging in real, personal conversations.
But psychiatrists have only superficial, mechanical conversations with patients, and these discussions plus the manipulative environment produce disagreeableness. Most importantly, there is no benefit of the doubt given! If a patient doesn’t know a topic, and psychiatrists do know, the patient is said to have a cognitive deficit. If a patient knows a topic and psychiatrists don’t, the patient’s knowledge is a delusion. In this way, clinical settings create false-positive symptoms.
Concluding My Experiment
Through experimenting with my own mental health, I found that depression is very real. Treatment for depression, however, needs to change to a therapy-first model. I found that the loss of an objective in my life was the biggest trigger of my downward spiral. Giving myself tangible goals has enhanced my mental state the most. By setting goals, following a healthy diet and exercising, I saw my mood improved. I still had negative interpretations. But after doing cognitive exercises such as reading, these interpretations disappeared. I’ve taken antidepressants and antipsychotics, but all they do is numb me out. I believe helping patients set a tangible goal and hitting milestones is the key to beating depression.
So, am I actually crazy? Possibly. But just as in the Rosenhan experiment, long-term mental hospital patients recognize that I’m not like them. They have a better idea of who is “sick” or not because they have a more holistic view of other patients — the only thing to do in mental wards is to socialize.
I have tried getting a second opinion on my diagnosis, but I recognize that these are not really independent judgments. I can’t choose to see whatever psychiatrist I want to; I can only select one they’ve approved. Of course, they’ll come to the same conclusion because they collude. I’ve learned not to argue with psychiatrists because they see disagreements as delusions. So I must comply with their treatment or I’ll get sent to a mental ward again.
Schizophrenia is not like it’s conceived in the popular imagination. As Dutch psychiatrist Jim Van Os has claimed, an entity called schizophrenia does not exist. There are too many variations for it to be a single illness. There are only hallucinating, detached from reality, disagreeable, or misdiagnosed patients. Only a small minority of “schizophrenics” hallucinate and have distressing experiences. Antipsychotics seem to work for these individuals. For most of the rest of us, the treatments are worse than no intervention. The authoritarian tendencies of psychiatry must stop if any of us are to be well.
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https://medium.com/mad-in-america/from-stoned-to-schizophrenic-320f12c92a72
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['Mad In America']
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2019-12-30 21:42:56.840000+00:00
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['Cannabis', 'Psychiatry', 'Drug Addiction', 'Schizophrenia', 'Mental Health']
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Is Strategy in B2B Dramatically Different than in B2C?
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Is Strategy in B2B Dramatically Different than in B2C?
Copyright: Roger L. Martin
This subject of my 15th Playing to Win Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) is a bit of a pet peeve for me because I often get asked: Does the Playing to Win approach to strategy apply to B2B too? (Links for the rest of the PTW/PI series can be found here.)
I get asked the question because Playing to Win was cowritten with former P&G CEO AG Lafley and uses P&G to illustrate the strategy concepts in the book. The logic behind the question is that P&G is B2C and therefore this technique applies only to B2C and one would have to use a different framework for B2B because B2B is so different.
The question is somewhat peculiar because while most casual observers think of P&G as selling to consumers, it does very little of that. In fact, technically it is almost entirely a B2B business with well over 90% of its sales to corporations, such as Walmart, Target, Carrefour, Metro, Tesco, Walgreens and Amazon. In fact, it has been working very hard in recent years to build a Direct-to-Consumer business — which would actually make it more of a B2C company. And while some may typecast me as a B2C guy, the companies with which I work are split equally between B2C companies (including P&G for purposes of this split), entirely B2B companies, and companies whose sales are nearly equally split between B2C and B2B.
If you have read my earlier Medium post, Avoiding the Pitfalls of Our Same-Different Impulse, you will probably have guessed by now that I will argue that this is a case in which the overwhelming tendency is to highlight and accentuate the differences between B2B and B2C — and that is a mistake. Indeed, while I would never argue that they are the same, I believe that B2B strategy is more like B2C strategy than not.
There are three ways that people argue to me that B2B and B2C strategy are markedly different. Each, to me, ignores the greater similarities.
In B2B Strategy, You Don’t Have to Think about the End-Consumer
The pushback that I get when I cite P&G as a B2B company is that retail is a special case because retailer does not transform the purchased input in any way but rather just serves as a channel to the consumer. This is true, but it does not negate the fact that a lot of value can be creating by thinking about the end-consumer just as you would in a B2C business.
In 1986, the primarily B2B chemical giant Dupont launched a new product in the carpet category: Stainmaster. Dupont had done enough consumer research to know that the biggest unmet carpet user need was a carpet that resisted permanent staining when accidents happened. Dupont launched Stainmaster with a big advertising campaign and Stainmaster went on to become the most well-known and valued carpet brand in America. The fascinating thing about Stainmaster carpets is that Dupont didn’t make them. It only made carpet fibers — which it sold to carpet manufacturers, who utilized them to produce carpets which they sold as Stainmaster carpets. While Dupont’s carpet business was entirely B2B, its strategy was largely indistinguishable from a B2C strategy. [In due course this changed, especially when Dupont sold the business to Koch Industries in 2003.]
Intel came to a similar understanding but only after a tough lesson. In 1993, it famously lost a court battle to stop rival chipmaker AMD from selling logic chips called ‘486’ which Intel argued was its proprietary brand name. The judge ruled against Intel and was dismissive of Intel’s position. To the judge, Intel treated the ‘486’ moniker as merely a technical specification and had done nothing to make it a brand name. So, he ruled that AMD had every right to use it. Intel learned a lesson and the next generation would not be a 586 chip: it would be a Pentium, accompanied by a large advertising campaign that told the consumer that regardless of what computer they bought, they should want to have ‘Intel Inside.’
Similarly, why do you care that a Bosch fuel injection system was installed as part of the engine in your car — and why would you be open to paying more in that case? Why do you care that your lawn mower has a Briggs & Stratton engine? The reason is that both of those B2B companies thought like B2C companies. Both invested in understanding the needs and interests of end consumers of the product into which their component was incorporated and built a consumer-recognized brand. And both extract value from their direct customer by having created pull with the consumer, just like P&G does.
Can all B2B businesses build end-consumer pull-through? No. But virtually every B2B company that takes the time to understand its customer’s customers will find strategy possibilities and nuances that they wouldn’t have seen if they focused only on their immediate customer.
In B2B Strategy, You are Selling to Businesses, not to People
The inference is that B2B strategy is different because the key skill is understanding and selling to a business not understanding and selling to a person. While it is technically true that a business pays your invoice, the difference is not nearly as great as this line of argumentation suggests. Even though the payor is a business, you are almost always selling to a specific person or identifiable group of people in that business. And they need to be understood in ways that are similar to those in B2C.
They have wants and needs just like individual consumers. They won’t buy unless you meet their individual wants and needs. I remember vividly doing work on a strategy for penetrating the small airport segment for a leading supplier of air traffic control systems to large airports. When I suggested doing some ethnographic research and developing personas for the managers of these smaller airports, the client was perplexed, thinking of the purchase as a technical question: did our system meet the published specifications or not? I convinced them to do the work and they learned that these managers had needs and wants that went beyond the spec sheets and were different than those in its traditional large airport customers. These managers felt more alone and exposed if something went wrong because they didn’t have a big technical/IT staff to support them. As a result, they cared much more about the ongoing support they felt they would experience from their provider. They knew that they would have everyone shouting at them if the system went down. If that wasn’t strongly signaled during the sales process, it wouldn’t matter a whit if the provider met everything on the spec sheets.
In my experience, deep understanding of the customer is more similar than different in B2B versus B2C and as important in B2B as in B2C. In the modern corporation, the central procurement function attempts to interpose itself between the provider and the actual user within the business. But that just raises the importance of deeply understanding both the people in the central procurement function and the actual user group. Those procurement folks are people too, not some corporate monolith.
In B2B, Only Cost Leadership Strategies Work
This argument, somewhat less frequently made, is that since you are selling to a business, you are selling against a formal specification and the only way to gain an advantage is to have a lower cost position than competitors and therefore be able to sell at the established price and earn more than competitors or to be able to undercut competitors while earning as much as them. That is certainly one approach to a winning strategy, exactly as it is in B2C.
But it most certainly is not the only way. Differentiation is equally possible — and is almost identical to differentiation in a B2C context. A firm can differentiate with a consumer in three ways: 1) lower the cost of consumers doing something they do already (e.g., a more fuel-efficient car); 2) enable consumers to do better something they already do (e.g., feel better about how they look with a pair of designer jeans); 3) enable consumers to do something that they can’t do now (e.g., find a Pez dispenser for your collection that would otherwise be unfindable).
The same three ways hold for business customers: 1) e.g., paper stock that runs faster and more reliably on the customer’s paper machines; or an online service that enables them to do legal searches with fewer resources; 2) e.g., paper stock that enables the customer to do better quality printing than previously; or a customer relationship management system that enables the customer to serve its customers better; 3) e.g., paper that enables the customer to package a product that it couldn’t effectively package previously; or a telematics system that enables the customer to know for the first time where each of its delivery trucks is in real time.
On this front, B2B and B2C aren’t just similar: they are the same.
Practitioner Insights
If you are doing strategy in a B2B context, don’t be fooled into thinking the principles that you should apply are vastly different than the principles in a B2C context. Your default assumption should be that unless you can see a specific way in which B2B strategy is different, it is likely to be the same. That means you should pay attention to your customer’s customers to have the best insights on how your strategy can add value to your customer. And think about whether there is an opportunity to build brand recognition with your customer’s customers as part of your strategy. It also means recognizing that you are still selling to people even if they are working at a business. Take the time to understand the people as well as you would attempt to understand consumers in a classic B2C business. And finally, keep in mind that the entire spectrum of low cost and differentiation possibilities for winning in B2C is available in B2B businesses.
|
https://medium.com/@rogermartin/is-strategy-in-b2b-dramatically-different-than-in-b2c-98d25bc133e3
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['Roger Martin']
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2021-07-16 21:51:46.619000+00:00
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['Playing To Win', 'B2B', 'B2c', 'Strategy']
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Designing my first coffee brand logo
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I was in my desk procrastinating, and it has been a while I have not done any UI works and I was thinking to do something and suddenly I got a feeling to make some logos…. and now I was in a mission to make a logo of a coffee brand. Now, the problem was I was totally new to illustrator and I did not knew much about tools in Adobe Illustrator.
Now, 2021/06/07 I started to make logo… and i did it without any rough sketch(means I took a big risk)
here is the first try
I did not have any names for the brand so, I googled it
So, these are the names I found. Among those The Beanery took my eyes so……….. yeh did branding for THE BEANERY
Now… I saw it was time to change some thing…… here is the improved one
the second result came like this
now, it was time to finalize the thing and probably it looks good
the final result came like this. looks better than before right?
My friend REALITY DESIGNER I don’t know his full name but he helped me a lot in this process and motivated me to write the article
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https://medium.com/@shalingiri/designing-my-first-coffee-brand-logo-65481e218382
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['Shalin Giri']
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2021-06-08 08:07:15.020000+00:00
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['Logo Design', 'Design', 'Graphic Design', 'Procastination']
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The Most Important Vitamin That You Have Never Heard Of
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The Most Important Vitamin That You Have Never Heard Of
Protects your brain and reduces your wrinkles
Photo by Pietro De Grandi on Unsplash
We know about the immune-support properties of vitamin D, currently the subject of many studies examining its ability to help our immune system resist Covid19.
We know about the antioxidant effects of vitamin C, and vitamin E, both of which limit the impact of free radicals and reduce chronic inflammation.
(Antioxidants neutralise free radicals which are molecules that cause cellular damage when their levels become too high. Damage caused by free radicals is associated with numerous chronic conditions, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.)
Asparagus ranks as an excellent source of both vitamin E and vitamin C. It is also a good source of a vitamin which you have probably never heard of before — vitamin P.
In fact, vitamin C and vitamin E work synergistically to enhance the antioxidant effects of vitamin P.
What the heck is vitamin P?
Vitamin P is also known as rutin.
It has been used in alternative medicine as an aid to enhance the action of vitamin C, to support blood circulation, as an antioxidant, and to treat allergies, viruses, or arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.
What is vitamin P good for?
It is good for a lot of beneficial health outcomes, as it turns out.
Here is a list of some of its pharmacological properties:
Antibacterial. Antiprotozoal, i.e. dysentery or malaria. Antitumor. Antiinflammatory. Antiallergic. Antiviral. Cytoprotective, i.e. protective against ulcers. Vasoactive, i.e. affecting the vascular system. Hypolipidemic, i.e. lowering fat levels in the blood. Antiplatelet, i.e. preventing blood clots. Antispasmodic, i.e. reducing muscle spasms. And, Antihypertensive.
But that’s not all, this study found that vitamin P enhanced skin elasticity and reduced the length, as well as the area and number of wrinkles (and this one found it reversed baldness). In simple terms, it reduces skin aging.
While vitamin P supplements are available, it is readily available in many everyday foods.
8 foods and drinks rich in vitamin P
Here are some excellent dietary sources of vitamin P (rutin).
Buckwheat is the best-known food source of rutin. The rutin content of tea made from buckwheat flowers contains even more rutin than then grain. Amaranth is best known for its edible seeds which are usually eaten much in the same way as rice, buckwheat, and quinoa. As Asian cooks know very well, the leaves make delicious dishes. And, the leaves contain far more vitamin p than the seeds. The white blossoms of the Elder tree can be dried and infused in hot water to make a rutin-rich hot drink. Apples are loaded with flavonoids such as rutin. To reap the maximum benefits, eat your apples with the peel on — most of the flavonoids are in the peel. Apple extract has a high content of rutin (as well as the most significant antioxidant capacity in comparison with other extracts). Unfermented rooibos tea contains high amounts of rutin. However, suppose you’re looking to boost your overall antioxidants. In that case, a cup of regular green or black tea may be a better choice. The total antioxidant activity of unfermented rooibos tea is about 50% lower than that of green or black tea. Figs also contain significant amounts of rutin, comparable to apples according to some research. Asparagus is a good source of rutin and readily accessible. Finally, rutin is found in significant quantities in oranges and other citrus fruits, especially in the skin. The latter is yet another reason to eat the skin of your oranges.
Vitamin P has neuroprotective properties
The ability of rutin to protect the brain has been the subject of several experiments.
For example, studies report that when rutin is administered to aged rats, they exhibit improved spatial memory and reduced neuron damage in the hippocampus (CA3b region).
The hippocampal CA3b region is very dense in neural connections and is critical for our associative memory and pattern completion tasks. As we age the hippocampus loses some of its acuity, so anything to help is a blessing.
To add to your daily menu
Of course, soba noodles are made from buckwheat (authentic soba noodles are made from 100 percent buckwheat flour). Many brands of organic soba are easily obtainable. If you like noodles, then add more soba in your diet to up your vitamin P consumption.
I add cracked buckwheat into my morning oats mixture, add hot water and let them all soak overnight. In the morning, I add a good quantity of full-cream milk and reheat to near-boiling point in the microwave and let them cool again (this cooling makes the oats prebiotic).
Asparagus is one of my fav vegetables, so adding more is fine by me. I also drink a big glass of green tea and ginger tea first thing every morning, so this is helping my vitamin P intake.
For me, eating oranges and apples daily is routine — both with the skin. I wash them thoroughly first as I don’t trust the pesticides.
It is common to find in many fruits and vegetables that there is a higher concentration of nutrients closer to the skin, or in the skin, then elsewhere. Vitamin P is just another example. Half of the beneficial antioxidants and protective compounds of an orange are in its skin.
But don’t let eating the skin put you off. Just eat the orange flesh to give your vitamin P a boost.
Good luck
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https://medium.com/body-age-buster/the-most-important-vitamin-that-you-have-never-heard-of-433344dc9e37
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['Walter Adamson']
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2020-11-25 09:54:57.099000+00:00
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['Vitamin', 'Diet', 'Health', 'Food', 'Nutrition']
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Why all the fuss about psychedelics?
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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
Psychedelics are a controversial topic. Or at least, they were.
The word “Psychedelics” conjures up images of hippies in Ibiza’s heyday, John Lennon and those glasses, Burning Man, ayahuasca retreats in Costa Rica, perhaps even Austin Powers and his gorgeous velvet suits! But there is so much more to this space than outdated cliches about mind-expanding experiences and the quest for spiritual enlightenment. Psychedelics are serious business.
We’ve been fascinated by psychedelics for some time now and we’re buzzing with excitement at the possibilities. Of course, we don’t know how the industry will develop and who the winners and losers will be in the race to commercialise. But we firmly believe that we are early on the curve, and that the psychedelic ecosystem deserves serious attention from investors in public and private markets. We’re talking about a burgeoning investment category — one that’s still in its infancy.
Enter the rabbit hole.
A vibrant ecosystem is forming around psychedelics, with producers, distributors, thought leaders (and critics) creating a perpetual motion machine that signals exponential growth in the years ahead. But until recently, this field felt esoteric and impenetrable — the preserve of biochemists and pharmaceutical R&D departments, with a little bit of and thrown in. It was hard to get a practical handle on real life use cases for psychedelics.
That was until we read a book which literally expanded our minds and led us down the rabbit hole. That book was Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics , and it has helped to take psychedelics mainstream (or at least, onto the bookshelves of your local Waterstones, if it is still open).
Pollan reveals how psychedelics are improving the lives of not only the mentally ill, but also healthy people who are grappling with the challenges of everyday life. What’s really cool about this book is that the author doesn’t pontificate from the sidelines — given what he discovered while researching his book, Pollan chose to dive in and explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. The result is something truly wonderful.
The premise (and promise) is simple — psychedelics help people to manage psychological illness and obtain a higher quality of life. When we talk about psychedelics, we’re really talking about Psilocybin, a hard-to-pronounce but nonetheless naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms. Psilocybin is quickly converted by the body to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar, in some aspects, to those of LSD. Those effects are pretty groovy — they include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and spiritual experiences — but they can also include possible adverse reactions such as nausea and panic attacks.
An industry is born.
Human use of psychedelics is as old as the hills. Imagery found on prehistoric murals and rock paintings in Spain and Algeria suggests that usage of psilocybin mushrooms predates recorded history. In Mesoamerica, mushrooms were consumed in spiritual ceremonies before Spanish chroniclers first documented their use in the 16th century.
The industry took a step forward in 1959, when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann isolated psilocybin and his employer Sandoz marketed pure psilocybin to physicians and clinicians worldwide for use in psychedelic psychotherapy ( Rolling Stone reports that Homann “created LSD in 1936 — but it wasn’t until 1943 that he first dosed himself and went on a magical bicycle ride”). There was then a retrenchment in the late 1960s, with increasingly restrictive drug laws curbing scientific research into the effects of psilocybin and other hallucinogens.
In recent years, the sector has been gaining regulatory momentum, leading to mind-blowing possibilities for medical applications in the treatment of depression, anxiety and addiction. The research is fascinating and has been given a massive boost by the opening of the world’s first formal centre for psychedelic research at London’s Imperial College .
A fly in the ointment.
Whilst the empirical results from the various studies that have been conducted are staggering (in a positive way), there’s an epistemological disconnect.
Researchers (and by extension, regulators) are struggling to understand the biochemical process by which psychedelics alleviate mental illnesses. In other words, they know that psychedelics are a game-changer, but they can’t pinpoint how they work and why they’re so effective. This is a key barrier between clinical trials and widespread commercialisation and adoption.
The other option, of course, is decriminalization, which means that natural psychedelics (e.g. mushrooms) become a realistic choice for patients and consumers. Whilst this is another route to market — one that will create opportunities for public and private companies throughout the supply chain — we don’t believe that it will lead to the kind of mass adoption that could come through regulatory approval and pharmaceutical grade drugs delivered via traditional distribution channels.
Ready and waiting.
We’ve said it before, but we’re optimists. We believe in science, and we believe in people. This problem will be solved, and when it is, the psychedelics industry will explode into a new phase of exponential growth.
In fact, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is currently in the latter stages of the FDA approval process with a large scale study into the use of MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other nonprofits and companies are hot on their heels, and we’re close followers of the innovative work that Compass Pathways is doing here.
Things are also happening out in the big wide world. Zach Haigney has pointed out that Oregon will later this year vote on the Psilocybin Services Initiative — medical infrastructure and regulation around the manufacture and sale of psilocybin via a clinical setting. This parallels early days of medical marijuana in California and points to a positive trajectory for the adoption of psychedelics at the state level.
Private market participants are already getting in the action, embracing great risks for potentially great rewards. Twitter commentator Shroom Street said it all when they recently tweeted:
“I feel like there’s a lot of people blindly entering the psychedelic space with no idea what they are getting themselves into.”
We prefer to wait and watch — it’s still early days, and there is plenty of time to play this theme. But rest assured, we are ready to capitalise. It’s simply a question of targeting and timing.
The bigger picture.
What’s really exciting about psychedelics as an investment category is the sheer size of the market. It’s no exaggeration to say that every single human being on our planet might be able to benefit from these treatments at some point in the future.
And those focused on therapeutic applications are missing the bigger picture. Psychedelics exist at the intersection of neuroscience, spirituality, healthcare and investing and a bunch of other fields. It’s fair to say that psychedelics lead us to question the very nature of consciousness. Digging deeper into that rabbit hole might lead us to weird and wonderful new ideas about how we might live, work and relate to each other — ideas with consequences for investors.
It’s too early in the journey to characterise this in detail, and too early on a Saturday morning to speculate as to where human beings might be headed over the next few decades. But is it really that far fetched to postulate that psychedelics might have a role to play in expanding and enriching the experience of being human?
John Lennon said:
“Surrealism to me is reality. Psychedelic vision is reality to me and always was.”
For everyone else, there’s coffee. Strong, black coffee. But for a small and growing number of researchers, investors and optimists, there’s the promise of something stronger and brighter. And maybe — just maybe — it’s closer than you think.
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https://medium.com/@3bodycapital/why-all-the-fuss-about-psychedelics-efee589da0ab
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['Three Body Capital']
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2020-07-06 09:12:26.873000+00:00
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['Psychedelics', 'Investing', 'Finance', 'Future']
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IT’S ALIVE! Now get more out of your website.
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Four tips on how to build a buzz around your business.
You’ve got a solid brand and an optimised website all fired up and ready to go. You’re satisfied that the pages of your website strongly represent your business and its values, and you’re confident that your audience can easily navigate it, find what they’re looking for and want to invest in you…
So why is it not converting?
When creating a brand for people to connect and invest in, you are in fact establishing a relationship, and like in every healthy relationship, success all comes down to trust and communication.
Here are my top tips on how to take your online presence from stagnant to unstoppable.
BE HUMAN
Your website is alive — now give it a personality.
Treat your online presence as a living, breathing extension of your business. A brand ambassador that is engaging, responsive, advocative and interesting. It’s not about the static pages of a website, it’s about the experience of your brand.
Ask yourself, what experience do I want my audience to have when interacting with my business?
GIVE VALUE
A recent study into consumer behaviour tells us that the quality of a company’s engagement is as important as the quality of the product or service they are buying. Your online presence should be a resource to your audience.
As your fresh and value-driven content begins to flow out your website, engagement will flow in. Social interactions, shares and expansion naturally occurs and with that, your consumer community is established.
Put so much value into your content that your audience is inspired to come back time and time again.
LISTEN
Today’s consumer values personalisation and connectivity more than ever before. This means that your audience wants you to know them, to understand their needs and predict their ever changing preferences.
Seems like an impossible feat?
Not so.
With regenerating content attracting traffic, you can fine tune your website’s listening skills with analytics. By knowing what works — and more importantly, what doesn’t work — you can develop a true understanding of your audience and direct your content accordingly.
Careful though; data privacy is also of utmost importance for online consumers. Which leads me on to the final, and perhaps most important piece of the puzzle…
BE TRANSPARENT
Did you know that 92% of consumers visiting a website for the first time aren’t there to buy? To invest in you, your customers need to know you’ve got their back. Trust is a key factor in driving engagement and, especially, loyalty.
It’s a paradox, while consumers want personalisation, they value privacy and don’t want to be treated as a number. But if you deliver value and be transparent about how their data is being used to provide a better experience for them, your customers are vastly more likely to trust you.
Remember, building trust takes time, consistency and patience. You’ve got this!
If you want to start getting your website to work for you, contact me for a consultation at JAMDesignAssociates
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https://medium.com/@jam_designassociates/its-alive-now-get-more-out-of-your-website-47b919aa9c3c
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['Jade Warrington']
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2020-02-18 22:30:37.806000+00:00
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['UI', 'Design', 'Website Design', 'Web Development', 'Website']
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A Deceptive Calm…
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In my blog I am going to be sharing short extracts from my autobiography in progress, plus some of my metaphysical short stories, meditations, even memories of my career in music that don’t make it into the book, and much more. Observations, insights into the challenges of life, which may present as problems, but seen from a higher perspective reveal themselves to be opportunities for transformation.
Continuing now with another extract from the opening chapter of my autobiography, as my previous post finished on a cliffhanger; the year is 1970 — I am bassist with the original post-Yardbirds ‘Renaissance’ — touring America coast to coast : On the verge of a life transforming experience which until now I haven’t shared.
Autobiography extract 2…
Upon leaving Chicago, there was no sign of its impact to come. Yet touching down in San Francisco bathed in early March sunlight — at once I could sense an energy so electric and welcoming — so familiar somehow, like coming back, though in my present moment then I had no recall of a before.
The trick of linear time, as I was to discover soon, is to create an illusion of separateness, and what was to occur in a few days from that first landing might be described as a breakthrough from the illusory veil of passing dream sequences that masquerade as reality. I was soon to realise the true meaning of the word ‘renaissance’ — a rebirth without physically dying or in a deeper sense — a death and rebirth.
A return journey to a home never left? Surfing the wavebands, exhilarated. A rider on the storm…
In the beauty of Sausalito across the Golden Gate Bridge I could feel a calm stillness present in the musty air of our old hotel perched by the side of a marina in San Francisco Bay — I also sensed a time warp approaching. It could have been a dream apparition, not of this world — I wasn’t sure if I was in any time either –more ‘dimensional’ I would say now, but not then. There were no words, just feelings, mostly warm, gentle — inviting, and again that strange sense of returning.
Keith and Jim moved hotels due to the dust; around the bay at Tiburon. We kept close though and I remember we had some time before the first night at the Fillmore, a day or two — welcome rest and explore time amid astral scenes of passing moments — absorbing atmospheres, filling each outer sense with all the colours of Sausalito’s rainbow dream — yachts bobbing on the bay and narrow streets lined with eating places and gift shops. A leather emporium close by the hotel did entice me in, with the sound of Neil Young, who we had supported at a great gig weeks back in Cincinnati…Strains of ‘Helpless’, his song, now stored faithfully in the miracle ‘cloud’. Neil Young had been kind to us; lending us his band Crazy Horse’s amps and drums for the concert, as our roadies had got lost on the road from New York. In an aura of loving kindness, both bands blew up a storm, and brought the house down.
The first night at the Fillmore was on my birthday,. I had woken to another sunny day and was greeted by an unusual amount of space. The band were nowhere to be seen. Did they know? — odd. We had done most things together and now I was alone and in the nature of a dream, unsuspecting. Twenty-four years young and surrounded by an air of mystery now, I dream walked downstairs to see if they were at breakfast — no-one — might have had coffee then or just dreamed on. Next thing I am back upstairs in the bedroom — no people, but something odd; shaving cream! all over the mirror… spelling out ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIS’. In a flash! — a memory-snap of happy faces popping out from places they had been hiding — the whole band in raptures. ‘Could life get any better than this?’ I might have asked the mirror image.
Only a scant memory of the opening night. We shared the bill with Paul Butterfield’s Blues Band, very sophisticated blues, ‘was this what the audience expected from us?’ — absolutely no memory of a note we played, I think it went OK, but we were not playing Yardbirds songs — no Clapton, Beck or Page licks to wow them with, just a wow piano and bass in the front line instead, much of the time, playing fast classical music passages in unison — how could that be a logical replacement?
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https://medium.com/@louiscennamo/a-deceptive-calm-751965d045c1
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['Louis Cennamo']
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2021-09-08 11:33:31.110000+00:00
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['Autobiography', 'Post Yardbirds', 'Renaissance', 'Bassist', 'Musician']
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BOOSTO: Redefining the Influencer Marketing Ecosystem
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Times are changing, and we seek to help facilitate that change.
Influencer marketing is a red-hot marketing modality that has gained massive popularity in the past several years. This is largely attributed to influencers’ ability to reach target audiences and produce massive ROIs for brands; this equates to roughly 11x that of any other form of digital media.
Despite influencer marketing’s success and acclaim, the industry is not without its problems. Some of the most common issues that businesses face is finding the right influencers, ever-changing social media algorithms which make sponsored posts less visible, and fraudulent influencers.
Among these concerns, influencer fraud is likely the most problematic. Digiday recently reported some shocking statistics around the matter:
· A single day’s worth of posts tagged #sponsored or #ad on Instagram contained more than 50 percent fake engagement.
· Out of 118,007 comments, only 20,942 were not made by bot accounts.
· Bot comments are responsible for over 40 percent of total comments for more than 500 of 2,000 sponsored posts made each day.
As Nick Waken, founder of the influencer marketing agency Sway poignantly observed, “. . . this reminds me of banner ads in 2012 before people figured out that bots were responsible for all of their impressions.”
This is clearly a massive problem that requires a far greater degree of transparency if it is to be overcome.
This is not the only problem facing the influencer industry. As it stands, an increasing number of influencers are needing to rely on influencer marketplaces and business-partnerships to maintain their creative pursuits and communities. Because of this dynamic, more sponsored content needs to be created by influencers, and many of their fans aren’t interested in this content. This ultimately leads to a decline in engagement, community growth, and trust.
These two factors are exactly the types of obstacles that BOOSTO seeks to resolve.
What is BOOSTO?
BOOSTO is a blockchain-based, decentralized app store driven by the influencers that inhabit it. We currently tout more than 300 brands who have access to over 350,000 social media influencers capable of reaching well beyond 2 billion consumers across the globe.
BOOSTO supplies a protocol for creating decentralized applications (DApps) that form an immersive ecosystem that enables developers and organizations to easily and affordably build DApps that provide direct contact with influencers, influencer networks, social media platforms, and brands with consumers, services, companies and much more.
By building this system on blockchain technology, BOOSTO is capable of engendering higher levels of transparency and trust among influencers and brands.
This framework serves as a foundation to empower influencers and developers by unleashing the full potential of influencer led communities, by using blockchain as a foundation of trust and tokens as incentives to build various interactive decentralized applications.
What BOOSTO Offers Developers
BOOSTO seeks to provide abundant value to DApp developers, influencers, and advertisers alike.
As far as developers are concerned, BOOSTO provides development framework including SDKs, APIs and Oracle services for developers to create various social media DApps. Developers that get contracted by influencers enable these digital authorities to choose different DApps from the marketplace to create a personal platform and store for the influencer. Instead of receiving a flat fee, developers will receive compensation based on transactions via his or her applications. This will give the developer a constant stream of income for as long as the application is running.
What BOOSTO Offers Influencers
Influencers, on the other hand, can generate a more substantial income by featuring a personal store on their dedicated DApp. An influencer’s personal store is essentially that individual’s portal for connecting with audiences and advertisers. The products and services sold in an influencer’s personal store is determined by the social authority. This means that an influencer can:
· Utilize data provided by the Boostinsider platform and pick items recommended by Boostinsider, add his or her own design, then directly sell to his or her audience.
· Partner with brands, designers, and fans to create customized virtual items, provide in-person offline offers such as a dinner or one-on-one coaching time, or anything else that the community of influencers finds desirable.
This is a massive opportunity as half of the top 10 YouTubers who made the most money from YouTube ads have their own personal stores. For instance, Logan Paul’s merch store generates roughly 7.2 million monthly visits, with more than 90% of the traffic coming from his YouTube channel.
What BOOSTO Offers Brands
Coming back to the issues surrounding fraud and transparency in influencer marketing, BOOSTO enables merchants to verify influencer statistics through the purchase of BOOSTO tokens to access a specific influencer’s audience data.
Since this information exists within the blockchain, the data is assured to be secure and accurate, effectively eliminating concerns around fraud.
Moreover, since the implementation of smart contracts ensures that funds are only released once the predetermined terms have been met, brands can enter partnerships with influencers knowing that the individual will fulfill their end of the bargain.
What this means is that brands and advertisers can leverage demographics and metrics data of influencers to find brand target audiences, safely purchase performance-based influencer services directly from their personal stores, and consult or communicate with influencers directly as a means of building a prosperous relationship.
And since BOOSTO exists on the blockchain, tokenization is a big part of the ecosystem. Brands and advertisers pay influencers in tokens to buy influencers’ services.
BOOSTO sees that blockchain technology is ready to revolutionize much of the business world; this certainly encompasses various advertising modalities such as influencer marketing. We aim to create a healthier, profitable, transparent, and sustainable industry, flanked with a more connected influencer ecosystem where all parties can thrive. If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into the inner working of our platform, check out our white paper.
|
https://medium.com/boosto/boosto-redefining-the-influencer-marketing-ecosystem-8be6f0d5209d
|
[]
|
2018-08-24 17:58:40.582000+00:00
|
['Blockchain', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Blockchain Technology']
|
Top 5 Reasons to Choose .NET for Your IoT Project
|
IoT (Internet of Things) has become a fantastic addition to the present technology world. This has made the current market more advanced and has also become quite beneficial for the audience. Even the big corporations are collaborating to come up with the interesting creation of IoT to supply the industry with suitable serving solutions.
IoT has also proved to be extremely beneficial for the users as well. One of the most awesome programming languages working on the notion of object-orientation, ASP.NET, has been taken over by this platform. The ASP.Net app development functions to make sure that the trend improves without any problem whatsoever.
Nevertheless, you will come across many organizations, which make use of the dot net development in a different way for their projects in IoT. They are of the notion that it will be compatible with other platforms, unlike .net. And therefore, it has become quite debatable amongst the companies at present. They are trying to come across the best language type for putting up with IoT technology.
Below, we have mentioned the top 5 reasons why one should choose .Net for any IoT project.
1. Windows 10 IoT Core
Being a Microsoft product, .Net is compatible with Windows 10 IoT Core. The OS for Windows 10 has been developed specifically to operate on low-power devices such as MinnowBoard MAX, Raspberry Pi 2, and 3, as well as Dragonboard 410c.
It is completely free, which happens to be a notable advantage. Windows 10 IOT cores come with quite a few integration options as well as a useful tool kit, which is a result of the UWP (Universal Windows Platform) and Visual Studio and Azure Cloud platform.
It is possible for any dot net development company to hire .NET developers with the combination of UWP and .NET Core that will be capable of creating incredible IOT applications for Windows 10 IoT Core. A smooth UX is offered by .NET Core, which makes it quite advantageous out there. A US IoT app development company cannot implement complicated IoT systems with several Windows 10 IoT Core and .NET; however, they will be able to enjoy personalizing small IoT systems.
2. Microsoft Azure
Being identified as amongst the most well-known enterprise-class platforms right now, it works incredibly well for IoT users out there. The IoT accelerator and Azure IoT platform along with data storage and recovery is provided by Microsoft. The security, flexibility, and analytics, which are offered by Microsoft Azure happen to be important features when it comes to IoT app development.
This particular platform, which is secure and dependable, provides lots of services. It will be possible to position your apps with several clicks in the cloud template by creating application runtime in the Azure Dashboard. The leading Microsoft engineers have been working on Azure extensively for including innovative features and providing updates.
3. .NET Ready-Made Solutions
Virtually every coding problem has been created and fixed somewhere on the web. Any dot net development company in the US is helped by .net by providing ready-made solutions. It implies that in case you are having any problem with your IoT solution, it is highly possible that the answer for that has been already found by somebody else, and he or she has already published the code on Bitbucket or GitHub. You simply need to copy the code and paste it.
The .net community is quite large and a substantial portion of reusable code is produced by them. The speed of IoT development of any web development organization in the US is going to increase highly when combined with the .net Framework class library. .Net provides the benefits mentioned above, and it is one of the best options in case you have to face a hard deadline.
4. ASP.NET Core
This happens to be a free and well-known open-source web framework. This framework is used by the .net developers, as it enables them to produce top-quality IoT and web applications very easily. The presence of windows 10 IOT, as well as ASP.NET Core, will help you to create fantastic applications that can operate in the background of any IoT gadget of yours.
ASP.NET Core offers an extremely rich toolbox that can support various programming languages such as Visual Basic and C#. It can likewise boast of top security, remarkable performance, quick deployment, plus hassle-free cloud integration required for any IoT project out there.
While working with ASP.NET Core, it will be possible for you to choose any cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud IoT. Take the help of .net developers who will be able to set up an application using ASP.NET with the identical .net runtime as that used while developing. This framework will help to minimize your chances of coming across bugs that have been caused because of environmental differences.
5. The .NET Community
The web developers need to have a supportive community, and luckily .net has a community like this. You’ll come across more than 2 million .net users who are prepared to share their experiences and also solve any issues which you are facing.
As compared to the support line, a community will be much better since an experienced community of developers from across the globe will be able to assist less experienced developers out there effectively.
Just like other application development communities, the .net community hangs out on StackOverflow and GitHub, where you will be able to look for solutions by asking questions. You’ll come across plenty of .net Open Source Application projects from Microsoft on these platforms.
Conclusion
|
https://medium.com/@rlogicaltech/top-5-reasons-to-choose-net-for-your-iot-project-97146ef42399
|
['Rlogical Techsoft.Pvt.Ltd']
|
2020-10-22 10:35:47.443000+00:00
|
['IoT', 'Net Core', 'Microsoft Azure', 'Aspnet', 'Dotnet Core']
|
I did more than sneeze in Vienna — performing at ImPulsTanz
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Ghost performing, photo by Stephanie Handjiiska.
One early September evening, a Vietnamese restaurant in Dalston, London. A dinner gathering with six other Hong Kong artists in London. Victor Fung turned to me and said. “I watched the live broadcast of your performance in Vienna. Less than 10 seconds after I started watching, you sneezed.” And that was the first time I’ve ever sneezed at a live performance.
The sneeze was quick. The stories which came before and after it were not.
Ghost and I presented the double bill of our solo works: I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED MY PHONE and I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED TO EAT at Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz during ImPulsTanz — Vienna International Dance Festival 2019. (It was a mouthful to say.) We spent five weeks this summer in the beautiful city of Vienna, as a danceWEB scholarship recipient and ATLAS young choreographer respectively. Ghost received support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) while my trip was funded by Airbnb-ing our London flat during the five weeks.
At the intermission of Pina Bausch’s Masurca Fogo, Ghost went up to Rio Rutzinger, the artistic director of the festival and asked if a studio presentation at the Arsenal would be possible as required by HKADC. “I don’t see why not,” said Rio, unexpectedly supportive. Ghost and I took a quick look at each other, surprised. At the end of the show, we exchanged phone numbers with him.
A late night text from Rio the day before we were going to perform let us know that our presentation had been cancelled due to a scheduling clash. We went back to scrolling through endless videos posted on social media showing the events in Hong Kong. Sleepless.
Ghost performing, photo by Stephanie Handjiiska.
Back in June, in the studios at The Place, London, enraged and disgusted. My body and mind flooded with desperation. Looking at the giant mantis shrimp larvae projection on the wall, I think: there must be something that I can do.
Ecology, capitalism and digital engagement are the big hot topics in the dance world now. Coming from computer science and biology backgrounds, knowledge from our previous fields seems to be giving us a slight edge in making relevant works. The content could be the marketing point but the real question here for me, as an artist, is the social efficacy of my work.
Five am on the day after we were supposed to perform, Rio sent us a message telling us the festival had decided to put us on in one of Vienna’s most prestigious venues, the historic Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz. Indescribable feelings.
I dedicated my MA dissertation to the enquiry into the space between arts and spectators when I started my degree back in September 2018. The problematisation of the social impact of art seemed to be a good place to dissect my research and development for a performance piece. Being half a planet from home, the screen of my MacBook, iPad and iPhone transported me to the scenes of 6.12 and 7.21. Being so far away created a sense of helplessness that I could not quite articulate with words, whatever the language.
While our friends and families are thinking about the safest way to get home, as artists with access to a safe space, what is our responsibility and what message we are conveying through our work are the questions that cling to our minds. Perhaps distance is the key for all artists’ works to be possible. There must be something that I should do.
In I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED MY PHONE, there was a deliberate play on expectations as the performance pulled the audience into the loop of digital interaction through their phones, simulations of different scenarios and creation of movement. Ghost allowed the audience members to make collective decisions and voice individual thoughts through the intranet and programme he built for this performance. The anonymous comments were read out by the computer as Ghost reacted to these inputs.
When I was performing I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED TO EAT, the audience were allowed to roam freely in the space as there was no specified “audience area” or “performance area”. The trajectory of my movement through space morphed into the audience, hence the landscape of the whole scene kept shifting. How the audience assumed different formations throughout the choreography was quite unpredictable in terms of my control over the space and energy as a performer.
The international makeup of the audience at ImPulsTanz made it a good setting to observe the reception and cultural translation of the two solo works. The marble pillars and grand stairs leading to the theatre at Kasino did not give a sense of distance to the audience, but were surprisingly welcoming into the world we were creating.
At the specific moment when I climbed onto the audience seating with the projection on my body, the proximity between the audience and I generated another atmosphere, one that had been absent from my London performance. They first saw the projection projected onto their own bodies, leaving them feeling confused and unsure of what to do. They then saw me slowly climbing up the benches, and gave way to my progress. This process of noticing then reacting and physically adjusting themselves created the ever-changing landscape of the work.
Perhaps one of the impressions of the double bill which generated the most reaction was the way space was transformed by the utilisation of projections. The scenes were meant to be visually stunning, to generate a prolonged impression in the audience’s brain, allowing contemplation, thoughts, opinions, criticism and reflections to form. Even if the weight of the image can never fully deliver the heaviness of the social themes we are bringing into the theatre, the embroidery of the visuals used as a tactic to stimulate reaction was seen as a success.
Ghost was in a week-long field project with Steven Cohen, a South African born and France-based artist. He asked Steven about the use of technology in contemporary performances. Steven replied that he is worried that the technology could end up engulfing the body.
The fact that the audience can anonymously input thoughts and opinions generated a situation reflecting how our digital bodies form a digital society. The messages were projected on the walls and ceiling and amplified by speakers. The technology became the carrier of many different voices and thoughts, pouring their weight over Ghost’s body. The horror of this doesn’t come from the excess of opinions, but from how the abuse acts on a man. Maybe, we are all more afraid of being engulfed by something else.
Projection at the hall of Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz. Photo by Stephanie Handjiiska
At ImPulsTanz, almost everyone rented a bike from Arsenal. Either pink or blue. The city is then filled with these bikes which serve as ImPulsTanz’s logo. We stayed in a building with sixty-two other artists from all around the world, which we jokingly called “the orphanage”. The experience of biking from there to venues and studios with fellow artists was one of the most valuable ones in our Vienna journey. Encountering an international group of artists, who were so generous in sharing their thoughts and opinions, was precious. Riding through the streets of Vienna on a bike with a group of young, strong, outspoken talents, I felt empowered.
After the festival ended, we sat down with Rio at a cafe called Aida. Super pink, super Viennese. We asked him about the decision to put us on the stage of Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz, and asked why he trusted us to do this. He said, “I am curious about your social realm. You are critical and are not ‘comfortable’ [for the audience]. And in the end, that’s the most important quality.”
There are things that we, together, need to do. Let’s stay not ’comfortable’.
This article is originally published on Dance Journal/hk on 21 November 2019
|
https://medium.com/@ghostandjohn/i-did-more-than-sneeze-in-vienna-performing-at-impulstanz-693d0562d651
|
['Ghost']
|
2020-12-17 18:15:49.163000+00:00
|
['Performance', 'Dance', 'Vienna', 'Projection', 'Art']
|
Startup Boost South Florida Announces Strategic Partnership With Leading Investment crowdfunding platform Wefunder
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Startup Boost South Florida Announces Strategic Partnership With Leading Investment crowdfunding platform Wefunder FoundersBoost Mar 19·3 min read
This partnership will provide accepted startups access to Wefunder mentorship, founder discounted fees as part of the package deal.
Miami, Florida. — Startup Boost South Florida’s pre-accelerator program will provide through the strategic partnership with Wefunder access to uniquely customized resources, such as dedicated Wefunder mentorship and reduced platform fees amongst other bespoke support services in order to get them investment ready and prepare them for launch by demo day.
Marc Lissade, Startup Boost South Florida’s director, states: “Working closely with Wefunder on this project is an amazing opportunity for Startups to boost their equity investment success potential. This strategic partnership secures the 2nd leg of our AIR (Acceleration, Investment, Revenue) framework in order to provide our cohort with best of class resources.”
Lydia Smith, member of Wefunder’s Growth Team states: “We’re stoked for the opportunity to support founders alongside Startup Boost South Florida. By orchestrating all the legal paperwork, managing investment contracts, and opening up investment opportunities to both accredited and unaccredited investors — founders working with Wefunder get to focus more on what matters: running their startup.”
Adie Akuffo-Afful, Wefunder’s Director of Partnerships states: “Wefunder is thrilled to work with the top-notch founders from Startup Boost South Florida and give them access to our team of expert fundraisers & 900K investor network as they build their respective armies of supporters.”
The Spring Program
Startup Boost South Florida will debut right after Startup Weekend South Florida, featuring Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet and will reward a seat in the cohort to the weekend event winner.
Eight pre-seed/seed stage tech teams in the South Florida area will be selected to take part in the program. Prerequisites include a comprehensive business model, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and market validation or traction.
Working in tandem with keynote speakers, industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs, the Startup Boost South Florida program offers participants industry insights alongside hands-on mentorship, guidance, validation and the necessary resources for building traction.
The program will culminate with a demo day, where participants will be given the opportunity to pitch and connect directly with investors and accelerator directors.
Companies also get promoted to investors globally through the Startup Boost Global Investor Day, which occurs six week after the program to allow investors from around the world to view pitches online for a two-day period.
Applications are open to all pre-seed/seed stage startups for Startup Boost 2021 Spring at https://startupboost.org/southflorida until March 22nd, 2021.
Experienced industry experts, executives and entrepreneurs are also invited to apply for consideration for speaking, mentoring and program participation opportunities by sending an email to: [email protected]
Contact: Marc Lissade
Contact Info: [email protected] // [email protected]
About Startup Boost
Startup Boost is a global pre-accelerator program with a mission to lead pre-seed & seed-stage startups towards Accelerators, Investment, and Revenue. Our mentor-driven program seeks to meet the unique needs that startups face in this early stage. We partner with accelerator programs to screen & prepare startups for their programs. We prepare our teams for investment through business model refinement & connections. We help put our startups on a scalable revenue trajectory. We charge no fees and take no equity. We are able to operate through the support of our strong partners and sponsors, as well as the time donated by our passionate mentors and facilitators.
About Wefunder
Wefunder is the nation’s leading investment crowdfunding platform, with a mission to keep the American dream alive. Founded in 2011, Wefunder has helped hundreds of companies raise almost $130 million. Wefunder companies have gone on to raise over $2 billion in venture capital. Wefunder is a Public Benefit Corporation and B Corp, with a goal to help 20,000 founders get off the ground by 2029.
|
https://medium.com/@foundersboost/startup-boost-south-florida-announces-strategic-partnership-with-leading-investment-crowdfunding-314c0a65ba98
|
[]
|
2021-03-19 15:46:41.297000+00:00
|
['Fintech', 'Pre Accelerator', 'Startups']
|
Tripp Lite AVR900U UPS review: This uninterruptible power supply has the wrong set of features
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Tripp Lite AVR900U UPS review: This uninterruptible power supply has the wrong set of features Michelle Dec 21, 2020·4 min read
The 12-outlet Tripp Lite AVR900U is the wrong intersection of perfectly fine separate features in an otherwise well-made model. Its reasonable battery size could support a tricked-out computer system with multiple displays and peripherals for a few to several minutes during a power outage. The line-interactive approach incorporated in its design provides fast power switch over (as quick as a few milliseconds) along with constant power conditioning to correct for minor fluctuations without wearing out the internal battery.
Mentioned in this article CyberPower PFC Sinewave CP1000PFCLCD (1000VA, 600W, 10 outlets) Read TechHive's reviewSee it On the other hand, the AVR900U relies on simulated power switching instead of a “pure” sine wave. That means it’s not the right choice for computers with active power factor correction (PFC). A simulated, or stepped, sine wave fed into an active PFC power supply can cause a high-pitched whine and prematurely wear its components or even cause it to fail.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best uninterruptible power supplies, 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.Active PFC power supplies are more efficient than previous designs, and also allow voltage adaptative for worldwide sales. But they’re finicky about the smoothness of the alternating current fed into them, and it’s not worth the price of repairing your computer rather than buying a better-suited UPS with a pure sinewave output that’s as smooth as utility power.
For about $40 more, you can purchase instead the CyberPower CP850PFCLCD, a line-interactive UPS that also has a pure sinewave output and similar power capacity. (We reviewed the slightly higher-capacity CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD, which is in same series of UPS models.)
Tripp Lite The Tripp Lite AVR900U has a generous number of outlets: Six that provide both battery backup and surge protection, and six that provide surge protection only.
The AVR900U might be right to power home-networking gear in the event of power outages, as its battery could support about a combined 20W of equipment power draw for up to two hours and 100W for up to 30 minutes. (Check your broadband modem, Wi-Fi gateway, and other solid-state communications gear power specs to figure total power required.) Its generous 12 outlets are split into one set of six backed by surge protection only and another six that are additionally shored up by line conditioning and the battery. Two outlets on either side are 1.75 inches apart from four grouped tightly in the center, the better to add DC-adapter “wall warts.”
[ Further reading: The best surge protectors for your costly electronics ]But for the AVR900U’s price, the line-interactive power conditioning that comes at a premium isn’t worth it. Instead, consider a UPS with a standby design, which is perfectly fine for networking gear that doesn’t have spinning drives or picky power supplies. A standby UPS might tap its battery more frequently if local power is routinely erratic, dipping below or above standard voltage. If you have those issues in your area and want to use a UPS to solve them while backing up network hardware, the price premium is worthwhile.
I don’t recommend the AVR900U in any use case, not because of any flaw in the product itself, but because it doesn’t scratch the right itch. Other products from Tripp Lite and other UPS makers have a better mix of features that intersect usefully. For instance, we like the Tripp Lite SmartPro SMC1000T, a 600W unit ideal for computer-system power conditioning and support.
The AVR900U has a variety of other minor flaws. It lacks a fairly standard multi-purpose electrical fault detector for grounds, shorts, and other issues that indicate an electrical wiring problem that should have you on the phone to an electrician immediately. It’s a good feature for installing a new UPS or noticing if there’s a problem over time.
It lacks programmable features via buttons. You must use downloadable software when connected to a computer by USB with an included cable. The software is mentioned in the manual, and you have to hunt the site to find it—only to discover the control software only works under Windows and requires Java. You can, however, use automatic restart, scheduled, and other built-in UPS features found in Windows and macOS without installing the software.
Tripp Lite The Tripp Lite AVR900U produces a simulated, or stepped, sine wave, which isn’t a good choice of backup power for sensitive electronics.
Tripp Lite doesn’t include warranty information in the box, but the packaging says a $100,000 and 3-year warranty is included. The manual has a link to product registration and generic warranty details; you apparently don’t get the specifics of the warranty for your unit until you register.
Only the original purchaser is covered, and claims must be filed with 30 days of an incident. Tripp Lite’s insurance notes that it could offer to repair up to $100,000 of damaged equipment, but it might replace it on a “pro rata” basis, which I interpret to mean its depreciated current value, instead of its actual replacement cost.
Bottom lineTripp Lite turned the dials on its product matrix incorrectly to come up with the AVR900U, but don’t let that discourage you from examining the company’s other products. The care of manufacture and quality of design aren’t at issue, only its suitability to purpose and cost per watt for potential appropriate uses.
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/@michell61265585/tripp-lite-avr900u-ups-review-this-uninterruptible-power-supply-has-the-wrong-set-of-features-476b69be3f5a
|
[]
|
2020-12-21 01:16:01.191000+00:00
|
['Mobile', 'Deals', 'Headphones', 'Mobile Accessories']
|
Amal Totkay
|
Amal Academy has taught us five life-changing totkays that are essentially home-made solutions to our everyday problems. By following them, we will make amazing things happen in life.
Self Talk:
Self-talk is something that we do spontaneously during our waking hours. People are becoming more conscious that positive self-talk is a powerful tool to improve self-confidence and minimize negative emotions.
Get out of Comfort Zone:
It’s really important to have clarity about stuff to talk to yourself. It helps us to see our week and the power of our points. It makes us accountable and frees us from any kind of judgment.
Create New Habits:
Identify something you’re already doing and make a small, easily palatable change you can commit to that pushes you toward your target. When you’re happy with the switch, make another minor change before you actually get to the routine you want to make.
Adopting new habits every day that help us follow our aim is a vital part of a healthy life. Shift is only possible if we adopt these new behaviors.
Ask People for Help:
It’s hard for us to start something new, but if we’re going to make a team, or if we need support from others, we can ask for it. We should make things happen in that way.
Fake it till you Make it:
It’s like a rule of attraction, if I have a dream of being somebody, then I have to act like that. By adopting the day-to-day behaviors of people I like, it will help me to become like that person.
Reflections:
How did they find the 5 tips?
Well, I found these tips incredibly helpful, and if I look at them closely, these are some of the points that the fellowship has been presenting from the outset. In addition, I think that a number of people have implicitly or specifically discussed these points to me during my education.
Takeaways?
Stepping out of our comfort zone is important because it will let us live life at its fullest. It will help you mature and grow as an individual.
Favorite tips:
The favorite tip that allows me to make it appreciable is to get out of my comfort zone. At the same time, it’s the toughest thing for me.
Growth mindset
The journey of cultivating a growth mentality is a daunting one with a few patches of rugged landscape, but the only way to get through is through hard work.
Started implementing already:
By adopting all of these, I can build my Growth Mind Set. By having a development attitude, thinking out of the box and doing something creative.
|
https://medium.com/@aqsa-mukhtar186/amal-totkay-b1f65cd57c80
|
['Aqsa Mukhtar']
|
2021-04-09 07:31:12.193000+00:00
|
['Amal Fellowship', 'Amalkindness', 'Amal Academy', 'Lifechanging', 'Amal Totkay']
|
My Lover’s Flaccid Penis
|
My Lover’s Flaccid Penis
A prose poem.
Photo by Владимир Васильев.
My lover’s flaccid penis is like the dawn — the sun tucked in behind the horizon.
An augur of mutual promised pleasure.
My challenge to bring to life.
But it’s not a weakness. His flaccid penis is just as pleasurable for me as his hard cock. When he’s inside me, I climax just as intensely from his flaccid penis as I do when he’s turgid.
In this way, my lover’s flaccid penis is also like the sunset, the vibrant day descending into night.
And when he withdraws from inside me, still carrying my scent and juices on him, I, too, become just a memory.
|
https://medium.com/sensual-enchantment/my-lovers-flaccid-penis-e81a12426c50
|
['Mysterious Witt']
|
2020-12-25 21:22:14.563000+00:00
|
['Erotica', 'Sex', 'Sexuality', 'Self', 'Poetry']
|
5 Popular Ideas and Studies That You Have Wrong
|
“Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think,” David Foster Wallace argued in his 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech. And yet, in an age of pseudoscience and a relentless race for shortcuts, hacks, and quick fixes, recognizing where to exercise this control can be a continual challenge.
Maintaining a healthy level of skepticism while remaining open-minded to new ideas is a constant balance. One that Carl Sagan summarized brilliantly in his essay The Burden of Skepticism,
“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble.”
This balance, and our ability to regulate the information that we take in, is our main defense against the echo chambers and filter bubbles prevalent in today’s discussions. Not only that, our tendency to accept information without question in one discipline often causes difficulties distinguishing fact from fiction in other critical areas. As Steven Jay Gould described,
“The mind, basically, is a pattern-seeking machine… We tend to seek patterns… and then we tell stories about them. I think we’re pretty much conditioned to look for a pattern and to try to interpret it in terms of certain stories.”
Inaccurate information causes inaccurate patterns. Inaccurate patterns cause inaccurate stories. And inaccurate stories cause us to draw inaccurate conclusions about the causes of own behavior, and the behaviors of others.
And in a world where understanding behaviors leads to influence, anyone operating with inaccurate datasets is at a severe disadvantage.
One key then, becomes questioning new information before it shapes the patterns we see and the stories we tell ourselves. But another is to periodically challenge those stories we’ve heard so many times that we’ve just assumed them to be true. Because as Gould also points out,
“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best — and therefore never scrutinize or question.”
By way of example, here are five commonly referenced studies and ideas that don’t align to reality — and are limiting our ability to fully understand the causes of our behaviors.
93% of Communication is Non-Verbal
If you’ve ever attended a class or read an article on public speaking, you’ve likely heard that 93% of communication is non-verbal.
The other week I heard a management coach talk with our company’s future leaders and parrot out this same claim — 55% of communication is body language, 38% is tone, and only 7% is through our words.
Except, oh wait, it isn’t.
In the 1960s, UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian and his colleagues conducted studies on human communication patterns. Essentially they ran two experiments. In the first, participants listened to a recording of a women’s voice saying the word “maybe” three different ways to convey liking, neutrality, and disliking. They were also shown photos of the woman’s face conveying the same emotions, and asked to guess the emotions heard in the recorded voice, seen in the photos, and both together. The result? The subjects correctly identified the emotions 50 percent more often from the photos than from the voice. Body language over tone.
In the second study, subjects were asked to listen to nine recorded words, three that conveyed liking (honey, dear, thanks), three that conveyed neutrality (maybe, really, oh), and three that conveyed disliking (don’t, brute, terrible). Each word was pronounced three different ways, similar to the previous study. When asked to guess the emotions being conveyed, it turned out that the subjects were more influenced by the tone of voice than by the words themselves. Tone over words.
Professor Mehrabian then combined the statistical results of the two studies and came up with the ratio of 55% body language, 38% tone, and 7% words in conveying emotion and overall attitude. And ever since, people have misquoted and misrepresented this data to support any number of other claims.
The key is that this study identified indicators of emotion, specifically within conflicting communication methods — NOT an overall ratio of effective communication. Mehrabian made this specific point in his book, Nonverbal Communication,
“When there are inconsistencies between attitudes communicated verbally and posturally, the postural component should dominate in determining the total attitude that is inferred.”
If our body language or tone is at odds with the words we choose, then it’s more likely that our body language and tone are indicative of our true attitude. Which few people would debate — especially those with growing kids that are learning the charming art of sarcasm.
But these results are only relevant in this context. And in no way relate to our ability to communicate ideas.
The essence of the ideas that we communicate are the words we choose. These can be strengthened by our body language and tone, but great body language and tone can rarely make up for poor explanations and words. As the great poet Ursula K. Le Guin put it,
“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.”
If You’re Unsure of Your Answer, Stick with Your Initial Intuition
If you don’t know the correct answer on a test, is it a good idea to go with your initial intuition, or is it better to change your answer after some thought?
For anyone that can remember those joyful high school days of multiple-choice exams, they likely also remember the conventional wisdom that it’s a bad idea to change your answer.
Yet, as is often the case with what we learned in high school, the opposite is actually true. As the authors of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology wrote,
“More than 60 studies lead to essentially the same verdict: When students change answers on multiple-choice tests (typically as judged by their erasures or cross-outs of earlier answers), they’re more likely to change from a wrong to a right answer than from a right to a wrong answer.”
Granted, very few of us are taking multiple-choice tests any longer. So maybe you’re asking why you should care — if, that is, you’re someone who talks to an online article.
But this same idea is relevant to all of us, regardless of the amount of multiple-choice tests on tomorrow’s agenda. The idea that our initial hunches are typically most accurate is a result of two common biases — the availability heuristic and loss aversion.
People tend to demonstrate greater regret (and other emotional reactions) to outcomes that are produced by actions than the same outcome when produced by inaction. This tendency, when combined with the idea of loss aversion, explain why people are much more likely to remember answers they changed from right to wrong than those they changed from wrong to right.
These same biases influence our daily behaviors. They cause us to stick with our initial hunches and reactions far beyond when we recognize those decisions are no longer in our best interest. If after some consideration, you believe your initial hunch is wrong, then make the smart decision and switch.
Go with your head — not with your gut.
A Frog Can Be Boiled Alive if You Heat the Water Slowly
The story of how frogs can be slowly boiled alive has been told for more than a century. It’s also been featured in multiple movies, including An Inconvenient Truth, Dante’s Peak, and the 2009 documentary, How to Boil a Frog.
In summary, the tale says that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put the frog in cold water and then slowly bring it to a boil, it won’t recognize the change and will slowly be cooked to death.
It originated from a 19th century experiment where a researcher apparently boiled a frog to death by controlling the rate of heat input to below the detectable limit.
Again, not quite.
First off, if you put a frog in boiling water, it will not jump out — it will die. Second, if you put a frog in cold water and heat it, it will jump out before it gets too hot. In the original experiment that generated the idea, the frog was actually boiled to death. However, it’s brain was removed beforehand — which was more humane and in many of today’s contexts, actually makes the metaphor more appropriate.
While the story’s not true, and there’s no real reason why anyone should need to boil frogs to prove this point, it is an apt metaphor for many of life’s situations. Whether it’s the slow decline in the quality of someone’s performance or the gradual worsening of a work culture, we all need to be on guard against slowly becoming acclimated to situations we’d find unacceptable with fresh eyes.
So in this case, I’ll agree with James Fallows’ Atlantic article that if used to demonstrate a point, it’s an acceptable metaphor — assuming, of course, we note that it’s not literally true.
And people stop trying to repeat the results — honestly, what are they even trying to prove at this point?
We Only Use 10% of Our Brains
In the late 19th century, pioneering psychologist William James made the claim that he doubted the average person achieves more than about 10% of their intellectual potential. And since then, people have spread the erroneous claim that we only use 10% of our brains.
Which is ridiculous.
Assuming you believe in evolution, you’re likely familiar with the idea of natural selection. While our brains occupy only 2–3% of our body weight, they consume over 20% of the oxygen that we breathe. It’s highly unlikely that natural selection processes would continue to donate this level of resources to something that wasn’t pulling its weight.
Additionally, in the many cases of brain damage from disease and accidents, patients that lose far less than 90% of their brain nearly always have severe issues with brain function. Similarly, research has yet to reveal an area of the brain that can be damaged from strokes without creating significant mental consequences.
The idea that the average person only uses 10% of their brain has been promoted by self-help gurus who offer quick hacks to magically unlock the other 90%. Unfortunately, no such quick fix exists. And the key to unlocking the rest of your potential tends to come in the form of old-fashioned hard work — which probably explains why it continues to be so rare.
The Monkeys Won’t Climb the Pole and Eat the Bananas
A group of scientists placed 5 monkeys in a room with a tall pole and a bunch of bananas suspended from the top. But as a monkey climbs the pole to get the bananas, the scientists turn on a fire hose and soak the monkeys with cold water. Another monkey tries and the same thing happens. Soon, the monkeys stop trying and resist the banana temptation.
The scientists then swap out one monkey, who quickly sees the bananas and begins to climb the ladder. The other monkeys, fearing the water, grab him and prevent him from doing so. This happens several times until the new monkey learns not to climb the ladder — even though he doesn’t know why.
The scientists then swap out another monkey and the same situation plays out, with the first monkey fully participating in the group dynamic. The scientists continue to swap out monkeys until none of the original five are in the room. And still, the monkeys respect the established precedent and do not go for the bananas — even though none of them have ever been sprayed by the fire hose.
A good story. But that’s all it really is.
In 1996, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad published Competing for the Future, and provided a similar description of a research study to this effect. Subsequent reviews haven’t been able to find any evidence that this study actually exists, leading to the likely conclusion that Hamel or Prahalad invented the study for the purpose of the book.
Or as Dr. Claud Bramblett, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas in Austin, a man who’s worked with hundreds of monkeys over the last 30 years put it, “If you have bananas on a pole, you’ll lose your bananas.”
Now, there’s little debate that the temporary quickly becomes permanent. So it’s always important to ask whether you’d be willing to live with a solution for a long time. And if no, then keep working towards a more principled solution.
But the 5-monkey story emphasizes the idea that people, when confronted with imposed limits and restrictions, will stop questioning the reasons and merely follow along like sheep. Which is rarely true — and an unfair depiction made by people who are out of touch with those who actually perform the work.
The problem isn’t that people are unwilling to challenge the precedent and climb the ladder once the fire hoses are off. Too often, the problem is that management talks about turning off the fire hoses and encouraging people to climb for the bananas — yet never seems to actually crank the valve shut.
Where There is Doubt, There is Freedom
“A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. He knew that she was old, and not overwell built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Doubts had been suggested to him that possibly she was not seaworthy. These doubts preyed upon his mind, and made him unhappy; he thought that perhaps he ought to have her thoroughly overhauled and refitted, even though this should put him at great expense. Before the ship sailed, however, he succeeded in overcoming these melancholy reflections. He said to himself that she had gone safely through so many voyages and weathered so many storms that it was idle to suppose she would not come safely home from this trip also. He would put his trust in Providence, which could hardly fail to protect all these unhappy families that were leaving their fatherland to seek for better times elsewhere. He would dismiss from his mind all ungenerous suspicions about the honesty of builders and contractors. In such ways he acquired a sincere and comfortable conviction that his vessel was thoroughly safe and seaworthy; he watched her departure with a light heart, and benevolent wishes for the success of the exiles in their strange new home that was to be; and he got his insurance-money when she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales. “What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the sincerity of his conviction can in no wise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts. And although in the end he may have felt so sure about it that he could not think otherwise, yet inasmuch as he had knowingly and willingly worked himself into that frame of mind, he must be held responsible for it.” — William K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief (1874)
We have largely evolved to understand the world around us, not necessarily to understand ourselves. As a result, we tend to rationalize our own behaviors after the fact with convenient, yet incorrect, explanations. And in many areas we’ve stopped questioning these stories and explanations — particularly the ones we’ve repeatedly heard.
But as the Latin proverb goes, “Ubi dubium ibi libertas: Where there is doubt, there is freedom.”
It’s in doubt, and in our questions, that we’re able to expose the misleading stories that limit our understanding. Through skepticism we’re able to recognize which stories and explanations are merely convenient as opposed to true.
So keep asking questions — both with new stories and old. Because in the astute words of William K. Clifford, “It is wrong, always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”
Thanks, as always, for reading. Love it? Hate it? Other suggestions? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you found this helpful, I’d appreciate if you could help me share with more people. Cheers!
|
https://jswilder16.medium.com/5-popular-ideas-and-studies-that-you-have-wrong-6034bfa4a23f
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['Jake Wilder']
|
2019-05-02 03:27:33.670000+00:00
|
['Self Improvement', 'Psychology', 'Productivity', 'Personal Development', 'Leadership']
|
The ISW: W5 2019 NFL Odds & Data
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W5 Initial Value Plays
Each week, the ISW identifies weekly value plays. These plays should not be misconstrued as official picks, plays, or wagers as we believe long-term wagering ROI is more a function of bankroll management and allocation than of win rates.
We define value as instances where the odds of covering are at least >52.4%, and when spreads between our win probabilities and the market are substantial — yielding positive long-term expected values (EV). The last thing we ever want to be confused with is as a tout. We’re long-term-probability-minded here — remember 52.4% is almost the same as a coin toss, but the margins is where the value lies. In the long-term, the EV will deliver alpha.
The ISW’s W2-4 Initial Value Play Scorecard
|
https://medium.com/the-intelligent-sports-wagerer/the-isw-w5-2019-nfl-odds-data-b602531f3c7e
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['John Culver']
|
2019-10-08 20:48:07.984000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting', 'Value Investing', 'Startup', 'Hedge Funds']
|
Medium Terms of Service
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|
https://policy.medium.com/medium-terms-of-service-9db0094a1e0f
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[]
|
2020-09-01 17:50:41.653000+00:00
|
['Terms And Conditions', 'Terms', 'Medium']
|
A Productivity System for Life
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A couple of years ago, I discovered the Wheel of Life.
The Wheel of Life is a framework promoted by Tony Robbins that helps achieve a balance between the essential facets of your life. It serves as a tool for setting actionable goals that help “design your life” rather than merely going through the motions.
Life Domains: It’s not just work/life balance
Think of a bike wheel’s spokes; each spoke needs to be strong and of equal length for the wheel to rotate smoothly. This concept applies to life. Each spoke represents a life domain. Neglecting a life domain causes a spoke to become weak and shorten, disrupting the wheel’s ability to turn. The goal is balance and integration.
These are the life domains I identified as being important to me (yours may vary):
Wife & Kids
Family & Friends
Health & Fitness
Physical Environment
Financial
Business & Career
Personal Growth & Education
Fun & Leisure
With the Wheel of Life, you audit your life domains and rate each facet relative to one another from 0 (poor) to 10 (perfect). This process helps to highlight where you’re excelling and where you’re struggling. From this starting point, I developed a set of actionable goals to achieve more balance in my life.
An example of the Wheel of Life
Life Goals: Design your year ahead
Being a visual person, displaying my goals in a way that would make me want to return to look at them regularly was essential. For this, I used Trello.
First, I set up my “202X Life Goals” board with a list for each of my eight life domains. Then, within each list, I added cards to indicate an individual goal. Each card was assigned a status (achieved, on track, needs attention), an aesthetic photo, a short description, and any other relevant links or information.
My 2021 Life Goals
Tip: The colour of the heading cards for each life domain matches the colour I use in Google Calendar to signify an event related to that life domain.
Assigning goals (in the form of cards) to life domains (in the form of lists) quickly highlighted the areas of my life that needed attention, for example, spending more time with friends, learning new skills, and digging up some forgotten hobbies.
I also found it valuable to create a Life Goals board for the following year (you can duplicate boards in Trello). This future board helps to house goals and park ideas that you cannot fit in this year.
However, goals without action are just dreams. To make this work, I knew I needed a system to hold myself accountable and effectively allocate time and effort to each goal. Enter the calendar.
Calendar: An accountability partner
A calendar takes these esoteric goals and converts them into time and effort. If the Wheel of Life and Life Goals are the why and what, the calendar is the when and how.
Being a Gmail user, Google Calendar was my go-to calendar solution. I started by creating individual calendars for each of my life domains. However, separate calendars quickly proved cumbersome and led to a range of issues.
For example, I wanted to be able to share my availability with my wife. Short of sharing all eight calendars individually, it proved impossible to easily allow my wife to show or hide what I was up to in her Google Calendar. The solution was to switch back to one calendar for everything I was doing and colour code based on my life domains. I was then able to share this calendar with my wife to keep our lives in sync.
I added a few more calendars for non-event-related things that may or may not take up my own time. These include:
Birthdays
Sleep (this one might seem odd, but it helps to frame each day to show just how much time you have. I’ve set this calendar’s colour to grey)
(this one might seem odd, but it helps to frame each day to show just how much time you have. I’ve set this calendar’s colour to grey) Special Dates & Holidays (things like anniversaries, school holidays, public holidays, etc.)
(things like anniversaries, school holidays, public holidays, etc.) Reminders (bills due, things expiring, etc.)
I also have some shared/subscribed calendars:
My wife’s calendar
Manchester United games
Brisbane Roar games
Next, I installed the Google Calendar app on my iPhone and synced up the events with Apple Calendar to sync to my Apple Watch. Selecting a watch face that displays the upcoming event brings it all together nicely.
Finally, I have a desktop dedicated to my emails, Life Goals Trello board, and Google Calendar on my iMac. This setup enables me to easily switch from a work desktop to a personal desktop with a control + left/right keyboard command.
With this setup in place, I run everything I plan on doing through my calendar. It holds me accountable for how I spend my time.
However, a system like this needs maintenance. So, every Sunday evening, I commit time (in my calendar) to plan out the week ahead. First, recurring events like sleep, exercise, sport, family commitments, and work commitments are pre-filled in my calendar. Then, I fill the spaces between these regular events to support my life domains and life goals. Filling the spaces could be as simple as adding a block of time for deep work or a block of time for painting with the kids. Allocating time for planning is crucial to the whole process.
Tip: Use Calendly for organising meetings with people. It syncs with your calendar and makes it simple for someone to grab a time that suits you both, without the back and forth.
I genuinely look forward to Sunday night’s planning session to design my week ahead!
Cadence: It can’t be a set-and-forget
Developing a rhythm around key organisation and planning tasks is a fundamental part of bringing the whole system together.
Annually
Select Life Domains
Complete Wheel of Life
Set up Life Goals Trello board
Add goals to Trello board
Quarterly
Review goals that need attention
Add new goals to improve life domains
Weekly
Plan weekly events on Sunday evening
View Life Goals Trello board and adjust the status of goals
Daily
View calendar
Complete the day’s tasks
Conclusion
Aside from feeling more organised, I also feel more secure knowing that my efforts contribute to significant, decided-upon goals. Each day feels like progress and growth in one way or another.
I am continuing to refine my system and see room to add one more layer above the annual life goals. This new layer would revolve around a series of life-defining pillars that frame bucket-list type goals that may take a lifetime to accomplish-things like owning my local football club, the Brisbane Roar.
If you have any suggestions or improvements, please let me know.
|
https://medium.com/@tongesy/a-productivity-system-for-life-87ae0acb0455
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['Scott Tonges']
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2021-08-02 03:43:58.643000+00:00
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['Organisation', 'Goal Setting', 'Accountability', 'Productivity', 'Goals']
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Safety is an Illusion: White Supremacy, Sober Discernment, and Cultivating New Ways of Being
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Election season is here in the so-called United States. Maybe you’re feeling depressed, anxious, numb, irritable. Maybe you’re feeling fine. I encourage you to feel all of your feelings. Whatever you’re feeling is completely valid.
We know that this is nothing new, but on top of police brutality being at an all-time high, white supremacy bringing us a global pandemic, massive, sweeping, untamed wildfires leaving thousands of lives lost and upended, November is the culmination of an intensity that’s been building.
Once again, my fellow white women are leading in votes for Trump next only to white men. EbonyJanice Moore, a womanist, scholar, author, and activist says in a video on Instagram, “I don’t want to see no marching. You have organized your last march, your last protest. The only place you need to be marching is to your momma’s house to ask her, ‘girl, what are you doing?’”
From 2013–2019 I lived in Portland, Oregon. I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and last September I moved back. Towards the end of my time in Portland, I had been getting the message that I needed to do my work at home. I’ve reflected on what made me move to Portland, and realized through listening to Black and Brown activists and educators discussing the gentrification of cities, I had done so out of white comfort and the desire to be in a “liberal bubble.”
I had also read this essay and related very much to the author. It pretty much sealed the deal for me. Everything was telling me to move home to the Midwest. There was internal healing to do in order for me to really do the work I was meant to do, and for me, that healing could only be done by returning to where I grew up.
The author of that essay is a cis, white woman like myself who also spent a long time living in Portland, Oregon. We seemed to have both moved there for similar reasons. I moved to Portland in 2013 because I had heard about it being an artsy, liberal oasis. At the time my awareness wasn’t where it is now and I thought “liberal” was the pinnacle of morality and righteousness, but now I know better — that there’s no difference between liberals or conservatives, just different flavors of white supremacy.
In the essay, the author describes that after some time she began to notice how her life felt unmoored and meaningless despite living there for 10 years. So, she decided to move to a small town, Fergus Falls, MN, her grandmother’s hometown.
The author writes, “I was a little naïve, but I also felt gleefully rebellious. My move felt like a sort of protest against the idea that creative young people need to live in coastal cities. I pictured myself taking dreamy walks on the prairie, or cozied up in cafes during blizzards, writing. I thought I would learn gardening and canning, or how to clean freshly caught fish.”
There is a big gaping hole, a glaring problem within this story. The glaring problem being that whiteness is never discussed explicitly, and yet it is the main subject of the entire essay. That this is what feels rebellious to us white women is cringeworthy to say the least, but I admit that I’ve often thought of myself as rebelling against “the man” when really I was just doing what any white woman has the freedom to do in our society. The fact that this author and myself are able to easily and painlessly pack up and move wherever we want, whenever we want, despite any debt we have, is a product of white supremacy.
My choice to move home was informed by the fact that I knew I would, for the most part, be safe. I would be uncomfortable at times, because it’s not like my relationship with my family is roses, but I would ultimately be protected and supported by them. And all of this is inextricably linked to the fact that I’m a cishet white woman. My choice and ability to do this is not an option for many people, especially Black, queer, and trans folks.
I found this piece as I was doing some research where the author highlights this very reality. I was very clear that moving home wasn’t going to be idyllic. But I felt a responsibility to move back to the place where I had the most connections in order to do my work within the circles I have access to. This was the most strategic choice for me as I thought about how I could have the biggest impact in dismantling systems of oppression as a white woman.
Sometimes it’s the identities we run away from that we need to heal most, as painful as it can be. Reclaiming our agency starts with healing our relationship with our past, our lineage, our ancestors, and for me that meant returning to the place I’ve had the privilege of calling “home.”
Again, I’m aware that this is a huge privilege that many don’t have the luxury of doing. I’m not encouraging anyone to move home if it’s dangerous for them.
Lama Rod Owens, a teacher, author, and activist shared recently on a video on Instagram a message in the same vein, “So, again if you have something to say [about the south] move your ass down there and organize. You know, I love all of you I want you to be free and happy, you know at some point, you just have to stop fucking complaining and just do something, just do something. And just choose to let go of this privilege of being comfortable and being surrounded by everything you want and need and go into the places that need you. Go back to places that you can organize and influence that I can’t do that, or any other Black or Brown queer and trans person can do, right?”
This has me thinking about the countless times Black and Brown leaders, activists, organizers, and educators have discussed how liberal havens like Portland, Oregon have extremely racist origins just like any other town or city in this country. The persistent, yet false narrative of the southern states being racist and the northern states being open, understanding, and moral is a lie. One of my favorite podcasts, Seeing White by Scene on Radio goes in-depth about this false binary of the south vs. the north.
There’s nothing wrong with moving back to a place that you’re more connected to, albeit a complicated and heavy topic due to ongoing colonization and our role as white people in perpetuating systems of oppression on this stolen land. There’s also nothing *wrong* with moving to a city if it’s calling your name. As a reminder, the binary of “right/wrong” and “good/bad” doesn’t exist, right?
For white people reading this: I can’t really tell you where to live, or what’s the “right” or “wrong” thing to do. What I can offer is that we need to grow our mindfulness, consciousness, and discernment about our choices. We need to realize that we are truly more powerful than we think — this is a message particularly to my fellow white women reading this. We hold great power in this white supremacist system and we collude with whiteness when we don’t acknowledge and account for it.
When we try to convince ourselves and others we’re powerless, when we shrink ourselves, we’re shirking our responsibility to confront white supremacist patriarchy because we’re in closest proximity to the embodiment of these systems of power: white men. And I believe that reclaiming our agency from the ways that we give it away (to systems, to society, to men) is vital to breaking from white solidarity and dismantling it.
We’re giving our agency away to men and the system of patriarchy, and then we throw up our hands and feel like “woe, is me, there’s nothing I can do.” For a long time I indulged myself in a “woe is me” kind of thinking when I was younger. I let the world happen to me, instead of activating my agency and co-creating with the universe. I didn’t know how to be another way, but I know better now. And when you know better you have a responsibility to do better.
This is for everyone reading: Reclaiming your agency allows you to deepen your discernment, which is crucial for making choices that are best for you, the collective, and the planet. Whether you’re trying to make a decision on where to live, what programs/coach to invest in on your entrepreneurial journey, or who/what to give your time and energy toward, reclaiming your agency and deepening your discernment will allow you to make aligned choices.
Right now, as Bracha Goldsmith tells us, we’re going through storms, literally and metaphorically. It’s about how we navigate these storms, as well as the choices we make while we go through the storms. Uranus is square Saturn. Uranus is trying to push forward and Saturn is about boundaries, limitations. Saturn is trying to hold us back. Uranus is about looking at the possibilities, thinking in new, innovative ways, noticing and being aware of what we might’ve missed, examining what we’ve been doing the same way again and again and yet, it’s not serving us.
This astrological set-up is pushing us up and out of our comfort zones, of where we’ve grown too comfortable, and as white people this is very relevant.
Are we holding onto Saturn energy by focusing on, obsessing over, and allowing our minds to run repeat on all of our problems? Or, are we going to choose to be proactive, and inquire about the possibilities, what are our options, how can we shift, what can we do differently? How can we shake ourselves outside of our comfort zones and show up in our fullest truth?
What might you be resisting right now? How can you get curious about that feeling or experience? Everything we focus on gets magnified, and especially now that Jupiter is conjunct Pluto from November 6th to the 19th. Bracha Goldsmith explains that Pluto is about our power, strength, and also our resistance. Jupiter is going to magnify whatever we have going on.
It’s important to note how we’re responding to our circumstances. We may be feeling held back, frustrated, and we may be experiencing an anger towards authority, rules, and power structures that we sense are getting in our way. When we interact with folks in everyday life, if we come across an obstacle, how can we move through these feelings with gentleness on our nervous systems, as well as gentleness to those who are not at fault for the rules being the way they are?
During these times it’s easy to get angry and want to point fingers, find someone to blame. We need to grow our capacity to feel our feelings, mad, sad, angry, anxious, fearful, etc., so we can work with the energy instead of against it.
Uranus is shaking things up. Old orders and systems are being overturned even if it doesn’t seem like it. There are tremors shaking underneath the supports and structure of white supremacist patriarchy, and yet, as white women we hold our grip firmer as the polls show that we’ve once again voted for Trump in droves.
In the ever-changing circumstances of life, how are you going to remain flexible, yet rooted? How are you going to embody your truth and purpose? What are you here to do? How can you shift out of the limits you’ve subconsciously set for yourself, and expand into possibilities? How can you be innovative with your structures and routines, and show those around you new ways of being?
The thing about getting outside of your comfort zone is that it’s not safe, is it? But that’s the risk we take. In order to live by our values, integrity, and what we sense to be right, we risk our safety, understanding through and through that any kind of safety we’ve experienced has been ultimately an illusion.
In her essay, Cinderella’s Stepsisters, Toni Morrison writes about the ways in which we wield our power as women, and she describes how we can be very violent towards each other. Morrison warns us that with economic and social status comes the power to decide who’s life is dispensable and who’s life is indispensable. The prolific writer encourages us to refrain from prioritizing our self-fulfillment and safety at the expense of our stepsisters’.
“And I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are. It is not safe to have a child. That is an extremely risky enterprise. It is not safe to want to be the best at what you do. It is not safe to challenge the status quo. It is not safe to choose work that has not been done before. Or to do old work in a new way. There will always be someone there to stop you. None of the things of real value are simply safe. That is the mistake the stepsisters made; they wanted to wield their power, fulfill their needs in order to be safe.” — Toni Morrison
So, what could our rebellion look like today? How can we do old work in a new way? How can we challenge the status quo in ways we haven’t thought of before? Maybe in ways that won’t make headlines, or be Instagrammable, but meaningful and impactful nonetheless.
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https://medium.com/@ekmonahan/safety-is-an-illusion-white-supremacy-sober-discernment-and-cultivating-new-ways-of-being-e11820b337d0
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['Erin Monahan']
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2020-11-05 20:57:19.137000+00:00
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['Feminism', 'White Supremacy', 'Racial Justice', 'White Feminism', 'Election 2020']
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Scylla Open Source Release 4.2
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by Tzach Livyatan
The Scylla team is pleased to announce the release of Scylla Open Source 4.2, a production-ready release of our open source NoSQL database.
Scylla is an open source, NoSQL database with superior performance and consistently low latencies. Find the Scylla Open Source 4.2 repository for your Linux distribution here. Scylla 4.2 Docker is also available.
Scylla 4.2 includes performance and stability improvements, more operations to the Alternator API (our Amazon DynamoDB-compatible interface) and bug fixes. The release also improves query performance by adding a binary search to SSTable promoted indexes (see below).
Please note that only the last two minor releases of the Scylla Open Source project are supported. Starting today, only Scylla Open Source 4.2 and Scylla 4.1 are supported, and Scylla 4.0 is retired.
Related Links
New features in Scylla 4.2
Performance: Enable binary search in SSTable promoted index
The “promoted index” is a clustering key index within a given partition stored as part of the SSTable index file structure. The primary purpose is to improve the efficiency of column range lookup in large, with many rows, partitions.
Before Scylla 4.2, lookups in the promoted index are done by linearly scanning the index (the lookup is O(N)). However, for large partitions, this approach is costly and inefficient. It consumes a lot of CPU and I/O and does not deliver efficient performance.
Starting from this release, the reader performs a binary search on the MC SSTable promoted index (the search time is now O(log N)).
For example, testing performed with large partitions consisted of 10,000,000 rows(a value size of 2000, partition size of 20 GB and an index size of 7 MB) demonstrates that the new release is 12x faster, CPU utilization is 10x times smaller, disk I/O utilization is 20x less.
The following charts present the differences in search time and disk utilization for two cases:
Middle: Queried row is in the middle of a (large) partition
Head: Queried row is at the head, as the first element of a (large) partition
As expected, the binary search shines in the middle case and has similar results in the (unlikely) case of searching for the first element.
More details on the results here #4007
Alternator
New Alternator’s SSL options (Alternator Client to Node Encryption on Transit)
Till this release, Alternator SSL configuration was set in the section server_encryption_options of Scylla configuration file. The name was misleading, as the section was also used for the unrelated node-to-node encryption on transit.
Starting from this release, a new section alternator_encryption_options is used to define Alternator SSL.
The old section is supported for backward compatibility, but it is highly recommended to create the new section in scylla.yaml with the relevant parameters, for example
alternator_encryption_options:
certificate: conf/scylla.crt
keyfile: conf/scylla.key
priority_string: use default
#7204
docker : add an option to start Alternator with HTTPS. When using Scylla Docker, you can now use --alternator-https-port in addition to the existing --alternator-port . #6583
: add an option to start Alternator with HTTPS. When using Scylla Docker, you can now use in addition to the existing . #6583 Implement FilterExpression
Adding FilterExpression — a newer syntax for filtering results of Query and Scan requests #5038
Adding FilterExpression — a newer syntax for filtering results of Query and Scan requests #5038 Example usage in query API:
aws dynamodb query \
--table-name Thread \
--key-condition-expression "ForumName = :fn and Subject = :sub" \
--filter-expression "#v >= :num" \
--expression-attribute-names '{"#v": "Views"}' \
--expression-attribute-values file://values.json
Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/Query.html
Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/Query.html Alternator : support additional filtering operators #5028
: support additional filtering operators #5028 All operators are now supported. Previously, only the “EQ” operator was implemented.
Either “OR” or “AND” of conditions (previously only “AND”).
Correctly returning Count and ScannedCount for post-filter and pre-filter item counts, respectively.
Additional Features
SSTable Reshard and Reshape in upload to directory
Reshard and Reshape are two transformation on SSTables:
Reshard and Reshape are two transformation on SSTables: Reshard — Splitting a SSTable, that is owned by more than one shard (core), into SSTables that are owned by a single shard, for example, when restoring data from a different server, importing sstSSTables from Apache Cassandra, or changing the number of cores in a machine (upscale)
Reshape — Rewrite a set of SSTable to to satisfy a compaction strategy’s criteria., for example, restoring data from an old backup, before the strategy update.
Until this release, Scylla first moved files from upload to to data directory, and then reshaped and reshard the data. In some cases, this results in a too high number of files in the data directory.
Starting from Scylla 4.2, Scylla first reshard and reshape the SSTables in the upload dir, and only then move them to data directory. This ensures SSTables already match the number of cores and compaction strategy when moved to the data directory, resulting in a smaller number of overall compactions.
SSTtable Reshard and Reshape also happens on boot (if needed) prior to making the node online — making sure the node doesn’t have a lot of backlog work to do in addition to serving traffic.
More on this in commits
https://github.com/scylladb/scylla/commit/94634d9945064d7be41b21ac2af0ae36cef37873
https://github.com/scylladb/scylla/commit/7351db7cab7bbf907172940d0bbf8b90afde90ba
Setup : swapfile setup is now part of scylla_setup .
Scylla setup already warns users when the swap is not set. Now it prompts for the swap file directory #6539
: swapfile setup is now part of . Scylla setup already warns users when the swap is not set. Now it prompts for the swap file directory #6539 Setup: default root disk size is increased from 10G to 30GB. scylla-machine-image #48
Experimental features in Scylla 4.2
Change Data Capture (CDC) . While functionally complete, we are still testing CDC to validate it is production-ready towards GA in a following Scylla 4.x release. No API updates are expected. Refer to the Scylla Open Source 4.1 Release Notes for more information.
. While functionally complete, we are still testing CDC to validate it is production-ready towards GA in a following Scylla 4.x release. No API updates are expected. Refer to the Scylla Open Source 4.1 Release Notes for more information. There’s a new nodetool command #6498
CDC is explicitly disabled on counters #6553
Preimage is no longer created for missing rows #7119
Postimage is no longer created for deleted rows #7120
CDC tables were renamed #6577
Monitoring:
For Metrics updates from 4.1 to 4.2, see here.
Scylla 4.2 dashboard isare available in the latest Scylla Monitoring Stack release 3.2.4 or later.
Other bugs fix and updates in the release
|
https://medium.com/@scylladb/scylla-open-source-release-4-2-1b9edaab65c2
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[]
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2020-11-03 17:45:39.140000+00:00
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['Scylladb', 'Database', 'Dynamodb', 'NoSQL', 'Cassandra']
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An industry exposé. Uncovering the truth behind…
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Uncovering the truth behind crypto-exchange volume reporting
By: David Hannigan
One topic that has recently received a plethora of attention across the crypto markets, centres around exchanges reporting fake trading volumes. We at trade.io wanted to take the opportunity to address this issue directly with our community. In the following paper we will explain exactly what we do and why, and alert our community to some tell-tale signs of inflated statistics amongst our competitors both big and small.
The crypto market, while still in its infancy, is an incredibly competitive venue. Just looking at a certain well-known crypto website, which has become the go-to source for crypto statistics, there are currently 2,136 coins listed as well as 246 exchanges. 246 exchanges all competing for your business and, more importantly, your commissions. What better way to do that than by saying “We are the biggest, we are the best? We are top 10. We are top 20. We do $X volume a day. That’s Y% more than other exchanges.”
Click on the exchange name on the list and you are taken immediately to a list of coins they offer and a link to their website, just begging you to click. A marketing dream. A dream that is, until you dig a little deeper. As Mark Twain said in his autobiography, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The trade.io approach
If you were to navigate to the aforementioned well-known website for all things crypto, you will find trade.io ranked 139 by reported volume. Is this where we aspire to be? No, it is not. But for now, against all other reported volumes (yes, the exchanges give their own volume numbers), that’s where we are. However, sort by another column and trade.io will indeed make the top 20. Sort the data by the ‘launched’ column and you will see that we are one of the youngest exchanges, having just passed our 9-month birthday. And like many babies we have had our share of ‘teething’ problems and even the occasional tantrum.
However, as we have taken our first tentative steps into the crypto world, we have looked for a steadying hand or two. One of those has indeed been the provision of prices into our exchange using market makers. There are two principal reasons for this. One has been to create a market with some depth of pricing for traders to utilize. The second has been for a certain tier of pricing to allow for charts to be created and constantly updated with price data. This does involve the pricing bots dealing with each other on small amounts, but, and this is a very important “but”, each of those prices is actually available and executable by our clients. The sole purpose of this exercise is chart creation. If it wasn’t, we would not be 139th by volume.
We have evaluated our current approach and have identified a need for better market making capabilities, tighter pricing for the major coins as well as a greater depth of liquidity at the top of the book for the liquid coins. As we begin Q2 this goal is being prioritized. We believe that this will lead to an increase in organic volume, eventually reducing the need for automated bots to trade just to produce legible charts. We have a responsibility to our community to be transparent in our approach and a responsibility to ourselves to move up the rankings in the right way. 139th is not acceptable. Manipulating volume figures to move higher is even less acceptable.
The rest — what is fake and what is not
At trade.io, we have no desire to point fingers at other exchanges by name. There are many that inflate their volume data to create a false impression of their success and their abilities. They know who they are. There is a lot of recently written material that goes into deep analysis on the issue and does examine some of the largest exchanges directly. One of our own community members has in fact produced their own analysis in the form of a YouTube video and the evidence is clear. Our only goal here is to point out some red flags that our community should be aware of when looking at other exchanges.
Let us be clear about a couple of points first. The vast majority of crypto exchanges have market makers providing prices and liquidity for clients. Just like trade.io. There is nothing wrong with that. The floor of the NYSE, for example, is no different. Each company listed will have designated market makers to provide liquidity to the millions of customers who deal each day.
On occasion, these market makers will deal with each other when they have opposing views or positions. It’s a normal practice and provides for an orderly market. The same can happen on a crypto exchange. However, having the same market maker deal with themselves to create a false volume is most certainly not permissible. It is known as wash trading and is rampant in our industry. So how do we identify it? Here we will look at three red flags.
Daily volume versus daily site visits
One very telling piece of analysis is to take the average daily volume for each exchange and divide it by the number of average daily hits on its website. This way you can see what the average volume traded is per visit to the website. A recent report by Bitwise Asset Management highlighted this very issue. Rather than make you read the entire report, here is a spreadsheet which highlights their findings.
Obviously different exchanges have different customer bases and we would naturally assume that the larger, more established, ones will have a broader client base with some ‘whales’ in their midst. Therefore their volume would be higher. But when you do the simple math and see the average volume traded per website visit at one established exchange is $500-$1,000 and yet at a smaller lesser known venue, that number jumps to $100,000 or $150,000 per visit, the alarm bells start ringing. Loudly! Imagine having 5,000 daily website visits and every single one of those generating $150,000 of trade volume. That would be $750 million of daily volume. That volume is more than the entire market capitalization of the 17th ranked coin! So how do they achieve those numbers? Well, they either have the most amazing sales and marketing teams on the planet, or they are engaging in wash trading and fake volume.
To highlight the extent that daily trading volumes are over-reported, we suggest you take a look at the work done by Messari. Here is the link.
Their research attempts to show the multiple by which volumes for each coin are overstated. Play around with the filters, but close attention to “Real 10 24hr Vol”, “Reported 24h Vol” and “Volume Overstatement Multiple” — the results speak for themselves.
Volume charts
As with the previous analysis of daily volumes versus daily site visits, looking at volume charts requires a somewhat intuitive approach. We all know that the crypto markets can go through extended periods of tight range trading. The lack of volatility would naturally imply a lack of volume being traded.
However, once there is a big move that would signal an imbalance between supply and demand, there should be a natural increase in volume. Below is a volume graph which shows the ebb and flow of volume with the various price movements over the course of several days.
This is an hourly BTCUSD chart covering March 26th — April 3rd, 2019. As you can see the price action over the first seven days is fairly steady with one brief dip to $3,855, followed by a slow rise towards $4,200. Along the bottom you can see the various volumes by hour, which are relatively low, with occasional increases as volatility increases. Then, on April 2nd, BTC has a rally of almost 20% at its extreme and we can see an explosive rise in volume to match. The volume levels then ease off, as the price stabilizes, but remain at elevated levels compared to the prior week. This is exactly what a volume chart should look like with real trades being executed. Below is a chart of what it should NOT look like.
Here, we can see a similar time period covered, but the volumes remain almost identical across the range. This is a very strong indicator of wash trading and fake volume.
Ease of filling larger orders
This one might be tougher for the average retail trader to spot given the average trade size tends to be less than $10,000. However, some of you whales out there might on occasion want to make a larger volume order, say $100,000 or greater.
At current market prices, $100,000 is the equivalent of approximately 20 BTC. Transacting 20 BTC on an exchange that claims to have daily volumes of $750 million should be a very painless process and there should be very little slippage from the top of the book price, at most 0.1–0.2%. However, if volumes are fake, there will be a lot more slippage since the pricing will just be from market makers, who will naturally adjust prices as you show interest with no other genuine interest showing.
Spreads are another thing to examine. Any top exchange by volume should, by definition, have very competitive and aggressive spreads. How can any exchange win business with uncompetitive spreads? A quick look at any exchange’s pricing should be very revealing, if an exchange has huge volume but also huge spreads, this is a red flag. At trade.io, we are committed to getting our community the best pricing available and are currently working diligently to do just that. For any trader, big or small, being able to transact your chosen amount at a fair price is the very essence of what a strong exchange should provide. Those that claim to be one thing but are in reality something very different are easy to expose when you know what to look for.
Our promise to the community
The crypto market is anything but mature. With that comes a constant battle for market share as ultimately it will be a case of survival of the fittest. Anyone involved in the crypto space over the past couple of years will have read many headlines about bad actors and scam projects. And being a market that is still largely unregulated, it is not surprising that there are plenty that will try their luck for a quick dollar.
We are committed to having an exchange that serves the needs of our community, while being adaptable and flexible to an ever changing environment all while being honest and transparent in what we do. We won’t always get it right, but we will listen to our community and execute our business plan in a professional manner. We will also call out others that choose not to, that would rather fake their achievements in the vain hope of duping unsuspecting clients. Fake volumes are nothing more than a mirage, an attempt to cover up failure.
We believe it is important to educate our community on important topics, so we hope you find this article informative, giving you a clearer picture of the current market, our approach, and to help you avoid some of the pitfalls at other exchanges.
Don’t miss out on David’s daily musings on the market, be sure to subscribe here.
|
https://medium.com/@trade.io/an-industry-expos%C3%A9-e8adf87898c1
|
[]
|
2019-04-11 14:27:25.823000+00:00
|
['Transparency', 'Volume', 'Exchange', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency']
|
Why I Muted Self Improvement Writers
|
Why I Muted Self Improvement Writers
Image Courtesy Alex Cybergirl
Yes, I did it. I finally showed the courage to mute those successful self-improvement writers on this platform. It takes courage to say ‘fuck you’ to the hope providers because the mind never wants to give up hope despite being the same piece of shit for eons. It takes courage to say ‘I might as well be this, live this, and die this’.
When I somehow manage to wake up at noon and reach out for my mobile phone, I find my daily reads shit ready on the Medium app. And moreover, the stories I find are ‘How I consistently woke up at 4:00 AM in the morning for the past year and found happiness and success’.
Seriously, are these the kind of stories one would want to read as soon as they wake up from bed? If nothing else, it just makes me more depressed and gives my mind a chance to hurt myself the whole day. Why would I have to dig my own hole? It’s kind of already dug enough right?. Why more pain? Sorry, it’s a no.
If I find myself waking up late having already wasted the previous day unproductively, I can always remind myself that the past does not exist, but only in my mind and I can't change it anyway. I am still here alive. This gives me the essential relief to be grateful for this day and re-boil the tea that was prepared by my mom hours before I decided to get up from the bed. And hopefully out of that self-love I might be inspired to do something out of love and not out of guilt and fear. That’s it, I do not have to waste a year to find happiness which never comes but only the pathetic sustaining of hope.
So I had to make a tough decision about muting the self-improvement writers who were promising a successful happy life. After some pondering, I realized that all we want is to hurt less in life. And in this internet age, most of the pain is coming from comparing ourselves with the ideal successful lifestyle of some random weirdo on the internet (whom I would never possibly meet for them to run around me and shame me).
After all, we do not know anything about the self-help guru. Maybe he is lying about happiness, maybe he is an idiot, maybe he is a neurotic sick fuck with no appreciation for life, but he only cares about himself and his hard work showing off. Maybe he lacks the courage to take himself lightly.
Maybe I should talk to people who live with him before believing him. Maybe I should talk to his therapist. Maybe I should talk to his ex-girlfriend. Maybe he fucked up his girlfriend’s life and is now being so hardworking as a way to hide his guilt; if that’s the case, why would I follow him? I had never been an asshole anyway so as to prove to myself that now I am a good boy. Ironically, only bad ones want to desperately prove they are good to themselves. Maybe I could afford to be myself and relax.
Maybe he masturbated a whole day and felt so bad and hence began a no-fap challenge and advising others to do so; all these to run away from his guilt. I wish he was not sent to church so early before he could start thinking for himself and thereby switching off his brain. But I ain’t spending the whole day that way, so why would I be guilt-tripped into some cold turkey no-fap bullshit challenges. Not that he will ever be honest about himself and thereby putting himself, his followership, and earnings at risk.
I had read about a popular self-help writer saying that if he does not write enough junk stuff here for his beloved junkies, then he cannot enjoy the Saturday night party with his friends peacefully. If this is not insanity I do not know what is. I find one of his tricks is to steal famous quotes from Socrates, Aristotle, etc, and turn them into his story title. For example: ‘An unexamined title is not worth submitting to publications,’ he says in his title.
Let Socrates rest in peace:
“The unexamined life is not worth living” — Socrates
Yes, as a reader, it is a big risk to not have those life-saving self-help stories pop up on my daily read feeds. But at least there is peace of mind. And it takes courage to earn that peace of mind. It is like while being in school, teachers and their stupid advice are everything for us. When we are out of school, we do not worry about their shit anymore; we should not. Likewise one needs to be willing to get out of self-help schooling; one needs to grow the fuck up.
One needs to come face to face with the reality that one is not that important to be successful. We are, after all, just an accidental product of an act of frustration release from our parents. We should not take ourselves so seriously. That is being humble, not just bragging ‘I am humbled’ for the sake of show-off.
One should face and get over the fear of being looked upon as a loser, and not out of sheer panic of the situation indulge in some activities to run away from facing that fear. If panic is the reason why you begin the search for success, you might as well go through a full-blown panic attack before jumping into action out of fear, and thereby releasing the neurotic energy from the mind and regain sanity.
I seriously do not think that while I am about to die, my last thought would be something like: I could have been more productive. And if that’s what is going to be the case I am better of being dead way too early. If I had bothered to appreciate being alive and the next cup of coffee that would suffice.
All the very best.
|
https://medium.com/@pretheeshgp/why-i-muted-self-improvement-writers-6e8c6d28015d
|
['Pretheesh Presannan']
|
2020-12-15 08:01:09.203000+00:00
|
['Humor', 'Self Improvement', 'Self Love', 'Self Help']
|
Nails, you will never be one of us
|
From Oxnard, California, Nails play a grind influenced hardcore-punk and feature Todd Jones, former member of hardcore legends Terror and Carry On. What do they sound like? Broken bones, smashed teeth, mass destruction, two planets colliding. That’s what they sound like.
|
https://medium.com/songful/nails-you-will-never-be-one-of-us-1d93a550c37c
|
['Valerio Luconi']
|
2017-05-02 10:41:00.833000+00:00
|
['Punk', 'Music', 'Hardcore', 'Metal', 'Grindcore']
|
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-becoming-autumn-c4450e2edb0c
|
['Martino Pietropoli']
|
2018-09-22 00:22:49.016000+00:00
|
['Autumn', 'Saturday', 'Art', 'Graphic Design', 'Illustration']
|
R - Statistical Programming Language
|
R - Statistical Programming Language
Let’s Not Make Coronavirus Stop Us From Learning A New Skill
We should take advantage of this time to learn a new skill if we can. I have been learning the programming language R during the past few weeks.
This article aims to provide an overview of the R programming language along with all of the main concepts which every data scientist must be familiar with
Motivation
The field of data science and quantitative development requires us to constantly adapt and learn new skills because of its highly dynamic and demanding nature. There comes a time in a data scientist's professional life when it becomes important to learn more than one programming language. Subsequently, I have chosen to learn R.
This article will aim to outline all of the key main areas and will explain everything from the basics. It assumes that the reader is not familiar or has a beginner level understanding of the programming language R.
I highly recommend R for many reasons that I will highlight in this article
Photo by Cris DiNoto on Unsplash
R is gaining popularity and it is one of the most popular programming languages. R was written for statisticians by statisticians. It integrates well with other programming languages such as C++, Java, SQL. Furthermore, R is mainly seen as a statistical programming language. As a result, a number of financial institutions and large quantitative organisations use the R programming language during their research and development.
Python is a general-purpose language and R can be seen as an analytical programming language.
1. Article Aim
This article will explain the following key areas about R:
What Is R? How To Install R? Where To Code R? What Is A R Package and R Script? What Are The Different R Data Types? How To Declare Variables And Their Scope In R? How To Write Comments? What Are Vectors? What Are Matrix? What Are Lists? What Are Data Frames? Different Logical Operations In R Functions In R Loops In R Read And Write External Data In R Performing Statistical Calculations In R Plotting In R Object-Oriented Programming in R Famous R Libraries How To Install External R Libraries Plotting In R
Let’s Start ….
I will explain the programming language from the basics in a manner that would make the language easier to understand. Having said that, the key to advancing in programming is to always practice as much as possible.
This article should form a solid foundation for the readers
2. What Is R?
R is a free programming language under GNU license. In a nutshell, R is a statistical environment.
R is mainly used for statistical computing. It offers a range of algorithms which are heavily used in machine learning domain such as time series analysis, classification, clustering, linear modeling, etc.
R is also an environment that includes a suite of software packages that can be used for performing a numerical calculation to chart plotting to data manipulation.
R is heavily used in statistical research projects.
R is very similar to the S programming language.
R is compiled and runs on UNIX, Windows, MacOS, FreeBSD and Linux platforms.
R has a large number of data structures, operators and features. It offers from arrays to matrices to loops to recursion along with integration with other programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran.
C programming language can be used to update R objects directly.
New R packages can be implemented to extend.
R interpreter
R was inspired by S+, therefore if you are familiar with S then it will be a straightforward task to learn R.
Benefits Of R:
Along with the benefits listed above, R is:
Straightforward to learn
A large number of packages are available for statistical, analytics and graphics which are open-source and free
A wealth of academic papers with their implementation in R are available
World’s top universities teach their students the R programming language, therefore, it has now become an accepted standard and thus, R will continue to grow.
Integration capabilities with other languages
Plus there is a large community support
Limitations Of R:
There are a handful of limitations too:
R isn’t as fast as C++, plus security and memory management is an issue too.
R has a large number of namespaces, sometimes that could appear to be too many. However, it is getting better.
R is a statistician language thus it is not as intuitive as Python. It’s not as straightforward to create OOP as it is with Python.
Let’s Start Learning R
I will now be presenting the language R in quick-to-follow sections.
Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash
3. How To Install R?
You can install R on:
Ubunto
Mac
Windows
Fedora
Debian
SLES
OpenSUSE
The first step is to download R:
Open an internet browser
Go to www.r-project.org.
The latest R version at the point of writing this article is 3.6.3 (Holding the Windsock). It was released on 2020–02–29.
These are the links:
4. Where To Code R?
There are multiple graphical interfaces available. I highly recommend R-Studio
A screenshot of R-Studio
Download RStudio Desktop:
Download RStudio from https://rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/
RStudio Desktop Open Source License is Free
You can learn more here: https://rstudio.com/products/rstudio/#rstudio-desktop
RStudio requires R 3.0.1+.
It usually installs R Studio in the following location if you are using Windows:
C:\Program Files\RStudio
5. What Is R Package And R Script?
R package and R script are the two key components of R. This section will provide an overview of the concepts.
R Package
Since R is an open-source programming language, it is important to understand what packages are. A package essentially groups and organises code and other functions. A package is a library that can contain a large number of files.
Data scientists can contribute and share their code with others either by creating their own or enhancing others’ packages. Packages allow data scientists to reuse code and distribute it to others.
Packages are created to contain functions and data sets
A data scientist can create a package to organise code, documentation, tests, data sets etc. and the package can then be shared with others.
There are tens of thousands of R packages available on the internet. These packages are located in the central repository. There are a number of repositories available such as CRAN, Bioconductor, Github etc.
One repository worth mentioning is CRAN. It is a network of servers that store a large number of versions of code and documentation for R.
A package contains a description file where one would state the date, dependencies, author, and version of the package amongst other information. The description file helps the consumers get meaningful information about the package.
To load a package, type in:
library(name of the package)
To use a function of a package, type in the name of the package::name of the function.
For example, if we want to use the function “AdBCDOne” of the package “carat” then we can do:
library(carat)
carat::AdBCDOne()
R Script:
R script is where a data scientist can write the statistical code. It is a text file with an extension .R e.g. we can call the script as tutorial.R
We can create multiple R scripts in a package.
As an instance, if you have created two R scripts:
blog.R publication.R
And if you want to call the functions of publication.R in blog.R then you can use the source(“target R script”) command to import publication.R into blog.R:
source("publication.R")
Create R Package Of A R Script
The process is relatively simple. In a nutshell
Create a Description file Create the R.scripts and add any data sets, documentation, tests that are required for the package Write your functionality in R scripts We can use devtools and roxygen2 to create R packages by using the command:
create_package("name of the package")
6. What Are The Different R Data Types?
It is vital to understand the different data types and structures in R to be able to use the R programming language efficiently. This section will illustrate the concepts.
Data Types:
These are the basic data types in R:
character: such as “abc” or “a” integer: such as 5L numeric: such as 10.5 logical: TRUE or FALSE complex: such as 5+4i
We can use the typeof(variable) to find the type of a variable.
To find the metadata, such as attributes of a type, use the attributes(variable) command.
Data Structures:
A number of data structures exist in R. The most important data structures are:
vector: the most important data structure that is essentially a collection of elements. matrix: A table-like structure with rows and columns data frame: A tabular data structure to perform statistical operations lists: A collection that can hold a combination of data types. factors: to represent categorical data
I will explain all of these data types and data structures in this article as we start building the basics.
7. How To Declare Variables?
We can create a variable and assign it a value. A variable could be of any of the data types and data structures that are listed above. There are other data structures available too. Additionally, a developer can create their own custom classes.
A variable is used to store a value that can be changed in your code.
As a matter of understanding, it is vital to remember what an environment in R is. Essentially, an environment is where the variables are stored. It is a collection of pairs where the first item of the pair is the symbol (variable) and the second item is its value.
Environments are hierarchical (tree structure), hence an environment can have a parent and multiple children. The root environment is the one with an empty parent.
We have to declare a variable and assign it a value using →
x <- "my variable"
print(x)
This will set the value of “my variable” to the variable x. The print() function will output the value of x, which is “my variable”.
Every time we declare a variable and call it, it is searched in the current environment and is recursively searched in the parent environments until the symbol is found.
To create a collection of integers, we can do:
coll <- 1:5
print(coll)
1 is the first value and 5 is the last value of the collection.
This will print 1 2 3 4 5
Note, R-Studio IDE keeps track of the variables:
Screenshot of R Studio
The ls() function can be used to show the variables and functions in the current environment.
8. How To Write Comments?
Comments are added in the code to help the readers, other data scientists and yourself understand the code.
Note: Always ensure the comments are not polluting your scripts.
We can add a single line comment:
#This is a single line comment
We can add the multiline comments using the double quotes:
"This is a
multi line comment
"
Note: In R-Studio, select the code you want to comment and then press Ctrl+Shift+C
It will automatically comment on the code for you.
9. What Are Vectors?
Vector is one of the most important data structures in R. Essentially, a vector is a collection of elements where each element is required to have the same data type e.g. logical (TRUE/FALSE), Numeric, character.
We can also create an empty vector:
x <- vector()
By default, the type of vector is logical, such as True/False. The line below will print logical as the type of vector:
typeof(x)
To create a vector with your elements, you can use the concatenate function (c):
x <- c("Farhad", "Malik", "FinTechExplained")
print(x)
This will print:
[1] “Farhad”
[2] “Malik”
[3] “FinTechExplained”
If we want to find the length of a vector, we can use the length() function:
length(x)
This will print 3 as there are three elements in the vector.
To add elements into a vector, we can combine an element with a vector.
For example, to add “world” at the start of a vector with one element “hello”:
x <- c("hello")
x <- c("world", x)
print(x)
This will print “world” “hello”
If we mix the types of elements then R will accommodate the type of the vector too. The type (mode) of the vector will become whatever it considers being the most suitable for the vector:
another_vec <- c("test", TRUE)
print(typeof(another_vec))
Although the second element is a logical value, the type will be printed as “character”.
Operations can also be performed on vectors.
As an instance, to multiply a scalar to a vector:
x <- c(1,2,3)
y <- x*2
print(y)
This will print 2,4,6
We can also add two vectors together:
x <- c(1,2,3)
y <- c(4,5,6)
z <- x+y
print(z)
This will print 5 7 9
If the vectors are characters and we want to add them together:
x <- c("F","A","C")
y <- c("G","E","D")
z <- x+y
print(z)
It will output:
Error in x + y : non-numeric argument to binary operator
10. What Are Matrix?
Matrix is also one of the most common data structures in R.
It can be considered as an extension of a vector. A matrix can have multiple rows and columns. All of the elements of a matrix must have the same data type.
To create a matrix, use the matrix() constructor and pass in nrow and ncol to indicate the columns and rows:
x <- matrix(nrow=4, ncol=4)
This will create a matrix variable, named x, with 4 rows and 4 columns.
A vector can be transformed into a matrix by passing a matrix in the constructor. The resultant matrix will be filled column-wise:
vector <- c(1, 2, 3)
x <- matrix(vector)
print(x)
This will create a matrix with 1 column and 3 rows (one for each element):
[,1]
[1,] 1
[2,] 2
[3,] 3
If we want to fill a matrix by row or column then we can explicitly pass in the number of rows and columns along with the byrow parameter:
vector <- c(1, 2, 3, 4)
x <- matrix(vector, nrow=2, ncol=2, byrow=TRUE)
print(x)
The above code created a matrix with 2 columns and rows. The matrix is filled by row.
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 1 2
[2,] 3 4
11. What Are Lists And Factors?
If we want to create a collection that can contain elements of different types then we can create a list.
Lists:
Lists are one of the most important data structures in R. To create a list, use the list() constructor:
my_list <- list("hello", 1234, FALSE)
The code snippet above illustrates how a list is created with three elements of different data types.
We can access any element by using the index e.g.:
item_one = my_list[1]
This will print “hello”
We can also give each element a name e.g.
my_named_list <- list(“A”=1, “B”=2) print(names(my_named_list)) It prints “A” “B” print(my_named_list[‘A’]) It prints 1
Factors:
Factors are categorical data e.g. Yes, No or Male, Female or Red, Blue, Green, etc.
A factor data type can be created to represent a factor data set:
my_factor = factor(c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE))
print(my_factor)
Factors can be ordered too:
my_factor = factor(c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE), levels = c(TRUE, FALSE))
print(my_factor)
We can also print the factors in tabular format:
my_factor = factor(c(TRUE, FALSE, TRUE), levels = c(TRUE, FALSE))
print(table(my_factor))
This will print:
TRUE FALSE
2 1
We have covered half of the article. Let’s move on to more statistical learning
12. What Are Data Frames?
Most, if not all of the data science projects require input data in tabular format. Data frames data structure can be used to represent tabular data in R. Each column can contain a list of elements and each column can be of a different type than each other.
To create a data frame of 2 columns and 5 rows each, simply do:
my_data_frame <- data.frame(column_1 = 1:5, column_2 = c("A", "B", "C", "D", E"))
print(my_data_frame) column_1 column_2
1 1 A
2 2 B
3 3 C
4 4 D
5 5 E
13. Different Logical Operators In R
This section provides an overview of the common operators:
OR: one | two
This will check if one or two is true.
AND: one & two
This will check if one and two are true.
NOT: !input
This will return true if the input is False
We can also use <, <=, =>,>, isTRUE(input) etc.
14. Functions In R And Variables Scope
Sometimes we want the code to perform a set of tasks. These tasks can be grouped as functions. The functions are essentially objects in R.
Arguments can be passed to a function in R and a function can return an object too.
R is shipped with a number of in-built functions such as length(), mean(), etc.
Every time we declare a function (or variable) and call it, it is searched in the current environment and is recursively searched in the parent environments until the symbol is found.
A function has a name. This is stored in the R environment. The body of the function contains the statements of a function.
A function can return value and can optionally accept a number of arguments.
To create a function, we need the following syntax:
name_of_function <- function(argument1...argumentN) {
Body of the function }
For example, we can create a function that takes in two integers and returns a sum:
my_function <- function(x, y) {
z <- x + y
return(z)
}
To call the function, we can pass in the arguments:
z <- my_function(1,2)
print(z)
This will print 3.
We can also set default values to an argument so that its value is taken if a value for an argument is not provided:
my_function <- function(x, y=2) {
z <- x + y
return(z)
}
output <- my_function(1)
print(output)
The default value of y is 2, therefore, we can call the function without passing in a value for y.
The key to note is the use of the curly brackets {...}
Let’s look at a complex case whereby we will use a logical operator
Let’s consider that we want to create a function that accepts the following arguments: Mode, x and y.
If the Mode is True then we want to add x and y.
If the Mode is False then we want to subtract x and y.
my_function <- function(mode, x, y) {
if (mode == TRUE)
{
z <- x + y
return(z)
}
else
{
z <- x - y
return(z)
}
}
To call the function to add the values of x and y, we can do:
output <- my_function(TRUE, 1, 5)
print(output)
This will print 6
Let’s review the code below. In particular, see where print(z) is:
my_function <- function(mode, x, y) {
if (mode == TRUE)
{
z <- x + y
return(z)
}
else
{
z <- x - y
return(z)
}
#what happens if we try to print z
print(z)
}
The key to note is that z is being printed after the brackets are closed.
Will the variable z be available there? This brings us to the topic of scope in functions!
A function can be declared within another function:
some_func <- function() {
some_func_variable <- 456 another_func <- function() {
another_func_variable <- 123
}
}
In the example above, some_func and another_func are the two functions. another_func is declared inside some_func. As a result, another_func() is private to some_func(). Hence, it not accessible to the outside world.
If I execute another_func() outside of some_func as shown below:
another_func()
We will experience the error:
Error in another_func() : could not find function “another_func”
On the other hand, we can execute another_func() inside some_func() and it will work as expected.
Now consider this code to understand how scope works in R.
some_func_variable is accessible to both some_func and another_func functions. another_func_variable is only accessible to the another_func function
some_func <- function() {
some_func_variable <- "DEF"
another_func <- function() {
another_func_variable <- "ABC"
print(some_func_variable)
print("Inside another func" + another_func_variable)
}
print(some_func_variable)
print("outside another func" + another_func_variable)
another_func()
}
some_func()
Running the above code will throw an exception in R-Studio:
> some_func()
[1] “DEF”
Error in print(“outside another func” + another_func_variable) :
object ‘another_func_variable’ not found
As the error states, another_func_variable is not found. We can see DEF was printed which was the value assigned to the variable some_func_variable.
If we want to access and assign values to a global variable, use the <<- operator. The variable is searched in the parent environment frame. If a variable is not found then a global variable is created.
To add an unknown number of arguments, use …
my_func <- function(a, b, ...)
{
print(c)
} my_func(a=1,b=2,c=3)
15. Loops In R
R supports control structures too. Data scientists can add logic to the R code. This section highlights the most important control structures:
For loops
Occasionally, we want to iterate over elements of a collection. The syntax is:
for (i in some_collection) {
print(i)
}
In the example above, the iterator can be a list, vector, etc. The snippet of code above will print the elements of the collection.
We can also loop over a collection by using the seq_along() function. It takes a collection and generates a sequence of integers.
While loops
Occasionally, we have to loop until a condition is met. Once the condition is false then we can exit the loop.
We can use the while loops to achieve the desired features.
In the code below, we are setting the value of x to 3 and the value of z to 0. Subsequently, we are incrementing the value of z by 1 each time until the value of z is equal to or greater than x.
x <- 3 z <- 0
while(z < x) {
z <- z + 1 }
If Else (optional)
If Then Else are heavily used in programming.
In a nutshell, a condition is evaluated in the if control block. If it is true then its code is executed otherwise the next block is executed. The next block can either by Else If or Else.
if(condition is true) {
# execute statements
}
We can also have an optional else:
if(condition is true) {
# execute statements
}
else if (another condition is true) {
# execute statements
}
else {
# execute statement
}
x <- 3
y <- 0 if (x == 3) {
y <- 1 }
else if (x<3) {
y <- 2 }
else {
y <- 3 }
Repeat
If we want to repeat a set of statements for an unknown number of times (maybe until a condition is met or a user enters a value etc.) then we can the repeat/break statements. A break can end the iteration.
repeat {
print("hello")
x <- random()
if (x > 0.5)
{
break; #exit the loop
}
}
If we want to skip an iteration, we can use the next statement:
repeat {
print("hello")
x <- random()
if (x > 0.5)
{
next #iterate again
}
}
16. Read And Write External Data In R
R offers a range of packages that can allow us to read/write to external data such as excel files or SQL tables. This section illustrates how we can achieve it.
16.1 Read an Excel file
library(openxlsx)
path <-"C:/Users/farhadm/Documents/Blogs/R.xlsx"
res <- read.xlsx(path, 'Sheet1')
head(res)
This will display the top rows:
Snippet showing the contents of the excel file
16.2 Write To an Excel File
columnA <- runif(100,0.1,100)
columnB <- runif(100,5,1000)
df <- data.frame(columnA, columnB)
write.xlsx(df, file = path, sheetName="NewSheet", append=TRUE)
It created a new excel file with sheet named as NewSheet:
Snippet showing the contents of Excel
16.3 Read a SQL table
We can read from a SQL table
library(RODBC)
db <- odbcDriverConnect('driver={SQL
Server};server=SERVERNAME;database=DATABASENAME;trusted_connection=true')
res <- sqlQuery(db, 'SQL QUERY')
16.4 Write To A SQL Table
We can write to a SQL table
sqlSave(odbcConnection, some data frame, tablename="TABLE", append=TRUE, rownames=FALSE)
17. Performing Statistical Calculations In R
R is known to be one of the most popular statistical programming languages. It is vital to understand the in-built statistical functions in R. This section will outline the most common statistical calculations that are performed by data scientists.
17.1 Filling Missing Values:
One of the most common tasks in a data science project is to fill the missing values. We can use the is.na() to find the elements that are empty (NA or NAN):
vec <- c("test", NA, "another test")
is.na(vec)
This will print FALSE TRUE FALSE, indicating that the second element in NA.
To understand them better, is.na() will return all of those elements/objects that are NA. is.nan() will return all of the NaN objects. It’s important to note that the NaN is an NA but an NA is not a NaN.
Note: Many statistical functions such as mean, median, etc, take in an argument: na.rm which indicates whether we want to remove the na (missing values).
The next few calculations will be based on the following two vectors:
A <- c(1,2,5,6.4,6.7,7,7,7,8,9,3,4,1.5,0,10,5.1,2.4,3.4, 4.5, 6.7)
B <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7) print(length(A)) #20
print(length(B)) #20
Both of the vectors, A and B, contain numerical values of 20 elements.
17.2 Mean
Mean is computed by summing the values in a collection and then dividing by the total number of values:
my_mean <- mean(A)
print(my_mean)
17.3 Median
Median is the middle value in a sorted collection. If there are an even number of values then it’s the average of the two middle values:
my_median <- median(A)
print(my_median)
17.4 Mode
A mode is the most frequent value. R is missing a standard built-in function to calculate the mode. However, we can create a function to calculate it as shown below.
distinct_A <- unique(A)
matches <- match(A, distinct_A)
table_A <- tabulate(matches)
max_A <- which.max(table_A)
mode<-distinct_A[max_A]
print(mode)
The function performs the following steps:
Computes the distinct values of the collection Then it finds the frequency of each of the item and creates a table out of it Lastly, it finds the index of the term that has the highest occurrence and returns it as the mode.
17.5 Standard deviation
Standard deviation is the deviation of the values from the mean.
sd <- sd(A)
print(sd)
17.6 Variance
Variance is the square of the standard deviation:
var <- var(A)
print(var)
17.7 Correlation
Correlation helps us understand whether the collections have a relationship with each other and whether they co-move with each other along with the strength of the relationship:
cor <- cor(A, B)
print(cor)
We can pass in a specific correlation method such as Kendall or Spearman. Pearson is the default correlation method.
Pass in the correlation method in the method argument.
17.8 Covariance
Covariance is created to inform us about the relationship between variables.
covariance <- cov(A, B)
print(covariance)
17.9 Standardise and normalise the data set
We are often required to normalise data such as by using min-max normalisation or calculate the z-score using the standardisation mechanism.
Standardising data means having a data set with mean = 0 and standard deviation = 1. It requires subtracting the mean from each of the observation and then dividing it by the standard deviation.
We can use the scale function. If we want to subtract the mean from each of the observation then set its center parameter to True.
If we want to standardise data then we need to set its scale parameter to True.
normal_A <- scale(A, center=TRUE, scale = FALSE)
print(normal_A) standard_A <- scale(A, center=TRUE, scale = TRUE)
print(standard_A)
17.10 Regression model
A regression model is gaining popularity in machine learning solutions due to its simplicity and explainability. Essentially, the regression models help us understand the relationship between different variables.
Usually, the coefficients are computed for one or more variables. These variables are regressors. They are used to estimate and predict another variable, the dependent variable. The dependent variable is also known as the response variable.
The data for regressors is gathered through sampling and they are used to predict an outcome:
bn are the coefficients which the linear models can estimate.
xn are the independent variables. We are going to gather data for these variables and feed to the model.
As an instance, let’s assume we gathered data set for temperature and want to predict the rainfall. We can use a linear model as shown below:
Temperature <- c(1,2,5,6.4,6.7,7,7,7,8,9,3,4,1.5,0,10,5.1,2.4,3.4, 4.5, 6.7)
Rainfall <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7) model <- lm(Rainfall~Temperature)
Note, if there were multiple variables used to predict a variable such as using humidity and temperature to predict rainfall, we can use the lm() function and set the formula as:
Temperature <- c(1,2,5,6.4,6.7,7,7,7,8,9,3,4,1.5,0,10,5.1,2.4,3.4, 4.5, 6.7)
Rainfall <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7)
Humidity <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7) model <- lm(Rainfall~Temperature+Humidity)
We can then print out the summary of the model.
R will inform us about the residuals, coefficients, their standard deviation error, t-value, F statistics and so on:
print(summary(model))
It will print the following statistics:
Call:
lm(formula = Rainfall ~ Temperature) Residuals:
Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
-4.2883 -2.2512 -0.2897 1.8661 5.4124 Coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 4.8639 1.3744 3.539 0.00235 **
Temperature -0.1151 0.2423 -0.475 0.64040
---
Signif. codes:
0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 Residual standard error: 2.933 on 18 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared: 0.01239, Adjusted R-squared: -0.04248
F-statistic: 0.2258 on 1 and 18 DF, p-value: 0.6404
Based on the example above, the rainfall is -0.1151 * temperature + 4.8639
If we want to use the model to estimate a new value, we can use the predict() function whereby the first parameter is the model and the second parameter is the value of the temperature for which we want to predict the rainfall:
temperature_value <- data.frame(Temperature = 170)
rainfall_value <- predict(model,temperature_value)
print(rainfall_value)
17.11 Bayesian model
Bayesian model uses probability to represent the unknowns. The aim is to feed in the data to estimate the unknown parameters.
As an instance, let’s assume we want to determine how much stock of a company will be worth tomorrow. Let’s also consider that we use the variable of company’s sales to estimate the stock price.
In this instance, the stock price is the unknown and we are going to use the value of company’s sales to calculate the price of the stock.
We can gather a sample of historic sales and stock price and use it to find the relationship between the two variables. In a real-world project, we would add more variables to estimate the stock price.
The key concepts to understand are conditional probability and Bayes theorem. These concepts were explained in the article:
Essentially, what we are trying to do is to use the prior probability of stock price to predict the posterior using the likelihood data and the normalizing constant.
install.packages("BAS")
library(BAS)
StockPrice <- c(1,2,5,6.4,6.7,7,7,7,8,9,3,4,1.5,0,10,5.1,2.4,3.4, 4.5, 6.7)
Sales <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7)
model <- bas.lm(StockPrice~Sales)
print(summary(model))
Notice that we installed BAS package and then used the BAS library. The results are then displayed:
P(B != 0 | Y) model 1 model 2
Intercept 1.00000000 1.0000 1.00000000
Temperature 0.08358294 0.0000 1.00000000
BF NA 1.0000 0.09120622
PostProbs NA 0.9164 0.08360000
R2 NA 0.0000 0.01240000
dim NA 1.0000 2.00000000
logmarg NA 0.0000 -2.39463218
Different prior distributions on the regression coefficients may be specified using the prior the argument, and include
“BIC”
“AIC
“g-prior”
“hyper-g”
“hyper-g-laplace”
“hyper-g-n”
“JZS”
“ZS-null”
“ZS-full”
“EB-local”
“EB-global”
17.12 Generating random numbers
To generate random numbers between a range, use the runif function. This will print 100 random numbers between 0.1 and 10.0
random_number <- runif(100, 0.1, 10.0)
print(random_number)
We can also use the sample() function to generate items and numbers with or without replacement.
17.13 Poisson distribution
We can use the Poisson distribution and use the glm model where the family is Poisson:
output <-glm(formula = Temperature ~ Rainfall+Humidity,
family = poisson)
print(summary(output))
The results will be printed:
Deviance Residuals:
Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
-3.2343 -0.8547 -0.1792 0.8487 1.8781 Coefficients: (1 not defined because of singularities)
Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)
(Intercept) 1.69807 0.17939 9.466 <2e-16 ***
Rainfall -0.02179 0.03612 -0.603 0.546
Humidity NA NA NA NA
---
Signif. codes:
0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 (Dispersion parameter for poisson family taken to be 1) Null deviance: 35.460 on 19 degrees of freedom
Residual deviance: 35.093 on 18 degrees of freedom
AIC: Inf Number of Fisher Scoring iterations: 5
17.14 Normal distribution
There are several ways to generate data with normal distribution. The most common way is to call the rnorm function with the sample size, mean and standard deviation:
y <- rnorm(100, 0, 1)
17.15 Forward substitution
Forward substitution is a common process used to solve a system of linear equations: Lx = y
In this instance, L is a lower triangular coefficient matrix L with non zero diagonal elements.
There are two functions that help us with forward and backward substitution.
R has forwardsolve(A,b) for forward substitution on lower triangular A, and backsolve(A,b) for backward substitution on upper triangular A.
Specifically, they are:
backsolve(r, x, k = ncol(r), upper.tri = TRUE,
transpose = FALSE)
forwardsolve(l, x, k = ncol(l), upper.tri = FALSE,
transpose = FALSE)
r: an upper triangular matrix: R x = b
l: a lower triangular matrix: L x = b
Both of these trianglar matrix gives us the coefficients which we are attempting to solve.
x: This is the matrix whose columns give the right-hand sides for the equations.
k: It is the number of columns of r and rows of x that we are required to use.
upper.tri: TRUE then use the upper triangular part of r.
transpose: If True then we are attempting to solve r’ * y = x for y
The output will be the same type as x therefore if x is a vector then the output will be a vector, otherwise, if x is a matrix then the output will be a matrix.
17.16 T-tests
t-tests can be performed by using the t.test() function.
As an instance, one-sample t-test in R can be run by using t.test(y, mu = 0) where y is the variable which we want to test and mu is the mean as specified by the null hypothesis:
Humidity <- c(4,4.1,0,1.4,2,1,6.7,7,5,5,8,9,3,2,2.5,0,10,5.1,4.3,5.7) t.test(Humidity, mu = 5)
The code above tests if the Humidity ≤ the mean of 5. This is the null hypothesis.
The results are:
One Sample t-test
data: Humidity
t = -1.1052, df = 19, p-value = 0.2829
alternative hypothesis: true mean is not equal to 5
95 percent confidence interval:
2.945439 5.634561
sample estimates:
mean of x
4.29
18. Plotting In R
This section will explain how easy it is to plot charts in R.
X-Y Scatter Plot
I have generated the following data:
x<-runif(200, 0.1, 10.0)
y<-runif(200, 0.15, 20.0) print(x)
print(y)
The code snippet will plot the chart
plot(x, y, main='Line Chart')
XY Scatter Plot
Correlogram
install.packages('ggcorrplot') library(ggcorrplot)
x<-runif(200, 0.1, 10.0)
y<-runif(200, 0.15, 20.0)
z<-runif(200, 0.15, 20.0) data <- data.frame(x,y,z)
corr <- round(cor(data), 1) ggcorrplot(corr)
Histogram
x<-runif(200, 0.1, 10.0)
hist(x)
19. Object-Oriented Programming In R
This section will outline the concept of object-oriented programming in R. It is vital to understand how objects are created in R because it can help you implement scalable and large applications in an easier manner.
The foremost concept to understand in R programming language is that everything is an object.
A function is an object too, as explained in the functions section. Therefore, we have to define a function to create objects. The key is to set the class attribute on an object.
R supports object-oriented concepts such as inheritance. A class can be a vector.
There are several ways to create a class in R. I will demonstrate the simplest form which revolves around creating S3 classes. This involves creating a list of properties.
Before I explain how to build a full-fledged class, let’s go over the steps in a simplified manner:
The first step is to create a named list, where each element has a name. The name of each element is a property of the class. As an example, this is how we can create a Human class in R:
farhad <- list(firstname="Farhad", lastname="Malik")
class(farhad) <- append(class(farhad), "Human")
We have created an instance of a Human class with the following properties: firstname set to Farhad and lastname set to Malik.
To print the firstname property of the instance of Human object, we can do:
print(farhad$firstname)
Now, let’s move on to another important concept. How do we create an instance method for the object?
The key is to use the command: UseMethod
This command informs the R system to search for a function. An object can have multiple classes, the UseMethod uses the class of the instance to determine which method to execute.
Let’s create GetName function that returns the concatenated string of first and last name:
#This is how you create a new generic function
GetName <- function(instance)
{
UseMethod("GetName", instance)
} #This is how you provide a function its body
GetName.Human <- function(instance)
{
return(paste(instance$firstname,instance$lastname))
} GetName(farhad)
To wrap it up, let’s create a class Human with properties firstname and lastname. It will have a function: GetName() which will return the first and last name.
Trick: create a function that returns a list and pass in the properties as the arguments to the function. Then use the UseMethod command to create the methods.
Human <- function(firstname, lastname)
{
instance <- list(firstname=firstname, lastname=lastname)
class(instance) <- append(class(instance), "Human")
return(instance)
}
GetName <- function(instance)
{
UseMethod("GetName", instance)
}
GetName.Human <- function(instance)
{
return(paste(instance$firstname,instance$lastname))
}
farhad <- Human(firstname="farhad", lastname="malik")
print(farhad)
name <- GetName(farhad)
print(name)
This will print:
> print(farhad)
$firstname
[1] "Farhad" $lastname
[1] "Malik" attr(,"class")
[1] "list" "Human"
>
>
> name <- GetName(farhad)
> print(name)
[1] "Farhad Malik"
What if we want to create a new class OfficeWorker that inherits from the Human class and provides different functionality to the GetName() method?
We can achieve it by:
Human <- function(firstname, lastname)
{
instance <- list(firstname=firstname, lastname=lastname)
class(instance) <- append(class(instance), "Human")
return(instance)
} OfficeWorker <- function(firstname, lastname)
{
me <- Human(firstname, lastname)
# Add the class
class(me) <- append(class(me),"OfficeWorker")
return(me)
}
If we create an instance of an office worker and print the instance, it will print the following contents:
worker = OfficeWorker(firstname="some first name", lastname="some last name")
print(worker) > print(worker)
$firstname
[1] "some first name" $lastname
[1] "some last name" attr(,"class")
[1] "list" "Human" "OfficeWorker"
Note, the classes of the instance are list, Human and OfficeWorker
To create a different function for the office worker then we can override it:
GetName <- function(instance)
{
UseMethod("GetName", instance)
}
GetName.Human <- function(instance)
{
return(paste(instance$firstname,instance$lastname))
}
GetName.OfficeWorker <- function(instance)
{
return(paste("Office Worker",instance$firstname,instance$lastname))
}
This will print:
> GetName(worker)
[1] "some first name some last name"
20. How To Install External R Packages
It’s extremely straightforward to install an R package.
All we have to do is to type in the following command:
install.packages("name of package")
To install multiple packages, we can pass in a vector to the install.packages command:
install.packages(c("package1","package2"))
As an instance, CARAT is one of the most popular machine learning packages.
R-Studio makes it extremely easy to install a package. To install CARAT, click on the Packages tab at the bottom right and then click on the install button.
Enter “carat” and click on Install
The dialog boxes will appear to indicate that the package is being installed:
Once the package is installed, you can see it in the Console Window:
The downloaded binary packages are in
C:\Users\AppData\Local\Temp\Rtmp8q8kcY\downloaded_packages
To remove a package, type in:
remove.packages("package name")
21. Famous R Libraries
Other than the R libraries that have been mentioned in this article along with the built-in R functions, there are a large number of useful R packages which I recommend:
Prophet: For forecasting, data science and analytical projects Plotly: For graphs Janitor: For data cleaning Caret: For classification and regression training Mlr: For machine learning projects Lubridate: For time series data Ggpolot2: For visualisation Dplyr: For manipulating and cleaning data Forcats: When working with categorical data Dplyr: For data manipulation
22. Summary
This article explained the following key areas about R:
What Is R? How To Install R? Where To Code R? What Is A R Package and R Script? What Are The Different R Data Types? How To Declare Variables And Their Scope In R? How To Write Comments? What Are Vectors? What Are Matrix? What Are Lists? What Are Data Frames? Different Logical Operations In R Functions In R Loops In R Read And Write External Data In R Performing Statistical Calculations In R Plotting In R Object-Oriented Programming in R Famous R Libraries How To Install External R Libraries Plotting In R
I explained the programming language R from the basics in a manner that would make the language easier to understand. Having said that, the key to advancing in programming is to always practice as much as possible.
Please let me know if you have any feedback or comments.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/r-statistical-programming-language-6adc8c0a6e3d
|
['Farhad Malik']
|
2020-03-31 18:02:33.764000+00:00
|
['Programming', 'Fintechexplained', 'Statistics', 'R', 'Technology']
|
Corona Diary (December 15–21)
|
Like everyone, we are currently experiencing challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of our nationality, age, or cultural practices, social distancing has rapidly become the norm. The following is a weekly series of thoughts and experiences across five different cities and countries, in the hope of making connections and distinctions in a strange and uncertain time.
Mexico City, Mexico
by Nuria Benítez Gómez
SMS texts received from the government. “We are on Covid alert. We have 78% hospital occupancy. NO parties, NO family gatherings. Stay home. It’s everyone’s responsibility.” / “ COVID 19 EMERGENCY Hospitals are at full capacity. We are back to absolute isolation. From today, only essential sectors will be open. DO NOT go out, NO parties.”
With no surprise, Mexico City has gone back to red traffic light, on the day of my birthday. Luckily, we have never stopped being aware of the situation and had celebrations with a nice meal at home with my sisters. It turns out that the government misled everyone about the severity of the coronavirus in the capital for a couple of weeks, and enhanced activity when we should all have been strictly at home. The famous “Guadalupe–Reyes” has been interrupted: alcohol sales were banned for the weekend (18th to 20th), rather unusual act for the time of year in which Mexicans celebrate and tend to drink from December 12th (the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe) to January 6th (Epiphany, the day of the Three Kings). Must have been a control measure for people to stay home, a rather desperate act to make up for the delay in their responsibility to keep everyone at home.
On December 16, 2020, the National Minimum Wage Commission (CONASAMI) agreed to increase 5% the minimum wage to an average $ 141.70 pesos per day, as of January 1, 2021. Can you believe this? $7 USD per day.
Brooklyn, New York, The United States
by Jon Gayomali
We had our first big snowfall of the season. It was the first major snow in a few years. I measured my backyard to be 8" of snowfall. It snowed for about a full day, and Brooklyn was filled with sleds and snowmen, and Manhattan had quite a few characters. People were even skiing in the street!
My dad was given the vaccine on Monday, along with many of my friends who are on the front lines. It’s great to know that we are finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In 3 weeks, he gets the second dose. So far, he hasn’t felt any effects aside from his arm being sore. In the media, there is a lot of backlash of politicians being among the first stage of people to be given the vaccine, especially those that have been downplaying the virus the entire time. There is pressure on a lot of celebrities to get the vaccine, as setting an example to the sceptics will be vital to approaching herd immunity.
Meanwhile, people are suffering, and are hanging on by a thread as many places including California have been going back into lockdown. It may happen soon in New York. On Monday night, the Senate passed a $900 Billion for Coronavirus assistance. This comes out to a $600 stimulus check, extended unemployment benefits up to $300/ week, and loan and grant forgiveness for small businesses. Despite the progress, there has been a lot of backlash on the bill, as the $900 Billion number is very misleading.
|
https://medium.com/re-s-public-collective/corona-diary-december-15-21-2d0b1fe18bd8
|
['Re S Public Collective']
|
2020-12-23 06:05:04.262000+00:00
|
['International', 'Coronavirus', 'New York', 'Diary', 'Mexico']
|
One about Ethics
|
Dance (I) by Henri Matisse — Image taken by myself at Moma, March 2019
And why they are so important for people and brands.
Let’s start with defining what this means:
Ethic or Ethics: a system of accepted beliefs that control behaviour, especially such a system based on morals (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020).
And now you are probably asking yourself: what is considered moral?
Morals can define behaviours, values and actions that have everything to do with the concept of good and bad, honesty and fairness (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). So, for people this means: live a honest life, such as caring about the community, the planet, family and friends; while for brands, it means using honesty, sustainability and responsibility as core values to define their identity, communication strategy and business model.
In my practice as a person and professional in the creative industries, I consider ethics a really important part of the my process and analysis of who I want to work with, because it’s something that is really close to my heart (aligning brands’ values with my own).
In a world where consumerism, fast fashion and even faster consumption are predominant, ethics are often objectified by corporations, brands and even public personalities to represent a better image of themselves, even if practically, this doesn’t relate to their actions. Yes, people like to show they are doing a good job to attract people’s attention. It’s like the classic story of the little guy at school who is trying to look cool in front of his classmates, because he wants him/her to notice him.
Really playing on the fact that some are really easy to be influenced and conditioned.
As a consumer, do we not have the responsibility to fact check and select what we read, buy, eat and interact with in our every day lives? As humans, do we not have a social responsibility to look after one another, to support those in need and to use our voices and platforms to shout about what’s immoral (injustices, minorities and planet — you name it!).
I honestly feel the past few years and most recent circumstances have helped with addressing some of these issues, and as much as I am happy for this conversations to happen and raise right now, I hope it isn’t a justification for some, both as people and as brands, just because it makes a cool square on Instagram or because, as a brand, I need to prove myself.
Don’t be scared to have some morals.
|
https://medium.com/@grebeccarello/one-about-ethics-8a958e312e84
|
['Greta Beccarello']
|
2020-07-01 20:21:29.538000+00:00
|
['Responsibility', 'Integrity', 'Ethics', 'Morality', 'Brands']
|
The Ultimate Keto Meal Plan
|
Counting carbs but still craving pies, cakes, and sugar-rich treats?
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Rest assured, we know what it’s like to need low-carb keto recipes that don’t compromise on taste. That’s why in this Easy Keto Recipes Meal Plan Cookbook we have brought together this collection of my family’s favorites. All of these recipes were designed to be excellent keto options for you, while still making it easy to stick to your grocery budget.
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Weight loss and maintenance
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Supports weight loss.
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Effective Against Metabolic Syndrome
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If you follow this FREE KETO MEAL PLAN recipe book, you will see that it is perfectly calculated with keto nutrients that include different meal types: breakfast, lunch, dinner
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Note: This article contains (Affiliate Links) and will be marked accordingly. If you click on any of these links and purchase any of the products, I may receive a small commission, thank you.
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https://medium.com/@beroniko00/the-ultimate-keto-meal-plan-aaa3cea80201
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['Ron Nico']
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2021-12-22 16:35:20.368000+00:00
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['Ketogenic Diet', 'Weight Loss', 'Free Keto Meal Plan', 'Keto', 'Keto Meal Plan']
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The African Child has the right to be a child
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Every child has the right to be a child. Yes, some children are denied such a right. Childhood should be enjoyable. “Childhood is entitled to special care and assistance” so states the preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A child who enjoys his/her childhood does not only stand the chance of becoming a better adult but also passes this treatment to his/her offspring.
On the streets of most cities in Africa, we see children selling all kinds of items exposing them to car accidents and related forms of danger. Some children are breadwinners of their family instead of their parents or guardians. In my home country Ghana, exploitative child labor is still a canker we have to deal with. Children are unlawfully used in fishing, farming, mining, and other hazardous labor. Shamefully, some parents ‘sell’ their children into slavery to these heartless ‘masters’ who use these children for harmful and dangerous activities.
Child marriage is still prevalent in most African countries[2]. Girls of school-going age are forced into early marriages. Others are sexually abused. Child traffickers force children into prostitution. Some Step parents and baby sitters are not left out in this canker. Some children suffer maltreatment in the name of being wrongly accused as witches and wizards. Day in and out children are forced to live like adults.
The situation is very alarming and needs much and immediate effort in curbing it from all stakeholders because about 40% of Africa’s population is under 15 years according to an African Union report[3]. The future of Africa will therefore be in shambles if this canker continues.
Legislation
The continent has all the needed laws and legislation to curb this social canker. There is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which most African countries are signatories to and have domesticated into national laws), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child as well as various national legislations. Ghana has The Children’s Act, 1998, Act 560, Kenya has the Children Act, №8 of 2001, South Africa has The Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005 (As Amended), Just to mention but a few.
Pursuant to these national laws each African country has relevant state bodies and institutions charged with the responsibility of ensuring the welfare of children.
The problem, therefore, is not the lack of relevant laws and legislations but enforcement of the laws.
Solutions
Governments should show greater commitment towards ensuring the welfare of children. If we truly believe that children are the future, then all policies should take the welfare of children into consideration.
State institutions/bodies responsible for promoting the welfare of children and enforcing children’s rights should be properly equipped to carry out their duties. These institutions must revise their strategies, where necessary, towards the fight against child abuse. There should be publicity of punishment meted out to perpetrators of child abuse to serve as a deterrent to others. Our courts and adjudicating bodies must interpret child protection laws to the letter and hand out the harshest punishments (in accordance with the law) to these perpetrators, irrespective of who they might be.
Conscious efforts must be taken to clear out street-children engaged in unlawful hawking and other business activities. Parents must be continuously educated that it is their duty/responsibility to take care of their children. They are the breadwinners, not their children!
We must all be citizens but not spectators. Every citizen must do their very best to report all cases of child abuse. Everyone should get involved in this fight.
Every child of school-going age must be in school. To this end, conscious efforts should be made to make basic education free in all countries across the continent. Refusal to ensure wards go to school must be an offense punishable under national laws and parents and wards must be sanctioned accordingly.
It is not enough to have all these fantastic and extensive child protection laws. Their enforcement must be seen to be taking place. Yes, we must see it! Until we prioritize the promotion of children's welfare, and until children are allowed to live as children, the future of the continent will be in crisis.
[1] The writer is a lawyer and the founder and Board Chairman of Plight of the Child International. He can be reached at [email protected]
[2] See www.girlsnotbrides.org/region/sub-saharan-africa/
[3] African Union, ‘State of Africa’s Population 2017’ available at https://au.int/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/32187-wd-state_of_africas_population_-_sa19093_-e.pfd
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https://medium.com/@signaturejournalafrika/the-african-child-has-the-right-to-be-a-child-d613a19bd73b
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['Signature Journal Africa', 'Sja']
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2020-12-26 11:59:12.274000+00:00
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['Africa', 'Children', 'Ghana']
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A Rhetorical Analysis of Sustainable, Organic & Biodynamic Wines Moms Will Adore by Michelle Vale
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There are 269 Master Sommeliers (Court of Master Sommeliers), a coveted title awarded to a person who is an expert in wine pairings; for Masters of Wine, a title awarded to those who’ve studied wine professionally for years, just 409. (Masters of Wine) Basically, there are very few wine experts in the world. As far as experts in Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic wine go, since there’s no official ranking or tracking, we can assume even fewer than the aforementioned titles. In the article Sustainable, Organic & Biodynamic Wines Moms Will Adore, author Michelle Vale makes claims around the health benefits of drinking wine, specifically sustainable, organic, and biodynamically farmed wines, but pivots quickly to just telling us what those words mean. She claims that she isn’t an expert but she has had ‘a few wine classes’ and has spoken to some winemakers, which makes her qualified to speak on the subject. The argument Vale presents makes two claims: sustainable, organic, and biodynamic wines are the healthiest way to consume wine, and, modern winemaking is unhealthy. Instead, it could be the case that wine manufacturing technique doesn’t equate to healthiness. Despite Vale’s aforementioned wine courses and discussions with winemakers, her lack of experience in the subject matters leads to a red herring fallacy and doesn’t hold up as a credible source for understanding sustainable, organic, or biodynamic wines.
Vitis Vinifera, Spain — Photo by Nacho Domínguez Argenta on Unsplash
Vale’s Introduction to Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic Wine
Vale starts off the article by indicating that wine is necessary for getting her through parenthood and that when she is making decisions about the things that she puts in her body, she tries to pick the healthiest option of any product offering. She says, “What’s lurking in a bottle depends on how it’s processed, so to get the full health benefits without too many questionable ingredients, I educated myself further.”(Vale) This phrasing Vale chooses immediately makes me think that something nefarious is going on in regular wine, without Vale citing any evidence to back it up. She then goes on to illustrate that the most common methods of winemaking involve the use of additives and insinuates that additives are innately unhealthy. She also claims that there are numerous claimed health benefits linked to drinking wine. Right away, this indication that some wine is healthier than others is where the article starts to head south. She describes some health benefits that wine has as “boosting heart health and acting as a shield for certain types of cancer.” Despite numerous claims of the health benefits of red wine, there are very few peer-reviewed studies to indicate that there are any tangible health benefits. In fact, alcohol in all of its varieties are classified as a Level 1 Carcinogen by The International Agency for Research on Cancer. (“Preventable Exposures Associated With Human Cancers”) Because of the misleading information around the health benefits of wine, Vale’s article continues to fall apart.
It’s at this point in the article where the red-herring circles back. Vale pivots the article by describing her perceived understanding of the differences between ‘Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic’ wines. She doesn’t list any references for these descriptions, which is another red flag for the credibility of the article, but instead chooses to describe them with her questionable definitions. For example, she describes ‘Sustainable’ wine as follows: “First there is certified sustainable, where vineyards put into practice a variety of sustainable practices both good for the health of you and the environment.” (Vale) Using ‘sustainable’ to define sustainability doesn’t make for a clear answer, nor does her definition offer any sources. More so, at no point during these descriptions does she provide any concrete evidence that these methods are in fact healthier for consumers or the environment. As a matter of fact, she makes no correlation at all between wine and health past referencing “multiple studies”, which again, are unlinked. This article has a clear red herring fallacy — it started off spouting the health benefits and describing how she likes to pick the healthiest products but drops the ball in actually linking the described production methods to any health benefits at all.
Sustainability?
Once Vale’s position pivots from the health benefits of wine to the descriptions of types of wine production and growing, any chance of credibility the article had starts to crumble. She starts by umbrellaing all of the terms under ‘Sustainable’: this gives the impression that organic and biodynamic wines are types of sustainable wines. In fact, she even claims ‘There are 3 main categories of sustainable wines here in the US.’, but once again fails to cite any sources for this statement. There are several associations that determine a vineyard’s sustainability, so while there is no one true governing body on the matter, Wine Institute indicates that ‘Sustainable winegrowing is a comprehensive set of practices that are environmentally sound, socially equitable and economically viable.’ (Wine Institute) Vale’s claims about sustainability offer no proof, so I’d argue that this specific couldn’t possibly always be the case: organic wines, for example, just need to be made of certified organic fruit, but that doesn’t indicate that the vineyard is run sustainably.
Once Vale starts to dive deeper into the aforementioned types of sustainable wines, the credibility sinks even lower. Under her umbrella of ‘Sustainable Wines’, she alludes to ‘Certified Sustainable’ as the next topic. Vale then goes on to define ‘Certified Sustainable’ with the following quote, “Whether it’s irrigating the land in a less impactful way or using a fertilizer free of chemicals, vineyards producing sustainable wines are taking steps to be more ecological.” (Vale) This statement isn’t credible at all. First, everything is made of chemicals, so while it is common knowledge that fertilizers are bad, classifying the methods used in sustainable agriculture as ‘free of chemicals’ is misleading. In addition, wine regions all have their own rules and regulations on how irrigation can be done. There are so many laws, in fact, that it would be prohibitive to cite them all. Since wine is grown in over 70 regions, each with its own laws, there is no true source on how to best perform irrigation. (Our World in Data) Essentially, irrigation in vineyards depends on local laws and can vary depending on climate, water table levels, and other factors. While it is admirable for her to consider water use in the space of being more ecological, it is not something that many vineyards can go out and change without consequence. According to Appalachian State University, “Sustainability, as a philosophy, integrates economics, ecology, and community into the farming operation.” (Appalachian State University) Essentially, sustainability really depends on a winemaker’s own vineyard, economics, and community. Since Vale hasn’t made it clear what being sustainable actually means, the information she presents in this paragraph isn’t useful to the reader or consumers.
Tuscan Landscapes — Photo by Reuben Teo on Unsplash
Organic Winemaking
Next, Vale goes on to explain ‘Organic Winemaking’. She says, “Wines that are labeled organic need to have all the certifications required in order to classify them as organic and be marked certified on the bottle. For this, a vineyard must not only make their wines using certified organic grapes, they must also refrain from using non-organic pesticides, herbicides or non-organic fertilizers or chemicals.” (Vale) Legally, the definition of organic winemaking depends on what country you are in. Her phrasing also contradicts an earlier comment she had, namely that sustainable wines needed to be free of fertilizers using chemicals. According to her own claim that organic wines are types of sustainable wines, and that sustainable wines cannot use fertilizers with chemicals, her own definition of organic wines contradicts the entire description she provides. Further on in her description of organic wines she makes the claim that sulfites can’t be added to them, then goes on to clarify that the rule isn’t the case in Europe. Over 50% of the world's production of wine comes from Europe, with the U.S. trailing far behind at 8% (Karlsson) — to start a paragraph with a misleading fact throws further questions of her credibility in my mind. The author criticizes the U.S. limiting the use of sulfur in natural winemaking, which again contradicts her earlier stance on additives. She ends her description of organic wine by insinuating that, perhaps, the addition of sulfur and sulfites in wine might not be that bad since Europe does it too. Once again, Vale has failed to provide adequate information to accurately portray what ‘Organic Winemaking’ is.
Biodynamics
Vale’s lack of further analysis into the intricate art and science that is biodynamic winemaking really seals the deal to me: this article is not credible and generally misleading. At this point in the article, she moves on to her final type of winemaking, ‘Biodynamic’. Vale describes biodynamic winemaking as: “It is basically a process where all of the elemental tasks of farming are ecologically interrelated.” She then paints a picture of a vineyard where sheep fertilize the land and owls control the pests, but doesn’t go into much more detail about the nuances and rituals in biodynamic winemaking. Vale does go on to note that biodynamic winemaking allows the use of sulfur and sulfites, and she frames it in a way that makes it appear to be positive. This change of opinion on additives doesn’t strengthen her arguments. This is also her last write up of the actual benefits or differences between sustainable, organic, or biodynamic wines before launching into a full-fledged advertisement.
Vale ends her article by listing off places to buy sustainable, organic, and biodynamic wine. While I don’t see any referral links hiding in her write up, the ending of the article makes it feel like one big advertisement. I concede that she does list some important wineries in regards to ‘Sustainable, Organic, or Biodynamic’ wines, like Tablas Creek which is a huge root nursery for California wines (Tablas Creek), or Bonterra who continues to pave the way in organic and biodynamic winemaking (Barth), she also lists some questionable ones. As of her writing in July of 2020, at least one of the wineries on her list is involved in a large political scandal, (Mobley) which, in my opinion, reduces the credibility of her writing even more.
An Almost Empty Glass of Wine — Photo by Irene Kredenets on Unsplash
Conclusion
In summary, when taking a critical look at Sustainable, Organic & Biodynamic Wines Moms Will Adore by Michelle Vale, the article and author offer little credibility. Vale uses a red-herring fallacy to begin the article by claiming health benefits, then pivots to poorly researched descriptions of ‘Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic’ wines without ever circling back to her original claims. The article is informative in introducing the subject matter to consumers who may not know about ‘Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic’ wines, but it feels more like an advertisement than a well thought out piece. Because Vale’s argument is unsupported and her descriptions of these practices are incomplete and occasionally factually incorrect, this article would not be an adequate source to cite for any research on the topic of Biodynamic Wine.
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https://medium.com/@biodynamicwine/a-rhetorical-analysis-of-sustainable-organic-biodynamic-wines-moms-will-adore-by-michelle-vale-b6212897a6e
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['Crista Miller']
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2020-11-18 03:35:52.953000+00:00
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['Biodynamic', 'Wine', 'Sustainability', 'Organic']
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The Millionaire Writer
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Three of the most prominent fantasy authors were sitting in a cafe in a small town in the Midwest.
They met here once a year, every year.
Back in the day they all happened to meet a small convention near the town. They kept coming back even as their schedules got busier and busier. They all had huge series. One of them had a popular show based on his books. The others didn’t have shows but their books were perennial best sellers, and Hollywood was always sniffing around their work.
The three of them sat there. One was older than the rest, his hair more white than grey. Another sat there, stouter than the others with wild grey hair and a even wilder beard. The third man was younger than the others with long brown hair.
They were different, but they all had one thing in common.
Each of them had a book the world was waiting for. It had been years since any of them had released any books. The publishing world called them The Trifecta of Slow Writers.
“They just don’t get it do they?” the oldest one said.
“What’s that?” the bearded one said.
“They just don’t understand. They all want the book but none of them understand the pressure. I’ve been writing for sixty years. You’d think if I could just make a book appear out of nowhere I would do it. This is my magnum opus. I won’t release it until it’s perfect.”
“I know. I’ve writing this damn book for six years. It’s the last one. It’s the one everyone is going to remember. If I flub this then I’ll never be able to live it down.”
“They’ll just never get it. I spent twenty years perfecting the first book before it finally got published,” the long haired man said, “You’d think that I could even write another one in my lifetime. Everyone wants a book a year and I just can’t do it.”
“If I did a book a year my fans would have a heart attack,” the old man said.
“How about that one guy at the panel today?” the bearded one asked.
“The one that said we should be ashamed?” the long haired man said, “The one that said that with the money we make that we should be cranking out books left and right.”
“I think he even said that,” the bearded one said, “he said if we were making the amount of money we were then he would would put out a book that would dwarf ours’.”
They all laughed.
But then the old man was silent.
“What if we took him up on his bet?” the old man asked.
“What do you mean?” the bearded one asked.
“We put up the money and tell him he gets one year. If it’s really all about the money he should be able to crank out a book. But if he doesn’t…”
“That will get everyone off our backs because people will see how hard it really is…” the long haired man said.
And so the plan was hatched.
They found the man who challenged them. It wasn’t hard he was still at the convention.
“Are you guys serious?” the new guy said, “How much?”
“A million dollars,” the bearded man said, “the three of us are putting up the money.”
“And you are getting my agent and my publisher, so there will be no excuse,” the old man said.
The new guy laughed, “Deal.”
And so nearly a year later each of them noticed something online. A new book was setting the publishing world on fire.
The old man saw the same man he gave the money to on television. He called the others and they were able to arrange a meeting with the new guy. Actually, he asked them to come to his book signing.
It wasn’t hard to find. The bookstore was large, but the line was going out through the door.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the old man said.
“Why are all these people here?” the long haired man said.
“They’re here to see him,” the bearded man said and pointed to the poster showing the writer with whom they made the bet.
He was at the front of a crowded store, smiling and shaking people’s hands. When he saw the trio of writers he excused himself to meet with them.
“How did this happen?” the old man asked, “How did you write a book to get this kind of response?”
“It was simple. You haven’t looked at the book yet have you?”
The three of them shook their heads.
He handed them a copy, “I wrote a memoir about tricking the three biggest writers into paying me to write a book.”
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https://medium.com/the-inkwell/the-millionaire-writer-1dfd358bac43
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['Matthew Donnellon']
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2020-11-10 03:09:58.801000+00:00
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['Business', 'Writing', 'Finance', 'Fiction', 'Short Story']
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Goodfellas at 30: The Most Definitive American Movie of the Last Three Decades
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First, a confession.
I did not love Goodfellas the first time I saw it (in the theater, shortly after it opened, in October, 1990). Then again, this seems to happen with certain albums and movies: the ones you end up loving most often are not love at first sight. For instance, I also didn’t fall head over heels (as I later would) with Mean Streets that first time, possibly because I was too young and needed to get the one-two punch of Raging Bull and Taxi Driver fully out of my system; after those two (which were indelibly seared into my impressionable psyche at first viewing –and subsequent ones) Mean Streets seemed almost like an autobiographical home movie (which, I was too dumb to realize, it kind of was).
Likewise, I didn’t “get” all the fuss about Chinatown (you probably have to at least be out of high school to begin to appreciate; to even know how to grasp that one) or The Last Detail. In fact, while I’m naming names and copping to confession mode: I was severely underwhelmed by The Big Lebowski, a film I now would have to put in my all-time Top 20. Let’s face it: some movies (and albums) confound expectations (I came to Lebowski still reeling from the sullen perfection of Fargo and I was simply not prepared to grapple with The Dude’s Tao) and some simply require extra levels of dedication: like a good marinade or magic spell, they need time to do their thing. That, at least, is the best explanation (rationalization?) I can come up with for why a handful of films I would take to my desert island initially left me unconverted.
Suffice it to say, I quickly learned the error of my ways. And, I reckon, one of the redeeming qualities of humans is our capacity to repent and improve. Put another way, those movies did not get better with repeated viewings, I did. Or, they helped me be better: a better viewer, a better judge of art, and quite possibly a better (or at least more evolved) human being. And don’t get me wrong, I liked Goodfellas when I saw it in the theater, I just could not have predicted I’d end up considering it the most definitive, fully realized (in short, the best) American film made over the course of two ensuing decades.
All of which seems a rather pointy-headed way of introducing a celebration of one of the most violent films of all time. Of course, Goodfellas is much, much more than that. But, I would argue, of all of Scorsese’s upping of the ante in subsequent efforts (Cape Fear, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Departed), this is one film (along with the aforementioned Raging Bull and Taxi Driver) that not only warrants, but demands the borderline gratuitousness of the violent action and images. It is, after all, a movie about mobsters. Thin-skinned and, frankly, puritanical critics have always chafed at the near pornography of Scorsese’s stylized brutality, but in a film like Goodfellas the ceaseless stream of severed limbs and bodily fluids is designed in the service of verisimilitude.
Take, for instance, the infamous pistol-whipping scene, which occurs relatively early in the story: we’ve already met the young Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), and despite the (brilliant) opening sequence where we see him and his partners in crime shove a half dead (and made) man into a trunk, then kill him on the highway, we’ve mostly identified with him as the good-looking, gentler mob acolyte (indeed, he is chastised for being too soft when he has the temerity to waste a few extra aprons on the poor slob who got shot in the stomach and is bleeding to death outside the pizza joint). Particularly in comparison to the hardended elders, including mentor Jimmy “The Gent” Conway (DeNiro) and psychotic running mate Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), we could be forgiven for thinking Henry is actually a, well, good fella. The efficient impact of this scene, then, is the way it advances the plot and reinforces the grimmer reality of who Henry is, and where he came from. Remember the first time you saw this? How shocking that quick explosion of violence seemed? It was not merely a matter of a thug not having the time or interest in a fist fight, it was the even more disturbing notion that he could, and would kill Karen’s neighbor as a matter of course. And when he says he’ll do it next time, there is no question he will.
This scene is actually a clinic in character study and compressed plot rhythm: we are reminded, abruptly, that Henry is in fact a violent man and is capable of extreme violence which he will unleash without hesitation or remorse. How about the initial reaction of the neighbors? In addition to the excellent juxtaposition of social status (here is Henry, the poor kid from the shitty ‘hood and these clowns, polishing the expensive car that mommy and daddy bought), you see their nonchalance: they are not the least bit intimidated as Henry crosses the street. “You want something fucker?” the ringleader asks a second before he gets the something he’ll never forget. See, in their world, there are three of them; what could this dude with his leather coat do? Three on one; and if he threatens us, we’ll tell our parents. Oh, unless he bashes one of our noses in and tells us, without bravado, that as bad as this hurts, it’s only a warning (reminiscent of Sonny’s vicious smackdown of Carlo in The Godfather: when he says, out of breath from the beating he’s just dished out, “You touch my sister again, I’ll kill ya,” it’s not only an obvious statement of fact, but a masterful bit of acting from Caan: a lesser actor would have shouted the lines and been unable to resist the seemingly obligatory opportunity to grandstand; my theory is that his restraint is partially or entirely due to the fact that he’d witnessed –and possibly delivered– ass-kickings like this in his own life and didn’t have to talk the actorly talk because he could walk the bare-knuckled walk).
(Intermission: if you have not seen it yet, Christmas came early for Goodfellas fans in 2010: GQ has a special feature, with comments and recollections from cast and crew. The whole thing is here and I’ll happily submit five of my favorite anecdotes, below:
Corrigan: I’ll never forget the first time I saw the scene where Pesci is saying, “You think I’m funny?” and he pretends like he’s going to kill Ray Liotta. Now everybody knows it, but there was a first time when no one knew what he was going to say and do. We were on the edge of our seats, like, “Oh my God! He’s gonna fucking kill him!”
Liotta: For the scene at Tommy’s mother’s house, I don’t think Marty gave his mom a script. I remember Joe saying, “Mom, I need this knife. We hit a deer, we got to cut off its — ” and he can’t remember it, and Bob jumps in as he’s eating “ — hoof.” There was a lot of improv.
Darrow: Marty calls me into the trailer. I had lines in the scene with the bandage on my head [when Sonny begs Paulie to be a part-owner of his nightclub], but it wasn’t much. Marty said, “I’m going to take this scene away from Paul and Ray, and it’s your scene.” So I says, “Okay, but tell Sorvino.” He said, “Don’t worry about it.” I say my lines, and Sorvino goes, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What fucking movie are you doing?” Marty didn’t tell him anything; he wanted him mad. See how mad he was in that scene? Because Marty knows how to get it out of you, he really does.
Peter Bucossi (stuntman): De Niro was kicking the hell out of me that night. I had pads on, but I recall being quite bruised a few days later. I mean, he tried to hit the pads, but in the midst of their fury they’re not worried about making sure.
Low: I did come up with my own lines of, “What am I, a schmuck on wheels?” “I’ve been bleeding for this caper.” “Jimmy is being an unconscionable ball-breaker!” During a break, one of the Mob guys in the movie comes to me and he says, “What is this ‘ball-breaker’ thing that you’re saying, the ‘unconscionable?’ ” I said, “You know, in the Caribbean there’s conch shells; you can’t break ’em.” They all give me like the thumbs-up: “Oh, I get it. ‘Unconscionable!’”)
So, let’s go to the scorecard.
Most quotable movie from the last two decades? What else have you got?
Most compulsively rewatchable? Obviously.
Best soundtrack? It’s on the short list.
Sheer number of indelible scenes? Please.
Best acting, from leads to bit parts? Not even close.
Most imitated movie of the last 20 years? Not even debatable.
Goodfellas was so great its largest “fault” was its own success; that it inspired so many lame, shameless rip-offs. We see this phenomenon over and over, with movies ranging from Pulp Fiction to Swingers, but we are still seeing it with Goodfellas. Everything from the clever introduction of characters to the voiceover narration (not the use of it, but the way it is utilized), to the then-revelatory use of still-frames to, well, frame some of that narration. All of these have been copied to the point of parody –real or intended.
Take DeNiro and Pesci (please!), neither of whom again came close to this level of work (I realize Casino has its advocates, but DeNiro does not act in that movie, he smokes cigarettes, and Pesci –whose range was limited in the first place– is an amusing and occasionally riveting caricature of the role he immortalizes in Goodfellas). This is not necessarily offered as critique: Pesci has two of the seminal supporting roles in Scorsese (and movie) history, first as Jake LaMotta’s long-suffering brother Joey in Raging Bull and then, a decade later, as Tommy DeVito. DeNiro, in hindsight, may have had less range than many of us realized; he certainly has done plenty of work in the last two decades, but…let’s just say he front-loaded his career with his finest work. And it’s work that stands tall in all cinema, so it seems silly to nitpick the bad choices, lack of inspiration or punch-drunk technique he has put on display since his epic turn as Jimmy Conway.
What tends to get lost in the discussion of Goodfellas, between the violence, the quotable scenes and the sheer heft of the soundtrack (Shangri-Las to Sid Vicious? Only Scorsese) is the fact that there are moments of incredible, almost astonishing subtlety. Most of them, not coincidentally, are delivered by the master at the height of his game, DeNiro. His character is so fully realized that every word, wince and grimace go beyond authenticity and seem natural, obvious. Conway is such a genius at crime, it is amusing and eventually almost heartbreaking to behold the befuddlement he is constantly feeling as he’s confronted by the idiocy of others. The way his disgust with the motor-mouthed and insufferable (and hilarious) Morrie slowly boils past the breaking point; his disdain for Henry’s increasingly out of control drug abuse (“they’re making your mind into mush”); his big brotherly admonishment of Tommy’s increasingly out of control emotions (“you’re gonna’ dig the fucking hole this time”) as well as his loyalty (you get the sense that after Tommy is whacked, this is the first time in his life Jimmy has cried). And then there are the sublime moments: his dialogue before the Billy Batts beating (“ah, ah, you insulted him a little bit; you were a little out of order yourself”), the aforementioned improv during the dinner scene (“the hoof”), and his reaction to the cohorts, after the big heist, when they roll into the Christmas party with fur coats and Cadillacs.
The scene (or one of them anyway) that stays with me is near the end: everyone, including Henry, knows he is on borrowed time, and it’s very likely his one-time mentor Jimmy is going to pull the trigger. The only person who doesn’t –or does not want to– believe it is his wife, Karen. In the brief but disturbing scene, she visits Jimmy who casually (but carefully, we know) inquires what types of questions the feds are asking Henry. At that moment we know (we already knew) that it’s over; we’ve seen what Jimmy has done to every other participant in the heist, we know (even though Karen still doesn’t realize, even as she stands next to the man who will kill her and her husband; the man that was there for the birth of her children) that something terrible is about to happen. And it almost does. When Jimmy mentions some extra dresses Karen should take, she initially appreciates his generous offer. As she walks down the alley (and Jimmy does not follow) she begins to get suspicious, and when she looks into the doorway Jimmy is signalling, the goons inside shush each other and it goes silent. Finally, she gets it, and rushes to her car even as Jimmy urges her to go back. This scene takes less than a minute, happens in broad daylight and it’s scarier than anything from any “horror” movie in the last 25 years. It also brings the sensibility of the movie (of these people) full circle: just as we needed to see, and understand, that Henry –despite his kindness and charm– was capable, and quite willing to inflict bloodshed at any time, we now see what Henry later articulates: it’s often your best friends who take you out, and they are smiling when they do it.
Moral of the story? Crime doesn’t pay, except when it does (and even if it never does, it’s better than a day job). At the beginning of the film, Henry claims “as far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.” The tragedy of his life is not that he became one; the tragedy is that as the movie ends, and Henry stands in the (relative) safety of his suburban lawn, he still longs to be one.
What else is there, besides everything? The best way to discuss a movie this rich is to simply watch it, again, and savor all the scenes and words and sounds. In the final analysis, full credit must go to the wisest of guys, Scorsese, for pulling off a tour de force on every conceivable level: a lavish looking spectacle that never seems overly polished, a massive production where every set, every song and every role is ideally cast (super-sized props to Marty for hanging in there and remaining true to his vision of having the fairly unknown Ray Liotta play the starring role; the studio imbeciles, in their eternal anti-wisdom, wanted Tom Cruise), and a detailed examination of an alternate universe — an America of a different era, populated by people we couldn’t have otherwise understood, or ever wanted to let into our living rooms. With the considerable help of the writers, actors and crew he assembled, he obliged us to welcome these good fellas into our lives, forever.
|
https://bullmurph.medium.com/goodfellas-at-30-the-most-definitive-american-movie-of-the-last-three-decades-e057467a3d2a
|
['Sean Murphy']
|
2020-09-19 17:56:09.429000+00:00
|
['Movies', 'Pop Culture', 'Movie Review', 'Film', 'Martin Scorsese']
|
Don’t underestimate these Python dunder methods!
|
Suppose you are testing different supervised learning techniques for a classification problem. For simplicity, I’ll assume you are familiar with these terms .
Generally, you would have a set of raw features to be used as input variables for training the algorithm. However, important transformations such as filling out missing values, standardizing variables and so forth will almost certainly take place.
As in scikit-learn’s pipelines, you could build different transformers for, say, Logistic Regression.
Notice that, even though the steps are identical and carry the same name, it is not possible to say that they are equal with regular comparison in Python.
>>> from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler, MinMaxScaler
>>> from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
>>> from sklearn.pipeline import Pipeline
>>>
>>> mean_transformer_1 = Pipeline(steps=[
... ('imputer', SimpleImputer(strategy='mean')),
... ('scaler', StandardScaler())])
>>>
>>> mean_transformer_2 = Pipeline(steps=[
... ('imputer', SimpleImputer(strategy='mean')),
... ('scaler', StandardScaler())])
>>>
>>> mean_transformer_1==mean_transformer_2
False
And there you go! Comparing models before and after you apply different pipelines can be quite troublesome.
One way to compare them, is to compare each step’s classes to see if they are the same:
>>> class_1 = mean_transformer_1.steps[0][1].__class__
>>> class_2 = mean_transformer_2.steps[0][1].__class__
>>> class_1 == class_2
True
Now, besides ugly and verbose, this can be quite lengthy if you have a bigger pipeline. With all honesty, hardly ever do pipelines this small go to production in real life.
CAVEAT: for the sake of attention span, I kept the comparison of classes only. However, the arguments passed such as 'mean' should also be compared if you really want to get to the bottom of comparison.
And as Raymond’s famous quote states: there has to be a better way! And there is.
Let’s make a class to compare those:
>>> class SmartCompare:
... def __init__(self, pipeline):
... self.pipeline = pipeline
...
... def __eq__(self, other):
... return [m1.__class__ for m1 in self.pipeline]==[m2.__class__ for m2 in other.pipeline]
...
>>> mean_transformer_1_c = SmartCompare(mean_transformer_1)
>>> mean_transformer_2_c = SmartCompare(mean_transformer_2)
>>> mean_transformer_1_c==mean_transformer_2_c
True
Of course, this is not sooooo much better but it makes a point!
You could also inherit the Pipeline class instead of making it an attribute to your class. Or even use other methods for comparison.
In any case, dunder methods go beyond regular comparison methods and make your code more readable and pleasant.
Thanks for you patience!!! Critique is welcome, feel free to drop a comment.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/dont-underestimate-these-python-dunder-methods-c7bc36a8c1c1
|
['Fernando Barbosa']
|
2020-11-12 19:16:22.331000+00:00
|
['Python', 'Data Science', 'Scikit Learn']
|
How I Pray
|
How I Pray
Even though I’m not sure I believe in god
I don’t believe in God with a capital G. And I’m not sure whether or not I believe in god, although I’m always looking. Even so, every morning when I wake up, I pray. I don’t get down on my knees and put my hands together like I did as a not-very-observant Catholic child. This is not a master/slave relationship I’m trying to foster, or queen/subject. It’s an invitation for grace to enter into my life, an announcement of my willingness to receive it.
Here’s how it goes. I lie in bed, look out the window, and think:
~Thank you for this breath, for this body, for this day.
~Please be with me today. Fill me with your grace. Help me to see you and feel you around me.
~And please grant me the gift of ‘right action,’ so I know the right thing to say and the right thing to do in every situation to bring about the best outcome for all.
Saying this prayer reminds me of things I want to remember — whether or not god exists. The words are homegrown. I came to them slowly, after years of reading spiritual texts and looking in many places for god. They work for me today. They may not work tomorrow, but that’s okay. In fact, that’s part of their beauty. They aren’t rigid doctrine which I might test and find wanting. They are flexible and changeable and endlessly improvable, like life.
Let’s walk it through.
Thank you for this breath.
No matter my current circumstance — no matter how unhappy I am, or disappointed in myself, or frustrated with others— I’m glad I woke up. I’m not ready to die yet. I want more time.
Thank you for this body.
As a woman, particularly, I’m used to disparaging my body, to wanting it to be different. It’s a constant state of mind. As my youngest son says, “You’re always on a diet, except when you’re eating.” :p ! And now that I’m older, I feel aches and pains, see wrinkles and age spots, find more areas of my body to disparage than ever before. So I want to remember how glad I am that my body works. I can still get out of bed, walk around, lift and carry things, go outside. That won’t always be the case. I’m grateful for my body, whatever shape it’s in — I’m grateful to have a warm and functioning place where my soul can reside.
Thank you for this day.
Like everyone else on the planet, sometimes I make mistakes, do or say things I regret, or simply fail to live up to my potential. But each new day is another chance to get it right — a do over. And I’m glad for that.
Please be with me today. Fill me with your grace. Help me to see you and feel you around me.
Thich Nhat Hanh inspired this sentence. Hanh is an expat Vietnamese Buddhist monk who believes in meditation but also acting in the world to address injustice, not just retiring to a monastery. My favorite book of his is Peace is Every Step.
One thing he talks about is the desire for wealth and status — how we Westerners, in particular, often want to travel, grow rich, accumulate goods, ‘succeed,’ and consequently we’re perpetually in a state of want, unfulfilled. Even worse, when we’re in that state of spiritual hunger, we’re blind to the beauty that exists all around us, such as the flight of birds, or the smile of a child.
In this section, I ask to notice the riches around me — to fully interact with the world I live in, which offers itself to me every day. Even things or people I might normally avoid may turn out to be graceful, if I pay attention.
Just recently, for example, I was using string to hang signs on trees in my local park (to avert the death by chainsaw planned by the Department of Public Works). It was raining, and I hadn’t thought my technique through, and the signs kept falling while I was getting wet and upset. Many people walked by, but they were in a hurry. Then a homeless man stopped and offered to help.
As we moved from tree to tree in the rain, successfully hanging the signs together, I noticed the dirt under his fingernails; his greasy, unkept hair; and the large pile of goods under a bit of tarp which he had left by the first tree in order to help me. I also noticed how pleasing our interaction was. Working silently together under the shelter of the trees, the rain became lovely, its sound and scent soothing. That small human connection was a balm between us, a small exchange of grace that nourished me for the rest of the day.
|
https://medium.com/fourth-wave/how-i-pray-e8299207944a
|
['Patsy Fergusson']
|
2019-06-06 05:43:54.562000+00:00
|
['Mindfulness', 'Spirituality', 'Prayer', 'Health', 'God']
|
The Cowboy Continues His Ghost Story
|
The Cowboy Continues His Ghost Story
Chapter 25
Image by fabiopiccini
The Weather-Beaten Man in a Cowboy Hat spit tobacco juice into his cup. Even though he was the official barista, I went behind the counter to get a new cup of coffee for him, just to keep his tongue loose, and one of those dinner-plate-sized cookies for the Therapist Emeritus, just to keep her mouth shut. You don’t want someone interrupting a good storyteller with too many questions when he’s in the zone, even when you’re not supposed to be listening.
“Thank you, rightly, Sir,” he said to me. A moment later he had us back in the bready kitchen of Art and Edith Gates, somewhere where the second knuckle of the frostbitten middle finger would be on the mittened hand of Michigan.
“They say — years ago — the two brothers — were out — huntin’ deer.”
“Poachin’ deer,” said Edith from the refrigerator, pullin’ out the butter.
“Well, a fellow’s got to eat.” I was gettin’ hungry again even though I’d just finished lunch.
“The State’s — got no right — tellin’ a man — he can’t shoot deer — when they’ve been eatin’ — his crops all year.”
I asked, “What did Conklin do, shoot his brother?”
“His brother — shot a deer — but only — drew blood — so they had — to track it.”
Edith added, “Don’t forget it started snowin’ to beat the band. It was snowin’ so hard the younger brother gave up and headed for home.”
“Wouldn’t the snow would make the deer easier to track?” Blood on snow is easy to spot. I know these things.
“No, it was snowin’ too hard for that. This was a blizzard, you see. That older brother was just too bullheaded to quit. Just like Father, smokin’ away for years while I kept tellin’ him to quit, till finally he gets emphysema. Now he goes chasin’ runaway cows when he can hardly breath.”
“He had to have his deer, huh?”
“Oh — we don’t know — all we know is — what Conklin said — after it — was all done.”
“And be prepared to hear a lie,” said Edith.
There was a piece of linoleum tile loose under my foot. I moved it around to put in back in place. I like to leave things like I found ‘em.
“The younger brother was just a kid, really. A young fool who thought he knew better than his elders. They’d just inherited their father’s farm and were always arguin’ about how to run it. We think the younger brother just wanted things his own way and thought of a way to put an end to it.”
“You think that way — I don’t,” Art said.
“So, he saw his chance to get rid of his brother,” I said. I didn’t want the ol’ couple to get diverted on some ol’ argument. I wanted to hear the story. “That’s pretty extreme, but if he really felt strongly and thought he could get away with it, he might.”
Edith chided me, “No God-fearin’ person would even think of such a thing.”
I was afraid I wouldn’t get any bread.
But Art saved me. “You thought of it,” he said to her. Then he turned to me. “She’s all mixed up — she never thinks — long enough — to know what she’s sayin’ — she just says — whatever hits her — She’s just like — Conklin — He wouldn’t have — gotten in trouble — if he ever thought — about what — he was doin’.”
“It sounds like he had a lot of sense to me. He went home, instead of runnin’ after a deer in the middle of a blizzard.”
“It was a blizzard, all right,” Now I felt she approved of me. “It was the biggest blizzard here in a hundred years. The snow just about buried the cabin the brothers lived in. It came down fast, like out of a big dump truck. The young Conklin went home and piled wood on the fire. It got dark, with the snow in the air and all. The drifts covered the windows till it was just as dark as night. He kept pilin’ that wood on the fire, but it was so cold it didn’t make much difference.”
In my first year up in Michigan I was just beginnin’ to fix up my place. I hadn’t put sidin’ up yet. You could throw a cat through the walls sideways. I’d wake up in the mornin’ with a pile of snow in the kitchen and the water frozen. The air would be so cold it would reach right in and sting you in the lungs. On days like that you could spend all day just survivin’, like Art strainin’ for his next breath. All you can do was find some place warm and sit and wait for it to get better. It’s not so bad when you have someone to stay warm with, but women get tired of that kind of livin’ pretty fast. Then you’re by yourself and there’s nothin’ you can do. All you can do is sit and think.
“Did I say the wind was blowin’? It was a regular blizzard. The wind got caught in the trees around the cabin and made an unholy racket with howlin’ and such.”
“That Conklin — he sat there — he started thinkin’ — the wind howlin’ — was a ghost.”
I didn’t doubt it. When a person starts to think, he’s likely to think anythin’.
“After a while, the older brother found his way back. The good Lord helped him find the cabin. He had to dig through the snow to get to the door, though. He knew his brother was in there from the smoke comin’ out the chimney, so he started callin’ his name to let him in.”
“That fool — Conklin — sittin’ there — listenin’ to ghosts — he thought his brother — was a ghost — callin’ his name — tryin’ to get in.”
“That’s what he told everyone, anyway. He got up and took a hammer and nails and nailed the door shut. He had to have a cold heart to sit there in the cabin by the fire all night and listen to his own brother right outside the door, cryin’ to be let in. He never lifted a finger to help, so filled with foolish pride. In the mornin’ he got up, pulled the nails out, and opened the door. His brother fell in, frozen like a ham you take out of the freezer.”
“What did he do then, cut him up and have him for supper? He wouldn’t need to be shootin’ deer out of season, then, would he?”
They didn’t think it was funny.
“He was tried — for murder — They said — not guilty.”
“That’s what they said. But the Lord has His own justice. Conklin never slept a night after that and no one decent would have anythin’ to do with him. So finally, he went away.”
To be fair to Conklin, I can easily imagine him lyin’ awake at night, hearin’ ghosts. He’d go to sleep just long enough to dream about openin’ a door and, when the frozen body hit the floor, he’d sit up wide awake, covered with sweat as cold as that blizzard.
They didn’t say anythin’ more. So, I asked, “Is that the end of it? Is that why the woods are cursed? Wait, who built the big house?”
“Conklin made — good money — while he was away — came back — with a wife.”
“So, he made out all right,” I said. “Sometimes it pays to keep it movin’ and not think too much about things.”
Edith hoisted herself up from the kitchen table. She armed herself with oven mitts and began to take out the bread.
“I don’t know — It seemed he — had somethin’ good — all that money — and a wife — He built a big house — But he was so — tied up — with the ghosts — in his head — he couldn’t see — the woman loved him.”
“You had to feel sorry for the wife. She thought the universe turned on that man. She hardly knew she had married a monster, just like I didn’t know I was marryin’ a stubborn fool. He kept on talkin’ about hearin’ things all the while they were buildin’ that house. It was built for her, you know. She came from the South, just like you, and he built it like that, so it would remind her of home. He started talkin’ about the ghost so much she started to hear it, too, so she left. I guess she knew she was better off without him. He went back in those woods Father likes to tramp around in when he can hardly breathe. He took a shotgun with him and blew his brains out. The poor girl never even came back up for the funeral.”
We took a look at the bread comin’ out of the oven. None of it had risen right.
I said, “Maybe the yeast was too old, or the flour was too heavy.” Edith drove us outta the kitchen.
Me and Art walked to the barn. The cows, thinkin’ they might get some ensilage, penned easily in an aisle. One at a time we twisted their tails till they entered the chute. Then I’d hit the hydraulics and the chute would squeeze the cow till she couldn’t move. It would rotate her till she lay on her side. Out of range of his ol’ lady, Art smoked while I picked shit from under their nails and trimmed them up.
Art’s son Jack came by and watched. Jack said to me, “I’m hopin’ you’ll be done by tonight. The trimmin’ is stressin’ the cows and their milk production dropped.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “I’ll work here till I’m done, even if it takes all night. I don’t have anythin’ better to do.”
“That’ll be good,” said Jack. “I saw you havin’ lunch in the old place. You didn’t need to do that, you could’ve come to the house. I’ve been meanin’ to tear it down ever since my parents died. “
“They ain’t still alive?… I’m sorry. I mean, sorry for your loss.”
“Yea, my mother surprised everyone by dyin’ before my father. He had emphysema for years and she was always fussin’ that he’d kill himself. They’re both dead now and I can’t figure out what to do with the old place. My wife would never live in there, herself. She’s got to have everythin’ new.”
I looked over and Art was in a fit, laughin’, and slappin’ his knee. You’d never think a man with emphysema could laugh so hard. You’d never think a dead man could laugh, neither.
As soon as Jack left, I packed up my rig and left Onion Hill. I didn’t care to trim any more hooves there, or anywhere, ever. I sold my business to a kid with more money than sense and took off. I wasn’t goin’ to spend one more night talkin’ with the old couple, smellin’ bread I’d never eat, tendin’ the fire as the wind played on my house, all by my lonesome. I set out to find a place where Art and Edith could never find me.
Teenagers from town must still hang out at the old Conklin place. The foundation would be strewn with beer bottles and used condoms. Around a fire circle, hidden in the lilacs, the kids would do well to peel away the layers of the legend of Onion Hill, and caution each other from snuggling too cozy with the notions of the head.
|
https://medium.com/who-killed-the-lisping-barista-of-the-epiphany/the-cowboy-continues-his-ghost-story-1bd7e5d1404f
|
['Keith R Wilson']
|
2020-11-17 11:43:08.705000+00:00
|
['Fiction', 'Ghost Story', 'Gothic Fiction', 'Novel']
|
The Perfect Software Requirements to Succeed in Your Project: Tutorial
|
Every CEO or person in charge of a software project needs a strong development team whom they can trust to deliver results. But no less important is having clearly written software requirements so that you can develop and manage your project in an effective way. Writing requirements takes time and effort, but if you have a good structure and a process in place, you won’t lose focus.
The benefits of functional requirements
Some of the benefits of well-formed requirements (“user scenarios and acceptance tests” or US&ATs) are that they are more understandable and clearly state the capability that the customer needs. Well defined requirements have a direct impact on your software development investment. Turning things around can seem like an overwhelming task if your project is already struggling due to the complications of poorly written requirements. The process takes time and effort, but if you have a good structure and a process in place, you won’t lose focus.
The good news is that there are tried and tested processes for communicating, developing and managing requirements. In the software development world, this is a core function of business analysts. Business analysts work with department managers and members of the business departments to:
Identify business needs.
Write and manage requirements in order to define the required capability of the business.
Prioritizing the work that needs to be done to best deliver value to the business.
Why everyone in the team needs to get involved
So, who should take part in the writing of software requirements and in which roles?
Developers are responsible for knowing what a well-formed requirement look and feel like. This is because the requirements are their primary source of direction on how to do their job and deliver results. Providing your client with a quality service means being honest with them and letting them know when they need to clarify what they are asking for. When you are passive and develop code based on poor requirements, you will inevitably be blamed for the poor results.
As a department manager or senior user, you need to make sure that you define your needs in a clear and consistent way. If you do not do this, you make it very difficult or impossible for the development team to deliver what you want and need. This, of course, means that the final product will not be able to help you work more efficiently and deliver better results than before. You also need to ask yourself what the consequences of this will be for you. What can you expect if you are unable to make the expected improvements or reach the goals set by your boss?
As CEOs and business owners, you need to remember that the buck stops with you if your team or supplier takes shortcuts. In order for developers to provide you with a digital solution, they need to understand what your business needs. If you do not ensure that sufficient time, resources, and budget are allocated to this step; what will be the consequences for you personally?
How to create your user scenarios and acceptance tests
To focus on what components to write US&AT’s for and in what order, we use the capability breakdown structure and the build road map.
You can put time aside to develop all of the US & ATs for the project before starting development, or you can use the concept of rolling wave planning. Rolling wave planning means that you will base your high-level requirements on the capability breakdown structure. Once that is done you will spread out the development of US & AT detailed requirements during the project. This enables you to improve US & ATs for components developed during the later stages of the project, by using the knowledge you gained in the early stages. This system also has the benefit of allowing the development team to start development as soon as they have sufficient information to deliver individual components of the solution.
Defining US & ATs in the same order of the Build Road Map enables you to learn and identify issues that you would not normally think about. This generally results in a much better solution from a business’s perspective.
Create a capability breakdown structure
Every software project starts off as an idea. The mistake many people make is to jump from the idea stage to the development stage before they have given sufficient thought to what the business really needs.
Here are a couple of useful tips for you to follow at this point:
Focus your discussions on the end capability that you need in order to achieve your objectives.
Avoid the temptation of discussing features and functions. They will deliver the capability that you need.
Break down areas of the capability to smaller components that are unique and independent from each other. Some of the functional areas may be five or six levels deep before you have sufficient information to understand what the end result should look like.
User scenario and acceptance test patterns
User scenario pattern
"As a (role) I want/need (add ability you need) so that (describe what the benefit of this ability is)."
Example:
"As a customer, I want to log into my account so that I can see my order history."
Acceptance test examples
Option 1:
“As a (role) I will (specify the action/event) to confirm that (the ability you asked for) does the following (describe what you expect to happen).”
Example:
“As a customer, I will log into my account to confirm that correct login details give me the order history.”
Option 2:
“Given (one scenario and related conditions) when (specify the action/event) then (expected outcome).”
Example:
“As a customer, I will log into my account to confirm that incorrect login details do not give me the order history.”
Characteristics of well written US&AT
A well-formed US & AT has the following characteristics and patterns:
Understandable
Independent
Negotiable
Valuable
Can be estimated for effort
Small (preferably less than 5 days to develop)
Testable
Understandable
The structure of the US & AT pattern makes it easier for people to quickly understand what capability the client wants. It is therefore important that the US & AT describes the capabilities needed, rather than the functions or features. It is the responsibility of the technical team to decide the most appropriate functions or features needed to deliver the business capability.
Independent
Each US & AT should focus on independent features within the epic. However, all US & ATs within an epic are interdependent as they aim to build a final joint component. This facilitates change management as you can identify opportunities to make small adjustments.
Negotiable
This refers to how the developer creates the features or functions that deliver the required capability. The product owner decides what business capability is needed and the developer applies their technical knowledge to decide how best to deliver that capability.
Valuable
Each US & AT must deliver value for the business. You define this value in the third section of the User Scenario construct “As a (role) I want/need (add the ability you need) so that (describe what the benefit of this ability is).”
Can be estimated for effort
The development team must be able to read both the user scenario and the acceptance tests. From this, they should be able to give a rough estimate of the effort necessary to create the capability.
The US & AT is the primary unit for estimating the effort required and measuring progress on delivery of the project. It is simply not possible to manage project finances and resources effectively without well-formed US & ATs.
Small
Each US & AT should preferably take less than 5 days to develop. There are several advantages to breaking down your requirements into small understandable deliverables:
It is easier to make and manage changes.
It is easier for others to understand what you need.
You can test early and often to ensure that what is being built is what the business needs.
Progress can be monitored more accurately, which in turn improves financial and resource management.
Testable
The acceptance tests describe how you will validate that the software does what you need it to do. They have four very important functions:
They enable the development team to understand how you will use the required capability so they can test what they build.
They enable you to validate that you have the capability that you asked for.
They prevent scope creep.
They are the definition of “done” so that you can measure progress.
Getting great results from your business
Digitising is frequently the key to making your business more efficient and completing tedious tasks with a few clicks. Even businesses that are not digital in nature more often than not stand to gain from implementing digital solutions.
It is quite likely that there are aspects of your business that could be made more efficient if you had the right digital tools. These kinds of digital solutions can range from enabling your staff to work smarter and more efficiently, to expanding your market reach.
By investing in digitising your business you may stand to save both time and money, as well as increasing your revenue. If this is the case, should you not prioritise making it easy for the development teams to understand what you want? It is after all the best way to ensure that they deliver what you need quickly and efficiently.
|
https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-perfect-software-requirements-to-succeed-in-your-project-tutorial-276e36cac0f8
|
['Don Lowe']
|
2019-07-03 07:44:16.321000+00:00
|
['Management', 'Leadership', 'Software Development', 'Project Management', 'Software Requirements']
|
String Manipulations from a Web-Scraped Dataset (Part 2/5)
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Hard scrubbing required
In the last post I showed how I created a web-scraper that retrieves data from wine.com’s best rated wine list. The scraper produced a dataset with 23,822 rows of wine data that included: wine name, vintage year, origin, price, average ratings and total ratings. Refer here to see how I did this.
This post focuses on the data cleaning process of the results from the web-scraper. The data looks like this:
pandas dataframe constructed by the web-scraper
The cleaning process was probably the most challenging part of this project so I will go into details on the main quality issues I identified. Two of those issues had to do with columns that contained more than one set of relevant data, and the other was a variable that contained strings that weren’t actually a description of the variable in question.
Extracting relevant digits out of a string
I wanted to separate the year from the ‘product_name’, and create a separate ‘year’ column. Part of the challenge here is that some of the product names had some other digits to designate things like bottle sizes, so the digit extraction method would extract other values besides the year -which is what I wanted. I noticed that the non-year digits tended to be in parenthesis, so it was easy to just remove the parenthesis and its contents.
After that hurdle, it was pretty easy to extract the digits, and only yielded in about 800 false positive from what I could tell. After several other approaches, this was the one that resulted in the least amount of non-years being extracted. Overall, I identified about 800 entries that were probably not years (anything under 1000 because that would be really old wine!).
Here is the code that did all of this.
The next judgement calls will come during the analyze portion since some of the older years (like anything prior to 1950) are probably anniversary bottles or something else not indicated the actual vintage year. AS far as data cleaning goes though, this was good enough.
Separating two relevant strings in uneven lists
The second challenge came when I wanted to separate ‘origin’ into two variables: ‘appellation’ and world ‘region’. The ‘origin’ column had values that looked like uneven lists.
Some wine appears as Rutherford, Napa Valley, California or just Napa Valley, California. For the sake of consistency, I chose to drop the specific town like Rutherford and only keep what I thought of as ‘appellation’ and world ‘region’. ‘appellation’ was going to be specific enough for my purposes that I didn’t need to know exactly where the wine was produced.
To do this, I simply created a new dataframe with just the result of ‘origin’ column into two, and further cleaned the column that happened to have two values. Once I had this dataframe, I simply merged it with the main one and drop the ‘origin’ column.
Here is the code:
What this yielded was 128 unique appellations in 16 different world regions. Right there is when I began to learn about the different wine regions in the world: Argentina, Australia, Austria, California, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Oregon, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Washington, and Other U.S.
Removing rows that contain certain values
I wanted to get the varietals cleaned up because that data was going to be important in answering my questions. After reviewing the list of unique varietals, I noticed that there were non-varietals designations in that column. Things like ‘Port’ ‘Non-Vintage Sparkling Wine’ ‘Vintage Sparkling Wine’ don’t describe bonafide varietals to me.
Here is the simple code to eliminate the rows and create a new ‘df_varietals’ dataframe.
The amount of rows with non-varietals only represented a small sample of 514 rows so I felt it was OK to potentially leave them out of some of the analysis. However, since there were going to be only analyze were varietals weren’t going to be evaluated, it was just easier to create a new dataframe without the those entries that I would only use when looking at the varietal data.
Parting Thoughts
There were some other data cleanliness issue along the way like missing values or values stored as the wrong datatype. I converted those to make sure that all the dataframes were ready for manipulation in the assess and analyze portions of the project.
One of the values that I was unable to separate out was the winery name. Unfortunately the way wine.com constructed the product name was concatenating the name, winer, and year all together, making it really hard to distinguish wine name from winery name. Also this is unfortunate, it will not deter my analysis to answer the questions that I have, as long as the product names are unique.
I ended up storing all the dataframes in a SQLAlchemy database for easy retrieval later one. I was worried that if I just stored them in a .CSV, I might loose or add weird formatting in the process.
To read about some of my preliminary findings with this dataset, stay tuned for Part 3!
If you want to view the full codebase, you can view the GitHub repo here.
Thanks for reading and hope you found this article informative!
|
https://medium.com/@celine-broomhead/string-manipulations-from-a-web-scraped-dataset-part-2-5-7e9a9e7bddeb
|
['Cel Broomhead']
|
2020-12-18 07:46:08.915000+00:00
|
['Wine', 'Python', 'Data Cleaning', 'String', 'Pandas']
|
Boy Drama: do i like him or is he just my friend?
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Boy Drama: do i like him or is he just my friend?
Hey I’m Isabella and i’m 14, so basically there’s this boy i met like a month ago. his body:😍 but his face:🤮, he’s fun to be around and we have A LOT in common, we were literally born 10 days apart. He has a “dark” past i swear y’all i do too. His friends find him annoying and my friends do too (joking ofc).
Everybody thinks he’s gay lol his voice is literally in high pitch and he yells all the time.
Anyways, today we were hanging out in my friend’s house and i was with him literally the whole night, but two of my other friends were there too, and i’m sus that he thinks one of them is cute, i’m sure he doesn’t like her, but i’m sus he thinks she’s cute. We laughed and i know for a fact he had a good time with me, and I KINDA SORTA LOWKEY tried flirting with him although i don’t like him (i think lmao).
When he was making random videos with the instagram story filters with my friend i was like wtf no, come with me (i didn’t fucking say it). But like that was for a short period of time and i was right next to him. We made tiktoks, he knows EVERY tiktok dance, but he doesn’t like being filmed while dancing, but i convinced him and we made a few together.
I don’t know if i like him and i’m pretty sure he doesn’t like me either, but i’d rather be friends than anything else (i guess) because i’m young, I hope he likes me tho lol, BUT if he likes me i would date him in that case or i would kiss him if he wants to.
|
https://medium.com/@tinipando/hey-im-isabella-and-i-m-14-so-basically-there-s-this-boy-i-met-like-a-month-ago-94d6e9e94f4f
|
[]
|
2020-12-19 07:41:58.612000+00:00
|
['Teens', 'Relationships', 'Boys']
|
Lessons I learned about Agile Software Development
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I am so happy to see that more and more big companies, which used to have heavyweight processes regarding software engineering, are moving to more agile software engineering methodologies.
Right now in my job, I have to engineer a piece of software for a customer with a small team trying to be as agile as possible. Fortunately, the customer supports agile software engineering, but still, there we encountered some challenges.
In this article, I want to share my experience realizing that project and the lessons learned from doing that.
Sophisticated Software Engineering
I have a pretty specific idea of how sophisticated software engineering should look, which might differ from your point of view. Short version, I think software should be developed in small cycles where engineers show a DevOps mindset.
Feedback loops
It is all about feedback loops. Feedback loops on different abstraction layers.
Continuous Integration with automated tests gives feedback about whether new modifications on the codebase are working the existing code.
Cycles of development time frames in combination with demos for the customer give feedback about whether the requirements match or not.
Retrospectives give feedback about whether the process itself should be improved.
You apply the mantra Inspect and Adopt and the more cycles you have, the more you can actually and respond to change. I think this is what it means to be agile. You constantly pull yourself out of the comfort zone, or even better you can prevent yourself from even getting to the comfort zone.
DevOps
Yes I know, you are tired of buzzwords. Anyway, I have to mention it, because, in my opinion, it is a very important engineering mindset or culture.
In classic software engineering, software is developed by developers and operated by operators or admins. The problem with that is:
developers usually have no clue about operating software
operators usually don’t know anything about the implementation of it.
This makes debugging and releasing the software kind of heavyweight process, which is referred to as Gap between developer and operations.
This gap somehow prevents us from being agile because it enlarges the development cycles, which by the way is the reason why those “Big Bang” deployments are most likely used in classic software engineering.
So … you will probably find several definitions out there of what DevOps exactly is, but we will look at it as a mindset of engineers who control the whole software lifecycle from development to operation.
You build it, you run it!
Challenges
Knowing about how to do sophisticated software engineering, unfortunately, is not enough to also actually do it, there are different challenges you will face especially when working with a customer. I will discuss these in the following sections.
Divergence of software engineering practice
So in the company, I am working for, we know about how to engineer software in an agile way, as we are implementing the Kanban framework for our software engineering process.
Our customer uses Scrum which is also an agile software engineering framework but is slightly more strict and has more ceremonies than Kanban.
Even though there are some similarities in both the Kanban and Scrum framework which can be described as abstract agile principles, basically the principles of the agile manifesto, people tend to stick to specific details of the respective framework instead of following the agile principles behind them.
So the challenge for us here is to somehow synchronize the customer and our team regarding the software engineering process. Not only because of the different approaches and understanding of agile software engineering practices but also because we have different separate boards to visualize our work, this is a very challenging task.
The Gap between Dev and Ops
Even though we know that the gap between developer and operations is a bad thing, working with a customer you will most likely have to face this situation. The reason for that is, that customers will probably want to use their infrastructure while not being able to give you access to it you would need.
In our case the customer uses AWS and we have only restricted access, but they supported us with a such called Infrastructure Engineer who should help us with the tasks regarding the infrastructure.
The challenge here is communication. On the one hand, we have to communicate what we need for the software we are implementing to be operated. But on the other hand, he also has to communicate to us what exactly he is doing, because in the end “we build it, we run it” or “we build, we fix it if it fails”.
The more this knowledge gap is diverging, the more you will fall into old patterns of engineering software and the more rigid your process will be.
Underestimating tasks
Estimation is a hard topic. Some people out there completely rely on the estimation of tasks while mostly having some kind of deadline, while some people say completely refuse to give estimations and work with deadlines.
And here you have the problem. Most customers want you as engineers to give estimations and work with deadlines. But, this contradicts the agile software development approach where you show the progress of the project on a regular base.
To cut a long story short, you will most probably have to estimate and work with deadlines, as we had to, and I guarantee that you will underestimate and overestimate tasks.
Scope Creep
We refer to scope creep as changing of requirements or scopes. We all know (at least I hope so) that it is simply not possible to specify every single requirement of a software system upfront, which has different reasons.
The customer himself will not know them all up front, they will change and even then, information gets lost while communicating them to the engineers, just to name some problems.
Scope Creep will happen and it will happen in the most unpleasant situations, in the middle of a sprint or even some days before a deadline. It will make you feel upset but you will have to somehow deal with it.
Solutions
So, we had a quite tough job to overcome these challenges, but here is how we tried to tackle them.
It is very important to understand that finding solutions for the different challenges resulted in constantly reflecting on the work we are doing and being willing to adopt as well as being honest to ourselves.
Daily Standups
We started the project with two engineers on our side, so we didn’t need a daily synchronization on the current progress or occurring impediments as communication between us was very regular and lightweight.
As soon as we realized that there will be this gap between implementing and operating the software I mentioned before, we decided to do a daily standup to synchronize with the Infrastructure Engineer.
Ops Showcase
As the project proceeded we realized that, even though we synchronized daily with Infrastructure Engineer and also did pairing sessions with him, the gap began to get bigger and bigger.
To tackle that problem we decided to have such called ops showcases, where the Infrastructure Engineer introduces us in the work he did to operate the software we implemented.
Task Grooming
As already mentioned, task estimation is a tricky topic and we found ourselves giving wrong estimates on tasks or even forgetting to specify every single detail about a task while creating tickets on our board.
Therefore we started to do a weekly technical Task Grooming where we went through all tickets and checked for the right description and tried to estimate them right before Sprint Planning. This way we tried to compensate wrong specification and estimation as well as making our work more precise and predictable.
Note: A precondition for this is that the backlog is prioritized by the Product Owner
Sprint Planning
While engineering a piece of software in a customer project, the customer will most likely want to see the current progress of the project and have a certain degree of predictability of how the progress will in the near future.
In the Sprint Planning session, which takes place at the beginning of each sprint we create transparency about all the tickets on our board(especially the ones in the backlog) and let the customer decide which tickets should be worked on in the upcoming sprint. At the same or directly afterward we, as the team implementing the software, decided how much of the chosen tickets we can achieve.
This way has little to no surprise regarding the outcome, the progression of the work we are going to achieve, as we all come to a commitment about the work we think can be achieved in every sprint.
By the way, do you remember what I told you about the connection of feedback loops and the ability to engineer software in an agile way? Well having sprints(with Sprint Planings and Demos) also allows the customer to be agile as he can also inspect and adapt based on the results of every sprint.
Retrospective
Doing Retrospectives on a regular bases is probably the most important ceremony we have in agile software engineering. We want to get feedback about how the team feels and performs, as well as figuring out how we can improve.
The Retrospective usually takes place at the end of each sprint. There are different ways how to do a Retrospective but basically, you want the team to reflect and them to think about ways to optimize their work.
In our Retrospective, we first catch the general feeling about the last sprint of every team member by letting them choose one of the following smileys to express their feelings: :), :/, :(. This way we can get a very basic first impression.
After that, we show data like how many tickets were done and the divergence of the estimated and real effort for every done ticket. Doing that allowed us to get a feeling about the quality of our estimations.
The last part of the retrospective is probably the most important and valuable. Each member notes his/her lessons learned as well as things the team should start, stop, or continue doing. Now we try to extract Action Items out of those notes and assign a team member to it, which is then responsible for the progress of that respective item. On each Retrospective, we also check which of the Action Items of the last Retrospective were achieved to decide if they are still important for the team or can be neglected.
Note: The last part is not a complaining session. Instead of just complaining, try to formulate your complaint positive, as something the team should start doing. This way you avoid team members being offended.
Lessons Learned
This project was an awesome opportunity to move from a DevOps mindset to a NoOps mindset and to play around with serverless technologies. But don’t get me wrong this was a serious project for a big customer which is now used in production.
In my opinion, we not only learned a lot about serverless technology and AWS but also we got a lot of knowledge of how to do agile software engineering in a better way. Let’s summarize the most important things:
|
https://medium.com/the-innovation/agile-software-development-on-a-customer-project-experience-report-e1059505e2ce
|
['Noah Ispas']
|
2020-08-26 17:04:50.166000+00:00
|
['AWS Lambda', 'Scrum', 'Agile', 'Serverless', 'AWS']
|
Murlidhar expired
|
Murlidhar expired
The role of death in life
Photo by Benjamin Catapane on Unsplash
On one of our trips to visit family in India we inquired about the corner shopkeeper Murlidhar from whom we would buy snacks on each trip. My father in law stated matter of factly and in a tone of finality — “Murlidhar expired”. We knew what he meant but our young children had never heard this expression before and on finding out that Murlidhar had died, they broke out in laughter. They said repeatedly “expired ? — like a library card”?
Do humans expire like a carton of milk or canned food? The word expire indicates that it is past its useful life. But that is not what occurs when human life ends. Certainly many reach the end of their useful life but for many it is not yet the expiration date. I recently read a book called “Death and Philosophy” by Jeff Malpas and Robert Solomon and I recalled this event that required us explaining to our children the meaning of a person expiring. Chapter 9 in the book contends humans are called mortals because we can die. Mortality means being capable of death. Animals simply perish or expire. Animals do not have a story to be told and do not have the idea of life, of a past or of a future.
Death that gives meaning and significance to life for mortals. Life in the absence of death would be devoid of interest. To have a life is to be capable of death. “Having a life” is distinct from merely living. Having a lfe is to have an idea of one’s own life and a sense of self awareness and self conception.
‘To have a life is also, we might say, to be involved in telling and retelling the story of that life’ (1)
The role of the narrative is to provide a unity and structure to a life. When humans interact whether in person or virtually on social media they are telling and retelling stories about their lives or someone else’s life. We talk about what we did this morning or yesterday or during our youth or recall that visit to a restaurant in Madrid or Mumbai. We are reliving our life. In writing these blogs on Medium, I am attempting to both understand life in general and my life in particular by telling stories. Some are personal and nostalgic and others are my observations on human nature.
I find it fascinating to rake the leaves of memory and uncover long lost impressions, images and feelings. Sometimes this takes no effort as a sudden memory just surfaces without warning and at other times it is more of a struggle to recall with any detail. But the experience of writing down as a general interest story is challenging and satisfying.
As I get closer to the end of my life I try to understand the story of my life and to attempt to narrate it to myself and to write it for posterity. I do not know if anyone will read it or not but for me it is crucial to tell it and retell it. Most of it is mundane stuff and recounts events and often feelings and judgements and biases. But it helps me own my life and to “have a life”.
(1) “Death and the unity of a life” Jeff Malpas, Chapter 9 of Death and Philosophy edited by Jeff Malpas and Robert C. Soomon
|
https://medium.com/afwp/murlidhar-expired-732453ed0a31
|
['Ron Advani']
|
2020-06-29 15:31:01.122000+00:00
|
['Mortality', 'Death And Dying', 'Philosophy Of Mind', 'Life Lessons', 'Memories']
|
What’s the Scoop on “Brick and Mortar E-commerce?”
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PX Mart has opened its 1000th store on the island, meaning that 80% of Taiwanese families can get to a PX Mart within 10 minutes by car.
While other retail channel sales around the world are slipping, how did the Taiwanese supermarket stood strong?
By Yichih Wang
中英切換
The most anticipated event of the first half of the year in the Taiwanese retail industry was surely the opening of venerable supermarket leader PX Mart’s one-thousandth store.
The significance behind PX Mart’s push beyond the 1000-store mark is that now 80 percent of Taiwanese families can get to a PX Mart within 10 minutes by car. With this, expedience and penetration combine to make a true “convenience store.”
Looking at figures from the Ministry of Economic Affairs Department of Statistics from 2000 and 2018, only the supermarket sector recorded significant gains in growth, from 0.3 to 5.9 percent, in contrast to the steep declines of big box stores, convenience store chains, and department stores.
Although e-commerce has taken off over the past eight years, the growth rate for supermarkets has exceeded that off all other brick and mortar retail channels. Further, its sales volume as a proportion of the overall retail industry continues to climb, outstripping that of the US and Japan, making PX Mart its biggest “accelerator.”
For more stories of Taiwan and the greater China region, visit our website or subscribe to our newsletter.
PX Mart has opened an average of 56 new stores per year over the past five years. It took the chain 16 years to grow from 200 stores to 1000 stores. Although it took nine years longer than 7-Eleven to reach that mark, it also boosted sales volume from NT$20 billion to over $100 billion over that 16-year period.
“It took 7-Eleven over 30 years to break the 1000-store threshold,” marvels Chief Operating Officer Hsieh Chien-nan, who joined PX Mart in 2016 after spending the better part of his life working for 7-Eleven.
“To be accurate, supermarket growth has relied on PX Mart alone, Lin Yuan-ching, who heads the retail and distribution division at the Commerce Development Research Institute, states flatly. In contrast to other channels, recording under five percent growth, last year PX Mart achieved nearly 10 percent growth.
Lin Yuan-ching offers, “Seizing consumers’ growing desire to go home to eat at the dinner table, PX Mart offers simple ingredients for cooking at home.”
PX Mart is attentively addressing the demand for “eating at home plus easy preparation.”
Upon entering any PX Mart an entire wall of ingredients for hot pot bases captures one’s attention, with anything you could want. In a few months, PX Mart will completely reconfigure this section, replacing it with assorted prepared curry and sauce flavor packets.
Broths Hot Sellers, Fresh Produce Leads the Way
It would be a mistake to overlook the power of this wall in light of sales growth of 26 times for the hot pot broth and fixings section alone over the past four years, raking in nearly NT$200 million last year. The curry seasoning packets are also a potent revenue generator, recording 15 percent growth in sales last year over 2017.
Apart from the hot merchandise sales, it has also moved the needle on peripheral ingredient sales, giving the entire PX Mart chain a strong sales boost.
It might seem as if PX Mart has found new life through its flavor packets and hot pot broth bases. However, the stage had been set for its comeback even earlier.
Before 2008, PX Mart merely sold drygoods cheaper than the others, at a wider scale than key competitor Wellcome. However, company chairman Lin Min-hsiung perceived that just relying on selling drygoods, like toilet paper and laundry detergent, would not be enough to get customers in the door every day.
This reminded him of what Shinya Arai, honorary chairman of the Japanese Supermarket Association, said on a visit to Taiwan: “Drygoods are susceptible to cut throat price competition; supermarkets that fail to incorporate fresh produce are bound to be eliminated from the market.”
Giant US-based box store Costco also started out just selling drygoods before gradually introducing produce and baked goods. They noticed that more and more customers were preparing meals at home, and that the demand for purchasing fresh produce had greatly increased. And as long as they came in, they might just end up purchasing an article of clothing.
“A supermarket isn’t a supermarket without fresh produce,” and Lin Min-hsiung’s mind was set on introducing fresh produce to his chain. Little did he anticipate that as soon as he came up with his strategy for selling fresh produce he would be instantly met with resistance from corporate executives.
Their reasoning was practical: high technical barriers to handling fresh produce, high spoilage rate, and especially the general impression among residents of central and southern Taiwan that supermarket produce is expensive, preferring to shop at traditional markets.
Going alone against the tide, Lin Min-hsiung acquired Japanese direct marketing apparel company Summit and purchased the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing and Distribution Supermarket in succession, while investing heavily to establish fresh produce processing facilities in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Saying “This is the toughest part — you do it,” he assigned his son, Lin Hung-pin, to oversee produce processing operations.
Over the past decade, fresh produce has accounted for 20 percent of PX Mart’s total sales volume, yet continues to lose the chain money. “We can’t give up on fresh produce. That’s our trailblazer,” insists Lin.
PX Mart established a marketing department in 2014 expressly to boost fresh produce, which was seen as a growth engine. Upon leading the marketing team to analyze the competitive environment, vice president Liu Hung-cheng was surprised to discover that IKEA was treating the prepared food industry as a competitor, not fellow members of the furniture business.
IKEA’s thinking was that prepared food in Taiwan is too convenient and cheap, and that the sort of clientele that eat out for three meals a day are not the kind of people that put much effort into home decorating. “IKEA judged that where customers choose to dine is an accurate indicator of how seriously they take their home life,” said an incredulous Liu Hung-cheng.
Read: IKEA Taiwan Posts Record High Food Share
Consumers’ Kitchen Away from Home
Going back to take another look, he found that the biggest competitor to PX Mart’s fresh produce business was not supermarket megastores; rather, like IKEA, it was the vast prepared foods industry and people’s busy lifestyles.
“If no one cooks, there’s no demand for buying fresh produce,” says Liu, who set out to “make cooking fun” for consumers.
PX Mart VP of Marketing, Liu Hung-cheng, is determined to make cooking fashionable. (Photo by Justin Wu)
First, they promoted “Wednesday Family Day,” exhorting “Dad to go home to make dinner.” At the same time, they developed numerous “delicious meal kits,” combining fresh produce and other ingredients, already cut and washed so that all one needs to do is pour them into a wok and stir fry them. PX Mart chief operating officer, Tsai Ti-chang, tried it out himself, taking just 70 seconds to make a kit meal — faster even than instant ramen noodles.
This approach came about because preparing ingredients is the most exhausting part of meal preparation. PX Mart positioned itself as consumers’ home away from home, lowing the barrier to cooking.
What they did not count on was that PX Mart customers failed to embrace these offerings, resulting in more spoilage than meal kits sold.
Looking closer into why, they learned that typical moms and aunties widely believed that the ingredients in meal kits were of poor quality. Plus, they cost more due to processing costs, lowering their interest in making purchases and causing meal kits to die on the vine.
But this single setback did not divert PX Mart from its mission, turning to Japan for wisdom and guidance.
Meal kits are not sold in Japanese supermarkets, which instead are stocked with condiment packets and prepared broths. “Young Japanese buy flavor packets first, then look at related recipes before buying the ingredients,” relates Liu Hung-cheng, who finally realized the biggest pain point of cooking is seasoning.
PX Mart’s Second Kitchen takes care of seasoning for customers. With flavor packets in hand, housewives need only purchase the fresh ingredients to whip up restaurant-caliber cuisine. With prepared broth bases, Taiwanese hot pot lovers not wanting to wait in line for restaurants no longer have to use plain boiled water to get their hot pots going.
Cooking meals should be fun, with deluxe cookware to complete the picture. Even if you are not much of a cook, it can still show off the master of the house’s taste. Starting in 2015, PX Mart ran a sticker collection campaign, under which the redeemable merchandise was all major international brand kitchenware homemakers prize, but hesitate to purchase on their own.
From Henckels knives, to WMF pots and pans and Jamie Oliver branded kitchenware, to pots and pans from Swiss Diamond, “the Rolls Royce of kitchenware,” the chain rolled out five campaigns over the last four years, raking in NT$6 billion in sales, with redemption volume exceeding each brand’s global annual sales, causing worldwide shortages. Although in consumers had to wait up to six months to receive their merchandise, they established the habit of cooking daily and shopping daily to earn and redeem points.
Brick and Mortar E-Commerce: In-App Purchase for In-Stock Pickup
With online and offline integration here to stay, Hsieh Chien-nan, widely revered as “the Godfather of Taiwanese logistics,” did not plan on engaging in e-commerce, but sought to offer e-service.
His “brick and mortar e-commerce” model, or operation of a real-life platform along e-commerce lines, broke the mold.
Hsieh Chien-nan sought to leverage the existing advantages of PX Mart’s network of 1000 retail locations with e-commerce to resolve the inconveniences and difficulties of parking, shopping, and queueing up to check out at physical stores.
(Photo by Justin Wu)
In his imagination, by setting up real-time inventory updates, suppliers will not lose any sales opportunities, while consumers can use a mobile app to check merchandise stock and make direct orders and payments.
Ideally, retail staff can gather and pack merchandise in advance for consumers and place it in a pick-up area in the store. For elderly customers unable to get around well, or moms too busy to get out, PX Mart is also weighing the pros and cons of offering delivery service.
PX Mart’s strategy is to serve consumers within a three-kilometer radius of each outlet. “Retailers that can offer customers merchandise and services close by will win the future,” remarks Hsieh.
“Fresh produce is the weakest area for e-commerce proprietors. When PX Mart, with its 1000 stores, becomes a shipping warehouse to distribute items to consumers unable to come to the store, or becomes a physical e-commerce merchant where consumers can make pick-ups, it will mark a major counterstrike by brick and mortar retail,” said one e-commerce company president sanguine about PX Mart’s next steps.
For more stories of Taiwan and the greater China region, visit our website or subscribe to our newsletter.
Chiu Kuang-lung, president of Simple Mart, the next largest competitor to PX Mart, proposes an interesting question: what happens if a consumer at home uses the app to order the last carton of milk, while a shopper in the store grabs it first and checks out before a store clerk can put it aside, while the online consumer gets ready to come in and pick up their order before the supplier has a chance to restock the merchandise?
“Brick and mortar inventory is limited, and another set must be set aside for the e-commerce side. So how can offline keep two sets of books? asks Chiu. As such issues are addressed, it is also necessary to come up with new profit models.
Liu Hung-cheng looks forward to the day when cooking at home becomes popular and PX Mart’s e-Service is not just a convenient channel for shopping for produce but becomes a recipe preview platform. This way, consumers can watch an online video before deciding whether to purchase fresh produce.
Not a cook himself, Liu Hung-cheng actually considered not even putting in a kitchen at home. But after shooting commercials last year about three different kinds of families that can save money with PX Mart, he finally had an epiphany about the real value of cooking at home. For a wok on the range brings the home warmth, and a kitchen makes a house a home.
Translated by David Toman
Edited by Sharon Tseng
|
https://medium.com/commonwealth-magazine/whats-the-scoop-on-brick-and-mortar-e-commerce-85e07ff2e6b4
|
['Commonwealth Magazine']
|
2019-03-27 03:48:30.240000+00:00
|
['E Commerce Business', 'Retail', 'Supermarkets', 'Brick And Mortar', 'Taiwan']
|
Christmas in Istanbul
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Christmas is the time for family and travel. Travel takes precedence, for an immigrant like me, as being with family was not an option in many of the years. With the pandemic not ready to be subdued yet, this year will be different as it has been for everyone. As I look forward to a Christmas at home and no travel, I naturally reminisced about my past Christmas travels. My trip to Istanbul in 2014 quickly leaped to the top of my memories.
It was a hastily arranged last-minute trip, after my trip home to India got cancelled. After landing at the Ataturk International airport on Christmas Eve around 8:30pm, I took the airport shuttle to Taksim. From there it was a short walk to my studio rental apartment near Galatasaray but took a while fighting through the sea of crowd on Istiklal street. By the time I settled down and showered, it was close to midnight. I went out and had a quick bite to eat at the nearby Solera winery. It was a lucky hit, Solera had excellent mezes and wines, and was buzzing with locals even late in the night.
On 25th, my host Ege, who lived next door, invited me for a home cooked breakfast and gave me some good tips on navigating the city as well as her Istanbulkart which was convenient to use on all the public transportation. There are a lot of good descriptions of all the tourist sites elsewhere, so I will skip them here. I have to say though, it doesn’t take long to be taken in by the majesty of the city and to imagine how awe inspiring the city would have felt 500 years ago for anyone coming into the city. When I went to Chora church, which is just outside the ancient city walls, I was astonished by how large the ancient city was as it takes a while to even get to the city walls.
Chora church is often missed by visitors because it is further away but is a must see in my opinion for its beautiful frescoes on the walls and ceilings. Another reason to take the trek is the Asitane restaurant. They serve some of the authentic (I was told) Ottoman cuisine that was served to the sultans. The food was very rich and delicious, probably better eaten shared with a group or after a rigorous three-hour workout. It reminded me somewhat of the Mughal cuisine found in Agra.
After two or three days, I was done with sightseeing and mostly settled down to enjoying the city. There are a couple of restaurants I frequented during my stay. One is Hayvore. The food in Hayvore was based on the cuisine from Black Sea and a little different from most places I ate in Istanbul. Some of my favorite dishes were white beans in red sauce, bulger rice pilaf, cabbage soup and fish. Even though simple, the dinners here were among the best I had in Istanbul. The environment is homey, and when I went back to the restaurant, not just the owners even some of the patrons recognized me. If I lived in Istanbul this would be one of my regular go to places.
The other go to place would be Canim Cigerim. They have the simplest menu, they only serve kebabs — liver, beef or chicken. Liver is their specialty, I liked both liver and beef. Kebabs come with a bunch of appetizers and you mix everything in a delicious wrap that you can eat every day without ever tiring. Their homemade baklava was a good way to wrap up the dinner. It was always busy here, but the owner was nice and always made sure I got a table quickly. It is also on a street with a lot of bars and clubs, so a good place to spend your Friday evening.
My favorite bar though was U2 Irish pub which is closer to Taksim. They have good beer, although a little more expensive than other places. The real draw was that they had football on Sundays, as it was for a few other American travelers on the Sunday night I was there. On a trip alone, it was nice to spend an evening drinking beer and watching football with fellow Americans.
I was a little nervous walking back home on Istiklal street from the bar feeling buzzed. I spent a lot of time on Istiklal street in this trip but also grew to hate it due to shady people constantly approaching with the sole intent to cheat when they see you alone. But I would not avoid the area as this is home to several good restaurants all on the small side streets. Outside of Istiklal street, people were incredibly nice and helpful. When I went to the Chora church, I took the public transportation without really knowing what I was doing. Everyone I stopped to get help was unbelievably patient, even when they did not know English, they tried to understand what I was asking for and with a mix of Turkish words and hand gestures found a way to help me. As a rule of thumb, it is safer if you are the one approaching someone for help in a foreign environment. If you rely on someone approaching you to offer help, they have a significant advantage over you in an environment that is familiar to them but not to you. People are always willing to help everywhere and you just have to ask on your own.
I almost missed the Asian part of Istanbul, but with some prodding from Ege, I went there towards the end of my trip and was glad I did it. I took the ferry to Kadikoy from Galatta bridge, where I picked up a balik ekmet — freshly grilled fish on a half loaf of bread. With lot more locals than tourists, the Asian side felt like real Istanbul. What I remember most was eating a lot of this sugary crunchy sweet that tasted like jalebis you get on the streets of Mumbai. It was fresh and not overwhelmingly sweet that I could eat a lot in a day without getting sick of it. Or maybe I just have a very sweet tooth. I did eat a dessert nearly every meal and between most meals in Istanbul. Kunefe was my favorite of all the desserts and it goes so well with the Turkish coffee, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.
On the last day, it started snowing and the weather turned abysmal, so I was bummed and planned to do nothing. Luckily, Ege asked me to join her and her friend for a movie and dinner which I readily accepted. Her friend could not join for the movie part, so Ege and I were off to see ‘Interstellar’. I had low expectations, but the movie surprised me by getting off to a good start. Occasionally, it felt like a Disneyland version of space travel, but the plot kept me intrigued. And then abruptly the movie was stopped for intermission, one of the quirks of watching a movie in Istanbul. In hindsight, it was a cue for us to leave and save our time. They left the screen dark for 10 minutes and played ads for another 15 minutes, but unfortunately, we did not take the cue and continued with the movie. Regret sat in quickly as Anne Hathaway rambled on about the scientific aspects of love and the signal emitted by love as the reliable signal to follow when deciding between two planets while in a far away galaxy with the fuel running out. Most people end up in ditches when they make stupid decisions like that but lucky for her she is in a movie and everything works out. Not so much for us as the movie dragged on for another hour and a half.
Her friend joined us after the movie, and we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. That was a really nice way to end the trip, with some good Chinese food and lovely conversations. It is the history that draws a lot of tourists here, but even beyond the impressive sights, Istanbul is among the pantheon of great cities that can be savored on its own.
|
https://medium.com/@pratheep_14616/christmas-in-istanbul-616427aef2db
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['Pratheep Madasamy']
|
2020-12-05 17:04:15.787000+00:00
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['Food', 'Christmas Travel', 'Travel', 'Istanbul', 'Turkey']
|
Is Steemit Worth My Time?
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Image Screenshot from Ordinary Reviews
I first created an account on Steemit back in September 2017 but didn’t post much until about 2 months ago because I was too busy working on other projects at the time so I couldn’t give Steem the attention that it deserved.
I look at my time on Steem now as a case study of sorts and have made sure to test out as many features as I could so I could report back with an unbiased viewpoint of whether or not it is actually worth your time.
The first point that I want to make is that Steemit is entirely free to sign up for and you never have to invest a dime of your own money into the platform if you choose not to. You have the option to invest in yourself on the platform but you don’t have to.
This is a great way to get started in crypto if you don’t have a lot of disposable income to invest. It will require consistent effort and a time commitment though if you plan on building out your profile.
What Is Steemit?
Steemit is a newish social media platform where you get paid to post content if you are successful in building a following and promoting yourself to get noticed by readers in your niche. There is a common misconception that “everyone” gets paid for posting but that isn’t always the case and its not guaranteed that you will get paid.
Steem was founded in 2016 by Ned Scott and Daniel Larimer, both with fairly extensive knowledge of business and remains in beta to this day.
The Concept of Steemit
Steemit is powered by blockchain tech and uses crypto (Steem) to reward users that upload written posts, images, memes, videos, live streams, etc. Others ways that users can get paid is through curation rewards. Users are half paid in Steem Power (SP- a vesting cryptocurrency) and the other half in Steem Dollars (SBD), that can be exchanged for fiat currency.
Getting Started and Building Out a Successful Profile
Image Screenshot from Crypto Mining Blog
I have built businesses before for myself and one thing that I would say is that building a Steemit profile should be viewed as building a business for yourself. If you choose to think about Steem as your own personal brand and business then you will be more likely to stick it out for the long haul honestly.
Learn about the payout and rewards system on Steem in order to maximize your time and effort to build the highest payouts for yourself.
Make friends with content creators that you feel are contributing valuable content to the blockchain by following, upvoting, and commenting on their posts consistently. Discord groups can be a great way to chat with friends and learn how to navigate Steemit. This was something that took a little bit of time for me to learn.
Contribute valuable content that is well thought out and doesn’t plagiarize any other content on the internet. The fastest ways to getting a bad reputation on Steemit are to post crap material, material that was written by someone else, or leaving garbage or hurtful comments.
Post consistently and content that is engaging and original will be key to gaining followers based upon my experience.
Overall, I have had a great experience on Steemit and have made many friends that I look forward to chatting with on Discord each day. I was recruited into Helpie pretty early on and I love that wonderful community. Other communities that you can look into are Minnow Project, PAL, and Promo-Mentors.
Have you used Steemit? I would love to hear what your experience has been like if you have! Follow me @socent if you have an account or create an account or send me a message on Discord @socent#3214.
Thanks for reading!
Ivy
|
https://medium.com/wespostdotcom/is-steemit-worth-my-time-2486f389f4ef
|
['Ivy Riane']
|
2018-05-31 02:33:20.632000+00:00
|
['Finance', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Investing', 'Sentiment']
|
Aesthetica | Dental Implant Clinic in Kolkata | Teeth Whitening in Kolkata
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The dental profession is one that has been in demand for many years. With so much to offer, including teeth whitening and veneers it’s easy enough knowing what options you want when considering getting your mouth fixed! If talking clearly matters most then there’s nothing stopping anyone from making sure their speech sounds crisp rather than nasal while discussing anything with friends over dinner or even just driving down the main street; however, if stained dentition isn’t something that matches up well either physically or aesthetically — the way someone looks. Dental health is of vital importance to everyone. There are many ways you can maintain your teeth and gums, but the best way for some people maybe not at all: gum disease or tooth decay can lead to serious medical problems like heart attacks and strokes which will leave their life in ruins if they don’t take them seriously from day one.
Aesthetica is a dental specialty clinic with an international perspective. With our focus on modern, specialized, and hygienic treatment we offer state-of-the-art care for people in Eastern India where there’s high demand for these internationally standardized services. We head by one of the best cosmetic surgeons who has delivered world-class results across many countries to prove his excellence not just locally but also globally!
Contact us at 91–9830183000 and email us at: [email protected]
|
https://medium.com/@aesthetica.dm2017/aesthetica-dental-implant-clinic-in-kolkata-teeth-whitening-in-kolkata-ec371c99dd21
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['Aesthetica Dm']
|
2021-12-31 18:06:40.675000+00:00
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['Dental Implants', 'Dentistry', 'Dentist']
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Building APIs: A Comparison Between Cursor and Offset Pagination
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Overview of Pagination
When you have an extensive database that needs to be sent to the user and you decide to send it in chunks rather than sending the entire database in one go, pagination comes into play. The concept of pagination is used by almost all the sites that are visited daily.
Before diving deep into pagination, you must know about the two different types of pagination.
Cursor-based pagination
The cursor is considered to be a key parameter in this type of pagination. The client receives a variable named Cursor along with the response. It is a pointer that points at a particular item that needs to be sent with a request. The server then uses the cursor to seek the other set of items. Cursor-based pagination is more complex and is preferred when dealing with a real-time data set.
Offset-based pagination
Offset-based pagination is a very famous technique wherein the client requests parameters with a specific limit (the number of results) and offset (the number of records that need to be skipped). Offset-based pagination is easy to use and is preferred for static data.
|
https://medium.com/better-programming/building-apis-a-comparison-between-cursor-and-offset-pagination-88261e3885f8
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[]
|
2020-12-11 16:15:40.345000+00:00
|
['API', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Programming', 'Python']
|
Postures in Worship
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Posturing is Natural!
More than likely, when you hear the words, “Let’s pray,” you instinctively will do at least one of the following:
Close your eyes Fold your hands Bow your head
What you may not have realized is that you have been doing liturgical postures all this time. Children from Christian homes are taught from a young age to close their eyes and fold their hands.
The posture of prayer reinforces the act of prayer. We close our eyes confessing that though we may not see our heavenly Father with our eyes, he is in every way real. We fold our hands to keep ourselves focused on communion with God. We bow our heads in reverence of the Lord. In other words, liturgical posturing as a concept is fairly natural and instinctive if we stop and think about it.
Chironomia: The Art of Posturing**
Ancient Greeks and Romans developed an entire artform of hand and arm gestures called Chironomia that early Christians appropriated in both their practice and artwork for prayer and worship. Each gesture communicated something. Other cultures from around the world have different gesticulations and postures that are a natural part of their communication, whether or not they are codified. Ancient Jewish liturgical posturing also deeply informed early church worship services.
A couple common examples from the early church are worth mentioning:
“The Blessed Matrona of Moscow” showing the Palm of the Righteous.
The Palm of the Righteous was a common hand gesture in the early church that was informed by 1 Timothy 2:8 and the calling of raising holy hands. One who was depicted with one hand raised with their palm facing outwards was known for their sincerity, honesty, and transparency in their faith.
Mary posturing with the orans.
The Orans was another common arm gesture that showed the person in prayer and/or worship raising both hands up with palms outward. The palms could be at chest or face level (which would entail bent elbows) or above their heads (which would entail straightened elbows). The upwardness of the arms represented lifting up one’s soul to God in prayer and worship, and the position of the palms represented open hands receiving grace.
Other common gestures included the hand on the chest, which depicted the heartfelt aspect of prayer and worship.
Posturing is for the Weary Faithful
Importantly, the postures and gestures of prayer and worship were not intended to be signs of the hyper-pious or effulgences of emotions. Rather, they were aids for the weary faithful, like you and me. They were postures of liturgical dependance and a call for help from the Lord. We raise our hands even when our heart and head aren’t in the right place during worship. It is saying, “Father, meet me even when all I can do today is lift up my hands.” They were created by brothers and sisters in the faith of old to help our heads and hearts follow our hands.
Posturing is… Reformed*
Some within and without the Reformed tradition unfortunately have a preconceived notion that Reformed worship and prayer has always been intended to be posture-less. But this is only partly right. The Reformed wing of the Protestant Reformation was responding specifically to the ostentatious and superstitious religious practices of the medieval church of their day. In many cases, the early Reformers employed rhetoric that should not be seen as universally applicable (though some of the later Puritans took it that way).
Surprising to many today, John Calvin was actually a proponent of liturgical posturing and gesturing. As he remarks in his Institutes:
The bodily gestures usually observed in prayer, such as kneeling and uncovering of the head (Calv. in Acts 20:36), are exercises by which we attempt to rise to higher veneration of God. (3.20.33)
Later, Calvin also explains that the Regulative Principle of Worship (a hallmark of Reformed worship practice) does not do away with liturgical posturing, but rather gives credence to it:
Let us take, for example, the bending of the knee which is made in public prayer. It is asked, whether this is a human tradition, which any one is at liberty to repudiate or neglect? I say, that it is human, and that at the same time it is divine. It is of God, inasmuch as it is a part of that decency, the care and observance of which is recommended by the apostle; and it is of men, inasmuch as it specially determines what was indicated in general, rather than expounded. (4.10.30)
Calvin is even more pointed in his commentary on Acts 20:36, where he speaks of liturgical posturing and gestures as aids for worship and prayer:
The inward affection is indeed the chiefest thing in prayer; yet the external signs, as kneeling, uncovering of the head, lifting up of the hands, have a double use; the first is, that we exercise all our members to the glory and worship of God; secondly, that by this exercise our sluggishness may be awakened, as it were. There is also a third use in solemn and public prayer, because the children of God do by this means make profession of their godliness, and one of them doth provoke another unto the reverence of God. And, as the lifting up of the hands is a token of boldness 451 and of an earnest desire, so, to testify our humility, we fall down upon our knees.
Simply put, Calvin not only found godly use for liturgical posturing, but his understanding of the Regulative Principle of Worship assumes posturing is already happening.
Putting Postures into Practice
If you haven’t noticed already, this article has indirectly gone through many of the common resistances to the idea of liturgical posturing.
We’ve seen that no matter what, we instinctively understand and do posturing in worship and prayer. In fact, putting your hands in your pockets is a liturgical posture as well! We’ve seen that posturing is not a recent novelty from charismatic Christian traditions nor just a rote ancient vestige. Gesturing was informed by both Jewish and Gentile practices and was well thought. We’ve seen that posturing isn’t for the super-spiritual but for everyday, ordinary Christians like you and me who are weak and weary. We’ve seen that, for those of us in Reformed churches, posturing is, well, Reformed! We can’t use “But Reformed…” as a viable reason against posturing.
So, if you’re convinced of liturgical posturing and how it may be a helpful aid for the weary pilgrim in Christ, try putting it into practice in your household (whether that’s just you or many family members). Especially now that many churches around the nation are holding church services exclusively or mainly through livestream due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a really great time to try out these practices from the safety of your own home. But then again, it’s only as awkward or weird as you make it out to be!
Give one or some of the above-listed postures and gestures in your personal devotions or during corporate worship and see how it affects you.
|
https://medium.com/@timothyisaiahcho/postures-in-worship-1b13427a5519
|
['Timothy Isaiah Cho']
|
2020-12-07 00:32:03.728000+00:00
|
['Worship', 'Christian', 'Church', 'Christianity']
|
10 Best Beaches on the Hawaiian Islands
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The best shores in Hawaii to do everything from snorkeling, picnicking and swimming, to getting a thrill, watching big waves surfers and eavesdropping.
While you can’t really go wrong on the shores of any Hawaiian island, there are a handful of beaches that stand out for a variety of reasons. We’ve made sure to include everything from beaches of various colors, and shores that melt into waters filled with a rainbow of sea life, to pristine stretches of sand ideal for a lazy day, and coves that require some serious trekking to get to.
As you can imagine, research for this list was just grueling ;-) But we pulled through to help you prevent the often-paralyzing experience of trying to figure out what Hawaiian beach to explore.
Two of these beaches aren’t great choices for kids, or those with special health circumstances — it won’t be hard to figure out which ones. But if you’re up for a challenge that reaps astonishing rewards, procure childcare for the little ones and indulge in a thrilling date with your partner, or a fellow adventurous adult.
If your favorite Hawaiian beach isn’t on this list, please tell us about it in the comments below.
Related Articles
Best Beach for a Snorkel: Tunnels Beach, Kauai
A nirvana for snorkeling and scuba diving, Kauai’s Tunnels Beach features a coral reef so expansive and vibrant it can be seen from space. Think on that for a minute. For those with an oxygen tank strapped to their back, or an impressive lung capacity, a series of underwater tunnels, created by lava tubes thousands of years ago, can be enjoyed. However, the tunnels are best toured with a guide, especially if it’s your first time.
When the warm, crystal waters have crinkled your skin, the blonde crescent-shaped beach is the perfect setting for a nap, picnic or that quintessential long walk.
For fans of nature photography, you don’t have to worry about buildings photo bombing your shots, as Tunnels Beach is lined by palms and ironwood trees and a few well placed peaks. Speaking of photos, sunset at this spot offers seriously stunning photos ops.
How to Get There
If you’re heading east on Highway 560 from Hanalei towards Ha’ena, you’ll find Tunnels Beach adjacent to mile marker 8. To access the beach and street parking, turn on the narrow road that’s 0.4 miles past mile marker 8, or the one that’s 0.6 miles past. Don’t park on the highway, as you’ll likely get ticketed. And, avoid the hassle of not scoring a parking spot by going earlier in the day.
Best Beach for a Swim: Lanikai Beach, Oahu
The fact that Lanikai means “heavenly ocean” is appropriate, as this beach offers some of the clearest, most tranquil water on Oahu, making it ideal for not only swimming but non-wave water sports like stand-up paddle boarding, kayaking and cat napping on floaties.
You’ve probably seen this beach in various print ads or commercials, as it’s a hotspot for those trying to enhance the product they’re selling with the natural splendor of this oasis. Adding to the appeal are two islands, or “mokes,” jutting out of the sea not far from shore -so don’t forget your camera. And if you’re looking for the ultimate place to propose, or treat your partner to a swoon-worthy date, post up on this beach during a full moon — it’s a big wow.
Tip: Lanikai Beach is PACKED on the weekends, especially during holidays, so plan to enjoy it on a weekday, during sunrise, or after the sun sets and the moon makes it ascent.
How to Get There
If you’re staying near Kailua, getting to Lanikai Beach via ride-share is the most convenient option, as you won’t have to deal with parking. If you’re driving yourself, know that parking is strictly enforced in this area, so be hyper vigilant about reading signs. All access is through footpaths between homes off Mokulua Drive, primarily between Kaelepulu and Onekea. Your best bet is to search for parking on the streets perpendicular to Mokulua.
Best “Beach” for a Thrill: Queens Bath, Kauai
(Not suitable for kids)
Probably one of the most famous tide pools in the world, Queens Bath is a swimming pool-sized sinkhole in lava rock, filled with the aquamarine waters of the Pacific. It was created after a lava tube collapsed, and is named after the folklore that Hawaiian royalty bathed here.
While it’s not safe to swim in the water surrounding Queens Bath, it’s fun to creature-watch, as sea turtle and schools of bright fish use this patch of ocean as an aquatic playground.
Thrill-Seekers Beware: When the surf is big, waves can crash into this tide pool, or even on to the trail leading to the bath. While this type of surf is what allows the pool to have water, it also creates dangerous conditions. So, check the surf report for the Queens Bath area to ensure the surf is 4 feet or less. It’s best to not even bother a hike and swim here between October and May, when the surf is typically large. All you have to do it search Queens Bath on YouTube to see how treacherous it can be.
Before you get in the “bath,” observe the ocean to ensure the surf report was correct. Surf can be unpredictable, so trust your eyes and instincts more than anything. However, if the surf report predicted waves over 4 feet, but all looks tranquil, you should still skip it, as the larger waves could show up at any time.
How to Get There
First off, GPS to Kapiolani Loop and park in a small lot at the end of the loop, right before it turns into Punahele Road. Next, follow the trail for about ten minutes until you reach lava rock that disappears into the ocean. Finally, turn left and (carefully!) walk along the rocks for five-ish minutes until you reach Queens Bath. This trail can be muddy and slippery, so it’s essential to bring good walking shoes and a hiking stick/pole.
Best Beach for an Adventure: Honopu Beach, Kauai
(Not suitable for kids)
This is one of the only beaches in Hawaii that’s almost guaranteed to not have a crowd… and not because it’s subpar — this Jurassic-esque fantasyland can only be accessed by a swim from a neighboring beach, or an offshore boat. But if you’re a strong swimmer, and determined to investigate one of the most remote shores on Kauai’s Na Pali Coast, you’re in for a well-earned treat.
When you reach this cove, flanked by two 1,200-foot sea cliffs, the environment is so prehistoric you half expect a triceratops to lumber out of the jungle (even though dinosaurs never actually lived on these islands.)
For intrepid travelers willing to make the aquatic trek from nearby Kalalau Beach, or that aforementioned offshore boat, wear a mask, snorkel and fins, be sure you can get in and out during low tide and check the surf report to ensure you won’t be swimming in an angry sea.
How to Get There
We feel it’s worth the money to charter a boat to take you as close as possible to Honopu Beach. An added perk of this option is that the boat captain will likely have in-depth knowledge of the currents and tide schedule, helping to ensure your swim is as safe as possible. Check out Na Pali Riders for boat tours.
If you’re an avid hiker and camper, contact Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park to inquire about hiking and camping permits for the 11-mile trail you’ll need to traverse to reach Kalalau Beach. This trail is for highly skilled backpackers only. If you’ll be swimming from Kalalau Beach, walk to the Southwestern-most edge of the beach, then start swimming Southwest, along the shore. For a hiking guide, reach out to Hike Kauai With Me.
Best Beach to Watch Big Wave Surfing (in the Winter): Sunset Beach Park, Oahu
Located on the legendary North Shore, this iconic two-mile beach likely matches the vision that materializes when you fantasize about sipping a cocktail on Hawaiian sands. In the summer, when the waves are flat, this is one of the many dreamy ribbons of Hawaiian seaside optimal for swimming, snorkeling, sun worshipping and reading those gossip mags we hide between the pages of a National Geographic.
But in the winter (October — April), this beach comes alive, serving as one of the most popular sites to witness the best surfers in the world tackle the fury of the ocean. 15–30+ foot surf can be seen on many days during the winter, but because the biggest waves break quite a ways out, bring binoculars to catch the drama up close. Oh, and the sunsets. This place was named Sunset Beach for good reason.
P.S. You’ll rejoice when you find restrooms and showers across the street from the beach.
How to Get There
Sunset Beach is located outside Haleiwa Town past Waimea Bay. The address is 59–144 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleiwa 96712 if you’ll be GPS-ing. It’s about 45–60 minutes North of Honolulu.
While you can park on the Kamehameha Highway, which borders Sunset Beach, the easiest place to park is Sunset Beach Support Park (where you’ll find those restrooms and showers!)
Best Beach for People Watching: Kaanapali Beach, Maui
One of the most popular beaches on Maui, this three-mile stretch of sand is the ideal place to engage in incredibly amusing people watching and good-natured eavesdropping. But when you get tired of watching those strangers flirt, kids digging an epic booby trap, and that abnormally-tan, Speedo-clad muscle man doing lunges, you can walk along the powder-soft sand and check out the many resorts and eateries bordering the beach, or float in the turquoise sea that seems to be filled with diamonds when the light hits it just right. This beach is so spectacular it was once a retreat for Maui royalty.
If you need a break from the sun, check out Whalers Village, which is a shopping center that includes an acclaimed whaling museum and regular shows by local performers. For those that hang out till sunset, don’t miss Puu Kekaa, or Black Rock, the daily cliff diving ceremony off the beach’s northern cliffs. This reenactment of a acclaimed act by Maui’s King Kahehili, consists of a cliff diver lighting the torches along the bluff, then diving off Black Rock.
How to Get There
This beach is a 45-minute drive from Kahului airport, and accessed by taking Honoapiilani Highway (HI-30) to Ka’anapali Parkway. While there are a few public parking lots between Ka’anapali Parkway and the beach, you’re almost sure to get a spot at the Whaler’s Village parking area. Be sure to get your parking ticket validated by buying something at one of the shops.
Best Beach for a Picnic: Hapuna Beach State Park, Big Island
The $5 entry fee to this 68-acre state park is well worth it, as it provides access to the largest snow-white beach on the island, and water so clear it can be tricky to determine where the sand meets the surf. Because of the clear water, coupled with an abundance of sea life, this a prime setting for snorkeling.
When you’re ready for that picnic, you can enjoy your stash of goodies on one of the many beachside picnic tables, or rent beach chairs and an umbrella from the Three Frogs Café, which also offers burgers, tacos, smoothies, and shaved ice. In addition, this concession stand rents snorkeling gear and boogie boards.
If you’re hoping to post up for awhile, A-frame shelters can be rented. These structures provide a screened room, sleeping platforms and a picnic table. In addition, shelter-renters gain access to a central pavilion featuring a range stove, refrigerator and tables, and the Comfort Station with showers (no hot water) and bathrooms.
For those looking to amp up the adventure, take a walk on the nearby Ala Kahaki Trail, which leads you past remote beaches and anchialine ponds, depending on how far you go.
Tip: While there is always a lifeguard on duty, this beach is exposed to the open ocean and can have surf conditions ranging from mild to fierce — check with the lifeguard before diving in.
How to Get There
On the Northwest shore, you’ll drive up Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway (HI-19), then turn onto Hapuna Beach Road. Signs will lead you to Hapuna Beach State Park.
Best Beach for Photos: Poipu Beach Park, Kauai
Once named “America’s Best Beach” by the Travel Channel, this iconic shore is composed of two golden-hued, crescent bays offering a natural wading pool ideal for little ones, and smooth waves on the western side of the beach ideal for surfing and boogie boarding.
While there are a few nearby hotels and restaurants, few structures are visible from the beach, making it a prime locale for photos that capture the mellow vibes of this rural tropical environment. For truly breathtaking photos walk out to Nukumoi Point — which separates the two crescents — where napping monk seals are regularly spotted. And if you’re visiting between December and April, have your camera ready for humpback whale sightings.
Amenities include a lifeguard, bathrooms, showers, and picnic tables.
How to Get There
From Koloa, take Poipu Road south, then turn onto Hoowili Road. You can park at a lot at the intersection of Hoowili and Hoone Road.
Best Black Sand Beach: Honokalani Beach, Maui
(also called Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach)
This small, volcanic crescent-shaped beach, located on the edge of Wai’anapanapa State Park, was deemed sacred by the Hawaiian people and is the source of many legends. The primary appeal is the stunning display of black sand that was created by a lava flow that cooled, hardened, and then fractured into miniscule pieces by the pressure of the waves thousands of years ago. Adding to the remarkable visuals are the bright green naupaka shrubs and turquoise waters that border the dark sacred sand.
Swimming isn’t recommended at Honokalanai Beach, as powerful surf and sneaky currents are prevalent. So swap your fins for a good camera, and capture the majesty of this otherworldly microcosm.
When you’re ready to move on from the beach, consider hiking in the park’s 122-acres, which include lava caves, wind-twisted plant life, Hawaii’s largest known heiau (temple), stone arches, and blow holes.
If you’re interested in folklore, check out the park’s Wai’anapanapa Caves where a Hawaiian princess was said to have hid from her cruel husband who found, and killed, her in the cave because of the glint of a feather her maid used to fan her. Certain times of year, small red shrimp fill the pool in the cave, creating the effect of blood-filled-water.
Tip: Wear shoes on the beach as the black sand can get HOT on a warm day.
How to Get There
From Hana, travel about three miles north on Hana Highway (HI-360) and take a right on Honokalani Road. When this road dead ends, take a left and follow it until it turns into the parking lot for the beach.
Best Green Sand Beach: Green Sand (Papakolea) Beach — Big Island
This olive-green beach creates the illusion that you’ve landed on an alien planet, as the slope of viridesccent sand melts into a turquoise sea. Then there’s the ancient cinder cone that the beach is carved from, which resembles the planet of Tatooine from Star Wars. This cinder cone belongs to the Mauna Loa volcano that spewed the olivine crystals that created the beach 50,000 years ago. Because these crystals are fairly heavy, they stayed put while the volcanic sand was washed away over time. Be sure to scoop up some sand to get an up-close view of the endless tiny, smooth crystals mixed with a hint of black sand and white shell shards.
It’s requested that visitors not take sand for a souvenir — only photos and memories. And be super cautious about swimming, staying out if there’s big surf, and being hyper-vigilant about rips. Because of these potential risks, children shouldn’t swim here.
Tip: Visit the beach early in the morning to not only beat the crowds, but the heat, as reaching the beach requires a 5-mile round trip hike, and there is no shade on the shore.
How to Get There
From Kona, take Hwy 11 toward Volcano Village until you reach the turnoff for South Point, between mile markers 69 and 70. Follow this road until you reach a harbor where you can park your car in the lot on the left and walk towards the beach until you hit a road that runs parallel to the ocean. Turn left (east) on this road and follow it for 2.5 miles until you reach the bluff above the beach.
|
https://medium.com/@baileygaddis88/10-best-beaches-on-the-hawaiian-islands-f532e0eb1b80
|
['Intrepid Travel Tribe']
|
2019-11-15 23:34:50.349000+00:00
|
['Travel', 'Travel Blog', 'Travel Tips', 'Hawaii Travel', 'Hawaii']
|
10 Dashboard Design Thumb Rules
|
Designing a dashboard is never an easy task. Whether you are an analyst or a UX UI designer, planning a dashboard requires a deep understanding of the underlying data while keeping in mind that the end result has to be understandable, intuitive and accessible to the intended audience. That is the point where design takes action. We gathered tips that can help you when approaching a new project.
1. Before you start designing — plan your dashboard.
Do not automatically go to your dashboard development tool and start drawing graphs. Start with paper and pencil and draw a wireframe. Ask yourself what are the main questions you wish to answer, and focus on those.
It is extremely important to first get familiarized with the content and have your design walk hand in hand with it. The design’s goal is to present the content in the clearest, most accessible and most comfortable way. So, before you start designing you have to know what is it that you want to say.
2. Keep it simple
Try to find the most important points you want to emphasize and focus on those. Leave out all non-relevant data. Ask yourself: what is the main subject? what are the business questions that I would want to answer? what are the main measures? etc. Once you answer those questions to yourself, you can fully understand what is the story you wish to tell and what data is relevant for it.
3. Know your audience
Focus on questions that your audience will be interested in. If you answer questions that are not relevant, leave out that information or divide your dashboard into two different dashboards, each one for a specific goal or audience. Be aware of the users’ level of data literacy. No point in designing complex and sophisticated data visualizations if your users are not data-savvy analysts.
4. Think about the hierarchy
Hierarchy is a term that defines an inner order between components according to their importance. Plan dashboard hierarchy. Go from macro to micro, meaning from the most important measures to the detailed and specific graphs and charts. Placing components within the dashboard should adhere to the hierarchical order and logic, not just to fill in some white space.
5. Reading direction in English is left to right
Once you have all your dashboard components ready, place them on a grid. Think about how end users will read it.
|
https://medium.com/tint-studio/10-dashboard-design-thumb-rules-b1ac2be40bdc
|
['Anat Sifri']
|
2019-03-28 11:41:14.306000+00:00
|
['Tips And Tricks', 'Data Visualization', 'UX', 'Dashboard Design']
|
A Word to Recruiters During COVID-19
|
This post was written by MEST’s Head of Recruitment, Tobi Lafinhan.
We are in very peculiar times. Businesses across the world are already cutting down on expenses to increase cash-flows and extend their runways. Amidst this pruning, hiring appears to be one of the things that have certainly been put on hold.
However, as a recruiter, this does not necessarily mean that there is no work left to be done. For example at MEST, a large part of our recruitment process already happens remotely due to the nature of our program, as we interview candidates from across the continent right from our base in Accra, Ghana.
This means things like reviewing applications, phone interviews, and more can still be conducted remotely if you happen to still be hiring. On that note, you can go ahead to check out this resource on how to re-design your recruitment process and run a large part (if not all of it), remotely.
Otherwise, if you are in a season where some/all forms of talent acquisition have been put on hold, then as a recruiter, one question I believe might be on your mind right now, is what next?
Depending on how long the social-distancing and lockdown policies last for, I think it is highly unlikely that things will go back to “normal”. This, therefore, feels like a good time for recruiters and other teams in the talent acquisition space who have been very traditional about their approach, to use this period to put certain systems and processes in place.
These processes should be ones that help you take full advantage of technology and what is available to us today, to scale your team’s capabilities and reduce certain types of human capital costs that typically come with traditional recruitment practices.
Some things you can take a look at are:
1. Re-assessing the state of talent within your organisation (the skills on your team, the skills-gap that exist, where growth might be required, the diversity, etc.)
A good way to kick this process off is by asking the right questions. Questions like: What is working right now and what needs to change in the near future? What are the values and desired outcomes that will guide the organisation in these times?
Answering these questions requires a self-critical review of your company strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. You can find more helpful tips in the article here.
2. Looking toward new talent pools (industry-wise, geographically, etc.)
As the state of different economies affected by this pandemic begins to unfold, some of your typical talent pools might begin to dwindle. This is where you can borrow tips from the Six Paths Framework in formulating Blue Ocen Strategy. The essential idea here is to break away from the norm and see what opportunities exist outside how you’ve always done things. A good example from MEST is at the start, we mainly recruited Entrepreneurs-in-training right out of Universities. However, as more information became available to us, we realised we were missing a significantly strong pool of talent in developer communities and entrepreneurship networks that existed outside the four walls of a University.
3. Working on deeply understanding the different teams and designing proper job descriptions for current/future roles within such teams.
At MEST, we generally follow the philosophy of “hiring when it hurts” and Wailin Wong on the ReWork podcast put it best describing it as hiring when you feel overworked for a sustained period of time, or you feel like the quality of your work is sliding. Therefore, once it starts to hurt, that should already give you the foundation of information you need to then build out your ideal job description (JD).
If you’re looking for inspiration on creating a JD for a specific kind of role, you can check out Workable (it is one of the world’s leading hiring platforms and provides an amazing amount of recruiting resources for free).
4. Designing a better on-boarding process that also works for new team members who might be joining remotely.
You might already have a decent onboarding process in place, however, maybe now is the time to work on improving what you have and seeing if it’s possible to execute your new process remotely.
At MEST, our original onboarding plan already features a 14-day pre-arrival sequence that happens remotely. We are now in the middle of redesigning and extending that process to include the first 30-days for a new hire.
In the end, the truth is that we are in unprecedented times. One of the best perspectives to have in seasons like this is to see the challenges we face as opportunities to change old ineffective habits and learn better ways of recruiting talent. That possibly as your team tries to navigate these storms, you manage to not just survive but thrive, and that the processes you put in place end up making you stronger contenders in the new normal.
|
https://medium.com/the-gps/a-word-to-recruiters-during-covid-19-a3a63446fe8d
|
['Mest Africa']
|
2020-04-23 09:36:01.183000+00:00
|
['Recruiting', 'Covid 19', 'Incubator', 'Africa', 'Startup']
|
Hasani Hawthorne — Founder & CEO of TripOut EDM Events — “The F-Town GetDown Tale”
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Hasani Hawthorne — Founder & CEO of TRIPOUT EDM EVENTS — Photo: Arturo Cruz Ft. Rodolfo Linares
Our founder, Hasani Hawthorne, has brought his vision of underground techno house parties to a newly founded company. TripOut Events is an EDM Events Production Company founded in Los Angeles, CA Est. 2019.
Hasani Hawthorne has been hosting underground Hip-Hop & EDM shows since 2009. We have attended various self-made productions presented by Hasani Hawthorne. His debut Hip-Hop show, the F’Town GetDown, was hosted in the city of Fontana California in 2015. With his strategic line up featuring some of the most influential Inland Empire artists including, Regi Levi, Namaste Souls, OBS Movement, & Mach Six, the show yielded major success. After selling out this undisclosed underground venue, the local law enforcement showed up with their police issue helicopter circling the perimeter. Hasani Hawthorne focused on crowd control inside the venue and his security team and fellow artists seemed to have the police under control at the gates.
As Hasani Hawthorne arrives to the main gates to speak with the local law enforcement, he noticed a circle of commotion at the gates. He knew the police have come to shut down the F’Town GetDown due to its underground culture. However, the Fontana Police Department also showed appreciation for the Hip-Hop culture as long as it was safe. Hasani Hawthorne walked into the circle of commotion at his gates, only to find his friends and fellow artists freestyling lyrical culture to the police who had originally arrived to shut down their underground show.
Hasani Hawthorne walked into a freestyle cypher that was demanded by the police. “So this is an Underground Hip-Hop Show?… and Y’all are all artists?…. SHOW ME!” the police officer demanded. With no hesitation, the freestyle cypher began. Hasani Hawthorne paid close attention to everyones reactions… and the police were definitely impressed by the culture. Hasani knew they were impressed because their heads were bobbing non-stop. After the cypher was finished… the police looked at each other… came to an unspoken unanimous decision… shook Hasani Hawthorne’s hand.. and wished everyone a safe and successful show.
Hasani Hawthorne has taken his experience and knowledge to higher pedestals and continues to invoke musical culture to the youth with the formation of his newly founded production company, TripOut Events.
|
https://medium.com/@tripoutevents/hasani-hawthorne-founder-ceo-of-tripout-edm-events-the-f-town-getdown-tale-b4c24224e07d
|
['Tripout Events']
|
2020-12-16 18:55:05.569000+00:00
|
['Culture', 'Concerts', 'EDM', 'Business', 'Hip Hop']
|
... wouldn't it be better to trust my memory...
|
... wouldn't it be better to trust my memory... guided by body responses... thus simultaneously keeping my brain fit... :-), Christine
|
https://medium.com/@doasyoucando/wouldnt-it-be-better-to-trust-my-memory-1e2ef361639f
|
['Christine Sander']
|
2020-12-27 09:59:47.856000+00:00
|
['Gadgets', 'Apple Health', 'iPhone', 'Nfc', 'Lifestyle']
|
US Gun sales Skyrocket ahead of election
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A tipping point
This surge of sales that is boosted by political unrest is adding millions more firearms to a nation that already has more guns than humans. A study conducted by the Small Arms Survey in 2017 suggested that the number of guns in the US was approximately 393 million. Adding this figure to the gun sales in 2020, it downright dwarfs the 71 million in India and 50 million in China. Keep in mind as well, that India and China both have four times the population of the United States.
Apart from the rising unease on the streets, there is an extremely high chance that the violence will not end even after the presidential election.
“It is pretty clear that more guns equal more death” — David Hemenway, Professor at Harvard University
Hemenway’s rationale is based upon the fact that when more people have access to guns, the number of people who are carrying it will undoubtedly increase. In other words, shooting accidents, domestic violence, out-of-control arguments, and the risk of suicide will all contribute to a higher death rate.
Guns and ammunition that are listed on online auction sites have seen skyrocketing prices. Not only that, Vista Outdoor Inc also disclosed that ammunition is of an even more severe shortage. The CEO highlighted that “It’s the slimmest we have ever seen them in inventory” while noting that first-time gun buyers are particularly agitated at this fact.
The first-time gun owner
Dave Brown
A Dallas media producer who goes by the name Dave Brown underlined that the reason for his gun purchase was after seeing people smashing the windows of a restaurant near his apartment. The demonstrations lasted through midnight and the thought of not having anything to protect himself drove him to acquire his $450 9mm handgun plus a total of $100 for ammunition.
Brown also added:
“No one knows what’s going to happen around town the next day, it feels like. So a lot of people are nervous and terrified.”
Eugene Buff
The Jewish innovation consultant who is currently living in Boston and politically conservative received a similar response as he posted on his social media channels that he was a professional firearms instructor. Immediately, he was booked by numerous Jewish senior citizens who are also anxious about their own safety because of the looting and the violent protests.
Buff emphasized that almost all of them didn’t like guns and feared them, but because of the current state of affairs, they had no choice but to purchase one and learn how to use it just in case. Their fear for their own safety has greatly outweighed their fear of guns.
|
https://medium.com/corrupted/empty-shelves-in-us-firearm-stores-ahead-of-presidential-election-6d0673ed6e35
|
['Christian Todd']
|
2020-12-30 06:02:56.644000+00:00
|
['Election 2020', 'Politics', 'Gun Control', 'Protest', 'Guns']
|
20 Lessons For 20 Years
|
In honor of my birthday coming up, I decided it might be fun to bestow what little wisdom I have. You’re probably wondering why you should listen to the ramblings of a 20-year-old? Well, me too. Hopefully, there is something here for you. In 20 years I’ve had the pleasure (and often displeasure) of learning some hard lessons.
1. Don’t Settle
Don’t go for junk food when you can easily cook a healthy meal that will boost your mood and immune system. Don’t settle for the guy who doesn’t answer when you call. Don’t settle for fake friends. Don’t settle for anything less than you deserve.
2. Be Yourself
It took me longer than I’d like to admit to learn this one, but I’ve always struggled with showing people a version of me, that well… wasn’t me. Always put your best self forward, and never let anyone make you feel bad for who you are.
3. Work Smarter… and Harder
I’m all for finding an easier way to accomplish a task, but I’m also a firm believer in you get what you put in. Never lose sight of your end goals, and always put in 110% effort.
4. Your Journey is Yours
Never let someone else’s life make you feel like you’re behind on yours. Everyone moves at their own pace. Some people may graduate college in 3 years, some may graduate in 8. You’ll reach your goals when you’re meant to.
5. Relax and Enjoy
Speaking of your journey, enjoy it! Life is to short to only focus on the bad. You’ll be a lot happier if you relish in the good things.
6. Loosen Your Grip
No one, in the entire world, has control over every aspect of their life. There may be some people that portray that image, but it’s an act. Focus on what you can control, and let go of what you can’t.
7. Family Isn’t Always Blood
You don’t have to be related to have a family bond with someone. The people who stick by you through the good, the bad, and the ugly can be better for you than your blood relatives.
8. You Lose Some, You Gain Some
People come, and people go. If they want to leave, let them.
9. Turn Rejection Into Motivation
You’re going to face a lot of rejection in this lifetime so you might as well use it for good. Take every “no,” and let it push you to work harder.
10. We Aren’t All The Same, and That’s Okay
You’re going to meet people that disagree with you. They’re going to disagree on small things, they’re going to disagree on huge, fundamental, things. It’s okay to disagree without fighting.
11. Be Kind
This one’s a little cheesy, but it’s so true. Simple kindnesses make a big difference in other people’s lives and a big difference in yours. Never forget, you get what you give.
12. Give Yourself Permission To Be Lazy
Every once in awhile we all need to lay around and do absolutely nothing. Don’t feel bad for letting yourself rest, but don’t forget to pick yourself up off the couch the next day and get back to work.
13. Your Opinion is King
Not everyone is going to like you or the things you do. It doesn’t matter. If you’re happy, then it’s right for you. Don’t let other people control your happiness.
14. Read as Much as You Can
Reading can change your life and change your mindset. Even if you hate reading, listen to an audiobook. There’s so much in this life to learn and experience. Books are a cheap vacation in another world.
15. Jump At The Chance To Learn
Take that online course, go back to college, listen to an educational podcast, watch the news. Every time you have an opportunity to learn something, take it. It will help you grow and allow you to help others.
16. Get Outside
Going outside can fix just about anything, in my opinion. Bad day? Soak in the sunshine. Happy? Go for a walk and enjoy the view. You can’t go wrong if you just go outside.
17. Keep a Record
You can take photos, you can write it out, do it whatever way you want, but get all those memories somewhere you can keep them and look back on them.
18. Volunteer
Whether it’s for an organization or an individual you know, do something to help them. Volunteer your time, offer a donation, create a bond. You’ll meet people you might never have come in contact with otherwise, and it’ll change your perspective on life.
19. Don’t Bottle It In
Angry at someone? Let them know. Hurting? Tell a loved one. Struggling? Want to see a therapist? Do it. Don’t let society tell you what you should and shouldn’t be feeling, and certainly don’t hold it all in until you can’t anymore.
20. Life Isn’t Always Easy
Life may not be easy, in fact, it will most definitely be very difficult at times. Don’t give up. Don’t let it throw you off. It may not be easy, but it’s always worth it.
|
https://medium.com/be-unique/20-lessons-for-20-years-55b2d3aa268d
|
['Emma Comeaux']
|
2020-05-14 17:04:15.155000+00:00
|
['Personal Growth', 'Life Lessons', 'Personal Development', 'Development', 'Learning']
|
Latest picks: In case you missed them:
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|
https://towardsdatascience.com/latest-picks-data-science-doesnt-have-to-be-sexy-to-be-impactful-9665b2cdd2ef
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['Tds Editors']
|
2020-10-20 13:27:21.987000+00:00
|
['The Daily Pick']
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Inspire yourself to get Inspired from you…
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“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Photo by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash
Inspiration-
In life we all have to dream big and try to fulfilled it we took some efforts. But so many people have faced this problem that they can not keep themselves inspired, motivated because lack of self confidence, self-doubt, lack of conversation, and many more reasons. To get detail into this concept first we have understand what actually means to get inspire. The inspiration is thing which motivates you to make believe in yourself.
When you started believing yourself this becomes the first step towards to get inspired. By analyzing successful people’s story they also started their journey by believing themselves. No matter who you are? where are you from? the only thing matters is your confidence, skills, and self trust.
To build up this you have make a plan or schedule to improve your qualities, watch some successful persons story, try to analyze your positive points write it down a paper or make dairy, make a proper conversation with professionals, etc.
Some years ago, When I have to attend my presentation at that time I have a lot of stage fear, but when I learned to keep inspired, keep motivating myself at that moment I realized that there is nothing more than to keep yourself active and inspired. Once a great person said that,
“Believe you can and you are halfway there.”-Theodore Roosevelt
Photo by carolyn christine on Unsplash
Sometimes you have to shortlist what or which things makes you inspired, keeps you disciplined. Explore what real world problems are faced by peoples. Once you have summarized all this note the weaknesses of this and start inspiring those peoples, make them explorable, innovative, and motivated.
At moment when you start to Dream big, pull yourself to achieve your dreams, build-up yourself like a big mountain whose never feels fear about the big challenges, always ready to gear-up the journey, and having the big dreams. Make yourself so much inspired that others also wants to be like you, get inspired from you and that what makes your life successful.
|
https://medium.com/@gadekardivya24/inspire-yourself-to-get-inspired-from-you-1e5d0c9622dd
|
['Divya Prakash Gadekar']
|
2021-12-20 16:30:36.424000+00:00
|
['Dedication', 'Motivational', 'Inspired', 'Inspiration', 'Non Techincal']
|
Military Bowl Preview and Prediction: Virginia Cavaliers vs. Navy Midshipmen, 12–27–2017
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Free College Football Spread Prediction by Greg Michaels
Virginia Cavaliers vs Navy Midshipmen
Thursday, December 28th, 1:30 pm EST
NCAAF Odds: Navy -1.5, 52
Virginia Cavaliers
The Virginia Cavaliers will take on the Navy Midshipmen in the 2017 Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD. Virginia finished the season with a (6–6) record and (6–6) against the spread. UVA is trying to win it’s first bowl game since they beat Navy in the 2005 Military Bowl.
The Cavaliers have three potential NFL Draft targets and all three will be suiting up on Thursday. QB Kurt Benkert, safety Quin Blanding and LB Micah Kiser all are projected to get selected from the 3rd to 5th rounds.
Virginia got off to a great start to the season going 5–1 through the first 6 games which included a win over Boise State in Boise. However, the Cavaliers lost 5 of their last 6 games to finish the season which includes losing the last three straight games.
Virginia is a pass heavy offense, led by QB Kurt Benkert, which ranked 43rd in the nation averaging 257 passing yards per game. UVA also features one of the top rated passing defenses in the country which allowed only 179 YPG.
Virginia Betting Trends
2–7–1 ATS in their last 10 games after allowing more than 200 rushing yards in their previous game
2–8 ATS in their last 10 games after rushing for less than 100 yards in their previous game
Navy Midshipmen
Navy enters the 2017 Military Bowl losers in 6 of the last 7 ball games. Navy has played some good teams down the stretch which included losses to Army, Houston, Notre Dame, Temple, UCF and Memphis. All six teams have or will played in bowl games this season. It will be interesting to see how Navy responds coming off their tough one point loss to Army.
The Midshipmen’s unique offensive system is well known across the college football landscape, but most teams have trouble slowing down the Midshipmen’s productive triple-option attack. Through 12 games, Navy has averaged 426.8 yards per game, good for 42nd in the nation. Of course, its strength is running the football, which they rank 2nd in the nation averaging 343 yards per game.
Midshipmen Betting Trends
Midshipmen are 4–0 ATS in their last 4 bowl games
Midshipmen are 7–2–1 ATS in their last 10 games following a ATS loss
Military Bowl Betting Prediction
Neither team finished the season they way they anticipated after they both started the season (5–1). Two keys to this game will be Navy’s ability to defend the passing game and Virginia’s ability to stop the triple-option. Navy is playing a home game where they were 4–2 SU on the season while Virginia was 2–3 Away from Charlottesville. I can see Navy’s rushing attack wearing down this UVA defense over the course of a game and I expect this to be the difference with long, sustained drives that eat up the clock and wear down the defenders. Look for Navy to cover the spread in a tight game.
Virginia vs Navy Prediction: Navy -1.5
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/military-bowl-preview-and-prediction-virginia-cavaliers-vs-navy-midshipmen-12-27-2017-a4014a4602e
|
['Greg Michaels']
|
2017-12-28 12:42:58+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Navy', 'Sports Betting']
|
Fanless PCs: The Ultimate Home Theatre PC Setup
|
Akasa’s flagship model for Mini-ITX motherboards, the Maxwell Pro
If you are looking to upgrade your home theatre system or even set it up from scratch, you would want to make use of the best technology to ensure a thrilling experience. However, getting your home theatre system together is a little different than setting up a regular PC — it needs to be optimised for entertainment. A great start would be opting for a fanless cooling system.
What is Fanless Cooling?
Similar to normal CPU coolers, fanless PCs are cooled via a heatsink. It takes care of PC cooling without producing the noise associated with fans. The difference however, comes in the size.
In PCs, heat sinks are generally placed on heat generating components such as CPUs. For maximum heat transfer from the PC components to the heatsinks, they are typically made from aluminium alloys. A heat sink then uses its surrounding medium — typically air — to cool itself down through its surface area. In order to optimise the cooling process, heatsinks are made up of a large number of fins through which more air can pass, thus increasing surface area and heat dissipation.
The extruded fins that come with Akasa’s fanless cases help cool down the CPU without the need for fans.
In standard PC setups, heatsinks need to be small enough to fit into a case and employ the use of fans to ensure there is enough air flow within the enclosed case to cool down the components. In order to eliminate the need for fans, fanless PCs don’t enclose their heatsinks in a case but rather have it become the case. This maximises the surface area and exposes the heat sink to airflow naturally while still maintaining excellent cooling performance.
The Best Choice for a Home Theatre PC
A home theatre system is all about the blend of functionality and comfortable entertainment. Fanless cooling is the best option for a Home Theatre PC (HTPC). Here is why:
Zero Noise Production
Fanless PCs run silent. This is great for a home theatre system, as you can enjoy an immersive entertainment experience without the interruption of fan noise. Instead of fans, the heat will rely on natural air flow, allowing silent heat dissipation from the heat-generating components.
This is great for any noise-sensitive environment not just HTPCs but also libraries, theatre rooms, music studios, voice-acting booths and so on.
Low Power Consumption
Fanless PCs are highly energy efficient. With significantly lower power consumption and even lower heat generation, fanless PCs generate optimal performance. The lack of moving fans also reduces the chance of dust accumulation. Thus, there is a lower chance of sudden damage. You can save on maintenance and repair costs, as well as any possible downtime.
PC Cooling will not interrupt your home theatre if you use a fanless PC. You can optimise the thermal energy pulled from the components that generate heat. This makes for a highly efficient HTPC system — no noise and no dust. It’s perfect for anyone looking for an impressive entertainment dock with minimal maintenance necessary.
Which is the best build for you?
Akasa’s wide selection of fanless cases has every occasion and taste covered. Our Turing cases are made for those who like to flaunt their Intel or Ryzen NUC HTPC, balancing contemporary design with functional fanless cooling. If you rather prefer to keep the NUC and case discreet behind the TV, the Newton range is the perfect pick for you with its you small footprint and volume. And if you need a case that can cater to larger and more powerful Mini-ITX boards we recommend one of our newest additions: the Maxwell Pro. With our selection of fanless Raspberry Pi 4 cases even your Raspberry Pi boards can provide excellent HTPC experiences, whether it uses the discreet Pi-4 Pro or the stylish Gem and Maze Pro.
Some of Akasa’s newest fanless additions: The Turing A50 MKII, the Newton TN and Maxwell Pro.
All of our cases are equipped with extruded fins to maximise their cooling capabilities and are made of the most heat conductive metals — aluminium for the body and thermal module, and in some cases (no pun intended) copper for heat pipes — to transfer the heat away from your CPU and other important PC components. To eliminate as much of the air between the components and the heat sink as possible, and thus increase heat transfer, Akasa uses its specialised Pro-grade+ 5026 thermal paste for excellent thermal performance, even at low pressures. Paired with the extra care that goes into the design of each of our cases, there is a fanless option for everyone.
Team Akasa — [email protected]
|
https://medium.com/@akasa-tech/fanless-pcs-the-ultimate-home-theatre-pc-setup-f6a72430173b
|
[]
|
2021-06-18 13:58:31.178000+00:00
|
['Technology', 'Manufacturing', 'Htpc', 'PC', 'Home Theater']
|
Abigail Ratchford Episode — 7
|
About
After that, Sunset Blvd. featured her in several billboard campaigns that proved to be a success. Abigail then also featured on the small screen in some guest roles on ABC. She has worked with popular fashion designers like Michael Costello. She seems to show no hint of taking her career slow as she launched her first calendar and projects in the year.
She entered the Pennsylvania pageant when she was only 20 years old. Abigail is always excited about her work, especially if it is something big. Along with that, Abigail also loves traveling to different places. She takes all the attention that she gets, especially from the male department, very coolly. Abigail is a very self-respectful woman. According to her, it is more important to be independent for a woman rather than having a man.
Birthday
February 12, 1992
Nationality
American
Age
28 Years, 28 Year Old Females
Sun Sign
Aquarius
Born Country
United States
Born In
Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
Famous As
Model
|
https://medium.com/@womenlotusstyle/abigail-ratchford-episode-7-abigailratchford-7d1404a997bd
|
[]
|
2020-12-18 09:39:16.207000+00:00
|
['Women', 'Womens Health', 'Womens Rights', 'Women In Tech', 'Women In Business']
|
Do I Really Need You?
|
Yesterday, I was hit with a virtual brick to the head. And it knocked me for a loop.
First off, I was reeling from the news of all the “underground warehouse parties” that the cops have had to bust up, many of them in New York and Los Angeles, according to CNN. Skin-on-skin brawls attended by the truly ignorant among our population, who care only for themselves and their need to get trashed and then laid by strangers. Factor in this breathtaking example of how selfish we can be with those folks who refused to stay home over the holiday and you can bet this virus is going to hang on for dear life.
In other words, we are fucked.
I was also struck by another, equally-disarming need: The need for writers like myself, to amass followers. A lot of followers. Why? For validation? Partly, but the real reason is more basic than that. We need readers to hit that “follow” button so we can make some cash. Boom.
Now I know it’s not only we scribes who crave and depend upon followers, as we live in shallow times and the notion of having “depth” is a foreign concept to many but today, my focus is on people like you and me, people who write our hearts out, not just because we love it, but because we all have bills. And those bills need to be paid. And the more followers we gain, the more readers who profess to like us, the greater the likelihood that we won’t be left floundering at the end of the month.
I am as guilty of this pandering as anyone and I am starting to question what the hell it is I want my life to be. What am I trying to achieve? Who am I trying to impress?
For once, I’m not putting the focus on this platform but on News Break, the relatively new place on the block for us desperate-to-impress, to flock.
Perhaps that sounds a bit strong, but, even though I am happy to test the waters in the hope that my reliance on Medium will wane, something feels not quite…right.
I joined the Facebook group dedicated to the News Break writers and there was a “follow-for-follow” share thread, as we need to gain something like five hundred followers in our first month, to make some serious bread.
Please don’t quote me or take the above as gospel as I admit: I haven’t scoured the agreement like I probably should have. I gave it a look to make sure I wasn’t getting royally screwed and then jumped in, feet first. All systems go!
Note: I said “royally” as we writers are routinely screwed, so much so that we’ve come to expect that ole’ kick in the ass. But, much like with sex, there are different levels of screwing,
Dutifully, I followed as many profiles as I could. I mean, I have a life, guys, like everyone here and there's only so much sitting on our asses in front of a computer we can do.
Unless you’re one of the writers pulling down 10k a month and can afford to pay someone to wash your dirty laundry and sweep the dust bunnies out from under your bed.
But they’re not here reading this piece, because those folks never read nor follow me. They’re too busy cleaning up in a different way. And I have too much self-respect to follow them.
So back to the FB group. As I stated, I followed a shit ton of people who posted their News Break profiles, most of whom didn’t reciprocate. I was trying to be nice…helpful, you know? But, as of this writing, I have thirty-two followers. Pitiful.
Not only does this frustrate me, and yeah, piss me off, but it makes me sad. Sad that I even need these people. I don’t want people to jump on the follow bandwagon for the sole purpose of my returning the favor, I want my words to resonate. But that said, I’ll take the “shallow follow.” Especially if that means I can experience a decent payday for the first time in two years.
And I’m ashamed. Ashamed that I need something so…vapid and self-serving.
This is what I am happy about: The writers here who have become my friends. Who follow me because they enjoy my ramblings and who I follow in return, because I enjoy theirs. They do not factor into this story as this is not about them.
|
https://medium.com/rogues-gallery/do-i-really-need-you-35290849c7a5
|
['Sherry Mcguinn']
|
2020-11-30 18:13:05.486000+00:00
|
['Followers', 'Rant', 'Society', 'Writers On Medium', 'Making It Happen']
|
Embracing the Present Moment
|
Embracing the Present Moment
By Deepak Chopra™ MD
One hears a lot about the power of now and the value of living in the present. To achieve this state of awareness requires a major change in everyday life. This much is clear, but producing such change is confusing and frustrating. When people seek personal change in their lives, they often don’t get very far. Even in this day when online advice is bewilderingly abundant and self-improvement books are at our fingertips, change eludes us. One way to remedy this is to start from the ground up. Normally, we feel compelled to start where we are right now, and that’s a tremendous problem.
No matter how different people are, each of us woke up this morning to the same situation. We are constantly involved in thinking, feeling, and doing. No one starts this activity afresh. Instead, we are heavily invested in habits, beliefs, opinions, hopes, dreams, and fears collected from the past. So our thinking, feeling, and doing is entangled with the past even when we want something new, better, fresh, and different.
You can’t always use will power or desire to cut the ties that bind you to the past, but you can do something that will lessen the influence of the past: You can start to see yourself clearly. With that one intention, you are starting from the ground up, because seeing yourself clearly happens here and now. You detach yourself from your story, which is the accumulation of your past. You take a fresh look at what is generating all this thinking, feeling, and doing. The process has to have an origin, a source, a wellspring that sets the active mind going every minute of the day.
Normally, if we try to see ourselves clearly, we are actually looking through a lens. We filter and arrange our experiences. Some experiences we reject, ignore, judge against, or censor. Other experiences we encourage, value, appreciate, and allow to enter our minds. The lens you choose is critical, yet people often don’t realize they have a choice. It doesn’t strike them in the first place that they see themselves — and everything around them — through a lens.
The lens you see through can also be called your mindset, worldview, or simply your state of awareness. Your perspective, on life, family, relationships, work stem from it. Things become confusing because we are caught up in the conflicting stories, explanations, and belief systems that everyone gets exposed to. This confusion can be sorted out once you start to see yourself clearly. Cutting through all the clutter, you discover that you actually know what’s going on. Deep inside, you are fully aware already.
According to Anoop Kumar, my fellow M.D. and an excellent writer on consciousness, there are three lenses you can view life through, configured as Mind 1, 2, or 3 at this moment.
Mind 1: You view life as a separate individual. The leading indicator of Mind 1 is the sense of localization within the body. As a result of being limited by the body, Mind 1 can only detect a world of localized things. As we see ourselves, so we see the world. You localize yourself in your body, and as a result you see a world of separate things. Other people live inside their own bodies, which gives them their own sense of separation. In Mind 1 you provide fertile ground for the ego. “I, me, and mine” become all-important. This makes perfect sense, because your agenda as a separate person is all about the experiences of pleasure and pain that emanate from the body. Even a mental state like anxiety is rooted in the body, because what you fear comes down to a painful feeling “in here.” In every respect Mind 1 is dominated by yes and no to the experiences that come your way. To achieve peace, you must successfully compete in the arena of separate people and things, experiences and events.
Mind 1 seems totally right and natural in the modern secular world. Mind 1 is reflected in science’s total focus on physical things, from microbes and subatomic particles, from the Big Bang to the multiverse. A bestselling book from 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves, applies to all of us in Mind 1.
Mind 2: Mind 2 is centered in the unity of mind and body. It isn’t necessary to see yourself confined to the physical package of a body. In fact, this mindset can be turned on its head. In place of isolation there is connection; in place of things there is process; in place of hard facts, there is an easy continuous flow. You relax into the flow of experience rather than slicing life into bits that must be judged, analyzed, accepted or rejected. Mind 2 lets you see yourself more clearly, because in reality the mind-body connection is a single continuity. Every thought and feeling creates an effect in every cell. You can consciously create change in the whole system through a switch in awareness. Mind 2 is subtler than Mind 1 — you have moved deeper inside who you really are, and those aspects and abilities that were filtered out by Mind 1 begin to come into view. You are the one who experiences, observes, and knows.
For most people Mind 2 begins to dawn when they meditate or do Yoga, finding access to the quiet mind that lies beneath the surface of the restless active mind. With this discovery comes a way to see beyond the separate ego’s fruitless search for “perfect” pleasure, power, or success. As a deeper vision of self and life soaks through all experience, Mind 2 is established.
Mind 3: Mind 3 expands awareness beyond all particulars. It is a radical redefining of what we mean when we use the indicator “I.” It places you in an infinite field of pure awareness, where all things exist as possibilities. This is not only a clear view, it is clarity itself, because there is no thing or process to obstruct your vision. Boundaries don’t exist. There is no past or future. Even the idea of a present vanishes. the clearest view you can possibly have, because there are no boundaries to limit your vision. You are awake, you see things without any filter, your past no longer holds you captive, and therefore you are free, which is why Mind 3 has been known for centuries as liberation. There are no more “mind-forged manacles,” as the poet William Blake memorably called our self-imposed limitations.
Mind 3 is open to everyone, but there is a large obstacle that must be overcome, which is this: We are convinced by the lens we see things through already. Each mindset feels real and complete. You identify with physical things in Mind 1, the most important thing being your body. In Mind 2 you identify with your field of awareness as it brings experiences and sensations that rise and fall. Because it takes an inner journey to reach, Mind 2 isn’t where the mass of humankind is, yet without a doubt anyone can go there. Mind 2 is a more natural fit than Mind 1, in fact, because if you see yourself clearly, you cannot doubt that thinking, feeling, and doing is constantly on the move, ever-changing, ever renewing itself.
But Mind 2 has its own peculiar limitation. “I” lingers and holds its own by experiencing “my” thinking, feeling, and doing. There is no need for this. Everyone alive, with the fewest exceptions, has been indoctrinated into Mind 1. In Mind 2 you escape this crude, second-hand, socially approved indoctrination. But there is a subtle indoctrination that replaces it, which sees the spiritual life as higher, better, and more valuable than ordinary life. This leads to a subtle clinging, a desire to keep the spiritual goodies coming your way and a self-image superior to those people who have not yet seen the light.
The subtle tendency to possess any idea, however fine that idea is, keeps the ego going. Letting it go entirely feels threatening. Who will I be if there is no I anymore? But if you stand back, this fearful worry only exists because the ego is asking it. Of course “I” will never agree to its own demotion. “I” is about self-preservation. The shift into Mind 3 occurs when you see that there are countless moments when you did without your ego.
Every experience of joy, love, compassion, beauty, peace, and service sets the ego aside. You go beyond “I” in a simple, natural glimpse of who you really are. You are the field of awareness itself, unbounded and free. Every possible experience originates here, before the whole interference of ego, society, family, school, and painful memories even begins.
That’s why Mind 3 has been dubbed the first and last freedom. It is the freedom you attain when you realize that you had it all along. Clear away the clutter, and it is simply there. Mind 1 and Mind 2 are creations, while Mind 3 is uncreated. It is the womb of creation, and when we arrive there, the inevitable feeling is that we’ve returned home at last.
DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his latest book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books) will help to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” www.deepakchopra.com
|
https://medium.com/@deepakchopra/embracing-the-present-moment-4dab4700be39
|
['Deepak Chopra']
|
2021-02-22 14:52:52.643000+00:00
|
['Consciousness', 'Awakening', 'Meditation', 'Present Moment']
|
Giri Devanur Of reAlpha: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO
|
Giri Devanur Of reAlpha: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO reAlpha Dec 27, 2021·2 min read
Giri Devanur is the founder and CEO of reAlpha, a cutting-edge technology company with a plan to empower everyone to invest in the $1.2 trillion short-term rental market. Prior to founding reAlpha, he served as the President and CEO of Ameri100 Inc. and scaled Ameri from $0 to $50M in revenue and completed the IPO on Nasdaq in under 4 years. Giri was awarded the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 and authored a book titled “Nothing to Nasdaq”.
Giri has more than two decades of experience in the information technology industry. He successfully founded WinHire Inc. and Ivega Corporation. Ivega merged with TCG in 2004, creating a 1,000+ person focused differentiator in the IT consulting space.
Giri has an M.S. in Technology Management from Columbia University and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Mysore, India. He also attended Executive Education programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have been an entrepreneur in spirit for a long time. I studied in a high school in remote India. There I was running a newspaper route with my brother. I realized that early on, I wanted to be an entrepreneur and run my own businesses. Then when I was 15 , I saw the first computer and immediately I knew I wanted to be in the computer industry. I did my bachelor of engineering in computer science. After that, I took my first flight ever in life straight to LA with only a few dollars in my pocket and started my entrepreneurial journey in the US!
Read more…
|
https://medium.com/@realpha/giri-devanur-of-realpha-five-things-i-wish-someone-told-me-before-i-became-a-ceo-429dde1404fe
|
[]
|
2021-12-27 09:20:52.279000+00:00
|
['Real Estate', 'Real Estate Investments', 'Airbnb']
|
To My Cats- Why Are You Like This?
|
I wake up every morning
With you heavy on my chest
Engine roaring
Your drool dripping down my cheek
Why are you like this?
Your food dish is full
And the water dish too
But still, I find you every day
Eating plastic like it’s tuna
I found a rubber band in your shit
Why are you like this?
I lie on the couch
It’s time to arise
You sense this and approach
Now you choose to sit with me?
I can’t remove you
It would hurt too much
Why are you like this?
I walk into the room
You’re on the table, not allowed
Our eyes connect
Your paw reaches out
And knocks my water glass to the floor
Shattered
Why are you like this?
Your deep onyx fur
Soft to the touch
A staple on my clothes and in my food
I brush you constantly
Its everywhere!
Why are you like this?
|
https://medium.com/illumination/to-my-cats-why-are-you-like-this-74ae81623553
|
['Nicole Praesuo']
|
2020-09-14 19:40:41.365000+00:00
|
['Poetry', 'Love', 'Cats', 'Pets And Animals', 'Pets']
|
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